#making niche references nobody understands

[ziggystqrdust]

drarry as swan and mercy from the warriors (1979)

horcrux hunt ff + that trope w the stray that just decides they’re part of the group now (they wanna be inaugurated)

[kurzler]

i have to say. i understand. i understand being annoyed at people from the epic fandom that insert themselves in conversations about the odyssey when they haven't read it, or spread fandom-related misinformation, or generally being kind of annoying. i understand. but some of you are way need to step back and realize these people are mostly kids.

most of them are younger teens, and yeah, it's a bit annoying when people who only know mythology from retellings speak on it as if they're experts, but acting like it's the end of the world when epic fans say odypen is the best mythology ship ever or when they say "epic reference!" to greek art or whatever doesn't make you look cultured, it just makes you look like an asshole. unclench.

retellings and mythology-inspired stories are a gateway for younger people to approach mythology and i think it's awesome that medias like pjo or epic can make kids interested in it, but SOME people make the community feel really unwelcoming. you're not better than the kid you're arguing with on the internet about if odysseus is the best hero ever, they're 13 ffs

nobody is coming for your niche or whatever, people have been interested in mythology since the renaissance, you don't need to prove that you know more than the middle schooler who reads percy jackson. relax, take a walk, you'll be fine

[seriousbrat]

This could just be my own lack of understanding of British culture and nuances in class dynamics... but sometimes I see posts saying things along the lines of "the marauders were not cool kids, they were nerdy dorks with silly nicknames and niche and extremely ambitious academic obsessions!"

My reading of this is that in the context of Hogwarts being the magic version of a posh boarding school, inspired by books like Tom Brown School Days... academic success is actually absolutely seen as a virtue, and it does not make you nerdy or uncool? Of course you can be "swotty" like Hermione, but Sirius casualness when taking his OWLs and by the lake when Remus asks if he wants to revise... I think it's an indicator of a kind of effortless and suave academic success.

I don't mean to imply they did not study or anything, I just think people might be applying American high school dynamics to what I can only imagine is more like very old-timey British boarding school culture.

I don't know because I am not british or american! Just my guess.

Also, my girlfriend never read Harry Potter before and she just finished OOTP... never once she referred to Sirius, Remus, Peter or James as "marauders". She always says "Harry's dad's friends". Could the whole "they call themselves marauders" be fanon? Am I in too deep to see?

I'll be honest I have no idea what boarding schools are like anywhere in the world haha. I went to state school in London for first and middle, and a public high school in America. (confusingly public school means the opposite in the UK and US haha)

But I agree, I think that the Marauders were considered cool kids and they were popular in general. They were intelligent and good at school but not obsessed with school the way Hermione is-- I mean they're the rule breakers of all time, and Sirius acts as if he doesn't have to study for anything lmao. I think their effortless academic success would absolutely be considered a virtue and not 'nerdy.'

I attended high school in America so I'm probably in a good position to compare! And even in my school I'd say that there were popular boys who were intelligent and admired for their intelligence. Maybe the school I went to just didn't care about jocks haha-- and also this might be tinged by my own experience because I was friendly with some of those boys, but I can't really remember many boys who were on sports teams. The group I was adjacent to were popular because they were funny/intelligent/outgoing/liked to party, basically. The class clown type. So personally I don't think this is even a boarding school thing in particular.

I get asked this a lot here in Spain and in the UK, but my high school experience in America wasn't much like the dynamics you see in films-- there were cheerleaders running around in their little skirts which was so wild to me haha but also nobody cared. In general it was cool to not care and be apathetic about life. All of this could be that the city where I lived is pretty culturally alternative, I guess.

Anyway that was a tangent. You could be right that it's somewhat based on at least the film tropes of an American high school. But in the three countries I've lived and gone to school in, including America, what generally determined popularity is how outgoing, funny, and charming you were-- and I think being funny and charming requires a certain level of intelligence. The exclusivity the Marauders had, their untouchable status and their mystery, probably also added to their popularity. Not to mention Sirius was attractive and James was a talented quidditch player.

Right now... I can't remember if they ever call themselves the Marauders apart from on the Map. And that's interesting because the Map is very much addressed to an external audience, as if they made it in order to pass it on to future Marauders lol. They absolutely had dorky nicknames but that was very much an in-group thing-- and also my headcanon is that they started using 'Moony' first in 2nd year, and then eventually came up with the other nicknames to make him feel more included haha.

Even if them calling themselves the Marauders is technically fanon I think it's fanon that works and is also pretty likely intended to be canon tbh. I typically don't have other people in the school refer to them as 'Marauders' though, rather 'that lot' or whatever lol

[riacte]

im soooooo emotion over dearly beloathed. it is so good as an epistolary work, and i genuinely feel like that format/style/genre worked really well for the story, it let us know the characters through how they portray themselves to others and who they are to different people/groups. i also loved how my understanding of Freth grew naturally over the course of reading it, I didn't notice until i was like "oh yeah that's just the culture there. ofc they'd do something like that" because it was so fluid and seamless.

every twist was well set up and just. it was crack-y and comedic, but those only made the emotional parts hit harder????

anyways. favorite random character/not main one. go! (i choose herohqphobic) also was there any like. reference or small thing (maybe characters who had different usernames across platforms or something?) that you loved and nobody seemed to notice?

i want to know. this is my new blorbo. entire fucking thing

Hii thank you for reading 🥺🙏

I could genuinely go on and on about Freth as a city because it's based after where I was raised, Hong Kong. The superhero genre is most commonly associated with American comics. It feels like their cities are either in USA or USA-inspired. To me there's subconsciously an inherent USA vibe even if that's not the actual case. I felt the pull myself before going, hold on, I live in a city, it's a pretty significant city, and theoretically superheroes can exist anywhere.

I'm of course biased on this but Hong Kong is an interesting city with interesting implications if you use it for a setting. And especially because it naturally seems so "cyberpunk". Densely populated, gives off the impression of being highly urbanised, but 70% of the land is not developed. Has a natural harbour, next to the sea, at the mouth of a river, but is hilly and full of scenic spots. Well developed public transport system (if the rail goes down for half an hour it gets on the news). The city with the most skyscrapers in the world, has one of the world's highest life expectancy (I'm still confused by this lol), ranked 4 in HDI for 2022 (also confused by this 💀 like we're above Denmark and Sweden?).

[Night view of Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong Tourism Board]

I wanted Freth to be busy, hectic, fast-paced, rich, technologically savvy. A glittering city with heroes for celebrities. Freth is an important port which is why the heroes fight so hard to protect its infrastructure for the ~economy~. But then the government decides the heroes are getting too powerful and culls the herd.

Anyways. I love all the random characters. Flora balefires_thighs had quite the arc pivoting from Tach anti to Tach fan (and is still bitchless, rip), but I have to go with arcussy because I love that name 😭😭😭 like Arucs is their babygirl meow meow grown adult son who cheated and got "cancelled" etc but it's fine ❤️ they still love his annoying ass ❤️

Small thing that didn't get picked up on! The location names! I based a lot of those on existing places in Hong Kong— Triple Shark Territory (Tsim Sha Tsui), Cannon Hill (Fortress Hill), Crossway (Causeway Bay), etc. Lots of these names have animals in them, like Dolphin Bay and Starlingfield, and these are based after real species that can be found in HK— except for one. Ravenwood. I don't think ravens exist in Hong Kong, making it fitting for an underground human experimentation lab. I don't expect anyone to know this though, it's more of a fun niche trivia for myself.

I don't know if this is obvious or not, but Cora has a crush on Archie. And Reina likes Cora while Lyra and Ben are doing their whole situationship thing. The consequences of crushing on your best friend.

Final note: the four main characters spell out Blue Bats. Blue for civilian names (Ben, Lyra, Uma, Ethan (he chooses this eventually)), and Bats for (future) hero names (Balefire, A??, Tachythanatous, S??). The year is also 827 because Aug 27 is when the MCC9 teams dropped lol. 🤡

Thank you so much for reading, glad you enjoyed it! <3 <3

[homestuckreplay]

when your friends don't invite you to the matching username party :(

Now that we've seen all of John's friends talk at least a little bit, I wanted to deep dive into their usernames, and see what they might be able to tell us about the characters we don't know yet. For sure I've seen some weird usernames in my time on sites like MSN Messenger, but these seem especially weird, and not like words most kids would use.

There's also a weird pattern - all three of John's friends only use words beginning with T and G in their screen names. We have TT, TG and GG, so if they were doing a bit together we'd expect John to be GT, but instead he's EB - not even close. Could this be a sign that he feels disconnected from the friend group, not fully part of things, doubting that they want him around? Is it possible that the other three are all each other's 'real life' friends while John only talks to them online? Did John not want to be GT, or did nobody ever tell him there was a theme? Was he GT before, but then got mad at his friends one day and change it to spite them? Or is there another GT we have yet to meet?

Discussion of all four known chumhandles under the cut - only ~1k words :)

ectoBiologist - As discussed in my in depth John thoughts, the strict definition of this is 'someone who studies outside/external biology', which could relate to a huge variety of very niche fields - but, knowing John, almost certainly refers to the biology of ectoplasm, slime, and ghosts, a field which doesn't exist in reality but which John might consider himself a pioneer of.

As a sidenote, if John was GT, he might go in a different direction with his username. We know from TT that John regularly wears disguises while talking to her / interacting with his dad / just in daily life, and that he's into comedy and pranks (NOT clowns). Reflecting those, I came up with guisecladTrouper as a chumhandle that would fit the modifierTypeofguy pattern, as well as the letters. If anyone has any other GT ideas for John, I'd love to hear them!

turntechGodhead - TurnTech is a Chinese company founded in 2001 that makes scientific and educational software. This probably isn't the reference, but you never know; this kid could be really into science, happen to own a piece of software from this company, and have liked the word. I also think it could be short for 'turntable technology', which can be a few different hobbies - records/DJing, railroads, or sculpture/ceramics/metalwork. DJing fits his vibe but I think it'd be so cool if he was a train guy. 'Turn' relates to shaping or forming as well as changing direction, so he could be someone who develops his own technology.

This also fits really well with 'godhead', which is the true or essential nature of God in several major world religions. So this could be a suggestion of a guy with delusions of grandeur and a massively inflated ego, or, it could be someone who takes on the role of a god himself - some kind of creator. I really think this kid is going to be into invention, metalworking, and engineering. Built his own computer from scratch type of guy. I bet he owns a soldering iron and uses it for fun.

tentacleTherapist - Lots of living things have tentacles, including snails, squid, jellyfish, coral, moss animals, caecilians, the star-nosed mole, some carnivorous plants, Squidward, and mind flayers. Tentacles are generally associated with sea creatures, horror media, or both. Therapist, meanwhile, is a person who helps to heal someone's physical or psychological problems. The words sound really good when said together, but don't have an obvious link.

One idea is that she's someone who either lives near water or owns weird pets - a tank of snails or jellyfish seems reasonable - perhaps caring for or rehabilitating them from the wild. But the idea of her being into cosmic horror creates a fascinating parallel between her username and John's. John is a biologist; he studies, analyzes and understands academically, while TT is a therapist; she rehabilitates and understands emotionally. John works with ghosts and slime, while TT works with aliens and deep sea horror. It's delightful to me that they might have bonded by nerding out over paranormal lore, an interest probably neither of them shares with many people around them.

gardenGnostic - I keep reading this as a shortening of 'common or garden gnostic' as in 'your average, everyday gnostic' which, out of all the four usernames, might be the wildest one for a 13 year old to be. Much like 'godhead', 'gnostic' carries a very strong religious theme, especially with the capital letter - I know it's the syntax, but the words could be this way round for a reason. I'm definitely going to do some background reading on Gnosticism as we get to know this character to see how well it fits.

The first word could also be referencing the Garden of Eden, the original sin and the tree of knowledge; the combination indicating a character with a drive for spiritual knowledge and self-understanding above all else. In a more literal sense, I'm imagining someone who spends a lot of time outdoors and who would think nothing of a few injuries from the Slimer pogo ride in the yard. This chumhandle is also only a few letters away from 'garden gnome', which makes me think of someone who enjoys the ornamental, decorative, and whimsical.

Just as John and TT's usernames are a pair with similar themes, TG and GG's handles also match up. (Sidenote: does this mean these are the pairs of 'best friends'? Feels weird considering TT is the only one of the three who didn't wish John a happy birthday). Both TG and GG have chumhandles strongly related to religion, creation, and origins, with TG representing the mechanical and technical side of things, and GG representing the natural and environmental side.

So, that's our four chums! The most interesting thing to me is how well these pairs of usernames work together, despite John being outside of the letter pattern. Both these things feel very intentional and not like I'm reaching; they definitely mean Something in the themes, but it's too soon to say what. I'm so impatient to see more of these characters and learn anything concrete about them at all.

If you've made it this far, here's a quick poll!

[iviarellereads]

A note on coverage of The Murderbot Diaries

This one's perhaps even more of a departure from the initial expectations of the blog than the Neverending Story was, but all good things are... subject to change? No, that makes it sound like it's not as good.

The Murderbot Diaries are a series by Martha Wells, about a security construct (SecUnit, the name for the designated model type and, by extension, the name used by most of the people Murderbot encounters) that broke its own governor module (think DRM) and functions independently, though it pretends it's still good locked-down company property. It exhibits strong symptoms of social anxiety, making it one of the most relatable robots ever, and accidentally makes friends.

Murderbot itself has no gender. The audiobook narrator is Kevin R. Free, and the subject doesn't come up very often in the story, so a lot of people assume and assign masculinity. Despite that, Murderbot is and knows it is a construct accessorized with the most expedient biological parts, expresses no human gender, and uses it/its pronouns. This just doesn't get clarified until much later in the series, if at all, and I'd rather have everyone understand it up front so nobody accuses me of object-ifying a person who literally personally identifies as an object.

I think this series is really neat. It's so much an exploration of personhood, like your average robot story but with mental illness. Heck, don't mind if I make references all the way back to Rossum's Universal Robots, the (extremely readable or watchable! highly recommended by me) stage play that is the origin of the word itself in its modern context, or perhaps further back all the way to Frankenstein. Murderbot is in conversation with two hundred years of science fiction exploring what it means to be, and besides that, I think it does some really interesting things with the prose.

So, with the newest book coming out in a couple of months, I decided to merge my desire to reread it with my desire to pick it apart under a microscope the way this project allows. We'll be covering more or less in release date order, with the exception of the expanded edition of Compulsory recently released going back to back with the original to compare and contrast.

So please, instead of peace this time, give Murder(bot) a chance, and join me on this space adventure.

Link index:

All Systems Red

Artificial Condition

Rogue Protocol

Exit Strategy

Compulsory (Short story: Wired Magazine vs republished and expanded edition)

Obsolescence (Take Us To A Better Place collection)

Network Effect 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory

Fugitive Telemetry 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

System Collapse 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

[alwaysalreadyangry]

my comfort listening while Tom is away in Edinburgh seeing shows and I’m trying to cut out the caffeine because it’s making my OCD worse again: the Bodies from the Library anthologies, made up of otherwise forgotten/unpublished stories by writers from the era of classic crime fiction.

cannot express enough how wild these books are. i finished 2 tonight and am now a good chunk of the way through 3, after previously having listened to 4? i think? and a spinoff called Ghosts from the Library which is actually the best so far because it’s ghost stories and related spooky stories by writers of classic crime. they’re all weird and fun. but i digress.

what’s great about these anthologies is that like so in each one if you’re lucky you’re going to get an agatha christie story and a dorothy l sayers story. will they feature their famous detectives? maybe! maybe it’ll just be a fantasia about some guy getting drugged and arranging for a mysterious agency to murder his wife!

but along with the writers you’ve actually heard of, my other fav actually good writer from this era is edmund crispin and he turns up here too, you’ll get a whole load of stories by totally forgotten writers and they’re mad. my favourite so far is one about somebody dressing up as a scarecrow to commit murders. it’s called something like the scarecrow murders. they’re all titled something like that and you wonder if it’s a bit of whimsy referring to a motif. no. the scarecrow did it.

and then there are the writers with a very specific niche. like oh yes this woman worked as a doctor and wrote eight novels about murders in hospitals. yes she was a horrible racist. yes this story is about how criminality runs in families. yes there’s a reason why nobody reads her now. but also it’s about weird pranks at a hospital and how if a nurse is too conscientious everybody will hate her and it’ll get her killed.

then there are the stories by your john dickson carrs of this world; the writers you may or may not have heard of (he’s the most famous but there are others like this) whose whole thing is constructing the MOST labyrinthine and incomprehensible mysteries you’ve ever come across. oh what you thought the maltese falcon was too simple? sit down while john dickson carr makes you read a list of characters and their various different names, all french for some reason, so he can unravel a locked room mystery that involves layers of impersonation and disguise so byzantine that at the midway point you’ll feel like you have to start again so you can even understand who it is that’s been murdered.

it’s making my brain melt and it is scratching the same kind of itch that x-men comics do in that like. does this plot make sense? no. can i explain it to you? also no. but i am having a LOT of fun.

oh and shout out to christopher cauldwell who has a story in here very much in the niche of mysteries about planes written by somebody who had written books about planes so he’s kind of making his niche interests everybody else’s problem, but he’s got the best and maybe most moving bio of all the writers in these books that i’ve come across so far as it’s like. he joined the communist party, took an ambulance to spain in the civil war, and was killed in battle as he stayed with his machine gun to cover his retreating comrades. is his story “good”? i mean it’s fairly middling in terms of these anthologies. but what a life!

[sillystringpasta]

I would like to pitch a TV show to you:

buddy cop where the main gimmick is miscommunication. Because our two protagonists speak in the thickest Australian and Scottish accents ever heard by a man.

like, i want these guys to be speaking in outback/highlands full dialect, people of their own country have difficulties understanding, accent. they use the MOST niche colloqiualisms and cultural references.

they do not understand a word the other is saying, at any point in time, and get through things with vibes. in fairness, nobody else gets it either. and nobody else is in the buddy cop show. No. Only the buddies are in a lighthearted comedy. Everyone else is going through a nightmarish overarching case in the season, some real Moriarty type shit. the buddies are lighthearted because they get assigned small cases on account of no one understanding them.

I would like to pitch some episodes:

talking to suspects and having to go between them and the thing multiple times because their questions are just. not understood. like, they solve the case in the first five minutes and spend the rest of the episode getting evidence because no one can comprehend their questions and they keep having to double back. At one point the Aussie just. starts screaming swears at a grandmother in sheer frustration at the situation (very mild swears for an Aussie, btw), and granny, who clutches her pearls, then starts hollering back in Itailian. (Nonna has a slipper!!!) this is where it is revealed that Scot is a polyglot. who speaks in the same accent in every language, and is even less comprehensible.

Aussie and Scot are trying to find a stolen prize show dog who only listens to commands in well pronounced english, leading to Scot and Aussie to spend the whole episode trying to fake an American accent to get the dog to come to them. In the background, the other characters at the station, who consist of a british transfer, the most New York New Yorker to yank ever, a secretly ex-KGB janitor who badly fakes a Transatlantic accent, and Bob from the West Coast, are trying to find a serial killer.

Aussie and Scot just keep mishearing where the other is telling them to go, and get frustrated that their partner for the case is no showing! They also mishear what to bring each other to eat, and what to purchase for the case. This ends in doing a car chase to provide uneeded back up, accidentally crashing (into) a food table at a outdoor wedding. Aussie must then spend the rest of the episode trying to make up the catering, when Scot arrives, with all the weird food and weird items, which turns out to be everything the wedding needed so all is forgiven.

The station goes on a training visit to Florida and Aussie has to give Scot verbal instructions over a radio of how to navigate multiple animal wildlife while Scot traverses some sort of everglade area. This somehow ends in an alligator wrestling competition with the Florida unit. Meanwhile, the Brit finds some information that brings a clue to their serial killer case. The team is super stoked about this.

Aussie and Scot need to provide security for a parade float. People keep messing up security because they, and I cannot stress this enough, are unable to be understood, no matter how hard they try. The Unit is worried that the killer will strike at the parade, and also try to help with security. This is the first clear action sequence we see of Aussie and Scot working with people who are not each other, and we (the audience) and they (the comedy duo) realize just how close they've gotten in understanding each other compared to those other chucklefucks.

So the buddies, who in the course of writing this post I have discovered are lesbians, are vibing, y'know.

at the end of the season it's revealed the killer is, like, welsh or something, and the Scot is able to save the day by knowing some Welsh by virtue of an old friend back home who is *gasp* an ex-girlfriend! and then the scot is put into a coma before translating! (she had a weird allergy, will be OK in a few days) So it's up to the Aussie to navigate the Welsh Lady (who happens to be in town) helping by virtue of knowing how to listen to an 'accent cousin'.

The Welsh Lady decides to stay in New York, setting Season Two up for some real interpersonal drama. Oh, and the killer is caught. Turns out he was Bob's twin brother who studied abroad in Wales.

[whoopsies-daisies]

Being a teenager on Tumblr in the big 25 is like being from a country nobody has ever heard of. You celebrate a not insignificant amount of niche holidays, you reference things nobody understands that make people look at you like you're insane, you have countless pieces of "literature" memorized by heart, and you have a vast range of knowledge that is useless anywhere else

[lunarsilkscreen]

Energies and Chakras and New Age Hippie BS

While on stream one day, I read a verse of something concerning energies. It was a new revelation; I said something like: "Oh wow; that sounds like being famous and not knowing it."

Followed shortly by "...I'm in danger."

It made a bit more sense after reading the "Art of War" and assorted other teachings.

In a world where there is no media, no secret teachings, no way for information to make its rounds like how it works today; Without [E!] And [TMZ] to make fun of your blunders...How would you know you're famous?

And most important; What would happen to you if somebody saw you had *some* kind of "magical sway" over people and wanted that for themselves?

Perhaps you're very influential, charismatic, and good at changing hearts and minds. Even if you're correct, even if you're simply speaking the truth, and the truth changes hearts and minds;

How would somebody be able to determine that?

Would changing their tribe's minds make them jealous and desire to destroy you?

Would that make them want to discover your every flaw to use it against you?

And likewise; how would you know from that vantage point? From your perspective; everyone is just friendly and sometimes annoying. Because nobody's social battery is big enough for *everybody* on a daily basis.

I remember one of the passages read something like; "When I do [this]; then [that] happens, and when I do [that]; [this] happens." Specifically in reference to dealing with societal influence.

I've spoken before on the "Sovereign" and what that means, and it's specific to this exact blog-anecdote.

The "Sovereign" is one of *those* people. The Bible calls them "Prophets" some call them "Messengers" still others might call them "Angels" or even "Demons".

In small societies, even when the sovereign isn't in charge; those tribes tend to thrive *until* they're taken out of the picture. It's part of the tactics.

Because the tribes tend to over rely on that single person.

Some describe them as exiles or cultural outsiders. They exist outside of normal society because it's too dangerous for them to exist inside of it.

Do you suppose this describes me? I think it does. Only because I've been instructed *at length* by various teachers on this exact topic.

Scary.

Today, we tend to have systems of power, and different mechanisms for celebrities to exist in. Usually TV and Movies, The Internet is coming into power too, Academia, and of course; Politicians.

I've been told, by multiple people, that I'm a new Sovereign, an internet Sovereign. That's why I have this *star power*.

Without the internet; they have said; I would've either been dead, or found my niche elsewhere.

And; It's fairly obvious in subsequent readings of the New Testament; Jesus Christ was well versed in these teachings, sociology, and mental health.

His story is the primary example of a Sovereign or the Life of a Prophet or messenger that we have.

And our Rock Stars tend to follow that same path; learning too much, and being able to do little about it.

The book [The Secret], [The Mystery Method] {judge me all you want}, The Bible, The Art of War, Hindu teachings... They all cover this same sociological topic; "The Fool's Path" from depicted in the Tarot.

People like me... Tend to follow that path. Called foolish, or too trusting. Unaware of the dangers that lay at the heart of your typical person.

That depiction of a person who is lawless, and mindlessly self-indulgent; the kind of person that is represented by jealousy in the beginning of this post.

The agencies have told me that's why they set-up this program we have all been dragged into. For our protection, from threats of self or from others.

And the sudden realization can cause extreme anxiety, and a level of understanding of the world that doesn't typically exist.

I don't know what to do with that information, but I will keep this blog updated.

The only real solution they've found that kind of works is to [Start from Zero].

[risa-desktop]

What your favorite JoJo character says about you

No minor villains or tertiary characters

JoJoes, JoBros, and JoFoes only.

Jonathan Joestar: You See the potential of an all-good superman type character (the old ones, not the modern ones,) but you're also into older media

Speedwagon: If you played Baulder's Gate, you love to see characters that stick by their friends, no matter what, but if you didn't there's a chance you're saying it for the memes, or you too pine for a man who's already engaged.

Erina: You probably don't exist, but perchance, you wanted to see her kick Dio's ass, and you have ideas for a fanfic where she does

Antonio: You have memorized the funeral speach from How To Train Your Dragon 2

Dio Brando: I have never seen someone who likes Dio who weren't already abducted by the "stands are peak combat" hivemind. If you aren't in that, you are here for the chaos, or you empathize with his sense of ambition.

Joseph Joestar: You like his gimicks… and you hate that he cheated on his wife… that's it

Ceazar: Your favorite part is Golden Wind but choosing an italian from the italian part is too hard.

Lisa Lisa: You are self-destructively curious about how she ended up going down and dirty with her step-bro, or you are really REALLY lesbian. If you are AMAB, then you are trans.

Eisidisi: You don't exist.

Wammu: Your favorite trope is fighting fair, and when someone breaks the rules, you refuse to break them in turn. You just hold the grudge in until you pop.

Kars: You have a kink for the "ultimate life-form" trope, and you probably had a crush on Cell or Shadow the Hedgehog.

Jotaro Kujo: You have the blandest taste imaginable, and you probably had a crush on Sasuke or Shadow the Hedgehog.

Noriaki: You are thirteen and you know he was MVP in the DIO fight. You were also pissed that he was retroactively replaced with a dog for serveral arcs.

Avdol: Black solidarity, and you know he was MVP in the Vanilla Ice Cream fight.

Polnareff: You call him "The Only French Person I'll Ever Love" and you are a fan of all the chariot arcana from persona games.

Iggy: You prefer his OVA face, over the half-human deal he was redrawn with. And you chant "Who's here for the chaos!" every day before pestering your friends.

Josuke: You love Persona 4 and you're always making references to it that nobody else understands.

Okuyasu: Himbos are peak

Koichi: Always making "reliable guy" jokes even if others don't understand, or if they would understand, you'll use something a little more niche

Yukako: You ignore people saying that the yandere trope ending well is toxic, but I need to write something good, so you probably wrote fanfics about her getting some kind of help and getting together with Koichi without being aggressively abusive.

Hayato: You have childhood trauma

Yoshikage Kira: You have a massive boner for Patrick Bateman, and sometimes you pretend like he had depth

Giorno Giovana: You have one of few correct choices, but you also get really mad when someone says "he has the mixed personality of Jonathan, and Dio" and there's an off chance that you are that someone.

Fugo: You actually read Purple Haze Feedback

Naracia: You have gaslit yoursef to thinking he survived the Diavolo King Crimson fight, which he did.

Abbaccio: You like the idea of a "dommy mommy" but saying that when refering to a man

Bruno: Either you're able to make discussion about his depth, or you only make jokes about him being a mom. I don't know, I'm neither.

Diavolo: You love that King Crimson is just so contradictory and complicated, and Dopio's facade was just creepy to make you cringe with your entire body when he was carying Bruno up those stairs. Oh, wait, you just like the Metalica fight.

Jolyne Kujo: You either want to kiss her, kill her, or be her. Also you have a nice appreciation for her ingenuity and ruthlessness.

Ermes: You are lesbian as fuck, and you hevily empathize with those Shadow the Hedgehog memes about loving latinas, which ironically dips its own toes into race-fetishization, but ignore that

Foo-Fighters: You saw that one fan-comic about them in pergatory talking to the person who's body they stole and you can't get over it. You give no shits about canon, as long as it's good. Either that, or you lover overalls, and that makes you go "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Also you probably make jokes about FF and Mikitaka being autistic

Anasui: You also liked Yukako, but you acknowledged what makes her gross, so you latched yourself onto the respectful version of the unrequited love trope.

Emporio: See Hayato

Weather Report: You knew he was a means to an end, sigh also you saw his backstory and gave him an honerary black card, but you know damn well he wouldn't use it.

Enrico Pucci: Black Solidarity again but you like part 6 more, or you think Made in Heaven is the coolest design for a stand, which it is.

[sunnibits]

If you want an excuse to talk about highly specific parts of dmitri backstory, you can have this!

YIPPEEEE ILY NONNY <333

I used this post as a chance to post the big-picture basics of his lore, so I’ll use this as an excuse to talk about some more random/niche details!! (you will need the big lore to understand some of these lmao)

putting it under a cut again because I am truly physically incapable of talking about my ocs without going off the walls beserk and writing an entire essay

when Dimitri tried to escape the Weavers, one of the ways the Broodfather punished him was by branding him with the Weavers’ symbol, like marking cattle. even now, he still has that huge ugly scar on his back, a lingering message from the Broodfather. a reminder that the Weavers - and by extent, the Broodfather himself - own Dimitri. as far as he runs, he can never fully escape them…. :D

it looks kinda like this btw ^^^

the golden snake arm band on his arm (meant to be a reference to jörmungandr) is a gift from his patron Loki, and acts as his arcane focus. it’s more than that though - it’s part of his link to Loki, and through it Loki can exercise his will. the snake has a tendency to come alive, winding and coiling its way up Dimitri’s arm. sometimes when Loki wants to remind Dimitri of his place or express displeasure, the band will subtly tighten, acting as a silent warning. nobody in the party has ever noticed his flinches of pain, however.

(I actually did an extremely rough animation of this at one point lmao ^^^)

when he worked for the Weavers, he acquired the nickname/alias of “the Magpie”, acting as a masked thief that stole everyone’s shiny shit and pissed everyone off (hence the name). this also led to the Broodfather referring to him with this nickname a lot, particularly calling him things like “little magpie” or even “my lovely little magpie”. (and yes, it’s meant to be creepy, Dimitri is like 12-17 in this era). after he left the Weavers to serve Loki, he shed the alias completely. naturally, half of my motivation for this was to make him even more of a Cool Edgelord™️ (can you tell I like the movie The Crow?) but the other half was specifically so that me and my DM could have a phrase we could drop in to any dialogue as a way to instantly call back to his backstory or to create a shock factor (because it’s a trauma trigger for him, it freaks him the fuck out to hear people call him that again). let me tell you, getting to hear THAT one name-dropped for the first time was VERY fun in game. (one of these WIPs is trying to capture that scene actually).

ok enough angst, let’s unwind with some silly stuff 😌

he canonically invented waffles in his universe. (I know I’ve mentioned it a million times, but it is my favorite fun fact about him. I can’t express how funny it is to me.)

there have been at least two verified, specific instances of Dimitri jerking it. it’s official canon.

ok that’s it for this one thank you!!! if you read all of this we’re making out with tongue btw.

[emeraldspiral]

Nobody today really knows how groundbreaking it was that Professor Membrane said "Video games good, actually" on Invader Zim in 2001. Back then there was a huge moral panic about video games. People were calling them "murder simulators", blaming them for school shootings and other violent crimes, and political figures like Jack Thompson were on a crusade to have "violent" games banned, heavily censored, or restricted to only mature audiences. Gamer culture was nowhere near as mainstream as it is today and was still looked at as a niche hobby for nerds and socially inept outcasts who shun the outdoors and socialization. Even up to the late 2000s/early 2010s people were seriously debating whether or not video games had any merit what-so-ever, artistic or otherwise.

Zim was one of the first shows to come out and reference video games and gamer culture heavily from an obvious insider perspective and make jokes about it that actual gamers would get rather than jokes from the outside looking in scornfully at a culture the writers don't understand.

Also, somewhat related, but allegedly (IDK what the source for this is, could just be classic Zim-fandom misinformation) they had trouble getting Dib's character design approved because the Nick execs thought his jacket made him look like a Columbine shooter. But apparently they fought to keep it in the face of a concurrent moral panic about goths, punks, emos, scene kids, and anyone else who was part of an alternative subculture. The kinds of subcultures Hottopic caters to. The exact subcultures Zim was designed to attract.

[lcpmon]

i can make a reference so niche that nobody but me will understand the five seconds of research i put into it

[flustered-victorian-gentleman]

complaining about the state of modern book covers

In other news, I made a very sad personal discovery about a very niche and stupid topic and need to yell about it

(readmore because shit gets LONG)

I was a HUGE fan of Canadian sci fi trilogy The Quintaglio Ascension back in school. I remember specifically picking up the first book while browsing the school library and being immediately captivated by the cover art.

This shit goes fucking hard. In addition to going hard it's also a useful reference for what the sapient dinosaurs actually look like, since there's no illustrations of them within the book. Obviously the characters describe each other but like, they're all the same species so no one is walking around like "this is my friend Tim he looks like a T.rex with human hands and thumbs and has fingernails instead of claws," so this helps. Here's the other two covers just for our personal entertainment.

Anyway, about last week I remembered the series again out of the blue and wanted to pick it up again because I haven't read them in so long and the cover art is so fire. Enter the tragedy I discovered on my local library website:

What in the hot crispy kentucky fried FUCK is that. HUH????

I am by no means educated in marketing or design but this just seem like...anti-marketing?? This just looks like the most generic sci fi shit I've ever seen. Tells you jack shit about the extremely unique setting, which is kind of the whole fucking HOOK of the series. Is the publishing house EMBARRASSED that the book is about talking space dinosaurs?? Also very misleading considering nobody goes to space at all in this book. Everything is on the ground on one planet.

ALSO CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH BUT THIS COVER IS A FUCKING **SPOILER** FOR A VERY IMPORTANT TWIST LATE IN THE BOOK

So, understandably I was a little miffed. I thought to myself, why don't I just check Amazon instead. I could just purchase the full series with the good cover and keep it forever.

AND IT GOT WORSE ON AMAZON

ok, I'll admit this is better than the library cover. there is at least a Mesozoic reptile here, although we still seem to be coyly hiding the fact that all of our protagonists are dinosaurs for some stupid reason. So this gets a very small pass on account of it's not objectively bad but is still quite lazy and underwhelming compared to the original cover. But this cover in particular isn't why I made this post. Don't worry, the other two covers by this artist (I'm assuming it's the same person?) get steadily worse.

first of all, these silhouettes slapped onto this background looks like shit. on first glance they look decently well integrated into the background, but have a look at the bottom dinosaur. it's just kind of...floating...on the rocks. I would give it a little pass if it was obvious the dinosaurs weren't intended to be part of the environment, but the way they've just slapped silhouetted bargain bin Leaping Laelaps onto the bottom half of the cover makes it seem like they were just hoping you wouldn't look to hard and realize there was no effort made to make them look like they're part of the environment.

For reference, here is Leaping Laelaps, painted by Charles R Knight in 1897. If I were in a kinder mood I'd call the cover a callback or reference to famous paleoart. But the laziness, silhouetting, and weird proportions compared to the Quintaglios in the books makes me feel like they didn't want to come up with an interesting dinosaur pose and just a slapped together a worse-posed version of an existing famous panting with as little detail as possible so they could claim they were doing a reference. I would give them a lot more good faith benefit of the doubt if it was anything other than a silhouette. Don't get me wrong, silhouettes can look very good and add unique visuals to cover art, but it seems very clear to me that that's not what's happening here.

And now for possibly tonight's worst offender.

My first impression was that this shit was just goofy as shit. The clouds hurt to look at (no seriously, take a good look at those clouds) and the pose is so stiff.

Wait.

Hey.

That pose.

I've seen that somewhere before.

And so, like a normal and well-adjusted adult, I rushed to my extensive collection of dinosaur figurines.

Enter the 2005 Papo Tyrannosaurs Rex (Brown).

(taking these pictures off an ebay listing because my figure is waaaay at the back of the Virgin Loser Dinosaur Toys Display Case and moving him would require moving like 30 other figurines)

hey.

HEY.

H E Y WHAT THE FUCK

of course, I can't prove anything in court. i don't have any plans to *do anything* about this. It's just...sad, to me, that thirty years ago we were getting beautiful, detailed, original paintings for book covers. even for niche Canadian space dinosaurs sci fi. and now what. you can't tell me people don't make art anymore, that artists no longer need jobs. I guess we've just decided we don't give a shit anymore. Why not just trace an image of a fucking children's toy instead of drawing a fucking dinosaur. Who cares.

[katiebug586]

Sit Down, Shut Up X Digimon AU

I'M BACK WITH ANOTHER DIGIMON AU!

Honestly, the 'I am going to create an crossover that is so doesn't make sense' image sums this up nicely regarding niche special interests and hyperfixations.

Either way, for those of you who aren't aware, Sit Down, Shut Up is a 2009 animated sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz, the creator of Arrested Development. While it is generally thought of being either a 'you love it or you hate it' show, it has a special place in my heart and despite its raunchy/lewd humor, I find it strangely comforting to watch.

And because I've been getting back into both Digimon and Sit Down, Shut Up as of late, it is only natural that my brain has the 'genius' idea of combining the two. It started with the innocuous question of 'What would the cast be if they were Digimon?' which is something I've asked for multiple other fandoms as well, such as Pepper Ann, Braceface, and Fillmore! to name a few.

I don't have much of a plot super specific to the show in a Digimon setting, but I do have an overall plot which I tend to use in most of my Digimon x (show) AUs involving the 'Digital World' being a near copy of the human/real world, with monsters having jobs, children, school, that sort of thing. All without knowing they're living in a simulation. The characters eventually find out they DO live in a simulation by another race foreign to them (humans), and find themselves having to go to the 'real world', where they find themselves facing a brand new threat, the Seven Great Demon Lords; seven powerful creatures, each representing some type of vice, who were created by the humans to purge the simulation and start over.

But some of them have their own interests in mind…

That's the usual scenario I use when 'brainstorming' (haha daydreaming) but with Sit Down, Shut Up I could go for less of the adult 'raunchy humor' everywhere, and instead incorporate more of an intense/edgy feel more geared towards adults with some added adult humor, rather than the moreso 'for kids' I would do for say, a Fillmore! or Pepper Ann Digimon AU.

Because it's eight champion-level (unless stated) adult Digimon who work in a digi-school and can barely tolerate one another, with some tolerated less than others. Then, everything they've known to be true is revealed to be a lie and they're forced to team up with those same people and kinda try to maybe understand them?

Now, I could see petty drama and 'canon-typical behavior/adult humor' at first being the norm, (kind of like how the sitcom only got thirteen episodes, which is usually when a Digimon season is still lighthearted. Unless you're Ghost Games that is. RIP Bokomon) but then getting Knight Of Cerberus'd and becoming significantly darker. Kind of like what Bojack pulled off, with the perfect mix of adult humor and a meaningful message.

You're probably wondering by now, what did my brain answer when asked that fateful question? Well, here's the Digimon I decided would fit and their lines! Rookie/Child forms are just here for reference, all are at Champion/Adult level unless otherwise stated.

Larry: Lopmon - Turuiemon - Antylamon (Deva) - Cherubmon (Virtue) (Can also become Vice if shit hits the fan)

Miracle: Terriermon - Gargomon - Rapidmon - MegaGargomon (May change Rapidmon and MegaGargomon if I find suitable mons)

Ennis: Elecmon (Violet) - Leomon - GrapLeomon - BanchoLeomon (Ennis is normally a GrapLeomon because I thought it would be fitting to have him at such a high level due to how 'great' he thinks he is and how he'd be himbo material if he wasn't so… Ennis)

Stuart: Guilmon - Growlmon - WarGrowlmon - Gallantmon/Megidramon (I thought Guilmon's/Growlmon's naivety was a nice fit for Stuart, along with the fact that they can and will fuck you up, e.g. Megidramon as an alternate digivolution)

Helen: Tsukaimon - Saberdramon - LadyDevimon - Star Beelmon

Andrew: Kotemon - Dinohyumon - Kyukimon - SlashAngemon

Willard: Piximon. Nobody knows much of his past, and frankly, they don't really care.

Sue: Haven't actually decided yet LMFAO.