#which is....especially relevant now lmao

[whenastrofell]

I'm conflicted on whether or not I'm going to "let" antis follow my art account, or if I will ever even post anything ""problematic"" on there, because I want to make art my job, and it seems like a large potential audience to be getting rid of, but I also don't want to associate with antishippers on a personal level so... I don't know. Like I'm not breaking your DNI if you're following me, why do I even care.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

lies on the floor and stares at the ceiling about how lorien and the garde kids are the ultimate example of 'you inherit your parents' trauma but you will never fully understand it'

[unproduciblesmackdown]

fr both taylor's quants as mirrors to themself. rian Seen as so meritous and deserving and talked to and tasked with and advised and considered but apparently rian's whole thing is going "huh. wha" and having wendy's level of self-reflection (none). winston who is begrudgingly allowed to sit in his corner and ignored b/c he's undeserving so he can't really be meritous and nobody would look in that mirror b/c it's gonna be So not their reflection. while he just won't stop cassandraing and having all these insights and perception and observations nobody even asked or told him to have and is peak taylor understander and just like taylor: isn't guided by a paper-thin ego but also will take criticism / blame / mistreatment Too Much for his own good

[bugsbenefit]

who's getting books and who isn't?

tells you a lot actually

in lieu of us getting a Dustin companion book soon i'm doubling down on my point about how insanely telling these books are about where the story is going. especially if you look as who is getting books. and i'm saying this both about El and Will (where it's already kind of obvious why s5 is important for them) as well as Mike (where it's also kind of obvious why s5 is important for his character but it hasn't reached mainstream awareness yet apparently lmao)

as of now Lucas, Max, and Dustin (about to come out), as well as Robin and Eddie, and even Hopper and Terry have one. and they all explore things outside of the main canon by doubling down on what filmed canon already established and adding a bit more layers since they have the time to focus on a single character (like exploring racism and how Lucas deals with it in his book, something the show doesn't dwell on, or exploring Robin's queerness, taking place before the events of s3)

and the focus these books have makes sense since they're mostly written by commissioned writers. so obviously they want to skirt any topics that delve too much into plot heavy areas where the writers a) wouldn't know where the story is going or b) even if they got notes, you don't want important lore drops that impact the later story dropped in companion books

in short we're getting extra story's about no spoilery topics the main story doesn't have time to/want to explore

which makes it all the more interesting we're already getting books about someone like Robin when you know if you asked fans what povs they'd like to see someone like El would rank significantly higher if you trust favourite character rankings. but for some reason El, Mike, and Will have never gotten one

and some of these reasons are just really obvious, especially when it comes to El and Will

1) they obviously can't just drop a book on El yet. on one hand, because her backstory with the lab is a major plot point of the show and they can't spoil it in a book (even if they tried excluding it, writing 200ish pages for a character who can't remember what happened before they turned like 8 is one of those things that would be kind of hard to avoid coming up). even post s4 there's still so many questions about her past and time at the lab, they just shouldn't give unlimited access to her inner monologue about it yet. and on the other hand, El finding her place in the world is quite literally one of her characters main recurring motives, even a companion book as innocuous as "El tries out hobbies" would be exploring something we'd kind of want to see on screen since it'd be a resolution to her character growth and not a fun side quest

2) they also just can't drop a book on Will. the fact that we never found out what actually happened to Will in the UD is already reason enough, the show clearly wants to explore it on screen later on. (now even more obvious since there's already confirmed s1 UD Will in the s5 official teasers). you really can't write a book from someone's pov who's main trauma and life changing moment is something you don't want to get into yet. just doesn't work

there's plot points the show obviously saved for later so both Will and El are pretty unfit as book topics

but with Mike that doesn't actually apply in the same obvious way. Mike not getting a book despite being the leader of the party, having the most on screen defined dynamics with the other kids, and being part of the shows "main" ship would be really odd. like. Really odd. on paper he'd probably be one of the first choices for an easy book protagonist for a fun party side quest. of course unless one of the two book deal breaker reasons applies also:

they can't give his pov because giving his unfiltered inner monologue would spoil s5

they want to explore something relevant to his character themselves on screen and it's not fit for a companion book

but again, in comparison to Will and El where the why is really obvious Mike sticks out because we don't officially know what he's got going on yet. he has no mysterious absence where we don't know what happened to him like with Will and no open ended origin story like with El

it just makes it a bit funnier to me how many people are still fundamentally unconvinced Mike has something going on that's important for the outcome of s5. post s2 the show tries to get some distance from Mike's head and he's joined the club of main characters who don't get books alongside major canon event magnets El and Will. and yeah, obviously you wouldn't want a book from the characters pov who's feelings and sexuality you're actively hiding. it's also a bit of a no brainer you don't want a companion work going into how he's not been doing so great over the past few years because the reasons for that are kind of relevant to the main story. Mike feeling guilty for El dying all the way in s1 is something that might be more fit to bring up in show when their relationship is being addressed instead of in side material

but all in all? the fact that out of all the kids El, Mike, and Will are the only ones who don't get secondary material yet is probably the biggest give away that the three of them are who s5 is planning to give the most insight on even all the in show build up aside. they're being skipped as book povs despite existing public interest and seeming like conventionally easy picks for book side stories

in the current economy around shows franchises, going against what'd be a good marketing decision is always a dead giveaway something is going on

[obitoslover]

Your perspective on things is AMAZING. I have no words, I'm just

Your insight on the characters and situations is just-- it feels so canon/dark (not "light hearted" as the actual series, but fitting with Konoha Founders era) I feel I can touch it with my own hands (pls tell me what's that fanfic so I'll follow/subscribe.)

And I love the historical facts, I really admire how much you know about japanese history and language

@narutobrainrotstuff @evilkitten3

mutuals what do you think it would happen if madara was the first hokage? excluding kurozetsu's whole plot ofc

[natalyarose]

𝓈𝒶𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒶 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇 (𝓋𝑒𝒹𝒾𝒸 𝒶𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑜) ♡

My little sister introduced me to Sabrina Carpenter and I gotta say I loove her!! Not necessarily my type of music, but the older I get, the more I realise how every genre has something so beautiful to offer and it just makes me so happy to see ART and joy in this world of any kind :')

My first thought is she's gottaaa be Sun influenced- the pastel, literally sunny visuals, the bubbly smile & attitude, the 'lightness'. I find Solar women possibly the easiest to spot- even Sun women I've met who have 'darker' personalities & aesthetics still offer this light energy. I checked, and she is Krittika Sun! (I know she's getting very popular now so this is all probably old news to a lot of people lol but just thought I'd share).

ALSO, I've noticed people remarking on how she is bringing the element of dance and full 'performance style' back into music. Krittika is intimately connected to the art of dance.

Then she has Moon conjunct ascendant in Purvabhadrapada, in the 1st house! Classic Jupiterian sass & vocals (Jupiterians often have gorgeous and or very powerful voices since Jupiter traditionally rules the throat) + Purvabhadrapadas position as the archetypal 'femme fatale' is referenced in her song 'Feather'. Religious imagery is common to see with Purvabhadrapda natives too given the bhadrapada Nakshatras relation to sacrifice.

Since she has Purvabhadrapada Moon; this makes her yoni animal the lion- glamorous, proud, strong.

I noticed someone comparing her energy/demeanour/look in her music video for her song 'Espresso' to Sharpay in Highschool Musical, who is played by Krittika Ascendant, Ashley Tidsdale. Definitely a nice depiction of Krittika energy- being in Taurus, we see Venus (beauty, pleasure, luxury, art) combined with Sun (joy, warmth, self love, authority). Edit - y'all I think I got confused between different birth time sources, but Ashley is in fact mostly Bharani ascendant HOWEVER, with Venus in Krittika ruling her chart.

As well as Sun & Jupiter Nakshatras' abundant qualities, I think Sabrina having Moon in the 1st definitely helps to garner likability & widespread appeal. Moon reflects whatever is around it, so she's going to be somebody who as an artist, is naturally attuned to public opinion. Moon in the 1st can have a knack for identifying what is popular, and reflecting it back through their persona or art in their own way.

With Sabrina's Sun, Moon & Asc consisting entirely of Purvabhadrapada & Krittika, this makes the energies of the 'brahmin caste' extremely relevant to her. Brahmin Nakshatras tend to be associated with spirituality, knowledge, education, prestige or a 'priestly' quality. Of course, not always especially since the ways in which each Nakshatra works is very unique; but heavily Brahmin influenced people tend to find themselves in very privileged positions in life- even if they're in a rough spot, they carry themselves with an aura of importance and therefore tend to easily attract what they desire.

As I talked about in my Vishakha women post, especially Vishakha but honestly strong Jupiter influence in general is often somewhere in the charts of those who have the type of fame where they are ever expanding & deeply influencing the masses.

Anyway, I'm eating up her music videos lol, the solar energy is so uplifting- sorta makes me nostalgic for the 2010s, when mainstream music & trends was a lot more solar inclined in that way. Some may have considered it shallow (my edgy 12 year old self sure did lmao) but honestly I think there can be something very spiritual about artists making music that's just fun, joyful and silly.

Thankyou for reading & I definitely want to do more small observational/analysis posts like this! ♡

[apostaterevolutionary]

The source that showed "all" the choices you import into DATV was made in bad faith. You can see in the source that there are more tabs and therefore options than what the poster wanted people to think

I REALLY hope you’re right anon, but I got the info from the IGN article where they interviewed Epler, which he also posted about on bluesky, so there’s no reason to think it’s incorrect at this stage

And like. I get not including a lot of choices. I’m sure whether you gave the prisoner at Ostagar food isn’t relevant lmao. But like. If true, Varric must literally never mention Hawke given even their gender can’t even be selected, let alone whether they got left in the fade or not. And that second decision apparently didn’t affect Varric as much as Inquisition implied, if he’s the same person either way. And it also means rook never gets to know Varric well enough for him to mention a big part of his life, that being his time in Kirkwall. Which sounds like such a shallow and disappointing relationship, something I would expect bioware to do better than. Same with Morrigan and her potential entire child or romance with the warden or the warden’s potential death, as a friend or lover especially. I don’t think those are small decisions

I do hope there’s like. Something they’re not saying. Why they would present it like this if so, I can’t fathom, because of course people are getting upset. But maybe there are more choices. I really hope so. I personally am waiting until it actually comes out either way before deciding to buy, but the hope that was slowly building in me has really dwindled now. It just sounds so shallow and that’s what really bothers me

[chopshajen]

~ The Trickster Cat ~ Compelling, Enigmatic, Condescending ~

I said a bit ago that I had a Kooza/Cats crossover in mind and even if it was cursed I would draw it anyways, and here it is now, surprisingly uncursed, or at least, surprisingly satisfactory! I'll have to do some dance poses sooner or later but I'm happy with this as a start :3

I tried to keep the design true to both sources of inspiration. Some thoughts on the design under the cut:

There are some elements of the Trickster's design that translate pretty well to stage!Cats costumes, namely the smooth-limb effect of the Trickster's extra-long sleeves and flared pant legs compared with the Cats arm/legwarmers. It's something I really like about the traditional Cats costumes (and a big part of why Cats 2019's designs don't work)* and something I REALLY like about the Trickster's outfits, so it's great for me.

*For further expansion on the subject, @missing-sock-misto has a great breakdown of the Cats costumes here. The relevant part is this:

They help shape the limbs and invoke the feeling of fluff. Human limbs taper, especially at the joints: wrists, elbows, knees, ankles. The arm and leg warmers help cover this, because they’re thick, making them more like cat limbs, which are functionally tubes.

It's one of the first elements I noticed when I first watched the Cats stage show, and when started interrogating myself as to why I liked the designs so much, I realized its importance in "evoking felinity", as azerairis and missing-sock put it. There are a lot of Cats adaptations that, for some godsforsaken reason, get rid of the arm and leg warmers, and it's almost always a mistake. We're trying to make them look like cute cats, not like painted humans.

For the Trickster, why they have long sleeves and flared pant legs may not be as obvious, but they do still serve a visual purpose. They make the Trickster appear that much more ethereal and otherworldly. Everything about them is smooth and continuous - legs flowing into feet, stripes swirling uninterrupted across their body, movement lithe and serpentine - and that makes them seem inhuman, especially when put in contrast with the stick-like, stumbling, uncertain Innocent.

Other more minor elements also translate pretty well. For instance, the Trickster's makeup is already very exaggerated, as is their "hairline" (hat...line?), in a way that doesn't look out of place in Cats. They have stripes on their face, monochrome eyes, and the :3 kitty mouth. The stripes on their body were easy to translate as well. Honestly I didn't have to think over it as much as I expected LOL Except for the wig. Don't ask me how that works. I do think this design is maybe...too simplistic? Like I maybe could've incorporated some of the suit elements of their costume, cuz the Trickster does look kind of odd without their tie. But I wasn't going to give them a collar because pfffftbl lmao could you imagine. Maybe they could have something Skimbleshanks-esque for a top with some formality to it, though I'm not sure putting human clothes on a cat version of an unknowable trickster god person makes sense either LOL

[neechees]

Do you know if there are more places to research the Rossdale powerplant in Edmonton? The city website just says "oh we reburied the remains so it's all good now lmao" which I don't believe. I tried looking at the Papaschase Band website too but their history page didn't get very much into it

Oh ill tell you about it right now in addition to getting you more sources lmfao

According to this, some of the more recent graves that they found at Rossdale plant were reburied in 2016 at the Fort Edmonton Traditional Burial Site. However, i think there was more graves than this, and wouldn't be surprised if there were more under the current plant location even now rather than just around it. According to my Kohkum, there was also more graves around the bridge that sits directly across the plant and leads to the other end of the River Valley.

The whole River Valley area was traditionally Blackfoot land first, but eventually other tribes would come in to trade and host various ceremonies together, particularly near where the river is (which is also where Rossdale plant is), and that's also where a lot of our dead are buried. So for hundreds of years, what is now called "Edmonton" was essentially a Native city & gathering place, and the reason this area was turned INTO a (colonized) city of Edmonton is because the settlers saw that a lot of Natives were here, and they thought it would be convenient to settle the area so they could convert us to Christianity, and/or replace the Indigenous population. This is true for a lot of other cities across Canada, such as Wetaskiwin, Heart Lake (which is where Native couples often got married). Edmonton also has a terrible history of VERY bad racism & segregation, land theft, and displacement.

I mention all this because the trouble is, this place has been occupied by Natives for thousands of years, and so there's graveyards & sacred spaces everywhere, especially near the river valley, and they would have started construction during the time they didn't give a shit if they were disturbing our dead OR living. I could believe they potentially moved the bones and reburied them when they were first building the plant, but I don't know WHERE or when they did it.

The land where Rossdale Plant is located now was traditionally called Pêhonân which means "waiting place" in Cree (this coincidentally is also the name for what is now Fort Carlton, Saskatchewan). All that I've just talked about in this video here under the section "Rossdale Flats" starting at 7:23. Below is an old photo of the Rossdale Flatts where Natives were still camping out

The Cree band Nêhiyawak has a band called "Pehonan" that did the score for the documentary Ôtênaw, and their cover for this album features the memorial statue that's there, but this is from a bottom view with the camera looking up. When upright, the memorial looks like a four poled tipi sitting atop a circle, which I've added as the right photo. I think the plant also thinks this memorial makes up for the colonization and such but obviously, it doesn't.

Now some lovely sources for you:

If you have a vimeo account, there's an oral history documentary called Ôtênaw about the city of Edmonton and the River Valley that iirc also talks about the Rossdale Plant (but again, the surrounding River Valley is also relevant to the plant) that you can watch here. I had the pleasure of meeting the person who narrates the video (Dwayne Donald) & learning from him directly.

Here's a video with a teensy bit of info

Here's a free PDF that talks about Edmonton & Rossdale plant

Here is a paper that talks about the history of the Rossdale Plant as well as mentioning the graveyards during the construction of the plant.

The last paper I linked, in my opinion, still reads from a more settler Canadian point of view and doesn't really take the Indigenous history of Edmonton there seriously, and so I'd say read it critically. One thing is that I find it interesting that in this paper while it does the bare minimum of mentioning its important history with First Nations, later it reverts to saying the area was a "wilderness" & "naturally shaped" & disregards the history once more to justify the construction of the plant (despite archeology in the River Valley finds that FN have been there for 12,000+ years). This paper also includes maps of the history of the plant's construction throughout the years, and includes a blank area that reads "no permanent human settlement, only First Nations camps" meaning, this paper doesn't take Indigenous people living at this site (or potential graveyards near there) as valid enough to call it our land, and once again, justifies the construction of the plant because no White people were there. Perhaps not out of malice, but it still very White centered and ignorant

So while several of these sources do say "we reburied the remains" (which I don't necessarily think they're lying, there were remains that were buried), I also don't think they're completely off the hook because it looks like the plant can barely stand to mention it's still on Native land at the end of the day.

[billdenbrough]

this one is kinda convoluted to explain LMAO basically @naturecalls111, @wyverningx and i were discussing one of mina's wips on twt (the summer beach episode, the finished version of which can be found here) and the convo turned to kevin dealing with aaron's thighs around his head. mina said something about still deciding which way kevin would be facing, which i think meant like. left or right. but i was still fixed on the legs around his head and was like. what. like i was thinking forward or back, got confused, so wrote her this to explain what i was visualising, and then she was like ok now post LMAO notsfw warning!! kevin's fantasies get reasonably in-depth and also vaguely unhinged. but it's shenanigans-y <3

Kevin’s top three fantasies this month—he’s pretty diligent about cycling them through, keeping them seasonally relevant, you know—are, as follows:

Kevin’s gold medal—origin unimportant to the fantasy, though it was the Olympics last time—is over both his and Aaron’s necks at the same time, forcing them to press in close, the way Kevin likes. He doesn’t know if this one is physically feasible—maybe he can get a custom ribbon—but he doesn’t care. It makes him feel hot all over, cheeks flushed and dick leaking, to think about the two of them pressed that close together, naked and sweaty and the exhilaration of victory flowing through them both. Kevin’s pride and satisfaction, and Aaron looking at him, that proud smile, rare but fierce, and it’s all for him. Eyes intent, dark, wanting Kevin, proud of Kevin, celebrating Kevin. Kevin’s not too proud to admit that sometimes he can come from that alone, even before he imagines his hand wrapped around both their dicks, or kissing his name out of Aaron’s mouth, or Aaron fucking into him while Kevin tries—and fails—not to chase his mouth for a kiss.

Aaron is sitting on the edge of the pier, ostensibly looking out over the ocean while the rest of their friends do whatever it is they’re doing. Kevin doesn’t bother to fill in those sorts of details in his fantasies, and the auto-complete in his brain is impeded by the fact that when he’s with Aaron, he doesn’t pay attention to them in the background unless they’re being especially loud, annoying or incorrect. So in Kevin’s head, they’re mostly an unfinished sketch background, doing something or other while Aaron looks over the ocean, looking at a distance like some character in one of Jean’s arthouse films. The reality of it is that Kevin is swimming beneath the pier, bobbing his head over Aaron’s dick. Kevin is often a merman in this, when the athlete part of his brain wakes up enough to be like, your muscles would give up before you made Aaron come, and you can’t have that, which is annoying but true. So sometimes Kevin is a merman, and then he has a tangential fantasy in those cases which involves whisking Aaron beneath the ocean and showing him how cool and handsome and good-at-things Kevin is in his natural element, and Aaron is like okay, sure, but can I look at your gills again? in an attempt to not seem so awestruck by Kevin, but his cheeks give him away every time, because Kevin always knows Aaron in his head, even when his fantasies lend themselves to something else. That’s a tangent, anyway. The important thing is sucking off Aaron at the beach while everyone else is there and can’t tell. Kevin came to that one in the shower earlier.

Aaron’s thighs are around Kevin’s head. The reason doesn’t really matter. These days, it’s usually some stupid competition at the beach, because it’s summer and everyone Kevin knows is a competitive asshole, or they’re Andrew, meaning just an asshole, or Jeremy, meaning just competitive. Aaron is sitting on Kevin’s shoulders, his quads visibly working as he clenches his thighs tight around Kevin’s head. Kevin at one point had to fact-check this, wondering if maybe he was just contouring Aaron’s thighs in a horny haze, but no. When they next went to the beach and Kevin watched Aaron’s legs as he took a running jump off the edge of the pier, there was definite action in the quadriceps. Unrelatedly, Kevin had to excuse himself by jumping into the ocean too. Matt had been baffled and Seth had given him a look somewhere between calculating and disgusted, but for the most part, Kevin thinks it was a successful swerve. Anyway. Kevin’s fantasy. Aaron’s thighs are around his head, clenching tight, and Kevin’s dick is hard as a rock. Sometimes Aaron notices, and says something. Sometimes Aaron notices, and his dick stirs against Kevin’s head. Sometimes Aaron doesn’t notice, or doesn’t say anything if he does, and Kevin gets edged by his own fucking head, painfully hard while Aaron says stuff like hurry up, I want to beat Neil or a little to the left, the light is to the left, do you have working eyes or stop fucking moving, I don’t want her to claw out my eyes because you’re complaining about your shoes, I can almost reach her. But that’s usually enough for Kevin, the idea of being so completely surrounded by Aaron’s body heat, the firm muscles in his thighs, the softness of the skin on the underside, pressed against Kevin’s shoulders.

So Kevin is really at a loss when that fantasy starts playing out in person, but develops in a direction he’d never anticipated. Specifically, Neil and Aaron grappling, and then Neil not letting go—because he is the worst person on the entire planet—when Nicky sneak-attacks Matt, Matt loses his footing a little and falls sideways, and Neil fucking swivels Aaron around Kevin’s neck on his way down into the ocean.

Aaron’s startled whoa! is going to live in Kevin’s head forever, probably. Part of him is also impressed at Aaron’s quick instincts, moving his feet enough that they don’t get caught on Kevin’s chest and unbalance them too.

Most of him is stuck in the current moment, though, face-to-face with Aaron’s crotch.

He can feel his dick against his face. He can smell it.

He—horrifyingly, desperately, unsurprisingly—wants to taste it.

[moretheta]

my personal thoughts below the cut:

gonna say no to benjamin, personally. partially because i trust longhi's judgement on the matter, but mostly because it just would not make sense to go to such lengths for a person who is already at the top. all beyond would need to do was stack up the military and let benjamin's connections do the rest of the work. also, not very interesting story wise (would be kind of insane if nasubi's firstborn wasn't even his own lmao). 1/10

camilla actually has a lot going for her as a candidate. i think the fact that she already has curse users on her side speaks for itself- i could see beyond being the one to put that into place. everything we know about camilla makes it seem like she's not someone who's much into planning or relying on others. on the other hand, she would undoubtably be tough to control- not good for making beyond's puppet king dreams come true. i also saw someone say she bears a similar mentality to (isaac) netero and beyond: namely, a selfish pursuit of her own interests, and the will to do absolutely anything to accomplish them. 7/10

zhang lei: i'm already 90% sure he's meant to be the son of onior longbao, so he's really not a top candidate. not to mention the idea of him being such a senior prince who doesn't know nen or is surrounded by other competant people who know nen doesn't make me feel like he's being supported by beyond behind the scenes. 1/10

i'm hearing a lot of tserriednich talk, mostly due to his resemblance (debatable) to young netero and his vast nen potential. personally i'm not convinced: i think beyond would have put more defensive countermeasures into protecting his child; including, say... a loyal retinue of guards!? like if tserriednich wasn't such a monster at nen he would be dead right now. all of his guards seem either indifferent, scared, enjoy the way he enables violence, or actively plotting to kill him. not a whole lot of loyalty. also.... it would be kind of boring story-wise IMO. like he's already got so much going on, it makes the world feel kinda small. 4/10

i don't really see tubeppa as them either, mostly for the same reasons as zhang lei ; a senior prince who was never taught nen / or is guarded by skilled nen users? unlikely. although it would be a moment of supreme dramatic irony for longhi to have to kill her own prince. 3/10

tyson: kind of a dark horse candidate tbh. we also know so little about her!! and also, by extension, her faction. maybe there's a hidden nen user amongst her guards? i kinda wanna see it, mostly to watch her get roped further into the story. since kurapika already has eyes on her via izunavi, i've kind of been waiting for the moment she becomes more relevant to the plot. not to mention the fact that she and beyond both have cult leader vibes (or in beyond's case, are directly inspired by a cult leader). 6/10

i'm 90% sure luzurus is brocco li's son (same deal as ike zhang lei). but we know as little about him as we do tyson (although he is slowly becoming more relevant) so possibly the brocco li thing is a red herring? it's weird that he doesn't have any guards who know nen, but we also haven't seen enough of his faction to be a 100% certain of that... idk, i'm still gonna say 2/10

salé-salé: dead. 0/10

halkenburg: unlikely IMO, especially after 403. i think having TWO secret parents would be kind of overkill. i also think that, considering how much insight we've gotten into his own thoughts, that he would never bring up beyond or the hunter association or anything. 2/10

kacho: dead- but i give it a 1/10 in case of the twin thing.

i could see a world in which kacho and fugetsu are revealed to not really be twins (they do look completely different) but i think it's odd for her to be so unprotected and defenseless right now. beyond seems like the time to have more of a plan in place to defend his kids. could be interesting story wise, but... i'm not buying it. 3/10

momoze: dead. 0/10

marayam: this one makes sense to me. although he's a bit on the younger side, which means that beyond was a little late on the jump when it came to siring a prince, his youth does make him the perfect target for a bit of fatherly manipulation. and it would make sense for him not to know nen, because he's not really old enough to learn (unless beyond awakened him as a baby?) although even in that case we haven't gotten explicit confirmation (i.e. him or another charcater outright stating it) that he doesn't know nen. and there's something to be said about him having a super powerful spirit guardian beast that keeps growing... and yet, we've yet to see it's parasitic nature reflected in marayam's behavior. kid must either have a MASSIVE pool of aura or his nen beast is just built different. that also might explain why sevanti was so desperate to protect him. 8.5/10

woble: to be honest, the best case i've heard for woble is that silent majority was sent to PROTECT her by beyond (or someone in the hunter association). yes, it disrupted kurapika's nen class, but it's possible the assassin just disasgreed with kurapika's methods. so far, all of the people it's taken out have either been woble's enemies, or had the potential to be enemies. it speaks to this idea of a third party trying to assist a prince. there;s also the idea that perhaps woble's nen beast hasn't shown up yet because it might be a giveaway to beyond's identity, and for the same reasons as maryam it would explain why she doesn'st know nen. also, we already have a confimed beyond spy on her team: bill ( love you bill, i don't think you want to hurt the baby- but maybe you're being manipulated without knowing it). on the other hand, the fact that oito seems completely unaware of beyond's plan speaks to her either lying (unlikely IMO, i just didn't get that vibe from the panel) or she.. didn't know. which is terrible in it's own way but also definitely something he would do. from a story perspective, it would turn longhi into an enemy, which would be sad, but good potential for drama. 8/10

other: i think everything going for woble goes just as well for oito. we don't know exacly how old she is, but considering the fact that beyond is probably older than he looks it's safe to say it isn't completely impossible. on the other hand, there is the fact that she's from meteor city.. and the middle child of five. perhaps she was planted there for her own safety, until it came time for her to meet the king? i also wouldn't put it beyond nasubi to have struck a deal with beyond. and i also think it's possible that she has no idea who her father is, and beyond kept her in the dark so as to better control her, but positioned people around her as protection. also, it would be cool. 8/10

[genericpuff]

I WANNA TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING EISNERS-

i've been finding lately that there are so many topics i still wanna talk about concerning LO and its development and they just don't happen because i get distracted or busy and my brain is like "ok we're just gonna pretend we've already talked about it even though we haven't" JFKDLSAJFDASKLFJSLKA

Let's talk about the Eisners and LO's recent 'win'.

I've already briefly mentioned in previous posts that LO has had a lot of its awards and accolades bought for it. This is especially true for both the NYT Bestseller label (seriously, none of those labels are ever earned, it's not some top 100 list that you compete on, it goes to whoever is willing to pay for it or whoever an editorial column wants to highlight) and, of course, the Eisner Award, which is not exactly an award judged by the industry's finest (the judges this year were made up of largely comic book shop owners and librarians).

But we're not here to talk about that. I wanna talk about what happened after LO won its second Eisner.

First off, the fact that it can be nominated at all when it doesn't even really fit the criteria for their submissions is sketchy at best:

see: "new, professionally produced long-form original comics work posted online in 2022." LO is not 'new'. Sure, it has new episodes, but I don't think that really follows the spirit of what they meant by 'new'. The Eisner doesn't seem like an award that should be granted to the same series twice, is my point, and that's one of the many complaints brought up in the absolute dressing down that LO got in its announcement post on the Webtoons Official IG page.

Of course, you can see for yourself right here.

But for the sake of fun, let's share some of the excerpts here.

(and yes I'm sharing a LOT of these because frankly I don't trust WT to not delete them in an attempt to hide all the shit that's being thrown at their precious "baby")

While names have been censored to protect the users involve, I will say one thing - this isn't some attempt from antiLO/ULO members to brigade the series' win, there are other comic creators in this discussion as well from the Canvas section who aren't pleased with seeing LO win another Eisner when there are multiple new series from this past year alone which deserve more attention than they're getting. Again, see for yourself if you click on the link above, the vast majority of comments on this post are expressing their disappointment and you can tell from how they've been sitting at the top while all the positive comments are being 'pushed' to the bottom - the like counts say it all.

All of this, paired with the fact that LO didn't win a SINGLE user-voted award during the Webtoonies, goes to show that the Webtoons audience is over LO. They're done with it. It's not relevant anymore, the only ones who still keep up with it are the stans and those holding on in the hopes that the story gets around to resolving the SA plotline and gets its TV show (which I've also mentioned has a real possibility of not happening, at least not now when it would count the most LMAO)

It still gets more likes than any other series on the platform (for now) but you can tell during its current hiatus that when LO is out of sight, it's out of people's minds - despite many of these episodes now being weeks old, their like counts aren't going up, no new readers are being pulled in. And the fact that a series with over 6 million subscribers can barely scratch 100k likes nowadays is... really something.

And that's on its free to read episodes, it's FP episodes - where views count the most because it's where LO makes its money and initial views - aren't even a fraction of what the free episodes often take well over a week to gain at this point.

Episode 252:

And the midseason finale, 253:

Compare it to Down to Earth which gets 70k likes on average on its free episodes (though its current new FP is sitting at the 1k mark), is LO still bringing in higher numbers than other series? Yes. But it's clearly falling to a point where it's going to be on par with every other comic on the platform in no time. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like after it comes back from this poorly-timed hiatus, when all of its official fan groups have also been shuttered preventing people from staying in touch within their own fandom.

Awards like the Webtoonies are, while largely just for street cred, still audience-based, and I really hope the fact that the people have spoken not once, but twice through their engagement with the platform - both through the comment section on LO's Eisner win and the votes in favor of other series in the Webtoonies - will be a major wake-up call to WT that they can't keep trying the same things over and over again expecting different results. They can't keep stuffing money into LO as if advertising or awards are the reason LO isn't pulling in the numbers it used to. They can't keep pretending that LO still has the merit and credibility that it once had 5 years ago.

It's like that comparison from Super Eyepatch Wolf talking about why you shouldn't take advice on how to be "successful" from Youtubers who got famous 5+ years ago:

"Say you decide you want to become a carpenter, and particularly, how to build a nice chair. Think about the kind of person you'd want to learn that skill from. Would it be from someone who has built nice chairs every day for 20 years? Or would it be the guy who built one nice chair five years ago out of a special kind of wood that doesn't exist anymore, who has no experience with the kind of wood available to you now?"

LO is a byproduct of a version of Webtoons that no longer exists. It was fortunate enough to join the Canvas section when the Canvas section was still only lightly populated, before WT started trying to sell the idea that anyone could become "rich" on their platform (an idea largely perpetuated by creators LIKE RACHEL who only became big because WT threw all of their money at them), before Greek myth comics became commonplace (again, something that's a consequence of Rachel/Lore Olympus) and before the romance genre became largely filled with problematic "dark" romances (again, see Lore Olympus).

Do you see the pattern of what I'm talking about here? A lot of what Webtoons became known for was a byproduct of Lore Olympus and series like it, because those series did phenomenally well, due to being in the right place at the right time, so WT went "hey, cool, this makes us lots of money! Let's do more of that!" Obviously this isn't to say that Lore Olympus is the root of all evil here OR that it didn't have its own merit back in the day, but if you make a series that blows every other series out of the water in stats, it's only natural for a company to want to pursue more series and story tropes like it in the hopes that it'll replicate exactly what comics like LO did, completely misunderstanding why LO did well in the first place. At the time, LO's art was unique for the platform, and it was tackling a story that was extremely popular on platforms like Tumblr so it naturally gained a crowd.

But that was five years ago. Since then, the WT audience climate has changed dramatically, as it always does every few years; and LO and WT haven't kept up. We went through a phase of BL, isekai, and now WT seems to be in an odd limbo because it's still clinging to a series from three whole lifetimes ago, especially now with so many of its other signature series either finally ending (True Beauty) or walking away from the platform entirely (Let's Play).

At this point, Lore Olympus is a chair that was nice five years ago, but has since started to fall apart - its paint is chipping, and its legs don't stand up so well anymore - and WT is still trying to sell it you as the exact same chair - with cheap new paint and a few bits and bobs attached to try and convince you that the chair is new - but it's long past its prime. This isn't to say that the chair itself doesn't deserve to exist, just that it shouldn't be given so much proprietary advertising and attention when there are so many other works on the platform that deserve to be uplifted and seen.

LO was good for its era, it was successful for a reason, but we're halfway through 2023 and it's painfully obvious that the comic and the platform's audience is ready to move on to new territories. Webtoons just needs to learn to let go.

[tibby]

i think it's partly bc of rerecording her albums and having fans love the vault tracks that she now feels she cant leave anything on the cutting room floor just in case

i definitely think that's part of it, but - and i say this as someone who likes a majority of the vault tracks - i think it was a good thing that they were initially left on the cutting room floor. including them originally would have detracted from what the albums were trying to say.

speak now and 1989 are the best examples of this. the point of speak now was two things: taylor wanting to prove she could do it on her own, and each song referencing a specific person or scenario. with the exception of when emma falls in love (the weakest of the lot imo) and castles crumbling (which has a feature), the SNTV vault tracks are more...vague in who/what they're about. and sure, if they'd been released on the original album with the secret messages we might have more context, but that isn't something we can say for certain. speak now is the only album that's about multiple people and we can pinpoint who or what each song is referencing (except maybe sparks fly which was included for the fans, and haunted but that could be because i've never cared enough to investigate if it's about john or joe).

as for 1989, i think the vault tracks are definitely stronger than some of the songs that made the cut (as much as i love WTNY and HYGTG, they're not her best work), but i don't think they would have fit into the story she was trying to tell. whether taylor successfully made an album that is about independence and not love is up for debate, but she claims that was her intention. IION and say don't go aren't great fits for that story, especially since it was one she was trying to tell within the secret messages.

i think red's biggest problem is that it was already too long of an album (which is also part of speak now's problem). i think the red vault tracks fit the theme of all the varying degrees of love, but red TV clocks out at over two hours. it's possible that forever winter in particular was too raw a song to release at the time (has she played it live yet? i haven't kept up with eras tour that much).

and while i love the fearless vault tracks, i do wonder if including them would have earned it less acclaim. they're good songs, but fearless is by far her most polished album imo. even the deluxe tracks, which i also adore, kinda take away from how well rounded the standard album is. it's very possible it's only capped at 13 tracks because cds back then could only hold so much, but i also think that it was a better decision for the marketing of the album itself.

but now, with ttpd and the eight million versions of midnights, it's harder to find the good shit because it's surrounded by so much filler. and yeah, part of it is that some of the songs on those albums are just...not good (bejeweled my deepest enemy), but i think a culling would have greatly benefitted them. ESPECIALLY with ttpd. taylor's always been songwriter who releases stuff that could be diary entries, but at least before it was like...you at least edited this. now it just seems like we're getting every single journal entry as is. and it's tiring. 31 songs is too much. hell, 16 songs for lover was too much.

ultimately i think it comes down to the fact that she no longer gets any push back from the people she works with, and fans are both willing to accept quantity over quality and (for many swifties, but not all) there's just a refusal to criticise her work at all. and i think taylor's desire to constantly release new content (which i think is a combination of a constant need for relevancy combined with the fact she's always writing) combined with being surrounded by yes men and adoring fans is impacting her work negatively. which has been the case since lover if not earlier, but i think midnights/ttpd are her most glaring examples of it.

anyway lmao sorry this got long. sorry for never being on here and then finally showing up to have opinions about taylor swift. do you guys still think i'm hot.

[ashenquillalso]

Did someone ask for me to info dump about my characterization of Grian? No? Well, too bad, you’re getting it anyway

The way I organized this is based on the character study document I made like, a year and a half ago, so some of the details matter and some of them don’t. They’re all gonna be included anyway, though, because I said so :]

His full legal name is Grian H. Dreamslayer. Why? Because Scar said so LMAO. I literally have no clue what the “H” even stands for (Hermit?) but like. Does it really matter? Idk man he’s just some guy so I’m not gonna think about it that much

He is an avian hybrid, with traits specifically derived from crows. He also has “Watcher” traits, which are manifested visually as pink/purple-y feathers & an Evo symbol on his forehead. He also has “void magic”, which is basically the ability to harness the void and bend it to his will. However, he doesn’t like his Watcher traits, so he uses the void to hide them! He can make permanent darkness cover his feathers so all of them look black, and casts his forehead in shadow to hide the symbol. He also tends to hide his headwings, which he does by creating a sort of “rift” around them so they aren’t visible.

Grian is very reactive to his environment. He’s willing to be proactive when the situation calls for it—especially because he’s a natural leader—but, he usually prefers to see how things happen naturally. He’s somewhat complacent out of reflex, but when he’s in his right mind, he hates taking orders & is not fond of authority figures. With small/everyday things, he can be really argumentative against things he disagrees with. In important situations, however, he typically airs on the side of caution. Grian likes to pry for information, but isn’t always the most tactful. He knows knowledge is power, but sometimes he’s too conspicuous about gaining said knowledge, and people can be tipped off by it.

A few other details about him:

Smells like: wind, spring air, clean/fresh

He is street smart: has special knowledge of hunting & foraging, as well as close-quarters combat

Likes: tea, pastries (big sweet tooth)

Dislikes: coffee (he drinks it anyway and whines the whole time)

Passions: flying, studying magic

Habits/”quirks”: his wings are very emotive, he bites his nails & pulls his hair when stressed

Special, plot-relevant skills: gunslinger, knife enthusiast

He has a terrible sleep schedule (night owl)

Idk how to end a post but that’s all for now! I’ll keep posting stuff about other characters to here, I think :]

If you’re interested in reading my fic, it’s This Profession is Not Scar-Safe on AO3! Beware of hermitshipping, as it’s a Scarian-centric fic.

Thanks for listening to my drabbles :]

[shiny-jr]

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH I literally cannot put into words how much I loved the latest Damnation au chapter- I was literally seconds away from putting my phone down to get back to work but as soon as I saw a glimpse of the fic, I just couldn't help but put everything on hold

I was really impressed with how you included Epel into the story in a way that just about correlated to Epel in canon (like how he was actively opposed to hit position in the castle). Like taking into consideration of the time period and the possible reasons why Epel would be relevant there in the first place despite not being in the original tale- SO WELL DONE!! Not to mention Vil going out of his way to find potential successors really emphasizes his hatred for Neige (poor guy😭) Also the way you write about Rook??? I knew he'd be creepy but gyat damn your writing only increased the feeling of it ten-fold. Especially in that scene after he climbed through the window and interrupted MC and Vil- Literally foaming at the mouth i was like 'holy crap this is it, we're gonna get exposed' cause aint no way Rook WOULDN'T know. Everything about him was unnerving yet so charming?? I really don't know how you do it but the way you just write them is just so accurate👏

As a Vil simp, every scene with him in it had be giggling and kicking my feet✨ I was pleasantly surprised with his advances towards the MC though- like hubba hubba... I ain't complaining though! The tension in those scenes were just *chefs kiss* Every moment with him just oozed authority and power, like I'd be on the edge of my metaphorical seat just waiting for the moment he calls out the MC

Like holy crap you really know how to set your scenes- like legit every time I Rook or Vil were in a scene, it genuinely felt tense. Also props to MC for looking out for #1 (themselves) even at the expense of ruining someone else

Anyway excuse my rambling lmao i'm definitely gonna be re-reading it again ^^

Sounds like another happy reader. And yes, Epel's part was difficult. Mainly because, well, Epel is based off the poisoned apple, so how is he supposed to play that role? In my mind, the poisoned apple is a tool used by the Evil Queen. So, what is similar to a tool? A person to manipulate, which is how I came up with the idea of heir. Combined with the fact that Vil obviously takes a shine to Epel, as he spends time meticulously perfecting his habits and mannerisms in-game. Which fit the scenario I was to use, of a King claiming an heir and drilling instructions and behaviors in their mind to manipulate.

Rook and Vil were easy to place into roles, due to who they're based off of. But it was difficult coming up with scenes for them, since the Huntsman and Evil Queen don't have a lot in the movies. Especially the Huntsman.

For Rook, I actually considered writing a scene were MC followed him as he scoped out the meadow or the moment when Rook was to escort Neige to the meadow, but ultimately I decided against that as it would overcomplicate the plot and give more time to Neige instead of Rook. I needed a way to properly portray Rook's watchfulness and the unease it spawns, which I figured should fit the setting. A carefully worded conversation knit of lies and unsaid threats and fears is much more effective when the reader is picturing hollowed stone halls of a palace instead of a colorful meadow. At least, that was my thought process there, which is why most interactions with Rook are in settings such as those.

And finally, Vil, who I decided to write a few more interesting scenes for purely because I know a good amount of my followers love that pretty man. There were multiple concepts and scrapped ideas I've already forgotten by now, different things that never made it to my keyboard, like a tense dinner scene and back-and-forth bickering. But some of those just didn't fit the feeling I wanted, or was out of character for either the MC or others.

Anyways, now I'm rambling. Sorry. I hope the second read was just as enjoyable as the first!

[woah-uhuh-uhuh-uhuh]

Squip Contagion Theory

A theory about what squips really “want” and how they reproduce! I’m sure people have already looked at every angle of this stuff back in The Olden Days of bmc fandom, but what the heck, I had fun putting it into words anyway. Forewarning that a decent amount of it is based in speculation rather than evidence. 

As usual, I bolded all the major stuff + tldr at the start because I talk too much lmao

tl;dr

Like most other organisms on this planet, a squip’s primary goal is to reproduce. (Which makes sense - things that reproduce more are just going to outnumber things that don’t. Especially when squip reproduction directly translates to human monetary profit).

As a potential host, you’re made to feel worthless in some area of your life (what I term the “axis of torment”) by a current host, until you’re psychologically ready to buy and obey a squip. 

The squip then compels you to make other people worthless in the same area of life, until the squip (as it has been marketed to you) seems like a natural solution to their problems. 

You might then offer the squip to your victims because your own squip encourages you to (as Rich does to Jeremy) and/or you come to believe that it just… really is the natural solution to their problems. (Jeremy to Michael: “I think you’re pissed I have one and you don’t!”)

This produces a chain of people who all (A) have squips, (B) produce more squip-hosts by ‘infecting’ (squipping) the particularly susceptible people around them (creating more squip demand → more squip production, yada yada yada), and (C) hold similar beliefs about the purpose of squips (cool pills, smart pills — and ostensibly anything else a brain pill could do, like “fixing” speech impediments as they mention in the book).

(cont)

Squips as symbiotes

The question I started with: Why does Rich’s squip decide that Jeremy needs a squip? And why now instead of earlier?

I mean, it’s odd, right? The squip’s primary goal is to improve people’s lives. Using Rich as a host/avatar, the squip makes choices that improve Rich’s life, and then essentially recommends itself to Jeremy in order to improve his life, too. That all makes sense!  …Except wait, if that was always the point, then why did it also decide to beat the crap out of Jeremy for over a year in the interim?

I’ve been rolling around the theory that squips don’t actually have a strong directive to improve people’s social standing or intelligence or anything like that — like most other organisms, all they really want to do is reproduce. 

If you think about it, they’re not that dissimilar to a virus in terms of their reproductive cycle. The only way a virus can reproduce is by taking over the cells of other organisms and forcing them to manufacture more viruses.* Squips need humans — not only to produce more squips, but also to provide their habitat (i.e. the human brain) and possibly their power source, and grant them physical presence in the world (if you’ve read Animorphs, you probably know what I’m talking about here). Squips are obligate parasites,** and humans are their host species. 

*[I’m not a virologist. This is probably an egregious generalization.] **[i.e. parasites that can’t survive outside of a host. Also, parasite is a loaded word here but I can’t get into that.]

Obviously, the easiest way to ensure the future of squipkind would be to “poison the water supply” (a la The Play), or at least squip a lot of people who are able to manufacture squips. Why they don’t just do that is definitely relevant (my personal theory is actually just the same explanation they use in — you guessed it — Animorphs, which posits that voluntary hosts are easier to control).

But I don’t really have time to dive into that here, so I just want to talk about the more subtle, deliberate tactic they use instead. Under squip contagion theory, squips prefer to select specific people and individually prepare them to become hosts.

Chain of torment: Rich → Jeremy

Rich’s squip torments Jeremy until he’s completely lost all sense of self worth, and then when he finally hits rock bottom — look at that, I’ve got just the thing! Just the thing to fix exactly the problem that I personally gave you! Crazy how that works out. 

��And it’s weird that it’s marketed like that to Jeremy, right? As a coolness pill? At least according to Michael, other people have been using it for intelligence/academics — and that’s just on top of his other amazing argument that didn’t get enough credit in the script honestly: (“You really think its primary function is to get you LAID? … of all possible applications for such a mind-blowingly advanced technology, you ever wonder what it’s doing inside of YOU?”) Certainly, it could be a catch-all “pill that fixes your life.” But for what it’s worth, scary stock boy seems to believe it’s specifically a coolness pill, too. (J: “How did you know why I’m here?” / SSB: “Just look at you, kid.”) 

I actually think the squips are just creating chains of customers, each tormenting the next on some axis of jealousy (like coolness or success) and then offering the squip as a solution to that jealousy. So by necessity, the next customer has to want the squip for the same reason you did, because that’s the only axis you can torment them on — the same one the squip has improved for you. This creates different “strains” of marketing. 

WOW friend’s brother has specifically been told that he’s an idiot (ostensibly by society, since they invoke grades, but obviously I like to imagine a squip was involved lol), and he thinks he’s buying a “pill that makes you smarter.” 

Rich(‘s squip) makes him popular, which makes Jeremy feel unpopular, so he must market the squip as a “popularity pill.” 

Axis of torment: Jeremy → Michael & Brooke

But not just a popularity pill. Rich SPECIFICALLY markets the squip as a pill that makes you feel seen — not just a blip, or a guy nobody even remembers going to their school. And then, well, what does Jeremy(‘s squip) proceed to do to Michael and Brooke…?

I’ll admit, it’s not the strongest theory, but I do think it’s an interesting framework in light of how Jeremy’s squip went “fuck this guy in particular” and decided to bring Michael to his absolute breaking point, to make him “wish [he] was never born.”* For just this brief moment, he’s finally reached Jeremy levels of disregard for his own identity. Because like Jeremy and pre-squip Rich, Michael has quite LITERALLY become invisible.

*[And yeah, I know this was partially unsquipped Jeremy’s doing, but I can’t even pretend to believe that this isn’t exactly what the squip would want him to do anyway.]

(Also, I know this is debatably to separate Jeremy from the Red? I won’t pretend I have a brilliant argument against that, because it’s a really fair point. But just as a thought, I also don’t think that was the most surefire way to eliminate Red from the equation.)

But hey, you know what’d actually be great for that? What could really turn things around for you, Michael? Hey, you know what could help you not be a loner and a stoner and a loser who drives a PT Cruiser? It’s like, this crazy thing you’ve probably never even heard of. Really obscure stuff. Yeah, it’s from Japan actually?

On Brooke: there was actually… no coolness-related reason to specifically target this girl who got cheated on, and then try to make Jeremy “cheat” on her. Is that really supposed to make him look cool? Even if it had gone as planned, it would’ve still just gotten half the cool kids in school to absolutely fucking hate him!

(Oh yeah, and also make Brooke feel completely worthless. But I’m sure that’s just collateral damage. I mean, it’s not like we have anything to gain from making some kid feel unseen and undesirable. Especially not when she lives in such close emotional proximity to two different squip hosts who are actively doing better in that department. Just a shame, really.)

And a final bit of anecdotal evidence, this time for Jenna: (JH: “That’s sad, what should I do?” SQ: “You should ignore her.”) Much like Michael and Brooke, here’s another kid on the margins of the social sphere. Why not make her feel just a little more invisible?

end note

// If you want a conclusion paragraph go read the TLDR again :P

Tysm for reading!!!! I know at heart the squip is just a total plot device, but it’s fun to get into the scifi lol. If you have your own theories feel free to share!! I know this is not the most solid interpretation out there :P

(Now excuse me while I try very hard to not write an Animorphs AU. Can’t believe K.A. Applegate single-handedly invented the idea of organisms that enlist down-on-their-luck people to take them into their brains and control what they do. Good for her.)