#this thing is from early 2023 iirc

[purblzart]

Pitch has A Bad Time my beloved

[ghelullu]

I love the new outfits (not the hat sorry) but what do you mean outfits changing during tour? Copia wore the same ever show, didn't he?

Sorry, hat hater, BLOCKED (just kidding, I understand why people may dislike it, heh).

The outfits we see in Promo stuff are one thing, what we get at the start of tour are another and what develops during tour are yet again something different! Let me show you a few examples:

Papa III

(Pics: Ester Segarra, John Payne, Andrea Melendez)

He was presented to us with the clawed gloves but never wore them on stage, only regular big leather gloves and his fancy white ones. Also the asymmetrical Mitre got replaced by a proper one.

Cardinal Copia

(Pics: Nick Fancher for Revolver 2x, Paul Harries)

Copia wore the Leather suit for much of his promo stuff, but it never saw the stage (understandably); the red cassock was only used for the Rats on the Road and Pale Tour Named Death - it was later "replaced" by the Red suit (not for the same songs, of course). He used to start the shows in the black suit and then wear it again for finishing it (can you imagine, having to peel out and back into it all sweaty?? The suffering this man does for us), but for the Ultimate Tour Named Death he got the red suit to start the (also much shorter) sets and such. For a few shows in early 2018 he also wore white gloves with the white suit.

(Pics: Heather Koepp at their first real gig in 2018, James Geiser, Sergione Infuso)

And bc I know many of you are into his feet: He also wore different shoes - not just in colours fitting the suit colour - but type: first wearing the black ones with clasps, then some with shoelaces and then back to the clasp ones in 2019, now refferred to as "the cardi shoes")

Papa IV

(Pics: Alexis Gross; Katja Ogrin, Ryan C)

Popia wore the fancy copper skeleton gloves in the Promo stuff but then switched to the half leather-half fabric gloves for the tour (this is a very self indulgent part of this essay, I love his hands thanks). They also didn't show the Military jacket+vest combo before tour, iirc; at least I didn't see it before and almost died when the photos after the Reno show (1st Pre-Imperatour ritual) came out.

(Pics: Kevin Graft 2x, Screenshot from Raydoesrituals IG all from Reno 2022)

There were a few changes from Reno to the rest of tour, too with a lot of details and how songs & outfits were combined, just a selection - for more i recommend checking ritual clips on Youtube:

He opened with the shiny (not sparkly) jacket, that only came back occasionally later and then for the Australia leg of Re-Imperatour; and combined it with the sparkly black cravat - for the black jacket, too, he didn't wear the frilly sleeves shirt yet, that came only with the next ritual; he wore the Uniform Jacket for Mummy Dust (deadly) and wore the black slim cravat thing over the vest, not underneath it, etc.

Since the Pre-Imperatour had a shortened setlist (due to it being a Co-headliner tour with Volbeat), some costumes weren't in it at all: The blue robes were missing (he used the black ones for robe songs))

(Pics: David Delano, Dave van Hout)

More shoestuff: The much lamented by many switch from the boots he wore with the military outfit to wearing the regular ankle boots, that he used to only wear for the robes and jacket parts, full time later in 2022.

Other notable changes: Switching from the insanely hot uniform jacket+vest after it broke to the Gold jacket for the US leg of the Re-Imperatour and of course the re-introduction of the Red jacket in 2023 for Square Hammer.

This list also doesn't account for things like Festivals or whenever he had to change pants (quite a few times #thickthighproblems)

tl;dr: they hide things from us as a surprise, some things just would just be incredibly impractical on stage and touring gives them feedback as to what works and what doesn't and what would be cooler and sometimes things change!

So Papa V might not wear all the cool outfits we saw so far, he may still have some items we didn't see yet on photos - we will just have to be patient and excited for the tour!

[pommunist]

Hi! i. am so sorry to bother, but i have recently gotten back into minecraft youtube after like 9 years and i heard about the qsmp. it seemed like a really fun idea but when i try to look more into it, people seem to not like it? there was some drama with the admins and it was canceled early? i can't find a good video of someone explaining the lore and story of the qsmp or what lead to it getting shut down so i wanted to ask: do you know of a good explanation or summary of what happened and why people are mad about qsmp 2? sorry again and thank you

everything under cut because it’s long but here’s me trying to summarize what happened from memory

Some important things to know about QSMP first :

-It was a multicultural and multilingual server with English and Spanish speakers and then were added Portuguese (from brazil), French, Korean and German speakers.

-It was very active for most of 2023 and it had a huge, active fan base. The server was a lot of fun, and before everything was revealed it was extremely, extremely loved.

-It was semi-RP and had a lot of lore elements, which were mostly crafter by admins.

-There was a handful of npc characters, played by admins, most notably the eggs, which pretty much served as the ccs children that they took care of. Ccs and fans alike became VERY attached to them.

Now, the workers treatment issues :

You can find most of admins testimonies shared on this twitter account :

https://x.com/qsmptestimonies?s=21&t=fDVoT5qDN_AAqnxYhZF3uQ

I also have some of them shared on my #qadmins situation if you don’t have access to twitter

French union Solidaires Info got involved and you can find their statements here (there’s english translation) :

To very quickly summarize the problems :

-Admins were, for the most part, not being paid. Those who were paid were receiving very low rates for their work.

-Some would be promised pay that would never come, even months later

-Admins were forbidden from communicating with each other (ex : Egg admins couldn’t talk to twitter updates admins) or with the ccs (reminder that some admins were in game with ccs for hours a day doing projects and sometimes heavy rp together)

-They were understaffed and overworked, leaving some admins to be at the same time : writer, actor, translator, artist… (once again for no pay). Twitter updates admins sometimes had to summarize and clips hours long streams live from multiple ccs.

-Because there was a lot of disorganisation, deadlines were extremely short and time crunches were a common thing (iirc one builder had to make an entire map for an event in like 3 days)

-Qstudios made them sign abusive ndas.

-When the wilbur situation came out, some admins were reprimanded for talking about it on their private social media accounts.

-Admins would be fired/threatened to be fired if they couldn’t give a huge part of their time to the QSMP project. Some admins were also fired at whim without much of an explanation.

Some other stuff that are not workers rights related :

-In late 2023, there was a HUGE wave of xenophobia on twitter against brazilian ccs and the brazilian part of the qsmp fandom from quackity fans mostly. Like really heinous stuff and it went unaddressed by big Q until the BR community went big on twitter with hashtags to give visibility to the problem. A just made a little "let’s all be nice" speech in a stream without really addressing the issue.

-Purgatory, a big server event that was competitive, was poorly organized from the start and higher ups admins purposely made some tweaks to it in order to create "drama" for views but all it happened was that because of it the fandom became extremely toxic, and the ccs were on edge from having to play the event everyday for two weeks for hours on end .. A bad time for everyone involved

-For a server meant to unite communities, the french were being sidelined hard : often forgotten on posters, few events, no involvement in the lore… to the point that the french being forgotten became a running gag. It was later revealed that it was partly because there were only 2 french speaking admins in the entire team, and they had to do all the in game translations, acting with french ccs, creating events, writing lore by themselves.

AFTER THE STORY CAME OUT :

In early march 2024, a french admin (Lea) went public with her experience on twitter after she had just been fired because during a stream, it was accidentally shown by a streamer that they were dming on discord (about some server technical issues). Following her testimony, Pomme (french egg) admin was suspended without a word for being close to Lea, and never contacted again. Lots and lots of other admins came out with their stories, it became a big deal, qsmp ccs were starting to be made aware of what went down for months behind the scenes -> big drama.

Quackity/Qstudios response was to vaguely address the issues by saying that Quackity wasn’t aware of them because he allegedly wasn’t involved in the admin side of things, that they would make inside changes and that the QSMP wouldn’t keep going if they couldn’t pay fairly their workers.

Shortly after every twitter updates admin was laid down over discord and not contacted again. Then everyone else got fired as well and the QSMP ended shortly after that. Multiple admins have confirmed that to this day they have not been contacted about what went down, never received an apology, let alone any kind of financial compensation. QSMP went silent except for the regular promotion of the merch shop which is selling eggs figures. Neither the artist who designer their in game models or the actors who played them for months and gave them their likeness received money from the toys.

One and a half year later, there had been no more talk about the situation from Q, no signs that things have changed in how the company operates, no compensation for the ex admins, no transparency for the audience to gain back some trust in the project.

[damagedcoda6669]

how did youknow youbhad bpd? what were the main "symptoms" ?? soryif it comes off as personal or uncomfy you dont hsveto answer

(im rlly rlly rlly autistic abt bpd PREPARE 4 AN ENTIRE BIBLE ABT HOW I DISCOVERED I HAD IT)

ive exhibited symptoms of bpd my entire life (it usually starts 2 present in childhood or early adulthood, it comes from childhood abuse/neglect) i only started 2 notice something was wrong in my tweens/early teens, when malachi became my favorite person and every1 was calling me mentally ill and weird and obsessive. ive known my entire life i was neurodivergent (first started therapy at 6 or 7, diagnosed with bipolar + autism + adhd + depression + anxiety RLLY early on) but there was something else that felt wrong 2 me. at that age i didnt rlly know what 2 search 4 or who 2 talk 2, so i just went on google and searched "love disorders" and obsessive love disorder came up (which isnt even in the DSM iirc) and i posted on google plus saying i likely had that and was shot down IMMEDIATELY 4 "self diagnosing" so i didnt revisit it again until a few years later.

after my breakup in 2021 i felt like it hurt WAY MORE than was normal. i stumbled across a video abt bpd during that time period and it resonated with me way 2 much. im impulsive, i have angry outbursts, im constantly suicidal, i self harm, i have extreme mood swings, i dont know who i am and ive always just mirrored other ppl, i dissociate, i have black and white thinking, i view ppl as all good or all bad and i split, i have consistently unstable relationships, i get attached 2 ppl more than i should be, and i have a paralyzing, nauseating fear of abandonment. i have every symptom in the diagnostic criteria.

i brought up the possibility of me having bpd with my mom i think (i had no one else 2 go 2 becuz all of my friends abandoned me and my parents took away my internet access) and i was shot down again, with my mom saying the CLASSIC "(insert family member) has bpd and shes crazy. ur normal. stop pretending theres something wrong with u. if u had bpd u'd be vindictive and petty and evil. do u think ur those things?"

once i figured out how 2 get my internet access back, maryland dude forced the bpd label on2 me becuz he wanted 2 explain my "abusive" behaviors (he was abusing me but tried 2 gaslight me in2 thinking i had a victim complex and that it was the other way around) and i became uncomfortable with the label becuz he made it seem like if i had bpd then i was a bad person. i continued researching the disorder becuz it still resonated with me even though i was now insecure abt it.

i became comfortable with the label again after he abandoned me, and i brought it up with my therapist. my therapist would HEAVILY DENY that i had bpd, telling me that "if u had bpd u would be attempting suicide 4 attention" "u fit the diagnostic criteria but ur autistic so all of ur symptoms can just be attributed 2 autism srry" "ive had clients with bpd and if u were like them u wouldve had an outburst in my office and be yelling at me by now" and she would even smile at me whenever i brought up my bpd becuz she thought it was funny that i thought i had it, i think. the first time i brought it up with her she told me "its rlly irresponsible 2 self diagnose after reading liek two articles online abt some extreme disorder becuz u think ur broken. ur not broken. dont self diagnose with bpd" and i had to EXPLAIN 2 HER that i wasnt self diagnosing and that id researched it in depth 4 years actually and that she was making assumptions. horribly ableist towards ppl with cluster b disorders, this is a MASSIVE RED FLAG but i didnt switch therapists becuz i was still living with my parents at this point and i felt out of control in every aspect of my life 4 this reason, i didnt even see switching therapists as an option.

then in 2023, while i was homeless, i got evaulated by a psychiatrist. i discussed my bpd with him and finally got diagnosed. i told my therapist i was diagnosed with bpd and she said something like "well im not always gonna be able 2 catch everything" BUT I WAS TELLING U ABT MY BPD 4 MONTHS!!!!! so glad i dont have that therapist anymore but now i dont have one at all, so liek.. hrmmm >:c

im gonna end this by saying.. self diagnosis is valid!!! its so hard 2 get a bpd diagnosis becuz its so demonized and stigmatized, that even those in the mental health system r ableist towards the disorder and those who have it. diagnosis is not always an option with disorders like bpd, and thats so frustrating. its so hard 2 find help becuz every1 thinks ur crazy. but ur not crazy!!! i love all my fellow bpders, i know how agonizing and it is 2 live this tormented life. if u suspect u have bpd, the bpd community welcomes u and supports u!!! and i do 2 :3

[slythereen]

you’re right, this triple header has me in the trenches ughhh especially today with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, i hope you get to take some time to yourself and recover from this 🫶

2023, i could see what our beloved trio ( @tsarinablogs @valyrfia and @thearchercore ) were on about but it was still to early for me to really understand (it was vegas that got me into this mess, i’m still fairly new here) but now?? seeing it all happen real time when i’ve got a decent amount of technical understanding of the sport??? yeah they’re onto something

-🫧

ah, yes. vegas. things were looking very good, vibes were good, lestappen agenda from rbr had slowed down a bit, iirc charles resign announcement already out… understandable, the narrative was and had shifted by the time we got to vegas.

but im never getting off the rbr charles agenda and it’s starting to look really possible again. i think we were incredibly close to getting it before, im sold on it having been more than convos and an actual pre contract in place before ferrari won charles over. and i don’t think ferrari can do it again (and they may be at the limit of what they can offer and have charles trust them).

unfortunately i think they might be willing to gamble on lewis and charles threatening to leave might not move them like it has previously. however, i also think charles might be at his limit of threatening to leave and seeing their promises fall apart both times after they convince him to stay. especially now that it’s not just rbr having a run away season — now that mclaren and merc are showing positive development i think it’s going to be incredibly more damning for ferrari.

charles said before that when he doesn’t believe in the project any more he will leave. i don’t think we’ve heard him on main talking about trusting the project and long term plan recently? very dreadful vibes since canada, and each of these triple headers has had a new and unique way of ferrari trashing his reputation afterwards. he seemed genuinely downtrodden and over it pre race and even worse post race.

[enzoarweq]

(im talking about the characters q!, not the cc!)

imo no one else seems to understand the landduo/foolhalo relationship is much much deeper than "he's a friend who annoys me and i love to annoy him" or "they are secretly in love" in fact i might be as bold as to say NO ONE does till this day. which is pretty funny how they understand and notice the littlest things about each other but no one can see their deep bond despite that... tho to be fair Bad has said multiple times that he praises Foolish till high heaven from his skills, smarts, to his good looks but he would never ever admit it or say it to his face. (he RARELY does actually so when it happens, we all cheer and die) same for foolish.

Jaiden, who is probably one of the closest to Foolish rn said recently no one else takes Foolish srsly or that they are like outcasts of the island or that no one cares for Leo (para). and im like um theres literally Bad who cares a lot for Foolish and Leo. and has said multiple times that he is much more intelligent than ppl have granted him to be (but ofc she doesn't know, she doesn't know the early moments where they would hang out together almost all the time, constant banter, she doesn't know of THE convo where Bad literally for his advice and was treating and talking to him like two gamemasters in equal footing talking about the games they will play, she doesn't know should anything happen to Bad, he left Dapper in Foolish's care, Foolish constantly leaves Leo in Bad's care, she doesn't know that Leo loves and adores his Tio Bad, she doesn't know a lot of their "true hidden" relationship/sides, she doesn't know how easy Foolish can read Bad like an open book like that mine roulette game which i think she participated but not when both bad and foolish were playing iirc etc etc) not to mention theres also Roier who cares a lot for Leo and vice versa and constantly thinks about her (but this post about foolhalo so i digress)

There was also that moment with Bagi and Tubbo where they were like go ahead and cage Foolish or smtg. like daring Bad to do it. Bad was like aww thats no fun, its boring (cuz yk theres no song and dance, theres no arguing back n forth, it was just that). so when foolish shows up and bad was like hey could u step in ig *shrugs* Foolish was like urgh ok ig. I still remember Bagi's and Tubbos reaction, they were like mildly surprised. like ok what now. Bagi then said to Foolish, hey Bad is insane. Foolish then replied, yeah i fcking knew that already (in a so what tone) and again, Bagi seemed slightly taken aback. Tubbo then went on a rant about them being in love or smtg idk.

or the time when Bad would make a torture chamber for Foolish which he willingly went along cuz why not. and ppl were making angst about it as if Foolish didn't just walk into the torture chamber willingly to play a fun torture game with Bad smh.

also the time when Foolish was hiding his hurt over Leo's absence but Bad knew deep inside he feels deeply. that time where Foolish will run away from everyone else when confronted about his feelings but finally stood silently besides Bad in comfort, instead of a hug. (wasn't Jaiden there for that?)

--

theres soooo many foolhalo landduo moments where so many fans just blatantly ignore, like they have selective memory. genuinely confuses me everytime, like are we even watching the same POV.

theres also a lot of moments where ppl were gen mad at bad for the pranks n shit, like its 2023 ppl, we've been thru with this already in dsmp, do better pls. (ik them be new fans but still urgh)

[rassicas]

d’you think the COVID pandemic impacted development of Splatoon 3, which is why ROTM turned out the way it did? Because I recall Nintendo saying they didn’t start working on it until after the Chaos vs Order Splatfest, and then after that they put out three new Splatfests in 2020 and a 35th Anniversary Mario one in 2021 for Splatoon 2.

yeah im positive covid put a wedge in the development of splatoon 3. i dont know if its entirely to blame for how rotm turned out the way it did, and i don't know the extent of how much it screwed things over for the splatoon team i do have a theory that i think is likely though....

... I think this new years 2020 art was hinting at a splatoon 3 announcement that year, but it got delayed due to covid. considering the first trailer for S3 came in early 2021, it doesn't seem at all surprising that if it weren't for covid, an s3 announcement would've come even earlier. i think splatoon 3 did, and is, having some kind of development hell considering the time from announcement to release... it was announced for a summer 2022 release and ccame in september, which... barely even counts as summer? idk how much of it is due to covid or the splatoon team biting off more than they can chew or some other source of development hell [[spoilers from datamines]] and then currently, side order seems to be experiencing delays. there's splatoon 2 gear that's speculated to be released with the season that side order is coming out, iirc at the start, the gear was set for season 5 (drizzle 2023) but has currently been pushed back to season 7 (fresh 2024) [[end spoilers]]

[magnolia-sunrise]

ik there are in-canon reasons for wolfgang's missing finger, and this may tie into things as well, but i'm curious as to if you had a reason for choosing the left ring finger specifically? i got to wondering what with that being the finger wedding rings are commonly worn on in western cultures (? but also i know there's cultural variation w that so i'm not sure lol)

i always get your asks literally the minute i get ready to go to bed---

but yeah you are right on the money with where your mind went with it! the left ringfinger is very much tied to the institution of straight marriage, particularly for me its role in history in the west and the way women were treated as property to be exchanged between men. in broad strokes it serves as a signifier of a binding vow, in even broader strokes it's conforming/assimilating to the state/church.

these themes are core to who Wolfgang was and the setting in general; commodification of bodies, being bound to someone else's will and treated as a property to be used and discarded.

going back to the point about the missing finger in-universe, i like to hint at things and let people wonder about it until, if ever, it comes up in a scene and Wolfgang themself is not too keen to talk about what led to that happening. the symbolism is there to hopefully communicate they broke out of something that was "until death do us part". not marriage in a traditional sort of sense, but they were bound to an institution as a tool and later that same binding was used to trap them. the only way out was to cut it off, which in turn in the eyes of civilized society TM forever marks them negatively. a little bit of a caged animal gnawing off their own foot to escape. ...and from the meta perspective, well one day i drew them without the finger on a whim and then i was like hm! and it became a permanent part of their design. iirc this old sketch is that first time 🙈

if my twitter wasn't fully cleaned out, there would be some older art out there possibly without some features i now consider distinct and important part of their design but so it goes, such is the process!

tanget incoming, but i tend to design characters with the method of "throw stuff in there that feels interesting to draw and see what sticks over time" and don't hold myself too close to the original design until i feel like it's "settled". so there's a lot of development they go thru over time.

for example here are some initial explorations of a new iteration of Bastien from very early 2023 i think. i had some ideas i started to throw on the board without having any solid clue of why its there, like all the scars on his face or the starburst of a bullet hole scar on his shoulder. then these elements would either reveal their importance (-ie the nike swoop from Wolfgang cutting his face when they first met) or they would fade out. OR secret third option, which i enjoy a lot, eventually some of these design elements come back in the future for story relevant reasons that weren't there at first (like he gets the cut over his nose waaaay later, after essentially being kidnapped, held hostage as bait and beaten by the people looking for Wolf see here and here )

funny to see how much immediately changed about his face and body and proportions etc between this and his current design, but MAN i got that sad profile down in one good sketch lmao

[acaplaya-musings]

VoicePlay Stand By Me - thoughts/commentary

You really can never quite tell what kind of video you're gonna get when Voiceplay uploads something new; sometimes it's a warm hug in musical form, and this is one of those times! <3

I gotta start by giving some appreciation to how Geoff looks absolutely lovely in this one! The necklace is on full display, as is the silver-white in his hair which is *chefs kiss*, and I definitely love the blue floral shirt! (10/10 would wear it myself). Honestly it reminds me a little of the shirt he wore in Whiskey In The Jar, which is kinda funny because that was 2023's November upload, and this is 2024's November upload!

But like also everyone is definitely styling in this video. Cesar with the subtle eyeliner (we stan), Layne with that cool white shirt (genuinely he looks great in it), Eli with the leather jacket, and Mykal with that denim jacket and purple shirt that's unbuttoned about as much as Geoff usually has his! 😄

Okay, main visual thoughts out the way, time for musical thoughts!

Geoff absolutely delivered with the bassline, just as I knew he would 💜

I'm not the greatest at remembering most of the actual music arrangement after my first watch-through of a VoicePlay video, though perhaps it's harder when I already know the original song and thus my brain is still attached to what I already know. But basically the first watch is just for the vibes, lol. And so a lot of these thoughts are from after an additional watch-through!

As I said when I talked about Be Prepared, Mykal was a founding member of 4 The Love, which then became 4:2:Five, which then became VoicePlay. He only stuck around for a few years I think, and then went to go pursue a stage/theatre career iirc, but while he was part of the group, he was "Tenor 1", i.e. could literally sing higher than Earl (Earl became Tenor 1 after Mykal left, and they brought in a guy called James May as Tenor 2).

I'm atheist, but damn, I'm pretty sure Mykal took us to church with this one! Well done my guy!

Actually I'm not quite done with all my visual thoughts - I just realized that when Cesar sings the repeated "stand by me" bit at the end of the first verse (after the "no I won't be afraid" bit), he looks down at Mykal and Eli and then up/back at Geoff and Layne and smiles at all of them awwwwww

I see VoicePlay decided to do a repeat of Lion Sleeps Tonight in that we got a truly lovely section of Layne on lead vocals, followed immediately by Geoff on lead vocals in a 1-2-whammy! (I swear they do it deliberately, lol 😅)

"I won't cry, I won't cry. No I won't shed a tear..." Well I might!! (I didn't, but this part definitely had me a little bit 🥺, y'know? (but in a nice way of course!)

Not sure what sort of technique (if any?) Geoff was using for the end of his "stand by meeeeeee" line, whether it was a growl or soft subharmonic or just 'regular' chest voice, but it sounded really nice!

Honestly Stand By Me isn't a super long song - like when I've sung it to myself on random occasions, I've thought that maybe there's a verse or something that I've forgotten, but no, it really is that short and simple (not that that's an inherently bad thing, mind you).

Actually the VoicePlay version is longer than the original audio track by roughly 30 seconds, not counting the credits at the end (just going off how long the Patreon early access video is). And of course they found many cool and interesting ways to make the song their own! E.g. I liked the "ad-libs" that Mykal was doing at the end (like "you don't have to do it alone"), and I also liked the build from no percussion, to very subtle/quiet percussion, to more of a powerful beat as the song reached its climax.

So this is a Layne arrangement! Honestly was not sure - I know he arranged Be Prepared, so I guess it kinda makes sense that he did this one as well so they were both ready to go at around the same time? I still wouldn't have picked it (and genuinely wasn't sure until I got to see the YouTube video description) but very well done!

So yeah, lovely sweet song, lovely harmonies, and by the time you're reading this post, this cover will already be on my Voiceplay/Geoff Spotify playlist, undoubtedly! And now we just wait to see what December will bring! (Or late November for us Patrons, I guess). Until next time!

[meatsex]

hi im sorry if this is weird to ask and you definately dont have to answer, but how did you start transitioning? im sure its different outside the us, but i guess i mean like more how did you get the "courage" to ig? im just now in my early 20s and i want to start before its "too late", but im just worried abt so much shit surrouding it (family, my job, school, etc) and it stops me everytime i get close to trying to

im sorry, idk i just remeber seein your top surgery pics a while back and thought abt asking for a bit cause im kinda alone in this. its okay if you dont respond, ik this might be like a hard subject

hello, this isnt a weird question at all, especially if you find yourself in a situation where you feel alone about this matter.

before i begin, obviously none of the things i say are a guide or should be taken as exact reference, they are just my experience, precautions i took and things i realized/explored; this will also be LONG

i began transitioning around 2016 (i was 19-20 iirc), this is when i began to reconsider my gender and how i saw myself, i wasnt sure about my stance on myself so i used the label genderfluid as that was what felt right atm, i wasnt sure if i really wanted to be a guy or just felt like it every so often; back then i only confided this information to my then boyfriend

i began using a different name online, tried different clothing and also got my hair cut way short for the first time, basically tried and experienced, i was also used to crossplaying often (cosplaying male characters)

in 2018 i was fully set with the idea i wanted to be a man, id fully take on the role of one online and i had already told other friends i trusted about this

i stopped using the label of genderfluid by this time as well, i also tried binding a bit but it was complicated for me so it wasnt long lived but definitely helped in settling the idea of what i wanted

in 2020-2021 i came out to my parents, i tested the waters *a lot* first, i brought up topics like having transgender friends or similar too see how they would react, luckily they both did positively. after this i felt confident in telling everyone else irl

in 2022 i got my legal name change (the process in Argentina is basically a re-enacment of your birth certification with your preferred name and gender, i dont know if this is different or the same elsewhere), and in 2023 i got top surgery, the overall healing process was around 6 months, i did require aid for things like getting up from bed and eating

i was freshly 26 for my surgery by 2023, what im trying to say is for some people its something that could take a lot of time while others might find instantly this is their correct way to feel and be, but its also never too late or never too early and its also okay to change your mind and go back on how you felt, utimately its your decision to take

truthfully you will have to think and consider hard in which areas and with which people you feel safe sharing your gender, some people might not be open to the idea and depending on the circumstances it might not be worth the risk (like at a job or school) unless you have a backup plan to fall onto if it comes to a worst case scenario; i hid these things from my family for a lot of time (especially my internet-disconnected, right-leaning dad)

i think "closet" transitioning or just taking small steps that can be subtle to others is a good idea if you are still unsure about your situation and/or environment, in the sense of exploring ideas, terms, feelings, and with things like trying on different clothes or changing the way you present yourself in a smaller scale (like friends you trust or online presence)

i think its also important i was an adult by this time, therefore (as stupid as this sounds because it is) i had more credibility in the eyes of others to my emotions and how i felt, but this is something that depends and varies with the environment you are in and the people that surround you

ultimately it truly never is late or early, its okay if you try it and change your mind, no one is going to punish you for it and no one is entitled to how you feel about yourself other than you; i hope this helped in any way and if not feel free to ask again about more specific ideas or topics regarding this

[spicybylerpolls]

In response to that anon about how sex couldn't possibly have always been heavily tied to and the natural narrative arc the Duffers had in mind for Mike and Will -

Well, for one (and correct me if I'm wrong), if the pandemic hadn't happened, they would've filmed S4 throughout 2020 and likely wrapped post-production sometime in spring/summer of 2021 (possibly later). This means we would've got a late summer or fall of 2021 S4 rather than summer of 2022.

This also means filming for S5 would have likely started in Spring of 2022, or even later if we consider the fact that S4 actually finished in July of 2022 and production PRIOR to the WGA strike was supposed to start in Spring of 2023 (IIRC) That's nearly a year gap. Not only that but if you go onto the wikipedia page for S5, you'll see that because of the pandemic the Duffers were able to completely outline and rework S5. So if the pandemic didn't happen, they would also have to do an outline as well as actually write S5 post S4's drop in the late summer/fall of 2021 (in this magical, theoretical timeline).

Honestly, with this in mind, I wouldn't see filming for S5 commencing until mid 2022, possibly even the early fall.

So basically the theoretical timeline without COVID and the WGA strike would be:

2020: Film S4

End of 2020 - Mid/Late 2021: Post production

Late 2021: S4 Drops

Summer/Early Fall 2022: S5 Filming begins

This would put Noah's age at 17, almost 18 and Finn at 19 almost 20. And presumably the hypothetical sex scene wouldn't happen until the later episodes so by then Noah would be 18 and Finn would be a full 20 years old, and likely almost 21.

Like, say the scene happens in Episode 7. This would be the very tail end of production, as we know they pretty much film in blocks. This would be June of 2023 or around there... Noah nearly 19 and Finn 6ish months away from being able to legally drink anywhere in the world. Lol.

Also, Finn literally has a scene in WYFSTW where his character masturbates, and he was just 18 when he portrayed that. Why are people so disgusted by the idea of him portraying something extremely similar to this but as Mike?! In my opinion this proves it's not just about the actors (and seeing them grow up) because I haven't seen anyone say it was weird for including that scene in that movie ...

BUT REGARDLESS, like spicybylerpolls said - there are a ton of examples, WELL RESPECTED examples at that, of underage actors portraying a storyline involving sex. I mean, look no further than Degrassi. Almost all of the actors are cast as teens (sometimes pre-teens) and almost all of the characters have a storyline to do with sex at some point, most of them when they're underage.

This is a perfect example because the point of these storylines are to educate teens on sex (the same thing Mike and Will's storyline would be doing for many queer kids btw) and also to represent their many, many confusing feelings about sex. And yes, all of the actual sex scenes in Degrassi are implied - which, although people have explained how an explicit scene would be important for Mike and Will's storyline, ultimately it's not absolutely necessary for them. (Although I don't think an implied sex scene in the same vein as Degrassi (or even Jancy) is going to work within the darker tone of S5 but I digress...)

Anyway, there's a ton more examples beyond just Degrassi [Skins is the first that pops to mind] but no I don't think it would be weird for a 17 year old to have a make out and then *implied* sex scene when it's already been done and accepted in the past with absolutely no issue (as long as the actors are comfortable of course).

But this isn't what's happening so who cares. And we have already heard the Duffers state that, although they have had a lot of it planned out, they do write for the actors too. I can even recall them saying how when they got back on set for either S3 or S4 they realized the kids ... weren't kids anymore and they were going to have to write to that.

So yeah, I think it's totally possibly the Duffers imagined that in the end, Mike and Will would overcome their shame about their sexuality by ... having sex together, however that looked on screen, since there are a myriad of ways to do this without showing sex at all.

[menlove]

You asked for George album recommendations a few days ago and my ask got removed because I was shadowbanned so I wanna send this again- if you got it before feel free to ignore but just in case.

I really strongly recommend his album Electronic Sounds. It’s basically just two “songs” of him messing around on a moog synth, which is especially cool because despite the moog synths having multiple iterations by 1969 they weren’t easily available, so even beyond Beatles lore it’s just cool to hear someone experimenting. If you’re at all into ambient music it’s a perfect album especially to like, get drunk or high and stare at a wall while listening to.

I also believe that George was really using what he’d learned from Indian musicians while he was recording. If you know this already sorry to explain but basically Indian traditional music tends to be very improvisational, and the structure of them is provided via things like time signature but especially ragas, which are sorta equivalent to Western scales. There are multiple different ragas, and Dhani’s name comes from George’s favorite raga iirc.

Side note: but if you can find them there are some really great audio clips out there of George directing the musicians he worked with for Within You Without You where instead of singing the lyrics he’s explaining the melody by using the raga. That song keeps almost entirely within a raga except for I believe the “if they only knew” line. But back to Electronic Sounds.

ES if you listen to it is obviously George improvising but there’s a little structure thrown in. He tends to focus on one beat or area on the moog for a few minutes before moving onto a different area. I have more reason to point out the potential connection to Indian music though. In 1969 the National Institute of Design in India was given a moog synth - conveniently an album was released in 2023 called The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972 - and if you listen to the stuff that came from there it’s really fun to see how the lessons on traditional music were translated early on to electronic music

ooooh this is so interesting thank you !! i will absolutely give that a listen

and that bit about within you without you is so cool. i love love love george's indian music influence bc he does it like. imo at least so respectfully and well and it REALLY shows

[atlaskrr]

webtoons I've read recently that i enjoy!

I finally read our walk home! its rlly sweet and i cant wait for it to come off hiatus. i instantly got hooked by the characters. i like how its a they get eo thing and not an actual rivals to lovers thing. idk it feels more special. and the characters mentalities being explored is sooo good man. im also curious on the lot abt the angel and devil + akis brother. on a side note if i were either of them id fold so quickly cause why they both so pretty. their interactions are so cute man. its soft, genuine. i like it.

peace restaurant. love it. was reading it and i was like damn fknally something that gives me what yohaji did (tho not the same obvi) it is only starting on en ver (7 free chaps iirc) and i was so hooked i ended up reading all the kr released chaps on aggregator sites. im so confused and sad bcs it stopped at chap 28 back in nov 2023. still its really good. i love the dynamic between sua, belial and nhedhuk. they are so found fam to me. like nhedhuk is obvi the younger sibling and belial is her older brother. sua is their unconventional mom. speaking of belial his development was really nice. the way his fear was all the ppl he cared abt dying (INCLUDING SUA AND NHEDHUK) im scared abt whats gonna happen with him with how 28 ended off tho 😅 i think i have a thing for op female mcs (ty bofuri) and also this is why for one of the very few times the mc is my fav chara followed closely by the 2 deuteragonists. comedy that grows plot gotta be my new fav thing. in the beginning tho i love how every time you think smth serious will happen its just another gag. anws the whole dimension ordeal is also cool.

ok this thing had me clicking from its artstyle. i think yohaji made me a comedy person cause this is a comedy as well. i continued reading the few short chaps cause it was silly and sweet. this ghost truly is just a kind and pathetic thing. the fact shes mute is also really nice as the creator actually competed twice and placed in silent manga competitions (which were really good btw. go check out volpee). when the managers were introduced i thought plot was coming but nope! but also i was even more hooked cause the design for mr. h??? love. the vibes and style is immaculate. the ghost of cloth is also really silly and has a nice design lol. there was no ep last month but its back on now! oh yeah the toy ghost is really cool as well. somehow they can still make it expressive despite its still face. the whole remote control car situation had me cackling tho lmao.

OH MY GOD PROJECT CAMELLIA HAS LIKE 6 EPS AND ONE IS A AUTHORS NOTE THING BUT DO I CARE??? NO. the pretty boy cover enticed me and im so glad it did bcs it seems so promising. the author note had stuff about their process and the future and the way they thought it through, how the 2 mcs change eo and it shows PHYSICALLY. in love. the way they plan to change the main mc throughout the story has me scared and excited. it seems like they can handle chara development well which is something i value highly as i read for charas most of the time. the art style is also really nice. if you check out the creators insta you can really see how skilled they are like the art there looks majestic (theyre a danmei fan). apparently therell also be a yuri side couple 👀 basically, the future seems bright for this webtoon.

i hust finished catching up to the tl ver of the students of illip arts high cause the en is new to webtoon just like peace restaurant. i was hooked by the unique style used for the vr game and how so yi and han sol bonded and allat. their relationship is so ough to me. dakyung is also a fun chara and for seiun idk she seems kinda pretentious. i dont like how they dealt with eppys chara either. still its early on so even though the charas besides mc seem to not have as much impact as they could it has much room to grow.

[solarssystem3]

*Points* OH HEY! You’re that one user I saw on Reddit with the pixel art. Nice to see you here too! Are you actually making a fanmade fnaf game based on the pixel screenshots you’ve been working on? How long have you been working this, regardless?

shhhhhh

reddit? what reddit idk what youre talking about

in all seriousness, no :P, all this stuff is related to my spritecomic, FNaF: Illuminated

as for how long i've been working on he spritecomic, well...

the AU itsself has practically been in development for years at this point

but the idea of showing my AU off through pixel art is 2 years old? Since January 12th, iirc

one of my first posts about my au

its

bad

ew

at this time i wasnt making it for a comic, it was just mockup panels

Around July, that's when i fully decided to commit so i posted a few teasers of chapter 1 on reddit

Panel from Chapter 1 woah

(i hate the early chapters sm 😭)

did make this cool crayon thing and i love doing the crayon stuff

despite announcing chapter 1 in july 2023 i didnt get it out until late january next year

😔

anyways yeah illuminated has been in development for a long time technically lol, currently on chapter 8 and hoping o release chapter 9 in march

[writergirl2011]

J/B Week 2023: Day Four

Welp, I slipped on a slick ramp today and banged up my knee, but I'm carrying on anyway.

Question four: Favorite canon scene?

Argh. This is tough, but in the end I have to go with the Harrenhal bath. The clues leading up to Jaime's confession are there--his talk with Catelyn in the Riverrun dungeon, the memories he has in his early POV chapters, some of the things he says to Brienne--but it all comes to a head in the bathhouse. In trying to earn her trust, he tells her something he's told no one in sixteen years.

But it's more than that. Jaime's confession fills in a gap that we maybe didn't know was there. Before then, we're not given much of an explanation for why he killed Aerys because Jaime never gave one--as he tells Brienne, the first person who saw him after, Ned Stark, judged him the minute he saw him. That judgment followed Jaime for the next fifteen years, and it's that judgment we get from the very beginning of the series. The only dissenting voice in all of AGOT and ACOK hinting that there's more to Jaime than we think is Tyrion's, and even he doesn't know the truth. (He's also easy to discount because he's Jaime's brother.)

Thing is, IIRC, we're never told exactly why people thought Jaime killed Aerys. I think we're meant to assume people believe he did it to further Lannister ambition since Robert married Cersei. But we never stop to ask if Jaime gave an explanation for killing Aerys, or if anyone had bothered to ask. No one in the story stops to wonder why Jaime stayed in the Kingsguard if he did it to further Lannister interests, since presumably Tywin would've worked out a deal to get his heir back. And the readers, who are set up to think of all Lannisters as power-hungry, overlook what Bran overheard in that fateful chapter on first read--Jaime rejecting Cersei's entreaty for him to be Robert's Hand instead of Ned. Jaime has no taste for power whatsoever.

Yeah, there's a lot of other stuff in that scene--the famous awkward boner, Brienne taking care of him and later thinking he looked like half a god, Jaime thinking after he hears her call him "Kingslayer" that my name is Jaime, (*wibbles* he just wants her to call him Jaime, dammit!!) but at the heart of it is him wanting to tell her what happened because earning her trust means that much to him. And in that scene...he got it.

[dreamsmearcampaign]

a) I'm gonna preface my points with this. Dream has been overhated for a long time. The grooming jokes are out of line, especially since he has had allegations levied against him, and I think a lot of the hate towards him is due to the very vocal bad apples in his fandom in the early 2020s. (On that note, I do appreciate how he called out the bad actors in the discussion stream).

b) That said, I do think that his response to this controversy was HORRIBLY handled. I don't want to focus on points that have been talked to death again and again, but one thing I haven't seen talked about is how in his initial response stream and his response video, he chose to have himself portrayed as his minecraft character, which I don't get. He's being put on blast right now (primarily) for using incredibly charged language in an insulting way, and he decides the best way to show his point of view is to dress up as "Detective Dream" on stream and to add cinematic shots in his response video. I cannot think of a reason why he chose to do that instead of just keeping the screen black with some text, like he did in other parts of the video.

c) One thing that I can give to Tommy's response video over Dream's (Which to clarify, I've only skimmed Tommy's), is that while I've heard that it's mostly opinion based, it didn't have music. I personally think that adding a backing track to a response video is, while nowhere close to Colleen Ballinger levels of bad ideas, still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If you're simultaneously defending yourself and accusing others of serious allegations, I think it would be prudent to treat it as seriously as possible, and I think putting muzak behind accusations of child labor is antithetical to that effort.

d) I think that one thing that a lot of people are forgetting about is that the tweet that sparked all of this wasn't directed towards Tommy, instead being directed at his FANS, which, in my eyes, invalidates the defense that it was him breaking after years and years of concentrated harassment from Tommy, as again, it was aimed at Tommy's fans. Again, in my eyes, if it was truly the result of Tommy harassing him and he couldn't take it anymore, the tweet would be aimed at Tommy specifically. I can't connect the logic of "Tommy made fun of Dream, so it's fair to go after his fans" in my head.

e) Least consequential point, but I'm thirsty for context. A lot of people have been saying that Tommy has been clickbaiting Dream, and that argument doesn't make sense to me. I can't speak for the SUIT podcast, but on Tommy's main channel, Dream has been either in the title or thumbnail five times by my count since January 15, 2023, which doesn't seem like that much in comparison to his upload frequency. Those videos being "Dream", "Was The Dream SMP Bad?", "We Recorded Our Dreams...", "If YouTubers Were Honest...", and "Goodbye, Dream SMP.". Of those videos, "Dream" is in response to the current controversy, "Was the Dream SMP Bad?" discusses the SMP in general (which Dream explicitly states in his response video, "The Dream SMP was made what it was by everyone" (4:00)), though it does have Dream in the thumbnail, "We Recorded Our Dreams..." is in reference to what happens during sleep, though still added due to the word choice, "If YouTubers Were Honest...", which has Dream in the thumbnail, and "Goodbye, Dream SMP.", which is again about the DSMP in general, though this occurrence doesn't have Dream in the thumbnail. To restate a point that might have been lost in the wall of text (btw sorry about all the text), that isn't a lot compared to the amount of videos uploaded during that time. However, IIRC, Dream did mention during the discussion stream that the older videos with him imply that the two of them are still friends, though with the dates the videos were posted clearly available, as well as how widespread this got in the mcyt space, I don't think that's a good point, though I can see the logic that idea spawned from.

f) Again, sorry for the wall of text.

a. we agree

b. we agree it was handled irresponsibly. as for the minecraft character, dream does not stream with his face ever. it is fine to disagree with that choice, but that's his choice to make.

c. in our opinion, if music choice matters more than the subject matter, the person is already far beyond asking them to treat dream in a rational manner.

d. yes, it was directed toward his fans. the fans (who were antis as well) that encouraged the pedo jokes. the fans (who were antis as well) who sent death threats and rape threats to dream fans. the fans (who were antis as well) who doxxed Dream's address.

it was a terrible response to them, but since tommy had dream blocked and would not be able to hear dream if he said "please stop encouraging harassment toward my community," we, the mods, don't know how he could have discussed that better with tommy (we already have seen how people treat him if he tries to ask them to stop harassing him).

e. mentioned in the podcast, mentioned in the qsmp/usmp video, livestream with tubbo reacting to Sapnap,

the reason dream pointed out the videos left up on his channel were because it looks performative to say "I hate this person" while profiting off his name. that may not be the case, but many have to admit that's a valid interpretation.

for an outside example, after the iskall situation, many hermits removed iskall from previous thumbnails and titles so his name wouldn't be featured on their channels.

we appreciate your comments. they are well-put and genuinely reflective.

-mod b