#video leak that for SURE was not released by disney

[the-void-to-scream-in]

if i see one more leak without any tags or spoiler warnings on ANY social media platform im going to lose my FUCKING marbles

[mdhwrites]

Okay, don't you think you're being harsh to think Dana Terrace is incapable of creating anything good and dreading it when she creates something? Like, the idea Owl House never should have existed (based on what that one anon said) is way too harsh and insulting to Dana.

Like come on, Dana's a pretty nice person. Heck, a lot of the people and creators who work at Disney TVA like Alex Hirsch, Matt Braly, Frank Angones, Matt Youngberg, Daron Nefcy, Chris Houghton, and Shane Houghton have nothing but nice things to say about her. Ditto with the rest of the Owl House cast and crew (a ship is more than its captain after all) being saying nothing but nice things about Dana.

And it's not like Dana's the only Disney TVA creator who has caused people to go against Disney. Alex Hirsch has badmouthed Disney several times (even making a Twitter post on how much Disney meddled with Gravity Falls), Matt Braly was frustrated with the last minute True Colors delay and expressed frustration with them here ( https://twitter.com/Radrappy/status/1746706435080323397), and Bill Motz has made comments on how Disney treated Molly McGee that worsened the opinion of how Disney treats their animated shows.

So I had considered saying that the ask did go a bit far in how angry it was at Dana. I mentioned that being unprofessional does not make you a bad person. Some of the actions are frustrating to me but I am not trying to say Dana is wrong for having made a product in such a flawed way. I am at least trying not judging her as a person, just as a creative. I also don't think TOH simply shouldn't have existed. It had plenty of good ideas but at the end of the day, its captain should be the one who is in charge of those ideas and making sure that they're focused on telling the story and staying consistent. Dana wrote Reaching Out, one of the episodes of the show that most destroys both character potential and the believability of the world. It's also not by any means the only episode with a main writing credit for her like that, such as The First Day. As a writer, I genuinely just don't get the impression she has the attention span to be leading such a large project, especially if she is going to complain about not having full control over it while also lacking more concrete ideas to what it is. When I say I am not interested in the next work Dana is the director for, I just mean director because these flaws in her style make me think that unless it's an anthology series, anything she makes is going to have me get frustrated by the work over time.

NOW as for the stuff about her being unprofessional: Time and context is HUGE here. Matt getting upset about True Colors leaks? The COMPANY is also going to be upset by them and while it might berate Disney for lack of security, it is a genuine fuck up on their part to do with his show and him lambasting the leaks also pushes the audience not to spread them. There's nothing unprofessional about that nor that might harm the show. Alex Hirsch released that video about the censor board for Disney on Gravity Falls YEARS after the fact (this also goes for the tweet that you quote from Matt which is literally two weeks ago, well over a year past when Amphibia ended). The show was already a success and a video like that might make Disney look a little silly but it won't harm how people see the product or trying to get into it. In fact, with the current state of things, it might actually be seen as a PR bump.

Meanwhile, Dana was shit talking her own show and blaming it on the company she CHOSE to work with regarding literally half of the content that was out at the time. Worse yet, the first half. The half that theoretically needs to sell you on the show. What is a new viewer supposed to think of that if they haven't seen the show? "Well, even if it gets good, even the creator admits the first half is at least underwhelming. I don't want to have to put up with half a season of subpar work just to get to the good stuff."

And as I said with Hirsch: How people feel about Disney, and how clearly Disney actually does want the rep in TOH to be a selling point for them (they immediately were willing to do Lumity marathons or have them featured on Disney+ for Pride Month, as well as Lumity being the only t-shirt released by Disney that wasn't of just The Owl House members or the logo), means that Dana getting upset about them for the homophobic acts in Florida probably was seen as at worst neutral. Buuuuut that shifts when she starts trying to accuse the treatment of their programming onto their homophobic ideas because suddenly part of the company's selling point on the show is being actively damaged by the creator. Worse yet, she is doing it as speculation rather than sticking to the reasons given by Disney. Feeding into people's anger about the company while eschewing responsibility for why the show was shortened like it was. This is admittedly less of a strong argument, I do still support her lambasting their homophobic politics, but it's a moment that has stuck with me for something I'll get into later.

This is also without getting into the fact that one interview with her specifically mentions her first response to the shortening being to end S2 on a massive cliffhanger and then just GTFOing on them, a statement that is going to make ANY production company start sweating about you as a creative they want to work with. After all, the crew and other creatives may love Dana... But what do actually publishers and people she has to clear this stuff with think of her? You know, the people who decide funding on these matters because that is just a part of the majority of animated work currently unless you somehow manage to get enough patrons to be able to go independent like Vivziepop with Helluva Boss.

All of this also gives the impression of someone who would rather blame other forces than learn. Honestly, one of the best things I've heard her say is that the shortening did push her creatively. Force her to make decisions and try harder. That gives me hope... But she spent so much of TOH complaining about corporate oversight or riling up her fans against the company who shortened her that... I don't know if she'll take that to heart. If she's going to treat this as a learning experience or if she'll double down. Again, one of the biggest regrets she has is not getting to do more Raeda, despite their one episode already being almost entirely pointless.

Even if she is a wonderful person, from a publisher's standpoint, she seems like a high risk gamble for honestly not that incredible of numbers. Someone who might turn on you if you ever force a decision she doesn't like or push her too hard. That's not something a big corporation is going to want. It makes it sound a lot more like she's someone who indeed should just go independent if she really found working for Disney so rough.

I would love to be wrong though. I would love for her next work to be a knock out of the park. I just know that I'm probably going to pick it up AFTER it's done and I know it actually knew where it was going instead of just scrambling to put the tracks in front of it.

======+++++======

I will probably try just not to talk more about Dana as a creative because I REALLY don't like talking about the creators themselves instead of just judging the quality of their work. I genuinely wish Dana the best but... Man, after I've had so many people dismiss everything I've ever said about this show because of the shortening, or because Disney was too restrictive on LGBTQIA+ elements or because they forced Hexside onto Dana, ruining her plans, excuses Dana has herself pushed for the fans to use by using them herself...

It made learning just how little of any sort of plan she ever had so exhausting and infuriating, amplified by just how much this fandom screeches about TOH's unfair treatment when I don't see any of them going to bat for Molly McGee right now the same way. Not in my corners at least. Edit: I have been corrected that people are pretty mad for Molly McGee which good. They should be.

[frozen-snowflakesandsunflowers]

Frozen 3 and 4 in the works!! (This is not a drill!)

Cover created by me

That's right Frozen IV (4) is happening people! Jennifer Lee and Bob Iger visited the new World of Frozen in Hong Kong's Disneyland and Iger made this announcement:

“Well, I'll give you a little surprise there, Michael. 'Frozen 3' is in the works and there might be a 'Frozen 4' in the works too... But I don't have much to say about those films right now. But Jenn Lee, who created 'Frozen,' the original 'Frozen' and 'Frozen II,' is hard at work with her team at Disney Animation on not one but actually two stories.”

Songwriters:

Kristen Anderson-Lopez also shared a tweet (or an X) indirectly confirming the husband - wife duo as the songwriters for the fourth installment too - more hit songs to come!!

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Returning cast/ characters:

Kristen Bell re-posted an article and video of the Frozen 4 announcement and Idina's indirect confirmation on her Instagram story, indirectly confirming her voice of Anna again.

Idina Menzel did the same but as a post, confirming her return as Elsa:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Idina Menzel (@idinamenzel)

Josh Gad re-posted Idina's post on his story with “👀” which means he's back as the lovable Olaf.

Jonathan Groff's confirmation isn't out yet as far as I know or have seen but I'm assuming he's on board too.

As for Santino Fontana aka Hans, I think now he has a very high chance of returning. There's no way they are expanding the franchise without him, ignoring some of the Hans fandom's plea and that with redemption too. But while we wait for confirmation on the entire cast (which might be a while away), we'll just keep hoping for Santino to give us hints. I know he's staying quiet on purpose.

Santino Fontana we got our eyes on you 👀

Release date:

No confirmed release dates are announced for 3 or 4 yet but in some files there are two release date slots for the middle of 2024 and one on 26 November 2025. I don't think Frozen 3 will be out next year because I'm sure we would have gotten some more Info on it by now and most importantly I think Zootopia 2 is coming out in November 2024. Som that leaves Frozen to have its regular date on 26 November in 2025.

As for leaks of the first looks, the earliest leak we got for frozen 2 was in December 2018 so my eyes are peeled in a year's time.

What this all means:

Frozen 4 may seem frustrating for some for the reason that Disney's just calling for more money and they might not take care of the story and cheering us fans but though it looks like that, it may not be entirely true. Jen Lee has said earlier that she's very excited about the idea for Frozen 3 that she was given to by Marc Smith, an animator in WDAS, though the director is unknown as of yet. She's expressed a lot of excitement about it which I have quoted in this post linked. And what's different about it is that we all know how production for Frozen and Frozen 2 went. Frozen had a last minute plot and character change and Frozen 2 had songs and plot changes too as we can see in the documentary on Disney plus. But this time it seems that everything is going smoothly and really really well. That's what gives me hope about the future of Frozen. And yeah I know some of you aren't too fond of Jennifer Lee and though she's managing the projects that doesn't mean she's going to be directing it. She's like the producer. Some one else will be directing it which is yet to be announced. After all Jennifer will be there in the team as she's the one who made Frozen in the first place. She knows the characters well so it's given she'd be looking over the movies' production.

I'm sure some of you are familiar with the news of the fourth installment and saw it coming when a few weeks back Jennifer also shared in an interview that she had found a new strategy upon making more Frozen films. Her strategy was that if they feel there's more to tell for the story or maybe if we the fans feel it then they'll work on making another movie. But none of us were expecting it to be announced so soon.

Based on this announcement I believe that Frozen 4 is a second part to Frozen 3 in the same way we had Avengers 3 and 4 and Fast and Furious X and 11 and into and across the spider-verse and other movies doing the same. If it's in parts it means the story, the events going down are big making Frozen 3 end in a cliffhanger. They are probably in the process of writing it or early production and they realised that this story needs two parts because the story is of a big event. This new film strategy really works in some of these movies so I'm hoping for the same for Disney. Either way, I'm glad they're expanding the well deserved franchise and realising its true potential. Frozen is the first animated trilogy to be produced by WDAS and then the first to become a quadrilogy to be a Disney Animation movie. Movies like Avengers and Toy Story are from Marvel and Pixar despite Disney owning them or some of their movies but Frozen will be a full on Disney franchise to become a quadrilogy. Frozen just making history 😌

Conclusion:

I'm scared and excited, as we all are but all we can and should do is stay positive and hope for the best. I personally believe Frozen 3 and 4 will be great given the positivity coming from Jen Lee and Bob Iger. I believe in Frozen's potential and in sure Disney does too hence the two new movies announced. But if I can't convince you to believe this is a very good thing for the franchise then maybe Isaac Carlson, who explains Disney theories and opinions on YouTube can. He explains it well and highly recommend you go watch and listen to his video. He originally didn't like the way Frozen 2 went as I did but upon seeing and hearing different perspectives of it he and I too gained a new way to see Frozen 2. Isaac also wanted more films after Frozen 2 time the ending and I think now that Disney is doing just that I think we could be feeling a whole lot better than where Frozen 2 left off at. Trust me Frozen 2 ending haters need to see his video. I'll explain more about the way I see it all in an upcoming Frozen 1, 2 and the shorts breakdown which I'll pin as soon as I post it.

[gamesception]

Unlike the 'they don't read the playtest feedback' bit, the rumors/leaks here all track and I expect to be basically accurate. Thoughts below cut.

.....

Setting aside for a moment the issue of the OGL and the 3rd Party Publishing community and even the brewing legal battle between Hasbro/WotC and existing VTTs, and just looking at what all of this likely means for the upcoming new edition of D&D as a ttrpg and nothing else, things still kind of look bad.

Weekly digital releases as the primary vector for new game content, with phsyical books as collectors items, ensures that content glut will crush 6e as surely as it did 4e, while those who want to stick to physical rulebooks will have to pay out the nose for them - and if you miss the initial release you may not be able to pick up a supplement at all.

Negative impact on the game even for physical world player groups won't be limited to weekly content glut either, as the VTT focus will ensure that no 1st party rules or mechanics will be published for 6e that can't be fully implemented in the video game space, while WotC's moves to alienate the 3pp community will mean you won't have much in alternative content options for 6e to make up the difference. So you can say goodbye to esoteric, interesting rules and imaginative abilities that let you do things in D&D that just wouldn't be possible in a video game.

If you forget the tabletop roots and judge 6e as a live service online multiplayer game, then things look even worse. The WotC VTT will be unavoidably lacking compared to already established alternatives like Destiny or Genshin or Fortnight or League or WoW or Final Fantasy 14 or Guild Wars 2 - full featured video games - many of them free to play - capable of such modern marvels as real time combat, play sessions demanding less than four hours of your time, and underlying game math more complicated than a middle schooler can do in their head.

Basically, because they're making 'D&D the tabletop game the video game' instead of just a separate D&D video game, it still has to be at least theoretically playable /as/ a pen & paper tabletop game with no computers involved. As such, 6e will have all the constraints of both a video game and a tabletop game, leaving it unable to employ the unique potential of either medium. Even if they weren't also saddling it with weekly content glut, even if they hadn't made the entire player community angry going in, even if they weren't trying to carve out space in an already overcrowded 'live service' market - one where dozens of more promising and better funded offerings from more established publishers get mercilessly culled every year, even if 3rd party publishers and VTTs simply gave up the fight and quietly disappeared into that good night... even if 6e were facing none of the many other fatal roadblocks in its path, this alone would doom the entire 6e project to mediocrity and ultimately failure.

Maybe Hasbro could have turned the D&D brand into a major cash cow, but not by directly monetizing the tabletop game itself as though it were a mobile game. Rather, they needed to treat the ttrpg the way Disney treats Marvel comics or the way Nintendo and the Pokemon Corporation treat the actual main line pokemon video games - as IP farms to generate and test content that then gets spun out into a wider media and merchandising empire. Sadly they've already done enough damage to the brand that I'm not sure they could pull this off now if they wanted to.

6e, despite what I felt was a promising start in the first couple play test documents, pretty much cannot succeed at this point - not the way WotC's execs want it to, but not even as a just a stand alone game in spite of those execs, no matter how skilled and well intentioned the ground level developers are. The way I see it, we're headed towards an even more spectacular failure than 4e. Hopefully it will be quickly followed by a 7e walk back as dramatic as what we saw in 5e, and we can all start joking about odd numbered D&D editions being good and even numbered editions being trash fires.

[mimiri22-6]

....sooooo...all of season 3 episode 2 of the owl house got leaked...

Long story short...it's the best thing ever and the only thing keeping me from feeling Too bad is that the video I watched got 4.4k views in an hour and Dana openly pirates her own show. I Would say I'll do the same thing I did for Bee and Puppycat s2, very make sure i watch the official release, BUT. Fuck Disney.

I'm not gonna post any spoilers(might rb some tho 👀), but watching that Amazing leaked episode made me even more insane about how...there's only one more episode. There is only one more episode and the only hope for anything more is Disney scrambling to get a spinoff because they know it gets them views.

Everything about this ep was amazing. I had to kept pausing because i was freaking out. by the 8 min mark i was already paused for a collective of 5-10 minutes to just whisper shout about everything going down.

once again, this one special could have been So Many episodes. the end credits show that. we would get more wittebanes we would get more collector we would get more Everything. but...but we live in the timeline where this show is going to go down in history as a big ol sign that says "Disney is Bigoted"

but it will also go down in history as something that, hopefully, goes down to change things for the better. more future queer, nerodivergent, poc, and disabled stories told with such care and Understanding as their predecessors...companies are hard to change. any of them, all of them, and i hope with this massive ball dropped, not on the owl house crew end, they're giving it their all and it shines, but on the disney company end.

I can say disney has made me cry with its storytelling, but more specifically, i can say that the owl house made me cry with its characters.

and i sincerly hope the world we live in sees this and starts changing as to not lose great things like this again...but seeing how steven universe was also cancelled...with this following...i don't know how fast that's gonna be...

[thedeliverygod]

Rumor has it, Kingdom Hearts 4 will be released for the ps5 next year. Do you think it's true?

I really don’t tbh. We’re almost halfway into 2024 without a single drop of news. I’m pretty sure I remember it being said that they were more careful with the announcement of KH4 being in production because they announced KH3 far too early in the process and it caused a lot of fans to be a pain in the ass.

If production were that far ahead I’d expect us to have at least another trailer by now, some world announcements etc.

There’s also rumors of a Disney + show being created and I would take that with a huge grain of salt too.

That one could be more possible given the hype and excitement around the pilot animatic released by Seth Kearsley that was quickly taken down because Disney does not play lol. Tbh I was surprised no one got on him before he actually released it. That said, I knew it was going to be taken down so I do have it saved if anyone ever wants to see it lol.

But given that I’ve followed KH news like a hawk from childhood after I beat the first game and have worked for the KH13 news team, my advice is to really put no value into leaks unless you can find an actual source (like for instance, someone put KH3 related stuff on their LinkedIn as part of their resume).

Even with the KH3 leaks of a monster inc world I was extremely hesitant to believe it until it was shown in a trailer. Even though there were pictures, some people put a lot of time and effort into headcanons so you just never know unless someone can pinpoint the artist. And of course now you’ve got all this AI bullshit that can create convincing images and even video clips.

I think it saves everyone a lot of heartbreak if you don’t put too much time and energy into things that aren’t confirmed.

The reason why I’m not involved with the KH fandom as much anymore started because of the KH premium theater event. Our news team worked really hard, staying up until ungodly hours in our time zones to get as much scraps as news as we could because it was in Japan and it was a private event with extremely strict rules regarding pictures and recording. Because this current society is so used to instant gratification, everyone was pissed off that there was no footage or pics and only translated reactions to the things revealed at the event. It got so bad that even the official social media pages released a statement asking for people to please wait patiently for more news. And yeah I was annoyed we put so much time and effort into giving people what we could (and same for the KHinsider team) and hardly anyone gave a fuck.

My other problem with the fandom as a whole is the people who didn’t keep up with the series and then complained saying KH3 was bad. Also often put KH2 on some weird pedestal because of nostalgia or whatever but that’s a whole different thing that I’ve complained about in detail in other posts lmao✌🏻

[weedle-testaburger]

Me again. I also saw the new Owl House promo art for the next episode. I can’t wait. It’s out the same day I have to go to a convention but hopefully I’ll still have time to see it. I’ve also just applied for a job (it’s an archival thing, I can’t reveal details) today. It only makes sense that the release of these last few Owl House episodes is spaced out like this. Since Disney decided to shorten the show in their infinite idiocy. I can’t think of any other times a show did that. Maybe Dr Who?

Yeah same! My friend said it'd leaked and he had the link but sadly when I tried to use it the video had been taken down. And I feel you on the con thing bc I watched King's Tide on the train on the way to a con! Best of luck with the job application, the new student I'm working with was really nice and the work sounds interesting so I'm looking forward to that. As for them spacing out TOH's last few episodes, I think that's common with cartoons on TV channels- they did that with SU and iirc Gravity Falls and Adventure Time a lot. I'm not sure why tbh, you'd think there'd be a bit more reason behind when they choose to drop the new episodes like scheduling it around a holiday or school break, but ig not.

[yumeka36]

Happy 2-year anniversary to Frozen 2!

I wanted to make posts celebrating the anniversaries of both Frozen movies, but since their exact anniversaries are on different dates, I decided to make two separate posts. I wasn’t sure what theme to go with for the posts, but I finally settled on showcasing photos from special events/occasions that I attended throughout each movie’s history - a sort of “trip down memory lane” for all the fun times I’ve personally had the privilege of experiencing with my beloved franchise. For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, you may recognize some of these photos, but there may be a few I’ve never shared before as well.

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My first big Frozen 2 event was attending D23 Expo in August of 2019. Besides the trailers and Annecy Festival in early 2019, information on the movie was still lacking at this time, so it was amazing seeing all the promotion at the expo. There was a whole area completely decked out with an Enchanted Forest theme, as pictured below.

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In addition to seeing exclusive footage from Frozen 2, the filmmakers and songwriters were also at the expo, hosting panels and even giving out signed posters! And I was lucky enough to meet them! Probably one of the coolest days of my life.

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One of my most prized Frozen possessions - the aforementioned signed poster!

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In early October of 2019, several stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Disney Store finally started selling Frozen 2 merch via Frozen Fan Fest. This was the first time (spoiler-free) Frozen 2 merch became readily available, and I was so excited! I made many stops at my local stores to see what they were selling!

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On the second day of Frozen Fan Fest, my local Disney Store had a “sneak peek” event. Though all they did was show the trailer and discuss the characters a bit, they did have these nice screen displays.

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In late October of 2019, I was able to attend a small animation festival in Hollywood, with a Frozen 2 sneak peek panel hosted by Chris Buck. In addition to seeing more exclusive footage, I got to meet him again. Once I told him I was the fan at D23 Expo with the backpack full of Frozen pins, he remembered me, lol.

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In early November of 2019, I took a trip to Disneyland. I heard they were supposed to show another sneak peek for Frozen 2 before each performance of the Frozen theatrical play at Hyperion Theater. I also wanted to see if there was any cool Frozen 2 merch there. There was, of course.

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While I was expecting the “sneak peek” at Disneyland to just be another showing of the trailer, it ended up being much more - it showed the entire charades scene up until the end of Into the Unknown, which was all footage that had not been released to the general public before! I was in shock that they showed it in a place like Disneyland where recording was not prohibited...and, as some of you who followed Frozen 2 leaks at the time may remember, I recorded the footage and shared it online for all to see! The videos got thousands of views in the short time they remained on Daily Motion before finally being taken down. But it was an exciting thing for sure. We also got the below goodies for attending the sneak peek (a notebook and a QR Code to listen to samples of the yet to be released soundtrack).

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I had the opportunity to see Frozen 2 a few days before its official release, on November 18th, 2019, via a special event for D23 Gold Members: we got to see the movie at Disney Studios in Burbank, as well as getting a studio tour, a dinner, fun trivia games with artist Trent Correy, and Q&A with some of the staff who worked on the movie. We got plenty of free goodies too, as pictured below. After all the hype the previous months, I couldn’t believe I finally saw Frozen 2 myself, in such a splendid way!

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Unfortunately just a few months after Frozen 2′s release, the pandemic hit, which eliminated a lot of potential events and visits to Disney parks I could have had. However, after finally getting my vaccine, I took another trip to Disneyland in June of 2021. There wasn’t much for Frozen 2 besides some merch, but to my pleasant surprise, I was lucky enough to find the sister queens during one of the random (and distanced) character meetups! It made me smile to see how excited everyone was when they showed up~

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I’m planning to make a similar post for Frozen’s 8-year anniversary in about a week from now. Since the original movie has been around many more years than the sequel, I know I have a lot more photos, lol. It’ll be hard to narrow it down, but I’ll do my best!

[ms-demeanor]

Some meandering thoughts about jokes about rape and cultural changes in the last decade and a half

Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad we’re in a place now where we DO question rape jokes and it would be much harder to get away with “raping Jonah Hill is incredibly amusing” as the center of a scene the way that you could in 2007-2013 but I do kind of feel like we don’t talk about how sudden that change was enough.

People talk about how you should have always known that awful things are awful but if you’re surrounded by rape jokes and pedophilia jokes all the time and that’s what’s funny to the other kids around you and the adults in your lives and what makes up the jokes in the movies you watch then it’s hard to act like you always knew it was wrong.

Dead baby jokes were a HUGE thing when I was a teen and in my early twenties and sitting around swapping dead baby jokes was just a thing we did, and tossed in among them were things like:

A joke about incest with the punchline “Get off me pa, you’re crushing my smokes.”

This joke about a pedophile murdering a child.

Let’s not turn this rape into a murder.

And hell, look at the activity graph for “soap on a rope” on urban dictionary:

2014 starts a significant taper.

Letterboxd has their “sexual assault against men played for comedy page” and if you sort by release date there’s a downward trend with 2014 as a really stand-out year for rape jokes about men in popular movies:

2010 - 10

2011 - 12

2012 - 14

2013 - 12

2014 - 18 (jesus, which includes a prison rape joke in “Paddington”)

2015 - 9

2016 - 9

2017 - 11

2018 - 15

2019 - 4

2020 - 1

(this is of course with the caveat that this is only what has been documented so far)

Shock porn sites used to be a thing and they used to be a COMMON thing. A thing that would get remixed and have late night hosts make jokes about them and that got parody music videos.

So on the one hand I was really glad that in 2010 the hacker conference WASN’T asking me to make a rape joke on their tee shirt, but since Pool 2 Girl came up at every single “this is what defcon is about” discussion and some of the guys from the con had printed up “lemonparty.org” stickers to slap up around town it wouldn’t have been *surprising* if they’d been asking for that.

If you were a teenager in 2005 would you have known how much of a dick move goatse-ing people was? We didn’t have the same culture of trigger warnings (not that I disapprove of trigger warnings, they are good and I like them) and there was very much an attitude online at the time of “if you can’t handle it log off.”

I think the fappening was the turning point for a lot of this stuff - I think that was a big cultural moment that changed a lot of people’s attitudes really quickly and I’m seeing echos of that with what Chris Evans is dealing with right now: people are a lot faster to say “oh, that sucks, don’t be an asshole, report people for posting the pics” while I remember sitting and arguing in an imgur thread because there were a bunch of people saying “if you don’t like it don’t take nudes” about the celebrities who got caught in the icloud leak.

People look at Shane Dawson’s (admittedly gross and incredibly inappropriate) behavior with a poster of Willow Smith and act like it’s unprecedented***** but as someone who remembers not only Olsen Eighteenth Birthday countdowns but ALSO the jokes about fucking the Olsen twins that came BEFORE they were legal that’s just bizarre. Seeing people my age and older react to James Gunn’s pedophilic twitter jokes like they’re worse than Jay Leno’s jokes about Michael Jackson (which were made on TV! Across America! On a major network!) is just. It’s bizarre.

I’m glad we are where we are now, I’m glad that making rape jokes in public or jokes about incest or pedophilia (or murder or abortion) is less common and less okay (especially in children’s media, jesus fuck) and more likely to get criticized.

But I’m also pretty sure I’m going to get called a rape apologist by *someone* for saying “2010 was a different time, rape jokes were more common and we didn’t realize how shitty it was” when it really was a different time and rape jokes were more common and most people didn’t realize how shitty it was. I sure didn’t. I do now, and I’m glad I do now. But pretending that we should have ALWAYS known this, pretending that this was NEVER acceptable, pretending that it WASN’T a different time is ignoring the fact that for over a decade there was an entire genre of pedophilic rape jokes (that were frequently also racist) centered around one celebrity and that people told these jokes in public and in pop culture *all the time.*

Does that make it right? Fuck, I don’t know, shit is relative. It was still largely acceptable to electrocute gay kids and people tossed around the word “faggot” pretty freely. Mean Girls is full of jokes about how awful it is for people to think you’re a lesbian and Superbad is full of jokes about getting people shitfaced so they’ll sleep with you (so date rape) and there’s an entire “cute comedy” from the 80s starring Kurt Russel and Goldie Hawn that’s an extended rape-by-fraud joke. I think that as a whole we’re better now as people than we were in 2010 and the 90s and the 80s and the 50s and I don’t think that someone who made a sexist joke in the 80s is irredeemably evil and I don’t think people making rape jokes in the 2010s are rape apologists in 2020 and I wish there was a lot more understanding of both history and nuance in these conversations.

*****to be very, very clear Shane Dawson has been filmed kissing underage fans on the mouth and having explicit sexual conversations with his very young cousin - Dawson has done things that go beyond “inappropriate” and fall clearly into “wrong” “bad” “dangerous” “illegal” etc, which is all the more reason that it’s so strange to see people focusing on him fake masturbating on a poster of Willow Smith. YES doing that was gross but why is it even being compared to the way he’s been filmed interacting with fans? The lack of nuance, making “fake masturbating at a poster” and “creating a sexually abused puppet character” the same as “inappropriately touched and kissed minor fans and engaged a young child in explicit sexual conversations” is NOT GOOD. That is a bad thing. Two of those things are tasteless and two of those things are actively harmful and it’s the actively harmful stuff that we should be focusing on and part of why it’s really weird to see shit like “pizzagate conspiracist accuses James Gunn of making inappropriate jokes” like yes Gunn please don’t but can we maybe refocus and talk about the dude who can be pretty significantly assigned blame for a fucking shooting? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/01/james-gunn-alt-right-marvel-film-director-tweets

Actually, you know what, I thought I was done ranting, I’m not.

It’s purity culture.

YES you should attempt to do less harm with your language, YES you should attempt to not use slurs, YES you should try to avoid making rape jokes. But there’s an entire huge group of people who are willing to drag up rape jokes from a decade when rape jokes were REALLY REALLY common in order to say that nothing you say or do today matters.

And that same group is ALSO really interested in expanding the concept of what pedophilia is to include age differences in adults or liking the wrong style of drawing and it’s a purity culture silencing tactic and can we PLEASE stop pretending that gross, tasteless jokes are the same thing as actually sexually abusing people? Can we stop pretending that pointing out “rape jokes were more common fifteen years ago and I feel bad about it but that’s just the way it was and I don’t make jokes like that anymore” is the same as saying “rape isn’t bad and you shouldn’t make a big deal out of it.”

It’s always good to try to be a less shitty human but if you’re only allowed to grow and improve and be less shitty if you never fucked up in the first place then it’s all just calvinist bullshit and none of us could ever really be saved in the first place.

I dunno, dudes. We got so careful about disapproving of the wrong kind of language that we let a white supremacist concern troll Disney into firing a director who caught the attention of the alt right by shit-talking the president.

I think perhaps we need to reexamine some strategy here.

[appendingfic]

Disney doesn't know meta. Meta doesn't mean just stringing a bunch of characters on screen for half a second each. Meta isn't just lampshade hanging (commenting in-character on the existence of a cliche or trope as it's being used).

So lemme take a shot on what a properly meta Chip and Dale would've been:

Chip meets Ellie out in the world - she is a huge fan, and she takes an offhand comment from him out of context that causes her Facebook fanpage to blow up with the possibility of a Rescue Rangers reboot. Disney sits up and take notice and call Dale's agent to tell him to get the original cast onboard for a reboot. The first act is just Dale getting the gang together - probably asking Chip first, and then getting told Chip won't go for it unless everyone else is in first.

The next act is about the work of making this reboot, and the continuing interference of a "brand consultant" who is "here to make sure this reboot within community standards".

Filming includes many unpleasant discoveries about how things have changed. Instead of getting a full script, they get the day's scenes delivered by the creepiest spy-looking character imaginable. Backgrounds and even major props will be "CGI in post" (Gadget is incredibly disappointed because she really enjoyed building the gadgets in the original show - even got a producer's credit for it. Chip complains about the laziness of replacing real set-building with "cheap CGI tricks" which upsets Dale).

Chip: And what's with this line? Disney liaison: Oh, we've decided to hint Fat Cat is gay and is attracted to Chip - Disney's first LGBT character! Chip: Oh, is it June already?

The whole thing is a soulless mashup of pointless references and gratuitous crossovers, and worse there's a leak in the studio that is awakening a lot of negative chatter online. Ellie, who got the part of the unnecessary human tagalong character, is the prime suspect.

Of particular concern is the Last Page of the script, which the studio liaison indicates would be a disaster if it leaked.

Dale has been trying to get everyone to relax and lean into the movie - "Dude, it's just a movie. Stop acting like it needs to be Shakespeare", but Chip is suspicious, and eventually gets in to read the last page.

Chip: ...Dale dies? What sort of an ending is that? Disney Liaison: The sort of ending no one would expect. At least as long as no one spoils it. Chip: This is a terrible ending! Disney Liaison: For Dale, sure. But...not necessarily for you. This can set you up for your own franchise. Double-O Dale failed because it had no connection to his most popular character. Here - you can be the star of a new, edgy franchise. Chip and His Rescue Rangers. Chip: I don't- Disney Liaison: And it's so much cleaner this way. With your different art styles, you don't...match. Chip: Yeah, the CGI is a little awkward to work with. Disney Liaison: Better to cut loose the dead weight and have a fresh start...right?

Dale of course overhears most of this and decides to leak the ending to tank the movie - going to a huge gathering of Chip and Dale fans at Comicon.

Chip tries to stop him, and instead of his big announcement, Chip and Dale have an awkward gratuitous rap battle about the show and actually work through some of their own frustrations with each other.

Afterward, though-

Chip: That felt gratuitous Bystander: You've got a ton of views of the video of you two already - that's all that matters. Chip: ...All that matters is...the views. Chip: Holy - Dale we gotta go!

They finally corner the liaison

Chip: You're the leaker, aren't you? You're making everyone hate the movie before it comes out! For - clickbait! Disney Liaison: What does it matter? Chip: You're ruining the movie on purpose! Why - why would you do that? Disney Liaison: Look, three weeks after your movie comes out, we've got the next installment of the MCU, and buzz has been - lackluster. So I figured if we released a terrible movie beforehand, people would want to see it more in comparison. Dale: You're wasting millions of dollars to make a movie you intend to fail? Disney Liaison: Who said it would fail? Dale: ...What? Disney Liaison: People are TALKING about it, boys. And if there's enough chatter, people are going to WANT to see how bad it is. Chip: Come on - once people see the reviews that it's unwatchable- Disney Liaison: The director sends a tweet accusing the Hollywood elite attacking the movie for not pandering to their "woke" politics. Disney Liaison: See, movie making isn't about "telling a story" or whatever you've been complaining about. It's about controlling the media narrative to encourage people to SEE the movie...whatever it takes. Chip: I know one thing that'll make it so NO ONE wants to see this movie. Disney Liaison: What? Dale: *holds up his phone showing the leaked last page on his twitter* Dale: Spoilers.

In the end, because all they've done is film in front of a bunch of green screens and haven't contracted the CGI yet almost no money has been spent and they're able to wrangle a new script (I wanted to describe a plot point where Ellie is a writer and there's been hints also that she'd been working on a script for years - possibly even post the last couple of pages of the script on her fanpage to hype the new script).

[chocolateslatte]

🚨The Rise of Skywalker Detailed Review and Spoilers Ahead🚨

George Lucas: “If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office”

The “fairytale” we got: A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there was a curse of pain and death in a family that just went on and on.  They were never able to break it and they all die, the end. 

Well, you did it JJ, you little punk...you ruined 40 years of cinema. Kids are coming out of theatres crying, they can’t understand. I guess this was the “fun and hopeful ending” you were speaking of during the press tours.  Are you on crack or something, or just sadistic....why would you promote it like that!? Did you forget Star Wars at its core is a story of hope, light, a fairytale in space for children? They did it...they united Reylo’s and Fanboys through hate. 

JJ you do realize tragical romances are only tragically romantic if there was romantic buildup? Romeo and Juliet married in secret, Anidala did as well and flirted in the fields. How was this supposed to be satisfying? A five-second beginning, middle, and end. How this went through multiple execs is beyond me.... I would have understood if Reylo was Rian’s creation. BUT JJ LITERALLY was the one who told Rian to go forth with it...he created Reylo so you can’t say the last Jedi derailed things on that front. JJ wasn’t brave enough for his own vision. This movie was like “the crimes of Grindlewald”, a lot of stuff happening that made me feel nothing. 

Okay, first things first. The OG trilogy was necessary, the prequels were necessary to set up that Vader did not start off bad. What was necessary about the sequels? They just dismantled everything the Skywalker family worked for. Why did we have to see ALL of our favorite characters die? Was the aim that a villain can only be redeemed through death? How original. I’m convinced what they were planning for since force awakens was a journey from villain to hero...but instead we got this a 10min redemption resulting in death a la Vader. Why call Adam Driver’s character a “Disney Prince”?When did Happy endings become so controversial? We go to the movies to feel hope, to escape reality...George Lucas understood that. JJ’s trilogy is uninspired, bland and contributes nothing to the saga. JJ went as far as to recon his own “The Force Awakens”.It had the chance to define generations but no. Literal and utter garbage. Rian made some odd choices but he was bold, unafraid and had the vision. HE knew emotion was at the heart of Star Wars.

WHERE DID THE SKYWALKERS RISE? MORE LIKE RISE OF PALPATINE,  HE BLOODY WON

BUT my problem is not with the ending, it’s the bloody entire movie. This movie made me realize that it's not Reylo that I am a fan of, it was Ben, Leia, Han, Ani, Padme, and all those other characters. I’m upset because this movie is not my Star Wars: of family, love and above all else hope. This is just a 2.5-hour video game with no emotions. This trilogy was all angst with NO payoff.

Okay, you will never ever convince me Palpatine was planned the whole time. This whole movie was retcon for the Last Jedi that pissed off the fanboys. Lucas films did not have an outline for the three films and Rian derailed whatever they wanted to do....except they didn’t even tell him what they wanted! This should be a cautionary tale of why you need to plan. Kylo ain’t bad, Snoke is gone....well pull out Palpatine I guess. This whole film is JJ’s mad scrambling.  Alright, I will humor you, tell me how Palpatine came back when he fell down a shaft and exploded....not *boom boom because of force*. The force in this movie is not canon George Lucas force, it’s just an easy out whenever JJ wants one. 

1. Opening Crawl: As soon as I saw this I knew all the leaks were true, I wanted to bolt from the theatre. When I saw them in August I laughed cause it was so ridiculous it couldn’t be true. How could Disney let a whole movie leak? The plot seemed like a bad fan-fiction. Actually, fanfics are way more true to lore. Anyway, so Palpatine “announces” that he’s back. Is this the shrewd Chancellor Palpatine we know? Certainly, not...why in the world would he announce it rather than keep on the DL and just attack. Yo Palps ain’t this dumb why would you let them (the resistance) prepare?? Because of plot...well okay. 

2. Did Last Jedi even happen:  this film is the sequel to the force awakens, like TLJ never happened...except it’s acting like there was some movie in between that JJ made. Okay, so why is Kylo trying to run Rey over with his tie fighter...he doesn’t really want to kill her. It’s just meaningless action shots.  And don’t get me started on exposition, the dialogue: “hey look its the Knights of Ren”. Except they do nothing. Cool cool.  Kylo’s character goes back to Force awakens era like no development had occurred...except he’s not even there he’s just messing around not even being a real villain.  JJ’s specialty is set-up and he does this beautifully....but he can not wrap up and follow through. 

3. Rose Tico: yup last Jedi never happened, she has nothing to do. She and Finn are irrelevant. Finn has reverted to being obsessed with Rey. Cool Cool.  I honestly feel so bad for the lovely Kelly Marie Tran. How did you relegate a relatively big character into the sidelines?? Why introduce two new characters this late. Rose could have filmed in for them...but alas we must snub Rian at every turn because that’s just how petty JJ Abrams is. ( don’t get me wrong Jannah was cool)

4. The Rise Of Poe Dameron: Finn has been relegated to a side character who does nothing and just yells “REY!”. It was a great setup, a stormtrooper who was force sensitive but doesn’t want his life to be fighting for nothing. You could have explored trauma, the discovery of the light but nope nada. Tell me the point of his character journey. So flat and static. And with Jannah and the ex stormtroopers they could have gone with the arc of these lost, sad kids coming together to find family. 

5. Leia:  Okay you’re telling me our Princess would give up on her son before he was born, just throw away her lightsaber and accept Ben’s fate? Cool alright. And she knew about Rey Palpatine and didn’t say anything...my princess would never.

6. Mary Sue Rey: Ahh Rey this girl feels no emotion in this movie...just like the audience. Sure she’s trained but she can just do stuff with the “force” that even Jedi masters can’t. Stopping a whole starship, something even Yoda could barely do...yup she can do it. Beat Kylo all the time except one, yup she can. Manipulate the force in mind-boggling ways, heal people...sure Luke couldn’t but Rey certainly can.  Cause she is the chosen one...hell even Ani wasn’t this talented and he had years of training. Poe and Finn have a genuine connection, Rey just seems disjointed (totally understandable why)...but if so the ending is even worse. She doesn’t even find peace with her friends. She’s not realistic and human like Luke and Leia were. 

 Force sensitivity in the galaxy:  What a perfect setup, the boy with the broom at the end of TLJ that was force sensitive. The message is that the power to use the force was spreading through the galaxy. No longer confined to the elite. People were hearing of Luke’s battle of Crate and rising.

7. Kylo/Ben: I still maintain that he, other than Ani was the most nuanced character in the whole saga. His arc from Force Awakens to Last Jedi had progressed. How great that even someone from the legendary line of skywalker and solo could fall to the dark again. He wasn’t flat, he was a tortured boy that was conflicted since the first movie. How great would it have been to see him as a conflicted supreme leader, which was set up in TLJ. But *gasps* a plot of his very own, no can do, this is the nature of JJ’s crush on Rey and Daisy. 

Disney released comics that made us sympathize with him, to see that all along he was manipulated by Snoke, and Palpatine the voices in his head. Neglected by those who were supposed to love him. Adam Driver was cast perfectly, he had almost no lines that weren’t related to Rey’s charcater arc. If he were a woman I’m sure everyone would be offended. That single line’s delivery “Dad-”

Come on Poe had more lines than him, and Driver according to JJ was half of the protagonist. He was pitched an arc opposite that of Darth Vader that’s why he signed. Man JJ really did do everyone dirty. 

8. Ben had no lines while redeemed other than “ow”...I am so sorry ADAM that this nasty ass JJ did this to you...this part was 100% improv by Adam, I am willing to bet my life on it. You know why “ow” was brilliant? Cause it meant he felt pain and emotion, he was no longer hiding behind the hardness of Kylo REN. Adam’s performance as Ben left me speechless, he was convincing as Kylo, intimidating...but as BEN he shines in the way only Solo’s can. The way his eyes become determined once he accepts he must give his life, and he does so happily for the love of his life. His soulmate. Star Wars and JJ never deserved the talent that is Adam Driver.

9. They are supposed to be equals in the force yet they missed the opportunity to fight Snoke together. Tell me how they are equals. He existed only to further Rey’s plotline. 

Oh and the other Jedi including Anakin whisper and help Rey...when his own grandson has been asking for help in distress for like 30years. Nice real nice.

10. Finally Reylo:  it felt unearned cause there was no buildup, JJ just threw it in for kicks forgetting all the P&P parallels he was shooting for. An afterthought. Driver and Ridley’s acting saved the day, they had no lines.  Adam Driver is truly one of the finest actors. You could see the difference between Ben and Kylo in his subtle gestures...the sass was pure Han Solo.  

11. And then the death: I wouldn’t even say we won, but at what cost. We won in no way. Had he died fighting I would have understood, but this death was so unnecessary and put in just for the fanboys. Let me say again I would have been okay with death had it been justified.  How is this any different than Vader x Luke. JJ can only copy not create. How crazy that you can just bring people back from the dead...Anakin is here like, am I joke to you? I could have brought Padme back say what???? What was the point of his whole fall to the dark. The force is infinite, that’s the whole point...once you know how to use it you can’t run out of it like juice. Oh, and Ben did not become one with Rey but rather the Force according to the Disney website. So why pray tell did he not appear as a force ghost? I’m convinced JJ was on crack.  

12. No Mourning BEN no acknowledgment:  5 seconds! And then she moves on from losing her soulmate, half of her soul. She loses it over Chewie but nothing, no emotion not even a second over her other half. Seriously? No one ever knows Ben came back...nada. JJ set up Reylo, time and time again he has said that he crafted the story around the romance. He was left scrambling after Last Jedi and this was a last-ditch shock ending. No Reylo theme song, no across the stars

13. Last Jedi told us you don’t have to come from a powerful family to be important. THE WHOLE thing was that you could be force-sensitive and be a nobody. Nobodies can become somebody. A Hero is not born but made. The force lives in all beings, not just powerful families. It inspired me, what a great message to young guys and gals. Kylo’s line, “you come from nothing, you are nothing...you have no place in this story” finally turns out true. You have to come from something to have a part in the Star Wars story. And Rey had darkness inside her cause she was human. Because none of us are pure, we are shades of grey. But no, it’s cause darkness only runs in families. In the Last Jedi when she wants to see her family all she sees is herself and a shadow (Ben) who joins with her. Please do explain this JJ. And if this granddaughter thing was set up I would have had no problem...but they pulled it from their asses. You can have nothing but mean something. But no pander to the fanboys. In the end, a Palpatine lived and all the skywalkers ended....and we are supposed to have hope. Palpatine really did win. 

14. Rey’s biggest fear was ending up in the desert alone, we were told “the belonging she seeks is ahead not behind” and “there’s someone who could still come back”. They mentioned she felt just as alone with the resistance. Only the other half of her soul understood her. This is truly tragic and sad...I am so heartbroken for her. And don’t tell me she isn’t there to stay...the soundtrack is called “a new home”. Enjoy the rest of your days being exactly where you started Rey....but hey at least you got a droid boo. I’m convinced this is not the balance JJ envisioned in the first movie. At one point in TFA Rey looks up sees an old woman alone, scavenging in the desert. This rattles her to the core and it starts her journey of wanting a better, different life. I am so sorry Rey. Okay so you may say she has the resistance and her friends...but let’s consult the last Jedi. In the end when everyone is on the ship...Rey is surrounded by friends yet looks more alone than ever. No one but Ben, maybe Luke, Leia, and Han understood her pull to the dark.

How sad that these two hopeless souls who had never known a moment of belonging and true love, found it for all but a few seconds.

I will quote: “preventing female characters with strong, compelling narratives from experiencing love, intimacy, and affection is just as regressive as reducing them down to sexual accessories. Assumes that women must choose between a romantic interest and depth of character”

Men really can not write good female characters, can they? A woman really can’t be a badass and end up with the love of her life

15. The Skywalker’s and Redemption: How truly truly sad that Han and Leia gave their life for their son who also died at a young age. ALL the Skywalkers and Solo’s have a tragic end. This is not what George Lucas wanted. What a tragic way to end this saga...they weren't able to break the curse. AND to all those troubled kids out there that lashed out and made terrible mistakes in their youth....doesn’t matter what you do dying is the only way out. You could have exiled him, made him pay in other ways. Nothing can be done to make up for your sins but death, no amount of good means that you can come home. To the young boys that get wrapped up in terror organizations, sorry the only way you can be redeemed is death...don’t bother changing and coming back. They could have exiled him, had him start an academy with Rey for Jedi kids. He could have spent the rest of his days redeeming himself. Why tell us he was literally preyed upon, haunted, and manipulated as a child. Even in a fantasy world, a victim of mental illness and abuse can not catch a break. Ben as a child could not fall asleep due to the demon-like voices in his mind. Everyone abandoned him in his time of need. Ben never desired power like Anakin, he went over to the dark because “the voice” of his grandfather promised belonging. I am shocked that this is the message Disney sends us. Oh and yeah you can totally take on the Skywalker name for kicks...the disrespect I swear

16. The worst bit is that I am 90% sure there was another ending that was scrapped.  There was a promo shot of Jannah in a field, soft lighting, lush planet. It was exactly like P&P. Daisy Ridley said the lasts scene was known to only Her, Jannah on that panel (Driver was away). Convinced Jannah was looking at Rey and Ben starting a new life away from the desert which she and Luke hate so much. Hence the production of “A New Home” soundtrack. Hence why the “Farewell” song played behind Reylo kiss was hopeful. Why Luke’s soundtrack when he became part of the force was not triumphant. Why the death scene was sudden and cut weird and no sorrow from Rey. CAUSE THEY SCRAPPED THE ORIGINAL ENDING LAST MINUTE.  Everyone knows JJ was still editing one month before. The concept art which was supposed to be released this month has been pushed to March. Why you ask? They need to remove the pages with a happy ending. He just didn’t have the guts, pandered to everyone and yet no one. He was successful in creating a beautifully filmed action-filled movie with none of the heart of Star Wars.

And then she goes and buries Anakin’s saber on freaking TATOOINE. He HATES Sand and Luke wanted to get away from there as soon as possible. Of course, a Palpatine would torture them that way. But nostalgia is the cash cow so. JJ can only generate nostalgia, not create original stories. IF he had any creativity she would have buried it at Padme’s grave.

The fanboys say “leave the romance for the romance movies”....have you seen the original trilogy or the prequels? Star Wars has always had hope and romance entwined with it. 

SO AFTER 40 YEARS...PALPATINE WINS...HIS BLOODLINE LIVES ON

...and people thought the prequels were bad 

JJ you also said that your goal was for people to come out of the movie feeling more hopeful and happy then they went in...yet here I am. My roommate literally had to console me and buy me ice cream. I am just so numb. I am sure the casual fan will enjoy this, as seen from the rotten tomatoes ratings. I think the critics were too generous with this one, 

Star Wars is very simple at its core, Good vs Bad and Dark vs Light. The kids are expected to understand that a Palpatine being the only one who lives is hopeful? That is the conclusion of three generations of Skywalker sacrifice...

This is how the Skywalkers are remembered...In Tragedy and Curse??

[thdorkmagnet]

Little Starco Part 1

Happy Halloween Everyone!! Today I bring you all something new! This AU is based off of my favorite game in the world right now “Little Nightmares.” It is a super awesome horror game that I have been obsessed with for months and so I figured the best way to deal with my love of the franchise was to do what I always do: write Starco fanfiction! So yes this is all based off the video game but I did my best to make it understandable without having played the game. It was a challenge the game is full of mystery and a tense atmosphere, while also putting in some of my typical fluff so trying to match the style was not easy. Still I hope I succeeded and I hope you all enjoy!

Also as a fair warning, this is a horror game and while I don't have anything too bad in here I did push the T rating quite a bit for this one. So anyone who is easily frightened you've been warned. Please enjoy and have a great and spooky Halloween!

This will be a two-parter btw.

Disclaimer: Star vs and all its characters belong to Daron Nefcy and Disney. Little Nightmares belongs to Bandai Namco. All rights go to the respective owners.

Star awoke with a start, letting out a panicked gasp as she sat up quickly in fright. She took a few deep breaths as the initial fear slowly began to fade, leaving only the tense anxiety she normally carried with her. The only sound she could hear was the steady dripping of a nearby leak and the quiet creaking of the ship as it gently swayed back and forth. For as far back as Star could remember she had been having the same nightmare over and over again, every single night, being engulfed in a suppressing darkness that slowly faded to reveal a woman in a white mask. She would slowly turn around to face Star, but just before their eyes could meet, she would wake up. She didn't know what it meant (but then what else was new) but she had a feeling it had something to do with her past.

Not that she could remember it.

As bad as the nightmares were though, she wasn't sure if being awake was any better, she was still trapped in a nightmare whether she was asleep or awake. But at least when she was awake she could run from her threats.

Star pulled her yellow raincoat a little tighter around her, trying to fight off the sudden chill she felt creeping up her spine and got a quick look at her surroundings. She had fallen asleep in a vent, finding that one of the safest places to rest in, and she usually slept in one whenever she got a chance, even if they weren't the most comfortable sleeping spot. She took a moment to breathe in the musty air and let the motion of the ship soothe her, as she once again allowed her mind to wander as it often did in the quieter moments aboard the Maw.

The Maw, the mysterious ship full of monsters and danger and death. She didn't know what purpose it existed or how she had ended up here, all she knew was that she had been a stowaway on board the ship for a very long time. Maybe she had always been on the Maw, maybe there was no life outside of it. Star had no knowledge of the outside world or even if there even was one, but to be honest she didn't really care. All she cared about was staying alive.

Star decided she had rested long enough (knowing she needed to find some food before the hunger pains started in), slowly starting to crawl her way through the vent.

After a couple of seconds, the dim lighting faded, the small girl now encompassed in inky blackness and Star reached into the pocket of her coat, pulling out her sole possession (excluding her raincoat of course): a small, thin lighter. She flicked the lighter open and there was a quick spark before a tiny flame appeared, helping light the tight space around her and bring some warmth back into Star's shivering form. Star couldn't help but smile as she stared down into the flickering glow, relishing the feeling the small source of light brought her. Light was a rarity on board the Maw and she had learned to appreciate whatever she was given.

She nearly jumped as she heard a soft guttural clicking noise echoing farther down the tunnel, but she grinned as she recognized the weird noise as nonhostile. It was one of the many small creatures called Nomes that were known to be found wandering all over the ship. Just like everything else on the Maw, the Nomes origin and purpose was a mystery, but they were also the only thing on this horrible ship that was even remotely enjoyable, Star finding the small creatures adorable and she would often go out of her way to find them and give each one a tight hug... once she managed to chase them down, that is, all of them running away from her in the beginning the second she got close.

But, unfortunately, Star couldn't spot the Nome in the dark tunnel and so she instead reluctantly pressed forward, keeping her eyes focused straight ahead. Eventually, she found a ladder and she quickly flicked off her lighter before climbing up. When she reached the top she immediately noticed a series of hooks passing over her head, being pushed forward by a conveyor belt. A few of them even carried large objects wrapped in cloth and knotted closed with coarse rope and Star tried to ignore the oddly human size and shape they had, choosing to instead focus on finding a way up to the hooks. She looked around for a high enough spot where she could reach one and lucky for her she found a pile of the wrapped packages tall enough and after climbing up she was able to easily grab onto one of the empty hooks and sail away to another part of the ship.

She soon found herself dangling over a large gap in between areas, the long drop into the darkness below causing Star to cling on tight. Long, thick chains hung all around, each rung twice the size of her small body and she could hear them shaking and jangling from the constant motion of the ship. It felt like a lifetime before she finally bridged the gap, now hovering over a huge pile of wrapped packages, and she reluctantly let go, letting them break her fall. She held back a shudder as the bags shifted slightly under her weight.

She had heard rumors of what happened to the kids kept prison on the ship but she wasn't sure she was quite ready to confirm that theory. So instead she rose and began climbing down the massive pile, trying to ignore the squish underneath her bare feet and stench of blood that caused bile to rise up her throat.

Once she was on solid ground again Star took in a deep, shaky breath and ran as far away from the bags as possible. But she hadn't gotten very far when Star was seized with an unbearable hunger, the blonde doubling over in pain. She groaned, clutching her stomach tightly as the emptiness in her stomach increased with every passing second. These happened to her every so often, one minute she would be fine, the next it felt like her stomach was trying to eat itself and it was all Star could do to keep going until she found herself some food.

She stood and began shuffling forward on shaky legs but a couple steps later she was down again as her stomach let out a troubling growl. It took some more effort but Star was able to somehow keep going, trudging slowly ahead, her eyes on the constant search for food. She made it into the next room when her stomach growled again and this time lacked the strength to continue standing, falling hard to her knees as she took deep breaths. She looked up through fading vision and spotted the single greatest thing she thought she had ever seen: a loaf of bread.

Star's stomach released another terrible growl at the sight of food and the blonde gathered up every bit of strength she had left as she began crawling toward the bread, her hand outstretched as she reached for her saving grace. Another sharp pang in her stomach zapped the last of her strength, leaving Star to numbly reach forward in a last desperate attempt to get ahold of the loaf, her fingers just an inch too short. The girl felt hopelessness consume her as her vision slowly faded to black, her one chance of survival just barely out of reach and she nearly sobbed at the cruel irony.

Just when Star was about to give up and accept her fate, she saw a hand reach down out of nowhere and push the bread closer to her. Star snatched the food up without a second thought and began greedily tearing chunks of it off with her teeth, swallowing after only a few bites. She could feel a pair of eyes watching her, but she was too busy eating to care, not daring to stop. The emptiness and pain in her stomach subsided as Star finished devouring the loaf of bread.

Once she was done, Star took a few deep breaths letting her stomach settle, blinking as her vision cleared. After that she stared up at her savior, taking in the appearance of a young boy. He looked to be about her age (however old that was) with short, oily brown hair, brown eyes and a tiny little mole on his left cheek. She recognized him as one of the children kept prisoner on the Maw, if the tattered and faded blue pajamas were any indication. And if that wasn't enough proof then the rusted shackle hanging from his dirty leg confirmed her suspicions. Despite this though, unlike the dull, lifeless orbs the other children typically had this boy's eyes gleamed with joy and wonder and a curious smile hung on his lips, as if the horrors of the world and his situation had yet to reach his fragile young mind.

Star felt her cheeks blush as he continued to stare down at her, suddenly anxious for reasons she didn't quite understand. She looked down at her feet shyly, rubbing a hand up and down her coat sleeve as she muttered out quietly, "Uh, thanks... for that."

"No problem," the boy said pleasantly, before offering her a hand up. Star hesitated before accepting the help, allowing the boy to haul her to her feet. "I'm Marco by the way," the boy said pointing to himself.

"Star," the blonde replied.

"That's a really pretty name," Marco commented before the girl blushed vividly

"So what are you doing on board the Maw?" Marco asked. "I mean, you're definitely not a prisoner, " He added, gesturing down to the bright yellow raincoat.

"No idea," Star admitted. “I just woke up here one day and that's all I remember."

“You don't have any memories?" Marco asked and Star nodded.

"Yeah," Star mumbled. "So what about you? I'm guessing you're a runaway, considering the outfit," Star commented.

The boy cringed, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand as he said, "Yeah, uh, I got sent here to the kitchen a couple of days ago, but I managed to sneak away before... y'know."

Both kids shuddered, knowing full well what fate awaited those who fell victim to the Monsters' gluttony.

"That's terrible," Star said sympathetically, putting a hand on Marco's shoulder. "I'm so sorry that happened, Marco."

"I-Its okay," the boy stuttered, his eyes suddenly filled with pain and Star found herself longing to see his innocent smile again.

"How have you survived this long on your own?" Star asked, quite impressed with the boy.

Marco shrugged. "I've just been sneaking some food out here and there when the chefs aren't looking," the boy said modestly.

Star's eyes widened as realization dawned on her, giving his an apologetic look as she gasped out, "Oh my gosh, did I eat the last of your food? I'm so, so sorry!"

"No, no it's okay," Marco reassured her. "You looked like you needed it more." He smiled at her and suddenly Star's cold body flooded with a peculiar warmth. But she didn't have time to question it as Marco suddenly added, "Besides I know a place where we can get a lot more food than that."

"Where?" Star asked curiously.

"Come on, I'll show you," the boy replied before turning and running off somewhere. Star hesitated for only a second before chasing after the boy, hopeful that she could have a full belly for once.

...

As the two got closer to wherever the boy was leading them, Star began to pick up on the metallic swing of a knife from another room as no doubt a large butcher knife was getting some use. She held back the shiver that jumped up her spine, trying not to focus on the concerning sounds down the hallway. Instead, she concentrated on where she was being led and more importantly the boy who was leading her there. He had a calm smile on his face, despite the obvious danger they were in and Star was almost unsure what to think of that. Or Marco in general.

She hadn't been around kids her age in a long time but the ones she did usually weren't this upbeat. Most were quiet, reserved, and had more or less given up. They certainly didn't smile, she was lucky to see them even raise their head in her direction. So far, Star seemed to be the only one on this ship who cared at all about trying to escape their situation.

Until Marco. Star had never met anyone like him before, he was the closest thing she had come across to a companion in well… forever honestly. Marco's charming naivety was hard to resist and the blonde couldn't help but feel drawn to her companion, wanting to know more about him.

Marco suddenly stopped in his tracks and Star ran into his back by accident, causing him to slightly stumble. Once he had recovered, he turned to her and put a finger to his lips, before pointing in the direction of a towering doorway, the sound of something being violently sliced clearly coming from that direction. Star felt a shiver run up her raincoat but nodded in understanding. The two then began to tiptoe slowly closer to that area, Star feeling her heart rate beginning to spike as they did.

Finally, the two seemed to have reached their destination: a large door. The boy grinned over to her to show that they had reached the right place and pointed over to the door for extra emphasis, mouthing the words, "In here."

Star smiled from beneath her hood and the two quickly started to push on the door with all their little might. But for some reason the door didn't budge, staying sealed shut and the two grunted as they strained against the wooden frame. But the effort proved pointless and the two quickly gave up the struggle, letting out deep (but quiet) sighs of despair. Star leaned heavily against the door when Marco suddenly whispered into her ear, "Let me give you a boost up and you can try the handle."

The blonde didn't argue with that, standing up straight as she watched Marco cup his hands into a foothold for her. Star placed her foot in his palm, before hoisting herself up using his shoulders for leverage. Once she was suspended above ground she sprung up off her companion's hands and grabbed on tightly to the handle. She hung off it as it slid down but instead of a noisy click like usual, there was nothing. Meaning the door was locked.

Star frowned, before dropping back down to her feet, Marco staring at her with a mixture of confusion and anticipation. She bit her lip, thankful he couldn't see her face beneath the hood. The last thing she wanted was to make him feel worse about the whole situation. "Well," he whispered, leaning in close to her face and Star felt her cheeks heat up for some reason.

Star shook her head. "It's locked from the other side," she explained, hoping she didn't sound too disappointed. She really shouldn't have gotten her hopes up, especially since the whole thing had seemed too good to be true, but the idea of a decent meal had gotten her excited.

"What?" the boy groaned, his bright eyes filling with disappointment, a sad frown on his face. "But I just checked it yesterday."

"Guess they figured out you were getting in there," Star said, in the most sympathetic tone she could.

"Well guess we came all this way for nothing," Marco said, sitting down hard on the wood floor with pure despair in his voice.

Star couldn't stand seeing her new friend so downtrodden and tried to think of some way to cheer him up. She looked around for an idea of how to help him, before spotting the doorway across the hall, the sound of sharp metal slicing ringing through the air. Star swallowed hard, knowing what she was thinking of was probably a terrible idea. In fact, it was an incredibly stupid and dangerous idea but now that it was in her head, she knew it would be impossible to get out. Besides, she reasoned with herself. I want to make Marco smile again and if it works…

"Well, I know another way we can get some food," Star said, looking over to Marco knowingly.

The boy gave her a confused look, an eyebrow slowly rising. "How?" he asked, with fragile hope in his eyes.

"Well the pantry may be off-limits but…" Star gestured with her head in the direction of the doorway. "I bet there is some food in there."

Marco's eyes widened. "In… there," he whispered, pointing at the doorway fearfully. "B-B-But, the chef is in there."

Star put an arm around his shoulder saying confidently (more confident than she actually felt), "Come on, Marco. It'll be fiiinnneee. I know my way around this place, I'll keep you safe."

Marco frowned, the doubt clear in his eyes, as he muttered nervously, "I don't know."

"Hey, relax. As long as we stay quiet he will never even know we're there," Star said, flashing him a bright grin, not realizing he couldn't see it under her hood.

Star's enthusiasm seemed to sway Marco's mind some, a thoughtful look spreading across his face as he bit his lip, clearly contemplating his options. "Welllll…" he began, only for his rumbling stomach to interrupt him.

"See, Marco, you're hungry, let's get you some food, come on," Star said, not giving the boy a chance to argue as she grabbed his arm and dragged him in the direction of the kitchen. The boy whined under his breath but otherwise didn't resist, following reluctantly along behind his companion.

Everything about this was making his instincts scream at him but he held back the urge to run away, putting his faith and trust in Star. Like she had said, she had been doing this much longer than him, staying alive on this horrible boat all by herself. Marco had barely survived the week, having to fend off every meal he stole from the pantry from rats and other vermin including… leeches. The boy shuddered at the thought.

But Star. Star was amazing! Even though he had only briefly met her, he could tell just how cool she was and he knew if anyone could get them some decent food, it was her. So he figured it was best to follow Star's lead on this.

But he was quickly regretting this as the sound of chopping grew all the louder. The closer they got, the louder it grew, causing anxiety to course through Marco's bloodstream, turning it to ice. When they reached the door frame, Star peaked her head around the side, checking to see the position of the chef, trying to hold back the cringe as she took in the hideous form.

The creature towered over the two miniature children, it's skin an unhealthy looking shade of almost gray. Then again, nothing about the creature screamed healthy. The chef was overweight, barely fitting into its grungy work uniform. Its meaty arms and hands were hard at work, chopping away at a large slab of meat in front of it, short, stubby finger gripping the massive knife tightly as it slammed the blade viciously into the meat, again and again, its movements sporadic and almost vengeful, like it was getting some sick pleasure from it all. It wore the typical garb of a chef, complete with chef hat and apron, its uniform stained with blood and who knows what else.

Its face looked like melting dough, thick layers of skin and flesh hanging loosely from its expressionless face. It was almost too expressionless, something about it felt off to Star like it wasn't really a face at all. Maybe a mask? The chef made noisy grunts and moans as it worked, its attention so focused on its work it thankfully didn't notice the two kids.

Star waited a moment, making sure the nightmarish creature was properly distracted before putting a finger to her lips and gesturing Marco closer. The small boy swallowed hard but followed after the girl, nearly jumping in fright as he spotted the towering figure of the chef. Star saw he was about to scream and quickly covered his mouth with her hand, muffling the cry of terror. Marco continued to stare at the chef in pure fear and Star quickly pulled him to safety under a nearby table, out of the chef's line of sight.

She gave Marco a moment to calm himself down, his breathing shallow and sporadic and Star wasn't sure how he hadn't hyperventilated yet. Maybe this wasn't a good idea, Star thought to herself. But what other choice did they have? They needed to eat and this seemed to be the only way to guarantee them food. The blonde waited until the boy's breathing calmed enough before removing her hand from his mouth, keeping a hand on his back to steady him.

"Sorry," he mouthed to her, afraid of making any sound whatsoever.

Star pulled off her hood and gave him a sympathetic smile mouthing back to him, "It's fine."

She then pointed to herself and toward the next area of the kitchen before pointing at Marco and then at the ground, hoping the message was clear. You stay here, I'll get the food. But the young boy shook his head stubbornly, a determined look in his eyes as he grabbed onto the girl's hand, causing a blush to spread across her cheeks.

There was no way he was letting her go alone. Star had been alone enough, she deserved to have someone by her side. Even if he was afraid, he was going to do everything in his limited power to help her any way he could.

Star was surprised by Marco's response, figuring he would prefer to stay out of harm's way but he actually wanted to go with her. Star felt another stirring in her chest, the warmth beginning to grow and spread to the rest of her but she ignored it for now. Now was not the time to be consumed by emotions, now was the time to act.

So Star simply nodded her head, giving his hand a tight squeeze before slowly leading them out from the safety of the table, creeping past the chef who was still hard at work cutting slabs of meat, before ripping them apart with its bare hands. Star kept a watchful eye on the chef as they tip-toed past him, staying as low to the ground as possible. The chef was becoming violent with its work, slamming the large butcher knife into the meat again and again and Star felt her stomach roll in disgust. These monsters were insane.

The two finally made it past the creature, creeping silently down the stairs into the main area of the kitchen. Star held her breath at every creak she heard on the rotten wood but thankfully the noise was not enough to alert the chef of their presence.

The two tiny kids continued to creep around the kitchen area, ignoring the array of foul odors coming from the many, many boiling pots on the stove tops. How anyone could eat this stuff was beyond Star. The who was eating it was what had her intrigued but she didn't really want to over think that, in all honesty, she would rather not know. Hopefully, there was better food for them to munch on around here. Star looked around for any sign of good food to eat, before spotting a large metal door at the far end of the room. The freezer. That had to have some real food, right?

Star grinned, before tapping Marco on the shoulder to gain his attention. He gave her a confused look and she pointed over to the door. His eyes widened with greed before he licked his lips, the prospect of food too entrancing to them both. He nodded to her, a smile on his innocent face and suddenly everything felt worth it to Star just to see his eyes light up like that.

The two made their way towards the door tip-toeing as slowly and quietly as possible… when two Nomes appeared out of nowhere, chittering as they scurried around the room, one of them bumping into the door to an oven causing it to slam closed. The loud noise caused both Star and Marco to jump in fright and they both felt their hearts drop as a loud moan sounded from the next room, followed by shuffling feet.

The chef had heard the noise and it was coming to investigate.

Star gave up any hopes of stealth as she shouted to her companion, "Run!" The two ran as fast as they could through the kitchen, the chef making another loud groan as it spotted them but Star didn't dare turn around. Instead, she just focused on getting away. She could hear pounding feet as it chased after them and Star quickly ran under a table in the center of the room, hoping that would stall it enough from catching them.

Finally, Star reached the door to the freezer but felt her heart stop as she noticed the large rusted metal lock on its handle. The blonde swallowed hard, trying to think of some way for them to hide before spotting a large shelf. Star nearly sighed in relief as she shouted, "Come on, Marco! Over here!"

But as she turned to check behind her, she saw that Marco was not there. "Marco?" Star repeated softly, feeling a cold fear creeping up her spine.

"Star!" came the terrified and fragile voice of Marco and Star felt pure terror fill her system as she followed the voice to a horrible sight.

The chef had Marco.

Holding him tightly by the back of his hood, being none too gentle with him as it looked around for her. The boy's body swung haphazardly around as he hung there, kicking his bare feet uselessly and trying to somehow pry the meaty grip off of him. But it was no use. Marco was caught.

Star didn't think she had ever been more afraid than she was at that very moment as she watched the one person in the world who understood her and she cared for in the clutches of that vile creature and it was all Star could do to keep herself from running over and trying to pry him loose, but she knew that would only result in both of them being caught. She needed a different plan to save her friend, preferably one that kept either of them from being served up on a platter.

She quickly ducked behind cover as she watched the chef for a moment, trying to formulate some kind of plan to rescue Marco. Her heart was hammering so hard against her chest at this point she worried she was about to have a heart attack. And as she listened to Marco's desperate and frightened cries, calling out for help, screaming Star's name at the top of his lungs, it felt like a knife had just been wedged deep into her heart, twisting viciously within.

The blonde continued to scan the area around her, looking for something, anything, that could save Marco. Finally, the gears in her head began turning as an idea came to her out of nowhere. She didn't even hesitate as she jumped into action, unable to waste precious seconds thinking it through or second-guessing herself, she would just have to hope it worked. For Marco's sake.

Marco's tiny heart was racing so hard it was painful as he tried futilely to free himself, doing anything he could think of to escape. The chef finally gave up its search for the other vermin and instead carried its captive over to a nearby table… one with a conveniently placed cutting board and butcher knife. The chef practically threw Marco down on the table, the boy letting out a cry as his back painfully collided with the hardwood surface. He tried to crawl away but was stopped as the chef placed a grubby hand over him, keeping him pinned and effectively trapped. The boy tried to squirm away but he was trapped, the pressure on his chest causing him to cough and wheeze, struggling to suck in enough oxygen. He could feel something oozing against his back and he felt bile rising at the back of his throat as he shuddered. He did not want to think about what that could be.

The chef casually picked up the knife beside Marco, the gleam off of its smooth edge hitting Marco and causing him to be temporarily blinded. He blinked furiously, trying to regain his vision as he let out shuddering breaths. The moment his vision returned, however, he wished it hadn't as he saw the chef raise the knife high over its head, preparing to strike.

Marco squeezed his eyes shut, his short few years of life flashing before his eyes as he waited for the finishing blow. This was it, he thought to himself. I never even got to tell Star goodbye.

Just before the chef could begin its swing though, something smashed into the back of its head, causing the creature to stumble and release its grip on Marco. The boy looked up with confusion before spotting Star in the scaffolding above a pile of small pots and cups sat next to her. She stared down at him with her bright blue eyes full of relief and determination and for a second Marco wondered if he was staring at the face of an angel instead.

"Marco run!" Star screamed, lifting another pot over her head, preparing to fling it at the chef.

The boy quickly hopped down off the table, the chef reaching down to pick him back up only to be nailed in the arm by the surprisingly strong-armed Star. The boy ran as fast as he could away from the chef, heading the same direction he had seen Star take. The chef chased after him but was stopped after only a few steps as Star managed to land another hit on it with a pot, causing the chef to release a very annoyed growl, clearly growing frustrated with the pair of vermin that had invaded its kitchen.

Star did her best to hold the chef off as Marco ran over to the shelf Star had used, quickly climbing up. But he wasn't fast enough as the chef was finally catching up to him, beginning to ignore the array of glass objects crashing into its head and body, seconds away from reaching the shelf. Star saw her friend wasn't going to make it in time and quickly held out a hand and yelled over to him in desperation, "Marco jump!"

Marco threw himself off the shelf, stretching out an arm towards Star's waiting hand. Time seemed to slow as he flew through the air, reaching out for his friend with all his might, hoping he was able to reach her. Luckily, he barely managed to grab onto her, his fingers nearly slipping out of hers but the blonde squeezed his hand tight, refusing to let go. Star grunted and tried to brace herself as Marco's weight threatened to pull her down too and quickly added her other hand to the effort of holding Marco.

Below them, the chef was stretching up as high as its chubby arms would allow, letting out hideous grunting noise as it tried to somehow reach the two pests. Star and Marco ignored this, however, as Star focused only on pulling Marco up on the overhead beams with her. She finally managed to gain enough leverage to drag him up with her, the boy soon sitting beside her, both panting from exertion and the remnants of adrenaline and terror coursing through their bloodstream.

The two took a moment to calm down, laying next to each other on the high beams and just letting everything that had happened wash over them. That had been one of the most terrifying ordeals of their joint lives and they dreaded to imagine what might have happened had Star not stepped in when she did. Marco tried not to picture the knife being swung high, still seeing the glint of the cool metal and he felt tremors still coarse down his spine at the memory. It had been too real, too close and he was sure it would be haunting his nightmares for weeks after.

"Thanks," Marco finally managed to mumble, still trying to calm his breathing. "That was… too close."

"Yeah, it was," Star agreed, her own voice trembling some. "Sorry I let that happen. I should have protected you better." She slammed a clenched fist into the wooden board they lay on in anger, frustrated with herself for not doing more. She had promised she would keep him safe, instead he had almost gotten killed on her watch.

"Star, it's fine, it's not your fault I got caught," the boy said, trying not to let his fear show as the memory still haunted his mind. It was still too fresh to ignore, to forget. But he didn't want to make his friend feel any worse than she already did. So instead he gave her a warm smile and told her in the most pleasant tone he had at the moment, "Besides you're the one who saved me. I woulda been a goner back there if not for you.”

"Yeah, but you wouldn't have been in any danger if not for me," Star mumbled, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"The important thing is we both survived, right?" Marco said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Star stared at him in surprise for a moment. She had expected him to be angry or upset, maybe even part ways with her to avoid further disaster. Instead, he willingly and openly forgave her and Star was so stunned by this she had no idea how to respond for a moment. Instead, she found herself staring into his stunning brown orbs for a moment, full of so much hope and tenderness that her cheeks heated up against her will.

She coughed into her hand to hide whatever this strange emotion was Marco kept making her feel, deciding it best to change the subject before she started acting weird. She really didn't want to humiliate herself in front of her new friend. So she tried to distract herself by taking a closer look at the kitchen below. At this point the chef had given up any hope of catching the intruders, instead going back to making its disgusting meals, grumbling to itself the whole time in its high-pitched whine.

But the blonde wasn't interested in the chef anymore, her concern was on the freezer door and more importantly the lock that prevented them entry inside. She laid her head on her knee for a moment as she muttered in annoyance, "Well so much from getting any food in there."

Marco sat up and followed her gaze to the door, frowning in disappointment. "Yeah, I was really hoping to eat, too."

The two let out simultaneous sighs, staring in longing as the only chance at a decent meal was just out of reach. If only they could get inside there. Suddenly an idea came to Marco, his eyes widening at the thought and a bright smile beginning to spread across his face. He turned to his companion and quickly proclaimed, "Actually I think we can!"

"What? How?!" Star asked in intrigue, leaning closer to him until their faces were nearly touching.

Marco ignored the stirring his chest at the close contact, instead replying, "Well that's a lock right? So all we need to do is find the key."

Star gasped, her own eyes filling with excitement as she exclaimed, "Marco, you're a genius!"

The boy blushed at the compliment, rubbing sheepishly at the back of his neck. "I mean, I don't know if I'd say genius," he muttered in embarrassment. But his nervousness doubled as Star suddenly threw her arms around him in a hug, causing his heart to skip a beat. The warmth was surprising but not unwelcome and Marco found himself melting into the tight embrace, treasuring every second.

Star wasn't sure why she had decided to do this, she had just been so… was happy the right word? She didn't know what she was feeling but she just knew she needed to express it in some way and the next thing she knew she had her arms around him. But now that it was happening, she found she kinda enjoyed it. She liked having Marco this close to her and she found her heart stirring inside her chest for some reason. She still didn't know how to describe the feeling just yet but.... it was nice.

The girl released her hold, pulling back so they could stare into each other's flushing faces. Star felt suddenly awkward about the display of affection, playing with a loose strand of hair as she whispered, "Sorry, I don't know why I was…" Her voice trailed off and she was tempted to hide her flushed face inside her hood once more.

"Uhh, no it's fine," Marco replied, still clearly in shock but the joy on his face was clear as day. "I thought it was nice."

Star grinned back. "Me too."

The two stayed like that for a moment, smiling blissfully at each other, before a loud swing from the chef's knife caused the two to jump, reminding them where they were at. "Come on," Star said, standing up. "Let's go find that key!"

"Alright," Marco replied enthusiastically, following along behind the girl as they went in search of the key to their breakfast.

...

Star peeked her head out from the grate she was hiding in, watching as the two chefs noisily cleaned the dishes, piles and piles sprawled before them, some reaching almost as high as the ceiling. But that wasn't what had piqued Star's interest, her focus was on the small silver key set precariously close to the soapy water and in plain view of the two monsters. Marco must have noticed it too because he turned to her with a smile and a determined gleam in his eye, which she returned. They both nodded as one before crouching back under so they could safely discuss their plan of attack.

The two had been searching for the key for a while now but luckily they had found a loose floorboard and had been able to sneak around undetected right under the Monsters' noses. Except now their only way to get into the freezer was being guarded by the twin chefs and getting past them was going to be tricky. "So what now?" Marco asked Star, keeping his voice below a whisper.

Star thought for a second before replying, "We need to lure them away somehow."

She put a finger to her chin, pondering over an idea, when Marco suddenly said, "The hooks.”

"Huh?" Star said, looking over at the boy in confusion.

"There are a conveyor of hooks running all through this place, I bet if we find the switch that'd draw their attention," Marco explained simply.

"Oh yeah!" Star agreed, smiling brightly at her new friend. "Great idea, Marco!"

The boy grinned at the praise, before standing up and starting to crawl out of the grate, "Cool, then I'll go find the switch-”

But Star cut him off, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him back down with her, saying in a quiet hiss, "Are you crazy?! You can't go out there it's too dangerous!"

“Well one of us has to find the switch," Marco argued.

But Star wasn't having, shaking her head vigorously. "No way, it's too risky! What if you get caught again?!"

"I'll be careful," Marco told her, trying to sound more reassuring than he felt. "Besides, someone is gonna have to run to get the key and I think we both know who is faster." The two shuddered as the memory from earlier flashed through their minds, neither of them wanted a repeat of what happened.

"Okay," Star reluctantly agreed. "Just promise me you'll be safe."

Marco nodded once. "Of course. Safe is my middle name," he told her, giving her a small smile. Marco could see the tiniest of grins on Star's lips and he felt his heart flutter. Then, without warning, she pulled him into a hug, holding him tightly against her for a moment. Marco's cheeks blushed red but he wrapped his own arms around Stars slender frame, listening to her even breathing for a moment.

They parted much too quickly for Marco's liking, craving her warmth and comfort almost as much as she did. But that would have to wait for now, they needed to focus on the task ahead. They could decipher the tangle of emotions they felt later. Marco stood up and Star whispered softly to him, "Good luck."

Marco nodded, before replying, "You too." He then climbed out of the hole slowly. He kept a close eye on the two chefs, who were too deep in their task to notice him yet, as he carefully crept around, staying low to the ground, trying to make himself as small as possible.

He saw one of the chefs move away from the dishes and he quickly hid underneath one of the large sinks, trying to keep his breathing steady as his heart pounded painfully against his chest. He waited until his heartbeat had slowed to a reasonable speed, before risking peeking his head out from the safety of his hiding spot. The chefs had its back to him, sniffling noisily as it arranged dishes on a large shelf. Marco, seeing he was safe for the moment began looking around for the switch he needed. He spotted a large lever in the next room and smiled. That was it. It had to be.

Marco, seizing his chance, sucked in a deep breath and stepped out of his hiding spot. He tiptoed toward the next room, keeping a close eye on the chef as he did. He held his breath, his body starting to shake with fear as he repeated again and again in his terror-filled mind, Please don't turn around, please don't turn around, please don't turn around.

Snap!

The sudden jarring noise caused Marco to jump, looking slowly down at the floor where the sound had come from. The boy felt his heart come to a painful stop as he spotted the bits of glass under his feet. The boy had been so focused on the chef he hadn't been paying enough attention to the world around him and had somehow not noticed the array of broken, discarded plates scattered around him from where the chefs had presumably dropped them.

The boy froze as he heard a grunt from the chef, turning to the towering creature with pure dread coursing through his veins and nearly screamed in fright as he saw the chef turning around to see what had caused the loud noise. Marco panicked, time seeming to slow to a crawl as he waited for his presence to be revealed, to be caught and captured all over again. He knew he should move, run, escape but he couldn't. His legs felt like they were made of lead and his body was still and unmoving as a result.

This was it. In a matter of seconds, he would be back in the grubby grip of the nightmarish chef. He wasn't sure he could bear being flung around haphazardly by the heartless capture again. Couldn't stand the thought of being pinned in place as he watched the instrument of his demise slowly rise, ready to end his short, few years of existence.

But then suddenly, like a light at the end of a dark tunnel, Marco remembered Star. How devastated she would be if he died. How she was counting on him to pull through. He had promised her he would be careful. And he couldn't let her down. He refused to cause her anymore pain or grief. He had seen her desperation before, when she had struggled to reach that loaf of bread, the sight of her so helpless and struggling had torn at his heartstrings. He didn't want her to suffer, he wanted to help her, even if he didn't know how just yet.

So he pushed back his fears into the corner of his mind and forced his legs into motion. He ran quickly across the loose floorboards doing his best to dodge around the broken plates and make as little to no noise as possible. Still, just as he entered the next room he heard the chef release a surprised grunt and he knew he had been spotted. He had to be quick and make every second count.

He hopped up onto a table and jumped onto the lever. His weight caused the switch to be pulled down, a loud whining sound invaded Marco's eardrums and nearly causing them to burst. He landed back on the table and covered his ears with his hands, the sound of grating metal almost too much for his fragile ears. After a few seconds, it stopped as the conveyor of hooks began moving in the opposite direction. Marco smiled in victory.

But he didn't have long to celebrate this as the chef walked into the room Marco was in, letting out an annoyed groan as it spotted him. The boy ran across the tabletop, pushing his legs faster than they could physically go, hoping to somehow escape. The chef strutted its way over to the table, reaching out a grubby hand to grab him but Marco slid under it at the last second.

The boy then jumped through a window into the main room again, landing in a sink filled with soapy water. Marco, who had never learned to swim, struggled to get above water, flailing his arms in some desperate attempt at not drowning. But his clothes felt like they were weighing him down as he became distinctly aware of the chain on his ankle which seemed to be dragging him down instead of up. And to make it worse his eyes were stinging from the obsessive amounts of soap the monsters had used to clean the dirty plates. Finally, the boy managed to get his head above water, gasping and sputtering and he tightly gripped the edge of the sink.

He looked up with blurry and pain-filled vision to see the second chef rushing at him as fast as its stubby legs could carry it. "Oh come on!" Marco screamed in annoyance. Could the universe just give him a freaking break?

The boy quickly jumped out of the sink and made a break for his hiding spot from earlier, his drenched clothes making it difficult to run. Still, he managed to reach the table unharmed, ducking down underneath it and trying to make himself as small as possible. The twin chefs had soon gathered around the table, one of them struggling to reach underneath, straining with all its might to reach the boy, the other just watching the whole thing with nervous annoyance.

Star took advantage of the distraction Marco had provided, quickly racing over to the large sink, climbing up onto it and picking up the key. She smiled in victory, which was short-lived as one of the chefs spotted her and let out a loud moan. Star felt her heartbeat race in her chest, looking around for an exit. She would never make it to the grate in time, which meant she needed another way out of here.

Her gaze rested on the hooks above her head and an idea sprang into her mind. She threw the key with all her might, letting it hit the ground with a loud thud, the chef forgoing her in favor of its precious key. Star then shouted over to her companion, "Marco, over here!"

The second chef had stopped its attempts to snatch him up to watch the commotion going on with its brother and Marco used this distraction to crawl out from underneath the table and quickly running over to Star. The girl offered him a hand up, as he climbed up onto the side of the sink with her. "Where's the key?" he asked, panting from both fear and exertion.

Star shook her head. "Forget the key, we gotta get outta here.”

"How?" Marco asked, his voice cracking with fear.

"We go up," Star said, looking up at the line of hooks and then a large stack of plates reaching just high enough for the two of them to be in reach of the hooks. Marco followed her gaze before a small grin lit up his face. The two's eyes met again and they shared a brief smile before nodding in unison. They had a plan, now was the time to see it in action.

The two climbed up the large stack of plates, ignoring as they wobbled and jolted around with every step. When Star and Marco reached the top they found themselves struggling to keep their balance, holding out their arms in an attempt to stay on the unsteady stack. The chefs both reached for the two children, grunting in their feeble attempts, growing more and more frustrated with every second that passed. Star, however, had her eyes on the hooks, waiting for one to be in position for them to reach it.

She watched as one slowly slid closer, her body tensing as she shouted, "Marco, get ready to jump!"

"Right!" the boy yelled back, determination in his voice as the two crouched down waiting for the right moment.

"3," Star whispered under her breath.

"2," Marco added, his voice shaking with anticipation.

"1!" The two kids shouted together jumping up just as the hook passed over their heads. The sudden shift in weight, finally caused the huge stack of plates to collapse and tumble onto the unsuspecting chefs, causing them to groan in pain and surprise.

Star grabbed tightly onto the rusted metal, while Marco wrapped his arms around Star's waist, clinging to her tightly. The two cheered in victory as they sailed over the kitchen, Star shouting at the frazzled chefs, "Ha take that you monsters! That's the last time you'll think about messing with us!" She then stuck her tongue out at the creatures for added measure.

Marco just let out a sigh of relief, glad that the whole terrifying incident was over. He held Star in an almost death grip trying to ignore the long drop that waited just below them, burying his head into her bright raincoat. Now that they were safe and out of harm's way he couldn't help but enjoy holding onto Star like this, even if they were precariously dangling in the air.

However, something was still bothering Marco. Something he couldn't quite get his mind off of. "Star, where do these hooks lead?" he asked, looking up at his more knowledgeable friend.

Star didn't seem even slightly worried, saying in a smooth, confident tone, "Oh relax, Marco. I'm sure everything will be fine now that we got away from those chefs."

Marco looked up ahead to see where the conveyor belt was leading them only to gasp in shock. "Oh no we didn't!" he screamed and Star looked over her shoulder only to see one of the chefs waiting for them, piles of packages stacked all around it.

Star gasped in surprise and let go of the hook, dropping the two to the ground without warning. Thankfully, a pile of cloth broke their fall and the two slowly crawled their way out of it, cringing and rubbing their aching backsides from the rough landing.

The door behind them busted open, the sheer force causing the thin wood to snap off its hinges and Star and Marco jumped at the sudden noise. The second chef stood in the doorway, a towering, hideous figure fuming with hate and rage and the pair felt the hair on the back of their necks stand on end at the sight.

"Run!" Star screamed for what felt like the hundredth time that day, gripping Marco's arm tightly and pulling him along behind her. She wasn't going to make the same mistake as before. She was not letting him go this time. The two ran as fast as their little legs would let them, their bare feet slapping against the wooden floor and they could hear the enraged chef chasing after them, right on their heels.

What was worse the two were quickly approaching a dead end, a huge gap in the ship standing between them and freedom and Star felt her heart clench in despair. Until Marco shouted, "Look, more hooks!"

The blonde followed her companion's pointing finger to a new row of hooks, these stretching right across the massive gaping hole in front of them. Star tightened her grip on Marco's hand, hoping they made it to them in time.

They could hear the loud, gurgling breathe of the chef getting louder and louder and Star knew they couldn't wait any longer… not unless they wanted to be monster food. So, steadying her nerves (what was left of them) and sucking in a deep breath of air (possibly her last) she dove for the hooks, jumping off the thin railing that was meant to keep people from slipping over the side to their deaths. Marco somehow sensed her movement and jumped too, the two airborne for a second, before Star managed to snatch the hook out of mid-air, the two now dangling from the moving conveyor belt, only their intertwined hands keeping Marco from plummeting to his death..

The chefs were none too happy seeing their prey escaping, throwing all manners of things at them from plates to large bottles of intoxicants, letting out high-pitched groans and grunts as they watched their possible meal slowly drift away.

Unlike before the two kids didn't dare cheer their victory, Star was too busy trying not to lose her grip on Marco's hand. Their position had been much easier before, her arm straining to hold Marco's weight, feeling like her bone was being pulled from the socket. Not to mention her grip on the hook threatening to slip with every passing second. But she fought through the pain, focusing only on getting her and Marco to safety. She would not lose Marco now. Not after everything they had just gone through.

Finally, Star could let go as the hooks flew over a large metal pipe, the two landing gracefully on it. Star clutched her sore arm tightly, hissing some in pain and Marco was quick to check on her. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?" he asked, concern in his voice as he put a hand gently on the limb.

"I'll be fine," Star reassured him, giving him a bright smile.

Marco nodded but wasn't entirely convinced, reminding himself to keep a close eye on her for a bit. He turned and looked back over the gap, letting out a longing sigh. "Well there went our meal ticket," he muttered under his breath.

Star frowned, sitting down on the pipe as she contemplated everything. "Yeah, I know. Sorry I blew our chance to eat," she mumbled dejectedly.

"Star it's fine, I'm just glad we got away," Marco said, subconsciously laying a hand on top of hers. Star shivered as his warm palm soaked into her cold skin, making her whole arm tingle from the touch. "Besides we'll find more food.... soon."

Star nodded, unable to keep the smile off her face. "Yeah, you're right," she replied in a much more upbeat tone. She didn't know what it was but something about Marco made her world… brighter somehow. She really liked having him around.

"So what now?" Marco asked, looking to her for answers, his bright eyes causing her heart to do all kinds of weird things.

Star shrugged, ignoring the sudden heat in her cheeks. "Guess we should see where this pipe leads."

"You think it'll lead into anything good?" Marco asked as the two stood, their hands still locked. They didn't know why but they liked it better this way.

"Probably not," Star said honestly. "But it can't hurt to try."

"Can't argue with that," the boy replied with a shrug. After everything that had happened today, he really didn't see how it could get any worse.

...

The two followed the pipe for a bit, not really sure what to expect on the other end. They began to notice a strange warmth coming from up ahead but couldn't quite figure out what it was. That was when Star heard a sound and felt her heart jump for joy. She stopped in her tracks, causing Marco to stumble into her on accident. "Marco, do you hear that?" she asked in excitement.

Marco paused to listen intently, finally hearing a chittering sound. "Is that a Nome?"

"Yep!" Star said, her eyes shimmering for the first time since Marco had met her.

"So what about it?" Marco asked in confusion.

"First rule of survival, when in doubt follow the Nomes," Star explained. She dragged Marco behind her as she ran across the pipe as quickly as possible before coming across a crack in the wall. The two paused at that, sharing looks with each other, before shrugging. Star slipped in through the tiny crack, sucking in her breath to help her squeeze through a little easier, Marco following right behind her.

What the two stepped into caught both of them off-guard. A group of Nomes, at least 20 or so were all laying around the area, a large boiler, full of hot coals and warm fire rested in the center of the room. The Nomes, upon spotting the two intruders quickly panicked and all started to scamper away.

"Wait, little guys!" Star called after them. "We won't hurt you!"

She let go of Marco's hand to chase after them, while Marco could only stand there dumbfounded. He had only ever heard the Nomes before through the cracks in his prison but seeing them in person it was quite a sight. They had cone-shaped heads, all completely featureless and small gray bodies. They were even shorter than Star and Marco and that was saying something but something about them also felt kinda cute, although that was probably helped along as he watched his friend's funny but endearing attempts to catch the remarkably quick Nomes shouting after them in an attempt to get them to stop. "Just let me hug you!”

Marco laughed out loud, feeling his cheeks heat up with a blush. But he soon spotted one of the Nomes stuck in a small crack in the wall that it had been too big to squeeze through. The boy rushed over to help the tiny creature, plucking it effortlessly out of the wall. "There you go, little guy," Marco said, setting it back on its feet.

Star, spotted the creature and quickly rushed over, lifting it off of its feet before hugging it tightly. Marco grinned at the cute sight before the blonde set the small creature back down who now let out a gentle coo and stared up at her almost longingly. "Now you hug him, Marco," Star told her friend, giving him an encouraging grin.

"Oh, okay I guess," Marco said, picking the creature up and hugging it just like Star had. It was surprisingly warm and the boy felt his spirits lift a little just by embracing the adorable creature.

The other Nomes, seeing that the intruders were friendly, slowly began to approach them, still slightly hesitant and fearful. Time aboard this ship had taught the Nomes to be cautious.

Soon, Star and Marco found themselves surrounded by Nomes and they happily took turns picking them up and hugging each one, the creatures soon almost begging to be picked up, each one getting more and more excited by the show of affection. Finally, the happy moment was broken up by a loud grumbling from Marco's stomach who blushed bright red.

"Aww poor Marco," Star cooed over to her friend. "I'm sure you must be hungry."

"Maybe a little," Marco replied, rubbing his empty stomach with a sad frown.

The Nomes heard this and all began to chitter loudly, rushing off to a corner of the room and Star and Marco shared a look of confusion. A second later, the gnomes were back now holding a large array of food which they set down in front of the pair. Star and Marco gasped in delight and surprise, feeling their mouths begin to water staring at the food. Real food!

Star and Marco didn't even question the creatures kindness as they began to gobble down the food as fast as their tiny mouths would allow. It was the best meal either had ever had, most of the time surviving on scraps but now they could fill their bellies up as much as they wanted. Anytime the two started to run low, the gnomes would bring them more and the two ate until their stomachs were stuffed to bursting.

The two let out happy moans as the food settled in their stomachs, before turning to the small creatures. "Thanks guys, we really appreciate it!" Star said brightly and the Nomes all let out what the blonde could only assume was joyful chitters.

With their bellies now full and their bodies warm and comfortable thanks to the furnace, the two felt the next pressing matter than needed to be attended to. That they, were in fact, beyond exhausted. It had been a tiring day both mentally and physically the two found themselves yawning and rubbing their eyes as they struggled to stay awake. "We should probably get some sleep," Star suggested.

Marco nodded but Star noticed his body visibly tense up. "Is everything okay, Marco?" she asked, concern etched into her voice.

Marco shook his head before admitting, "It's just… what if I have a bad dream?" He bit his lip, shuddering as he imagined the many nightmares he was often plagued by. And after today, he knew a few more had just been added to the list.

"Do you have nightmares a lot?" Star asked, already guessing the answer.

"Yeah," the boy muttered, his pupils wide with fear. "Sometimes I don't sleep cause I'm afraid… I'll dream about bad stuff again."

"Me too," Star replied and Marco caught her gaze, sympathy and understanding layered beneath. She could see his need was just as strong as hers and she tried to think of some way to help comfort him, to ease his mind.

"Here, how about this? You can lay on me and if you start to have a bad dream, I'll wake you," Star suggested, giving him a warm smile.

"But what about you?" Marco asked in concern. "Aren't you going to sleep?"

Star nodded. "Yeah but I'll sleep easier having you here."

Marco didn't argue with that, allowing Star to wrap her arms around him, his head resting against her chest. He found Star's presence comforting and as he gently breathed in her scent he found his eyes slowly closing. In a matter of minutes, Marco was fast asleep in Star's arms.

The blonde, however, just lay there soaking in Marco's warmth as she thought over her long, exhausting day. For so long life on board the Maw had been pointless and empty. She had carried on day by day just fighting to stay alive for no other reason than her own will to live. She had felt like her life lacked direction or purpose whatsoever but still she had carried on through the darkness and shadows, hoping to find something that would make her miserable existence worthwhile.

And then Marco had arrived and suddenly, she had a reason to live again. To believe, to hope that maybe someday there could be something better for her out there. Because now she had someone to share that with. She had a friend. A companion. Someone she could lean on and that could lean on her and it felt like for the first time in her life she was at peace.

And as Star lay there listening to Marco's breathing as her own eyes began to slowly shut, she promised herself that somehow she would help Marco escape this life, they would leave this dreadful ship together. Her nightmarish world felt a little brighter on that day and as sleep finally took hold Star found herself dreaming of light and hope and Marco.

[sierrabinondo]

2020

damn my last tumblr post is the last day of woodland creatures, did i not do a 2019 wrap up?? i feel like i did. oh well lmao

so, arguably the most tumultuous year in modern history (at least, american history- all pandemic and political events considered) is about to come to a close. it was very not fun experiencing a pandemic as millions lost their loved ones to covid. i was part of the 20% of people that became unemployed as a result of the economy taking a huge dump. i would not want to experience this same year again if it meant that every life lost could be saved. with the year i was given, i made the best out of it that i could. 

like every other person on this earth (except for where the virus was already spreading), this year started out normal as hell for me. i was hating my job but chugging through each week, with the occasional show to worry about and then planning our band’s 2020 release plans. despite my salaried job, i was barely making enough to put anything away in savings, forthcoming disney trip aside. i really felt like i was putting in all this work at a full time job just to barely stay afloat and it grated at my soul. i don’t dream of labor, and i only take jobs like this because nothing i am passionate about truly makes money and the marketing jobs i would actually care about are never available to me/never come to fruition after submitting myself for consideration. 

disney was a huge highlight of my year despite being deathly sick. i keep wondering if i had covid (i never figured it out), but it sure as hell felt like it. i feel like if i did have it i would have passed it on to jeremiah and his family but i didn’t. i could still kinda taste, but not smell because i had the worst sinus infection i ever had in my entire fucking life. like i know i get them a lot but really, holy shit. i really had it bad. it started when we were in the studio the 2nd to last weekend of february on the last studio day. i had to go back to the studio several months later because i was that unsatisfied with how the vocals came out. i didn’t want to fuck up these releases and have my performance be mid so i was willing to pay to have to re-do everything. i assumed if this was like any other sinus infection, it would go away in a week.

lmao.

i had that infection for THREE WHOLE FUCKING WEEKS. i played a show with that monster sinus infection, and went to disney with it. i went two weeks without meds because i really was convinced it would go away on its own. before we left for disney i finally got antibiotics at urgent care and couldn’t drink most of the trip which sucked. but that finally did the job, and the infection waned when we returned from disney. despite being physically weak, in pain (there was one friday my body pains were so horrible that jeremiah contemplated taking me to the hospital), and leaking snot all over my sleeves the entire trip (LIKE IT WAS THAT UNCONTROLLABLE. I HAD NEVER GONE THROUGH THAT MANY PACKS OF TISSUES IN MY LIFE. I WAS LEAKING SO MUCH I HAD TO LOCATE THE BABY CHANGING STATION IN MAGIC KINGDOM. IT WAS LIKE A SECRET STERILIZED TROVE OF HAND SANITIZER, WIPES, TISSUES AND BABY OIL.) i had an amazing time at disney. and it was my first time going with a significant other so it was incredibly fun. it was also a wonderful opportunity to spend time with his family. the only very not fun part was missing our nephew in the main street parade because some bozos fucked up the info they gave my sister-in-law and we were out walking around when his high school band had actually marched earlier than we thought.

it’s funny, because that weekend after we returned was the last weekend of “freedom” everyone had before lockdown. we were weary of covid while in florida but still living it up on vacation. at that time, there had only been 3 cases in orlando. 3!!!! i had plans to go to a party once home but i cancelled only because i still wasn’t completely out of the woods and 100% well again. i felt so bad cancelling because it was for my friend’s party and she never really did parties usually :( and i thought it wouldn’t be a good idea considering i may or may not have had covid. 

then... the following week came. 

monday we got a weird email from our CEO saying there was going to be salary cuts and that it was essential for the company to survive a downturn. i pouted but my parents consoled me saying it was better than nothing; maybe look for a new job. and then- i got the nothing! a day or two later, i was let go. and i could tell my manager was absolutely not souped to be giving me this call at all. she literally prefaced it like, “this sucks, but-” and gave me the news. and i was utterly devastated, sobbing controllably, because i was just scraping by on this income to begin with. and i had JUST, finally, received health insurance through this job. i was asked to continue working through friday the 20th, which i would be paid for, and then i would have to return my laptop and any other work materials (like printouts and promo stuff) i had possession of. 

that day and the days following i had coworkers calling me or emailing me telling me they were so sorry. i was the first to be let go, and they were kind enough to extend words of encouragement to me. clients i worked closely with, a couple of them around my age, assured me that i could use them as a reference. many of my colleagues were my higher-ups, but were very down-to-earth people. one call that stuck out to me was from my colleague sarah. 

sarah was candid with me and said, “y’know how i was unemployed for 6 months?” i knew this well though we had only worked together for a year and a half; it was an important part of her path to where she was in her career now and why she chose it. she continued, “those were the best 6 months of my life.” 

and i would come to find out that yes, me too being unemployed was the best fucking time of my entire goddamn adult life.

when i posted i was officially unemployed i had an outpouring of support from my friends, and received enough animal crossing commissions to pay one month’s rent. the first day i finally felt peace was when i was sitting on my porch on an abnormally warm march day playing animal crossing following my last day at my company. it was like the universe was giving me a hug and telling me everything was going to be all right.

what would come was a pretty chaotic couple of months. jeremiah, my roommate and i would stay up until 3 am either watching anime or playing video games, subsequently sleeping until 11 am or noon. pair having fun, drinking (mostly me lmao) and lounging about with the scary realization that thousands of people every day were dying of covid and it could be my high-risk parents. i would cry at night and be so fucking scared. my sibling would tell me my family was being reckless, running unnecessary errands, and whenever my dad showed up to drop off food or necessities i would cry because i couldn’t hug him. i’m even getting choked up thinking about it now. and it was a fear that returned during the second spike around the holidays because it is the loss i fear the most.  

amidst this really horrible time, i would play games almost every other night online with my friends and it was so much fucking fun because all of us were either unemployed, furloughed or working from home. we’d laugh so goddamn hard our voices were hoarse. one of my favorite memories is playing quiplash with the creatureposting gang and then my big friends from college. and a really fun night in particular was SIIE release night, i popped a bottle of champagne and got absoluely zonked lmao. every few days i would have something to look forward to, some sort of virtual plans with my friends. this would continue until july when my friends were slowly starting to go back to work.

most of my early quarantine days were as follows: wake up, watch anime, work on commissions for most of the day, order extremely good food for delivery, play video games, and then bed. at one point commissions became so overwhelming i started to get slower at churning them out. though this became a daunting project, WOW it really forced me to become a better artist. and this year i got to spend so much more time drawing, which was fantastic. 

one thing i DID NOT spend a lot of time on at all? ugh. MUSIC. FUCKING MUSIC. i barely touched my guitar, stopped writing lyrics after july, and barely completed the instrumentals for about 3 songs. the only thing i consistently practiced was singing (because i would literally curl up and die if i didn’t). do you have any idea how much i blabbed to my therapist in 2019 about how much i would get done if i didn’t work full time and could just focus on my creative endeavors? and then life HANDED that shit to me on a silver platter the following year. i really did nothing insane musically with my time. and now i am really kicking myself for it. if i think about it, it was mostly because i was so exhausted from doing AC commissions, and partly because i was really intimidated about the prospect of struggling through songwriting. now i really wish that i had tried. 

one thing i started doing this year was streaming. i originally planned to just do it for fun, because i am horrible at video games and i really didn’t expect much out of it. i thought it would be cool if my friends could watch me play animal crossing. and then i unfortunately learned that this 3rd expensive pasttime is actually really, really, really fun. i started to spend half my week streaming and it led me to either getting closer to some online friends i only talked to a lil previously and making new friends. viewers would ask me if i continue to stream after the pandemic was over, and i enthusiastically assured them i would. and i meant it. even with the difficulties of returning to work and the band playing shows again considered, i really wanted to. i don’t get invited to things anymore anyway, so fuck it if that’s what i stand to lose lmao.

when the curve flattened in jersey i decided to become lenient again and start meeting with my bandmates. we spent the year trying to finish some new material and chip away at what work we have to do for the full length (yes, a full length). we had plans to tour this year and it sucks that fell through. we also had plans to do so much more content during the pandemic and we faltered under the stress of... well, existing in a pandemic. we did finally get to drop a new single though, and the difference in hype now vs when we dropped our last work was incredible. i am so thankful we were able to build an audience with nothing new for two years. i still often beat myself up because god every day i look around me, at our peers, and wonder where the fuck we’ve gone wrong to have such a slow build. and even daily just trying to stand out and prove that we have cut our teeth/deserve a chance is so demoralizing. i feel like it’s even worse than before. i literally have to talk to myself out loud, both alone and during interviews lmao, to remind myself that we truly have accomplished so much. and to take in and appreciate the little positive things. because this could all be over in a second. and this won’t be forever. the older we get the more we are risking for this, both time and resources, and it won’t do to let myself get bogged down over my inner competitive voice. but god it’s hard. like even with new music we still didn’t even TOUCH any of the goal numbers we set for ourselves in may. though we did put out less music than we had planned, and we really hope to change that in 2021 forreal. 

there was a single we were supposed to put out this year that’s on hold due to some pending assets but goddamn. if we really don’t break some sort of ceiling with this one i don’t know what will. i have the strongest gut feeling about the next single and in my opinion, it’s the best one we’ve had to date. when we play it at shows, the air in the room sometimes shifts. i’m eager to see what the response is and i’m so ready to push it with everything i have.

fuck this is getting so much longer than i planned i have to try to wrap this up lmao.

with our government stimmy money we turned around and got the dog of our dreams. we figured, i’d be home enough to watch him, and it was finally goddamn time. it’s why we moved into a house and not into another apartment. i was so scared meeting the puppy parents, and totally on edge the entire day. we went out to meet the breeder to test my allergies and see how i would react. samoyeds are not 100% perfectly hypoallergenic, but they were often lauded for being so. honestly? i still didn’t feel confident after two hours with the dogs because the pollen out there was bad (one of my WORST allergies) and i had mysterious hives on my arms i couldn’t figure out where they came from. for months jeremiah and my parents had to calm my nerves and remind me i lived with 3 cats before i moved out (i’m more allergic to cats) and that i would be fine. i had to do a lot of work on myself to get out of my own way about being excited about finally owning the dog of my dreams.  

this little fucking boy. i couldn’t believe he was real. neither in the pictures i often looked at about 20 times a day on the breeder’s facebook page nor when we went to meet him. and he was truly, truly perfect. our little shithead. when we went to go pick him out, he sat apart from his puppy pile of brothers, sniffing around the room and trying to rip off his ribbon collar. we locked eyes and he fuCKING APPROACHED ME. i could not fathom any other puppy in the room being brawly. this was the one. we could already tell he was a mischevious smartass, because once he untied his ribbon he proceeded to rip off the ribbons of all the other puppies. but he was the cutest, flopping over on his back when you were near to get belly rubs. 

ever since we have picked him up he has simultaneously been the biggest joy in our lives and the most source of stress lmao. that first week, and the next couple, werE FUCKING ROUGH.  i had a horrible anxiety attack when i couldn’t calm him for bedtime the first saturday he was home and i was loudly sobbing to jeremiah that i couldn’t handle this shit lmao. he was so scared i was having regrets but i am just a fucking anxious wreck and not used to having a DOG!! this is my first dog!!! but while i can remember what life was like before him i cannot imagine going back. the first time he got sick and we took him to the emergency vet i cried so hard. when he is wagging his tail happy to see me and he looks like a fuckin seal because his ears are folded back it is the best feeling. i’m so excited for when he gets older and we’re vaccinated for covid so that we can take him on so many adventures. he is truly the best.

there is so much more i want to say but this is long as shit. this is even painful for me to read lmao. it’s always been for me, a guy with dogshit memory, to remember everything, but so, so much happened. so i’m gonna wrap up the real descriptive stuff with this.

being unemployed allowed me to just experience life. to wake up each day, enjoy the sun in my backyard, have time to try new recipes, go for long walks, GET A DOG, get better at art, get better at singing, spend more time with friends (virtually), bond even harder with my amazing, beautiful boyfriend, create amazing work with my bandmates, improve at video games, connect with people all over the world, and so much more. all my life i let money dictate my every move. i am insanely privileged to have experienced this but when i had to just live within my means off unemployment i did just fine. i once believed i was perpetually indebted to my employer when i was discarded like it was nothing. i can get a job anywhere and be fine. it strengthened my class consciousness and while i have control over my own destiny it is our country that has so royally screwed us of living the lives we should be living. our lives do not revolve around labor. so until we win the fight and get what we deserve, i will be returning to work next month (full time... in commercial real estate.... again), but i will do whatever it takes to replicate the everlasting feeling of joy i felt this year for the rest of my godforsaken life. if that means struggling for 2021 to build up my twitch channel and the band, working 9 hour days and then streaming/writing music for another 4, so be it. i felt from a young age i was not destined to live a normal life and that feeling has stayed with me no matter how much i have tried to play the game of life as i have been told. i finally have the confidence to pave the life i want.

so, if you are here at this very spot because you read everything, thank you. if you are here because you scrolled to see how long this was, here’s the TLDR of my best parts of 2020:

- tapping out cover

- the 2 shows we played lmao, maybe 3 tops

- disneyworld

- ACNH outside on the porch on release day in warm weather

- making banana bread

- learning how to BRINE meats

- watching anime until 3 am, namely the time we watched pokemon journeys until 3 am 

-watching so. much. anime. 

-watching livestream concerts with my friends (the chon one was a real good time)

-playing jackbox with my creatureposting friends, the volcano saga (if u know u know)

-playing jackbox with my big friends

-the first time we ever had panchos and juanchos

-finally having sushi again after painful cravings and being grumpy

-the first time we had chinese food again after the lockdown began

-hitting the punching bag for the first time in forever (my dad bought me one)

-the first time we had ramen in forever

-surprising joe with cake at his doorstep for his birthday (we thought he would be the only one with a pandemic birthday lmao)

-playing monopoly and wheel of fortune on the switch, surprisingly having fun

-jeremiah’s birthday

-getting PAID for my ART

-writing + recording ONE (1) acoustic demo

-finally finishing the singles, fixing the vocals 

-shooting band promos

-unus annus

-meeting samoyeds

-meeting BRAWLY

-streaming except for the times 13 year olds cyberbullied me

-my birthday when my mom got me a terrifying singing birthday candle contraption and my sibling curbstomped the shit out of it (i was literally crying laughing like that kind of noiseless laugh cause you’re laughing that hard)

- getting the stamp of approval from andrew wells and anthony green 

-my friends having their first baby!!!

-dying from thanksgiving charceuterie board

-that week i binged ghibli movies on an hbo max trial and did nothing else

-filling the front porch with plants and most of them SURVIVING the fall, possibly winter but we’ll see in 2021 lmao

- (in general) nailing riffs i fucking sing over and over when practicing but prob won’t get down good enough to sing in front of others lmao

-solo inflatable pool hangs

-thursdays with sarah in the fall playing with the puppy

-the release of the first WSA single in two and a half years

-virtual movie night with sarah watching happiest season

-the music video shoots

-brawly experiencing CHRISTMAS

-receiving really thoughtful gifts from jerry and my parents

-deciding i would work towards being a full time streamer to supplement being a musician

[danwhobrowses]

A Personal Rant before Sword and Shield comes out

I’ve sat idly by for months, tried to weather a few negative responses but given that it’s now 6 days from release and I’m hearing that devs are getting literal death threats I’m going to put my foot down

If you’re already shitting on a game that hasn’t been released yet, you are all juvenile bitches, and I’m about to tell you why.

Before we begin, I’m not saying that you’re not allowed to dislike a game, that happens, but usually it happens after you play a game, not before.

You are viewing this game through a keyhole and judging the room and what you’re seeing is not worthy of this much hate. Let’s start with the big one Dexit: Not as Big as You Think Having No National Dex is of course not ideal, but it doesn’t ruin the game. Let’s Go has no National Dex, all it had was Alola forms and nobody whinged about it. Ruby and Sapphire didn’t have a National Dex until FRLG, and nobody whinged about it. Sun and Moon and Ultra Sun and Moon do not have a National Dex And Nobody Whinged About It Do you know why? Because it’s not actually a big deal. People who complain about it are bandwagoning because ‘Dexit’ is a meme, its name literally parodies an event in current Britain that many people don’t actually want to happen.  Now currently, the anger of Dexit is that Bulbasaur and Squirtle are not in it, which frankly is hilarious because the last wave of bitching was ‘Kanto mons are getting all the new stuff’. You wanna know how many main series versions Bulbasaur and Squirtle have not been in? Seven, only way to get them is trade and event. The other complaint is that there’s ‘only 400′ Pokémon. Remember those days where people were fine with 150? 400 is huge, in fact it’s 3 less than USUM and it’s not accounting for the Gigantamax forms Don’t let headlines fool you either, Sun and Moon had 302 Pokémon, it’s far from the ‘lowest dex number since 2003′. Do your own research with these things. Kalos’ regional dex was 151, BW2 was 300, BW 153, Sinnoh 210, RSE has 386 and GSC had 252 Don’t get me wrong, it smarts that some Pokémon isn’t there, but it’s not a dealbreaker, like let’s be honest here. For a good year and a half all your pokémon are gonna do is sit in an unused cartridge or a PC box, you’re literally whining about the fact that you can’t move your perfect IV Pokémon from one box to another. You could simply just let them stay in Let’s Go or USUM, you don’t have to use Bank or Home on continued subscription for that, so your complaints are only set on the foundation that you feel like you have to continually pay to not transfer your Pokémon, Finally, people act like these Pokémon are deleted forever, they’re not, this is for spacing to make sure this game doesn’t break down from the sheer mass of models and textures it has to maintain in a massive open world space, the local and online camping and battles. Just use the Pokémon that are there! There’s new Pokémon don’t you wanna try those? You can also look at FRLG or Emerald and consider that maybe more Pokémon will get patched in once the game proves to be stable. I don’t think you’ve noticed, but the Nintendo Switch isn’t as powerful as the other consoles out there, sometimes it runs like shit. Believe me on that one, Switch is still in a very buggy development phase. Let’s Go was kept small to test it’s capability and Sword and Shield can’t just fly in and give you all 1000 Pokémon just so one of the ones you want can be in there

You have to be much less obtuse with this, I mean this was a long time coming. You’re gonna have to live with the fact that not every Pokémon ever can be supported on one game alone. Disk, Download, Cartridge and Patch Sizes have limits in Compliance, you can’t just throw everything at it. Waah, the New Pokémon Don’t Look Good They do, you’re being petty. It happens every version, the people dislike the starter evolutions or just one in particular. Remember all the Oshawott hate? This all comes and goes because people have simply gone on the first instinct that ‘new and different is scary and should be shunned’ You’re that Simpsons meme when young Homer accuses Grandpa of not being ‘with it’ I won’t spoil to those who haven’t seen it, but I like the new starters, and some of the new Pokémon will need some growing but not every Pokémon looks good at first glance. If Mr Mime, Hypno or Gastly came out nowadays they’d be crapped on so much for lacking creativity or for looking weird. Look at Drampa as well, thing looks like Falkar from The Neverending Story, when I first saw it I thought it look weird but now I like it. You should offer these things time And actually fall back on past experience, you’re reacting like this isn’t the same thing that happens every version; the dex gets leaked, people whine about the evolutions, people get over it and accept that they overreacted. hIgH QuAlItY aNiMaTiOnS I’ve seen that video, 2 clips and you judge a whole game how classy of you? If you don’t see improvement you’re blind. You can’t shit on a game for keeping the battle animations, you can’t expect every Pokémon to move their own unique way to the exact position of the body part the opponent needs to get hit by, that’s just unrealistic. You’re also failing to equate to the new moves and all the new movesets. You have to ensure that each Pokémon is capable of calling this animation as well. The second clip in that video was Hop and Hau having the same rigging, and once again, that’s not abnormal. Rigging is not easy either, do it wrong and it sticks and deforms texture. There’s nothing wrong with Hop having one animation that matches Hau’s, you’ll probably find that many models actually have similar rigging as previous games. Because it’s not that big of a deal and it saves money, as an example look at Disney they copied hand-drawn motion and stuck a different character on them, Robin Hood’s Little John dances just like (animated, for those too young to know otherwise) Jungle Book’s Baloo The thing you’re also ignoring from that clip is the graphical improvement of Hop compared to Hau, Hau looks like a balloon with a smiley face but Hop’s face has depth and his mouth actually moves like a normal person, his clothes have far more contrast and complexity, but no just zero in on one fighting animation and one rigging that’ll surely be worth abusing a game that’s not even out... B-But Charizard I’ve already explained this before but Charizard is Leon’s main, it’s obviously going to have a Gigantamax, ergo it’s also going to be in the Dex. Does Charizard get a lot? Yes, but the reason is because Charizard is popular. One of the rarest cards is a Charizard Hologram Card, Charizard is one of the first version mascots, it is one of the most recognized Pokémon Ash has in the anime Reality of the matter is that like Pikachu, Charizard is a recognized Pokémon for all ages, it appeals to a demographic that’s not playing In Layman’s Terms: that part is not for you A reality you really need to face. Pokémon is a game for all ages, so elements of the game are not always going to be tailored to your age range. The gimmick of Dynamax and Gigantamax is for merch sales and young children because it’s got an audience there, you can’t expect the Biggest Entertainment Brand in the World to simply shut out a large fraction of its demographic just to appeal 100% to you And again, it’s not a big deal, so there’s a Charizard there, just save a Stone Edge and be done with it, if you hate Charizard so much this’ll be catharsis, but in actuality you’re complaining because it’s something to complain about Kanto are getting Everything That went down like a lead balloon didn’t it? Reminder that the first Gigantamax forms were Galar Pokémon, so you can’t really say that anymore. There are Galar forms from non-Gen I Pokémon too I assure you, but the reason Kanto gets a lot of them is because Kanto is the oldest. Let’s not pretend that other gens don’t get love either Or should I remind you of Mega Ampharos, Scizor, Heracross, Houndoom, Tyranitar, Blaziken, Gardevoir, Gallade, Mawile, Aggron, Medicham, Manectric, Banette, Absol, Garchomp, Lucario, Abomasnow, Steelix, Sceptile, Marshtomp, Sableye, Sharpedo, Camerupt, Altaria, Glalie, Salamence, Metagross, Latias, Latios, Rayquaza, Lopunny, Audino and Diancie? It’s true that the Johto starters could use something, but I don’t think they’re being purposefully ignored, perhaps the right design hasn’t come along. Rather it be done right than poorly wouldn’t you agree? The Devs Should’ve Done <Insert Thing Here> People who say this kinda stuff have no idea how a game is made. I have a First Class Bachelor’s degree in Computer Gaming and Animation Technology and I can tell you that none of the stuff you want them to do is easy. Even getting grass right is a complete hassle. You want small insights you should watch Corridor Crew react to Good and Bad VFX, they tell you about the mechanics of CGI a few times on those vids. This is what annoys me with the prior swipe at the Battle animations and rigging, even with 2 years this is a heavily massive workload and Game Freak have only recently expanded the team that work on Pokémon which makes communication much more widespread and difficult to manage, likewise they are working on other games too they are not just Pokémon, currently their next IP is why Toby Fox was able to do a bit of music for Pokémon, because he’s collaborating with them on another game. The work doesn’t stop, most of these people are overworked and still doing overtime, they bring out a good product and all it gets is ‘but it should have this’, and unless it’s a huge part of the game that’s needed to function then that’s really disrespectful Before you start critiquing on what the people making this game ‘should’ve done’ perhaps you should try to make a game yourself, because it is not easy even for pros, I call back to Toby Fox because creating Undertale took 32 Months to create, that’s 2 years and 8 months for those slow with math, it also took 3 years before it could be ported to Switch because the Engine couldn’t support the platform, Pokémon has less time to do that, greater graphical and animation quality to achieve and more characters to battle, attacks to animate and more songs to compose. Conclusion: You’re All Just Bitter I’ve already seen it happen recently but this group of people senselessly bashing something because of ridiculous demands, expectations or arguments based on a lack of understanding all combine into something I’m simply calling the ‘Bitterness Fandom’. It’s people hating for the sake of hating and trying to bring something down just because it’s been a popular force for so long, and it’s not just Pokémon that’s getting it It’s already been happening to Star Wars. The Last Jedi and Solo were great films but the Bitterness sank its fangs in and act like neither are as good as the original trilogy (like killing Snoke without knowing anything about him and Phasma before she could do anything is any different to killing Sidious and Boba Fett in Jedi or Maul in Phantom Menace and Grievous in Revenge of the Sith), a lack of awareness to reality and the desire to complain for the sake of complaining continues to infect Star Wars. We even have a thing called ‘Star Wars Fatigue’ Star Wars can’t release a film every year because of ‘Fatigue’ but Marvel can release 5 MCU films a year and nobody bats an eye. Those frustrations aside, I refuse to let the Bitterness sink in without me calling them out, because you are not Pokémon Fans. If you were you’d know that having no National Dex isn’t new, you’d know that the graphics have improved and leaks of the game happen every time, you’d know why Charizard is popular and that some features are not intended to be targeted at you Shock and Horror to the heavens above but games can’t do everything And if you’re that naive to think so then you’re clearly not doing your homework So let’s throw out an absolutely WILD suggestion shall we? Let’s decide our opinion on a game After playing it? Because shitting on something you don’t even have hands-on experience with it is a fragile pedestal to put yourself on. If we all think it’s bad then, so be it, but I sincerely doubt that is the case When my copy of Pokémon Sword gets delivered to my house I am going to enjoy it because I will not let petty and incorrect statements sway my feelings and I swear to Arceus if you think the Bitterness will bring down Pokémon that easily then you did not see the queue to the London Poké Center that had been amassing since midnight and was forced to stop taking more people when the doors opened What should matter is how you enjoy the game, play it before you judge it And honestly, don’t send death threats, why we need to tell you that is beyond me, the ones who made these games are people who have worked their asses off day in and day out to provide something you aren’t even going to play because one Pokémon isn’t in it, the irony is not lost on me when I say this but deep into the very bottom of my heart: Grow Up. If you don’t like the game, don’t play it, don’t bother people about it, we don’t need your shit here Enjoy the Game People

[gunnerpalace]

Sorry to burst your bubble sweet heart but Bleach just got bought by Aniplex which means any new project will probably get a new studio/staff/TV Station. Guess there are people in Japan who gives shit about bleach despite the delusional claims from IR fandom .WDKALY was a best seller and so were the LN that came later on so I'm not surprised that we are getting an anime season after all ;).

Sure is interesting how none of y’all can cite or reference any actual industry information that’s actually in, you know, Japanese, and all of this keeps going back to a handful of random-ass English tweets. I mostly follow Star Wars production drama for fun, but at least the “Fandom Menace” on YouTube actually gets leaks from inside Lucasfilm and Disney.

You have what, exactly, MY UNCLE AT NINTENDO TOLD ME…? Yeah, but y’all have totally got it all figured it out way ahead of the “Lamestream Media,” right?

Here is an actual video on the subject created within the last day. Here is the industry news article it links to. Here is an actual quote from that article:

The staff for the AnimeJapan 2020 event announced on Monday that the event will host a stage presentation titled “Bleach 20th Anniversary Project & Tite Kubo New Work Presentation” on March 21.

What Tite Kubo is working on isn’t Bleach. It literally says “New Work.” As to what that Anniversary Project is? Who knows. You’ve literally got a splash image to work off of. That’s the grand total of what’s on the website. And every year, like clockwork, the Western fandom screams “It’s the anime coming back!” and every year, like clockwork, it doesn’t happen. But sure, maybe this time is different.

Maybe. But probably not.

I’ll tell you what is definitely bullshit though: your claim that "Aniplex bought Bleach.” According to whom? You got a source for that, cupcake? Beyond Jaymes Hanson’s fuckin’ Twitter account and fanboys, that is? 

It’s hilarious because the sum of Aniplex’s involvement with Bleach was distributing DVDs and music CDs.The major rights holders and producers of Bleach were TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Studio Pierrot, so Aniplex would’ve had to have bought out all three for a property it was barely involved with (and someone else already pointed this out on Twitter). Here’s what Aniplex has actually been up to (note that they are most often credited as “production” and “music production” on Bleach). Here is Aniplex’s actual website on Bleach, where the last news entry is from 2012. 

Interesting how there is nothing at all on either about them say, buying dead franchises and restarting them. Which is intriguing, because they did set up a Chinese studio, but it’s focused on properties that actually make money and aren’t financial suicide like FGO. (If any entity has actually been aggressive about trying to monetize Bleach in the past few years, it’s Viz Media.)

Like I implied above, literally the only source for this shit on the entire internet is Jaymes Hanson’s Twitter and the assorted toadies in his echo chamber who regurgitate the shit he says without thinking. Gee, I wonder what possible interest he might have in stirring the pot every single year about the anime coming back. It’s almost like he’s in dire straits after his YouTube channel got hacked and he’s desperate for attention or something.

So yeah, THE SUPER SECRET BLEACH ANIME RETURN THAT ONLY A RANDOM WESTERN WEEABOO AND NOT ANYONE IN THE ACTUAL INDUSTRY KNOWS ABOUT is definitely, 100%, absolutely and totally happening. I’m sure Jaymes found out about it while Naruto-running around Area 51, where Aniplex is animating and recording it in cooperation with the Grays and the Illuminati, to be distributed by FEMA and the Trilateral Commission.

You know what else is bullshit? Your assertion that WDKALY sold well. Here’s the light novel rankings from December 25, 2016 and from January 7, 2017. WDKALY came in at 14th with 9,176 unit sales in the former and 6th with 8,627 unit sales in the latter. Hey, 6th isn’t so bad, right? Look over at total unit sales. 36,366. A week later, as of January 15th, 2017, WDKALY had fallen back to 13th and sold a total of 41,654 copies, gaining 5,288 more. A week after that, as of January 22nd, 2017, WDKALY had completely fallen off the chart. So it was on the chart for 3 weeks.

Something like 50,000 copies of this book were sold on release, which is when the majority of sales happen. Try looking at 1st on January 7, 2017, which was the light novel of Kimi no Na wa with 1,350,349 sales. Suddenly, 50,000 copies doesn’t look very impressive, does it? In terms of total volume, WDKALY sold for fucking dogshit (because it is dogshit).

“Best seller,” huh? Interesting description! By that metric, I really am a Hugo Award winner and Time’s Person of the Year 2006.

So, in my capacity as a Hugo Award winner and Time’s Person of the Year 2006, allow me to summarize: you’re a fucking clown who’s about as informed on this topic as the average Midwestern Trump voter is about… well, anything. Kindly take this as an invitation to fuck right off out of my inbox.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Pluralistic, your daily link-dose: 28 Feb 2020

Today's links

Clearview AI's customer database leaks: Sic semper grifter.

The Internet of Anal Things: Recreating Stelarc's "Amplified Body" with an IoT butt-plug.

Oakland's vintage Space Burger/Giant Burger building needs a home! Adopt a googie today.

Fan-made reproduction of the Tower of Terror: Even has a deepfaked Serling.

Drawing the Simpsons with pure CSS: Impractical, but so impressive.

Let's Encrypt issues its billionth cert: 89% of the web is now encrypted.

AI Dungeon Master: A work in progress, for sure.

How to lie with (coronavirus) maps: Lies, damned lies, and epidemiological data-visualizations.

This day in history: 2019, 2015

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Clearview AI's customer database leaks (permalink)

Clearview is the grifty facial recognition startup that created a database by scraping social media and now offers cops secretive deals on its semi-magic, never-peer-reviewed technology. The company became notorious in January after the NYT did a deep dive into its secretive deals and its weird, Trump-adjascent ex-male-model founder.

(the Times piece was superbly researched but terribly credulous about Clearview's marketing claims)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html

Yesterday, Clearview warned its customers that it had been hacked and lost its customer database. Today, that customer database was published.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/clearview-ai-fbi-ice-global-law-enforcement

It seems that the NYT weren't the only ones to take Clearview's marketing claims at face value. Its client list includes the DoJ, ICE, Macy's, Walmart, and the NBA. All in all the dump includes more than 2,200 users, including "law enforcement agencies, companies, and individuals around the world."

Included: state AGs, university rent-a-cops, and clients in Saudi Arabia.

"BuzzFeed News authenticated the logs, which list about 2,900 institutions and include details such as the number of log-ins, the number of searches, and the date of the last search."

What does Clearview, a sercurity company, say about this ghastly security breach? "Unfortunately, data breaches are part of life in the 21st century."

Big shrug energy.

"Government agents should not be running our faces against a shadily assembled database of billions of our photos in secret and with no safeguards against abuse," ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler, said to BuzzFeed News.

It is amazing that this needs to be said.

"More than 50 educational institutions across 24 states named in the log. Among them are two high schools."

They are:

Central Montco Technical High School in Pennsylvania

Somerset Berkley Regional High School in Massachusetts

The log also has an entry for Interpol.

The Internet of Anal Things (permalink)

In 1994, the notorious/celebrated electronic artist Stelarc did a performance called "Amplified Body" in which he "controlled robots, cameras and other instruments by tensing and releasing his muscles"

https://web.archive.org/web/20120712181429/https://v2.nl/events/amplified-body

Now, artist/critic Dani Ploeger has revisited Amplified Body with his own performance, which is very similar to Stelarc's, except all the peripherals are controlled by Ploeger tensing and releasing his anal sphincters around a smart butt-plug.

https://www.daniploeger.org/amplified-body

He calls it "B-hind" and it's a ha-ha-only-serious. The buttplug is "an anal electrode with EMG sensor for domestic treatment of faecal incontinence," and the accompanying text is a kind of art-speak parody of IoT biz-speak.

https://we-make-money-not-art.com/b-hind-celebrating-the-internet-of-anal-things

"B-hind offers a unique IoT solution to fully integrate your sphincter muscle in everyday living. The revolutionary anal electrode-powered interface system replaces conventional hand/voice-based interaction, enabling advanced digital control rooted in your body's interior. Celebrating the abject and the grotesque, ‍B‒hind facilitates simple, plug-and-play access to a holistic body experience in the age of networked society."

B-hind was produced in collaboration with V2_, the Lab for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, and In4Art.

Oakland's vintage Space Burger/Giant Burger building needs a home! (permalink)

Giant Burger was once an East Bay institution, known for its burgers and its gorgeous googie architecture.

https://localwiki.org/oakland/Giant_Burger

One of the very last Giant Burger buildings is now under threat. Though the Telegraph Ave location was rescued in 2015 and converted to a "Space Burger," it's now seeking a new home because it is in the path of the Eastline project.

https://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2015/02/24/space-burger-launches-in-uptown-oakland/

The Oakland Heritage Alliance is hoping someone will rescue and move the building: " Do you have an idea for a new location for this mid-century icon? Please contact info@oaklandheritage.org if you know of an appropriate lot, project, or site, preferably downtown."

(Image CC BY-SA, Our Oakland)

Fan-made reproduction of the Tower of Terror (permalink)

Orangele set out to re-create the Walt Disney World Twilight Zone Tower of Terror elevator loading zone in the entry area to their home theater. He's not only done an impressive re-make of the set, but he's also augmented it with FANTASTIC gimmicks.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/the-tower-of-terror-theater.365747/

It's not merely that's he's created a rain, thunder and lightning effect outside the patio doors…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QMzN0v4mJQ

Nor has he merely created props like this gimmicked side table that flips over at the press of a button.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY7gQLMnbeA

He's also created HIS OWN ROD SERLING DEEPFAKE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=MIsjYJwOXSU

I kinda seriously love that he left Rod's cigarette in. The Disney version looks…uncanny.

Not shown: "exploding fuse box with simulated smoke and fire, motorized lighted elevator dial, motorized/lighted pressure gauge, video monitor playing Tower of Terror ride sequence seen through the elevator door wrap, motorized "elevator door'"

He notes, "I was once married, but now as a single person, I can do whatever I want, haha. NEVER getting married again."

Drawing the Simpsons with pure CSS (permalink)

Implementing animated Simpsons illustrations in CSS isn't the most practical web-coding demo I've seen, but it's among the most impressive. Bravo, Chris Pattle!

(not shown: the eyes animate and blink!)

https://pattle.github.io/simpsons-in-css/

#bart .head .hair1 { top: 22px; left: 0px; width: 6px; height: 7px; -webkit-transform: rotate(-22deg) skew(-7deg, 51deg); -ms-transform: rotate(-22deg) skew(-7deg, 51deg); transform: rotate(-22deg) skew(-7deg, 51deg); }

I especially love the quick-reference buttons to see the raw CSS. It reminds me of nothing so much as the incredibly complex Logo programs I used to write on my Apple ][+ in the 1980s, drawing very complicated, vector-based sprites and glyphs.

https://github.com/pattle/simpsons-in-css/blob/master/css/bart.css

Most interesting is the way that this modular approach to graphics allows for this kind of simple, in-browser transformation.

Let's Encrypt issues its billionth cert (permalink)

When the AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein walked into EFF's offices in 2005 to reveal that his employers had ordered him to help the NSA spy on the entire internet, it was a bombshell.

https://www.eff.org/tags/mark-klein

The Snowden papers revealed the scope of the surveillance in fine and alarming detail. According to his memoir, Snowden was motivated to blow the whistle when he witnessed then-NSA Director James Clapper lie to Senator Ron Wyden about the Klein matter.

Since that day in 2005, privacy advocates have been fretting about just how EASY it was to spy on the whole internet. So much of that was down to the fact that the net wasn't encrypted by default.

This was especially keen for @EFF. After all, we made our bones by suing the NSA in the 90s and winning the right for civilians to access working cryptography (we did it by establishing that "Code is speech" for the purposes of the First Amendment).

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/remembering-case-established-code-speech

Crypto had been legal since 1992, but by Klein's 2005 disclosures, it was still a rarity. 8 years later — at the Snowden moment — the web was STILL mostly plaintext. How could we encrypt the web to save it from mass surveillance?

So in 2014, we joined forces with Mozilla, the University of Michigan and Akamai to create Let's Encrypt, a project to give anyone and everyone free TLS certificates, the key component needed to encrypt the requests your web-server exchanges with your readers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Encrypt

Encrypting the web was an uphill climb: by 2017, Let's Encrypt had issued 100m certificates, tipping the web over so that the majority of traffic (58%) was encrypted. Today, Let's Encrypt has issued ONE BILLION certs, and 81% of pageloads use HTTPS (in the USA, it's 91%)! This is astonishing, bordering on miraculous. If this had been the situation back in 2005, there would have been no NSA mass surveillance.

Even more astonishing: there are only 11 full-timers on the Let's Encrypt team, plus a few outside contractors and part-timers. A group of people who could fit in a minibus managed to encrypt virtually the entire internet.

https://letsencrypt.org/2020/02/27/one-billion-certs.html

There are lots of reasons to factor technology (and technologists) in any plan for social change, but this illustrates one of the primary tactical considerations. "Architecture is Politics" (as Mitch Kapor said when he co-founded EFF), and the architectural choices that small groups of skilled people make can reach all the way around the world.

This kind of breathtaking power is what inspires so many people to become technologists: the force-multiplier effect of networked code can imbue your work with global salience (for good or ill). It's why we should be so glad of the burgeoning tech and ethics movement, from Tech Won't Build It to the Googler Uprising. And it's especially why we should be excited about the proliferation of open syllabi for teaching tech and ethics.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jWIrA8jHz5fYAW4h9CkUD8gKS5V98PDJDymRf8d9vKI/edit#gid=0

It's also the reason I'm so humbled and thrilled when I hear from technologists that their path into the field started with my novel Little Brother, whose message isn't "Tech is terrible," but, "This will all be so great, if we don't screw it up."

https://craphound.com/littlebrother

(and I should probably mention here that the third Little Brother book, Attack Surface, comes out in October and explicitly wrestles with the question of ethics, agency, and allyship in tech).

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

AI Dungeon Master (permalink)

Since 2018, Lara martin has been using machine learning to augment the job of the Dungeon Master, with the goal of someday building a fully autonomous, robotic DM.

https://laramartin.net/

AI Dungeon Master is a blend of ML techniques and "old-fashioned rule-based features" to create a centaur DM that augments a human DM's imagination with the power of ML, natural language processing, and related techniques.

She's co-author of a new paper about the effort, "Story Realization: Expanding Plot Events into Sentences" which "describes a way algorithms to use "events," consisting of a subject, verb, object, and other elements, to make a coherent narrative."

https://aaai.org/Papers/AAAI/2020GB/AAAI-AmmanabroluP.6647.pdf

The system uses training data (plots from Doctor Who, Futurama, and X-Files) to expand text-snippets into plotlines that continue the action. It's a bit of a dancing bear, though, an impressive achievement that's not quite ready for primetime ("We're nowhere close to this being a reality yet").

https://www.wired.com/story/forget-chess-real-challenge-teaching-ai-play-dandd/

This may bring to mind AI Dungeon, the viral GPT-2-generated dungeon crawler from December.

https://aidungeon.io/

As Will Knight writes, "Playing AI Dungeon often feels more like a maddening improv session than a text adventure."

Knight proposes that "AI DM" might be the next big symbolic challenge for machine learning, the 2020s equivalent to "AI Go player" or "AI chess master."

How to lie with (coronavirus) maps (permalink)

The media around the coronavirus outbreak is like a masterclass in the classic "How to Lie With Maps."

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo27400568.html

Self-described "cartonerd" Kenneth Field's prescriptions for mapmakers wanting to illustrate the spread of coronavirus is a superb read about data visualization, responsibility, and clarity.

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/product/mapping/mapping-coronavirus-responsibly/

Both of these images are representing the same data. Look at the map and you might get the impression that coronavirus infections are at high levels across all of China's provinces. Look at the bar-chart and you'll see that it's almost entire Hubei.

Here's a proposed way to represent the same data on a map without misleading people.

Another point that jumped out: stop coloring maps in red!

"We're mapping a human health tragedy that may get way worse before it subsides. Do we really want the map to be screaming bright red? Red can connotate death, still statistically extremely rare for coronavirus."

This day in history (permalink)

#5yrsago Ad-hoc museums of a failing utopia: photos of Soviet shop-windows https://boingboing.net/2015/02/28/ad-hoc-museums-of-a-failing-ut.html

#5yrsago First-hand reports of torture from Homan Square, Chicago PD's "black site" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/27/chicago-abusive-confinment-homan-square

#1yrago EFF's roadmap for a 21st Century antitrust doctrine https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/02/antitrust-enforcement-needs-evolve-21st-century

#1yrago Yet another study shows that the most effective "anti-piracy" strategy is good products at a fair price https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kg7pv/studies-keep-showing-that-the-best-way-to-stop-piracy-is-to-offer-cheaper-better-alternatives

#1yrago London's awful estate agents are cratering, warning of a "prolonged downturn" in the housing market https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47389160

#1yrago Bad security design made it easy to spy on video from Ring doorbells and insert fake video into their feeds https://web.archive.org/web/20190411195308/https://dojo.bullguard.com/dojo-by-bullguard/blog/ring/

#1yrago Amazon killed Seattle's homelessness-relief tax by threatening not to move into a massive new building, then they canceled the move anyway https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/huge-downtown-seattle-office-space-that-amazon-had-leased-is-reportedly-put-on-market/

#1yrago The "Reputation Management" industry continues to depend on forged legal documents https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190216/15544941616/pissed-consumer-exposes-new-york-luxury-car-dealers-use-bogus-notarized-letters-to-remove-critical-reviews.shtml

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Allegra of Oakland Heritage Alliance, Waxy (https://waxy.org/), We Make Money Not Art (https://we-make-money-not-art.com/), Sam Posten (https://twitter.com/Navesink), Slashdot (https://slashdot.org), Kottke (https://kottke.org) and Four Short Links (https://www.oreilly.com/feed/four-short-links).

Hugo nominators! My story "Unauthorized Bread" is eligible in the Novella category and you can read it free on Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

Upcoming appearances:

Canada Reads Kelowna: March 5, 6PM, Kelowna Library, 1380 Ellis Street, with CBC's Sarah Penton https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cbc-radio-presents-in-conversation-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-96154415445

Currently writing: I just finished a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel now, though the timing is going to depend on another pending commission (I've been solicited by an NGO) to write a short story set in the world's prehistory.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last week, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs" this week; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: Gopher: When Adversarial Interoperability Burrowed Under the Gatekeepers' Fortresses: https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/02/24/gopher-when-adversarial-interoperability-burrowed-under-the-gatekeepers-fortresses/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a very special, s00per s33kr1t intro.