#well now im adding it retroactively

[gin-juice-tonic]

Well... vegetarians might find it a bit harder to stick to their diets, but it's a step up from feeling tempted to eat humans.

[misersdream]

Slay the Prince - Happily Ever After

[ropebunnykant]

Apologies for the incoming essay... Re. Kant and choices and him choosing to involve Style - look, nobody's out here trying to say Kant's eligible for best friend of the year! But there does seem to be a lot of retroactive woobifying of Style, attempts to exempt him from the current tangled web, etc., when, lest we forget, he agreed to try and seduce a man FOR A CAR. He then proceeded to stalk said man, and to disrupt and exploit a grief counselling session FOR A CAR. Of course Kant shouldn't have involved him (but when your options are limited and you're desperate, you're not always thinking straight), but it was Style's own a) automotive greed and b) bruised ego (after their vehicular run-in) that got him where he is today. It was a bargain that he himself suggested - it wasn't even Kant's idea! Let's be honest, he could've just said nah mate, you're alright, and what could Kant have done about it? Style is not untouched by the taint! And that's okay - let him be messy too (the fact that he'd already had a couple of fraught encounters with Fadel even before Kant introduced them was a deliberate decision on the writers' part)! He had his own agenda going into this which he'd need to apologise for regardless of the added assassin shenanigans, and once he's in the know, he becomes as responsible as Kant for what happens next - they're both faced with the same choice: confess in order to try and keep the brothers out of jail, or stay schtum, despite their misgivings, out of fear for their own lives. And they both chose the same path. All four of them have been lying to each other from the get-go, for multiple complex reasons, some maybe more valid or understandable than others, but point is that none of them are squeaky clean and ALL of them bear at least some responsibility for the colossal shitshow that they now find themselves in! And that's what makes it good TV!

(I'd also like to point out something I find interesting, which is that Kant's rhetoric with Style has always been about looking out for number one - he tells Style he's doing it to clear his record, get those charges off his back, outside the restaurant he talks about having to prioritise saving your own skin over everything else, even though that makes him sound a bit cold...but he's not doing it for himself, is he? He's doing it for Babe. He's doing it because of the repercussions that would fall on his little brother's head if anything were to happen to Kant, whether that be jail time or an early grave (though I'm not saying he'd be a-okay with either regardless!). Babe has been his driving force the entire show (as yours and others' beautiful meta has explored) - Kant does the OPPOSITE of prioritise himself, and has done so since his parents died, and that's why HE'S in this mess in the first place. But, to the best of my recollection, he never invokes Babe when he's trying to win over Style, and I can't decide if that's because it's a line he won't cross (though he did sort of cross it when using Babe as an excuse at karaoke, or does that not count cos it was a lie?), or because he truly doesn't see himself as self-sacrificing so wouldn't even think to frame it in those terms to someone else. Or a combo of both!)

I think part of the reason the Kant slander (by which I absolutely don't mean legit critical analysis or taking the well-earned piss out of him!) bothers me is because I'm conscious that First is, at least to a degree, aware of the negativity (and tagged into some of it because ppl suck), which is why every time I look online he seems to be apologising on his character's behalf. And yes, it is in jest, but, knowing he's an inveterate people pleaser, I also get the sneaking suspicion it's also partly genuine, which makes me sad.

yeah, aaaabsolutely agree with everything you’ve said here. like i think the argument about style has more merit too it, but at the same time im still sat here thinking, what was kant’s other option? because bison gives him this stipulation: if you want us to date, you have to find someone for fadel. and kant cant just cut his losses and say okay, then i guess we won’t date. he has to get close, he has to get this information. so he has to involve someone else, retroactively. and we can argue about if he should have told style the full truth from the beginning, but not only do we see the captain specifically tell him not to do that, but i think kant is well aware it would not have worked if he did. style would have blown the operation out of the water way too soon, if he even agreed in the first place which the odds of him doing without having some investment into fadel would have been very slim! like it sucks, but realistically, what else could kant have done that would have allowed him to do what he needed to? what other choice did he have?

and like you said, style is far from innocent! none of them are innocent in this! thats the whole point! and that’s the big thing, too, because it’s meant to be this complicated messy thing. they subbed in the women from taming in the shrew for assassins because it allows for this intense sort of courtship that was brought on by misogyny in the play, while also allowing us to understand that fadel and bison aren’t innocent, either. that they’re all fucked up and messy in their own ways.

and yeah, i think getting into the babe of it all just isn’t something kant is willing to do for the most part. i think he tries to keep babe out of it as much as possible, but using him as an excuse to get out of there was the most realistic thing he could do, especially when bison has already seen that protective brother side of him. and i also think that kant just doesn’t view himself highly in general. he doesn’t think of himself as selfless or self sacrificing because he knows the awful things hes had to do in order to keep babe safe and in his custody - and while maybe for other people knowing it’s for babe would help his case, he doesn’t feel that way. because obviously he wouldn’t change it, but it doesn’t mean he liked doing any of it, that he likes the lengths he’ll go. especially when i think he thinks if babe knew, he wouldn’t like any of it, either. babe already didn’t like just the lying to bison. can you imagine what he’d think if he knew kant had drugged him once? if he knew all of it was built on a false start? kant probably thinks babe would hate him for it all as much as he hates himself for it.

and as for the first of it all, i do hope despite the media literacy some people lack in it all that he knows he did a fucking incredible job with kant. i say this as someone who has been making detailed posts about first’s acting since the eclipse, but i genuinely think this is his strongest and most nuanced performance. hes made kant so, so clear and easy to understand if you’re paying attention, and i love him so dearly for it.

[ask-marios-apprentice]

-------------------------------------------------

Ending

Hi. At the time of writing this. It is half past midnight on New Year's Day. I'm currently writing this in my room.

A lot has happened this year.

I don't want to get into details but I want to talk with you guys about something.

How do you feel if I just time skipped to the ending.

It's obvious how the story was going to end.

After some big event that felt meaningfully conclusive. We were time skip to see Garth becoming The SUPER.

I do want to continue telling this story. And I promise it will be told one day. As I've said before. I've been in the process of on and off rewrites as well as the novelization. That will be the best possible version of this story I can tell at the moment.

If you know me. I want to one day pitch the story to Nintendo.

And this novelization will be really important.

This fanfiction could possibly get sold in stores and on reading devices.

I originally intended SUPER to be A TV ( butmore likely a streaming) series with multiple games. Both creating an interwoven narrative.

I even wanted to see things like comics and toys. A Garth amiibo that's intentionally designed to look like it was a production error.

I want to see fan content. I wanted there to be comic dubs and fan art, cosplays and and fanfiction. Of the ships and fan concepts. I wanted to see what AUs would be made, I wanted to see how they would adapt concepts original to SUPER or introduced by SUPER would retroactively be added to AUs that already exist.

I'd love to see someone adapt one of the previous SUPERS in a similar interpretation of Secret Histories Mario or Mario Warfare. Where they would account for the time period they're from. I even came up with my own anthology of different Mario fannon concepts imposed onto different SUPERS.

But Im getting ahead of myself.

I want to give you guys a proper ending and closure while I write the novelization.

I feel like I've already kind of muddled up my current timeline with the lack of posting in the in the universe year of 2019. It wasn't until like the last quarter of the Year where I decided everything took place in January.

I'm offering you guys a choice. Do you want to see the ending written and posted.

I have to warn you. There might be a concept or two needing to be explained. But I will explain it eventually.

I'd still be open to asks. Heck I'd answer both asks for apprentice and SUPER Garth

I'm not going to put up a pole right now. I need some time to think.

Please comment. Don't reblog unless you want to put your input. My apologies. But I don't need hearts right now. I need feedback.

I apologize. Regardless if I made a mistake or not. I'm still apologizing

Take care

-------------------------------------------------

[lightnersdream]

CORGI

now im not a huge dog person and i dont think about corgis much so i cant say much on that front

the design is cute enough, nothing offensive

i think the face couldve standed to look a little "weirder", but the open mouth makes it distinct from the other dogs in a way i'm not sure how to feel about

model's all around well constructed, using more round shapes than other recent models have (i wish the ferret had more round shapes!!)

animations are all pretty decent, no obvious errors like improper loops and they're all pretty basic "doggy" actions, "play" action is a play bow, yknow

the default has a cropped tail, BUT there is a tail toggle!!! which i really like. it's in a floaty style which idk about, but atleast there's the option

almost every animal now has like, 3-4 custom unique patterns instead of the same 6, which is fun and theyre all really good patterns, even the ones that aren't unique like stars or hearts

the most notable thing though is THEY'RE BRINGING BACK BLACK EYE OUTLINES. I'VE BEEN WAITING.... the models look SO much more finished with it!! it looks so much better!!! it makes them look much more like "aj style animals" and the eyelashes don't look like theyre just floating there

this isn't the first time they've gone back and forth on it, they did in 2020 as well, but i hope they keep it. im sad the models from the previous year won't get that retroactively added onto them, because they'd look soooo much better with them

i noticed they also stopped giving every animal a drawn-on smile, they did that for a while last year and early this year and then just suddenly stopped for some reason, idk what that was about. maybe going off reference material like the cow?

other notes: mesoterra is open to all animals now (previously could only be accessed with dinosaurs) because the phantom dungeons have been relocated there, still playable on the new system. seems like darkseeds have been removed from the prizepool though with the end of the halloween event and the dungeon coin shop is still kinda lacking. honestly hoping mesoterra stays open for all animals because it's usually Extremely Dead due to only being accessible by dinosaurs

[blackbloodteeth]

just stumbled across your art for the first time & im very curious as to what exactly your starting point for creating soul variants was? by that i mean, what made you begin creating them in the first place, what served as the inspiration for all of this? id also like to add i scrolled your entire archive and i love how expressive your art is! apologies if youve already answered something like this as well. thank you, have a nice day!

Hey, thank you very much! I'm always so glad when people enjoy my varianting, and honestly that's really heartwarming that you went through my archive (especially since I still remember how long it took me to get all of my art up at the time onto here haha)

I've been asked similar questions to this before, but I don't mind it at all, it's always fun to answer even if the history on variants is actually a bit messy haha (to the point I had to kinda just pick a day for keeping track of the Variantverse's anniversary, which I actually use this drawing for reference since it's the first real time there were multiple AU Souls in one art haha).

I'm not joking about the history being messy by the way, you better strap in because this is not a question I'm usually able to answer in just a few neat sentences (for your time there will be art at the end though haha)

So basically, aside from the really old (I'm talking middle school old) AUs I had of Soul (which... don't really have updated art aside from being retroactively really important to Variantverse lore hah), variants initially started as me just finally joining the Soul Eater fandom and just doodling canon Soul in different ways. After that it basically went like I want to draw him in a different outfit, to I want to draw him as Pokemon (context like this involved Discord but that's another story hah), to okay, I want to draw him weird and no one can stop me, and then came one morning where I did a doodle session of drawing him in a lot of non-human designs for the fun of it.

This is the shortened version of it, because there were doodles in between including an entire comic saga and an entire AU that didn't end up on the Variant List (*until much later anyway) because the list hadn't been established yet. Have I mentioned the "List of Soul Variants," by the way? Some know way back when I used to keep a list of all the Soul variants I was making and even gave them all numbers (it was kind've a big deal to the point it was actual in-Variantverse lore), however shortly after it reached 1,000 variants the list went defunct (also a big deal) and I no longer keep track of how many there are. The numbers don't matter anymore, but it contextualizes some things haha.

Now to actually answer the question, where does "variants" start: #019. After the previously mentioned doodle session, I got a Thought™ after waking up to start a [secret project], however I needed a handful more variants for it, and ended up doodling some more. I honestly have no idea if I should still be calling it a secret considering it's been four years now and I never ended up drawing it up despite- Anyway, this is also exactly the point in time I started to call them all variants (theorized by me to be in reference to "regional variant" Pokemon, ones that take a new appearance when adapting to a new region).

So what inspired me? Simply because I just kept going. I started thinking of a reason the variants I'd made so far were all together during the events of [secret project??], I started thinking of a couple Souls watching over the event (that ended up becoming the main characters of the overarching story) and new unrelated variants that were goofing off in the background, I started thinking of an antagonist, not just tied to the events of this, but to the multiverse at large, and I started thinking up what happened afterwards. I ended up giving the first 25 variants lore when I wanted to flesh out their designs, I added new variants to interact with the overarching story, and I just kept doodling new variants for the hell of it, all because it was fun and even if I never really revealed what [secret project] was (at least to only more than a handful of people hah) people in the circles I was in really enjoyed seeing them. Need I remind you that I stopped keeping track of how many there were after about 1090 variants. So yeah, it just kept going.

I guess in a way this is more answering where does the Variantverse start, but it's such an integral core concept that I think is heavily responsible for this madness snowballing to begin with haha, and things like the "Soul Variant Emporium" (an entirely different inside joke) and different Souls interacting out in the multiverse still resurfaces from time-to-time in the little blurbs I give art. I'm just particularly fond of capturing variants from an angle as if writing Pokedex entries, which I think kinda loops back to that idea of where the word variant comes from.

Honestly I just really love character design, and Soul genuinely is my favourite character of all time, so it's very fun to combine the two (especially when integrating concepts I find I like, such as the mass amount of werewolves hah) and I couldn't be happier that people also get a kick out of it even if I feel just a little guilty I don't really draw non-Soul designs much anymore haha (and I will say the madness brought upon my ask box as been an absolute hoot). So yeah, to sum it up: It started because I just had doodle ideas, and I got inspired by never stopping having ideas and everyone unfortunate enough to be caught in my ramble radius happened to enjoy said ideas.

As promised (thank you for enduring, I hope this was at least interesting haha), here's the most notable early variants that got me rolling the snow around:

Awakened Soul is the one I mentioned starting off the later doodles with the idea of "variants" first in mind, but Trickster (giving Soul a new outfit), the Pokemon variants, and other Souls of other doodlings are also notable to the entire messy history as to where this all started. I'm still planning to continue trying to draw all of the 1000 variants of the old list eventually and I look forward to sharing all these silly Souls as always.

I swear I'll give the first AU Soul I'd ever drawn real art one day.

[lloydfrontera]

obsessed with this (and many others) story being so dead-set on two main guys and their just absurdly close relationship and then having the balls so say NO HOMO and being so scared of having an open end so it just had to follow the heteronormativity norms. im so sick and tired of it. it just cheapens the whole things. it cheapens whatever respect there was for female characters involved, which was already not a lot because well. lets be honest yeah. i just wish these stories were self-aware enough to leave the characters alone. no relationship is better than what usually happens in these stories :( that's why im so hesitant to read the novel because im not always able to ignore such stupid literary device. im ranting to your inbox because i think you'll get it and my god i was so bitter when i was spoiled about the story's ending and the violent need to have everyone married it's hhghgghhhnng

i get it yeah. i've been deep in fandom spaces for about ten years now, this is not my first rodeo, won't be my last and i'm already used to it. doesn't mean i'm not tired of it too tho kjasdasd

and yeah i agree, at this point i'm not even really asking for a ship to be canon, i truly do believe sometimes the better option is to just have an open ending and leaving things to the imagination, but the amount of times authors feel the need to shove a last minute het romance just so they can beat the queer allegations,,, is too many to count

i think what gets me with tged is that,,, you can really take away the canon romance and nothing changes. it adds nothing to the plot, it really was something bk moon added in the last chapters purely to make it canon at the end. you could erase those bits and the general plot and characterization remains the same. it is... bad writing to be honest. like. from a purely technical standpoint that's a bad relationship, that's not how you add a romance to your plot!

but! on the other hand! the fact that it can be erased that easily does make it very easy to ignore it and focus on the good parts of the plot which are truly worth everything else aksdhskaj

it's like,, the gay equivalent of that thing marvel does where it includes their 'diversity' moments in such a way that you can cut them off and the film is still perfectly watchable. here you can cut the straight bits and you still get an awesome novel with great characters and deeply moving relationships lmao

it cheapens whatever respect there was for female characters involved, which was already not a lot because well. lets be honest yeah.

and this. yeah. Yeah. i did my fair bit of ranting when the webcomic decided to make silurian javier's love interest, retroactively fridging her for his manpain and also straight up ignoring and erasing her arc in the novel about her not needing to marry to be made heir for the city. like. they just didn't mention it. at all. what the fuck.

and then there's alicia who. the more i think about her and the way her relationship with lloyd is handled the more upset i get. she was such a cool character, with her own thing going on, her own motivations, her own worries, her own deal. and then she becomes lloyd's love interest because. well, she's literally the only important enough female character who isn't related to lloyd or already married who can do it. like. that's it.

silurian gets an entire arc about why she doesn't need to marry lloyd, sherazade marries lloyd's brother, marbella is his mom, moira basically disappears after her introduction... and that's... it, i think?? who else?? emily? the mermaid queen? i for the longest time thought raphael was a girl and was sorely disappointed to find out he was not so. yeah.

then there's the "magentano carry" title effect thing going on and,,, that's a whole mess on its own. i hate it. there's literally an otherwordly power making alicia trust lloyd. let me rephrase that. they had to force the canon love interest into giving her full trust to the main character. the very foundation of their relationship is built on her being literally unable to mistrust him because there's an external force forcing down her suspicions and doubts about him.

and we have canon confirmation that if lloyd pushes hard enough when she's already paranoid because of other factors, that effect can break and all her mistrust and wariness about the potential danger he is to the crown come back with full force and she'll declare him a traitor and go to war against him. like. that's the state of their trust and relationship when the novel is 89% done. i'm not even slightly exaggerating i literally did the math.

it's. it's just bad. it's so bad. i'm. i don't know what else to say. she didn't deserve that. lloyd didn't deserve that. we certainly didn't deserve that either.

so like. after all of this it'll sound really hypocrite of me to tell you to read the novel but. i do think it's still worth it. everything i'm talking about is. such a small part of the entire novel. which is kind of the problem but also the very reason i still think it's worth reading it.

everything else makes up for it i promise akjshdjka

[badsithnocookie]

secrets of the enclave (dantooine fp/story)

Oh Boy another field trip with annoying sith

altho krovos is probably just grumpy she can't be with her gf so i'll let her off. rivix is on thin fucking ice however

with all the saboteur options in this story bit it's actually more frustrating bc i Just Know that nothing willever go anywhere with it

one thing i will say for swtor tho is their environmental artists are top tier.

WHY IS THE RAKATA TEMPLE MUSIC PLAYING. this is the dantooine enclace YOU EVEN HAVE THE RIGHT TRACK IN GAME ffs

oh krovos is convinced malgus gives even a single blue fuck about the empire this is adorable. babygirl you are not very smart are you

leeha :D

oh. oh rivix refuses to listen to you if you tell him to play nice. rare elusive bioware character with a spine. god dammit bioware stop making me like your characters

oh okay i guess leeha's in schroedinger's morturary as well now huh.

it's funnier tho than it has any right to be that krovos and malgus have a Force Bond. even if, granted, everything that would be needed for it was retroactively added with this story chunk, but. quality bioware storytelling

im assuming the same is also true of someone who babysits the pc pub side as well. really considering it's the pc who keeps having to spank him it's them he should have that bond with but i guess you have to include for non force users so

(nah im not even commenting on the revan stuff like. yeah i knew it going in and yeah its shit but at this point i cant muster anything much beyond tired disapproval)

i kinda don't. entirely hate the little thing where you're sending companions off on missions across the galaxy? but like. i dont love that it's filler cutscene content. a more involved mechanic along the lines of xiv's squadrons or sto's duty officer system where you can send npc parties out on missions for rewards/alliance xp could have been an interesting addition (kotfetet era mostly) if only bc it would. 1. give the illusion that you're actually Commanding shit and 2. some purpose to these npcs you're otherwise just collecting to take up space in your base, but. that would require like. effort and i don't think bioware broadsword have had the resources to add such a system since before f2p. (then again they're adding this new companion unlock grind with the current patch so idk)

but apparently this was the last real Content before lots which i dont have unlocked and. honestly part of me just wants to just sub for a month so i can gripe about how terrible it will inevitably be

i know that the launch stuff at least is largely considered underwhelming but like. my expectations for this game are somewhere in the gutter so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

but. i will revisit that thought in the morning lol

[little-klng]

im sure theres people in the reblogs whove described this before (more than likely me included, but its buried by now), but no this fact is simply not true </3 the original beanie babies are The Original 9, pictured below:

[Brownie the bear, Chocolate the moose, Pinchers the lobster, Spot the dog, Squealer the pig, Splash the whale, Patti the platypus, Legs the frog, and Flash the dolphin]

all nine of them were released in April of 1993 during the New York World Toy Fair, whereas Trap was released in June of 1994 in stores after growing popularity meant more designs being created and released publicly. The above commenter likely(?) misunderstood that Trap mightve been older than the Original 9 because a lot of resources put their release date at August of 1994 for some reason

However, what *is* true is that Trap on release was older than the concept of beanie baby birthdays and poems, which didnt begin until 5th generation releases in late 1997, more info on that, as well as example photos of what each generation of tag looks like here and here.

The concept of beanie babies getting their own poems and birthdays was actually created by Lina Trivedi, whos credited as the author of 136 original poems for the beanies, as well as the creator of e-commerce as a concept (she headlined the website design and concept behind the BBOC, where collectors would be able to order certain beanies/recreations of original older beanies instead of hunting down irl stores for them)

Before poems and birthdays, beanie baby swing tags just featured the beanies name, as well as a To ___ and From ___ space to write in, since they were intended to be cheap gifts for families, friends, and events. The change was made because Lina thought it would make the tags more interesting and fun (and she was right!!!)

A lot of older beanies however were re-released in later generations to have birthdays and poems added, such as the original 9 with their BBOC releases :3 Trap, however, is not one of those re-releases and therefore was never retroactively given a poem or birthday

Hope this helps and clears up any confusion!!!!!!

the saddest beanie baby related thing ever is still trap the mouse. no birthday

[lulu-nightbon]

@alienembers THIS MAY ALSO HELP WITH PLAYING SUBNAUTICA. mainly because in the second video one of the reapers glitched out and was stuck facing away from the player swimming into a wall. that shit's always funny, even in the poopy water. also its. it kinda hits you in the feels if you're not prepared, so props to the guy that made this, im impressed, it hits harder than the game on its own, and that's counting every time i lost a sub or saw (endgame and actual plot spoiler) also- idk if it'll help but i know for me part of what initially made subnautica terrifying was the thought of walking in blind, so i researched EVERYTHING not knowing what was/could be out there was absolutely terrifying, and yeah. i will admit that, in some cases, learning what actually was out there was worse. but there's another solution for that! aside from knowing your do's and don'ts and what they will/won't respond to and the behavior quirks coded in (you can check out the trivia section on each creature page), there's no shame in having your first save file be one in creative so you can explore and get used to the environment, and get used to telling the fish to SHUT THE FUCK UP IM TRYING TO GROW A GODDAMN TREE YOU SON OF A BITCH, that way slipping into a survival/freedom (or even hardcore, if you really wanna test your skills) is easier. there's also console commands, where you can make yourself invisible to the creatures, make it so you can ohko them, what have you. i can get you the full list if you like- plus they just made an update (which shows real dedication considering the game is 9 YEARS OLD NOW THIS THING IS ALMOST AS OLD AS MY LITTLE SISTER) that fixed a fuckton of frustrating bugs and retroactively added a few things that were in below zero, like the large room and the glass domes for the multipurpose room and large room. idk if this was part of the (i think it was called living large?) patch or a smaller one they did before, but they fixed a behavior glitch for a fauna that had been bugged out this entire time. the shuttlebug is called the jumper in the files because they were supposed to walk around on land for a little bit when they got tired of swimming and do a little jump to go back to swimming when they didn't want to walk anymore. iirc it was one line of code that fixed other issues as well, so! that's a thing too. there's also a mod that lets you just have leviathans pop into your pocket when they run into you- The Last Bacon has done a series of videos on subnautica mods, so check those out too. if you want ANY info on subnautica you need clarification on, cant find, or just dont wanna look up- don't hesitate to ask. im MORE than willing to brainrot over it, i love this game and definitely haven't been wanting to make a crossover au between it and lmk, nosiree

[rosepetalwings]

so me and my partner (@pcletteswcp; they dont rly have a main blog) have been Theorizing and they suddenly had the most genius revelation about spamton that they'd like me to share with you all and what his calls really are…

but first, let me back up for a moment.

so… the library dark world is… strange, right?? can we all agree on that? it only existed for a few hours and yet every library world darkner seemed to pop out of nothingness with set personalities and backstories and just the whole nine yards. the school dark world was just as strange to be entirely fair but with chapter 2, it set a(n at least, more obvious) precedent in that darkners just… suddenly exist in a sapient form with the creation of a dark fountain. 

now, what does this mean within the scope of this theory? darkners with these histories among them either have entirely fabricated backstories when they form as new beings OR they remember things from their lives as objects and that is translated into histories for their new form as living people. i personally think the latter is much more likely when we consider swatch and their dialogue

swatch was likely a paint program akin to MS Paint before the advent of a dark fountain bringing them and their surroundings into a sapient state of being and with that in mind, remember this dialogue?

with how closely the NEO body resembles mettaton NEO's form and how spamton NEO's theme "BIG SHOT" samples "Another Medium", "Power of NEO", and "Ghost Fight"/"Dummy!", we can pretty safely assume this was pre-perfect body mettaton that swatch "helped" in creating his most perfect body. (mettaton im care and lov u 🥺🥺🥺) swatch, being a personified paint program, likely helped mettaton in creating a mockup of his perfect body by mettaton literally drawing the body in the paint program swatch was.

putting obvious connections everyones made by now aside, this all supports the idea that darkners remember their lives as everyday objects… now. what does this have to do with spamton?

well, spamton is a darkner, just as everyone else in his world minus our lightner heroes. so… how was he getting phone calls? how can a spam email/ad get a literal phone call? that doesnt make much sense, right?

so okay, what if this is an abstraction? like how swatch helped create mettaton's dream? what else could these "phone calls" stand for?

shall we take a trip back to 1997? the year spamton, the self-proclaimed email guy, himself states was "a good year". 

presumably this was the spammy salesman's peak. his prime. at least a good enough year that he remembers and looks back on so fondly. now, what was the internet like in 1997?

oh yeah! we had… dial-up modems to access the internet. which used a phone line to do so. and… spam emails that commonly read like 'forward this to 10 of your friends!' interesting. very… very interesting.

so. what if we assume the "phone calls" were this: the mysterious contact (who we'll name X in this post for brevity) spamton was getting help from connected to the dialup internet and boosted a particular spam email for whatever reason and retroactively gave an e-manlet deep religious trauma when the emails started declining in popularity bc no one likes spam and

by the 2000s, dialup was on a major decline as broadband reigned champion in popularity. now, the phone in spamton's shop is still ringing. that's what stumped me for the longest time. if the calls stopped, why's the phone still ringing? and why is there "garbage noise" on the other end? the same garbage noise we can presume is like the sound that escapes kris's phone when we attempt to use it in the dark worlds.

what if spamton's decline AND the end of the phone calls coincided with the advent of the dialup internet in the library being disconnected in favor of broadband? what if X is still attempting to contact spamton but all that comes out is garbage noise as the way they were connected is gone? and what if that's the most tragic part of all; what if spamton was never purposefully abandoned? what if X never meant to leave him, things just… happened and X couldn't help him anymore. X was unable to help further. X's hands were tied, even.

and so came spamton's fall from popularity… and grace.

but thaTS JUST A GAME THIEORUIY

[quicksandblock]

speaking of c!techno and losses, cus I thought about it a bit in the shower, you know what I would've liked for techno to lean into? the loss of his allyship and friendship with c!tommy.

even though the relationship between them was completely dysfunctional and doomed to fail due to conflicting goals, they still CLEARLY cared for each other while working together. and c!techno was clearly very hurt and felt betrayed when c!tommy switched sides. that could've been a major loss for him, or prompt him to question his ideals and whether it was worth the people he hurt and lost.

that's really why c!technos response to c!tommys death later was disappointing. sure, you could argue that 1. c!techno isn't the type to grieve publicly and maybe he grieved privately "off-camera" 2. cc!techno obviously prefers a lighthearted tone and isn't gonna lean into angst.

but his lack of response obviously gives the audience the impression that he doesn't care. and im not sure if that was the intent, but if it is, that's disappointing.

there could've been subtle ways to show grief and regret (he's good at the subtle stuff anyway). he couldve subtly implied that he was covering up grief with humor. techno is not a bad actor or writer, he excels at subtle storytelling. but that whole thing really made me just. dislike and distrust his character, lol

-cube-cumb3r (thank u for reblogging my crit post earlier btw)

it was a good post lol, like I said you put it all very well

and yes!! all of this!!! like it would have been weird if he’d grieved too obviously, but we wanted something, and we didn’t get it, and now Techno’s character is starting to feel kind of flat. he’s losing a lot of depth he had at the start. like it’s still an interesting character, but more and more we’re having to read that in from possibly-unintentional clues rather than being able to analyze obviously deliberate character choices.

unfortunately I think the root of the problem is that Techno isn’t having as much fun on the dsmp anymore. he came in to play a cartoon villain and promote his channel, and suddenly everyone’s storylines are fucking dark and everyone has 15 different kinds of ptsd and his funny anarchist pig doesn’t really have a place there anymore. not to say his character hasn’t always had its serious moments - but like the dream smp itself, they used to be the spice that added significance to a mostly lighthearted story, not the norm. nowadays it feels like you have to be able to cry on command to even participate.

there’s also the fact that he doesn’t really like collaborative storytelling. he’s said this on stream before - I can’t remember exactly when, but it was when half the fandom decided that Ranboo was his son (?? why????) and he had to come in and clear that up. he doesn’t like other people being able to decide things about his character, and he doesn’t really like “yes and”-ing as far as I can tell. he prefers to have tighter control over his own story. which is valid - but creates some problems in a story built entirely out of collaborative roleplay.

unfortunately both of these lead him to clash with Tommy’s storytelling style pretty severely - Tommy loves the dark stuff, and he’s also more than willing to play off of people and let improv and chance have a strong influence on his character’s path. and Tommy does a lot of highly emotional improv acting, which Technoblade just Doesn’t (unless the emotion is anger).

Ranboo and Tubbo have been talking about the older “semi-lore” style of the smp recently, and I think that a return to that style would allow Techno to come back to participate more in the story. but overall I think the conflict here is going to remain until the current arcs, especially the Tommy and Dream thing, have been wrapped up. which is unfortunate because Techno is kind of an integral part of some of those arcs.

coming back to specifically his response to Tommy’s death... I kind of feel like cc!Techno is trying to retroactively make that relationship less important to his character in an attempt to separate himself from the grimdark stuff. but I honestly can’t tell. it could just be a manifestation of his tsundere-ness. I hope it is, because while I get not being interested in a darker story, it would be kind of disappointing if he just noped out of any story that didn’t fall in his comfort zone. I just wish he would fucking stream so we could have anything at all to go off of lmao

[emojitournament]

Prev: #bc they suck next question#for one thing they are all very similar and differentiated only by small details#for another theres almost never a scenario where i want to use them#and now that they each have 3 gender options scrolling through is just an insane block of#🤦‍♀️🤦🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️🤷👨‍⚕️👩‍⚕️🧑‍⚕️👨‍🎓👩‍🎓🧑‍🎓👨‍🏫👩‍🏫🧑‍🏫👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️🧑‍⚖️👨‍🌾👩‍🌾🧑‍🌾👨‍🍳👩‍🍳#like. 3 barely different bald people? 👨‍🦲👩‍🦲🧑‍🦲#who needs it?#sorry im very passionate about the people emojis#specifically that section the emotions are fine most of the full bodies are fine#the different genders really annoy me because in most cases the only difference is hair length (and the men have eyebrows)#which like. formost of these things i think should just have one option thats gender neutral#like why would i ever want to specify that its a *female* zombie 🧟‍♀️#and like. what even is this 🧑🏻‍🎄#classic christmas character gender-neutral santa?#theres no reason to have three of these 🚣‍♂️🚣‍♀️🚣 theres no effective difference except color#like if your versed in emoji you can tell the color coding but why#emojis#some of them are fine btw im not against having emoji representation its just so excessive

As far as I can tell, Unicode seems to agree with you here! One of the official documents regarding the introduction of the gender neutral emoji options in 2020 actually says that "[i]deally this should have been the default emoji gender presentation for emoji representations of people from the start" (link in source field). The thing is that when a lot of the original emoji were introduced, they were intended to be gender neutral, but then the creators of the various emoji fonts (for example, Apple) gave them gendered designs anyway, and often in a stereotypical way (having noticeably more traditionally masculine-presenting designs than feminine-presenting ones, the few feminine ones tending to have a focus on appearances such as the haircut emoji, the kiss showing a straight couple, etc.). So then people brought up the issues with that, of course, and then when a big set of career emoji were introduced in 2016 (the scientist 🧑‍🔬, doctor 🧑‍⚕️, programmer 🧑‍💻, teacher 🧑‍🏫, chef 🧑‍🍳, etc.) they were explicitly introduced as ZWJ sequences with two versions each, so that you had to type them as either "male scientist" or "female scientist", doctor, chef, etc. This way the emoji designers would have to design both versions, and so Apple and co. wouldn't get the opportunity to decide which jobs should be men and which ones should be women, and probably do a bad job of it. So then, to be more inclusive and also because Unicode tries to make sure all of their little rules and systems are relatively consistent, this option was expanded retroactively to existing emoji (usually by adding sequences like "original emoji" + ZWJ (an invisible character that tells the characters on either side of it to display together as a combined form) + "gender symbol") and used for new emoji introduced going forward! The problem, though, was that now for some emoji it was impossible to use them without specifying a gender (if "male teacher" and "female teacher" are defined separately as emoji, you have to pick one or the other), while for others, the ones defined as a base emoji and a gender symbol, that base emoji still had to have a design to display if it was encountered without a gender symbol, and most platforms just picked one or the other of their gendered versions, and did this following the same stereotypical "men as default" patterns they'd used before. So to resolve these issues as well as to be inclusive to nonbinary people, the explicitly gender neutral versions were created. And so now we have all three! And they probably won't remove any of the variants from the standard because that would break compatibility for people viewing older documents, and compatibility is Unicode's whole deal and the reason emoji exist in the first place, so this is the system we have now.

doing a thesis study on why people-based emojis keep losing

Let me know what you come up with!

[newtedison]

my thoughts on the crank palace

i touched about this a bit on twitter (@newtedison_) but i figured i would Try and touch on my points more here (spoilers obv) again, its sort of lengthy

1. im gonna start with talking about the ending because i need to get it out of the way. either i havent read the books in a while and i forgot some canon (which could very well be true, i literally forgot that Bliss was a thing) or this ending makes no sense and is (somehow) setting up for a tdc sequel? so first off, newt was shot in the Head with a Bullet and somehow didnt immediately die? i know that that can happen in real life but it just seems so unlikely that not only would he not die, but he would survive long enough for someone from WCKD to transport him back to their labs and try to revive him. and who the fuck was he talking to? did thomas get newt’s journal at some point and i just dont remember? like i said, either im forgetting stuff or this ending doesnt make sense and is setting up a sequel which...i’ll get to later

2. why was this written? like, what was the point? i understand that this wasnt going to be all sunshine and rainbows but i feel like i was reading torture porn. like, literally all that happens is newt gets tortured (which is described in detail) by WCKD soldiers, has bouts of insane-fueled rage where he KILLS MULTIPLE PEOPLE, and then he dies. ??? what did this contribute to the canon? what was this trying to accomplish? truthfully, i never really wanted a newt-POV...well, anything except for maybe those little nuggets he wrote some time ago. but even if i HAD wanted a newt-POV novella, this is not what i would have wanted. he KNOWS that newt is almost universally the most loved character in this franchise. you can tell because he constantly uses him as a way to get fans in his good graces again. so why on earth would he take that character that so many people love and write a novella where its torture porn and a descent into madness before death? i am not interested in that At All. i’ve read fics (and even written a drabble) where newt is a Crank, and those were more respectful and easier to read than tcp. the parts where newt is having bouts of the Flare were literally exhausting to read; it was described in such vivid and torturous detail that it made me sick reading it. and it didnt help that newt is a character i care a lot about. i didn’t need to know what becoming a Crank felt like. the way it was described in the other books (and even the movies) told me everything i needed to know. the way thomas and everyone found newt at the crank palace in tdc and hes described as obviously not well, but not knowing what exactly happened to him...thats good enough on its own. the mystery of what exactly newt had to endure is part of what gives his journey more emotional depth. not everything needs to be written out and explained. not every gap needs to be filled in. 

3. me saying “the characterization felt off” is going to make some people roll their eyes because ‘duh, sami, the characterization will be off because he’s going insane’ to which i say...exactly. we weren’t really reading a newt-POV novella, were we? even if he isn’t past the Gone in the beginning, hes clearly not the same person we knew him as. the whole novella felt like an uncanny valley situation; i knew i was supposed to be reading about newt, but it felt like i was reading about someone else who looked like him. and that is part of what made this such a disconnect and made me lose interest at parts. not only that, but the world building and lore is inconsistent. newt makes a comment about how it used to rain in the glade, and apparently (as ive been told) that is simply not true. keisha having somehow working cell phone that magically connects her to her family also doesnt make sense. how would they have each others’ numbers? what are the odds that they BOTH found working cell phones in an apocalypse? i get that its a novella but you cant just throw something that crazy in there as a plot convenience. actually work on your plot and world building in a cohesive way, please. and another thing that doesnt make sense...

4. ...is newt finding out that sonya is his sister. if there was anything i would have wanted from a newt-pov novella, it would have been this. him finding out that not only is sonya his sister, but he already knows her post-WCKD. something that would have made this novella actually captivating, contributing something worthwhile to the canon that i would actually want to read, is if newt found out while in the crank palace that sonya was his sister; the Flare would remove that part of the Slice in his brain, and he would realize it was her. then, knowing that he couldnt go past the Gone before seeing her, he would try to find a way to get back to her. he could learn this after thomas and everyone originally see him, so it could match up with the canon. and then, by the time 250 comes along, hes lost all hope of that actually happening, and lashes out to thomas in a fit of rage. the journey of him trying to find his ACTUAL sister would have meant more to me than the story of keisha and dante. trust me, i love a found family trope as much as the next girl. but this series is FULL of the found family trope. it pretty much is the backbone of the franchise. so to see a blood family dynamic would have been a refreshing change of pace that i actually would have been interested in reading. also, the way that newt DOES find out about sonya is...underwhelming. he just randomly says “you remind me of my sister, sonya” to keisha in the WCKD truck. first of all, sonya is not the name you would actually know her by. you would know her by her birth name (which is lizzy? elizabeth?). second, why does he act like he didnt already meet her in the series? when the WCKD doctor tells him sonya is his sister and is alive, hes so surprised. wouldn’t he have known that already? why is there not more emphasis on the fact he already met her? that would have been a really interesting dynamic to explore, and im sad they didnt

5. the pacing and dialogue of tcp is so dragged out. i remember specifically there was a section where newt goes to talk to keisha after she starts abandoning dante, and i swear to god there was a page and a half of text before anything ACTUALLY happened or anyone ACTUALLY said anything. dashner described a launcher at one point as “the energy dependent electric firing projectile device.” that’s SIX words to describe a stun gun. a fucking stun gun! we know what it is! why did you have to use six words??? it just felt like everything was dragged and stretched to the longest it could possibly be and it added to the exhaustion i felt while reading it

6. okay i cant end it without talking about newtmas. its very obvious by now that newtmas is a VERY large part of this fanbase. its clearly the most popular ship and what keeps a lot of people interested in this series. even the marketing team for the MOVIES used newtmas as a advertising tactic (i.e.; using thomas and newt standing face to face as a thumbnail for the trailer, emphasizing newtmas based questions in interviews, even making a fucking facebook memories video for them. yes that last one is real). not only does dashner use newt as a way to lure fans in; he also uses newtmas. the parts that were sprinkled into this were so obvious that it didnt feel authentic. i cant speak for the original trilogy; i dont know the culture around ships back then, and i dont know how much it influenced his writing at the time. but the scenes in those books felt more genuine than tcp. by genuine i mean; he wrote scenes without a relationship in mind, but the chemistry had noticeable subtext that, while unintentional, was largely agreed upon by the larger audience. the parts of newtmas he added into tcp felt artificial and forced, likely as a way for people to take snippets of and use as a free marketing tool for him. one example you might have already seen; “he had already gotten used to his post-thomas, post-WCKD life.” the fact that dashner SPECIFICALLY used the phrase “post-thomas” rather than “post-his friends” or something similar shows that he is using newtmas as a hook on purpose. not only that, but to make newt’s last thoughts as he died “tommy. tommy will understand...” is...wow. first of all, i never wanted to know what newt’s dying thoughts were, but thanks, i guess? and second, when we all initially thought newt died underneath thomas with a gun to his head, i was pretty much inferred that newts last thoughts would probably be about thomas; they would sort of have to be, given the circumstances. so adding that in gives me the same feeling that “i’m coming for you, newt” at the end of the fever code gave me. not as offensive, but written very much on purpose. and the ending is implying that there will somehow be a sequel where thomas gets newt’s journal from...someone. at this point, i can only think that this sequel will retroactively make newtmas canon somehow. now that newt has been confirmed as gay, it could happen. which brings me to my last point...

7. hearing dashner confirm newt is gay was already mind-boggling before. now that i’ve read the crank palace...im angry. im very angry. i think its safe to say that newt is the character that suffers the most in this series. you can argue with me but hes definitely high on the list, if not #1. so; you take this character. you give him a horribly sad arc in the original trilogy, then decide to expand upon it and tell us, your largely QUEER fanbase, exactly how painful and torturous his last days were, in detail. and then you tell us he’s gay. something that is never mentioned in the canon, only in an offhanded reply to a tweet of someone calling you out. on a base level, i can understand why people would be happy. representation (i guess), seeing themselves in the character, having their headcanons be confirmed. great. but what i see is you telling your largely queer fanbase “hey, you see the only confirmed gay character? im going to literally write torture porn about him before killing him off and offer it to you like im providing a service to your community.” how fucked up is that? “hey, kids, if youre gay, you WILL be violently tortured and become violent and a danger to the ones you love. then you will die and your love will never be reciprocated.” what a message! and if he DOES end up retroactively making newtmas “canon” in some weird sequel...i will start foaming at the mouth. THIS is an example of how not all queer representation is good or genuine.

i’ve definitely forgotten some points but this is long enough already. let me know if you agree or if theres anything else you want to add! im interested in what you guys think

(8. I JUST REMEMBERED!!! if WCKD needed to study newt so bad bc sonya is his sister and is immune while he isnt, why did they let him run around the crank palace in the first place??? you cant test his vitals or anything you’re literally just watching him. what is the point????)

[ohsweetflips]

i have a genuine arcana question! I really want to play it and actually did part of it a while back, but i really felt like it was a bit of a money sink... it seemed really cool so i guess im wondering if its worth it?

i'm putting this under the cut just bc it got long!!! :D

okay so!!! i have honestly been thinking abt this a lot and, like, i will admit that i was kinda retroactively shocked by how uhhh quickly i spent like Real Money on the arcana? i think that's kinda like the kicker of having a lot of like $1/$5 options? to be fair as much as i am living in the arcana rn, it's whole play model Does seem to be based in, ah, microtransactions!

and like for a hot minute, i was quick to drop like small amounts on coins bc i do work, so i had the mantra of "well i'm getting paid in a week so-" but still i'd be careful with that!! like i've been playing for almost a month and it was really in that first week where i was like "well $1/$5... it's not that much" which like! tbh i don't wanna be like "no never spend money on a game ever" bc that'd make me. a hypocrite! and also to a degree, like, ik people talk abt microtransactions a lot in video games, but i don't think any in-game purchase at all is a bad thing, and i think it's fine to treat yourself once in a while! but also i am purposely replaying julian's route (and replaying it slowly) so that i can start racking up coins to carry over into the replay/the next arc i want to play (because you get free coins every day from the tarot daily section, and 40 coins per day by watching ads)

but also!! i think it's also good to just kinda think abt the kind of person you are when it comes to spending? like to put myself on blast, i have become Very Prone to impulse purchasing, especially when i'm in a rough patch, bc apparently retail therapy is a very real thing akjdsjksdkj so after i finished julian's route, i metaphorically sat myself down and was like "nope, no, this cannot become a habit!!! the coined options will still be there later, you can take your time and replay the game, which you want to do anyway"

but that is also bc i Know that i have... the type of personality that really latches onto stuff like that? like, little things that, on it's own, don't cost a lot of money, and it makes me feel happy, so i'm like "well, it's only X amount!" and then. yeah.

but also i have to be transparent here and say that i am also coming from a place of like. privilege, where i'm working full-time and i still live at home, so there is a degree of financial security that allows for me to have spending money. which is also why i don't want to uncritically be like "go ahead! treat yourself!" bc like, it might also be dependent on your current situation!!

and also my more harsher critique of the arcana Asides from the paywall is that like....... tbh the better scenes in the game Are behind the in-game coin paywall (and also tbh only 3 of the 6 arcs are enticing enough to me to consider grinding for coins to parry that paywall). and that tbh is def part of the business model bc, like, a lot of the free options cut off the chapters so quickly and that to me isn't worth it, like being very frank if i only chose the options that didn't use the coins, idk if i would have liked it nearly as much

so tldr (i'm sorry i ramble), the arcana has become what i have latched onto right now, and i love the story! however, i will be honest, most of that "worth" factor comes from the content behind the in-game paywall, which is then behind an actual real paywall. so if you're in a place where you have some spending money and won't blow a shit-ton of money on a game, then the choice is up to you! i don't want any of this to feel like i am Telling you what to do with your money, and at least how i see it, what helped me was essentially telling myself "you are forming a habit that will dig you into such a deep hole, just take your time, save up the in-game currency, and replay." so like!! i think the arcana as a game is very fun and i am fixating so hard on it rn, however whether it's Worth the paywall is dependent on your situation, i think

(and also just bc i'm Anxious, i would consider this less advice and more so "hey, i'm someone with an impulse spending habit and here is how i see/navigate the arcana paywall")

(edit: okay i'm rewording my take on the free arcana content, bc it's not that it's not good! closer to the end of julian's route, i started being a lot more picky with What coined options i used, and i still had a very fun time!! and tbh that gave me incentive to want to replay bc now i have new stuff to still look forward to!! it's more so that the scenes unlocked with the coined options are very fun, and i think they're a good incentive to save up for!!! :D)

[harpulator]

extra stuff post!!

what has wix always said in their sponsors? that's right! "something esomething html scale images? hard!! >:( wix scale images? easy!!" fellas.

this makes the image appear as it's original resolution. Now how to scale it:

pretty cool, eh? but there's a slight problem, our bird is a little, eh, stretched?

much better! now, the width will always be 700px, and the height will automatically scale with that. However, there's still an issue...

on smaller devices the bird gets cropped out of frame!! I dont want to scroll, nobody else does either. solution? vw!!

vw stands for "Viewport Width", and vh stands for "Viewport Height". This basically means the width/height of the browser window that you're using. 50vw would be 50% of the screen's width, so let's use it to our advantage to dynamically scale our image!!

pretty sick, eh?

hm, not so sick. what's a max-height? well, it's the maximum height that an element can be! so,

yes, it works, it doesn't stretch downwards but it also still stretches sideways. I'm sure you're thinking "this is a pain in the ass, I'll just use squarespace" but the huge benefit here is complete control. that's why anyone does this in the first place! these are the building blocks of any cool website you've ever seen! so, we push onwards.

now the issue with our code right now is that the width being set to 90vw, it forces the image to stretch to that. So, if we remove that, it will no longer stretch (obv). Also, im retroactively adding that I don't really remember why I did the other stuff, other than someone on the internet said I should, but this is what the code looks like now

eh? eh? we've done it!! let's add some flare now.

(jsyk i added two <br> elements which work as linebreaks. this fixes any text wrapping issues we coulda had up to now)

the transform property has a lot of little functions like scaling or moving things, so we're using that here to both scale the image to 1.2x on both axis and to move it 45px to the right and 30px down.

now when i hover over my bird it looks like this! (your page should look the exact same as before if you are not hovering over the image)

pretty cool!!

idk if i've already posted about how much i fucking hate website builders like wix and squarespace. they perpetuate the idea that coding is hard (which it is, but if you keep telling yourself that you'll never learn) and that NORMIES like YOU need something SIMPLER. Fellas, you can open notepad right now and make a basic html site, because a basic html site is literally just words.

from there, you can make a github account, create a new repository, and upload that html file. Then,

and you'll have your website be hosted for completely free and forever. that's a permanent link, and if it ever stops working (usually because of a lack of traffic) it is completely ok to just re-deploy it.

wanna make it pretty? a <style> element lets you embed CSS (a language exclusively for making websites look pretty) right into your html.

there's a shit ton of stuff you can do in css and html. like a lot of stuff. every single website you've ever been to has been made with html, css, and javascript* and they're all incredibly well documented. if you want to learn cool new stuff, there's a ton of sites out there, but the two I reccomend most are w3schools and especially MDN (Mozilla Developer Network). Stop giving Wix your money, you're better than that.