#which is pretty appropriate given the individual i think of when i post shit along these lines

[snekdood]

hate a "nothing is ever unique" ass bitch. next you're gonna start calling me a special snowflake or some shit 🙄

[robotlesbianjavert]

they made spinner sound even sadder and dramatic in the new anime ep. bones redemption arc real

i saw i sawwwwww now actually pleasantly surprised by how much i liked how they added to the scene. it's appropriately moody (which means a lot given how hard the anime relies on the lightly clouded blue sky background), spinner actually looks pretty good and shigafo is like eerily beautiful, and ryo iwasaki nailed the voice acting out of the park

there's also this neat parallel bt the beginning of mva with spinner stomping towards shigaraki, spelling out his mindset and motivation and desires, demanding direction and meaning in order to deal with his state of desperation as an individual - and the anime-adapted post-jaku scene, where he approaches shigafo but much more carefully, and reflects back on why he had followed stain's ideology into the league, but is now coming from the perspective of someone who actively identifies with the league and their former ennui and has found new meaning and purpose for himself through shigaraki. the more i think about it, the more i like it. (my initial thought was that the line additions felt out of place or at the wrong time, before it clicked to me why i was feeling that way lol)

howeverrrrrrrrr bc i like to quibble and overthink i am a little :/ :/ over the emphasis being placed on how spinner has grown to accept shigaraki as a leader and finds inspiration in him, while the "we got along more than i thought...bonded over games & stuff" almost feels like an afterthought when it's part of the set up for spinner when retrieving kurogiri later, particularly in the chapter called friends which takes place a few chapters after mirio questioned shigafo on his friendships but you know it might mean nothing.

and it's not like the line isn't THERE, it's just more subtle, we still got the seeds. there's nothing inaccurate about spinner's characterization, it's good shit, but it is always my imperative to ensure that people understand that at it's root spinner's feelings for shigaraki are about seeing shigaraki as a person with like, hobbies and shit, who he considers his friend first and leader second. when people are wrong about this i lose my life.

anyways it's still a very welcome addition given how badly spinner got shafted (and nothing will ever truly fix what s5 wrought, but at least it's something), but bones will never redeem themselves until redestro and the mla get a spinoff. justice for rikiya.

[lizzybeth1986]

I don't think you play TRR/TRH anymore but you should see what they did to Kiara in the newest chapter. It's so dumb and makes me so angry, especially considering the current climate of events. I've already seen people on Reddit be like "but we helped her overcome her trauma" (we didn't lol) and someone called her the c-word, very classy. Honestly PB's been low key racist in the past but all the stuff right now makes it high key...

(Apologies for the long post and not being able to place this under a cut)

I'm pretty glad I got these anons because truth be told I wasn't sure how many people - besides the few that I already knew were constantly speaking about Kiara's treatment in the books - would care enough to ask any questions about this. Most of the posts I saw expressed a disturbing eagerness to throw her under the bus, without exploring nuance or asking questions, and at this point I'm not very surprised.

I've always maintained that the treatment for Kiara is what happens when both the writers and the fandom are heartless, and these past few weeks have only been proof of that.

There are questions you could raise about this finale re: Kiara - questions almost no one seems to bother asking. I have three:

1. In this Coventus Nobilis...how is it that I see four Heads of House, and only one heir? 

2. If Kiara - who is not head of house - is supposed to represent Castelserraillian instead of her father Hakim (who presides over that estate), why do I not see Madeleine? Why do I not see Penelope? 

3. Why are we suddenly seeing Adeleide  popping up out of practically nowhere to rep Krona/Fydelia, and Landon conveniently rep-ping Portavira?  

Some of the answers to these questions lie in the questions themselves. Why else would Madeleine and Penelope not be present in this meeting - if it weren't to purposely distance them from this awful moment? After all, both of them have inbuilt subplots ready for the next book that would require interactions with the core group. How else do you think the writers could ensure we kept coddling them and pandering to them in Book 3, except by distancing them from this "betrayal"?

Why else would the narrative choose to pit Kiara - the lone woman of colour we'd been shitting on for most of this series - against Olivia - the white woman who has been given innumerable individual PoV scenes and her own mini-book (and whose reputation we had to help rebuild in said mini book whether we cared about her stupid duchy or not). 

Why else would they force Kiara to alert us mere minutes before the meeting begin, if not to distract us with crumbs ("See? At least we wrote her as warning you. Of course we don't hate her!"). 

Why else would you have Olivia and Kiara pitted against each other like this - if not to show these two women side by side, on opposing ends -  and compel us to believe that the white woman we spent 4.5 books propping up and pampering, is the most loyal one.  When in fact we have done absolutely nothing to deserve any fucking loyalty from Kiara or her family to begin with! (Ezekiel and his white bride notwithstanding).

What we finally got as a result, was a narrative that (as @queen-of-effing-everything summed it up when I discussed this with her) in one full sweep "glorifies Olivia, shields Madeleine and Penelope and sets up Kiara". Very few of us even noticed. And even if we did notice, is there any guarantee that we would care??

Remember how I mentioned in my last ask that I wished we expanded the same energy that we did with Aurora, to speak up against the ill-treatment of other black characters? Kiara was undoubtedly one of those.

After this, we as a fandom will speak very easily now of her "betrayal". We will call her the b-word and the c-word. We will boast of how we will "take her down" along with Adeleide and Landon and Bartie Sr. We'll boast about how we "never liked her" to begin with, as if doing so required some...idk exemplary foresight. We will make memes about how Olivia was "the only bitch we ever respected". We will make huge, sweeping claims about how Kiara was our "friend" and how (as you've mentioned, anon) we "helped her overcome her trauma" (!!!!) and claim by that token that  we were entitled to good treatment from her. I'm pretty sure when TRH3 finally comes out, her every word and action will be screenshot, put up on blogs, mocked and torn down just so we can write essays on how awful she is. 

Yet I saw very little of this energy in Book 3, where the MC could first emotionally manipulate her into supporting the Unity Tour, and where we actively suspected her  at a time when she was traumatized. At most there was some lukewarm acknowledgement of how she "deserves better", all while people still continued to write fanfic that positioned her as creepy and obsessed and villainous.  Almost no one had a problem with Savannah not acknowledging Kiara's earlier support of her, and in fact I'd seen posts that clubbed her with the other ladies of the court who likely "treated Savannah badly". Her father Hakim was made to join the tour alongside her by default, without the expectations that Landon/Emmeline and Godfrey/Adeleide were allowed to have, and the fandom was mysteriously silent about Hakim being made to "bow to his knees" in a way the others did not have to. Very few people even bothered to  notice or talk about how often Penelope was allowed to hold the MC's baby, or how Kiara was never really allowed to hold her even once. Which "friend" treats someone like this??

When I finally published this essay on the treatment meted out to Kiara especially in Book 3, what I got was a lot of neat, but ultimately hollow, little platitudes about how Kiara "deserved better" (How and in what way? Who knows, who cares). Out of those many many people who reblogged and responded, only a handful held the MC and Drake in particular (and Maxwell, who thought it appropriate to joke about "one suspect down") accountable for choosing to suspect and interrogate just her, and for showing ZERO remorse in forcing her to reopen those wounds. How is it that we can judge Kiara for this latest "betrayal", yet pretend that the MC and Drake had nothing to do with the pain THEY caused to her? How is it that this fandom was so fired up over her comments, yet would have such a weak, muted, carefully-generalized response to the screenshots where Drake was openly suspecting her and optionally  minimizing her trauma? 

Following that, why should we be entitled to good treatment from Kiara when we never really gave her even half as much?? Why is it so easy to divorce characters from their words and actions in Drake/MC/Maxwell's case, but so hard for a character like Kiara? (One may claim this is because Drake and Maxwell are potential co-protagonists, but the aforementioned essay already proves that you as a main character can get punished for not treating a mere side character with kindness).

Another thing that fascinates and repulses me even further is how the fandom has created myths around this one character, and how PB has constantly leaned into these "characteristics" even though the text itself tells an altogether different story:

1. Kiara is a snob. This is especially hilarious considering that she is established in Book 2 as being the only person who befriended Savannah before her departure and cared about what happened to her when she left. Never once in the books has she looked down on us for class-related issues, or outright mocked people for not knowing the languages she knew. In fact, she was the first person to acknowledge our skills if we showed any before Lythikos in Book 1. On the other hand, Penelope can be uppity and look down on us in Book 1 (there is even a dialogue option in Chapter 10 that leads to her calling us a "commoner wench") if we don't do well, and yet she's a cinnamon roll.  Olivia can engage in snobbish , entitled behaviour without the fandom having a problem just because she's their favourite. Madeleine can look down on us and pretend for 3/4ths of the social season that we're not worth her time yet somehow Kiara is the snob. Okay. Okay. 😐

2. Kiara is "obsessed with" Drake and constantly comes on to him. This is said by the same group of people who saw Olivia fucking Nevrakis plant a WHOLE FUCKING SMACKER on Liam's mouth, and said..nothing. Kiara on the other hand, has admired Drake's abs once, mentioned she'd always liked Drake once, spoken normally to him about his sister once, flirted with him once (Paris tea party), and ordered a wine from him when he was bartending. In the next book she either looks at him wistfully or admires his suit. Yet somehow she's the creepy, annoying, stalkerish. Okay. Ooookay. 😑

(This one was particularly damaging, because post the TRR3 hiatus, all efforts from PB were focused on reversing Kiara's position as an alternative LI. This included "confirming" on livestream that her affections were one-sided, at a time when Olivia was finally allowed to have some romantic moments with a single Liam, pushing forward a buildup scene to Drake's eventual secret wedding that had him acting extremely rude and confrontational to Kiara mere minutes after suspecting her (while she was expressing joy at his upcoming wedding in his playthrough!!!), and involving a subplot where he openly and by default suspected her. Sure, he spends a minute to be nice to her and chat about trauma if the MC chooses. But that's like a drop of sewage water floating in an ocean of shit).

3. Kiara Pretended to Be Our Friend And Then Dropped Us: This is false. Kiara only ever promised to put in a good word for us to the rest of the court, no more, no less. And she fulfilled that promise. Otherwise she never pretended to be friends with us nor made friendly overtures either way. In fact if you're going to accuse anyone of duplicity, you have Penelope and Madeleine. Yet somehow Kiara is the dishonest one. Okay. Okay. 🙃

4. Kiara Was Insensitive To Penelope and Didn't Understand Her. I'm not sure how Kiara is supposed to magically understand something that her friend isn't telling her. Plus this argument deliberately leaves out the fact that she stood up for Penelope when people chose to be mean to her, and even explained to the MC that she employs "tough love" because she can't always be around to protect Penelope. It also leaves out how one-sided this friendship is and how Kiara is made to do most of the heavy work in this friendship. Meanwhile, at Kiara's most difficult time period, in Castelserraillian, Penelope says absolutely nothing as the MC forces Kiara to join the Unity Tour, while making bedroom eyes at Kiara's brother. In fact the only reason Kiara's brother even exists is to give Penelope a love interest. The Kiara-Penelope friendship practically revolves around Penelope. I have never really seen Penelope look out for Kiara or attempt to actually support her in any way, and Kiara was the one who got the knife wounds. Yet somehow I'm supposed to believe that Penelope's the better friend of the two. Suuuuure. 😡

And this steaming pile of crap doesn't just make its way into shitposts and short opinion posts. It creeps into fanfic and fandom opinions. It finds its way in the tags and in other social media. It eventually even finds its way into the books, even though nothing in the earlier narrative ever really supported these extremely stale takes. 

Because PB didn't care for Kiara the way they cared for their white characters, they had no problem framing her narrative the way this fandom so desparately wanted it. Book 3 has the MC claim behind her back that Kiara is stuck-up and acts like knowing ten languages makes her better than everybody else, even though this is not backed up by the text, and in fact you will never see any acknowledgement of how Madeleine forced Kiara to make herself sound "exotic" in Book 2, or of how Madeleine and the MC (optionally) could downplay or question her skills unless they wanted to use her. Also, Penelope is never allowed to be talked about like that no matter what she's done. PB even had a scene (in the Hana playthrough) where they aggressively retconned the events of Madeleine's bachelorette party, where Kiara supposedly shouted at Penelope until the latter cried, and Madeleine was the one "having fun". Kiara was literally being thrown under the bus to make Madeleine look better. Madeleine. Imagine that. Madeleine.

Given how desparate the fandom was to nitpick and overdramatize everything Kiara said and did, is it any wonder that the team got away with the writing they gave her in Book 3? Considering that all the false arguments I stated above have made a resurgence in the past few weeks or days...is it any wonder that the only "support" this fandom is capable of re: Kiara, is lukewarm platitudes, cold takes and rank hypocrisy??

Yes, we can hold PB solely/largely  accountable for the treatment meted out to Kiara now. They made these choices over and over, and continue to do so, while tossing us occasional crumbs of faux-sweet behaviour from the MC. And they did this in insidious ways, which were so hard to catch that even a Kiara stan like me had to observe multiple playthroughs just to unravel even half of what they'd done.

But let's not pretend a huge chunk of the fandom was just as responsible for this - with their unfounded opinions, their disgusting bias, their favouritism of white characters, their refusal to observe anything besides their favourites, and their godawful fanfiction where Kiara is a creep or evil or killing the virtuous main character. Out of the huge body of fanwork that I've seen for TRR that features Kiara - at least 90% of it features her stalking Drake, or harming the MC (particularly the Drake MC), or in cahoots with the villains, or generally being referred to as a creep (why Olivia, who kissed Liam without his consent in Book 1 and was entitled enough to be angry about him not returning her feelings in TRH1, never got this sort of writing - I fail to understand). There is a tremendous gap between the vitriol dumped on her when she does something the MC doesn't like, and the milquetoast response when harm is done to her. There have been times when I've had to comb through pages and pages of hate just to read even one positive post on Kiara in her own goddamn tag.

When the next book arrives, I know you folks will continue to gas up the white women in this book every chance you get, and mask your racist vitriol for characters like Kiara (and Hana, let's not forget the way y'all treat Hana) behind the same self-righteous judgements and the same tired, stale takes. I know that PB - despite what I will still believe is their hollow promises today - will write every single one of those stale takes into existence. All because it will be "justified", because Kiara is a "bad person" or "untrustworthy" or "fake". Whatever. Y'all can stick to Olivia The Black Hole and babysit Madeleine and Penelope, I guess. Kiara always deserved better than these writers and most of this fandom anyway.

[creative-type]

The Problem with Ichigo Kurosaki

Back when Bleach’s final chapter came out, the one thing that perplexed me most about the omnishambles that was the last arc was that Ichigo had taken over the Kurosaki clinic. 

I’d long-since given up on a satisfying end to the series and was following out of morbid fascination more than any sort of interest. I’m not a shipper and the glacial pacing and empty pages killed any spectacle that might  have been entertaining enough to cover the massive flaws of the series. I entered the Quincy arc with no expectations and still managed to be surprised by how little thought and effort Kubo put into his product. There was no personal investment left, so I didn’t care enough to get upset over how things ended up.

But Ichigo taking over his father’s clinic...that was a surprise. And through that I came to a startling realization that after almost 700 chapters and 15 years I still knew nothing about Ichigo as a character.

I want to be careful when writing this, firstly because as a self-admitted filthy casual I’m not nearly as familiar with Bleach as I am with most other things I write about. Secondly, while it’s a nice bonus I don’t think that every story necessarily requires a deep, super nuanced character driving it. 

I’m gonna use One Piece as an example here because I think it fits well. Luffy isn’t a complicated dude. He’s well-rounded with clearly defined dreams and goals, but ultimately he’s your basic Shonen power fantasy. What sets One Piece apart from almost every other manga in existence is its world building, and by creating Luffy the way he is, Oda has made a main character that facilitates the exploration of his world.

Ichigo starts off well enough for the protagonist of a monster of the week-style battle manga. I think it’s pretty apparent that Kubo wrote Bleach by the seat of his pants, because a lot of early details don’t match what we see later in the series.

...

...

...

And, again, this type of writing can be done, but it has to be done carefully because without forethought it’s really easy for plots and characterization become a muddled mess. 

Early Ichigo stood out from other mainstream manga protagonists. There’s a mature edginess to early Bleach, and a strong aesthetic that highlights one of Kubo’s greatest strengths as an artist: drawing really cool shit. Ichigo isn’t a hyperactive goofball, in fact he gets pretty good grades and is generally regarded as being a reliable - if grumpy - guy. His backstory isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but again, having a main character that’s hellbent on protecting others is exactly the sort of protagonist that can drive a monster of the week-style story.

More importantly, at this point in the story Ichigo has agency as a character. In chapter 2 of the series, Rukia demands that Ichigo fulfill her duties as a soul reaper while she’s out of commission. He initially says no, but quickly changes his mind when he sees a cute kid almost get eaten. Ichigo agrees to help, but on his own terms. In his own words, he’s only paying off a debt. 

Fast forward to chapter 25. Ichigo has survived his encounter with Grand Fisher and had a nice little heart to heart with his dad. He makes the above declaration, effectively choosing to continue on as a soul reaper even after Rukia regains her powers and his “debt” is paid. 

What makes the Grand Fisher fight effective is that it highlights how much growth Ichigo needs to undergo, not as a fighter but as a character. It is vitally important for a battle manga not to have fights for the sake of fights, or even because they’re demanded by the plot. A good fight conveys story and develops characterization - a clash of ideals as much as swords. 

The problem is that this doesn’t really go anywhere. Ichigo’s gotta protect them all nature suits shorter, one-off arcs but isn’t suited for the long, sprawling epic Bleach would become. The scope of Bleach’s world and story expanded, but Ichigo stayed the same. Or rather, he devolved into something lesser. 

Ichigo’s goal to protect those he cares about is problematic in two ways:1) it requires someone to need protecting, and 2) it’s reactionary. This limits how much influence Ichigo has on the plot as a whole. It’s no wonder that the Arrancar saga is copied wholesale from the Soul Society arc because rescuing people from danger is literally the only thing Ichigo ever shows interest in doing.

Instead of taking the time to develop Ichigo as a person, Kubo instead has to create increasingly-ridiculous ways for him to play a part in the plot. This has the unfortunate side effect of making Ichigo literally everybody’s pawn to be used and manipulated in whatever way it takes for the story to get from Point A to Point B. I would think by the time Yhwach comes around he’d be sick of it, but all Ichigo is capable of doing is react, react, react, often looking very surprised when someone plays him like a fiddle yet again.

And maybe to compensate Kubo gives Ichigo a mishmash of powers and abilities, but ironically the more things that are added to Ichigo’s moveset the less unique and special each one becomes. 

It’s kind of like mixing colors. Red and blue together make purple but if you add yellow and green and orange along with it, in the end all you’re going to have is a brownish sludge. Ichigo starts the series as a human-shinigami hybrid. For the sake of brevity, I’ll call this version of Ichigo a humigami. As a humigami he has basic swordsmanship, immense spiritual power, and the ability to follow spirit ribbon thingies to find people. So far so good.

But with the introduction of the Soul Society and the massive influx of characters, Ichigo is no longer The Special. Kubo has two choices here: further develop Ichigo’s shinigami powers or add something new into the mix. Kubo elects to do both, and Ichigo gains his hollow masks AND learns bankai in a matter of days. 

Now a human-shinigami-hollow (humagollow for short), Ichigo saves the day only to get curb-stomped by Aizen. The post-Soul Society chapters would have been a good place to do some old-fashioned character development, but while there is some nice closure chapters nothing really changes before the next major arc kicks in.

Put yourself in Ichigo’s shoes here. You’ve gone through the gauntlet to save a friend from her execution, witnessed the slums of the afterlife, fought several life or death battles against an organization who keeps, among other things, genocidal maniacs in their employ. You’ve seen corruption, you’ve seen conspiracy, you’ve seen a totalitarian regime that insists on following the letter of the law over common sense and justice. You’ve lived your entire life striving to protect those weaker than yourself and the last several months sending spirits to what you thought was a peaceful, idyllic afterlife.

Would you leave the Soul Society in good terms? Would you consider them allies and fight their wars? Would you be okay with leaving your friend, who you risked life and limb to save, in the very environment that wanted her dead just days before? Would you not have questions and demand answers?

Apparently not, if you’re Ichigo Kurosaki.

Fast forward again to the introduction of the arrancar and visored. It’s about this time where Ichigo loses everything that made him unique as a character. A whole host of characters are introduced that have a mix of shinigami and hollow powers (which, despite ostensibly being antithetical to one another are functionally identical) and it’s revealed that Ichigo isn’t even the only shinigami in his family. 

Isshin’s fight verses Grand Fisher becomes especially egregious when we the audience get this little tidbit about how all high-level shinigami compress their sword’s spiritual power into a smaller form

because back when Ichigo first showed off his bankai one of the notable things about it was that it was kind of tiny - a direct contrast to how most releases worked. 

It’s the same for all of Ichigo’s other attacks. His bankai is supposed to boost his speed to incredible levels, but he’s constantly out maneuvered by enemies, the surprise attack from behind being a Kubo specialty. His main ability is nothing but a giant energy slash, easily replicated by a shinigami’s kido or a hollow’s cero.

By having Isshin steal the Grand Fisher fight from Ichigo, Kubo robs his main character of a chance to show off how he’s changed since the early part of the series and robs him of his uniqueness as a fighter. The fight itself is not good, memorable, or fun enough to counterbalance how much the author is crapping on its protagonist, a trend that unfortunately gets worse as time goes on.

Anyway, through training Ichigo becomes a human visored (hisored) and goes off to Hueco Mundo to kick ass and get his ass kicked in about equal measure, and once again questions are brought up, if not explicitly than implicitly through the course of the narrative, that are never even addressed.

1) If it weren’t already obvious, the Soul Society cements itself as being absolutely terrible by its treatment of the visoreds. Are they really the good guys here, and why is no one trying to reform their more archaic and barbaric practices?

Unfortunate Implication: Ichigo is willing to ally with complete assholes to accomplish his goals. The whole “protecting those who can’t protect themselves” schtick only applies when people he cares about are in danger.

Conclusion: Ichigo is kind of an asshole, or at least apathetic to the plight of others, a direct contrast to his characterization thus far

2) If hollows are impure spirits, and high-level hollows spirits who have evolved by consuming countless others, would it not be in the best interest of Nel and other “good” arrancar to be purified? Is it even appropriate to think of hollows who have evolved as individuals or a conglomeration of all the souls that have been consumed? Are hollows inherently evil, or has the Soul Society’s understanding of the hollow/non-hollow spirit dynamic been flawed this entire time?

Unfortunate Implication: Either Ichigo doesn’t think through the logical conclusion of having hollows as allies enough to question what he’s been taught about hollows thus far, or he’s okay with leaving countless spirits in an impure state and damning them to a miserable existence of insatiable hunger and denying them access to the proper afterlife/reincarnation cycle

Conclusion: Ichigo isn’t as smart as he’s presented to be, or he’s okay with making friends with the very monsters he’s sworn to destroy...as long as they’re cute and helpful

This is what I mean when Ichigo devolves as a character. By the time the Fullbringer arc rolls around (for those keeping score at home, Ichigo has gone from hisored to fullbringer back to humigami) Kubo has built a world full of shades of grey, but continues time and time again to have Ichigo play it as if it were black and white. The reveal that Ichigo is, in fact, a quincigami is just the icing on the cake, stealing the one thing that made Ishida unique only for it to go absolutely nowhere and confuse an already muddled backstory.

All of these changes in power and the complete disregard for the moral quandaries brought up by the story mean that any change in Ichigo is superficial, like a skin change in a video game. He might look cool and give his attacks spiffy names, but it’s all an excuse for Kubo to draw him in different outfits because once again, all Kubo really cares about is drawing really cool shit. Everything else is secondary. Nothing has to make sense. Who cares about Ichigo’s hopes and dreams and desires when he can have two swords that he’ll never use in battle. Oh, it’s the epilogue and Ichigo needs to be a grown up doing grown up stuff...might as well make him a doctor. It was good enough for his old man, right? It wasn’t as if he said anything against taking over his father’s clinic some day.

Then again, Ichigo never said that’s what he’d like to do either. Almost 700 chapters and 15 years went by and Ichigo never once said what he wanted to do with his life when he grew up.

And that, my friends, is a problem.

[thetravellingvagrant]

Day 4: Chisinau - Training Wheels

For the first time since before my arrival to this country, I had managed to squeeze something resembling an adequate amount of sleep into my body, during the night. Though I had still been woken artificially by the choral squawkery of my phone's alarm, I arose from my bed, enthusiastically and with as close to a spring in my step as it is possible for an unrepentant curmudgeon to have.

I decided, given the extra daylight I had afforded myself, that I would spend the morning catching up on some vagrant admin, which I had been hitherto neglecting, reasoning that my plans for the day were sparse (buy magnet for my nice girlfriend, buy train ticket for self, perhaps see Afgahn monument if time allowed) and that it probably was time to take the 'easy day' I had been promising myself, though, thus far, had failed to really deliver to myself. It was 2pm then, before I left the comfort of the apartment.

After a laborious, hour long walk to the train station (which I imagined would constitute a problem for future-Lawrence, given that I heavily suspected that the only viable train would depart at 6am the following morning, but whatever, fuck that guy.), I arrived, ready to ineptly bumble my way through purchasing a ticket to my next destination; a feat almost never not characterised by some degree of difficulty or embarrassment, on these trips.

It was then wildly fortunate for me (though I concede less so for fans of schadenfreude) that beyond an initial struggle to actually locate the ticket office, this was easily one of the most straight forward ticket purchasing operations I had ever undertaken, while abroad. Hell, a lot of previous ticketing experiences in the UK haven't even gone this smoothly.

I was shown to the ...not quite “english speaking”, but definitely “more-english-speaking-than-the-other-ones” cashier and I asked for what I wanted, employing the clever trick I have learned over my years of travelling, of loudly, slowly and clearly enunciating the key words of a given sentence.

“Hello, I'd like to BUY a TICKET to IASI for TOMORROW, PLEASE”. Some of you may be thinking at this point that “please” isn't a key word, to which I reply that manners cost nothing.

The lady nodded her head, “Iasi tomorrow? In morning?”

I nodded back. She wrote down the numbers (and I suppose letters) 6:52am on a scrap of paper. Guh.  I asked her if there were anything a little later. She was confused by this, however I, the clever little shrew that I am had taken the trouble of screen capping the google translation of the phrase “do you have anything later?” on my phone, quite rightly thinking that I may require the use of such a phrase.  She understood and indicated that there was a train at 4:50pm, arriving at 10:00pm, that night. Fuck that. I didn't fancy wasting a whole extra day in Moldova, when I could, instead take my chances on being allowed to check into my Iasi hostel a little early. Morning train it was.

“First class? Second?” She asked.

“Pft. Second!” I scoffed. I'm not bloody made of money.

My thoughts then turned to my wallet. I still had half of my budget for Moldova left, unspent and only half a day to spend it (Moldovan Lei being a closed currency and therefore non-transferrable, before any of you sensible types say anything.)

“...How much extra is first class, actually?” I asked.

25 lei was the answer. About a euro. For fucks sake, Moldova, how am I even going to spend all this money? And so, I left, first class ticket in hand, positively upbeat over the whole experience, which, avid vagrant fans will know, is a stark departure from my usual attitude, post ticket office.

I decided to magnet hunt first, rather than go directly to the Afghan monument, reasoning that, due to shop closing times, it was a more pressing matter, The magnet shop wasn't far away, anyway...

...At least I thought. I trudged slowly to what I thought was the location of the eye-rollingly named 'made in Moldova' souvenir shop, which I had sourced on google and which, upon my arrival, I realised no longer existed. (Or perhaps...NEVER existed? Spooky). Ok, fine. I had back-up souvenir shops to go to. Of course I did, this isn't amateur hour. This is the real shit. Sure they were yet further afield from the monument, but I had thoroughly committed to this plan now.

My trudgery continued to the second of the three shops on my list; this one named “my art story”. I stepped inside. It was deathly quiet and occupied by a single sullen lady, sitting behind a counter. It took me less than a second to realise that the twee, hand-made christmas decorations with which the shop was filled were not even remotely near to anything I, nor anyone I know would be interested in, though I dutifully pretended to peruse her stock anyway, out of sheer awkwardness. After around three or so excruciating minutes, I shot the woman a warm, yet clearly uncomfortable smile and left, vowing never to return, as I did.

On to the final shop. 'Pro Prezents'. This one was really out of the way; an additional twenty minutes in the wrong direction from that fucking monument and down a super sketchy, entirely unlit alleyway, to boot. Regardless, I steeled myself and, hand hovering protectively over my wallet, went inside.

This shop, to put it kindly, was hideous. To put it less kindly, it looked like a demented old grandmother's living room, if the grandmother in question compulsively hoarded every rubbish little knick-knack she could get her hands on, was entirely unburdened by good taste and had genuinely no respect for Jamaican people, yet still found the offensive cartoonification of their culture inexplicably charming.

Shuddering, I quickly located the wall of magnets, and approached. I perused for no more than a second, before the thuggish looking man spoke.

“Moldovan?”

“...Uh, yes?” I replied, hoping he was asking if I wanted to see Moldovan themed magnets, rather than asking if I was Moldovan, myself.

“Da. Come.” he nodded and proceeded to lead me upstairs into the shop's upper floor in order to show me...fuck, I don't know. I can best describe it as a room full of trolls; row after row of horrbile tan-skinned, nude little porcelain goblins all posed into quote unquote (which I suppose is an unnecessary phrase to use in prose) 'comical' poses, such as fishing or having a nap in a wheelbarrow. Or wanking. A whole lot of wanking little Goblins in that room, let me tell you.

“Uh...” I stuttered, taken aback by how shit what I was looking at was. “N...not really my thing. Magnets instead?”

He shrugged and led me back downstairs. Now even more uncomfortable than I was before, somehow, I grabbed the first magnet off of the board that looked vaguely appropriate, paid very, very little for it and strode back out into the darkness of the Moldovan night, my pockets still bursting with currency.

By now it was too late, my body too cold and hungry, and too far a distance to walk to justify bothering to go and see the Afgahn monument, and so, for the third day in a row, I discarded the idea, where, to be honest, it belonged, all along; in the trash. Afghanistan is rubbish anyway.

Not quite ready to return home yet, though, I checked my map. I was close to Mall-dova. Beyond snacks for the subsequent days, I had literally nothing else I imagined I could spend my money on, and so decided to see if anything caught my eye among the glitz and razzmatazz of mid to high end shopping. At the very least, I figured they would have a food court in which I could whittle a way some Moldollars.

The mall itself was disappointingly high-end and full of international chains. I spotted a united colours of Benneton and shut stopped paying any kind of attention, instead heading straight for the food court, which again, was unsurprisingly full of highly recognisable international brands; McDonalds, KFC and so on, gaudily screamed for my business, but I heeded them not a bit, instead plumping for the vaguely Americana themed and mildly amusingly named purveyor of chicken, “the lord of the wings”.

The place was certainly exepsnvive, by Moldovan standards, though I suppose that's sort of what I wanted. I bumblingly ordered a bowl of poutine and some chicken quesadillas. In keeping with the country's “I have just learned to cook” motif, the poutine I ordered was just a bowl of chips and cheese (that's definitely something I'd struggle to find, in Glasgow...) and the quesadillas were just tortilla wraps with a couple of peppers and bits of chewy chicken lumped into them, so salsa, no sour cream, nothing.  Again, though, my meal wasn't unpleasant, chips and cheese is hard to fuck up and every individual part of a quesadilla is nice on its own, so put them together in any combination and it's still basically alright, but I mean...just try? For me, Moldova. Just try, once.

By the time I had waddled home, little time was left in the evening. I decided not to eat dinner, as my extraordinarily late lunch had proved to be, if basic, still pretty huge and instead spent the night bibbling away on my blog, watching old episodes of Dragon's Den, because I will not be judged by you and puttering around on other assorted activities of presumably very little interest to a wider audience.

[sg2tiger]

It's certainly interesting considering the different perspectives fans of Umineko would have depending on whenether they were along for the ride, or started after it ended. Though I can't really say if I agree with that betrayed mindset. It was a little frustrating yeah, but to me, all the clues were there. And there was really nothing in 1-4 that indicated the answer would be handed on a silver platter. If anything Higurashi betrays the genre after building up the mystery part so much in 1-6.

Well like I said, I feel like the betrayed feeling is something that people who started Umineko after it had already ended won’t really understand. You have to realize the perspective of people who were reading the series while it was still coming out, literally waiting 6 months between releases. I only got into Umineko during the time before EP5′s Japanese release, but even for me that meant two years just to get through Chiru. When you’re waiting excitedly for that long to read the next installment of the story, and it hits and the spoilers come out of the floodgates only to be told ‘yeah the ending doesn’t actually give any answers’…well, if you weren’t there at the time, I don’t think you could understand. Especially since now, years after it’s happened, you have tons of people who have come together to try and make sense of the EP8 ending, and now we have the EP8 manga to boot.

I don’t think EP8 is even a fraction as polarizing now as it was when it first came out - I mean, again, I’m not just talking about my own personal feelings, here. People were quitting Umineko in droves when they found out how EP8 ended, people started shitting on Ryukishi like crazy, and everyone either felt betrayed or was laughing at the people who took the story seriously enough to feel betrayed in the first place. It was a pretty universal sentiment at the time…it’s just one of those ‘you had to be there’ sorts of things that I’m not sure anyone who didn’t experience could really understand, even if I try to explain it. 

As far as Higurashi goes, though - I can’t agree. Higurashi was never presented explicitly as a mystery series. It was certainly mysterious, but it was presented as a horror and supernatural-themed story right from the start. It challenged critical thinking, but it never outright said ‘this is a mystery, try to solve this’ to its readers. There also wasn’t really anything to be betrayed because Higurashi pretty concretely answered all the questions it presented. When I say ‘betrayed’ I don’t mean ‘because the answers weren’t satisfying’, I mean ‘because there literally were not answers’. Because, remember, the EP8 VN leaves the details on a LOT of things in the catbox that were only later given concrete details by the manga. The betrayal part is the fact that we were told to solve a mystery, and at the end, we weren’t given the sheet to check our answers against despite the story often reinforcing the very fact that people like to know that a mystery is, in fact, solvable (see EP5 ???? tea party scene with Virgilia and Dlanor specifically).

Higurashi didn’t betray anything, though. Not only because it never presented itself as an explicit mystery, but because it did answer all of its questions (aside from maybe some minor things). Matsuribayashi-hen’s puzzle segment of putting together all the kakera alone answers almost every lingering mystery from the series since Onikakushi-hen, going all the way back to the initial conflict over the dam and covering every incident until the present time. If Higurashi were a proper mystery, that would be the ‘answer sheet’ - like saying, before this point, get your theories together, because this is your last chance. And then the kakera puzzle goes through all the questions you may have had and answers them. And at that point you can say ‘oh hey, I guessed that right!!’ or ‘aw man I was totally off’. But the answers are given. To everything. Whether you were satisfied by ‘lol brain parasites’ is another matter entirely - that’s not what I mean by betrayal. It’s the fact that, prior to the release of the manga, Umineko’s ending decided not to even give us those answers at all.

Again, you have to put into perspective just how much discussion took place over even just the two years that I was into Umineko - let alone the four years for those who got into it from the time of EP1. Go to AnimeSuki sometime and check out the old archived Umineko forum, and look at the sheer number of pages each individual Episode’s discussion thread has…and that’s not even counting the general spoiler for all EPs discussion thread, all the anime discussions, manga discussions, or all the discussions that happened on other places like 4chan (unfortunately most records of those were lost when Foolz died, RIP original Pony Theory thread). People spent countless hours of their lives putting together theories to try and solve the individual Episodes and their mysteries, and at the very least, in the end, were expecting some closure more than just the cryptic solutions given by Will in EP7. People wanted that answer sheet so they could check to see if their theories were correct, or oh so wrong.

And they weren’t given that. Despite Umineko repeatedly going over mystery tropes and reinforcing to the reader that it was, in fact, solvable as long as they had their Critical Thinking Hats on…it never delivered on the chance to let us see how right or wrong we were. That was the core of people’s dissatisfaction with the ending, and Ryukishi’s smug attitude in that infamous interview just rubbed salt in those wounds by him basically going full Featherine and insulting his readers, basically telling us that if we couldn’t see the truth already we didn’t deserve the chance to check the answer sheet, mocking us for not liking his brilliant twists, and just all sorts of rude-ass shit. Have you read Answer to the Golden Witch? Check it out sometime and try to think from the perspective of people who were already feeling dissatisfied by the lack of answers in EP8…and then feeling that the mighty King Ryukishi was sitting high on his throne looking down on them and mocking the pathetic peasants who couldn’t grasp The Heart without someone holding their hands. Suffice to say, a lot of people lost respect for Ryukishi after that - hence, that feeling of betrayal.

But I do feel that Ryukishi has at least somewhat redeemed himself for that old attitude. The fact that he chose to release the EP8 manga the way he did at all shows me that he maybe realized how people like me felt about having the answers shut away in the catbox…which, while thematically appropriate, was not at all satisfying for the loyal Umineko fans who had devoted so much time to trying to solve the mystery. I’m sure there were a lot of mindless goats who just wanted the answers served on a silver platter - but we were not them. We worked out asses off trying to tackle the mystery from so many angles over the course of years. And I think he finally realized, once the dust had settled, how that inconclusive ending must have made us feel. 

I read a thing here on Tumblr that was a snippet from a different interview or post or something by Ryukishi at the time when he decided to release the EP8 manga…anyone happen to have a link to that? I’ll edit this post if I find it. But basically it shows just how hard it was for him to make that ultimate decision, between keeping the thematic ending of shutting the truth up in the catbox, or releasing that truth to the people who grasped so hard for it for so long. And I appreciate the fact that he ultimately did decide to reward us for our efforts by giving the answers in the form of the EP8 manga. Reading what a difficult decision it was for him eased a lot of my old hatred…I’m still not terribly fond of the man, but I don’t hate Ryukishi anymore. As much. I just tend to have trouble getting over grudges. But I do respect and appreciate him for releasing the EP8 manga, because it shows at least some part of him doesn’t think all of his fans are stupid goats who want to be spoonfed. That was the part that hurt people like me the most, you know - we really did work hard at trying to actually solve the mystery. We did not want to be spoonfed the answers. We wanted to do the same thing Featherine wanted Bern to make EP7 for - to check our answers and know whether or not the solutions we found were true.

So yeah…maybe that helps explain a bit better what I mean when I say that so many people felt betrayed by the way Umineko ended. But I do think that it’s probably hard to understand if you weren’t there at the time. The current Umineko fandom is very different from the one back then, simply because the environment is so different now. We even have blogs like Ramblings of the Golden Witch that go through all the evidence in the existing material and analyze lingering questions.

But again, that’s only possible because the answers exist now. We actually have a complete set of all the novels + all the manga + the extra content of the EP8 manga in front of us that we can sit down and compare and dissect. That’s a luxury that didn’t exist in ‘my time’. We had the visual novel, the PC original without even voice acting, and we had a disjointed collection of partially-finished manga (the EP7 manga would have just scarcely begun at the time EP8 was released in Japan when this shitstorm broke out)…and we had our theories, and our discussions, which colored a lot of perceptions and further clouded the line between canon and unconfirmed. There was a lot more speculation than answers back then, which I feel has reversed now - there’s still a lot about Umineko that’s vague or inside the catbox, and that’s why we can still enjoy discussing it even all these years later. But there are also a lot of concrete answers provided by the EP7 and EP8 manga that did not exist back then. And more than the fact that they didn’t exist, Ryukishi was insistent about the fact that they wouldn’t exist, and shame on us for wanting them to, because obviously we weren’t worthy of them.

People who got into Umineko after 2011, and especially after the EP8 manga existed…they got to experience a very different Umineko than I did. One where there were answers and spoilers and people willing to sit down and analyze these things and try to make more sense of them. A world where, even if you’re the type who avoids spoilers and doesn’t want to confirm anything until you’ve read it for yourself, you could then go online and look it up or ask someone to help clarify the solution for you if you felt confused. A world where we could say concretely things like ‘Yasu’s reason for committing the crime was more than just being lonely because Battler didn’t come back, as seen in Confession of the Golden Witch’. And you can say, oh, I see, that makes sense, because you have actual factual evidence clarifying the mystery and making the foreshadowing more obvious in hindsight.

People who got into Umineko before 2011 didn’t have that. All we could say was ‘so, uh, she killed everyone because she took a kid’s promise too seriously? That’s it? We’re supposed to accept that as a motive? What is this shit?’ because the VN did a terrible job of exploring the other conflicts that pushed Yasu to her breaking point. That’s just one example, of course. But for basically everything you now have concrete evidence to back up, from the identities of Yasu’s accomplices in each arc to the solutions of individual closed rooms? We had nothing but speculation, speculation, and more speculation. And that speculation varied wildly. You think Rosatrice is as bad as it gets? Don’t make me laugh. I’ve seen some shit theories in my day. But because everything was shrouded in mysterious catbox mystery, even the shittiest theories couldn’t be denied. I’m talking literal goat-tier shit with a flimsier basis than small bombs that completely disregarded The Heart, not just of Yasu, but multiple characters. But people clung to these theories because ‘b-but there’s nothing saying it’s not true, devil’s proof, devil’s proof!!’. They were great times and I wouldn’t trade them for the world, but damn was the 2009-2011 Umineko fandom a shitshow.

TL;DR I don’t expect you to understand that feeling of betrayal because I think it’s fundamentally based on the circumstances of the time. Reading through all of Umineko in one go and being able to check your answers afterward is just too wholly different from the experience of reading an Episode at a time, with 6 months of waiting before the next, and then in the end being told ‘yeah you’re not gonna get a real answer lol sorry’.

I’d be curious to hear the perspectives of other people who were there at the time as well, assuming any are still in the current fanbase. I do know that every October when someone makes the annual Seac/a/ts thread you get a lot of people who pop in to say things like ‘do people still like this shit? I dropped it because DID Meido’ or to talk about how much Chiru sucks compared to the old EPs, and other things like that. And it often feels like the only people who stuck around did so because they want to deito Lucifer or fuck Erika, and I think there’s still a regular circlejerk general on /jp/ with all of like 5 people who still talk about Umineko. On the Tumblr side of things I get the impression that a lot of the more active blogs are people who got into the fandom later, and have a very different perspective than me (which I actually find refreshing and fun) who probably also don’t understand why I’m often so bitter about Ryukishi and how I still have yet to read EP8 for myself.

I’m like the grizzled old adventurer walking through a town full of fresh-faced younguns as I mutter ‘I hate Umineko, fuck Ryukishi’ under my breath. And they’re like ‘why does that person keep going into the dungeon if they hate it so much…?’ and I’m like ‘you wouldn’t understand, you’ll never understand the things I’ve seen’ while I venture into the darkness. But also we can sit down at the local tavern and swap stories of our own experiences and realize how different they are, and how they’re still fun to talk about, and every time I feel like I know the dungeon like the back of my hand someone comes along with a fresh perspective and I see it in a different way.

I think the analogy got away from me, but yeah, something like that. Somehow, after all these years, I’m still finding new things to discuss about Umineko with people from a different perspective, and I think that’s part of what makes it fun, even if they don’t always understand where my mindset is coming from :P

[sam-vs-today-blog]

White people: the evil race?

Before we start, I’m taking no “fuck off whitey” because I’m Arab. I’m not taking any “why do you want to be white so bad?” either because I’m absolutely fine with my own identity, there’s no race I’d rather be because at the end of the day it’s nothing but a superficial trait, a part of your DNA that changes your skin color. Other physical characteristics aren’t linked to race but genetics.

Now, you may have guessed by the previous paragraph that the answer isn’t yes because only liberals would say so along with the two quick answers I turned down. I’m not going to say the opposite either, since I’m not right-leaning. If you need to know my political orientation, I’m pretty much in the center of the gray zone, something that isn’t the case for most Tumblr users so if you hate reading opinions that don’t match yours you can stop reading. This post will take every argument (that people give when they say white people are evil) apart and discuss what’s right and what’s wrong. Thank you for reading even if you’re not a centrist, that’s very open-minded of you, just click the link to wonder what I’m doing with my life. Just bear with me, I’m an expert in walls of text and this is my novel.

Firstly, I’m going to hit the generalization implied in the affirmation. There is an infinity of ways people have been raised, some kids have been spoiled, some parents have been harsh, some have been abusive, and I believe that the behavior of parents has a huge effect on how the kid is going to behave. Spoiled kids, usually, are poorly mannered because they’re taking things for granted. Kids that are taught kindness often end up kind, but that’s also the case for kids with abusive parents who see the evil in what the parents have done and decide not to hurt like they’ve been hurt. Another influence is anyone they socialize with, and what they read or watch. All these influences are what makes a person who they are socially, which places each individual on the spectrum of good and evil. Of course, introspection is the most successful way to move within this spectrum. Race doesn’t make anyone lean towards one side or the other, because it’s nothing but DNA. As a conclusion, it’s easy to realize that being white has no effect on someone’s social behavior.

Now, one very americentric argument is that Christopher Colombus (trivia: his actual name is Cristoforo Colombo. French, Spanish, and English speaking countries (among others probably) change his name a little for some reason) killed Native Americans and stole their land after they taught various things such as hunting. I personally think that it’s conquest in a nutshell: one day you’re friends, the next day you’re at war. War was all about conquest before, for example in World War 1 we lost two regions to Germany in France: the Alsace, and the Lorraine. We took them back at the end of the second one. So this conflict has been motivated by conquest, plus that doesn’t say anything about the majority of white people that stayed in their lanes.

Then an argument that shows up very often is “white people stole black people”. That’s super incorrect historically, the short answer is “No, black people enslaved other black people and sold them to white people”. On top of that, slavery has been abolished everywhere. If that still makes white people evil because it was allowed in the past, then what about the other countries? Do you hold them accountable too? Looks like this evil that has been stopped makes countries work like people: they evolve, they change for the better. One day you think you’re behaving perfectly, a year later you look back at who you used to be and you realize you used to be an asshole but you’re glad you changed. You used to be more evil than you are right now.

Now, let’s talk racism because I’m itching to start pointing fingers. So one thing we can all agree with, is that racism is evil, right? Why? Because this is hate based of race. Yeah, the thing that’s part of people’s identities and can never be changed. And that’s 100% of what’s wrong with racism, really, you decide to hate people based on something that’s part of their identities. You know where I’m going with this, don’t you? Anyone who is prejudiced against any race, any gender, any orientation, anything that’s part of people’s identities, is just as evil as a racist. And that includes misandrists, misogynists, anti-whites, anti-blacks, anti-browns, homophobic, heterophobic... You’re all the same evil trash, none of these is less evil than the other, and you have no excuse that takes this evil away from you. Only positive evolution that takes this prejudice away from you can rid you of this evil. The right and non-evil way to hate people is individually, based on who they are socially, and I personally hate people who have a problem with a certain identity, whatever it is. And by the way, the fact that racism is prejudice based on race goes against the idea that all white people are racist, look at the third paragraph for more information.

What’s next, maybe the school shooters and shit? Doesn’t say much about race if you ask me, look at the third paragraph for more information. Ah, cultural appropriation, how could I forget that? Liberals have taken it too far. I’d say cultural appropriation is an evil thing only if it involves taking a part of a culture that’s not yours and acting like it’s yours and not coming from its original maker. So is it cultural appropriation to try curry at an Indian restaurant, thing that I’m probably doing next time I get paid? The answer is no, it’s really just appreciating a foreign dish. Is it cultural appropriation to wear a bindi for fashion and not because you’re Hindi? No, but that’s very inappropriate because bindis are a religious thing. Yeah, that’s two examples from Indian culture because they’re under-represented just like Arabs so I felt like giving them a nod. Come to think of it, if it wasn’t off-topic I’d definitely tackle tokenism and its literally black and white problem. Anyway, I don’t really know how you’re going to appropriate a culture nowadays, now that you can look the thing up and ta-daa, you know couscous is a Maghrebi dish. That was a self-nod. There’s no way to steal a culture just by enjoying it or making it yourself, now that every aspect of culture is archived you can’t steal it as in making it yours and no longer theirs. But wait, you thought I was done pointing fingers, right? Let’s come back to Arab culture and look at the fact that some black people on Tumblr are trying to say Egypt was a black country when there’s just too much evidence and logic showing that this country is Arab. Now I don’t know about you, but I think pretending that an Arab culture belongs to black people is definitely cultural appropriation.

Hmm... Have I missed a common argument? I don’t think cops represent white people but we could talk about homicide if we want to talk people killing each other. The numbers, by race, of cases when the killer and the dead have the same race should make a few people keep a low profile. Feel free to bring up any common arguments people give when they say white people are evil, I’m open minded and ready to demonstrate what’s wrong with the affirmation given. I’m pretty certain there’s no race that’s inherently evil or any good or bad trait, it’s all about individuals and who they become socially.

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read): Whiteys aren’t evil, it’s about individuals and unofficial definitions and things that can be reproached to other races and the countries where they’re the majority.

[thegenerouslypsychicbouquet-blog]

What Everyone is Saying About Stealth Commissions Is Dead Wrong And Why

The secret to YouTube marketing is getting the videos of yours to get ranked in Google searches. Once your video clip is ranked, you'll be given a constant stream of targeted views from Google. This is a great deal easier said than done? -?ranking anything demands a deep comprehension of Google's search algorithm. Unless you've an instructions manual. That is exactly where I come in. In this article, you will learn: 1. How to make the appropriate content for YouTube 2. How to formally optimize your video to rank 3. How to distribute the video of yours to rank You are aware of the inputs & outputs needed to succeed: Make good video content that drives awareness for your traffic and brand to your site. What you may not understand is the middle section? -?the ranking factors. But you have got an extensive YouTube following everything you've got to do is publish great content along with the majority will take place automatically. When you do not? You have got to jump start the ranking factors by producing them by hand. I'm not discussing spamming the shit out of the YouTube video of yours. I'm talking about taking extra time to produce perfect ranking signals for Google and YouTube. Picture your YouTube marketing as an old manual transmission automobile. to be able to find that engine turning over automatically you have got to drive it down a hill very first. The following are 9 ranking hacks that should show you exactly how to achieve that. Ranking Hack #1? -?Video Content The first area that individuals fail stands out as the videos they're creating. YouTube isn't a shopping internet site. You cannot make purchases in the platform. Precisely why would you design sales videos? It's absolutely fine to operate YouTube to host the videos of yours, but people do not give a shit about the new product of yours. YouTuber's are seeking articles to assist them to work out issues, learn skills, watch cat videos as well as waste time. In order to get that automatic steam of views, concentrate your articles accordingly. Here are a few ideal examples: Don't believe me? Go to Google and search for content associated with what I outlined above? -?you'll view YouTube videos appear in the listings. This is validation that Google believes movies would be the best way to answer that search query. I understand what you are thinking: I manage a pet store - I cannot make video content that way. You are wrong.

Ranking Hack #2? -?Length of Video YouTube is consistently updating their search algorithm to a deliver better user experience. When the platform originally introduced, aggregate video views were greatly incorporated into the standing decision (i.e. the more views your video received, the taller it will rank). This left the door wide open for IP blockers, click farming and also a terrible user experience. YouTube quickly got smart and also transformed their algorithm to take engagement elements into account. While aggregated clicks remain counted, the following metrics too play a hefty role: Number of reviews your video gets. Total seconds users spend seeing your video clip. Number of likes your video receives. Number of times your video is provided on social media. Number of times your video is on various other sites. These extra metrics forced YouTubers to produce video clips with much better, much more engaging content in an effort satisfy the algorithm. Although there's no recognized guidance on how long you should make the videos of yours though I often suggest making your videos at least two minutes in length. The explanation is simple: the more seconds you are able to hold a user on your video, the better the video clips of yours will get ranking. Therefore, having videos with increased length will add to the total seconds users spend on your videos. Bottom part line: Do not make shit content. Create videos that people want to look at and share. As a business person, you've intimate knowledge of the business of yours. Don't hold back - share! Ranking Hack #3: Naming Convention Before I get into how you can name your video, I have to quickly speak about keyword selection. Your YouTube marketing plan must target tail which is longer and much less competitive keywords. This can enable you to rank your video by simple and free hacks. If you insist on standing for automobile insurance even more power to you? -?however, you will need to construct a shit load of links to the video of yours. These days, on to the naming convention YouTube is pretty damn smart, though they cannot understand what your movies are about. Very much like on page SEO and image optimization, the yahoo looks at the name of the raw video file of yours. That means you need to optimize your video file before you publish it to YouTube. Here's the precise process: Go to your completed video file that is all set for upload. Right click the file as well as select Get Info. Add a few tags to your video which are associated with the content. Under Name & Extension, name the file after your #1 an #2 keywords. For example: How to Rank YouTube Videos? -?Ranking Videos in Google. Add in a brief description of the video of yours in the comments area. Now you're prepared to publish your file to YouTube. When you dump the file inside the upload section the raw video name is going to pull through? -?leave it as is. This is the title you need for your video. Ranking Hack #4: Description Add a link to your internet site. Add a link to your site. Add a link to your website. Am I very clear? I cannot tell you how many of my customers craft amazing videos with NO call to action as well as link to the site of theirs. YouTube provides a platform with an integrated audience? -?it's your duty to engage that audience and drive them to the internet site of yours. Your website is where you finish the marketing process? Stealth Commissions bonuses -?aka grab their info, try making a transaction, click on an ad, etc. After a link is added by you you need to optimize the remainder of the video description. This's nonetheless another spot that YouTube scans for signals on what your video is about. Here are a few ideas on optimizing your description: -Try and write no less than 200 words of content. -Use synonym and one off keywords. For instance, in case your primary keyword is How you can Rank YouTube Videos, a little one off keywords will be How to rank YouTube videos in Google, how to pick up video clips to show up in search engines, YouTube Marketing, etc. -DON'T USE DUPLICATE CONTENT. That means for Each of the video lessons of yours you have to write a distinct explanation. -Don't overuse keywords? -?you can certainly become slapped for keyword stuffing. I love to write out the video clip transcript. This could be a significant pain in the ass so I suggest contracting out it on Fiverr or following my manual on the best way to purchase the video transcript from YouTube. Ranking Hack #5: Utilize Playlists Playlists add an extra layer of signals to the video of yours. For each video I highly recommend you develop a whole new playlist using synonym keywords. Ranking Hack #6: Custom Thumbnails This does not send signals to YouTube however, it does affect engagement. Adding a customized thumbnail to the video of yours is able to have a drastic effect on your own click through rate (CTR) that will in turn drive set up your rankings. YouTube will auto select random screens from the video of yours and enable you to choose one of 3. These screenshots are often unflattering random captures that can send the wrong signals to end users. I strongly suggest setting up a custom thumbnail which stands out against the blues and the whites of Google. colors which are Bold like red, green and orange tend to stick out the most. Ranking Hack #7: Leverage Social Media As per traditional theory, search engine optimization has two aspects: 1. On page SEO. This refers to just how your site is organized, image tags, keyword density, h1/h2/h3 tags, and so on. 2. Off-page. This refers to other domains that link to your internet site. This past year we have seen a major change in conventional SEO. Social networks have changed how we interact online and also serps are beginning to account for it. There is now a third aspect: 3. Relevance. Google wishes to give the absolute best results for your query. In order for a website to fit that criteria it needs to be relevant. The fastest way to determine relevancy is measuring how many Shares, Likes and Tweets a website gets.. As a result, if you would like your video to get noticed by Google you have so you can get your video on social networks. I have a standard process that I follow and I highly suggest you do the same: a) Sync the YouTube account of yours with the social media profiles of yours. Whenever you post a new video it will automatically syndicate across your accounts. b) Post your video to relevant groups on social networking sites. If you aren't actively involved in these groups I recommend to find some. Not merely are they a great way to get community signals on your articles although they're a great way to network and learn more about your craft. c) In case you need to, you can always buy social signals. You will find a selection of quality vendors out there? -?if you do not know where you can begin, check Fiverr. Ranking Hack #8: Dress Up Your Channel Page When I see a YouTube channel without having a profile photo, header, description and links it looks like spam? -?YouTube sees it exactly the same way. Filling out your YouTube channel web page has a trickle down impact to the site content of yours. It provides one other layer of signals in regards to what your movies are about. There are four parts you have to fill out: - Add website links to all of the social networking pages of yours and site. - Add channel images. Not only will it help users determine with your information, but YouTube as well. In case you publish your picture in accordance with website seo best practices it will send a signal to search spiders. For example, YouTube-channel-name-channel-keywords.jpg will help contribute context to your page. - Sign up for very similar channels. Remember when you were a kid as well as your friend got in caught stealing something although you got punished too (guilt by association); YouTube examines what you're looking at and associates the account of yours with that content. - Add a long description; make sure you add a great deal of synonym keywords. Ranking Hack #9: Build Links The hacks laid out above will rank in any low competitive or long tail keyword. When you want to rank videos for much more competitive terms like payday loans, you are going to need to build links to the video of yours and embed the HTML on various other sites. If you're a novice to SEO, I recommend following low competition keywords. There is nothing at all drastically wrong with ranking videos for low competition keywords and is actually the path which I recommend to take. When building web links at YouTube videos you need to be mindful. YouTube is really damn good at picking up spam and its quite easy to have videos banned. I recommend building a small quantity of high quality links over an extended period of time. Some website link sources I use are: Private blog networks (PBN) Social bookmarks Web 2.0s (.Wordpress,.Weebly, etc. Partner sites My own sites () Tumblr posts Pinterest pins YouTube is an incredibly powerful platform which can drive a ton of visitors to the internet site of yours. Follow these basic steps and you are going to see an instant boost in rankings.