#anyway blah blah blah

[hotwaterandmilk]

If I had infinite money, I'd definitely be placing a bid on this set of original Akihabara Dennou Gumi settei, back from the pitching stage when it was still known under its working title, Denki Friend Pata-Pi!

It's extremely hard to read what is written on these papers due to the small images, but it does look like the initial target market for the project was girls aged from 3+ to around junior high (and families), with raising simulation toys and games being the product angle (vital to securing funding for any media mix project aimed at this demographic).

This is of course very interesting given the way the actual anime turned out which included a lot of random panty shots of the tween characters, lots of bouncy boobs from the villains, and a sexual deviant grandfather character playing a key role. Also a notable lack of kids' toys being developed to accompany the series (though we did get that one game, I guess).

Oguro Yuuichirou (best known to English-speaking fans for his work planning Shoujo Kakumei Utena as a member of Be-Papas) talked about the project originally being pitched as Denki Friend Pata-Pi! (his original title) back in some 2011 tweets.

Akihabara Dennou Gumi is a difficult project to fathom and not a lot has been written about it in retrospect. I (personally) find it all rather fascinating, but with weeb interests being merely a hobby of mine and my language skills being mid at best, I doubt I'll ever fully be able to grasp what went on in the development and production phases for something like ADG.

I do, however, hope someone with the money and the inclination helps archive the sheets in that auction because that's some obscure anime history right there.

[lozeyart]

I drew this awhile ago but ended up not liking it. I still don't particularly like it but I like it more than when I first finished it so that's something!

[alltheirdamn]

On the topic of music & my writing… IF you wanted a slight teaser/hint at the newest chapter may I present two songs …

For Joel: Quiet Light by The National

For Reader: The Pull of You by The National

Both songs are from The National’s album, I Am Easy To Find, and I feel a heavy connection to this album with the way this story is moving 🫶🏼

[cowardlycowboys]

girl who constantly feels like they're in trouble and did something wrong

[fujiwaratofustore]

narusasu 4ever

[pifabo]

season 2 of new girl goes a little crazy sorry guys

[zer0expektation]

The (almost) Perfect Assistant

[beegs-bugs]

“I struggle not to lose hope…”

Monstrosity was literally peak btw, here’s this sketch i started when the trailer came out

[justablah56]

I have no idea what drawtectives is but I would die for that short fat bearded woman she's the most important character ever to me btw

[baejax-the-great]

One of the things missing in Veilguard is any sort of meaningful power struggle. By keeping to the poorer parts of the city-settings, we don't really deal with corrupt or powerful nobles. By defanging the Crows, an organization who famously has lethal squabbles between factions, they turned them into some weird, benevolent family organization. Even the assassin trying to make "evil" power plays doesn't actually manage to kill any of his targets, and his ruthless relatives? Also don't kill him in revenge. In the end, the status quo is maintained. Nothing has changed.

In Tevinter, we have the Threads, an organized crime unit who we know runs "protection" rackets on the locals and is involved in some kind of smuggling (it's Tevinter--so presumably this would involve slavery and dangerous artifacts, but it's Veilguard, so I guess not). Instead of them beefing with the Shadow Dragons, who presumably ruin some of their deals with their pesky "freeing the slaves" thing, and instead of their main issue being with any sort of law enforcement, something which doesn't exist in Veilguard beyond one singular templar who does all of jack shit the entire game, their main power struggle is with the Venatori, who are evil just to be evil.

And instead of the Veilguard siding with law enforcement or the threads and enlisting their help to, idk, unseat the corrupt head of the templars or otherwise deal with the venatori shit, the threads are highly favored by the storyline, and in the end the only real choice is to make Neve a thread or to make her... idk, the same Neve? The game calls her an "inspiration", but it's not like she's part of any organization, so we can't call her a figurehead. It's just like, see that random citizen right there? She rules. And I don't really see how that increases the power of the rule of law, because even if one good person is working within rule of law to get things done, she's not part of the system, and everyone already know the system is corrupt in Minrathous. Random citizens in fucking Ferelden know the system is corrupt in Minrathous, or they would if they weren't all dead. Neve is now just playing on hard mode to appear righteous, which, good for her, but I'm sorry, won't inspire all that many people who are still paying "protection" money to the local mafia.

(Putting Neve in charge of the Threads is an absolutely whackadoodle decision by the devs that I don't even know how to respond to. She has a single Thread contact. Presumably the Threads have a hierarchy. She has never demonstrated interest in being a smuggler. Being a detective really has no overlap with being a crime boss. Telling a group of criminals that they are all detective's helpers now is sure to go over like a lead balloon. What the fuck was that. Why did that happen.)

Maevaris and Dorian arguing came out of nowhere and lasted a fairly long time, which was interesting, but after the most recent election in the states, Maevaris's position sounds unbearably naive and trite, and this hardly counts as a power struggle as they both say they will support the other depending on what some random outsider thinks should happen. (That is soooo not a basis for a system of government. Why would Maevaris OR Dorian cede their power to Rook, someone they don't know and who doesn't matter)

The power struggle within the Wardens is also very stupid and easily solved. The First Warden is a moron. He dies (kind of). For some reason the extremely hot and competent couple who we first encounter in the middle of nowhere are next in command, so, phew. Problem solved there. A question of what the Wardens will do now that the Blights are over would have been interesting. Do they keep recruiting lest the Blight somehow reoccur and nobody remembers the Warden secrets? Or do they disband? Do they set themselves to seeking a cure and nothing else?

The closest you get to that is deciding what the griffons will do, which, again, why the fuck is Rook deciding that, but also there are 13 of them, in two or three more generations they will be dead unless a lot of mages bone up on genetics real fast.

Who is left? We have Rivain, which is just pointless in this game. I played as a Lord of Fortune, but you could drop that faction and not a single thing changes in the game. Pirates who don't loot valuable artifacts because they are elvhen? Give me a fucking break.

Same for the Mourn Watch. There is pretty much nothing going on in that region. You could excise it from the game and nothing changes in the slightest. There is not a single excuse for them not using the Eluvians to help the Veilguard earlier in the game, given just how little they have going on.

The Veiljumpers are just missed opportunities all over the place. They could have had factions debating whether to join the god of vengeance in fucking up the human civilizations as payback for, you know, everything. They could have had people joining Cyrion in thinking that a Forgotten One might be the best way to face down the gods, given they'd done it before. There could have been a HUGE cultural impact on "what do we do now that we know our gods are evil fuckfaces--what do we keep and what do we throw away," but Veilguard ain't that deep. They could have had knowledge of a super-weapon or some elvhen bullshit that would help the Veilguard fight the gods... but nah.

In DAO, your decisions not only affected the political futures of the various regions, but they decided who would help you and how. Did the dwarves have golems? Did you have templars or mages? That whole wolf thing with the Dalish that I no longer remember that well? And the Dalish deciding to help changed how they were viewed in Ferelden. The mages helping you meant the monarch would treat them favorably. It fucking mattered.

In Veilguard, the only situation remotely close to that is the dragon decision at the beginning, which was one of the fucking dumbest plot points in a video game I have ever played. It was the first thing that made me set my controller down and go... what? What the fuck? The idea that Rook, a nobody, is the only person singularly capable of driving back a dragon in the entire north is laughable. What the fuck was Dorian up to that day? How is Rook more capable than every single Crow? How is it the two companions you sent to the other city were absolutely useless? If Lucanis/Neve + two companions were unable to drive a dragon away, what makes them think Rook would be the deciding factor? What makes them blame Rook when they themselves couldn't fucking do it? Neve in particular was a big part of fucking up that ritual and releasing the gods, so why is Rook taking all the fire for this?

AND WHY IS THEIR RESPONSE TO A BLIGHT TO FIND A SINGLE DRAGON HUNTER? HEY DIPSHITS, THE DRAGON IS HUNTING YOU. YOU DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT PART. YOU NEED AN ARMY.

But Treviso or Minrathous being spared doesn't change the global political situation at all. It would have been really interesting if it did. Tevinter hobbled? How many kingdoms would be salivating to take a bite out of their territory? With the trade princes of Antiva being absolutely fucked over by the Blight, who is taking over that trade? Who is getting rich?

Nobody, I guess, because why would Rook know or care about that, because, as previously mentioned, they are a nobody who doesn't matter and honestly shouldn't be listened to.

The stakes in this game are nothing because the bad guys are all so obviously bad that you know, as a video game player, that you are going to defeat them. Oh, the Antaam are just mindless, faceless brutes fucking up Treviso? Okay, let's kill them. Venatori again? I'm pretty sure they aren't the heroes of this game. There's no power struggle, and in the end all we've done is revert to the status quo, (except i guess Treviso is no longer occupied).

Except for the south. The south is dead. but we didn't have anything to do with that for some reason. Couldn't even be bothered to house some refugees in our safehouse that was built specifically to house refugees. The Inquisitor, who has access to the eluvians, couldn't figure out how to get other people through them or something so... sorry, every single Orlesian, Fereldan, and Marcher.

[la-topazzz]

BOO!! CONFUSED SONIC CHARACTERS GO‼️

[dxkjf]

Uh oh guyssss uh ohhh digital circus oc uh oh

[sleepis4theweak]

Baby April and Raph playing <3

When I was little, and we had first gotten our dog, it was recommended that we annoy him (so that when children inevitably yanked on an ear or something he didn't go for the throat). I IMMEDIATELY volunteered for the task, and would bother him constantly (mess with his ears, poke his teeth, etc).

This ^ is something we do as a byproduct of the training. I hook a finger around one of his teeth and he'd gently shake. It reminded me of Raph and April for some reason, so I drew it! :D

[angryducktimemachine]

Aromanticism Zine but it's just my incoherent thoughts.

[buggybadhabits]

Grove variety !

[parched-paper]

spideypool is like that one couple you know that act like theyre in their 80s and have been married basically forever even though they met five years ago.

like theyll be in the grocery store arguing over what kind of bread they should get but its more of a debate than an argument if that makes sense? but its also kind of an argument, and they both know theyre just gonna end up getting the same kind of bread they always do (probably cracked wheat but im not an expert on bread) and also they both know each others coffee orders better than their own.

i bet they would share a bottle of dr pepper while watching that one youtube video where the guy watched every barbie movie to find out which one was the best, but they drink the dr pepper out of wine galsses and talk about completely unrelated things the whole time. btw i dont care if this is inaccurate i just need to put thoughts about them out into the world they cant stay in my head