#Probably not all content creators are going to adapt their content and that is going to be a disaster

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Since you've mentioned Scarlet Lady in one of your posts, what's your opinion on it?

I've mentioned before that I'm a big Scarlet Lady fan, which is the only reason that I'm comfortable answering asks like this one. I don't publicly criticize the content of hobby creators. That's wildly inappropriate! Punch up, not down.

The linked post was a general discussion of the adaptation process and how @zoe-oneesama did a fantastic job, so for this one, I'm just going to do some general gushing because I do actually like praising and enjoying things!

Scarlet Lady's chosen format (comic) allows it to have this wonderful conversation with canon where it can rely on the framework of canon to tell it's own story while also using canon for jokes and meta commentary. This means that Scarlet Lady is about as close as fan content can get to a direct reboot because it's able to have moments like this one from the comic's first post:

[Image description: Adrien standing in his room after transforming into Chat Noir for the first time. He is beaming and his eyes are shining with excitement as he exclaims, "This is gonna be awesome!"]

A single picture that communicates everything we need to know about Adrien getting his miraculous. When I've done this same thing in fanfic, I had to write out the full scene because that's how novels work. You have to give the full picture. With a comic, you can just quickly acknowledge this thing that we all already know and then move on to the new stuff. A picture really is worth a thousand words! (Or, in my case, more like two thousand...)

This allows Zoe to keep the same akumas that we get in canon without her story feeling like a boring rehash because she can focus on what's different in her version. A novelization of the same content would have to show both the stuff that stays the same and the stuff that changes for it to be coherent. That's a lot less fun to read and write. It's why I basically never revisit canon akumas in my own stuff. It's just too derivative for the written word.

This is one of the big reasons that I loved Scarlet Lady. Because it was able to have that more directly conversation with canon, it was able to take canon and say, "hey, why don't we embrace the tone that you established in season one and retell the story with that vibe?" That's something that I desperately wanted to see, but that is totally unsuited to my chosen artistic form. It couldn't be a novel. It had to be a comic.

If you want to know what a true formula show version of Miraculous would look like, Scarlet Lady is it. It does everything that Miraculous should have done:

Sticks to a lighthearted tone where nothing is ever super serious

Keeps Gabriel entirely unsympathetic

Has slow character development and background hints at a bigger plot as the only serial elements, allowing the individual episodes to be their own story while never feeling incomplete or rushed

Allows characters other than Marinette to shine while keeping Marinette as the clear main character

Makes Adrien narratively important

MAKES THE LOVE SQUARE CUTE SO I CAN ACTUALLY SHIP IT

Understands that Lila and Chloe can't coexist as antagonists

Reverses the love square, which is the best way to tell their story. Yes, I will die on my "love diamond" hill. It's a good hill. Come join me. I'll bring cookies.

I could keep going, but you hopefully get my point. While Scarlet Lady is certainly not the only way to do a formula version of canon, it's proof that a formula version does work! You don't have to go the serious route for Miraculous to be successful.

I want to take some time to gush about the ending, but I don't want to spoil it, so I'll put that gushing under a "read more" in case anyone hasn't seen it. I'll finish out this less spoilerish section with this:

I feel like some people are surprised when they learn that I love Scarlet Lady because - as some of you have probably picked up - it is quite different from my ideal version of canon. I'm not sure why that would stop me from enjoying a thing, though. It's important to remember that our personal ideals are not the only way to tell a good story. There are lots of ways to take what canon gave us and make something wonderful! It's part of the reason that I enjoy being in a fandom.

If I only wanted to see my ideal take on canon, then I'd stick to writing/imagining my own stories. But I don't want that! I like seeing alternate takes, too. Scarlet Lady is one of my personal favorites. It's completely different from anything that I'd ever think to write and that's why I'm so glad that it exists! I like being entertained just as much as I like creating my own entertainment and I don't want to only read stories that look like something I'd write. That's boring!

Spoilers below:

I've mentioned before that there are many, many ways to properly handle Chloe's character and Zoe did such a good job with her take on that! Chloe isn't absolved of all the things she did wrong, but she's also treated as a young woman with the ability to change.

While the comic bares the name of Chloe's alter ego, she was the never the main character. She never went on a journey. The story kept her to her shallow season-one self: a petty brat who just wanted attention. It did this because that's who Chloe was in canon and who Chloe needed to be for the comic to work.

The first time we see any complexity from Chloe is in the comic's final few episodes, which was absolutely the right call for Zoe to make! In a recent post, I talked about how the end of a formula show is the only time when you can break the formula in catastrophic ways and that's what Zoe did. She kept Chloe static until it was time to end the story and that's when the formula breaks. That's when Chloe gets depth because, once she has depth, the formula doesn't work.

That depth is not used to redeem Chloe, but to show us that there's hope for Chloe. That this petty brat who we've been dealing with has some serious issues and needs help. Help that she's going to get far away from the people that she's hurt because her issues aren't an excuse for what she's done. They don't erase the harm that she caused. At the same time, understanding her issues makes us hope that she can be better now and Scarlet Lady took a moment to give us that hope. To show us the START of Chloe's true story.

That is the kind of ending that I have wanted to see in so many properties!!! It was so wonderful to finally get one that did this right. A story that understood that full redemption to the team and damnation to death/suffering are extremes on a scale of possibilities. You don't have to go to extremes! You can fall in the middle and the middle is a perfect, natural place for Chloe to land in this kind of story. Fully redeeming or even fully damning Chloe simply doesn't work in lighthearted formula content. It's too big a lift as canon has already demonstrated.

I also loved Zoe's take on Emilie. I've mentioned that I don't like evil Emilie in part because it makes her revival feel like the start of a new story. She's back and she'd bad, so we have to take her down now! But I don't want that. I want the story to end when Gabriel is stopped. Zoe does this by giving us an Emilie that is another perfect middle ground. She matches canon's uncomfortable implications without feeling like a true villain who is a threat to society.

[thatdeadaquarius]

About your language brainrot. I see your "Reader's writing can't match tyvat's long and flowery writing" and bring you "Tyvat isn't used to books over 50 pages long so a short story to the Reader is a whole dictionary to tyvat readers".

Seriously, have you seen how thin the books are? They don't wrote novels, they write short chapters formatted in the way really old stories are. As in, summarizing all the events down into one smooth story then adding a few quotes. Fanfiction writers are insane. They will willingly sit down and write hundreds of words at a time. To them, a proper modern day story of maybe, oh 10k words or so, would probably be like the Oddessy itself.

If we were to combine the two headcanons. It would end up as many historians being intimidated by this insanely long written scripture in the language of the forgotten.

I'm going to take this a step further and say that if the creator asked some people to proofread their things, it would establish a hiarchy of who is able to actually finish the book the creator read and who isn't.

NOW THIS, THIS IS MY FUCKING JAMMMM

I'm so sorry this is so old!! u probably all know this by this point that I've really slowed down as the year has gone on, but I graduated university and then got my first job so its been pretty crazy!

Sun: Reader (you/they/them)

Orbit: Headcanons-ish

Stars: dash of all the book/nerds of Genshin, heavy on Sumeru?

Comets & Meteors: Content Warnings: Cussing, 16+ Mature Audiences, Spoliers for Sumeru Archon Quests/Scaramouche, & Trigger Warnings: mention of shipping/characters shipping themselves with you.

Comment if any missed, please.

☆

FULL STOP.

THE AKADEMIYA, FONTAINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, HAVE BEEN WAITTTINNGGGG ON YOUR ASS LMAO

You fall from the fucking sky like a 5 star, or pop out of the Irminsul or whatever

and immediately are mobbed by scholars. LMAO jkjk (not really, bc that's what it’d feel like)

can you even imagine the dread older stories(”the classics” to them), that was instilled in the poor students around Teyvat??

id like to think ur works are the most preserved over the thousands of years of Teyvat archeologists excavating them, in comparison to other authors (teyvat just likes you more, suck it William Shakespeare)

also, bc I cant resist language differences/world building I'm sorryyyy 😭 😭

the vocab of Genshin lang vs. ours, has significantly less vocabulary like their actual dictionary is 1/3 the size of ours type of energy

(Omfg all ur fanfics being considered like insanely long realistic romantic classics or tragedies like Jane Austen-level, and only the richest and biggest play companies put on plays about ur stories bc the script goes on for hours)

(ur plays only get put on for rlly big events bc of this, like Lantern Rite or like a Summer/Winter festival/your birthday, which is, yes, an international holiday)

dude the sheer power move of anything you’ve written being essentially “Journey of the West” to them, like Damnnn.

endless like adaptations, plays, Teyvat-short stories condensing it, (THEIR OWN FANFICTION ABOUT UR STORIES)

the power is, in fact, going to your head every time another scholar both deflates at how long ur stuff is, but also lights up bc they get to read it

speaking of scholars… you know who snatched you up first. you know. you don’t even need to read the next line.

Alhaitham.

sneaky bastard he is, absolutely manipulated, mansplained (and manwhored bc he knows he’s handsome, cheeky little shit) his way into getting you to sit down with him and interview you about both translating other classics, your own, giving your own analysis of others works and ur own, and picking ur brain apart of how/why you wrote urs, etc. its fucking endless,

Kaveh had to come rescue you bc u were starving to death after getting stuck with the Haravatat scholar in his office for nearly 7 hours of interrogation discussion about literature

and Alhaitham wasn't even nearly done, he’d informed you as you left that he already had another appointment for later conversation scheduled (how?? you don't even know ur own schedule??? you have a schedule???) and was looking forward to more of your “creative and enlightening input” :)))

(you’re never going to escape him, not even Nahida herself can save you from his stubborn ass)

On another note, Xingqiu is quaking when you agree to autograph his copy of your stories (of which he has all hard covers of the first edition translations)

Zhongli/Rex Lapis is known for having a near-lifelong passion for searching for your works specifically, and learning how to translate them better into Teyvatian vernacular

like the same way he can absolutely speak on Rex Lapis facts/rocks/adepti info, is the same confidence he speaks about knowing ur work lol

(yes he did also ask for several autographs and another sit-down talk about the works, tho a lot more sneaky then Alhaitham bc he just casually gets u guys into it during dinner)

Barbatos/Venti has written some of the most famous songs based on your stuff, he has his favorites too,

but he always claims the best songs are any that have been written in the story, like either when a character sings something, or there are like quotes from songs ur fanfics are based on lol

(he also demanded to hear what they actually sound like from you, yes, you have to sing them for him lol)

Venti also can surprisingly drunkenly ramble the entirety of at least one of ur stories, like, word for word lmao

(Diluc gave in and did give him a drink on the house for that one, just once, Venti doesn’t remember it lol)

(I forgot to mention, u guys still speak the same language, just like, different versions of it)

ur works being one of the few things all the Archons can freely talk about with each other, like it’s neutral ground bc they’re all fangirling about it lmao

Furina and Neuvillette have had like,, fierce debates over the decades about character dynamics and the general drama of ur stories, they’ve gotten into it enough they’ve stopped talking to each other for a couple days a few times lol

Albedo, Sucrose, Kokomi, Yae Miko, Ei, Raiden, have read every single work they’re gotten their hands on in Teyvat (it took them like a literal year or longer)

Albedo drew you fanart for every single story, bc he’s hyperfixated on everything related to you ngl,

Kokomi had commissioned smaller pocket versions of ur works (which later got popular thanks to Yae Miko) both the OG and the Teyvat shortened versions

THE HARBINGERS ARE THE MOST DOWN BAD LMAO

Childe has literally tried to recreate battle scenes from ur works lmao

and gets especially riled up about fighting someone who resembles any characters from them (esp villains, what a cutie)

You cannot fathom the amount of research throughout Teyvat that has been secretly or indirectly funded by Pantalone/Tsaritsa

from the experts to analyze them, to funding play companies to act them out, to actually excavating places to get more of ur stuff unearthed

(the Harbingers absolutely are the first group of people that got to read several of ur stories first bc of this, like the world’s most exclusive secret book club lol)

Scaramouche used to clown on Childe all the time about how he was too impatient to even “sit down and read the King’s classics”, and he was downright insufferable when he found out about Tartaglia’s habit of recreating battle scenes/that being what motivated him to fight sometimes lol

that being said, Wanderer surprisingly never forgot ur stories.

Even when his memories were wiped for a bit, he found comfort in these fantastical epics still sticking around, even when his old names did not

(he mayyyy or mayyy nottt have secretly namedhimselfafteroneofthetragicprotagonistsherelatesto- )

oh btw, Nahida also found joy and comfort in ur stories when she was trapped, they also helped her literally grow as a person bc she had ur stories to help her sort of process the world/what life was like outside of her dreaming prison 🥺💔❤️‍🩹

◇

OMFG

ANYWAY FULL TONE SHIFT LMFAO-

the ABSOLUTE SPIRAL-RED-STRING-CONSPIRACY-THEORY-BOARD ENERGY IF THIS WAS A BLUNT LANGUAGE AU LMAOOOO

like specifically how Teyvatians like to give all the context ever thru their words, but older deities/beings like you just do simple phrases that can have deeper meanings (whereas teyvat just explains all the meanings behind their words)

STOP there’s like an official display at the Akademiya and Fontaine Institute of red string theory boards 😭😭 (look what you’ve done to themmm LMAO)

for like every story of urs, INCLUDING THE FANFICS STOP

IMAGINE THE SHIPPING WARS IF U EVER WROTE ONE THAT WASNT EXPLICIT OR LIKE ONE OF THE MAIN ROMANTIC INTERESTS HAD CHEMISTRY WITH OTHER CHARACTERS HAHAHAHAA

that's actually what Akademiya scholars argue about the most viciously, it’s like politics you can’t just bring up ships from ur stories casually in regular convos 💀

(poor Cyno has to deal with a shipping war once a year bc someone always makes the mistake of reading ur work for the first time (without being told to not talk to others abt ships lol) and it starts an all out brawl in the cafeteria every time LMAO)

Also yes.

Cyno is a fanboy.

(he has read Creator x Reader-insert fanfiction.)

(As have most of the characters mentioned, and those not lol)

…

(I'm gonna make a whole Creator x reader fanfic post one day i stg lmao)

☆

an iced coffee? for me?? :0

ok but real talk…

wtf do you guys wanna see for new years!!

i didn't do a inktober/october days thingy bc i felt too unprepared (and bc id wanted to post that 1000+ followers eldritch au for Halloween)

but now i kinda wanna, at least for a few days :o

ill post a poll in a minute, so check it out!! but still, please feel free to comment some ideas here! :)

Safe Travels Deafening Dreamer,

💀♒

If you wanna join a taglist, DM me what for! "Pspspsss, please tag me for [All SAGAU posts, Only SAGAU Language AUs, diff fandom, etc.]!"

(If you ever wanna drop, just DM me! "No more taglists/[specifically this AU/fandom] please!")

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche / @chocogi / @fallen-starr / @areaderofbooks / @devilangel657 / @esthelily

[deramin2]

A Quick Guide To Getting Caught Up On Critical Role Fast

This guide is for people who want the fastest way official to get caught up on all 3 Critical Role campaigns without seeing the full actual play episodes. They're all made so that the AP will still be enjoyable later even if you know what happens. There's no "right" way to get into the series, and already having an idea of what happens can even help make the APs more enjoyable and easier to understand.

Summary:

The Legend of Vox Machina

Crit Recap Animated

Exandria: An Intimate History

Critical Role Abridged

Guide:

Campaign 1:

The Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon Prime is the animated adaptation of C1 by the same creators. Sam Riegel said the creative approach is this was the version in a later play. All the important bits are there, but they get to those moments differently.

The Legend of Vox Machina has 3 seasons out now that cover events up through at least episode 85. A 4th season is in the works and will probably cover the final arc.

Campaign 2:

An animated adaptation for Amazon Prime called "Mighty Nein" is in the works, but not out yet.

Crit Role Animated is an older comedic summary series presented by their Lore Keeper that covers the whole campaign in 10 videos. Great if you want the gist.

It's like a history crash course history video meant to get you curious to learn the full story later. Great way to get a sense of who people are and what they've done. Available on YouTube and their streaming platform Beacon.

Exandrian History Review:

Exandria: An Intimate History is a timeline review of key events in world history, starting from the creation.

It was released before Campaign 3 as bonus content. It represents what the average person in Exandria knows about world history up to that point.

Campaign 3:

Critical Role Abridged is the Campaign 3 AP condensed down into 1 to 1.5 hours. It mostly cuts down combat to the narrated results and reduces table chatter and indecisiveness. It's a great way to experience the full campaign.

Critical Role Abridged is coming out 1 a week at a time on YouTube and 2 a week on Beacon. YouTube is currently up to episode 25. Beacon is up to episode 47. The AP is at episode 109. At some point you'll have to switch to full episodes to catch up.

Wiki:

There's also 2 world-class wikis where's you can look up extensive and meticulously cited information about anything you need. I prefer The Encyclopedia Exandria.

Viewing Notes:

An important thing to know about "continuity" in Critical Role is that it takes a more realistic view of how history is passed down through the ages and even dedicated academics will never know the full story or be fully correct. They know versions colored by in-world biases and lost knowledge.

Which is great for you the viewer because any campaign you comes into, the characters don't know most of what happened in past games. What they actually know will come up in game. The players have above table reactions and some subtle in jokes, but try not to act on meta knowledge.

It's structured a lot like reading one history book and then wanting to go back and read more about past events that set the stage for all those things to happen. They've tried to make it easier to come into the story happening now.

I certainly enjoyed watching the full APs from the beginning, and I think you can get a deeper understanding of the story from them, but it takes thousands of hours to catch up on the story that way and it isn't realistic for everyone. Each series builds on the consequences of past events more than they rely on unexpected twists, so already knowing what happens just helps you notice all the little things that led to them. Similar to how Shakespeare's plays are often more enjoyable to watch unfold if you already know the basic plot points going into them.

Happy viewing, and I hope this helps you or someone you know get into this very rich and interesting story!

[silvernightabyss]

“Who says the protagonist's life has to be happy?” - Chapter 1

Yandere Hero x gn!Reader

Isekai, who among us hasn't dreamed of it? Well, get it signed. Try not to throw yourself into the arms of the protagonist as soon as you see him. Remember, you may know everything about him, but he's seeing you for the first time. The thoughts of the protagonist come as a gift.

How many references do you want? Yes.

word count: 2.9k Prologue/Chapter 1

It's been two weeks since you've been in the fantasy world of the novel. Adapting has been difficult, even though you've inherited fragmentary memories of the original owner of the body. The unfamiliar people, surroundings, etiquette, and architecture were very disconcerting. To your shame, you spent your first night sobbing quietly in your room in the temple. The only thing you were probably lucky about was that you weren't a member of the church, just a hired sewist. Given the fact that the high priest was the one who raped Evan, you had no desire to see the man, whose name was Donavan. Make sure you memorize that shithead's name and if you ever summon a demon, sell his soul.

In fact, you hadn't seen him or Evan since you'd been in this world. And while the first pleased you, the second disappointed you. As you learned by asking the servants, Evan and his team were on a quest to destroy one of the demon lords living in a poisonous swamp. This happened at the beginning of the first volume, as you may recall. And what the author thought to add the location of the poison swamp, in all games it was always the most annoying part. Probably because the author was an insufferable evil bastard who drew inspiration from the most annoying things created by human hands. A sudden wave of anger almost ripped the thin fabric in your hands in half. Then you stroked it quickly, as if to comfort it, removing the creases that had formed.

Poor Evan was going to get poisoned by some nasty animal and come back to the temple with a fever for a week. Sad, of course, but nothing that with your level of power you could change. The day after the isekai, you tried a little magic. Find some chakra, mana core, nen or something. But no. All you got was to feel like an idiot for half an hour, huffing and puffing like a pissed-off hedgehog. No transmigrator buffs. No annoying system or divine companion. Nothing. That made you completely powerless to help Evan. It was frustrating, angry, and made you want to bang your head against the wall. Your modern upbringing couldn't allow you to ignore someone else's misfortune. If you worked in the kitchen, you would surely spit in the soups and drinks that are made especially for the High Priest. Unfortunately, those are the only petty thoughts of revenge you could afford.

Part of you just wanted to leave, good thing sewing skills were embedded in your subcortex, and you could find work somewhere else, not in a place where you knew one hero suffered every day. You wince. Thinking about it like that made you feel bad about yourself. It was vile to think of leaving. As the only person with knowledge of the situation, you had to stay and try to help in any way you could. Even if your attempts would be fruitless in the end.

You spent the next two hours diligently embroidering new robes and fixing old ones where the fabric was too worn. Unpleasant thoughts of varying degrees of intrusiveness kept popping into your head, but you studiously ignored them. Their content was something like “To be or not to be”, only your option was “To stay or not to stay”.

After you finished your work, you picked up a pile of robes and went to turn them in to the storekeeper. The temple was beautiful, even to your unassuming eye. The entire continent worshiped the Creator who made the world and the gods they created to help look after the people. In fact, you remembered from the book that the mythology of Evan's world was very interesting. Incredibly written and detailed lore describing events from ancient times to the present day. Some of the knowledge you had already forgotten, but for example you remembered that the Irin continent, where the main story took place, was named after the god's favorite angel.

The central temple of the capital was dedicated to the Creator. Numerous frescoes on the ceiling depicted the creation of the world and the races that inhabited it. For the first week, you walked with your head up, and more than once you were on the verge of falling. The tall, graceful steles also drew attention to the care with which the flowers and leaves were molded, as if they were real and the spell had just turned them to stone a moment ago. The garden wasn't to be forgotten, you'd only been there once, but it was already completely engraved in your heart. Score one for staying. Overall to summarize the temple was beautiful, the priests friendly. So why the hell is this place of paradise run by this goddamn pervert! The Creator's eyes are blown out of their heads to let a man like that in charge of their temple? Unbearable.

Your boots thudded loudly and angrily on the marble floor, and you continued on your way. The servants and priests you encountered preferred to avoid you in a wide arc, sensing in their gut the dark and heavy aura you gave off. With the power you put into opening the door, you could shred a mountain to pieces with a single blow. Yeah, like that bald guy, that's how powerful you were at that moment. The storekeeper didn't even lift his head from the paper he was looking at. Inwardly, you marveled a little at his restraint; you yourself would have jumped on the spot if you had been rushed in with such a bang. More calmly you approached the not-young man whose most prominent feature was his giant-hooked nose.

“I brought the robes, where should I put them?” Your voice rumbles through the room.

The man nodded vaguely toward a neighboring room filled with baskets full of robes. The servants had to wash and dry the robes before handing them back to the priests. Why the freshly sewn robes had to be washed was a big question, but not of your mind. You were about to leave when you were stopped by the storekeeper.

“Go to the infirmary and get the medicine for the hero. His chambers are in the east wing of the temple on the third floor.”

During your entire stay in the room, the storekeeper didn't even look at you, and after he gave you the order, he started acting as if you weren't even here. Well, the main thing is that he didn't yell. You shrugged your shoulders and left the room.

The stone-face test was successfully passed, the die rolled on a twenty! In fact, your heart was racing, and your palms were unpleasantly sweaty. Did all this mean you would be able to see Evan? You didn't even know he'd returned. With an effort of will, you suppressed the joyful scream that burst from your mouth. You're going to see the protagonist of this damn novel. Almost dancing, you hurried toward the infirmary.

The nurse, whose name was Ellen, gave you your medication as soon as she heard that you had come from the storekeeper. The girl explained that because of the upcoming festival dedicated to the Creator, all the servants were busy preparing for the sacred rituals. Mentally, you tsked. That no servant could spare time for the precious hero of the Church? Nonsense, of course, but nonsense that plays right into your hands. Having memorized what to give and in what dosage, you headed for the eastern wing.

The corridors became more and more empty with every turn, as if you were entering a forbidden zone. The atmosphere was oppressive and growing colder with each step. A creak sounded very close to you, made you jump on the spot and freeze. It was scary to turn around. You didn't want to see the ghost behind you. On bending legs, you turned around and ….Mmm No, that's just your overactive imagination working for the bread. There was nothing behind you. Nothing in the front, either. Cussing under your breath, you continued walking. Isekai had definitely taken a toll on your nerves. Shame they hadn't invented valerian here yet.

The doors to Evan's chambers were carved, decorated with ornaments of flowers. You knocked hesitantly, and when there was no answer, you knocked again, but louder. Maybe he was asleep? What was to be done? The nurse had said the medication had to be timed to avoid making him feel worse. The doorknob in your hand felt like a ticket to heaven or hell. Praying in your mind to who you didn't know, you pushed it down. With a quiet click, the door opened. Like a mouse about to steal cheese, you quietly slipped through the gap and closed the door behind you. You hoped Evan wasn't a cat that would eat you for entering without permission.

The main hero's chambers were green, very green, not because the walls and furniture were that color, but because of the dozens or even hundreds of pots with various plants. As a half-elf, Evan had the ability to understand and talk to plants. For a long time in the novel, they were his only friends, listening to all his sorrows. Sighing sadly, you headed for the door behind, which was presumably the bedroom.

Evan lay on the bed, resting peacefully, deep in sleep. The blanket lay in a bunched pile at the half elf's feet. His complexion was very pale with blue veins clearly visible, there were deep bruises under his eyes, and his breathing was intermittent and heavy. Despite this, he was still more handsome than the sleeping beauty herself. If you thought the comparison was inappropriate, just never mind. On tiptoe, you moved closer and leaned over the sleeping hero. Handsome. You especially liked the way his leafy green hair curled around his pointy ears. You wanted to catch one strand between your fingers and then watch it curl back. You weren't weird. Not at all.

You put the tray of medicine on the bedside table with a little more clatter than you'd like, but Evan didn't wake up, thankfully. The half elf's forehead was scalding hot, and you jerked your hand away quickly. Looking around, you spotted a basin of water on the other side of the room and quickly soaked the rag you'd grabbed from the tray before placing it on Evan's forehead. That's better. Satisfied, you smiled to yourself.

The question of how to medicate the unconscious hero was still open. You frankly didn't want to wake him up. You remembered from the book that Evan's condition was extremely serious, and he didn't come to his senses at all. Rest is the best medicine. It's better if you quietly do your business and leave, and he won't even know you're in his chambers. Shit, that sounded like some kind of thief.

Pass the cure with a kiss? You shook your head frantically as soon as the thought crossed your mind. God, you'd read too many romance novels. Conscience and morality would never allow you to violate Evan's personal boundaries like that, considering how they'd already been violated by the high priest. Besides, it would be despicable to do that to any person.

But then what were you supposed to do? You'd just have to pour the drugs into Evan's mouth and hope he didn't choke. That's about what you did, luckily without becoming a hero killer. Now comes the most difficult and embarrassing part. Ellen gave you an ointment to rub into the half elf's chest. The medical reasons behind this you almost completely missed, and you only had to take on faith the necessity of this action. Evan wouldn't like it if someone he didn't know undressed him and started performing medical procedures on him. Right? So something had to be done about it.

One of the scraps of fabric Ellen put on the tray caught your eye. It's perfect. You'll pretend to be a butler, covering your eyes with a strip of fabric so as not to embarrass your mistress. Master. You mean Evan. Quickly and tightly tying the band, you found yourself in darkness. With suddenly trembling hands you fumbled for the collar of the half elf's shirt and from it, you easily reached the buttons. Normally you would have easily done it in less than a minute, but now deprived of sight and incredibly embarrassed; each of your actions was stretched to the point of impossibility. After an eternity according to your internal clock, you finally managed this undeniably difficult task.

So it was time for the ointment, which was as green as you remembered and smelled like bumps or something else freshly herbal. Incredibly embarrassed by your own actions, you rubbed the ointment in as fast as you could without lingering on any part of Evan's skin. What's a stupid trail? A relieved exhale escaped you when this torture finally stopped. Ellen had said the ointment should absorb very quickly, literally in less than a minute, and in your head you drummed your fingers on your thigh, ticking off the seconds. When the time was up, you hoped for it towards the end you began to speed up the count, with all care you covered Evan with the blanket. The nurse had said the fever would go down very quickly, which meant the half elf could get cold.

And so it was done! Now you could leave with a clear conscience. You pulled the bandage off your eyes, blinked in the light, and hurriedly picked up the tray, leaving the room. Before you passed through the doorway, you took one last look at Evan, still sleeping peacefully. Handsome even when he's sick. Nodding affirmatively at that thought, you headed back to the infirmary to return the medication to the nurse.

***

Evan woke up when someone started undoing the buttons of his sleeping shirt. His first thought was that it was Donavan, so the only thing he could do was lie there and not fight back. Was he sick of his powerlessness? So sick that he wanted to open his chest with his hands and rip out his damn heart, which sometimes allowed itself to hope for the best. The half elf left his eyes closed, not wanting to look at the high priest's ugly face, twisted with desire. He could still visualize it all too well, anyway. A convulsion shot through his arm and he clawed his fingers into the sheets, his nails almost tearing the fabric.

Halfway through the unbuttoning, Evan suddenly realized that the fingers that sometimes grazed his skin were different from Donovan's skinny, knotted fingers, the pads of which were covered with calluses. In addition, a strange chill spread from his forehead down his body. Was it the damp cloth? It was only because of the two factors above that he actually opened his eyes and saw you. The snort that almost came out of his mouth, he held back with an incredible effort of will. A blindfold? It was ridiculous, even more ridiculous than the mix of slime deer and owl he'd met in the swamp. Ridiculous but oddly cute. The mere thought that he might be uncomfortable being stared at half-naked had never occurred to anyone. With already great interest and friendliness, he began to consider your appearance.

When you reached for the green jar, he recognized it as an antipyretic. A spark of realization lit him up, and Evan bit his lip. He was ready for the feeling of a thousand little insects crawling under his skin, but your touch didn't disgust him. Evan blinked perplexedly when he realized this. Short and medically detached, your touch was devoid of any lust. Noticing your fingers trembling, Evan concluded that at the very least you were awkward. Later his guess was confirmed by your tapping on your thigh, too uneven and often out of rhythm to be a sign of boredom or impatience. The blanket you covered him with forced him to smile slightly. A display of simple human caring that he had always been deprived of. The thought made him feel unpleasantly empty inside.

When your fingers reached for the bandage, Evan closed his eyes as quickly as possible, not even knowing why. He didn't have an answer to that question. Listening to the quiet rustling of the fabric of your clothes and the tinkling of the medicine on the tray made his heart feel lighter for some reason. It was as if you were not a randomly sent servant, but someone close to him who genuinely cared about him.

The creak of the door alerted him to your departure, but with his keen hearing, he could still hear your footsteps outside his chambers. As soon as they were gone, Evan sat up on the bed, causing the cloth on his forehead to fall down. Silently, he twirled it in his hands. His head felt strangely empty. Perhaps the only question that bothered him now was; who are you? Meeting you had irrevocably changed something in him, as if he had been a broken clock just now starting to run.

Evan rolled back over, sinking into the soft mattress, and returned the cloth to his forehead. The next time you two meet, once he's recovered enough to walk, he'll be sure to ask your name. With that thought, his exhausted mind took to its realm of Morpheus.

Reblogs, comments, are always greatly appreciated! ヽ(o^ ^o)ﾉ

[myrsinemezzo]

You’re not a real Tolkien fan if you—

Ok, I’m gonna stop you right there (theoretical person I’m talking to). Because that is just a ridiculous take. I’ve seen a lot of posts in the past several months and especially lately about published and unpublished lore that are all about tearing each other down for supposedly not understanding Tolkien or TROP or just not doing fandom correctly because you don’t “know” enough, and that’s really just…sad.

Recognizing LOTR canon and Legendarium stuff makes for a rich (not a richer, necessarily) experience when watching Rings of Power since it informs what choices were made to be seen and heard onscreen. I know I had only read the trilogy and the Silmarillion way back in high school and a bit in undergrad and loved a lot of what ended up in the Peter Jackson movies before sighing, giving in, and watching TROP.

And yeah, I shrieked in delight when Halbrand said “call it…a gift” and when Isildur and Elendil showed up onscreen in season 1 to the point that my partner probably thought I was having some kind of attack, but that was it for me when it came to recognizing a lot of things. And I still managed to enjoy the show on its own terms and have things to contribute in fandom here and elsewhere if I wanted to.

I relied on people who became my friends here and on twitter who posted explanatory things of “see this detail from the various books? Cool, right?” and getting to say, “That is cool!” in return only made me enjoy the show even more in rewatches like they were easter egg offerings to the fandom.

The concept of you’re “only” a fan of the show or not a “real” Tolkien fan framed in such a negative way over the past several months creates a real barrier for participation and enjoyment of community from people either new to the fandom or those who don’t have the sheer time or the inclination to read 20 books and memorize every detail or even use the search function on ebooks they might or might not have to weigh in on things they like or dislike or get excited about or hope to see.

Instead we get debates that are less “Cool, right?” anymore and more “I’m right and you are lesser”. If I wanted that, I would go hang out on Reddit where that is what conversations revolve around and people shit on each other over the texts.

This is getting long (sorry) but where I do live for scholarship on Tolkien, it is not the be all end all. It does allow for a deeper understanding of content and the context of the content depending on the specialty of a given scholar, but you don’t have to read it to prove to some faceless person on the internet that you’re a Tolkien fan. I also love JRR and Christopher Tolkien and the trop showrunners and Peter Jackson as primary sources, but they are also not the be all end all of what constitutes a correct way to experience these works. That way lies stagnation and more of an idea that there is somehow only one true way to interpret texts and films and our beloved television adaptation through the lens of only what the creator possibly intended.

This is certainly not intended to be a callout post, I’m just waxing sad on my blog about fandom today. But hey! We can always change that narrative! So be well and welcome or mae govannen fellow fans and trop fam in the broadest of terms possible.

[loopy777]

So one of my suspicions about why after ATLA, Avatar projects have struggled is that show attracted a vastly older and more mature audience than the creators or Nickelodeon expected, and neither party ever really adapted to that or fully acknowledged it. Seven Havens apparently has a seven year old main character, which is the sort of things you only really do if you think your target audience is seven year olds. Any thoughts on this issue (not on Seven Havens, but on all their projects after the original cartoon)? It just seems bizarre that they don't seem realize that the median Avatar fan is probably in their 20s or 30s right now.

It's the real elephant in the room, isn't it? I love to keep pointing out that the comics are being written for an age-range that is literally younger than for how long the comics have been published, so a properly-aged fan who read 'The Promise' when it first came out is now behind on her mortgage payments and can't get any sleep because her baby is up all night.

Of course, lots of franchises keep targeting a childhood age-range over the course of decades. I shudder to think what it would look like if Mickey Mouse was being written exclusively for the first generation of fans of the character. And Avatar is a bit "evergreen" in that it isn't obviously tied to a certain modern time and place, so you can show a current child the original AtLA cartoon and they won't ask why everyone's cell phones look like that. And for a while the wisdom was that the biggest spenders for franchise tie-in junk were parents buying it for the their children.

(Although that's changing. I presume the kids these days just want Fortnite skins.)

So I have no problem with Avatar Studios continuing to target the original age range for AtLA. I was already 25 when I discovered it during its run, so my being middle-aged now isn't going to stop me from watching Seven Havens if I have the streaming service it eventually airs on. (I don't see myself ever paying for Paramount Plus.) And something being appropriate for younger ages doesn't mean it can't be satisfying for adults. I mean, Pixar has been going for 30 years now making 'family' movies aimed at fathers having a midlife crisis. Heck, the most recent Ninja Turtles movie seems to have been solidly aimed at fathers of teenagers.

My big problem is when new Avatar stuff is written for younger ages than the original AtLA cartoon, and I'm not talking about that novelty Little Golden Book which I don't think any actual children have ever looked at. Gene Yang admitted he was forced to have characters in 'The Promise' say "We're doomed!" instead of "We're dead!" because of the young audience. Because we all know the AtLA cartoon never mentioned death by name. And how does it make sense to have the sequel to AtLA target younger audiences than the original? If you want to sell Avatar to tots, do spin-offs like that Aang Birthday comic.

It does help that the YA Novels have so far been written at or above the original age range of AtLA. I honestly don't feel like I need anything more adult that the Kyoshi and Yangchen books already are. At that point, you risk getting into the same territory as the Star Wars Expanded Universe, where pain-worshipping aliens from another galaxy are filling battlefields with gore, which I found more silly than anything. Honestly, I feel like LoK started to get into this territory, with the Earth Queen being asphyxiated on-screen and then we cut to Bolin and Bumi II doing slapstick comedy that even an eight-year-old would find a little tiresome. If something is going to be filled with mature content, it should also be written maturely; no one complains that 'The Godfather' is try-hard edgy (at least, not the movie- I've heard things about the original book) because the character work and dialogue is just as maturely written as the violence.

So yeah, I guess I can say my feelings on the matter are mixed but I wish Avatar Studios was just better at aiming at its chosen target audiences. The continuing AtLA story should be at least as mature as the original cartoon. Stuff can be written for young children or for adults, but mixing is going to require a defter hand than we typically get writing franchise fiction, or at least something as non-prestige as this franchise. Because as far as I know, while Avatar is respected and beloved by many, it's never been a big moneymaker for Nick, so you can't exactly throw a lot of cash at someone with talent and they'll slum it so they can pay their bills.

And for Koh's sake, if you're going to write a comic book for stupid kids, please at least have the decency and competency to finish your subplots before those kids can't afford your comics anymore because they've been let go from the federal civil service job they've had for the entire 8 years they've been out of school.

[coffee-with-mint-syrup]

The case of live-action atla zutara.

First of all, the scarf scene. I won't be repeating myself, here are some main points - there was absolutely no reason for Zuko to act the way he did and for the scene to be shot this dramatically. Even if they did the shipbaiting in this scene - it means there's a ship which is much more than live-action kataang has at this point. Also I don't really think these guys are shipbaiting type but that's just the impression I got.

Then - the second obvious one - Oma and Shu's visuals. We have star-crossed lovers from two towns at war, basically the local equivalent of Romeo and Juliet (as in legendary lovers who are known above all for their love) wearing coincidentally colors that are primarily associated with two of our characters (who shared this dramatically shot scene in the previous episode).

And I know, it may seem so insignificant - but but but but! - you have to think about this. Of course there are creators, writers and showrunners that are unaware of some non-canon ships or don't care about them. But it's not the case for atla. No, creators of atla were so aware of zutara - they wrote a parody scene in a in-world trashy play to mock this fan pairing and it still proved absolutely nothing and just gave zutara more content. The creators and writers of this adaptation clearly had the discussion "what we should do with kataang" - because there is no trace of kataang in the 1st season. So it was a conscious decision to omit that - but where would the romantic subplot go? Well, I don't know, but they are showrunners, they most certainly discussed options. They are clearly very, very, very much aware of zutara. And they still do this? They still show us Oma and Shu wearing red and blue? All they had to do is to give at least one of them any different color. Any. But they didn't. (for fuck sake, it is the Earth Kingdom - yellow and green would do it)

There were zero, no, nada Kataang interactions, implications or those scenes that are filmed just a little bit too dramatically like the scarf one. I don't know, there's still a chance that they will wait for season 3 to make Aang's crush on Katara happen. I'm also not so sure what will happen to Aang failing to open seventh chakra, I mean - his love for Katara has a huge purpose in series, so it still doesn't look very good. But you can't even imagine how glad I am that they didn't do this secret tunnel thing. It was very uncomfortable.

So it was the more fact-based part of my case, let's get to the irrational, almost delusional part, tin foil hat probably needed.

Almost all the scenes Zuko and Katara shared in the first season kept reminding me of another famous enemies-to-lovers ship that actually became canon in the infamous final episode - Reylo, the way it was filmed in The Force Awakens. I mean - the first fight in the woods where she looses, the intensity of him staring at her, the final fight in snowy location where she kicks his ass and shows her mastering this superpower, him trying to talk to her during this fight and mentioning her learning/having to learn...Zuko calling Katara a peasant reminded me of this "Rey is no one" discourse. I don't know man, I haven't thought about The Force Awakens reylo for a very long time and it just kept popping in my head.

All of this - it's like a blueprint for enemies to lovers.

Also I actually think that the look they shared in the 2nd episode was also shot kinda weirdly and dramatically. It's not to the extent of the scarf scene but I do remember thinking that "why did they film it they way? it's too intense".

In the conclusion I'd like to say that as much as I like all the season 1 zutara stuff they left out in the adaptation - necklace subplot and implications, pirates and the famous "You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" - I think I actually prefer the scarf scene. Yes, it would be so great to see those things in adaptation but in the end of the day they would still be just the things they kept from the original and probably noting more. Like the cabbages or the secret tunnel song or anything else, just things from the source material that implicate nothing. While the scarf scene, the Oma and Shu's clothes - it means they made a conscious decision to make it that way. It means they put some thought into that and some meaning. And this gives me hope there's a chance for Zutara in this adaptation.

P.S. I told about this my sister who hasn't watch the series yet and she said "I think people who made this show are just shipping zutara in secret". I do not necessarily imply she might be right - but creators of animated series (the very same people that made kataang canon, not zutara) DID leave because of some creative differences and because they couldn't control creative decision. Might as well be THAT kind of decision.

[virtualpeople]

Hi! I’m a huge fan of how you create your sims, even attempting to replicate myself a few times. I get confused with all the cc sometimes but I’m slowly improving, that was until I got distracted. Recently I fell in love with a style of sims I see in the sims 4 (most often done by @pearlean). I don’t want to compare creators styles but you seem to be the most creative sims 2 creator, and was I was wondering if this type of style would be possible within the sims 2 and if so with what cc?

hi anon! with all the creativity in this community I'd hardly say i was the most creative but thank you so much haha, I'm incredibly flattered :D

But oh, that's a fun question! I don't follow ts4 in the slightest so I'm not sure if I'm getting the wrong end of the stick or not, but I've had a look at perlean's sims/tumblr and damn that's a rad style, i like it a lot.

I'd probably say it's an answer of both yes and no if it's possible in ts2? I'm thinking the filtering/editing/hand-painting (or maybe some reshade/reshade-esque presets? you'd be best off asking someone else about these as I've never used 'em) is doing some heavy lifting, aesthetically speaking - I'd be really interested to see what the sims look like in raw screenshot form. So it's likely not technically even 100% possible in TS4 on its own with just CC.

Now, seeing as we in TS2 land are a bit more limited with <1000 polygons per face, it'd be even harder to replicate. That level of painterly quality? I'd say it's a no, unless someone sat down and worked really hard on a specific set of CC to achieve that. The comic outlines are definitely post processing too. But! The rest might be more possible, if in adapted-to-ts2 form.

I'll give recommending some CC a go but it might be utter shite I'm talking, I'd need to give making sims like that a go to test haha. I accidentally wrote an essay so I'll stick it under a cut.

A lot of the style isn't really CC tbh, lots of strong features (I love a strong facial feature when making sims so 1000% approve of this) particularly with the nose, big eyes/eyelids, pouty-shaped mouth and asymmetry going on. Slightly cartoon proportions for extra oomph? You'll want some asymmetry sliders for this if you don't already have them. Obviously TS2 features won't be so smooth, but such is life :) Thinking about it, the style/proportions actually remind me a little of ghen's old sims, so might be worth a look!

As for getting the boldness, you're probably best sticking to the chunky 4t2 hairs for this, with hairline masks where fitting. Io has some here for example.

If you want the kinda painterly feel, AlfredAskew's content comes to mind. Her face shaders (1, 2, 3) will be good for this, these as well and I'd reccomend grabbing some of her sims too as they've got CC that could be fun to use that afaik wasn't released anywhere else.

For skins, they seem to use kinda matte but well defined skins? i've not tried them but AlfredAskew's reconstruction skins might be a good base? They've got that painterly feel. Sleepytabby's imperfection skins would work well as a base too. They're gonna need a lot of CC for this style (mainly for eyes, lips and nosemask) but they're really texure-y as well. as always I'm gonna say Io's skins would be a good call, and hell standard maxis might not even be too bad for this. they're all defined and not too shiny.

If perlean's stuff is anything to go by, you can go HEAVY on the nose masks and shaders (and i mean this in the best possible way). Some nosemasks that might fit the bill are basically everything here.

Eyebags, blush and eyelashes seem kinda prominent too, XOD's eyebags seem to fit the bill best (and they're uploaded with a LOT of sims) but I can't find the original source anywhere so here's some recolours by digi. The eyelids here feel like a good call too

Eyelashes I don't have many of these so it'll be worth browsing some creators to find some bold ones. it is a lot harder to get them looking good in TS2 though as it's easy to warp the eye area. I have even less for actual blusher blushes so others may be able to recommend stuff here (please do!), but ideally they'd be ones that hit the upper cheekbones/eye orbit area (idk much about how you'd describe this in makeup terms haha).

Some nice bold or fun eyebrows will help, I love these by Mina M on MTS: and this big set by pooklet is also good.

For the rest of the face pretty much all of simplelife's face shaping makeup CC (and the brows tbh) will be your friend here, as will Amaryll's miranda facekit and Pooklet's face stuff for for freckles and eyebags. Rensim has some eyebag building kit here too and Pforest's face kit will be good for this style also.

Eyes are probably the one that matters least as they look to vary massivley and I can't quite tell what they look like under the post processing. A more realistic sclera (or a darker one) might work better, but you can probably get away with whatever you like.

I have no idea if this is all stating the obvious or would actually work, but I hope it helps!

---

and as an aside, I gave the style slapped together this guy quickly in Bodyshop using CC I already had while searching for stuff for this post, I think I completely missed the mark so far but idk if he'd be approaching the right style with a little more effort and more painterly CC?

I might see what I can do with editing and overpainting if I can be bothered to get my graphics tablet out :)

[mask131]

I was chatting with @themousefromfantasyland , and it made me think about something that is very obviously going on currently with people and artists... I don't know how I shall call this, but there's this thing where fanbases and fandoms, and just "fans" in general, just... kind of project a lot of stuff onto the work of an artist. They confuse the artist and the art in terms of feelings and content, which results in people ending up describing the body of work of a creator they suppsoedly enjoy... But describing it in a way where it seems they never actually checked the stories they are talking about. They basically perceive fiction through... yeah projections based on them enjoying the artist and thus it warping their perception of the work.

I remember when I read someone's review of a book a long time ago, and this person said "This book is really unpleasant, and I didn't get the story, and nothing appealed to me in any way... But it is written by Y, so I have to like it." They wrote this... very bluntly, and openly. And... no. No you don't have to.

You are probably sick of hearing me talk about it, but I started to come to this realization with the Gaiman scandal - I have a lot to say about this, much more than I actually said on this blog, but I can't even say it because Tumblr will rip me to shreds... In general Tumblr doesn't like to hear about how the world really works or has worked for many generations before them. But anyway - what I can say here without fearing the foaming-at-the-mouth Tumblr mob is that I was very VERY surprised when people, upon hearing of the accusations against Gaiman, said "His work was so comforting". Gaiman's work is far FAR from anything "comforting". American Gods, Anansi Boys, Sandman, Coraline, etc, etc, they are... not "comforting". But people just projected onto Gaiman's work the way he interacted with Tumblr people, and their own warped perception of a TV adaptation of a collab he did with Terry Pratchett.

And then the phenomenon became clearer when I started chatting about David Lynch, and looking back at Youtube reviews and online blogposts. Where people just simp about Lynch, tell how much of an absolute genius and wonderful human individual he was, yada, yada... And then just close up like a clam when you point out to them the very obvious, blatant and undeniable act that Lynch had a fetishization of the suffering and abuse of women throughout his entire body of work. He admitted it himself. That was part of his brand and one of his obsessions and how he made his art. It was what made him famous and scandalous (Blue Velvet, Fire Walk with Me) and yet... Yet, just because people saw him fondly as this "kooky but sweet, charmingly-talking old grandpa" in recent years, now they just... kind of put all of this in a blindspot of theirs? It is... very puzzling.

Not "worrying" or "frightening" because these kind of things have always happened, and I myself fell prey to it several times, but it is... I don't know, it seems to have been strengthened by the Internet fandoms, and people just start having blindspots, or think they know a work when they haven't even read or seen it, just watched a recap or read a resume, or read the novel they want to read instead of the novel they actually have before their eyes...

And the reverse is also true. Recently I have been focused a lot on artists whose works are described as way more positive and charming and sweet than they actually here, but you all know very well how you also have a shit ton of artists whose creations are deemed dark and vile and morally violent or mentally disturbing when in act... they're not really, and they're not half as dark and nasty and unpleasant as people around the Internet describe it as.

It isn't just a question of everybody having their own perception and point of view and receptions, no, it is... I don't know, I don't have exact words for it, I am just spilling vague impressions onto this digital diary, but there's this sort of wave of people shaping their own mind into seeing things that are not there, or blinding themselves to things that are OBVIOUSLY there, and basing themselves on vibes and general reception and the influence of fandoms and hatedoms, rather than... just starting from the actual story, from the actual visuals, from the actual sentences before them, from what the screen actually shows. And more especially, from the way you can pile up a creator's set of works to obtain a greater image of what they do - you know, instead of basing yourself of one specific work out of a dozen which is quite unusual for the creator...

Again I am just spilling random stuff here, but yeah, my core point was: I am quite surprised at how people kind of get blind whenever you mention that Lynch had a fetish for female abuse. He literaly made his bread and butter out of it. And I am not making a moral judgement. I am just saying, it is what he was drawn to, it is what he wanted to talk about, it is what he centered his movies about, it is his recurring character-type, it is what occupied a big part of his imagination. From Blue Velvet from Wild at Heart, from Lost Highway to Fire Walk with Me, and all completed with Inland Empire. I am bit suspicious at how people claim themselves to be fans of Lynch but then just ignore what is one of the core components of his specific brand of art. Almost as if... *cough cough* as if you just enjoyed something specific of Lynch outside of his usual production and you retrospectively applied it to the entirety of his work without actually checking said rest of his work *cough cough*

[gemisreading]

IS THE BOOK COMMUNITY BEING RUINED BY SOCIAL MEDIA?

Getting into the habit of putting down the phone and picking up a book.

The link between reading and social media is becoming, and has become, more and more of a prominent conversation over the recent years. Particularly with the rise of social media platforms and the varying types of content that we get to view on them. But is it true that social media is ruining the way we read?

Well my answer to this is... yes. And no. Social media like anything else is completely what you make it. The algorithm will go off your interactions. And sure, with for you pages these days, sometimes we see things we wouldn't necessarily have chosen ourselves, but those can also be adapted with a little work. It is frustrating that we have to go to so much effort just to make the content shown to us what we want it but unfortunately that's how it works now.

When I hear people say things like "TikTok is ruining reading." I have to think to myself. On the surface I completely understand what people are saying. But I think the divide here is between readers and what I'll call 'social readers'. A social reader is someone who picked up reading because of social media. A 'natural reader' is someone who naturally has an interest in reading. I want to be clear, a social reader is not a bad thing. I am a supporter of people getting into reading, however that may be. But getting into reading because of social media, your book recommendations and influences are probably going to be a little different to the ones who naturally are into reading. But one is not better than the other.

I think that reading should be celebrated no matter the reading preference. At least people are taking time to get off of their phones. And that in itself should be encouraged. And yes, not everyone is going to read the same taste in books as yourself. But people weren't doing that before social media anyway. It's just now you can see it. And I believe that part of the frustration of social media's influence on reading, particularly TikTok, is the fact that, books 'natural readers' gravitate towards, read and discover, are barely mentioned. But is that the fault of the girls in their twenties reading Emily Henry books? Or is it the fault of your algorithm? And is that the case for everyone?

Now I'm not going to pretend my algorithm doesn't feed me videos of people reading Emily Henry, Laurie Gilmore, smut and spice, because it does. All the time. But it also feeds me a lot of recommendations outside of those that I personally would not like to read and do not fit into my reading taste. Yes, I'm talking about the fantasy and thriller genres. It's not for me. I will consider them but I do not naturally gravitate towards them. I think as well something a lot of us can be guilty of is, choosing creators for the creator and not the recommendations. Now that sounds like a very obvious thing to say. Of course we will follow creators because we like them and the content they make. And we should still do that. But that will probably also be the reason you are getting the same recommendations fed to you all the time. Because everyone is in the same repetitive circle.

I try to do my best to follow a diverse range of book creators. Especially because I like to read within multiple genres. And not all single creators are going to talk about all of those genres. Therefore different genre recs come from different creators. It's like song recommendations. Your friend who only listens to pop music has probably never heard of the rock band you like to listen to. But you can both give recommendations of songs to listen to because you interact together. And you are also open to the fact they might not like it because it's not their preferred genre. So why is reading any different?

Lately I have fallen into the trap of getting the same book recommended to me pretty much every time I scroll on TikTok. But it's probably not the book you would expect. I was also pleasantly surprised that the book being recommended was actually one I currently have on my bookshelves waiting to be read. And therefore the recommendations have worked because it has made its way slowly up my TBR to a higher position. The book in question is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Probably not the book you were thinking it would be when you think of recommendations from TikTok.

So do I think that social media is completely destroying reading? No. Is it influencing it? Yes. But we have to be more conscious of the algorithm (unfortunately) if we are going to use it to our advantage when looking for the book communities we'd like to be a part of. And we need to get rid of this high standard we hold around reading that blocks us from interacting across the differing communities within the book community because, that right there, is how we destroy reading.

[sytokun]

A lengthy thought wall about the recent RT shutdown and DillonGoo Studios' interest in acquiring RWBY - I speculate and entertain some hopium about the pros that could come with it and why all in all, impossible it may be, it's probably the best shot we have for RWBY.

Some rwde cause it mentions Shane's letter and nobody likes that.

I've been reading a lot, a lot of the various discussions around RWBY's fate and Dillon Goo Studio's (henceforth shortened to DGS) interest in acquiring it. Here's my overall evaluation everything so far:

This goes without saying but this is obviously an optimistic take on the matter, I wanna talk moreso about the pros rather than the logistics of whether DGS can afford it, whether you think it's just clout-chasing, etc.

Dillon's a former RWBY animator and a fan of Monty's work. No matter what you think of Monty's style of action, in the greater public sphere, RWBY is known and liked precisely for that and largely that alone, period. Only RWBY fans who are already invested in the show will mention story or characters - for the majority of people, i.e. future RWBY fans, the action is the main selling point, and DGS clearly can deliver on this.

Dillon himself is at least amicable with most of CRWBY and likely open to negotiate with them given prior work history. For any other media corporation, consulting the old IP holders of a defunct company is a minor formality at best or even a laughable waste of time. And if you want to bring up a certain almost 10-year-old letter and the person working with Dillon who wrote it, there are plenty in the comments section who would agree with me that it's not as big a dealbreaker as one might think, given the company the letter largely condemned is well dead and buried. I won't go further into that matter.

DGS is very community-oriented - they're very intimately familiar with 3D animation and produces creator-friendly content like the Goo Engine which helps future animators inspired by RWBY to make similar anime-style 3D content. Every single RWBY fan animator whose work we enjoyed benefits from this acquisition - all of whom can grow into future animators for the series, intimately familiar with its trademark action style.

DGS is probably the only genuine fan of RWBY that has a remote chance of acquiring the IP with the express motivation of using the IP creatively. This can be clearly seen in the steady improvement of their animation content over the years and desire to push the medium. All other candidates are corporations whose motivations with RWBY are, more likely than not, going to be entirely financial (not necessarily a bad or unhealthy thing, but it's a factor).

If RWBY stays under WB or given off to Crunchyroll? They have no stake in RWBY beyond pure business. They have no interest in what's best for RWBY or its growth, only how it will be most profitable or recoup the losses from RT. The only companies I can see being more creatively invested in RWBY are ArcSystem Works who implemented RWBY in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, or Shaft that animated Ice Queendom, but those are both Japanese companies unlikely to go all-in on a foreign IP - especially given that these studios usually adapt other IPs, not buy them outright.

DGS is invested in RWBY. Their entire studio's style is built on RWBY-esque action animation. Acquiring RWBY more or less guarantees it'll become their main flagship series and their main investment, whereas with WB, Crunchyroll or other big platform, RWBY is nowhere near prolific enough to be much more than another shelf-filler in their library. At worst, Warner archives RWBY for eternity and at best, they only bring RWBY out for tie-ins and crossovers to prop up their larger DC properties. Why give RWBY the spotlight when they own the likes of Justice League and Looney Tunes?

DGS may not be the most plausible choice, but it's clear that unless some big company like ArcSystem Works or something throws their hat in the RWBY ring, DGS is far and away the people's favourite, even gaining approval from JJ Grelle (Tyrian's VA), who quite notably refused to reprise their role for Rooster Teeth.

DGS is still very much an indie studio which IMO RWBY has flourished the most under, the time period where it retained a certain unpolished energy that made you invested in watching it improve and grow. I don't want to watch a RWBY that uses its precious time under a new studio to just go by the numbers and coast by on its existing fanbase. I want to watch a RWBY that grows, innovates and takes risks, that impresses and draws new and old fans in the way it does for every single person that has watched the Red Trailer for the first time.

I think a lot of folks have a preconceived notion that RWBY has to continue on the exact same production value as V9 left off, but that never had to be the case. I think a return to a much more subdued production with smaller teams focusing on strong individual episodes over large overarching narratives will be healthy for RWBY and more easily invite new fans, which it sorely needs if it wants to stay afloat this time around.

Whether this means a continuation to V10 or a reboot I don't know, but I know I'd rather take a RWBY that a new studio respects and will produce in a way that fits their strengths and limits, over trying and overreaching themselves to make something work that even Rooster Teeth failed to, or over no RWBY at all.

That's the crux of it: the worse alternative is no RWBY at all. CRWBY and especially us as a fandom are in no position to be picky when that's the alternative. There's no such thing as a perfect deal, but this is about as sweet as they come. If the only hurdle is WB's refusal to sell, then that's on Warner. If the only hurdle is affording the IP, I, many others and no doubt other associates Dillon Goo Studios knows are likely to help them meet that price.

I do wanna stress, despite my optimism, I'm not asking to stake all our hopes on DGS as the saviour of RWBY, god no - the last thing I want is a weirdo Monty 2.0 cult and I doubt Dillon would want that either. I'm not saying the RWBY they'd make will be perfect or be equitable for everyone either - some compromises must be made and professionally speaking, whoever owns RWBY next has no legal obligation to make V10 or bring back anyone from CRWBY. Any such action is solely on the graces of the new IP holder and at the end of the day, I think whatever creates a healthier, longer-lasting future for RWBY should take priority over our sentiment or attachment.

But as things stand right now, if DGS isn't just farming Twitter likes and is honest-to-god serious about acquiring RWBY, and no better candidate presents themselves, this is about the best option we have right now, and I myself will be ready to help and contribute in whatever little way I can. Because I know the very real alternative is either a complete gamble on yet another faceless media subsidiary, or watching RWBY rot behind a vault for the next decade or more.

[4dmc]

I'm no longer anticipating the April release of Adi Shankar's Devil May Cry anime on Netflix

I was, until I learned he was personally invited in the inauguration for Trump just this January 2025

Perhaps there's more to him than just this moment. But I'm no insider and any developments that may occur I'm going to have to adapt to them as they come by

I know the media entertainment we consume comes from a very exploitative and imperfect system. I try to find out who these people are and how we, both creators and audience alike, navigate such a system with our art & enjoyment of them

It's not foolproof... i mean we just came out of Neil Gaiman's very horrific case. We can never really be certain who is who until some truth comes out to light.

In Shankar's case he just did it on his own. With his frigging Glass Onion lil "disruptor" poser bs, claiming being "subversive" & appropriating it simultaneously.

photos of him with a right wing foreign minister (?) from India, inside the White House and a video of himself in a Liberty Ball

That being said because the franchise of Devil May Cry is part of my blog/account and unfortunately I do post fan art content about it, specifically the reboot version, I do feel responsible in being an extension because I have previous posts being happy for the anime, for Shankar and more...

So just to let anyone know, I'm just not gonna be onto the netflix anime, and probably not be involved as much in the next few months

I have one February/Valentine's themed fan art post coming up but afterwards you're not gonna be hearing a lot from me especially the netflix anime of DMC, but likely nothing about the reboot DmC fan posts as well

I guess to haters of DmC that's probably very comforting for you to know lol

But I wish there's a little more "Stand Your Ground" punk attitude in the dmc fandom overall

Why aren't we calling out Adi Shankar? Why aren't we criticizing this direction for Devil May Cry? And no, I'm not talking about any stylistic choice, hair color, Limp Bizkit, etc

I'm speaking about why we aren't holding these companies accountable or at least cheer for an actual punk artist creator to helm this franchise/anime?

I do understand that fandom in general are regular folk & we are all tired & have lives that need constant attention. Consuming entertainment art does overlap with escapism

But all art forms aren't just consumed for one's escapism. Because if you really do believe in the artistic essence of Devil May Cry, we really should've pushed to have this franchise break its own glass ceiling, maybe a long time ago now..

I do apologise that this is no longer just a rant and probably is preaching. But I do hope some people will give it a think.

I also don't really hold it against you if you are still about to watch the anime.

To burden fans/audience to be always the idealized critic or an all-knowing person is simply impossible, nor is it always a reflection of who they are or what they believe

I do believe that fans/audience deserve to be well aware and to have integrity, and to understand that it does suck, it sucks media has become this way, but it doesn't mean we have to constantly blame one another

As final words that echo the general sentiment many of fellow ex-Gaiman fans, and perhaps in extension to being former fans of once-beloved creators...

Great art has been done and will be done by the most horrific people. But that doesn't mean we're blinded by their art. We ought to see them as people. And as people they too have a lot to answer for

[childrenofcain-if]

Hi! I want to start by warning that this will probably be a long rant about how much i love your IFs. But first, I hope you feel better soon!

The first IF of yours i played was the pjo one, which sent me down a rabbit hole of going through the rest of them (still haven't played tcs but i will soon 🤞🏻). It was just BAFFLING how people could be so purposefully ignorant about the concept of fanfiction and accused you over and over of plagiarism like, please go outside and touch grass, clearly the internet has stopped your brain from developing critical thinking.

Anyways, the adaptation was so well done and faithful while also exuding a newness to it that i am very excited to see unravel. I understand at the moment it has been paused (and I don't know if you've addressed why it's no longer up) and i hope with time you can feel comfortable with it again. None of the shit you've gotten was deserved or even understandable but alas, it still happened. As a content creator myself, i truly truly sympathize with you. I hope these words offer some comfort, however small.

Same goes for WLB, but the awe at how descriptive and raw your writing is really peaked through in something of your own creation. I find myself revisiting it and experiencing the exhilaration from my first reading all over again. I can't wait to watch everyone around my mc descend into eldritch madness as they become more and more unhinged. Consequences of my own actions? Never heard of them, i want my mc to go apeshit!

Now, gods where do i start... TBOTYG is *chef's kiss* flawless, i never thought i could become so obsessed with anything with only one part. I awaited the demo with baited breath, already anticipating all the ways you would surprise and impress (and you did). Every choice, every scenario, the way you build your plot and characters, your descriptions (I don't know if you can tell that I'm a little too hung up on the writing aspect of it) of characters and actions and feelings. The amount of work and effort you put into characterization is so very clear and it feels very freeing to have that amount of control over a character that we're supposed to "relate" to (in the context of the narrative, almost as if living vicariously through them). i think that no matter how much time passes, your IFs will remain a staple in the community and every player who finds your gems will feel blessed and changed after playing.

It's gotten to the point I've created a whole google doc of my MC, and made fake ig accounts with interactions (just for myself, to cope with the anticipation) and this is a level of commitment I've only felt with my own OCs and works. In such a short time, your IFs have carved a deep space for themselves in my life. I find myself replaying and going through their official pages religiously even though I've read every post already.

a question! will every LI's gender be chosen individually? I'm wondering because C and D are suitmates, but is it doable if they're different genders? same for mc and V. I'm thinking yes but also wanted to be sure

Honestly very very sorry for the long rant, I'm sure you have better things to do 😭😭 but i had the uncontrollable urge to express my feelings on your art and it took me an entire day of trying to talk myself out of it (i failed).

(also, here's my mc's profile and dm box. her royal highness maxine's ig profile is private btw. going for c route first. Mitică is the romanian diminutive for the name Dimitru, and opsis is an ancient greek concept i thought would fit V)

i’m speechless (sentimentally), dear reader 😭 i still can’t believe some people would take the time out of their day to think about my silly little worlds and the characters in it, less of all like how i’ve written my works. every single time i hit a writer’s block or have the whole doxxing trauma flare up again, i think of quitting but it’s the urge to write stories and the joy of sharing it with everyone that is still keeping me going.

i can’t explain how much your words mean to me because this is what i write for. to have people relate to or identify with or adore the world and characters i’ve built is such a dream within itself. from the bottom of my heart, i am thankful for every single reader who has always been nothing but supportive from day one. if elias has his apple, i have y’all. and no, it doesn’t mean y’all can have my meagre inheritance but it’s the sentiment that counts.

to answer your question, every single LIs gender will be selectable! blackthorne hall has individual bedrooms per suite so y’all will only be sharing the common areas and kitchenette with V while having your own personal space. it’s more like an apartment than a usual college dorm tbh.

oh and please, rant away! i’d love nothing more than to hear about your MCs and the various headcanons, questions, or theories you might have!

(also please knock C down a few pegs, they desperately need it 😔)

[tymime]

I'm of the opinion that society only became ready for characters like Mickey Mouse and Popeye to be in the public domain now, and no sooner.

When you look back on the copyright extension acts of decades past, I think maybe, just maybe, it was a good thing for Mickey Mouse. To be clear, this isn't about how these copyright extensions benefitted the Disney Company financially. I'm talking about Mickey as a fictional character, about the artists and creators, not the CEOs. I'm not thinking of Mickey as some kind of idealistic, free-for-all-people sort of thing, but as a work of art. Disney was only just getting back on its feet in the 1980s, after a long period of stale, formulaic, somewhat low-effort films and comics. If Mickey Mouse had gone public domain soon after Mickey's Christmas Carol had been released, Disney would've lost control of their flagship character during a time when they were just figuring what to do with him again. I think this would've made Disney's Renaissance era just a little bit worse. I couldn't tell you how exactly, since that would be mere speculation, but they may have been less inclined to build Mickey's Toontown or reprint Floyd Gottfredson comics, or anything like that.

The same thing goes for the late 1990s. If they had lost Mickey then, I have a feeling that wonderful cartoons like Runaway Brain and House of Mouse would've been less likely to have been made.

Here's what I'm thinking: Say that a Steamboat Willie horror movie had been made in, I dunno, 1988. Coming right after or before Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Disney seeing their most famous character tainted by a slasher film probably would've taken the wind out of their sails. Would the Eisner-era "returning to their glory days" attitude have been so prevalent? The entire decade of animation might've looked a bit different.

Disney today is very, very different. While they still see dollar signs when it comes to Mickey, and they still make good quality cartoons with him in it, the last time Disney really cared about classic 1930s Mickey was in the late 2000s, around the time when Epic Mickey came out. A retro, proud-of-our-heritage version of Mickey is something Disney no longer cares about, which goes hand-in-hand with the revisionism that plague the remakes of their classic films. Despite the "Rebrushed" version of Epic Mickey, I don't think Disney really wants to be retro anymore.

The other half of the equation is the internet and its indie creators. Remix culture is basically a revival of how most humans made art throughout most of history- not trying to come up with an "original idea", but making something derivative of what came before. Critics who complain about "endless sequels and remakes" probably despise this idea, but the fact of the matter is that nothing is completely original, and stuff like YouTube Poop, video game music covers, memes, and fanart is the 21st century version of that. There's a feeling going around that big media corporations aren't truly making the content we want to see anymore, and I'm inclined to agree. Marvel movies have already peaked and have gone downhill, we seem to be burnt out on Star Wars, and Warner Bros. generally seems to hate animation nowadays. We're also in a world where indie artists have much more power and influence than ever before, with platforms like YouTube, social media, and online art galleries to spread the word better than pre-internet media ever could. I've been waiting for Disney to relearn what makes Mickey Mouse great for years. A cartoon series equivalent to DuckTales (the original, mind you), adapting Floyd Gottfredson stories has been a pipe dream for some time now. Disney isn't going to make it, so I just might make animatics for that idea myself.

So that's my take on it. Public interest in using these characters is coming at the right time, in my opinion. There have been drawbacks of course, and I think sequel-haters are one of the biggest results, but did anyone else actually give a darn about the public domain until Winnie-the-Pooh was "set free"? I've been interested in the subject for over a decade myself, but I'm willing to bet most people weren't even aware of the concept until now. What I'm mainly concerned about is artistic integrity- Mickey being free to use doesn't mean that everybody's going to be thoughtful and tasteful. That much is obvious. As for Popeye, I'm gonna wait until the whole spinach thing, as well as Bluto and Wimpy, are in the public domain before I seriously consider using the character.

(PS To any jerks who think I'm some sort of corporate shill- read this a bit more carefully. There's plenty of criticisms of corportations littered throughout this, but I guess some people are too stupid to notice...)

[the-eeveekins]

While I'm on a roll, I'm going to go off on a little bit of a personal rant (continuing something I mentioned earlier), that's been on my mind due to some comments I've seen made about G-Witch and Sulemio in recent days. I normally try to avoid writing rants like this but this one has been grinding my gears a bit.

Yes, in the grand scheme of queer media, Sulemio's relationship can definitely come across as underwhelming. No one would deny that you can get more explicitly and textually queer stories out there, especially by queer creators. But that absolutely ignores some of the circumstances surrounding the show.

First, it's been made pretty obvious by now that the staff wasn't allowed to be very explicit in their depiction of Suletta & Miorine's relationship. The company that censored an interview and released a tone-deaf statement that their relationship should be "up to interpretation" because a VA said they were married obviously wasn't going to be cool with Suletta and Miorine kissing, saying I love you and getting married on screen. They would've put their foot down well before we got to the ending. And even then the staff did enough to make Suletta & Miorine explicitly married by the end of the show. They found ways around whatever limitations Bandai put into place to try and make Sulemio subtext, and made them a canon couple within the show itself. I get tired of people saying the show didn't explicitly and textually confirm their relationship and marriage because it does, just in a roundabout way via the "sister-in-law" line because they couldn't do it in a straightforward manner.

Seriously, by all accounts, it's not like the people making this show wanted to end Sulemio with "just handholding" and half-assed the relationship, they wanted to do more but couldn't. Just look at how some of the staff members depicted them in the artbook once they were off Bandai's leash: with multiple wedding pictures.

Second, it's actually a big deal that they ended the show married, even if they had to do it in a roundabout way. Yes, the yuri genre is generally going to have more explicit lesbian relationships than what we got with Sulemio, but the yuri genre isn't exactly mainstream. Dedicated yuri anime isn't airing in primetime and ending with the main couple married, it's usually late-night, niche and usually only gets one season that introduces the couple, maybe gives you a kiss, but forces you to finish the story through the LN/Manga. Mobile Suit Gundam is a popular, mainstream multi-media franchise that has been running for 44 years, and G-Witch was airing on prime time. The fact that a mainstream franchise like Gundam aired an anime series that was centered around a queer woman and a sapphic relationship that ended with the couple married is huge, especially considering the legal status of same-sex marriage in Japan. Niche yuri anime airing in the middle of the night can probably get away with a lot more gay content than a mainstream franchise airing in primetime can, especially when the franchise is owned by a bunch of old, conservative dudes.

As an anime fan, it's amazing to see a mainstream animated series like The Witch From Mercury focused around a queer woman and a sapphic relationship (and make it TEXTUAL, not relying on subtext to carry it), especially a series not specifically adapted from a yuri LN/Manga. And as a lesbian and a long time Gundam fan, seeing a major franchise I love like Gundam, that has always been dominated by male characters, air a series focused around a queer female MC and her relationship with another woman is a much bigger deal to me than a lot of random yuri series would ever be.

Reducing Sulemio to comparisons between other queer media or yuri series and how it's "inferior" to those because it lacked certain elements ignores and disregards the unique challenges and situation of The Witch From Mercury, and the way the staff fought to overcome those issues to deliver an explicit sapphic story ending in a married couple.

[absolutebl]

Hey there.

So now that Cherry Magic is over, and I think we can agree that it was great, how are you feeling about the next Japanese adaptations? Both Kieta Hatsukoi and Ossan's Love.

I must admit that I'm slightly more optimistic than I was before, but still cautiously.

Rose💜

oh boy do I have thoughts on this one.

I'm optimistic about both (at completely different levels) but pessimistic about distribution.

Look.

I haven't had to go gray to access any BL of note in years. And I'm a little annoyed that Cherry Magic Thailand forced me to break my law abiding streak. (To be fair, I was already there for Build Up. But, my annoyance stands.)

If we are very lucky, GMMTV is taking down some of their heavy hitters from YouTube rn because they've struck a distribution deal with Vicki. And that deal might also include first rights global release for those Japanese adaptations. Because Vicki is a Japanese based company, I'm hoping they can swing global distribution for GMMTV that handles Japan's wicked IP laws.

Also Viki currently handles global distribution for the original live actions of Ossen and MLM, so... Maybe on the Japanese end they can fold these Thai versions into the contracts for those IPs (which would be with the original creators and already negotiated). Japan is much more comfortable with that kind of thing, than entirely new contracts.

That said, I think if GMMTV really wants to capitalize on this new JBL remake relationship, they should go to the well on yaoi and pick up some older manga that have never been adapted. Rather than trying to remake what's already be been turned into live action by Japan. They would probably have fewer legal struggles that way.

But nobody listens to me in this matter.

So far as the Thai remakes themselves are concerned?

I was already very optimistic about My Love Mixup.

I enjoyed the original, but I think this is exactly the kind of content that Thailand does better in a longer form with added chemistry then Japan. (Bite me, they do.)

And I think Gemini & Forth are ideally cast.

As for Ossen's Love, I loathe that franchise. I really do.

I'm also not a huge EarthMix stan (witness my abject hatred of that body swap road trip nonsense they did, what was it called, oh yeah, Cupid's Last Wish). So this is not necessarily a win on casting for me, either. (Can Earth even DO comedy?)

But I was so impressed by Cherry Magic Th (and so doubtful about that casting too, initially), that I will actually watch Thailand's version of Ossen.

At least to start.

I'll have my judgy hat on the entire time, tho.

Also, with the distribution issues of Cherry Magic, will GMMTV still green light this production at all? I mean it's massive suck cost for them, if they also spend their biggest cash cow pair on something that can't get international distribution. Unless I'm right about that Viki deal... Or unless EarthMix is worth the money even if they only get Thailand. (They are HUGE there, so maybe the number work out.)

I have thoughts and concerns, I guess is what I'm saying.