#written in dec 2018

[bewareofthenewphannie]

sigh....please don't kill me for this

AO3 Phandom Stats - Top or Bottom?

As many of you may have noticed there has been a shift in the depiction of Dan and Phil in fanfiction over the past few months from previously predominantly Dan being written as the bottom to now largely Phil bottoming. This post aims to put that trend into numbers and visualise it in a few overly convoluted diagrams below the cut.

Does any of this matter? Absolutely not.

Is it interesting? Oh boy, it sure is!

Disclaimer: This is an analysis of the fanfiction writing and tagging trends within the Phandom. It's at most tangentially related to the Real People Dan and Phil and is not meant to spark any type of discourse. I am doing this as an avid fanfic reader and with the utmost respect and appreciation for the authors of these fics, so I don't want to see any negativity directed towards them. Above all this is meant to be fun and interesting.

And as always - don't like it, don't read it <3

Note on accessibility: linked here is a doc with all the numbers shown in the screenshots of this post. Inspired by emma's stats I will be putting the cell range in the ID - if there's a better way to do this, please lmk!!

Methodology

To get the numbers shown here I filtered the works in the Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF) AO3 tag by "date updated" from the Jan 1st to Dec 31st of each year and by the following tags:

Bottom Dan Howell

Bottom Phil Lester

Top Dan Howell

Top Phil Lester

Short excurse on AO3 tags for those unaware:

The tags I chose are canonical tags, which means other tags that mean the same thing but are for example spelled differently are linked to this tag by tag wranglers and appear when you search for the canonical tag (see example below).

Additionally, the "bottom x" tags are metatags for the power bottom tags, which means fics tagged with "power bottom x" also appear when you filter works for these tags.

It's important to note that not every fic where one of them tops or bottoms is tagged as such. That means these stats very specifically look at the author's choice to tag fics with these tags and not the overall amount of fics where one of them tops or bottoms. However, I would argue it's fair to assume that it's at least somewhat reflective of the general writing trends within the Phandom.

For simplicity's sake I will refer to these tags as e.g. "Bottom!Phil" (b!p) going forward.

Stats 2013 - 2024

Here you can see how many fics were tagged with each tag in the respective year and the amount of bottom!dan and bottom!phil fics relative to the total amount of fanfic written in the same time span.

As expected, up until 2023 the split was about 2 b!d to 1 b!p fic (precise numbers: 71% to 29%; see pie chart above).

In 2018 we can see a peak in both in the number of phanfics written and the relative amount of fics tagged as bottom!dan.

Starting in 2023 (more on that below!) this flips and in 2024 the ratio of b!d to b!p fics was 1 to 4 (precise numbers: 81% to 19%; see pie chart above).

Furthermore, making up 4,62% of the total amount of phanfics written in 2024, the bottom!phil tag is relatively speaking twice as popular now as the bottom!dan tag ever was.

Sidenote: You can see that generally the amount of fics tagged with b!d and t!p, as well as b!p and t!d correspond to each other for obvious reasons (they're usually fucking each other). This year however there's 16 fics more tagged with bottom!phil than top!dan, which shows that there's been a very specific interest in writing and tagging bottom!phil in the last year.

Here you can see the total amount of phanfics written by year because I already collected the data, so I might as well put it here:

Stats 11/2023 - 12/2024

Now I want to take a closer look at the past few months post hiatus.

You can see that there's been a steady increase in the total amount of fics written per month!

That's incredibly cool!! (Love to all the wonderful writers out there <33)

Before we get into the actual stats, it's important to note that we're working with very low numbers here, so don't be fooled by overinterpreting percentages in the first few months depicted and look at the actual numbers! In the diagram below I excluded September and October 2023 because there simply wasn't enough data to produce useable results.

Contrary to what I expected, the increase in fics tagged with bottom!phil does not coincide with gamingmas 2023 (pour bot hem and top bunk kind of guy), nor phil's birthday live stream (topped by kakuna) but only really starts in June 24 and spikes in August for reasons I'm not fully sure about.

If I had to pin it on one thing it'd be the precious baby angel picture, which was posted in mid August.

Much more likely is though that this was simply a dynamic that built over months and had a wide array of reasons mentioned above and could very well be a self-reinforcing dynamic of more and more people looking for that tag and also writing for it.

If anyone has more insight on this, please share your thoughts :]

On that note, I'm finally done yapping, I hope this was at least mildly interesting!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hello hello fandom friend! I love love love your blog. Thank you for all that you do for the this part of the internet. I have a slightly subjective question: I know that there are SO many creative, wonderful, smartly written pieces. But in your opinion, what are the top 10 (or less, OR more :-)) most gorgeously written stories? Anything where the writing made you think JESUS CHRIST and absolutely blew you away. I know this will be a personal call. Feel free to use your own measures. (Most re-read, most haunted by, ones with lines you still remember 10 years on?) Thank you so much in advance!

Hey Nonny!

Oh gosh this is such a broad question because everyone has different tastes, and stuff I may think are works of art may not appeal to other people. I think the safest way for me to answer this question is to direct you to all of my Fave Fics lists... I hope that's okay! <3

Top 20 Fave 40K+ w. Fics (April 2017)

Ten Fave Short Johnlock Fics (Easy Reads April 2018)

25 Fave Johnlock One Shots (April 2018)

Top 10 Fave Fics (September 2018)

Top 20 Bookmarks of 2018 (March 2019)

Another Top 10 Fave Fics (June 2019)

Top 30 Read-Again Fics (March 2019)

Top 30 Read-Again Fics Pt. 2 (Sept. 2019)

Fave Read-Again Fics (10) (Dec 11/20)

Top 25 Fave Non-Ao3 Fics (Nov. 2019)

Top 25 Fave Non-Ao3 Fics Pt 2 (Apr 2022)

Top 25 Fave Non-AO3 Fics Pt 3 (May 2023)

Top 25 Bookmarks of 2019 (Dec. 29/2019)

Top 30 Bookmarks of 2020

Top 25 Bookmarks of 2021

Top 20 Bookmarks of 2022

Top 35 Bookmarks of 2023

Top 20 Comfort Fics (Feb 2022)

Top 30 Fave Angst Fics Under 10K

25 Fics for Fic Rec Bingo

10 Current Fave Multi-Fandom Fics (June 2023)

I-J’s Last 50 Bookmarked Fics (June 2017)

Last 17 Bookmarked Fics (July 2017) 

Last 30 Bookmarked Fics (November 2017)

Last 86 Bookmarked Fics (Jan 2019) || [MOBILE]

Top Five Fandom Fics on Ao3, Plus 1M Hit Fic (Dec. 2018)

Fandom Favourites / Popular Fics

My List of “New Classics” (July 2021)

=====

Sorry I'm kind of useless at this reply mainly because I think SO many fics deserve all kinds of love, but I hope you take joy from these lists. 💜🖤

[itwoodbeprefect]

Fic Writing Review 2024 🌈

i did this last year and tagged a bunch of people, and this year i'm going to continue the tradition but not tag anyone, i think, because i'm very late. but if you're reading this and you've posted anything to ao3 in 2024, consider yourself tagged, and please tag me if you still do it! i'd love to see other people's lists!

for me this was, uh. probably my least productive year since i really truly made the switch to english fic (2018), and it's definitely no 2019, when i posted 56 fics. but not every year can be a 2019 (or should be one, frankly), so that's okay.

-

Words and Fics (on ao3) 📚

words posted: 18,404

fics posted: 12! of which 2 were technically late crossposts from starsky & hutch fandom events in 2023 (though i also wrote a 2024 s&h advent calendar fic that is yet to make it to ao3, so if we really do the math we maybe get to 11 finished works. but i'll stick with those 12 posted within the timeframe for the rest of this, for convenience's sake, and because 1 fic per month makes a nice round average.)

first fic: With every guitar string scar on my hand, a bad buddy pat/pran fic, on jan 24th

last fic: By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol), a thame-po heart that skips a beat fic (which is, well. thame/po), on dec 28th

-

Ships and Fandoms ⚓

according to ao3:

Starsky & Hutch (5)

แค่เพื่อนครับเพื่อน | Bad Buddy: the Series (TV) (3)

Hawaii Five-0 (2010) (2)

เธม-โป้ Heart That Skips a Beat | Thame-Po: Heart That Skips a Beat (TV) (1)

บ้านหลอน ON SALE | Peaceful Property (TV) (1)

the most shocking thing here by far is that there are only two (2) h50 fics on this list. it doesn't even feel that way! i still spent a really good chunk of time thinking about h50 fic, it just didn't amount to much in terms of actual finished products. starsky and hutch is still going strong (relatively speaking, at least), and last year i noted that i wished i'd gotten any of my bad buddy projects posted, which clearly sort of worked out for me this year, though there's still More. the other two are two thai series that took me by surprise, which, hey, fingers crossed that will keep happening, because i really need to start writing some fic again about things i'm actually currently watching. it's good for the soul i think.

-

Top 5 Fics by Kudos 🏆

Ain’t no other that can sweep you up like a robber [h50]

Meet me at the edge (I’ve already fallen) [h50]

Sun down and I’m feeling lifted (Downtown, cherry lipstick) [bad buddy]

With every guitar string scar on my hand [bad buddy]

By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol) [thamepo]

h50 is easily outpacing everything else, with both of those way at the top here. what i like is that the ink/pa bad buddy fic extremely comfortably landed the third spot, with almost double the kudos of the pat/pran fic that's in fourth place. the world craves femslash i guess! along with a host of other, more likely factors (it probably has a more catchy description, it's tagged for both ships because patpran still show up, possibly more people in 2024 were looking for fic for characters played by milk and love because they're still actively working together, etc), but wouldn't it be nice.

the thamepo fic (which is thame/po. it never stops feeling a little goofy to explain the ship when it's in the title, but you could of course be writing other things anyway) taking the fifth most kudo'd spot came as a bit of a shock, but honestly, i've written for so many Smaller Fandoms in 2024 that it's not actually very odd. it's my most recent posted thing but this show is currently airing and seems to be getting a decent amount of traction, so it has the benefit of being current.

my kudos total for all 12 fics i posted this year is as of writing this at 1,235, and there's a stark contrast in this being about ~700 kudos below 2023's How to build a triangle (ted lasso, jamie/roy/keeley) all by itself. i did NOT hop into any ted-lasso-at-its-peak sized fandoms in 2024.

-

Top 5 Favorite Fics 💖

well! the upside of writing 12 fics is that i can put, like, over two-fifths of them on this list. in no particular order:

By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol) - i mean, i think today's episode of, uh, Thame-Po: Heart That Skips A Beat may have pushed this fic a little farther from following canon than it originally seemed (apparently thame was not aware of his own lurking romantic feelings for po, at all. oh my god) but i had a fun time writing this! it's short and not very specific and i enjoy the repeated number thing. (this kid was really rushing across the city to ask to memorize the number of a guy he apparently assumed he was just trying to be friends with. i do love him very dearly already, gosh.)

The name of the game - this is starsky/hutch and i think it's sort of sneaking in here! i was just happy this was a Complete Fic when i posted it (it had all the necessary parts, so i was sending it off), but then people were SO sweet about it in SUCH overwhelming numbers that it's probably a huge part of how i fell back in love with it myself. that's always a little magical to me. also: the sisyphus line about starsky may be my favorite thing i posted in 2024.

Rest your heart easy - also starsky/hutch! but less of a surprise. this was written for the ShareCon 2023 zine, and i don't reread it very often, but when i do it's like, yeah! i'm glad it was this fic of mine that got to participate in the zine. it's nice, it's warm, it flows.

Sun down and I’m feeling lifted (Downtown, cherry lipstick) - the bad buddy ink/pa fic! this sounds so silly when saying it about a thing that took over my life for a few months and still makes me drop to the floor when i see one (1) scene for whatever reason and am immediately attacked by the memory of how much i love it, but i'm REALLY still figuring out how to write these characters. they are my best friends and i have no idea who they are, apparently. but i like the attempt i made here, and i think i might like it more than both of the finished pat/pran focused fics, though that could be purely because i reread those far too many times in trying to Get It Right before hitting post. also. i like ink and pa! and they deserved to kiss. (and on that note, it's 2025, why is there still such a strict dividing line between GL and BL in nearly all cases? let the girls and boys hang out together, please. i won't pretend that if bad buddy could do it then everyone can (those are entirely unrealistic standards in most cases), but they could at least try.)

Home goes where the heart is - this is a peaceful property fic that is only vaguely peach/home shippy. (peaceful property being, on all levels that count, not BL.) in hindsight, i think i should have gone with one of my alternate title options and called it Pang pang! It’s a Home invasion! (because one of the characters is called pangpang and another one is called home), but hey, this slightly more serious title is fun too. i'm not even sure this is necessarily one of the best things i wrote in 2024, but it just makes me happy. there's a second peaceful property fic of which i wrote most on the night that the finale aired, but then it got longer than intended and it ended up stuck in limbo. but i still have hopes that i may give it an ending one day, because these characters in their weird kind loud ghost & cooking show that made me cry several times really deserve it (and i think there are some funny lines in the wip, and if there's one thing that makes me want to see a fic finished, it's a joke that the world should be able to read).

-

Fandom Fic Events 🤝

it's not on ao3 yet (i may do that soon-ish), but my fic for this year’s Starsky & Hutch Advent Calendar, The Simple Things! if starsky and hutch is your jam, don't forget to look at the rest of the calendar too!

-

Projects for 2025 👀

hmm, well. hmm.

2024 was an incredibly chaotic year for me, writing-wise. i'm not entirely sure what i was doing or where i was going, and i wasn't extremely motivatived to figure it out, because i was doing other things. (like figuring out how to write thai letters, for example.) i think if i want to write more, then part of my 2025 has to be to read more fiction, because it's truly just, like. words need to go in for words to come out.

i REALLY want to get a flip-flop state of mind finished up for real this year. i want to get better at/allow myself more slack to just type up something short and quick and probably not too deep, rather than feeling some need to turn every single wip idea into a months or years long project. those are great too! i love chipping away at a fic for an eternity, and the beauty of hobby writing is that there's no reason not to still do that, too! but i also need to keep things moving a little bit so i don't get stuck in a loop of looking at the same words which don't inspire me anymore and not adding anything, which also doesn't get me anything new to jump off from tomorrow.

so. write some h50 fic. write some starsky & hutch fic. write a bunch of thai series fic (and allow myself to play some jazz when it comes to character voices, because i still keep getting stuck on that too often. it's fine if they're My Version, that's what fic is). maybe something else, if i feel like it? my project for 2025 is Fun, and it would be really neat if i could get 13 fics (or more) posted (to get that yearly number moving back up again), but if not, that's also fine.

honestly maybe what i need in terms of fandoms is something in thai which is also queerbait (or queercoding), because that's where i'm at currently + what historically is best at getting me to write. i've heard a lot about high school frenemy, and i only keep dodging it because it has high school in the title, but hey, who knows! maybe watching two men who are 26 and 27 play high schoolers in some sort of feud who are obviously in love but don't kiss about it will fix me.

[thatyoutubereviewer]

Watch "The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals" on YouTube

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

Genre: sci-fi horror comedy musical proshot

Date posted: Dec 24, 2018

Closed captioning: very good 👍👍

Runtime: 1:52:36

Youtube description: summary of the show with full credits of cast crew and direction, as well as time stamps for both scenes and songs

Trigger warnings: fake blood and guts, blue shit, smoking, drinking, vulgar language, guns, gunshots, the US government, gaslighting

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟

Full spoilers free review below vv

What a better video to review than the one that *really* got me sucked into YouTube. Of course, I'd been watching YouTube for years before that, even the same channel. But this musical? Fucking transcendent!

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals (tgwdlm) pushes the boundaries in every way. From the adult comedy that can't *quite* make it on Broadway, to the suspenseful sci-fi apocalyptic plot you can't find anywhere else, this show is perfect for theater lovers and those wishing to dip their toes into the musical world. A story that takes place over two days, after a meteor hits and people start singing, what will the guy who doesn't like musicals do?

The characters are brilliantly written and all stand apart from each other. Even when an actor is playing another character on stage, you can always tell who they are supposed to be. It's a cast of eight performers onstage, which is wildly impressive to me that it seems like a whole town with only eight people. There is... decent representation, while most of the characters are straight white men, there is one black man with a lesbian daughter. Trust me that Starkid vastly improves their representation if that is something of importance to you.

Jeff Blim's musical writing paired with the cast's talent made a wonderful soundtrack with genres ranging from 80s rock ballad to coffee showtune it'll leave you in whiplash in the best way. All of the songs make sense for the scenes and flow well with the plot. Let's just say I've jammed to this album a few,, several times.

The pacing starts slow, then picks up and doesn't stop. There's so much to chew on, but the show gives you enough time to swallow it. Nick and Matt Lang's writing has always been really good, but a lot of people consider tgwdlm their magnum opus. Tgwdlm is one of three musicals set in the small town Hatchetfield, and if you like this, you'll definitely like those.

Tgwdlm has an active fandom on tumblr and twitter, though I highly recommend you watch all three hatchetfield musicals before you interact for fear of spoilers.

I rated tgwdlm at a 6 out of 5 stars because this show gave me joy and community when I didn't have a lot. It's hard not to fall in love with these characters, songs, and plot. Also, when it first came out, I watched it several times over just because it was so good. I highly recommend to anyone willing to spend their time on something cooky, fun, and a little spooky.

[asukaskerian]

Yearly word count - 2024

jan: 1 266 feb: 7 422 mar: 3 025 apr: 4 604 may: 3 026 jun: 5 163 jul: 4 652 aug: 7 143 sep: 4 557 oct: 1 247 nov: 2 839 dec: 3 284 TOTAL: 48 228 AVERAGE: 4 019/month ... slightly better than last year, i guess!

2010: 136 235, average: 11 353/month. ... :X :X :X 2011: 167 675, average: 13 973/month. :X 2012: 332 396, average: 27 700/month. eeeeeeee. 2013: 396 917, average: 33 076/month !!!!!!!! 2014: 315 332, average: 26 276/month ... :X 2015: 206 403, average: 17 200/month. 2016: 127 495, average: 10 625/month. >:( 2017: 80 828, average: 6 736/month. .__. 2018: 128 033, avergage: 10 669/month. FUCK YOU 2017. 2019: 159 609, average: 13 300/month. huh! 2020: 105 791, average: 8 816/month. ... hhghhrhhhhhhhhhhhhhh flops. 2021: 101 776, average: 8 481.33/month. =__= 2022: 73 461, average: 6 121.75/month. hhAHHJZVB WORSE THAN 2017 2023: 40 155, average: 3 346.25/month. this used to be three months' worth. hgh. 2024: 48 228, average: 4 019/month. sighflop.

FICS I POSTED THIS YEAR:

-chapters 1 to 4 of In This Economy, the bleach grimmjow/ichigo/orihime/nelliel suburban ot4. it's still not done but i'm writing chapter 21 atm so hey, i'm hoping. -chapter 1 of cosplaying in another dimension with my tamagotchi! - svsss, shen yuan adventuring in PIDW, eventual SY/luo bing-ge -Swimming With the Fishes - bleach daemon AU ficlet 8, yakuza OC POV on harribel wondering what the fuck. -You Know Better Babe - Ichigo ending/sidefic for the grimmichi pack fuckening ABO. -chapter 9 of Days on a Wire - cherry wine - madatobiizu ABO -To End a War - grimmichihime arranged marriage AU oneshot. -Foretold by the Gods - SVSSS - moshang arranged marriage oneshot.

couple new ficlets/oneshots, some super slow progress on cherry wine, finally gave in and started posting the suburban ot4... still feel like every new fic i've come up with this year has been forced out and written by rote and not inspiration. but there were a few new things even so, therefore stfu brain.

[vocalsynthbdays]

happy birthday ia(vocaloid 3), vivi(vocaloid 4), merry kohaku(utau), and one(cevio cs) !!! [jan 27]

(ia and vivi)

(merry and one)

IA is a japanese synth developed by 1st PLACE Co., Ltd., and released in 2012. ia is voiced by singer-songwriter Lia, and mostly illustrated by Akasaka Aka, who done all her art apart from her ai song art, which was drawn by Simanerikotton. as well as that, ias ai song english box arts artist is unknown. its a render of a 3d model of ia. ias mmd model was created by mqdl. ia was released for vocaloid 3 on 27 jan 2013, and for vocaloid neo on 7 dec 2013. later, on 27 jun 2014 she was released with her IA ROCKS vb for those same engines. she was then released for cevio with her IA Talk vb on 1 march 2017, and her IA ENGLISH C on 29 june 2018. then for cevio ai, with her IA TALK on 12 mar 2021, and her IA AI SONG and IA AI SONG ENGLISH on 27 oct 2021. shes also available on the mobile vocaloid editor and vocaloid keyboard. ia is a part of 1st PLACE Co., Ltd.'s -ARIA ON THE PLANETES- series.

merry kohaku is a japanese synth created and voiced by Shiogama, and released in 2014. merry is illustrated by sweeper_ms and _kiyomizutera_ i think, with kiyomizutera doing the colouring if i am understanding a post on ms's pixiv correctly.

VIVI (aka Vivian Vu) was announced in 2018. she was to be an english synth with a japanese and chinese bank also, but was cancelled due to legal issues surrounding obtaining a development license. she was being developed by VoMelody (vocadb also lists zero-g as a company shes associated with but im not sure in what way. vomelodys vocadb article just says they were developing her). since vivis banks were never released there is no official way to obtain them, but developer copies were leaked to the public in 2021. vivi is illustrated by hieihirai. i dont know who voiced vivi

the following was very kindly written by my friend who knows nothing about vocal synths:

happy birth ONE (オネ) !! 🍮

one is a cevio released by the company 1st PLACE Co., Ltd, and she was released on january 27, 2015. 🌹

one is a 15 year old girl and she has orange hair. she shares a birthday with her older sister, IA. coincidentally, she also shares a name with her voice provider, ONE, who is a singer. an illustrator called „sidu“ created her character design. 🪣

one is apart of the -ARIA ON THE PLANETS- project, which is a series of umm characters. ☘️

she lives on planet ARIA, which is similar to earth, but with „various life forms that resonate and co-exist together, several of whom raised IA and ONE.“ 🧣

inhabitants of planet aria:

チコー or“Neko-san”, or simply “cat”) is a spirit that lives on ARIA. She is the mother figure of IA & ONE, and has been with them all of their lives before coming to Earth with ONE. ^^

They have a „grandfather“ figure named “Chōrō” (“長老”, meaning "elder") or "Choro no ki” (長老抜き, meaning the "eldest tree)".It was mentioned that he taught ONE and IA all that they know. :3

“フェニックス” (also known as “Phoenix”, or simply “Nix“ is a singing teacher and a voice trainer for ONE and IA. ^−☆

there‘s also another inhabitant that lives on ARIA but shes so irrelevant shes not even worth mentioning!!! -_-

im done writing for this b shoutout to this website i literally reworded most things and made it shorter https://cevio.fandom.com/wiki/ONE

[curio-queries]

FACE, LETTER, & CLOSER THAN THIS

Disclaimer: The following post is full of my own opinions and interpretations. I do not share this with the intent to convince anyone else that this meaning upholds for all. My interpretations are also limited to English and that is an important distinction to make when accessing art from another language and culture. There are absolutely intentions and meanings that won't translate. Art is beautifully subjective, and I hope you all find your own reasons to love Jimin's music.

This is quite a lengthy post. Thank you to anyone who reads. I'd love to hear your thoughts as well, so don't feel shy to share! 💜

So FACE has been out for nearly a year, why am I making this post now? Honestly, it's all because of Closer Than This and the few nuggets we can glean from the music video. The very first clip of the mv is of Jimin's team discussing the lyrics and then Jimin's recording session. Honestly, I was quite surprised CTT was written at the same time as all of the FACE songs.

So the question then rises: Why wasn't CTT included in FACE? The answer I've arrived at is because CTT is not part of the journey Jimin was describing with FACE. More on CTT below but first, we need to revisit FACE:

TIMELINE

(US dates - I have to do too much timezone manipulation in my job, I'm not spending the time here):

30 DEC 2018 : Promise Release on SoundCloud

21 FEB 2023 : FACE announcement

16 MAR 2023 : Set Me Free pt.2 Release

23 MAR 2023 : FACE Release

22 DEC 2023 : Closer Than This Release

And here's the FACE schedule:

MOTTO-THEME-GUIDE

These phrases are ALL OVER the FACE project! They're in the digital media that was released, on pretty much every side of the physical albums, on the back of the photocards and postcards... They're pretty much on everything official connected to FACE. They're not just fluff included to fill up space; these words have MEANING in this project. I've been using these phrases as guide posts to help me interpret some of the meanings behind FACE recently, and I would encourage anyone interested in Jimin's deeper message to do the same. I've highlighted my references below.

Circles of Resonance Reflection of vulnerable minds and unexposed wounds. An echo, tremor and small movement to reach you. Face of facing the deepest part of inner-self. Face, the reflection of myself in an unfamiliar appearance. Waves originated from the deepest invisible inner world, pass through the face on the surface and reach others to resonate while transmitting the inner voice. Waves spread beautifully, finding its own flow despite wounds and distortions from a smallest scratch. The face of unwavering effort despite repeated falls and pain.

When asked what the album was about, Jimin freely shares that it relates to the events during the pandemic...and then the conversation usually moves on without any deeper discussion. This interview is probably the most verbose Jimin was any time he described the meaning behind FACE. If you haven't watched it recently, I highly recommend it.

We know that Jimin rarely shares the problems he's having whilst he's going through them (with us at least). He always waits until after he's moved on so that he can tell us not to worry, that it's in the past. (This concept comes up again in this post so keep it in mind.)

The distinction that I think is important to make is that, yes, FACE is about the pandemic, but it's not a straightforward diary of events. It's about how those events affected him. How the waves caused by the pandemic RESONATE, ECHO, and TREMOR through him - effecting the UNEXPOSED WOUNDS. Jimin found something in himself through this experience and had no choice but to FACE it. There were no distractions anymore, no pushing it to the side to deal with later. And he was able to share that journey with us in such a tragically beautiful way.

THE TRACKS

I made the below gifs for each track but I think they look best as a set without the tags so you can get the full effect of the differing ripples. Check out this post to see what I mean. ☺️

FACE-OFF

I know everyone likes to meme about Face-Off and trying to find who hurt Jimin to make them pay...but I really don't associate Face-Off with an external person. You can betray yourself in much worse ways than anyone else can because you know exactly all of your own weaknesses. You know exactly what pretty lies to tell yourself. And honestly, the source of the event doesn't really matter in the context of FACE. I view Face-Off as the initial incident. The SMALLEST SCRATCH that pushes the waves to spread.

There's also a lovely bit of foreshadowing with the lyric "Like crazy, everyone shout out, yeah yeah". CIRCLES OF RESONANCE. Not singular, multiple; we are in for a bumpy ride.

INTERLUDE : DIVE

I admit, I only listen to this track when I'm doing a full album listen. I love instrumental tracks but this isn't instrumental to me, it's sound effects. And I just personally have a sensory issue that comes out to play here BUT it's important to include in our discussion so don't skip it when you're trying to delve into the meanings!

The message I glean here is just how pervasive the issue is becoming. Jimin can be going about his life, trying to disregard it but the UNEXPOSED WOUNDS are there lurking underneath it all.

The pretty music overlaying the track may sound like glitz and glam, but this is just the beginning of the WAVES SPREADING BEAUTIFULLY, FINDING ITS OWN FLOW DESPITE WOUNDS AND DISTORTIONS...

LIKE CRAZY

I've been promising a post on Like Crazy for ages and this may be the closest I get to it. Let me know if any of you are interested in a more in-depth discussion on how the movie and the song work together. My short summary for both is this: there are moments when you willfully take actions that you KNOW are against your best interest. Not in a fleeting eats-too-many-cookies way. In a I-know-putting-my-hand-on-the-stove-and-turning-it-on-will-burn-me way.

I hope none of you experience this to such a damning extent. I have. Despite being the kind of person who I thought would never venture down such a path. It's not something I wish upon anyone. This is the WAVES ORIGINATED FROM THE DEEPEST INVISIBLE INNER WORLD, PASS THROUGH THE FACE ON THE SURFACE...

ALONE

Have you ever repeated a word enough that it starts to sound bizzare? What if you got the point where you thought the weird sound was reality? And then you were confronted with the truth. This song is that point. Where you are left with the sober understanding of yourself. FACE, THE REFLECTION OF MYSELF IN AN UNFAMILIAR APPEARANCE.

SET ME FREE pt.2

The rise! Jimin was able to find a way to push himself beyond the betrayal of himself. It absolutely wasn't easy and there were setbacks, but this is a clear call to any who find themselves in similar circumstances: you CAN overcome. THE FACE OF UNWAVERING EFFORT DESPITE REPEATED FALLS AND PAIN.

Remember when I said earlier that Jimin only tells us about his struggle once it's over? I honestly believe that's why SMF was the pre-release track. He needed us to know that there was a happy ending before he would tell us about the pain he went through.

LIKE CRAZY (English Version)

As I mentioned my sensory issue above, I cannot talk about Like Crazy without mentioning the whispered English at the beginning/end. I HATE it sooooo much! It just twigs my brain in all the wrong ways. It's a huge part of why it took me a long time to appreciate LC. As much as I hate it though, it's absolutely necessary for the interpretation of LC. It firmly gives us a landmark into where and how the song relates to the movie. It also creates a bookend structure that gives the original and the English versions their own rightful places to exist.

LETTER

My very first post on this blog was a simple comparison of the lyrics in Like Crazy from the translation on the original music video to the english version. There is absolutely a difference here and I think it's a very important distinction that there are two versions of Like Crazy in the album. One is AN ECHO, TREMOR AND SMALL MOVEMENT TO REACH YOU. This phrase is for us, the audience. None of the other phrases use "you". Even though Jimin has set himself free, there are still CIRCLES RESONATING.

If you have seen any of my posts prior to this, you likely know how obsessed with Letter I am. I have the hardest time naming anything as a favorite (even favorite colour, there's just sooo many good uses of different colors) so I hope you understand how revolutionary it is for me to unequivocally state that Letter is my favorite song. Like ever. For all of my (cough*decades*cough) of music-listening, opinion-having life. Letter is THE ONE. Letter is it. I probably have stronger feelings about Letter than any relationship I've been in (but I'm aspec so take that with a grain of salt...)

I listen to Letter A LOT (sometimes on literal repeat - there's a video on YouTube that loops it for over an hour and I've definitely contributed several of those listens) and while working on this post, I would still get emotional hearing it at the end of FACE. This song is the absolute definition of the beauty that can only truly be understood after utter tragedy.

To me, Letter is about how this experience has effected Jimin to the point where there's a noticeable difference in the way he interacts with and appreciates those he loves, in all interpretations of the word love. WAVES...REACH OTHERS TO RESONATE WHILE TRANSMITTING THE INNER VOICE.

I am not using this post to debate the merits of exactly who Letter is for: a significant other, ARMY, or Jimin himself. Frankly, I don't think it matters to the meaning of the song. Use whatever flavour most appeals to you. That's the real genius and gift of Jimin's music imo. He creates it in such a way that we can fold it around our own personal stories and needs.

WHAT WAS THIS POST ABOUT AGAIN?

Right, so rewind to the release of Closer Than This. I'd had very little sleep as I traveled for the holidays and was absolutely feeling the timezone difference. But I stayed up to hear Jimin's new song. I listened to it first in Spotify and thought it sounded like a beautiful, happy, well-produced gift of a song - perfect for the end of the year and to comfort us with his departure for military service. Then I watched the mv to read the subtitles... Y'all, I absolutely was NOT expecting to see clips from the time covered in Jimin's Production Diary! I wouldn't have been surprised if it was the same team that Jimin worked with before but at a later time - he trusts them artisically after all. BUT these clips were the same angles and same conversations we saw from the development of FACE.

So I started my due diligence. Is it possible CTT was supposed to be part of FACE but they held it specifically to release when it did? I listened to FACE multiple times trying to insert CTT into the narrative. And it just doesn't fit this journey...at all. Like not in the slightest. I thought maybe immediately after Letter or even replacing Letter but no. I even tried inserting Promise as a bridge and it just doesn't work in the context of FACE.

CTT has a pretty literal storytelling narrative. It describes the journey WE have been on with Jimin. It lists his promises to US going forward. The music video being an album of memories, supports the nostalgic and loving viewpoint of the song. It has absolutely nothing to do with how Jimin was affected by the events of the pandemic or anything he found inside himself because of it.

Both songs have been described by Jimin as a 'fan song' and as I described in this post, there are many reasons that support both of them falling into this categorization. To me, Letter is more about Jimin having a deep intimate conversation with us because he trusts us. While CTT is literally about the relationship between ARMY and Jimin.

Anyway, I think that's all I've got to say about it for now. What are your thoughts? Should Closer Than This have been included in FACE? Was it just a marketing ploy to keep generating our interest after Jimin left?

(BTW I'm really happy with those FACE gifs and how the ripples look when they're together. They took some time to figure out. I just wish I had some better software to turn them into gifs so the colours display better, but alas, beggars can't be choosers. They look really great in the ppt that I made them in but I guess that's just for me to enjoy!)

[the-one-who-isnt-an-anon]

comic timeline

All non-holiday dates are approximate but should be accurate relative to each other. Using past tense for events before the comic, present tense for Day 1 and beyond. I'm not inferring anything that isn't explicitly supported in canon even if the events seem obviously linked.

Last updated 2/13/2024.

Referenced events from before the comic, undated. Sorted by main topic:

Showfall productions:

Riptide from JRWI was produced but canceled early.

Bizly played Florida Man in the original 100 days film. Tommy played Patient Zero on contract.

Slime Demon had an ad-libbed baking show. Niki's character debut was written out and show was canceled in the middle of filming only a few episodes in, supposedly due to lack of viewership.

Sneeg had an 8-episode-run detective show.

Personnel:

Hetch fired 5 people over the years, including Criken.

In pretty quick succession, 1) Frank was hired, 2) Jerma left, 3) then Charlie was hired.

Frank and Charlie are the non-founding members who have worked at Showfall the longest without breaks.

Showfall fired Charlie's stunt double without notice.

Criken worked alongside Sneeg and others. He was fired 1 month in.

Before the tapes, employees were still leaving or planning to leave.

Hetch:

Hetch had at least one parent who treated him poorly (implied to be due to the parent's trauma from serving in the Vietnam War)

Hetch previously wanted Ranboo involved in Showfall.

Hetch got his jacket as a birthday present.

Hetch stopped filling Ranboo in on Showfall's production details.

The Founder used to be Hetch's best friend until she said something inappropriate to Hetch about Kate (Hetch's former girlfriend, implied to happen around or after Kate's death)

Charlie:

When Charlie was 20, he posted homework from a college film course on Youtube. He was approached by Showfall to do the original 100 Days film.

Charlie got a day off on his birthday. once.

Charlie and Hetch used to get along, but Hetch treated Charlie coldly.

Ranboo:

Ranboo used to want to be an author until a dumb thing happened at school.

Ranboo "did" something which the cyberbully told all their (former) friends about.

Other characters:

Wilbur and Niki used to stream before she was hired by Showfall

Mark and Ethan were popular let's players who were going to start a collab channel (Unus Annus).

Mark Iplier went to Chuck-E-Cheese many times.

2007-ish (when Ranboo was 4):

Hetch taught rats to "talk" by coding a program with pre-programmed phrases and a standard computer keyboard.

Ranboo had nightmares that Skitters the rat was experimenting on them.

2010-ish (11 years before early 2021):

Showfall had a Youtube channel for shows/movies before later creating their own website. Original team consisted of Hetch, Founder, (implied) Jerma.

Doll House (Showfall's first production).

April 3, 2013:

Showfall was officially founded. (Presumably the Youtube channel predates this and this date refers to the website - if not, the above events move down here.)

A couple years before comic start:

Hetch used to be a better director to Charlie.

2 years before comic start (2018):

Vinny was hired at Showfall.

A year before comic start (2019):

Ranboo bought a varsity jacket at Homecoming (presumably 10th grade).

A couple months before comic start (Fall 2020):

Ranboo's mom died ("earlier in 2020," implied autumn).

Ranboo's 2020 birthday, they couldn't leave their bed (also only implied autumn or winter).

Hetch became an asshole.

Showfall sold its building and moved to the mall.

Ranboo liked to hang out in the woods and pretend they were being chased by a serial killer.

Ranboo found the tapes. (implied)

Dec 14, 2020:

Charlie's first interview.

Dec 15, 2020:

Sneeg's first interview.

Showfall has only 5 current shows. 1 of them is the 100 days TV remake.

Charlie meets Ranboo.

Ethan fights geese.

Twitter blows up about Hetch's misgendering of Ranboo.

Founder threatens Hetch into hiring Ranboo for a 1-year contract.

Dec 16, 2020:

Ranboo has his first interview.

A light almost falls on Vinny.

Ranboo meets Niki.

Midnight meeting between Hetch and the Founder in order to further threaten Ranboo.

Dec 31, 2020, NYE:

The crew plans a strike.

Last day/s of refilming the 100 days pilot with Ranboo written in. 14-hour work days.

Cast party was moved up to be a New Year's Eve party.

A light almost falls on Vinny.

Rebrand is announced.

Hetch warns Ranboo not to get attached to the actors.

Frank is mentioned.

Jan 1?, 2021:

Ranboo runs off set of 100 days in tears.

1 month hiatus begins.

Some point in January 2021:

Vinny breaks his arm due to a falling item.

5 new actors are being hired. Hetch was not consulted due to being busy with editing.

New projects greenlit: 2nd season of 100 days, soap opera, a game show for Austin, slime demon baking show reboot.

(possibly later into February) Frank is promoted to head of HR.

Jan 31?, 2021:

Ranboo passes out 3 times in one day, attributed to low blood sugar.

Feb 1?, 2021:

1 month hiatus ends.

100 days tv show was popular.

New Showfall streaming service and VIP pass.

100 days is filmed at a rate of 1 episode per week (at least?), filmed in a single day. The first season is wrapping up.

5 new actors are hired.

Feb 2?, 2021:

First day of work for Wilbur Soot (approached Showfall), Mark Iplier (1 year contract), and Valkyrae (was approached by Showfall).

We meet Frank.

Austin is rehearsing for a game show.

Sneeg and Vinny are forbidden from greeting the new actors.

Valkyrae works as an assistant on Austin's game shows (implied/offscreen).

Feb 3?, 2021:

Mark and Ethan get Unus Annus greenlit.

Vinny writes a song with Wilbur and Niki.

Cameron, Mike, and Ashley's names are shared with the audience.

Cameron is masked.

Hetch gets drunk after work.

Sneeg drives Ranboo home - they talk about true crime.

Feb 4?, 2021:

Frank gives Cameron the rest of the day off due to weird behavior.

Hetch greenlights "Untitled: The Musical" for Vinny/Wilbur/Niki.

Ranboo wants to stay at Showfall for the rest of their life.

Feb 5?, 2021:

Hetch plans Unus Annus filming to start in a month.

Hetch confronts the Founder about the secrets she's keeping and is told to take the day off.

Ask the Actors: Lightning Round before another month break.

Hetch almost tells Sykkuno to suck it as Sykkuno's first on-screen appearance.

Unus Annus has its first 8 episodes written at this point.

Ethan recently splurged on a new plant for his fish.

Ranboo has another on-set outburst while trying to defend his dad.

Jerma is revealed.

Niki? is invited to coffee dates with Charlie and Sneeg.

1 month hiatus begins.

Feb 6? - March 4?, 2021:

Charlie starts a prank war with Jerma.

Twitter teasers for the convention in Lostfield town square.

Ranboo remakes their twitter account

March 5?, 2021:

1 month hiatus ends.

Ranboo sees Charlie and Sneeg at the coffee shop.

Lostfield town square convention. Unus Annus's first 2 episodes and a teaser for "Your New Boyfriend: A Musical Obsession" are released.

March 6?, 2021:

Ranboo is up in the wee hours of the morning getting cyberbullied by a classmate.

Fan meetups.

Ranboo feels anxious from cyberbullying and lost sleep. They stick by Charlie at the audience's suggestion.

Founder confronts audience on their "roleplay."

Charlie and Hetch fight over who deserves Ranboo's trust more.

Charlie and Hetch are arrested. Founder bails them out with 1/4 of the Unus Annus budget.

Charlie sees a drone, yet unnamed.

The Box.

March 7?, 2021:

Ranboo greets Hetch at home after Hetch has been gone for 24+ hours.

March 8?, 2021:

Hetch leaves Ranboo at home and returns to Showfall.

March 9?, 2021 (2 days after Hetch survived the Box):

Charlie interviews other workers (Sneeg is the only one onscreen) about working conditions to bring about the "death of Showfall Media" - to spend his last months at Showfall getting as much evidence of worker abuse as possible. The terms he uses imply a legal case.

Hetch meets the askers with less of a filter.

Ranboo is left behind at home again.

The crew's behavior has become stranger lately and they rarely interact with cast.

Cameron appears with a mask and without, seeming his normal cheerful self.

Frank organizes an HR meeting with all Showfall employees except Ranboo and Founder. They discuss working conditions, the missing funds (allocated to death traps), and Hetch's behavior. Hetch apologizes.

Frank makes plans to "fix the Founder's issues" via HR

Hetch confiscates Ashley's iPad and uses it to contact the askers that night.

Hetch reveals that the mind control "wasn't supposed to get this bad" and was just to make employees stay at Showfall and follow directions on set.

Hetch agrees to work with the other employees to get them out of Showfall.

Hetch is told about Ranboo's cyberbully.

March 10?, 2021:

Hetch comes up with the "Sorry" pilot, an improv-based show made as an apology to Showfall cast.

Hetch uses the iPad and two spare earpieces to make a non-censored audio-based method of communicating with askers. Hetch later gives the iPad back to Ashley, but it is broken.

Ranboo confronts both Charlie and Hetch on the fight at the coffee shop.

Hetch gives Charlie one of the earpieces. Charlie doesn't believe the askers' uncensored warnings.

Half of the crew is out sick, which Charlie attributes to COVID.

Ranboo locks themself in a storage closet while their cyberbully messages them.

Hetch lends his own earpiece to Ranboo. The askers convince them to leave the closet. Ranboo apologizes to Charlie.

The Founder is aware of the situation and frustrated. She has created a black mask with red circuitry, apparently Hetch's mask from TSE, to "get him back soon."

Later in the day, filming for Sorry begins.

Hetch is reminded of the vote, confusing Charlie and inspiring Ranboo and Charlie to cheer him up with a "try not to laugh challenge." Hetch agrees for the sake of winning Charlie's trust. Ranboo seems to recover from earlier.

The Founder encourages Jerma to invite Hetch out to drinks as a distraction. Jerma and Hetch argue but end the night getting along.

Charlie explores the mall overnight for proof for his ongoing battle against Showfall, ignoring warnings from the askers; Sneeg waits in the car and notices someone enter the building.

Ranboo meets up with their stalker in the mall and pushes them during an altercation. A light falls on the stalker, killing them. The Founder and Charlie both witness this.

The Founder offers to hide the body in exchange for Charlie's silence and Hetch's cooperation regarding the earpieces. Charlie argues with the Founder and, with Sneeg, takes Ranboo home.

Something prevents everyone from contacting the police.

Ranboo explains what happened before going to bed.

Hetch warns Charlie and Sneeg about Showfall's future plans.

March through May, 2021

Ranboo continues to rise in popularity at Showfall. They start keeping a journal and socially withdraw.

The police have still been unable to be reached.

Sneeg, Charlie, and Ranboo are given extra work by the Founder.

The Founder makes Hetch watch her experiments.

Hetch buys a gun for himself and a pocket knife for Ranboo.

Hetch makes financial preparations for himself and Ranboo to flee Lostfield along with Sneeg and Charlie.

May 10?, 2021

After a 2-month gap where he tried and failed to contact the askers, Hetch manages to get through.

Hetch plans for him/Ranboo/Sneeg/Charlie to leave town at dark, asking the viewers to watch Showfall from now on on his behalf.

[foxes-that-run]

Little Freak

Did you dress up for Halloween? Little Freak is a sweet song, Harry is thinking about an ex and looking at the relationship with distance. It has many references to Taylor. It was written when he was in Tokyo Oct-Dec 2018. Taylor had her last Reputation concert 21 November, 2018 in Tokyo.

Little Freak was written on bad rental gear, he said it went through 19 versions before finally being on Harry's House. Ophelia is possibly written at the same time, it references Tokyo. TBSL is similar, references Taylor in a similar way, but Harry said it was written in Bath later.

To Howard Stern, Harry said if a song didn't make a previous album why would it make this one, however noted 2 songs on Harry's House are older, but they fit sonically on the album. There is another great post here.

Lyrics

Little freak, Jezebel You sit high atop the kitchen counter Stay green a little while You bring blue lights to dreams

Jezabel is possibly a reference to 'Slut!' Taylor also references this line in the opening of the Bejewelled MV "the prince would not have anything to do with that Harlot again."

Harry references kitchens in Haylor songs Sunflower Vol 6 (kiss in the kitchen), Two Ghosts (fridge light washes the room white), here it is a device to remember a calm intimacy with his muse

A Blue film is an adult film, the last line is a wet dream.

Starry haze, crystal ball Somehow, you've become some paranoia A wet dream just dangling But your gift is wasted on me

The starry haze, crystal ball is a reference to the Ready for it...? MV. Which is about Harry, he also referenced it in To be so Lonely. Ready for it also references a sexual dream "In the middle of the night, in my dreams (eh) / You should see the things we do (we do), baby" It was an impressive tour open too.

The paranoia refers to the complicated nature of their relationship (Fine Line, DBATC) he is asked about her a lot and while their songs imply they interact, they are almost never seen together so they may work hard at that.

The wet dream, just dangling, to me means unfinished business with her that he doesn't know how to resolve.

He feels her musical gifts are wasted on him, (they aren't Harry, you're the best muse)

This producer video comments on the use of a Linn drum machine as something Jack Antonoff uses on Taylor Swifts songs. (26:30)

I was thinkin' about who you are Your delicate point of view, I Was thinkin' about you I'm not worried about where you are Or who you will go home to, I'm Just thinkin' about you

This verse refers to another Haylor Reputation song, Delicate, which also tells of sexual tension. However, here Harry uses the song title to flatter her and adds that he is not feeling possessive, just thinking of her.

Did you dress up for Halloween? I spilt beer on your friend, I'm not sorry A golf swing and a trampoline Maybe we'll do this again

This verse refers to Taylor and has links back to their time dating.

Taylor does dress up for halloween, like this 2014 1989-era Pegacorn. Harry and Taylor were also both in Tokyo a few weeks after Halloween

The spilt beer is often thought to be this photo of him with Karlie Kloss on a fashion persons yacht. It looks like water in front of him but I like to imagine this is it.

Blank Space MV Taylor took a golf club to a classic luxury car. Harry has many nice classic cars. In the Red era when they first dated Taylor had a trampoline on her tennis court and it also featured in the 22 MV.

in the close he asks maybe we'll do this again, I interpret that as maybe be together again one day. Olivia, WITW and Someday maybe have similar messages.

Tracksuit and a ponytail You hide the body all that yoga gave you Red wine and a ginger ale But you would make fun of me, for sure

Above I have a grab from Miss American, which was filmed during the Rep tour, in most of the back stage, home or recording scenes she is wearing a variation on a tracksuit and ponytail.

Red wine and ginger ale mixed is a seltzer type drink, here it is an 'easter egg' as there are red wine references in a lot of Haylor songs: DBATC (My time, my wine..), Clean (You're still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can't wear anymore), Maroon (The burgundy on my T-shirt when you splashed your wine into me), Olivia (This isn't the stain of a red wine, I'm bleeding love) and Grapejuice ("Give me something old and red")

I disrespected you Jumped in feet first, and I landed too hard A broken ankle, karma rules You never saw my birthmark

In the last verse Harry has started reflecting on how things ended, he acknowledges he disrespected Taylor. This may refer to the time in Now that we don't talk.

Harry broke his foot playing football while on tour in Ireland in October 2015, this is close to the time period in NTWDT, Harry includes a reference to Karma, Taylors maybe album, evential song from that time period.

Harry has a birthmark on his back so many think this means he has and will never turn his back on her. (I have seen another fandom say this means they were not intimate, dude- strangers on the internet can link to it)

to me the birthmark is not literal, I think she never saw his full self because of his age & the band. He spoke to both Howard Stern and Zane Lowe about all of his adult decisions being made as part of a group from 16-20. It was in a context of leaving One Direction. To me this emotional coasting (he says he was 'away' in TBSL) was a factor in the events of NTWDT and Is it over now?

But both of these are true, he won’t turn his back on her and he wasn’t his full self then.

[likeadevils]

which albums do you think took the shortest amount of time to put together? i think that evermore was very quick (only two or three months?), am i right in thinking that lover and folklore were pretty quick too?

evermore was super quick! there were about five songs written from october-december, but about 12 songs were written in about a month, between mid august and mid september. which is just crazy. like that’s more songs than the standard edition of debut like that’s insane

the bulk of folklore was written in two months, between may and june, though the jack songs were mostly written between march and april, with some pre pandemic songs (my tears in dec 2019 and trying in jan/feb 2020)

midnights was a bit more spread out— high infidelity and would’ve could’ve should’ve were written in march 2021, i believe bigger than the whole sky and snow on the beach were in early 2022– but still the bulk of it came together in november/december 2021, making it a year in total but mostly done in two months.

rep took almost exactly a year— she starts writing it in september 2016 and finishes in september 2017. the bulk of the album was likely finished by july 2017 though, so it goes was just a super last minute addition.

lover was recorded in about four months— the bulk of the album was between november 2018 and february 2019. there are some exceptions, like death by a thousand cuts in late april and likely london boy in early june, and maybe a few jack songs throughout 2018, but we don’t know for sure which. she was also probably stockpiling songs a bit before jumping into the studio, but we don’t know for sure.

1989 was another stockpiling album— she did this love in 2012, a couple songs jan 2013, and then that aforementioned stockpiling period while she’s on tour, and then a big rush in oct/nov 2013, and then another rush in jan/feb 2014. it sounds like now that we don’t talk came fairly late in the process though, possibly as late as fall 2014, which would make it a two year long writing period, but as far as the original album goes, about a year and a half.

red was also about a year and a half— we have all too well being finalized in march 2011 (after being started in dec 2010), and then 22 and i knew you were trouble in june 2012. there are probably some outliers— stay stay stay might’ve been as early as summer 2010, some stuff on the vault might’ve gone up until september 2012– but that’s at most about two years of consistent writing and recording.

if we’re counting sparks fly (halloween 2006) then it took four years to write speak now, but excluding sparks fly georg the earliest song we know for sure was if this was a movie in april 2009, and then it ended with the story of us in june 2010, which is a little over a year. she was likely writing songs for speak now earlier in 2009 though, making it her standard year and a half, but we just don’t know for sure. the recording process was also spread out throughout both years— the first session for the album was in march 2009, and the orchestra sections were the last thing recorded, in july 2010.

fearless had two big recording sessions, in december 2007 and march 2008, so recording wise the album came together super quickly. that being said, if we just take the first and last songs written for the album, fearless has a pretty big stretch— she had stuff from the vault from like 2005, and then come in with the rain in september 2006, and white horse in december 2006. and then the last song is similarly up for interpretation, with forever and always in late september 2008, and mr perfectly fine in march 2009. so even though it came together very quickly once she got in the studio, counting the vault it was four years to write it, making it one of the longest timeframes, but standard edition is still a fairly long two years.

and then debut! i’m a bit more hazy on debut’s timeline, but a perfectly good heart was written sometime in 2003, and should’ve said no was the last thing written and recorded, on august 10, 2006, making it about three years.

so it’s pretty much an exercise in counting— the earlier and album came in her career, the longer it took her to make it, until we get to post pandemic where she’s busting out almost complete albums in two month periods (ts11 looks like it’s bucking that trend though, so let’s see!!)

[syn4k]

digital media i watched this year that i really really enjoyed: a (non-exhaustive, non-ranked) list

hi everyone! ray keys here. i'm writing this on Dec 21st because I know I'll forget to post this on time if I don't schedule it beforehand.

i don't watch things on streaming services because i don't have any of the apps downloaded on my phone and most shows just aren't my thing anyways (ATLA has been the only exception) so all of the links here go to YouTube or other (free) sites

here we go!

Misc. Series and Standalone Videos

17776

17776 is a multimedia webnovel (?) about American football in the year of, you guessed it, 17776, written in 2017 by Jon Bois. It's told through the communications of three space probes made by humans and it's genuinely comforting as someone who's generally terrified by the concepts of eternity and immortality. Trigger warning for unreality at the start.

17776

20020 (the sequel, written in 2020 by the same author)

Code MENT

Code MENT is a YouTube series made by PurpleEyesWTF, of which the first episode was released in 2010. It's a fan-made abridgMENT of the anime Code Geass, voiced entirely by one guy (or at least i think so), and some parts of it have become legendary (see: Soup Store). Trigger warning for murder, infrequent use of the R slur, and depictions of blood and gore.

Code MENT playlist

Star Wars The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West

Star Wars the Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West, uploaded to YouTube by GratefulDeadpool in 2017, is a video where somebody put the entire script of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in Google Translate, translated it to Chinese then back to English, and dubbed over it. Yes, it's the entire movie. No, it somehow hasn't been taken down yet.

Star Wars the Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West

Mianite (S1)

At least some of you should be familiar with Mianite, seeing as how it has taken over my entire blog over the past month or so. The World of Mianite is a vanilla Minecraft SMP launched in 2014. It was streamed live, but the recordings of those livestreams were later uploaded to YouTube. The main members of the serverlist are CaptainSparklez, II_JERIICHO_II, SynHD, and OmgItsFirefoxx. Mianite has had three seasons so far, but I've only watched the first from one perspective so that's what you guys are going to get.

CaptainSparklez' Mianite S1 Playlist

MAMASb0y's Mianite Animations Playlist

Mianite Purge Highlights Playlist

Alan Becker (and his Team)'s Work

Hi! This channel gets a special section all to itself because I just finished the Animation vs Minecraft series and I'm pretty sure my life has been irreversibly changed forever.

Animator Vs Animation

Animator Vs Animation (shortened: AVA or AvA) is an animated YouTube series by Alan Becker. The first episode was originally posted in 2006 and was later reuploaded to the platform in 2018. I recently binged the entire thing and was NOT expecting it to be as fucking incredible as it was. This is the de facto best place to start if you want to jump into Alan's other works featuring these characters, which I highly recommend because all of them are fantastic!

Animator Vs Animation Series Playlist

Animation Vs Minecraft

The stick men play the block game. Do not read the comments of any of the episodes until you have finished the entire series. Do not go in with any prior knowledge if you're able to. Set yourself up with a bowl of popcorn and a big ol' glass of ice water, sit back, look really closely for continuity because it is there and it is GLORIOUS, and enjoy.

Animator Vs Minecraft Series Playlist

[gummy-skulls]

"Mischief and Mystery in Moominvalley puppet show" written by Emma Edwards and Sophie Powell (2018?)

I never see anyone talk about this play!, Tove Jansson's niece Sophia Jansson was a script consultant, as far as i could tell this has been playing since 2018, they sometimes reshow this play, I caught wind of it back in 2020 as it was streamed to Facebook. I was so excited, I recorded it but my laptop bricked a while after, recently found this audio recording in old DMs with a friend, unfortunately it seems like this is all I have shared with anyone ): i still really like this tune a lot its very sweet and somber here's some promo stuff i found ! If anyone has the full recording id love to see it !! please share!

The promo Instagram post from dec 2020 that introduced me to it's existence:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Moomin Shop London (@themoominshoplondon)

[wishlikes]

holy shit. looks at you with my massive autistic eyes. what’s bad future time traveler ritsu PLEASE share with the class. and if you don’t want to share with the class that is ok but also please if you are so inclined then at least share with the me

Well. You see.

It all started when I was running low on time to finish Whumptober prompts and... well, I had just come from the rottmnt fandom. I had 'character time travels from a bad future' on the mind. So I drew this and thought 'surely no more will come of this'.

And yet the concept stayed in my mind. I drew this sketch page several months later. Someone's tag on it inspired me to actually write the story, as explained here (along with more info, though I'm going to change some things from what's written here).

There's also these two drawings that take place in the bad future, although I didn't draw Ritsu old enough in the second one, because I hadn't figured out the timeline yet when I drew it. (warnings for blood and injury on both of them)

I've figured out the timeline of the bad future now, though. And I am cursed with the knowledge that the very little I'd already written needs to be rewritten to suit it. This writing/rewriting will not be happening until I am done with my current wip (which is almost done... but might need a sequel because i am cursed).

So I myself know very little about what's going to happen in the bad future time travel fic that i had better fucking write because I desperately need to know what happens.

Some Key Events of the Bad Future:

Sep 2015 - [Redacted] is murdered

Nov 2018 - First anti-esper laws drop

Jan 2020 - Shou 'goes missing', his father is 'convinced' to identify several espers- including the one he couldn't beat

Feb 2020 - Shou escapes custody in an incident his father doesn't survive, Shou is labeled a terrorist, Mob is arrested, Shou and Ritsu go into hiding together

Dec 2021 - Shou is killed (among others), Ritsu fakes his own death

Jun 2023 - [Redacted] informs Mob of Ritsu's 'death'. As you can imagine, this is a bit like setting off a bomb. A bomb that can self-heal and keep exploding until the rage burns out, until only despair remains, until there is no longer even the barest sub-conscious thread left of self-preservation. And so the wounds stop healing, and power dies down, and only then can Ritsu come close enough to help, to show that he's still alive. But it's too late, too late. This place, this time is not safe for Ritsu; they would kill him. And Shigeo has not seen him in over three years and he looks so awful now, and Shigeo cannot protect him. He has to send him away, away to somewhere safe. And then Ritsu is gone, safe. And there is nothing left for him here.

Jun 2011 - Future!Ritsu arrives

So. Ah. I got a bit carried away there. I wouldn't normally include that much, but Future Ritsu is such an emotionally devastated wreck of a man that I can't bear to write from his pov, so i don't know how much of all that ^ is gonna make it into the fic anyway.

What I do know is that Ritsu thinks he's been sent to the past specifically to Fix Everything. And that's the only thing keeping him from just lying down and not getting up again. The knowledge that his brother only wanted to save him would probably make him worse actually.

[beardedmrbean]

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Investigators have learned what happened to a man who was mistakenly released from prison after raping multiple children in the Grand Rapids area and elsewhere in the country in the 1960s and 1970s.

“When Erma (Shaw) was 12 years old, in 1978, she was the victim of a sex crime. A heinous crime,” Grand Rapids Police Department Chief Eric Winstrom said during a Monday afternoon press conference.

GRPD Officer Joe Garrett, who is assigned to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, said Tommie Lee Hill began raping children in the 1960s. While in prison in Terra Haute, Indiana, in 1976 and 1977, his wife would bring his stepdaughters to visit and he had sex with them in the prison yard, GRPD said.

In 1978 in Grand Rapids, he raped Shaw, his stepdaughter, and impregnated her. On Jan. 31, 1979, the day of his conviction, he escaped police custody.

“He said he was thirsty and went into the women’s bathroom and then from there escaped authorities during sentencing. He had a getaway car and was gone for the foreseeable future,” Garrett said.

Hill was later picked up in Mississippi and sentenced back to prison in Terre Haute. But Garrett said there was a paperwork error and Hill was let go.

Authorities have been looking for him ever since.

In 2017, Shaw’s case was transferred from the FBI to Garrett. He began working with Shaw to find Hill.

“We ran a story then and got one tip — a Silent Observer tip — at that point, but not a lot of help on this,” Garrett said.

Garrett said they finally caught a break with a genealogy trail that led them to Pittsburgh, where they knocked on doors.

“We finally met one contact that gave us a timeline. This gentleman had changed his name to Abdualla Muhammad. He was a serial rapist,” Garrett said, adding that Hill had multiple identities including four social security numbers.

That led them to Pittsburgh police archives on April 23. Garrett said they found pictures of Muhammad. Garrett showed the photos to Shaw, and she confirmed that was the man.

“He was shot in the back of the head, Dec. 4, 1983, by a man named Vernon Phipps after he touched Vernon’s sister,” Garrett said.

Garrett said that he was fingerprinted on Dec. 5, 1983, but no record for him populated at the time.

Shaw joined Garrett and Winstrom at the news conference.

“The fact that Tommie had gotten away for so many years, on my heart, I knew that if he was still alive, he would still be victimizing children. And because of social media, I thought that I would create and write my own book (called “Truth Tella $7,000 REWARD”),” Shaw said.

She thought the $7,000 reward would be an incentive for anyone who knew where Hill was dead or alive to contact law enforcement.

“What is so unique is on page 75, I said ‘He can change his name, but what he can’t change his DNA.’ And what if he left the evidence many years ago before technology was created that would lead to the capture or the right information about his death? So, I consider that to be very prophetic for me to have written that in 2018 as that was definitely part of the catalyst of why we are here today…” Shaw said.

Child abuse resources available in Kent County

“… Forty-six years it may have taken us to really identify where he was, but the justice was served, and in a lot of ways he did it to himself,” she said.

[sharpfurry5917]

Um, okay so... Hi! Hello! Welcome! You can call me Sharper, or just Sharp for short, and this is my intro post! So uh, yeah! let's get started...! I guess... I honestly don't know how to do these, it's been so long since I posted on any social media-

✨

Things You'll See

This is a multi fandom blog, so I'll be posting all kinds of stuff. Such as:

· Art, both traditional and digital.

· My quotes. Which are funny things I say in my head that I write down on my phone.

· And other various things I write, like my scenarios. Which are basically my way of writing fanfics, but they're written more like screenplays, I guess?? It's just been more easier for me to write that way, but I have been branching out.

✨

Things To Know About Me

· She/her.

· 20 years old.

· I have selective mutism and social anxiety. Two things I hate greatly. 😊👍

· I have this friend in my head, named Mind that I talk to that I had since childhood. They're kinda like a headmate??? They show up in my quotes, so I'm mentioning them so you know who that is.

· I don't use swear words. It's something that I refused to use for years, and it just kinda stuck. Instead, I come up with my own "swears". Like 'fudge', 'ship', 'bass', and 'cheez its mice'.

· As I said, it's been a while since I posted on social media, 5 years, to be specific. And I've just been browsing through it as a bystander instead. I eventually wanted to put myself out there again, but my crippling anxiety prevented me from doing so-

Until eventually, I gathered enough courage, and did it. And I'm very happy that I did!!

✨

The Many Fandoms I'm Into

(Including when I first got into them)

· SpongeBob Squarepants ~ ???

· My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ~ 2012

· Minecraft ~ 2012/2013

· The Sonic series ~ 2014

· Okami ~ 2014

· The Spyro series ~ 2015

· Steven Universe ~ 2015

· The Splatoon series ~ Dec, 2015

· Minecraft: Story Mode ~ 2015

· The Last Guardian ~ Jan, 2016

· Hello Neighbor ~ Dec, 2016

· Tattletail ~ Mar, 2017

· The Bendy series ~ Mar, 2017

· Poppe the Performer ~ Jun, 2017

· Villainous ~ Jul, 2017

· Camp Camp ~ Sep, 2017

· Cuphead ~ Oct, 2017

· Doki Doki Literature Club ~ Dec, 2017

· Baldi's Basics ~ May 15, 2018

· Detroit: Become Human ~ Jun, 2018

· Mystery Skulls Animated ~ Oct 18, 2018

· Deltarune ~ Nov, 2018

· Undertale ~ Mar 2, 2019

· Ace Attorney ~ May 10, 2019

· The Owl House ~ Aug 16, 2020 (My b-day, btw)

· Danganronpa ~ Jun 21/Sep 4, 2020 (Watched someone play the prologue and Chapter 1 on 6/21, then got the game for myself in August, and actually got into it when I reached Chapter 2)

· Friday Night Funkin' ~ Jan 9, 2021

· PaRappa the Rapper ~ Mar 5, 2021

· Komi Can't Communicate ~ Dec, 2021

· The Horizon series ~ Feb, 2022

· Andy's Apple Farm ~ Jan 15, 2022

· Beastars ~ Aug, 2022

· Danganronpa: Despair Time ~ Apr 7, 2023 (First started watching in Jan, 2021, but really got into it due to a certain character-)

· Super Danganronpa Another 2 ~ May 1, 2023

· Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE ~ Jul 10, 2023

· Zero Escape ~ Sep 4, 2023

· The Amazing Digital Circus ~ Oct 25, 2023

· Murder Drones ~ Oct 29, 2023

· The Another Code series ~ Mar 11, 2024

· KinitoPET ~ Apr 18, 2024

· Al: The Somnium Files ~ Apr 27, 2024

· Indigo Park ~ May 19, 2024

· Garten of Banban ~ May 22, 2024

· Max Design Pro ~ Jul 11, 2024

· Poppy Playtime ~ Nov 19, 2024

· Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld ~ Dec 22, 2024

· Mouthwashing ~ Dec 25, 2024

✨

And uhh, that's it...

Thanks for stopping by!

[vocalsynthbdays]

happy birthday Yao Luniang(vocaloid 4), Laru Mine(utau), and Meiji Gahata(utau) !!!! [aug 8]

luniang

laru (parse design)

meiji

Yao Luniang was a potential chinese synth developed by Shanghai Wangcheng Information Technology Co. Ltd. in collaboration with NetEase Comics. no new information about her production has been released since 2017 so shes assumed cancelled. her vp and illustrator have not been revealed. luniang is (was ?) NetEase Comics' mascot from 2015, as such she featured in 2 manhua, "Lùniáng Days" and "Suísuíbiànbiàn de Yāolùshān Rìcháng". she likes anime, furry things, and esports. in 2018 netease sold their comic branch to bilibili, so luniang disappeared. she would likely have been a private vocaloid if she was ever released, though this wasnt confirmed. luniang originally had purple hair which changed to red in late 2015, along with changes in her outfit. in 2016 she again changed appearance, most notably her skirt went from red to black. luniang is forever 15 and 163cm tall.

Laru Mine is a japanese synth released in 2010. hes voiced by minato/ winder. i assume laru was mainly drawn by minato as well (??), but i couldnt find that written anywhere. laru is 21yo and 203cm tall. he has no official personality. he is a dragon shark hybrid.

Gahata Meiji is a japanese synth released in 2012. shes created and voiced by Saccu, and illustrated by Souno Kazuki. meiji was also the mascot of the Lifulu shop/ Riffle Shuffle, as such, when saccu cut ties with the shop meiji was discontinued (11 nov 2019). this was POSSIBLY due to the shop maybe misusing meiji or violating her tos. meiji is 16yo and 170cm tall.

luniang original design

in dec 2015

query design

art by mine

witch design

ref