#wow I posted actual decent art wow

[the-lemonaut]

"Maybe if I post another out-of-context comic people will suddenly know stuff about our OCs!" they thought, delusionally.

But anyway, here's one that I still like from 2022, featuring Addae (the softie) and Yu-Jin (the one who wears sunglasses in fast food restaurants to not embarrass themselves). Both they/them enby

[shitty-davesprite-daily]

this is really stretching the 'shitty' in the blog title but fuck it the 'daily' is already a lie

keychain design :thumbsup:

[realjem]

looking back thru old again and thinking abt how much my art and i have changed over the past few years (again)

idunno the fact that these are like. less than 3 years apart is crazy to me, yeah?

[themyscirah]

Did I seriously just finish an art piece??? I know I'm me but did I get abducted by aliens or something like who is this person

[windvexer]

Hello,

In your "practice sorcery in a not soul-sucking way" post, you mention a beginner artist doodling a landscape then saying their art "doesn't work".

I was wondering if you have a spell for warding a space against unwanted attention/negative energies, which was the magical equivalent of "paint or scribble until the whole page is black"?

No particular skill necessary, just something blunt and brute-force which may take a lot of energy (SCRIBBLING AS GARD AS YOU CAN AAAA) but which would be cathartic? It's my first spell since.... Playing around initiating a wand with my friend when we were kids. Wow.

The thought of trying to learn correspondences or something is.... Exhausting-sounding. I just need a space that's mine. Maybe with a "keep this space calm and quiet" element thrown in.... And something with knot-tying that leaves me with a charm I can hang, maybe?

If this is too much/too specific, feel free to disregard (though I'd appreciate knowing you got the ask). Thank you so much for your time, and I hope things are going well for you. Also, your chicken-frying spirit-trappjng pot is gorgeous.

Good morning, or it will be in 20 minutes when midnight rolls over.

We are in reference to this post about practicing sorcery, and also this post about my pot of many uses.

Yes I imagine there is probably a short answer but you've given me the chance to talk about theory, so :)

Knot-tying magic is nice and easy, and I really think it doesn't require special skills beyond tying knots. I have this old post about making a simple hanging charm with macrame.

One thing that helps me with the idea of knot magic is that you're always going to be binding something.

You can go with the idea that you are binding up statements of intent which then become like the rungs on a ladder, allowing other energies and intents to climb up into reality.

But I imagine more commonly, you bind things up to trap them (and perhaps releasing them for use later).

This provides a decent idea for part B of your spell, "keep this space calm and quiet." A nice knot tied up by the door to capture disruptions and bind them up and make them inert might suffice.

As for your part A, warding against unwanted attentions and negative energies - you've got options.

And a good place to start is that you want a space that's yours.

I am a huge believer in the efficacy of spiritual authority. Crudely put, there is actual magical power in saying, "this is my space. I own it. Only things I invite inside are allowed."

I don't mean that it's personally powerful, or therapeutic, although it may be those things. I mean that I believe it literally changes something in the record books of the Otherworlds.

Of course it immediately gets more complicated, especially in cases of territory disputes, but by and large a powerful first step for making a space feel safe, comfortable, and barred from unwanted attention and negative energies,

is to magically announce that the space is yours, you are its keeper, and from that point on you call the shots.

Perhaps best of all, doing so requires no correspondences. Just go around and start telling the world how it's going to be. Start with the doorway, and pay due respects to windows and vents. Not because they're vectors of negative energy contamination, but because thresholds are their own species of Creature and know a little bit more than some of the baser household construction.

Put on some music or whatever to get yourself in the state of mind to take it all seriously, and then go to the main entrance and say, "hello; let me introduce myself formally." (And then introduce yourself). "I'd like to let you know I'm going to be responsible for this space from now on. I'm the keeper of this room, and it's on me to decide what comes and goes - not other people in the household."

And then go about to all the various things in the room (for some reason I guess I decided this is for your bedroom) and let them all know that this is your space and you're taking the reins. "Rug by the door, I love the pattern you've got going on. Just to let you know-"

Draw a finger over the wall. That's your wall; the space within it is your space. Touch the window frame and the door frame; they frame only what you allow to pass through, and nothing else. Touch your old things and dig deep through layers of the past: speak the new truth to stacks of things that have been peacefully slumbering for years.

Just go around and have a nice time with it, and in general claim your space. That will set you up pretty well for whatever kind of work you'd like to do next.

The reason I recommend all these big paragraphs of things is because I think it fits the bill of what you're looking for, re. not requiring extra skills.

But then once you've got the room on board and you're set up as the new captain, you might well like to ask the door to keep out intruders. And you should; let the door know your vision of the room moving forward is that nobody but you tries to come into it.

And while you're at it, you might as well give your door a garotte to strangle anyone who tries to come in.

Or.... strangle the energy of intrusiveness in general, you know.

With the knot spell that we were talking about earlier!

If you prepare something nice and simple, like a macrame crystal net, or even a simple overhand knot in some cord, position this by the entryway so that the charm works in tandem with the door (who, remember, is now on your side but could possibly do with reinforcements).

(By the way, a decent way to 'cast' a knot spell is to take some cord and prepare a loose knot and wait for the irritating thing to happen; at the moment it happens, quickly yank the knot closed, and tell the cord, "see? That's exactly the thing I'm talking about, I've just given you an example to work from. You go ahead and bind up the rest now, just like that." Give the cord another knot that's not completely tightened, to let it do the rest itself.)

Besides getting the doors and windows on your side, and tying up intruders, I think you may especially enjoy a nice dish of salt. That link is to @aesethewitch who made a lovely writeup on the idea of ambient spells, and I think this may be just your thing.

I think technically it could be a nice dish of anything, but I think salt probably fits the bill. It's very cheap if you need to buy any, but more importantly, it's got an excellent "filtration" effect that helps to keep a space free of bad vibes.

As far as the political landscape of the room, such a dish of salt could hypothetically be placed anywhere, unlike the sneaky cord of binding, which probably ought to be right next to the door so it can pounce at first sight of an interloper.

[slightly-sad-sloth]

Robin Redesigns; Tim Drake!

He’s lying, he is cringe

Wow aren’t you so glad this was posted a decent length after the last one and definitely not *checks notes* two months after. And aren’t you so glad that the others will also be posted in a timely manner and I definitely haven’t committed to doing an art series for pride that will take most my time for the next month or so! Haha cause I sure am

COMMISSION OPEN

Part 1 | Previous

Text ID for sketch page:

[Sketch 1 - aw little guy!!! Arrow pointing to next drawing OH he’s a little fucked up actually…]

[Sketch 2 - Jason: What do you have that I don’t? R!Tim: I’m… not… cringe…]

[Sketch 3 - (The Jokers wild Summarised) R!Tim: I have the power of Alfred and D&D on my side!]

[Sketch 4 - Hyah!]

[moon-upright]

julian doodle dump ???

im obsessed with him. so ive been working toward drawing julian in a way that does him justice, and i grow closer yet closer.

here's my latest drawing of the boy (left) next to the very first one (right), which i made over 2 years ago now (wow!)

vvv

im getting there.. i do love the improvement. the problem is just whether i can replicate this vibe or not. like if i draw him this way today, will i be able to do it again tomorrow? we'll see

here's a random array of more doodles and unfinished drawings ive made between then and now. i doodle a lot, you'll notice. it's very much on display, how inconsistent my art style is 😭 though tbf some of these are considerably older compared to others.

i just want to get to a place where i can draw whatever i want and it actually looks decent a majority of the time. but im self-taught and have zero patience, so it's slow going

that's it for now. i kind of want to post more art, so there may be more doodles here in the future. my lack of consistency is what keeps me from posting them most of the time. like don't even get me started on my backlog of esme sketches that don't even look alike

but maybe i don't even care at all (i do)

[cconfusedkat]

(shaking hands, functioning on three iced coffees, not beta read we just die) (LIL BRO TREATING THIS LIKE AO3Anyways yeah i did not read anything i typed here a second time so my wording might Suck Major Kuss)

Hey chat! sorry my holiday depression unfortunately kicked in, i had a ,, relatively decent Eid (cuz i dont celebrate christmas) ...? so i hope everyone had a relatively better holiday than i did… 💦

My friends often tell me i look like my art and i kinda see it. Hooray! Meeting the artist! Except i took matters into my own hands of making my own collage because I Do Not Have Enough Storage Space For Any Other Editing App

Additional shitpost ❤️ the art I've been most proud of are not actually in here, really! I'm mainly proud of the fanart i made for the few smiling critters AU's aaaall the way back feb-march but. I guess the stuff i liked the most i did this year was probably for the one who wilts? Im trying to think of stuff earlier than that. I noticed i definitely had an improvement in art, and i learned i do have a preference of drawing certain ways now too lmao- the fun of art! I hope to improve more in 2025 :-)

Herm,, all jokes aside, im glad people like my art...?? I am not a very Secure artist myself (already taking me five minutes to type that out and consider myself as an artist) so im SHOCKED when people Actually like my things. My doodles. The sometimes rare occasion of real art i put out there. Like! Wow! Thats crazy

Id have to say the same for youtube- im currently at 456 subscribers 🥺❤️ that is huge to me,, i wouldnt have expected me posting for the first time in years on youtube would result to me getting this many subscribers? ? .???

Im very, VERY thankful for the people ive met this year through fandom and generally. Unfortunately—for the past few months—Ive hit a really low stump in my mental health that limits me from talking to people without getting super drained, even on social media i kinda struggle with being active again. I am thankful for the people that continue to stick around and know im the way that i am,, one day ill be mentally stronger and everyone is gonna see my growth as soon as i can ,, Actually leave my own home and hopefully start a new. I didnt really consider that until one of my friends shared its experiences with me and i GENUINELY realized i can run away and get better one day,, there is a light at the end of the tunnel,, there IS,, but not now. Not today. Not in a few months. Itll take me years to heal but 2025 and ongoing years as i get more freedom to do so,,

UHHHH UHHH. ASIDE FROM CHEESY RANTING OF HAVING HOPES FOR THE FUTURE, YAPYAPYAP- i got a drawing tablet (again another thing my friend inspired me for- technically two major things in a row it inspired me for- hope in the future and drawing BWAHAHA-) and uhhh. HmMMOOHHH YEAH I REUNITED MY MEOWMEOWS! HOORA🎊🎊🎊🎊

my 2025 goals are not just improvement in art,, but in hopes of getting a full time job (since my last full time UMM. did NOT work out well! How am i gonna learn to pay my taxes on my own dawg,) and trying to get a place of my own since i missed out on that two years ago (or one? One year ago? I DUNNO..!!!!) , therapy and trying to heal better compared to my terrible stumps of 2022-2024,, i dunno what else but. Maybe working on my social skills at some point 🗿🗿 a far fetched goal is moving out of state completely and also going on testosterone but that is farrrr from now </33

Thank you lot for following and keeping up with my goofiness i gen did not think an animanga nerd with a passion of indie and mascot horror games could reach 510 followers within one year HELPPP thats crazy

On less serious goals though i hope on watching more animes than reading manga in 2025 BWAHAHAGAHSAJD i read manga more and anime is Extremely Rare for me to watch but both jjk and Beastars have all ive been watching as of recent lol- trust i will be such a geek (girl Please that is NAWT something to look forward to) (YES IT IS. HAVE YOU NO WHIMSY?)

[orphiclovers]

Not orv related but kinda new to Tumblr so like what is the behaviour 101 on Tumblr , can I get a few tips , i desperately wanna interact but idk

Okay, I knew I would get something like this. You're already doing pretty well, in that you have a profile pic and have figured out the ask function, so good job. 

Orphiclovers’ guide to Tumblr 101:

1.The number one crucial step that EVERYONE should do, even if you don’t care about the rest. CHANGE YOUR PROFILE PIC to ANYTHING that's not the default one (Though not your face. We don’t generally do that here.) The reason to do this is because it’s almost impossible to tell apart a just created blog from a porn bot. If you haven’t encountered one yet, you will. They're a big thing on tumblr, a completely blank blog created by a bot (sometimes with an attractive woman as the profile pic) that follows you and and sends you ‘hot singles in your area’ type scam messages. If you get one, don’t click any links! Under the message there will be a prompt saying ‘mark this as spam?’ click that and tumblr will automatically report and block the blog.  Some people with huge bot infestations automatically block any blank blog to be safe, and you don’t want that accidentally happening to you, so CHANGE YOUR PROFILE PIC!

2. The other essential blog customization thing is go to Blog Settings>turn off ‘share posts you like’ and ‘share the tumblrs you’re following’. This will hide your likes and the people you follow from every other user. Basically everyone turns this off to have privacy. Otherwise noisy fucks like me can come to your blog and look at all that.

3. You ALSO need to go to Settings>Dashboard>scroll to Prefrences> disable ‘Best Stuff First.’ Having your dashboard (that’s what we call the “Following” tab on Home where you see all the posts) be in chronological order is objectively the best way to be on Tumblr. This is the one social media that doesn’t shove the algorithm down your throat, enjoy it to the fullest. I have never in my life clicked on the ‘Explore’ tab except by accident, and the ‘For You’ tab is also controversial. I don’t recommend it. You can learn to use tumblr with no algorithms and you will feel better.

4. Okay, but there’s like two posts on my dashboard, what do I do? You need to follow people, friend. Go to the search bar and enter a tag for a fandom or character you like. That’s ‘#kim dokja’ or ‘#honkai star rail’ - unlike instagram, you can put spaces between words. It’s not case sensitive, so #Kim Dokja #kim dokja and #KIM DOKJA is all the same to tumblr. I recommend going in tags and not just ‘kim dokja’ because tumblr’s search system is often wonky.

5. Now, scroll through the posts and follow the blogs. That’s it. Now their new posts will show up at the top of your dashboard. Currently, I follow 119 blogs and that’s a pretty decent number. I get new posts every couple of minutes, and if there are no new posts I exit the app. No endless doomscrolling. Also, all the people I follow actually post stuff I want to see.

6. You mentioned wanting to make friends and that brings me to my next tip: Reblog. Reblog, reblog, reblog. Every post you want to click ‘like’ on you should reblog instead. Everytime you want to comment you should reblog instead (and put the comment in the tags).

7. This will put their post on your blog. Most of the posts you see on your dashboard are posts the people you follow have reblogged. It’s hard to wrap your head around, but it’s essential tumblr stuff so I will try to explain it in detail.

Reblogging etiquette

8. Blank reblogs are fine.

9. If you want to say something like ‘good art!!’ or ‘wow I love this theory so much’ put that in the tags of your reblog. The original poster will see the tags you have added, and also anyone who follows you will see the post + your tags. But if they reblog a post from you, your tags don’t come with unless they decide to manually copy them (which people don’t usually do unless they want to respond to something you said in the tags. Then they will copy the tags and put <- prev as in ‘previous’ and respond to them. This is like a whispered conversation you have on op’s post but they will still be able to see all of it so be mindful.) Some people also use the tag system to organize their blogs.

For example, if you reblog art of kim dokja, in the tags you can put ‘#wowowow I’m drooling thank you op, #kim dokja, #orv, #orv fanart’. Theoretically now when you or anyone else goes to your blog’s search function can search #orv fanart and see all the original posts you have made and the stuff you have reblogged with the tag #orv fanart.

Now I will address some common concerns people have before reblogging. “Am I reblogging too many posts in a row??? Won’t the people who follow me get annoyed???” No, they will not 99% of the time. And if they do, they can unfollow you. But okay, if you’re worried about this you can put your reblogs in a queue. Here’s how tumblr themselves describe it: ‘The queue lets you stagger posts over a period of hours or days. It's an easy way to keep your blog active and consistent.’ Basically if you tell it to it will automatically post the stuff you can put in the queue every hour or 15 minutes or whatever you want the interval to be. Check it out.

“Won’t reblogging posts bury my own posts and prevent them from being seen???” No. All the posts you reblog are probably long buried in the OP’s blog too. But as long as they get passed around in reblogs they will get new eyes on them, forever. Also, you can reblog your own posts if you want them put on your followers dash again (usually tagging this as #srb or #self reblog). They will also still be in the tags you put on them originally. Myself, I tag all my posts as #my posts or #my art so anyone visiting my blog can easily check for those specifically (though I don’t know if anyone does…lol. Lmk.)

 “Okay, but I have so many different interests, won’t people hate seeing random reblogged posts about stuff they’re not interested in?” They can deal or unfollow you. But okay, some people create ‘sideblogs’ for every fandom they’re in. This functions as almost a fully fledged seperate blog. For example, you can’t easily tell if a blog you follow is a main one or a sideblog, or what their main blog is (unless they tell you). You only can’t like or follow or send an ask from a sideblog.

In general you don’t add stuff to the text part of a reblog unless you have something significant to add and/or are mutuals with the OP. Mutuals is when you both follow each other. I’m guessing you’re asking me how to get people to follow you back and to that I say idk man. Make posts and talk to them in reblogs and it will naturally happen. 

Also, asks are fun, send people asks (and enable them in setting on your own blog.)

10. Also, give your blog a description and a title. It’s just nice customization. The title can be a quote you like and the description anything you want to tell someone about yourself. Look at how other blogs do it. I think nickname/pronouns/list of fandoms is pretty standard.

Let me know if you want to ask anything else :)

[akfamilyhome]

2024 Year in Review

(This is a public post, and is also available on Patreon!)

Wow! What a year. Compared to last year, a lot more things definitely happened, including several core videos I'm very proud of, the launch of Useless Nintendo Trivia videos, and the main channel finally passing the 50,000 subscriber mark! This has been one of the best years for the channel in a while, and I'm very thankful for all the support and feedback.

Outside the channel, my Bluesky account created in 2023 has passed 10k followers, I talked about WarioWare with Scott the Woz for an hour, and lots of very neat things happened in real life for me as well! I was able to switch day jobs in December and work with a company in the retro gaming space which is very exciting, and I visited America, met some of my friends there and attended the Portland Retro Gaming Expo for the very first time! So overall, a very eventful year, and I'm definitely excited to both look back on the stuff I've made, and give some hints about what's next!

You know the drill by now, I'm going to be sharing my retrospective thoughts as well as some fun facts about every video I've made on the main channel during 2024!

The Joy of Nintendo DSi/3DS Camera & Sound

This video idea was the winner of a Patreon poll back in June 2023...and yeah, ended up releasing in January 2024, but that meant it made for a pretty fantastic start to the new year! After talking about previous camera-related offerings from Nintendo like the Game Boy Camera and Photo Dojo, it only seemed natural to talk about the built-in camera and music apps for the DSi and 3DS, and I think it hit a great balance between being informative about the lesser-known aspects of these apps, and also having some decent gags! I even ended up upgrading my 3DS capture card from an old 2DS to a New 3DS XL during the production, just because I had to showcase the 3D mode-exclusive camera features. So far, it's served me incredibly well! I can absolutely vouch for the quality of Loopy's stuff now.

Some folks were wondering I managed to capture footage of the DSi camera and sound apps, the truth is...I kinda lied and that footage was captured on my New 3DS XL capture card! Yes, you can install and run DSi Camera and DSi Sound on a 3DS.

I'd like to once again give a shoutout to ThattsCherry (who also did the animation for my latest intro), who drew two animated shots featuring stylized Nintendo employees! Her style lent incredibly well to these sorts of visuals, though I did accidentally overlook a mistake where there was a 3DS logo in the background of a shot...about the DSi camera. (Oops) I also want to shout out TikaratheMew as well for the fantastic parakeet thumbnail art! (She also did the thumbnail art for my Famicom R.O.B. the Robot video as well!) I posted this sketch/final comparison on social media previously, but here it is again for posterity:

And finally, just a random fact: the brief gag featuring the 'retro-inspired indie game' actually comes from a university programming assignment I did years ago, but reskinned with generic pixel art as the original just used 8-bit sprites from Super Mario Bros.! (It also ran way faster than it was supposed to because it was originally programmed on a Windows virtual machine running on a Mac...so yeah.)

I Went to Hong Kong's Nintendo Live & Pop-Up Store

This video was a great opportunity to document two Nintendo events that were basically happening in Hong Kong back-to-back, and I hope it was useful for those who weren't able to attend these events, or those who want to know more about Nintendo's international events! I still hope these events are successful enough to warrant future large-scale Nintendo events in Hong Kong (which I am totally down to also document), but we haven't had further confirmations outside of a few series-specific promotional events now and then. Here's hoping!

Since this video, more Nintendo Pop-Up Stores have opened in places like Taipei, Seoul and Singapore, with the latest one being part of a manga convention in Barcelona! Seems like they've been doing pretty well, and makes me wonder if they'll ever revisit places for a second round!

Though aside from these pop-up stores, there are still plenty of officially authorized partner stores in Hong Kong that sell both Nintendo products and merch! A very neat one that opened recently was 'Assemble' in Wan Chai, which not only had Nintendo merch (including new stock for the Super Famicom Mini for some reason?), but had dedicated merch areas for third-party partners like Sega, Namco and Square Enix, and even had demo stations for indie games and Arcade Archives releases!

A Cartridge for Nintendo's Lost Devkit

In terms of obscure Nintendo stuff that has been talked about on this channel, the Game Processor RAM Casette is definitely way up there! While these carts (and the Game Processor in general) have been known to exist for a while, and this is also not even the first YouTube video about the Game Processor RAM Casette (Circuit Rewind was ahead of me and figured out how to reprogram one using a Raspberry Pi!), I'm still glad this video was able to get more eyeballs on this little known piece of Nintendo history, and perhaps the dream of finding the Game Processor isn't dead yet! (Hey, if the largest Sony CRT ever made could be found, anything's possible.)

One thing I actually didn't touch on in this video is the packaging that the Game Processor RAM Casettes originally came in! And with a few more auction listings popping up online since that video, I can now show you that...they're basically completely blank Super Famicom game boxes. That's kinda funny.

I mentioned that one of the assets for a Mario Bros.-style game created with the Game Processor's editing tool 'Mario Factory' was later reused for the Mario Bros. minigame in the Super Mario Advance series. While we do have an image proof of this from a flyer scan, I didn't show it in the actual video as the original Japanese accounts that posted these images seem to be a little strict regarding reposting of their work, and I'd like to respect their wishes if possible. With that said, I can now link to those original tweets here, if you haven't taken a look!

How Many Times Have I Paid For Super Mario Bros.?

For Mario Day this year, I decided to just do a scripted video about a ridiculous Mario topic, and since I already had a spreadsheet lying around that kept track of every legal copy of Super Mario Bros. I own, this video was the result, and it ended up as silly as I envisioned it to be. Perhaps Mario Day videos can be another fun annual tradition, though I haven't thought of any ideas for this year's right now. (I mean, I could talk about all my copies of Mario 64 like I teased last time...but that's probably a better fit for the Plus channel!)

The obligatory question is, have I obtained any new copies of Super Mario Bros. since this video was published? The answer is yes: I obtained a loose cartridge of Super Mario Bros. + Duck Hunt + World Class Track Meet on the NES, Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World on the SNES, and a US copy of Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition on the Wii! The count continues.

Those with keen ears may have noticed that the endslate theme in this video is an arrangement of the 'Every Day is a Mario Day' commercial jingle! I asked Megan, the composer of my endslate theme, to give it a little remix for the occasion, and it turned out so well, I definitely have to use it more than once now lol

Useless Nintendo Trivia #1-5

This year marked the start of the 'Useless Nintendo Trivia' series, each installment containing 10 useless Nintendo facts, inspired by my 2023 April Fools video. This was conceived as a relatively simple but fun series of videos that I can put out in-between the major productions, and so far we've covered 50 whole pieces of useless Nintendo trivia! I'm very happy about how this series has been received, so...yeah, more episodes will definitely be on the way! When we reach 100 pieces of trivia, it might be fun to do a compilation of them to see how long they would be when put together!

You might've also seen that some pieces of trivia have also been uploaded to the channel as YouTube shorts. I think this is basically the best way to utilize the shorts format going forward, rather than focusing on making exclusive stuff for it, and if one of the shorts does end up blowing up, it'll still be a nice bonus!

Every Nintendo Stylus

And here's 2024's April Fools video...which if I recall correctly, was another spontaneous idea! I originally talked about Nintendo styluses as an unscripted video on Akfamilyhome Plus, one of the first unscripted videos on that channel in fact, but that video actually left out a few styluses that I didn't have on hand at the time, so I figured if I were to revisit the topic, it would be in the form of a scripted video to cut down on the babbling, and possibly as part of the April Fools series (just because of how ridiculous the topic is). This video blowing up in views is something I can't exactly say I anticipated, but I guess joke topics just do that sometimes...

I made a joke in the video about if anyone ever used the original 3DS stylus by just extending it halfway, so allow me to showcase this incredible reply comment:

When I was looking for accurate stylus terminology for this video, I was made privy to a patent-related rabbit hole that eventually culminated into a piece of useless Nintendo trivia! I'll just link you to the short version here if you haven't seen it yet.

The 34 Games I Beat in 2023

The 2023 game review video ended up coming out in late April because of the Mario Day and April Fools videos (...which may end up being the same case for this year if I can't get it out by February, oops), but this time around it did perform a little better than my 2022 video! It's still neat to have a time capsule of sorts about my immediate thoughts about each game I've finished, and the unpredictable lineup still makes it a fun watch for some. Just to look ahead, 2024's game lineup will be a little shorter at 25 games, but there will be a bonus section or two here and there!

Not much else to add here for this video, but if you look in the description, I have a link to a spreadsheet that compiles an alphabetical list of every game I've looked at in this series of videos, for those who want to look up my quick thoughts about a particular game!

Nintendo's Hotel SNES: The Super Famicom Box

It seems like pretty much every Things of Interest episode released in 2024 was a result of spontaneous new finds and additions to my collection, and the Super Famicom Box was certainly no exception. There have been several YouTube videos that show off the system before, but there haven't been as many scripted videos that also dive into its deeper functionality, so that's sort of what the aim of my video was, to showcase how it would be to set the whole thing up and go through its many settings for the folks (a.k.a. most people) who don't have one, and also offer a simple point of reference for those who do end up getting their hands on one. Really, the only thing I haven't done in the video is basically take the system apart -- there are people out there who are way more qualified to do that!

I've shared the following links in one of my monthly Patreon reports, but for those who haven't seen them, here's a few more interesting videos related to the Super Famicom Box that are worth checking out:

Long Island Retro Gaming has done a mod adding RGB to the system -- and with some results you may not have expected!

Some of their footage was used in my video, but Impendo64 has both added a custom coin slot to their unit, but has also apparently modified one of the game cartridges to add custom games onto it! I hope they make another video showing how they did it in the future!

This is about the original FamicomBox and not the SFC variant, but Yukki games came across a few working FamicomBoxes still doing their jobs in a small Japanese hot spring inn, if you'd like to take in the vibes!

64DD on a Flashcart: The SummerCart64

The Things of Interest video about the SummerCart64 is one of the few unscripted videos on the main channel, where I basically take a look at a thing by just...casually using it and showing off its features! That felt like the best format to show off this flashcart in particular, especially because 64DD support was the one interesting part about it. I did get the price of the Phenom Mod version of the cart a little wrong in the video (I misquoted the PCB price instead of the fully assembled one with shells), but in the end it was still neat to get some more eyeballs on this project, and a few new developments have been made since that video as well!

Since the video, the N64 Flashcart Menu has seen several updates that addressed some of my previous (minor) complaints: there's now a functional settings menu within the interface, and most recently a favorites and history tab have been implemented!

And since Phenom Mod released their version of the SummerCart64 for order, plenty of other cheaper SC64 clones have also started to pop up on the market, particularly ones on Chinese sites like AliExpress. I even got a free product offer from one of the sellers! (but decided against it as it would make for a pretty redundant video) While I can't compare every variety of the SummerCart64 out there, I was eventually able to get my hands on two different AliExpress variants of the SummerCart64. They had pretty different molded shells (one being a tighter fit than the other) and cart connectors, and while in terms of functionality they were fairly similar, making it a viable option for those on a limited budget, they definitely don't have the luxury of the Phenom Mod's more durable build, along with proper support available in the N64brew Discord should any problems arise, so I think there's still some worth in that! This is just my opinion though, it's up to you to decide which SC64 variant you want to go for for your own purposes.

I Broke the Nintendo World Championships Leaderboards

Speaking of spontaneous video ideas, this video definitely was one, being basically born from a stupid Discord conversation while playing the new Nintendo World Championships game. The resulting video is definitely a rare breed for the channel, it's been a hot while since I've done a 'what happens if you do x in y' type of experiment for a video, but it seems people did end up enjoying it!

The week this video went live, I actually tried the same strategy to get on the 2024 Birth Ranking again, and it seems that no one else ended up trying it out for themselves! ...which makes sense, because the setup is way too convoluted. But if there's someone out there still determined to try this trick right now, there's a high chance you'll be able to earn 1st place on the 2024 birth year ranking for yourself! (Or rather, 2025 ranking now lol)

Pyoro: The Bird, The Beans, The Legend

...and finally, this was the next big core video that I was originally intending to make, following the 3DS/DSi Camera & Sound video! As I said in the video itself, this idea came long before the leaker known as Pyoro became a prominent figure, and with the release of WarioWare: Move It, it made for the perfect opportunity to do a Pyoro retrospective with some fun gags sprinkled throughout. And in a first for the channel, this is also the first ever sponsored video on the channel! ...I'll talk about more of my thoughts on that down below in a bit.

If you look at the video thumbnail, all of the Pyoros featured come from a piece of official artwork or in-game sprite...except one, which I drew back in 2021.

Turns out, there were several Pyoro cameos that I forgot to mention: for some reason my mind completely blocked out the fact that Super Pyoro appears in the intro of WarioWare Gold, and there's also a small blink-and-you'll-miss-it Pyoro cameo in WarioWare Move It:

As I said, this is the first video on the channel to be sponsored (by Surfshark)! As taking a sponsor was something I'd never done before, I felt this was a good learning opportunity to do so, and considering how well the video ended up doing, I think Surfshark probably got way more than their money's worth in the end...

Before I ever considered legitimately taking up a sponsor offer, I set several rules for myself: anything I promote must be something I've used in the past and can recommend based on personal experience (if it's something I've never heard of then I would at least do my research and give it a try first), and the sponsor integrations should be made as fun as possible. The Pyoro video was essentially a testing ground for these principles, the idea of integrating the sponsor led to the creation of the VRChat skits, and as a result I think it turned out pretty well! (A post about the sponsor segment itself ending up doing numbers on Twitter, which I think is a good enough indicator lol)

The reason why I took this long to accept any sponsor at all is simply because a lot of offers that come through to my business inbox don't always look the most legit at first glance, especially if it's from a product I've never heard of before. I've also never went through the process of taking a sponsorship myself, and I've heard a few stories of bad sponsors or phishing scams involving fake sponsorships, so I was basically extremely vigilant about them. That being said, this sponsorship was definitely a net positive for me as a learning experience! I don't know if I'll end up taking more sponsors in the future, as it really just depends on the right one stumbling into my inbox that I think I can actually execute properly. And between my inconsistent video schedule and my recent job switch, I don't think I'll have to deliberately seek out sponsors in the near future. I'm feeling content with having this YouTube thing as a side hustle for now, with Patreon support and perhaps the occasional sponsor as bonuses that will potentially push me slowly towards being able to do this full-time in the far future!

And lastly, if you didn't know, some outtakes and animatics for the VRChat skit segments in this video are available to my $5+ patrons!

Nintendo 3DS E3 2010 Demo Showcase

And in time for the new year, another spontaneous video! I originally planned for a Things of Interest episode to release around Christmas or before the end of the year, but while I was working on it, I was contacted by a team working on preserving some 3DS tech demos from a prototype unit in order to make a video documenting them like I did with 3D Challenge back in 2020, and of course I had to say yes!

It was very fun to both help out with research as these demos were being studied, and to write the script for the showcase as well! I think this is one of the best ways to handle a release of this sort: not just hacking the demos so they can be as playable as possible for the public, but also documenting them in a video so detailed info about them is also as easily accessible!

Yes, the ending is a tease for something else 3DS-related to come. Don't know when exactly that will be as research is still being done to put it vaguely, but it's something I personally think is almost as cool!

Akfamilyhome Plus videos

If there's only one thing I regret for this year, it's the smaller amount of content being put out on my second channel Akfamilyhome Plus, because ironically I got busy from all the videos being put on the main channel instead! Still, there are a handful of bonus videos that have been released publicly on there this year:

I gave Alivel Mall from Kirby and the Forgotten Land lyrics for the game's 2nd anniversary

I tried a Gyromite-themed mini board game on a Japanese pencil case from 1985

I talked about how I create YouTube captions from my scripts

I tried the Nintendo Ten Billion Barrel for the first time

...and as mentioned in the beginning, I documented my very first trip to America!

And over on Patreon, 4 exclusive videos were released: I took a look at some third-party Joy-Con, played PC games with an actual Game Boy as a controller, did my annual room tour for 2024 and built a Famicom made out of cardboard!

Alright, what's next

Okay, so as I just mentioned, I was working on a Things of Interest episode right as I was approached to make the 3DS E3 2010 demo showcase, so right now work will be resuming on that video! And seeing as you've read this far into the post, as a thank you I'll let you in on what it's about...

...it's an original, working Nintendo Ultra Machine from 1967! Just like the Super Famicom Box, while there are videos online that showcase it, there's not a lot of scripted videos that get into the history or nitty gritty details, so I'd like to take this opportunity to showcase one of Gunpei Yokoi's earliest inventions!

In addition to that, there is another Things of Interest subject that I'd like to talk about, Useless Nintendo Trivia will obviously continue with new sporadic episodes, and the next major core video topic has already been decided, though with all these projects in the pipeline, it might be a little bit before that's fully in production!

Overall, I'd like to keep up the momentum this channel picked up in 2024. I was pretty close to my goal of having a video out on the channel every month, save for edge cases where I released a video right as a month ended, or September onwards when I was occupied with my trip to America (and documenting that into a video) among other things! While I have switched jobs in real life, I'm currently hoping it won't affect too much of my video schedule going forward, as working on this channel is something I continue to enjoy immensely, and I'd like to thank you all again for watching in 2024.

So yeah, that's it for this long year in review! Once again, as a thank you for watching all the way to the end, here's a 25-use invite link to my Discord server where chill gaming talk happens! I'll let you in on a secret: these links actually aren't clicked on a whole lot if last year's post was any indication, so if you're reading this, chances are it's still available lol

That will be it for now! Here's to another great year for the channel, and I'll see you in the next video!

[jenyifer]

MDZS the comic review 1-3

So far 9/10

The sell: Wei Wuxian is a cutie pie baby boy baby. Actually I’m gonna be honest here. 1 I have seen a good portion of the anime and none of the Netflix show 2 I have tried to read the book for this one and heavenly officials blessing. This book was okay…? I just saw the two for one on the first two comics and jumped on them and was much happier.

I really like the comic form. Yes there is a lot more reading involved but I enjoy the art style I think it has decent pacing. For the story? It’s very intriguing you have so many mysteries going on but the comic books are small enough you can go back and go hey did we meet this guy already very easily. I like the romance btw Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji I do wonder sometimes okay why is Wei Wuxian heavily tying his boat to this man but at the same time I am a sucker for a kuudere too no shame. I look forward to continuing on.

Side note when I was in Japan i stayed in Akihabara and walked up a million stairs in the book shop to get to the top where the BL manga stuff was. I always get a book from my travels and although I hadn’t read any danmei at that time. I picked up the comic of MDZS and brought it home with me so here are some photos of the Japanese cover and inner cover

Ps. Now you might ask wow Jenny hasn’t posted shit in a while and that’s true I had to move house and I’m having to take a stupid exam as an adult 😩 not fair. Also the YA books I’ve been reading have disappointed me so much I’m going to put them into a special hate update.

[beevean]

Idk I think people objections to vivziepop is overblown, she's hard to work with? So was Yuji Naka, She drew problematic art? So did Miura Kentaro and Rebecca Sugar, she said bad things in the past? So did Seth MacFarlane, she didn't groom any minors or assaulted someone like the Rick and Morty guy or the Red and Stimpy guy

Fun fact, a friend and I today tried to read the "controversies" page on Vivziepop.

And it's. Bad. As in, I refuse to believe anyone older than 20 wrote it.

Some of the claims have sources. Not all of them, though. Case in point, this gem:

Grooming Allegations On January 19th XXXX, Vivziepop has been accused of grooming a 14-year-old. (Needs citation)

Or this one

It is also worth noting that Vivzie supports Zone Tan, who is infamous for being a child predator who used a real child's voice for his child porn. It was also shown that Vivziepop directly interacted with Zone.

(wow, that sounds like a serious accusation! source?)

(also please it's not child porn, it's CSEM if it involves a real child)

Other parts come off as edit wars:

The drama died down after a couple days when a decent number current of SpindleHorse members, such as Sam Haft, Monica Franco, HorrorFreak, and more talked about their positive experiences, and some were convinced that the accusations were exaggerated or lies.

Erin Frost returned yet again in November. At this point, many are sick of her continued attempts at showing what she considers proof of her mistreatment, especially since she shamed others who won't stand with her, calling them "spineless" and sharing private messages without their consent. To a large portion of people, Erin Frost is not the innocent victim she claims to be and is attempting to twist the situation so that she comes out looking more sympathetic than she actually is

And then we get the absolute petty shit:

Improper Representation of Sexual Assault In one of the episodes of Hazbin Hotel, there have been some criticism about how sexual assault has been treated, as one of the chatacters, Husk, would tell Angel Dust that the latter will "get over it", even though Angel Dust has experiences with being sexually assaulted by Valentino, which is one of the things you should never say to a person who suffers from PTSD/Trauma.

Not even touching the yet again misconception that Loser Baby is a victim blaming song... This is a lie. Husk never once utters the words "get over it". This should be edited out immediately. Checking the source, it was badly paraphrased by a Tumblr post badly paraphrasing it in bad faith.

It was then revealed that Vivziepop also supported a Twitter user named "Raphielle", who is an NSFW artist that actively makes art of non-con/rape of Valentino and Angel (in which Valentino is the abuser, and Angel Dust as a victim of Val), with Raphielle even supporting said ship despite it being toxic and very wrong.

"and very wrong", how old are you?

Also I don't see the issue? Valentino abusing Angel is canon. And if Raphielle animated Poison, kudos to them for such a raw portrayal of abuse.

What makes it worse that Raph romanticizes it as well, despite mentioning that he has dealt with being repressed and being controlled, which is not a good excuse of drawing rape porn, in which Raph constantly fetishizes it.

Now this has just turned into a Twitter thread.

Supporting of Proshipping Like said before, while she has supported Raphielle, who supports non-con/rape ship of Valentino and Angel Dust, Vivziepop has also be revealed to have sexualized Morty from an adult animated TV show called "Rick and Morty" (in which Morty is 14-years-old, mind you). Vivziepop would even go as far as to ship Morty with Rick Sanchez (who is Morty's 70-year-old Adoptive grandfather).

Perish the thought.

The source of Vivzie following "bad people" is exactly what you would expect: the main accusation is that she follows porn artists with a fat fetish. Tagged as "csa" to boot. You people wouldn't have survived a day on DeviantART ffs.

And this is the cherry on top:

"Hey maybe this page should be written in a professional manner."

"HOW DARE YOU DEFEND A SHIT PERSON"

yeah you sure a person I can trust with handling delicate information!

Basically, I can't take this seriously. Again, I checked some sources, mainly the transmisandry ones, and sadly they look legit. The complaints about HH are however asinine to the point that the whole page loses credibility.

I won't get into this matter because I don't want to get involved into this year-long discourse more than necessary. I won't respond to anything related to Vivziepop again. But I wanted to vent because I hate when people are accused of being pedophiles/child molesters/abusers because they follow people who draw Sonic porn or they support people with a non-fluffy ship. Get over yourselves, and stick to the actually harmful stuff.

[thatoneluckybee]

Bee im so sorry to terrorize you with this crackpot theory but what if Ryoko is the mastermind?

She has canon sprites, is mentioned on Kai’s laptop as being someone to keep an eye on and despite that has not once shown up in the death game and easily could have gotten close to Sara and Joe as preparation for the death game.

I’m sorry but IT MAKES SENSE

CHAOS

CHAOS

THIS IS THE LAST THING I SAW BEFORE PHONE AWAY FOR CLASS I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING CHEMICAL EQUATIONS BUT NO I WAS HERE THINKING ABOUT RYOKO MASTERMIND THEORY I SWEAR YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO MEEEEE. (It's alright I was able to focus okay on the work kinda so :P)

ANYWAYS

This is likely a joke but you know me :3 I'm taking this too seriously (art block for like a week in an art c l a s s so I'm doing nothing but scrolling Pinterest for literally any decent ideas rn anyways)

Inhale

This would be strange to say the least. I can't remember Kai's laptop mentioning little miss Hirose at all but if so it's likely because Ryoko, being a close friend, could be seen as a threat (Sara and Joe harder to kidnap when with a friend, could fight back, etc etc.) However I will note I've found it a bit strange that she never really gets brought up.

There's a lot of obvious reasons why this probably ain't true. I highly doubt the Hirose family has any ties to Asunaro. Even if they DID, Ryoko herself probably isn't at all aware or involved considering Sara went this whole 17 years without realizing she was literally being trained to be a lethal weapon. It would be possibly underwhelming as Ryoko hasn't been teased at all, unless Nankidai pulled off a tremendous Rube Goldberg and showed how ACTUALLY she's been here this whole time wow. I'm not spending time on the reasons why not. This is funny to me though so I'll list potential "evidence" for a maybe crack not so crack theory.

I doubt it, BUT there was a Reddit post a while ago comparing Megumi Sasahara and Ryoko's sprites. Megumi's sprites are interesting as she is REMARKABLY similar to Sara in appearance! Both have their three quarter view arms on hips look, similar body figures, etc etc. Even their personalities are similar. I've seen some speculation that Megumi's tie to Asunaro (she may have one or at the least knew more than she was supposed to) was that she was a sort of Beta attempt at recreating the Memorrandum (HOW IN TF IS THAT SPELLED) Girl, if one busy the theory that Sara was raised specifically to recreate the Hades incident's Memorrandum Girl. That theory claims that the survivor of the first death game, overcome by his affection for the teen girl, is the mastermind or at least an instigator for the current Asunaro Death Game, hoping to rewrite the story where the girl survives. Regardless, Megumi's likely connected. The Reddit post has less of a foundation to stand on, simply saying Megumi and Ryoko look similar (pose and black hair) and could be potentially related. This is unlikely, BUT for the sake of this crack theory we'll assume there's a possibility the Sasahara and Hirose families are acquainted or related somehow. This would give Ryoko a connection to Asunaro.

But what if Ryoko, though likely not the mastermind, was somehow AWARE of Asunaro? We see that Ryoko and Sara interact as children in Sara's minisode. They've been within one another's vicinity for a WHILE. We know all the YTTD Cast have been! Kai worked for Mr. Chidouin, Sara fought Ursheen and Shin at a card game, Joe probably was the boy who tried to cheer up Kanna in a flashback and got probably beat up by Kugie, Shin and Kanna are siblings, so are Alice and Reko, some think Miley could be Gin's mother, Mr. Policeman who Keiji shot is probably Joe's late dad. There's a LOT of connections! Asunaro has been pulling puppet strings for a while though they hide it well. If the Hirose family was in cahoots with Asunaro, there's a chance Ryoko found out. I highly doubt Ryoko is malicious as she is literally a child. However, she could, in this wild goose chase theory, be helping behind scenes unwillingly. Maybe her family or Asunaro pressured her to gather information, who knows! The only scene I can think of to back this is at the end of Ryoko and Joe's date in I believe it was Sara's minisode. Ryoko says "I'll see you tomorrow!... Right...?" Or something like that and looks almost sad. Or maybe that was guilt. Even if she didn't know what Asunaro was, she could've sensed that something was wrong, or had a feeling that something bad would happen, and felt guilty knowing that she didn't or couldn't help. Or maybe she was feeling guilty for "playing" with Joe and Sara's feelings if she was gathering intel.

All in all I don't really buy it but with a LOT OF HEAVY SPECULATION and some maybe huge plot twists on Nankidai's part, as well as blind faith in a lot of popular and more underground theories, it's still very implausible but NOT IMPOSSIBLE I GUESS.

[undergroundbillions]

Wow that Raggedy Ann merch design masterpost actually getting decent notes??? is this what you want??? more random merch???

In that post I used a picture of the 1980 Raggedy Ann and Andy board game, which was actually the third one of its kind!

The first board game was released in 1956. All of these have the same basic mechanics, you spin a spinner and get a card from that character's pile, which will be part of a set of cards that form a character. You also sometimes draw Uncle Clem cards which let you steal cards from other players (which doesn't matter because you can already steal cards normally so I really don't know what purpose they serve).

This first version is a mix of iconic book characters (Ann and Andy, Wooden Willie, Percy) and some very minor ones (The little pig that eats and eats was mentioned once in a song book). In this one, the only character set is Ann herself! You only need one set to win.

Second version, 1974. However the art in this one is taken more directly from 40's Gruelle illustrations. The characters also reflect this, being books slightly later in the franchise. Now you build both Raggedy Ann and Witch Wiggle (or, since the rules can't seem to decide, Wiggle Witch) puzzles, and need one of each to win.

Andy finally gets his name on the cover! Oh boy, where to begin. Well, first off that's the Musical Adventure title art next to the Chuck Jones designs. But it doesn't stop there, inside we find those same designs, plus Arthur and Alexander G. Wolf, just chilling with movie characters. Now the two characters you need to win are Ann and Andy, and the Clem cards have been completely removed (finally, they literally did nothing).

These are the things that live in my head! Now it also lives in yours.

-𝕸𝖔𝖉 𝕲𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖑 𝕯.

[catinheadlights]

PSA: The pet game Sylestia uses AI generated "art".

Sylestia has been using AI generated assets for a long while now, and I decided to write this up because I'm not sure how well known this is among the remaining playerbase (not that I think many of them are gonna read this but I guess it's here now if they care to). Krinadon (site owner/admin) has explicitly said this in a mass PM before, screenshot and examples below context.

Context: This was a mass PM from late 2022 sent to a large section of the playerbase with a long list of allegations against different users. Some of the claims were blatantly petty and others were seemingly serious but in reality extremely shaky. Some players receiving the PM had no involvement in any of the perceived antagonism, and not everyone receiving it was in some kind of clique like the wording in the Glaselk section would suggest. Krin was largely complaining that people were criticizing him and Faiona (other owner/admin) in a private discord server, of which a handful of people sent him screenshots. For transparency, I committed two apparent crimes: one was assuming the AI assets were made by people, and in a private discord server, criticizing the decision to update them over focusing on more important parts of the site. The second was complaining about the shitty stereotypical "Pow Wow Costume" (since renamed but otherwise unaltered) and associated clothing items in its set, as well as the name of the "Wild Wendigo Morkko" theme. As far as Krin complaining that people think he was giving Glas special treatment... well, if you know, you know. No clue if they even play anymore, but you all know that harassment is bad already, so don't do that. I didn't edit that section out of the screenshot because idk if that'd be seen as suspicious or something.

[Image ID: A screenshot of a private message from Krinadon on Sylestia titled "Official Player Conduct Warning (1 of 2)". The last section of the message says the following: Experience Orb and Magical Pie Art: No, no artist time was spent nor wasted on these assets. No, we did not divert any site resources to the specific creation of these assets. We were learning and testing with artwork created by AI and these were our initial test projects. The end results actually ended up being pretty decent, so we decided to use them. No, we are not going to replace any artists with AI artwork. However, we most definitely are looking to supplement where we can so that our artists can continue working full time on more important projects. I think that we are aware of how to properly budget our time and resources. We have been doing this for a decade now. And yes, our artists are aware that we are using AI artwork. /.End ID]

Now, I think the first thing I should point out is that the artists knowing the site uses AI doesn't necessarily mean that they like the decision. I don't know the artists personally, but I do know that at least one of them has, unsurprisingly, posted about not liking AI art.

Secondly, it wouldn't be fine even if the site artists loved AI, because as it is, it's unethical to use regardless. The training data is artwork scraped from the internet without consent from the creators. No amount of promising that you won't replace human artists will erase that. Informing the site artists that you're using AI won't erase that.

Here are the confirmed AI official assets (descriptions in alt text):

(The orb pic is comically large because they kept it at >500x500 for a while and I saved it)

Additionally, there are background items that are almost definitely AI generated:

Some have glaring issues while others may be less obvious, but when comparing them to the art styles in other items, the difference is apparent, and is not explained by having multiple artists and the seeming lack of a style guide.

There were also several coloring contests with obviously AI generated lineart:

And also official threads where players were to design pets based off of AI generated images. These ones were from the faelora design raffle during the 2023 spring festival:

If you're not convinced they're AI, the images on the thread were hosted by Sylestia's server's and reverse image searching didn't turn up any matches. They would never commission these, and they didn't just take them from another site. They were generated for the raffle.

Do not support this site. The are so, so many games made by people that actually respect artists.

[azapofinspiration]

Fanfic Writer Interview

Thanks to @bunnys-tales for tagging me! Seems like this should be pretty fun!

How many works do you have on AO3?

I have... 245 fics on there. Wow, I remember when I hit the 200 mark, like, a couple years ago. To be fair, I've been writing and posting fanfics (originally on FF.Net but I've posted and mostly backdated all of my fics onto AO3 as well) for almost 13 years now.

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

I was a bit surprised when I checked because the one that's been number 1 for years now has finally been usurped.

I generally don't necessarily go by kudos (especially since I know that there are re-readers out there like me), but I do appreciate every single one.

So here are my top 5 kudo'd fics!

1. Rite of Passage (BSD fanfic) - Basically, the ADA and PM go drinking together and try to figure out what sort of traditions (or rites of passage) they go through to truly be deemed members of their organization. And it turns out everyone has basically had at least a bit of a crush on Chuuya. Can't blame them.

2. Hell in High Heels (VLD fanfic) - This was basically my top kudo'd fic ever since I posted it in 2018. I'm surprised I have something that's finally surpassed it since every fic I've written that I thought might never did quite as well (though it has had time to accumulate). In it, for a mission, Lance crossdresses and it turns out he can pass pretty well (and work it in heels). I had ideas for some sequels but never really got motivation to try them, though it was basically more shenanigans and Klance moments.

3. With Flying Colors (VLD fanfic) - Forever salty about how the show treated Lance and the Blue Lion. I never got over the Blue Lion never being given a defining trait like the others were at the beginning (except later she was implied to be the easiest or most easy-going which is why she easily accepted another paladin - which wtf), so given the nature of water, I gave her and Lance the trait of versatility and how Lance portrayed at different times all the traits that the other Lions looked for as well.

4. Maid of Steel (BSD fanfic) - I'm sensing a pattern, but in this fic, Chuuya has to crossdress in a maid cafe (to Dazai's delight and Atsushi and Kunikida's bewilderment) to try to investigate a case that's been affecting the PM as well. And then he kicks some butt. Just a fun time here.

5. In the Shadow of Death (Gravity Falls fanfic) - Originally inspired by some fan art (and then inspiring some in turn, Grunkle Stan manages to adopt/befriend multiple death omens over the years of him living in Gravity Falls and they love him so much, they won't let him die. Mostly written when I had free time during substitute teaching.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I certainly try to respond. Sometimes I get in the habit for a decent stretch but then I get busy and forget and then it feels like it's much too late as it's for something I've moved on from or I don't want to bother them and it's just.

I do try to respond as I'm able.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmm. Okay, I'm gonna be honest. I don't actually remember half the stuff I've written. Sometimes I have to remind myself of what exactly my own fics are when they get kudos or comments if it's one of my older fics. And I do write a lot of angst (as much as I write hurt/comfort), but a lot of the time, it's angst with happy ending so does that really count?

And it's really a matter of what kind of angst you're talking about. Same Song, Different Verse revels in the parallels of Vanitas and Louis and how both wished for Noé to kill them (which - I wrote this before the Amusement Park arc ended with Vanitas actually saying he wanted Noé to kill him). In Can't Turn Back I basically tortured Castiel for half the fic and had him deal with the consequences in the other half. Watch Your Back addresses both Stan's sordid past and his current memory issues. Adora realized that Catra had been lost as well atop of everything else in season 4 in Gone. I have multiple fics where characters die or seem to die (and may come back at the end or in a sequel fic).

So really, this is up for debate. I'm not sure what would be considered the angstiest ending, because even if things are better, the root issue may be one that can happen again.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Like I said, I love my angst with a happy ending so...

Maybe one of my sweeter fics like Reciprocated Affection (BSD), Knot Matching (Trickier Than It Seams) (VNC), Girls Become Lovers (Who Turn Into Mothers) (She-Ra), or The Scrapbook (Gravity Falls and ends a series of fics taking place in the finale)? All of them have different flavors of happy endings but it does have good and caring vibes at the end.

Do you write crossovers?

It might appear like I've written more but that's because Case Study of Vanitas has tags for both the anime and manga separately. So when I wrote something that applied to both, I marked both.

In actuality, I've written exactly 2 crossovers since I'm not really interested usually in exploring those possibilities. One is a fanfic shipping Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella (Disney Animated versions) that I wrote for Valentines' Day challenge in my college anime club (but it turned out to be really good so I shared it) and the other is a Stanchez fic that I wrote for a mini-bang event since I thought they'd make an interesting ship and it was a whole thing for a while.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I think I've gotten a few comments before, but the only thing that really comes to mind isn't necessarily hate. Like, back on FF.Net, for a Stony fic that I had clearly marked as Stony, I had someone constantly commenting for several chapters about why it had to have a romantic flavored ship especially of Steve and Tony. Since that site doesn't let you respond to reviews/comments, I addressed them in an author's note in the fic (pointing out that I had marked it and I could do what I want so why were they here if they didn't like it) and the anon immediately became apologetic and then asked if I was mad/forgave them multiple times for the next few chapters. It was more weird than anything.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. My fic What Is Love? for VNC was stolen, terribly translated into Spanish, and then posted as the first two chapters of a fic of what I presume were even more stolen stories translated into Spanish to avoided being found out for stealing on Wattpad. I never gave permission for a translation and they didn't even link to the original or say it wasn't theirs. Luckily, someone let me know, since I don't use Wattpad, and I went through the steps on Wattpad to let the admin know and it got taken down by showing I'd posted mine first and all my fics on AO3 for years have been tagged not to be copied to other sites.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes. Back on FF.Net, someone asked to translate a couple of my SPN fanfics into Russian and they linked back to my original so it was okay.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Kinda. A person here on Tumblr and I went back and forth, writing and responding on a post that helped build a story until they couldn't go on. But I don't remember who it was, where those posts are (must not have tagged it as fic as it was kinda a write and response that we unintentionally started), and I can't remember what we were even doing. It was fun though, even though it's lost in the Tumblr slurry.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Uh... It changes. Probably between SKK or Vanoé just due to how recent those are, though I still love both Lumity and Raeda and I will probably never recover from Klance or Kagome/Inuyasha.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I have a YGO fic lurking at the bottom of my Google Docs that I probably will never touch again. I also have whole lists of fic ideas for fandoms I've moved on from.

Of my recent stuff, I don't know if I'll ever finish my VNC Anatasia AU that I started writing. I am trying to finish my other VNC WIP about hanahaki right now though!

What are your writing strengths?

I've been told multiple times across fandoms that I have very strong characterization. I think dialogue plays a huge role in that and I always try to get the spirit of the characters down.

My plots are also pretty good as well because people seem to be able to follow and enjoy the threads I weave.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I am also bad at getting to the point. Like, I have to have decent set-up which usually takes up pages before I get to whichever scenario the fanfic is actually about.

I'm also terrible at symbolism (it's something I struggled with in school - very much a "why can't the curtains just be blue" type of person back then) and as a result I'm not sure if the themes I want to get across are being properly conveyed. But I worry about my themes getting across even without symbolism that I'm trying to incorporate.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I mean, I have done this. I've written Lance speaking in Spanish and characters in VNC may get a sprinkling of French (though I'm more familiar with Spanish since I at least took a few years of that in high school though it's been years).

Though I think I've usually put in translations somewhere to help readers who don't want to try to translate it themselves.

I think it can be interesting.

Wait, does sign language count? Because usually I just indicate that's what they're speaking in when I've had characters use that.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

At the moment? None that I can think of. I'll probably only know once my attention shifts.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Ah, I can't pick just one, because again, there's usually something in each fandom I've written for that I'm particularly proud of. But I'll try to narrow it down to 3.

Words is a RWBY White Rose fanfic, one of the first ones I did for that fandom, for the ship week. It's probably also my only blatant soulmates fic that uses those tropes.

Archiviste is a VNC Vanoe fic that explores Noé not only losing Vanitas, but also beoming a cursebearer due to it. And all of his worst traits are elevated as he does everything he can to get Vanitas back. I liked exploring his darker side and also evil Noé is hot.

Finally, one of my most recent fics is this super long one shot On My Knees (Looking for an Answer) for BSD (that includes SKK). As my friends pointed out, it's basically a Chuuya character study from everyone else's point of view and I really loved writing it despite how long it took.

Tagging: Anyone who wants to do this but specifically I encourage @theroadtosomewhere @neontoad @blindblossom @xlillyle