#vibes based literacy

[3liza]

i said this YEARS ago when the 'vibes based literacy" discussion started because i had been reading about dyslexia to try to help my partner at the time, who was undiagnosed: the book about dyslexia that i was reading described precisely the techniques used in the "contextual guessing" reading education system, but as dysfunctional adaptations by dyslexic children. the contect guessing and memorization thing is a way of teaching entire generations of children to be functionally dyslexic, a profound and devastating disability, when they do not have dyslexia and do not need to have it. it's horrifying. it was how my partner read things, and watching him try to read something out loud was extremely demonstrative of the struggle he was having.

ken goodman probably had dyslexia and didn't know it, it's the most common learning disability in the world, an estimated 20% of all humans on earth have some degree of it.

In the paper, Goodman rejected the idea that reading is a precise process that involves exact or detailed perception of letters or words. Instead, he argued that as people read, they make predictions about the words on the page using these three cues: 1. graphic cues (what do the letters tell you about what the word might be?) 2. syntactic cues (what kind of word could it be, for example, a noun or a verb?) 3. semantic cues (what word would make sense here, based on the context?) Goodman concluded that: Skill in reading involves not greater precision, but more accurate first guesses based on better sampling techniques, greater control over language structure, broadened experiences and increased conceptual development. As the child develops reading skill and speed, he uses increasingly fewer graphic cues.

he's completely wrong, this not how fully literate people read. this is how dyslexic people read. fully literate people are using phonics and the alphabet all the time, that's how we read so fast and so easily, even texts that we're unfamiliar with or that aren't in our native language. i can scan a page of italian, french or norwegian and get the gist of it even though i don't speak the languages. i can sound out those words and pronounce them, even if im pronouncing them incorrectly, just by reading the actual letters and phonemes.

relying on context to predict which word comes next is what leads to the kind of aphasia dyslexics often exhibit not only while reading, but when speaking aloud. my partner would swap words that were contextually correct but not what he actually meant all the time. for example if he wanted me to hand him a blue comb lying nearby on a table, he would say "could you please hand me the green brush?" or if he was describing a cat he saw, he would often swap in another contextually-related word, one that sounded the same, like "bat", or one that was conceptually related but incorrect, like "dog". as a result i had to ask him to clarify or repeat himself many times to figure out what he was trying to say. it created profound problems for him and separated him from me and everyone else. the worst part is that he was barely aware of this. when he was driving it was extremely difficult for him to follow or give directions because he would swap out "left" and 'right" randomly.

you cant actually read like this.

She thinks the students who learned three cueing were actually harmed by the approach. "I did lasting damage to these kids. It was so hard to ever get them to stop looking at a picture to guess what a word would be. It was so hard to ever get them to slow down and sound a word out because they had had this experience of knowing that you predict what you read before you read it."

[bourtange]

anyway that vibes-based literacy shit is real. someone asked what the prefix "intra-" meant so i explained it and the difference between intra- and inter-*. another person in the room, who was in their early thirties, dismissed knowing that as "SAT prep", and when i pushed back they said they just figure out what new words mean from context clues. this is someone who i have consistently observed encounter a new word when reading out loud, guess a word they already know that has some letters in common, and move on regardless of whether the wrong word they just said even makes any sense within the passage they were reading. by the way if you don't know what intra- and inter- mean, context clues will not help you more than maybe 20% of the time

* "inter-" means "between" and "intra-" means "within". so "inter-organizational strife" means different organizations are beefing with each other, while "intra-organizational strife" means people in one organization are beefing with each other

[paint-music-with-me]

teehee ha ha I revamped First Burn from the Hamilton Remix Track to have Mew's POV and lowkey I like it???

[riftclaw]

to be fair many of these people, especially the younger ones, probably learned "balanced literacy" instead of phonics, so they learned to "read" by wildly guessing until the teacher said they were right, and all that subtlety is like... completely ignored. it's like an ongoing epidemic within the last 2-3 generations based on flawed, outdated research. they've only started making moves to fix this issue in the last ~2 years or so.

this is probably a big source of all our "how dare you say we piss on the poor" problems--they only started catching on to HOW BAD the situation was when covid brought a bunch of lessons into their parents houses, and the parents realised, wait, shit, my kid can't fucking read?!

I’m so sorry but in the nicest way possible do yall actually read books or just read words??? Cause I’ve been seeing that trend of people not understanding how “snarled” and “eyes darkened” and “eyes softened” etc. was used in a book and like…

Genuinely, do yall just not have imagination?? Or not understand figurative language??? Also eyes do literally darken and soften have you not lived a life??? How do you read with no imagination? Is this how you get through so many books in one month - you simply don’t take the time the understand the words as they are read?

[watercapitol]

stupid yaoi shippers stupid yaoi shippers stupid yaoi shippers you all make me mad i m going back into hiding forever because I hate your yaoi so much

[theabigailthorn]

Separating The Art from the Artist ('s Gender)

an interesting thing I've observed:

I've been making art for my whole life, and I publicly transitioned a few years ago, and it's super interesting how much criticism changed when I came out

When I was in the closet the criticism I got for my work was a lot more useful. It was generally constructive, usually specific and actionable, usually coming from a place of sincerely engaging with my work even if it didn't always like it. So even the negative stuff was usually helpful?

Whereas now, most of the criticism I get seems a lot more "vibes based"? It's more vague; it's more likely to contain factual errors like "The work says X" when the work doesn't say that, or even says the opposite; the criticism is often less actionable; and it's more likely to treat my work as something that has accidental features to which the audience has a reaction that is the most important thing, rather than something that has deliberate features because I chose to put them there? And so it's judged much more by whether people vibed with it rather than by whether it achieved what I intended it to

idk, it's just interesting, maybe it's not a gender thing maybe it's just that people's media literacy is changing? maybe i'm attracting different audiences now? maybe I'm just worse lol

[sexhaver]

sorry for getting so heated about this financial literacy thing, it's just rare to see tumblr users as a whole so overwhelmingly wrong about something with an OBJECTIVELY correct answer. and im using "objectively" here as defined in the dictionary, not a hyperbole. like you can pull out a calculator and mathematically show that the lump sum is better in literally every way. and people still pick the daily payments based off of... vibes i guess? im genuinely depressed reading through the notes and seeing people justify their financial illiteracy

[wyst]

if you're interested in learning more about the shift away from teaching phonics, i encourage you to check out the excellent documentary podcast "Sold a Story" . in it, education reporter Emily Hanford details how teaching reading went wrong and the detrimental effects teaching via 'cueing' or 'whole-language' methods has had and continues to have on readers. it's.... pretty grim stuff. but, encouragingly, phonics is on the rise again - hopefully that trend continues.

I was today years old. That is disgusting.

No Child Left Behind is one of the worst things to ever be incentivized in schools. It was signed into law when I was 14. Reading Rainbow was my show as a kid. LeVar Burton played a big part in why I became an avid reader to date. The joy of it. It's an adventure around the globe and through different time periods without stepping on a plane or time machine.

Children parrot behavior. In grade school, I always wanted to read the same amount of books as my teachers (50 books) and managed to double that each year. Before No Child Left Behind, book fairs and Scholastic catalogs were a serious matter like your grandma's Fingerhut catalogs. Libraries were (and still are) a wonderland.

Reading comprehension and proficiency in schools has been declining for decades. A crisis. The joy of books isn't pushed anymore and I'm always saddened by it. It's one of the reasons why I post my book reviews and recommendations on here, as well as posts from others to encourage reading and (novel) writing. Kids will parrot your behavior while the education system sadly fails to return as that example.

[3liza]

don't want to engage in a debate because I agree with the spirit of this post and don't want to pledge any time to having to sort out misunderstandings that will arise from reblogging it directly. i just want to post some data. reading and math scores were improving very slightly since 1980 but then took a hard downturn at the beginning of the pandemic. No Child Left Behind "improved" test scores, but I was actually in school for that the year they made they switch, and can report that it was because they gutted the entire curriculum to force us to spend all day every day borderline cheating on standardized tests so they wouldn't lose their funding. i assume the methods of cheating on these tests improved and became more institutional after I graduated and I also assume all testing after that point has deeply misrepresentative data due to the score manipulation.

also as a personal aside I did not know anyone personally who used SparkNotes, cliffnotes, et al. they existed but we're not part of my school culture at all personally. the ubiquity of open cheating, essay mills, and obviously chatgpt has absolutely increased but I don't think that has anything to do with intellectual ability, I think it has to do with increasing access online and especially homework being increasingly bullshit and also the number of hours of homework assigned continually bloating.

i can't find statistics on hours of homework assigned in the 90s vs now (actually here's a paper from 2003 estimating USA children spent half that amount of time on homework at that point which aligns with my experience and observation) but statistics in the 2010s estimate high schoolers are assigned around 17 hours of homework a week, which is insane. if you have any sort of executive function issues or interruptions at home that could easily double, and then you're essentially holding two full time unpaid jobs age 14-18. this is way more homework than pediatric and education experts have been recommending as healthy or effective, but they also recommend children are not forced to get up at the crack of dawn every day and be shipped to large punitive holding facilities 🤷

anyway in conclusion the data is largely pointing towards the learning gap being real, but the reasons have nothing to do with kids being different, because they aren't. conditions are just a lot worse and kids are doing what they can to survive, like always, and being failed by adults, like always

[richardsphere]

So there's a strange "defense" of Miraculous I've seen crop up on occasion. The idea that everything wrong about the Lovesquare powerdynamic is deliberate and will all be explored next season (lets put aside that this defense has been cropping up for 3 seasons now). The claim that Soon(TM), the writers are gonna make the characters face the concequences and explore the fallout of the entire jenga-tower of BS they've been "carefully" setting up all along... Which... isnt a defense I vibe with, cause it fundamentally boils down to "its not a Kids Rolemodel Show, its a deconstruction of a Kids Rolemodel Show". It's a defence that would place Marinette alongside Tyler Durden, Walter White and Rick Sanchez in the "you werent supposed to relate to them" pantheon. And while i think there are plenty of reasons that deconstruction is a usefull tool (even if i hate the dime-a-dozen "Childrens Fairytale but its depression" and "Superman, but psycho"' decon-stories out there). I'd argue 'Kids Rolemodel Show' is the one genre that should never be deconstructed, or at least not in the slow-burn,long-form way the people arguing this claim the show to be doing. And i hold that stance for one simple two-part reason: Poe's law, and the fact that the deconstructed genre is aimed at an audience with absolute zero media-literacy. (reminder: "5-6 year old kids" is the one audience where that is not an insult, simply a statement of fact.) A show aimed deconstructing a genre with an audience for whom it may actually be their first big piece of media is legitimately dangerous. Because there is no way a 5 year old can be expected to tell "deconstruction of a formulaic kids cartoon" from "Formulaic kids cartoon". The idea that "they've been making Marinette into a bad example deliberately and are going to reveal the entire show to have been a carefull ruse in season 6/7" is supposed to be a defense? Its frankly absurd. A 6 year kid who watched the show when it first aired and idolised Ladybug, could be old enough to drink by the time S6 reveals she was supposed to be a bad example. A little girl who based her relationships on the way Mari pursues romance would have a restraining order by the time the show indends to pull this twist. And some of y'all are claiming that "actually its a long-form deconstruction" is a defense? I legit don't get y'all.

[annabelle--cane]

i wasn’t here when tma reached the height of its popularity (i only joined last year) so could you describe the Vibes (how bad the drama was, did it feel like there were too many people, etc.)

only if you want to :]

I've said this before, so this may be a familiar spiel to longer term followers, but 2020 tma fandom was honestly not the worst fandom I've ever been in, it was just by far the biggest thing I have ever been actively into at peak popularity and so the 1% of insane people that are found in every fan space were 1% of a much bigger total population. most people were fine and chill, but there were a vocal minority who Weren't.

major ingredients in the discourse pot:

from my observations, tma had a small but devoted listener base for its first few years, then it got a little bump in mid 2018, then a considerable bump in late 2019, then hit proper virality in early 2020, so there were a lot of people with hipster complexes about being Real Fans who were there first and weren't just part of the masses.

at this point I'm not even sure if this part was true, but the above was compounded by the perception that the earlier og listener base were mostly adults and the new wave of fans were mostly tweens and teens. whether the different waves actually fell along those age lines or not, a lot of people felt like the fandom was split into 80% Cringe Zoomers Who Are Here For Ships And Memes and 20% Millennials and Gen X'ers With Media Literacy Who Are Here For Horror. nice dichotomy, idiot, now what lies outside it, etc and such and such. our blessed fandom etiquette vs their barbarous dni lists.

which isn't to say that suddenly having a huge number of people, including young people, become interested in a single piece of media at a time of global stress where everyone had to be much more online and the content of the media itself was at its darkest and most socially relevant had no downsides. oh no. Oh No.

"my headcanon is not only objectively the best headcanon but it actually invalidates all of yours and if you hc something different then it's an act of bigotry against my Correct Headcanon." / "I have drawn up a list of Good Characters you have to like and aren't allowed to criticize and a list of Bad Characters you have to hate and can't acknowledge exist unless it's to make fun of and completely condemn them." / "I saw her username in the kudos of a jonelias fic" "girl what were YOU doing in the kudos of a jonelias fic" / "this latest episode handled a social issue unforgivably badly, I haven't experienced it myself but the vibes were off, everyone demand accountability and boycott the rest of the show" "hey that one was actually based on jonny's personal experiences" "ah fuck not again. well boys let's remember this for next time. this latest epis--"

honestly most of the discourse was down to like two or three friend groups. there was one group of people who you will probably remember if you were there at the time whom I have sometimes seen referred to as the Clown Gang. Clown Gang were ground zero for a good 90% of fan discourse ("hcing melanie as ace is ableist and lesbophobic" "fan content that focuses on jon's asexuality is biphobic. what's pansexuality I've never heard of it." "desolation tim aus are inherently ableist and racist"), but eventually they had a big falling out with Clown Prime and things calmed down. to be very clear I hold no ill will towards any of these people for four year old bad takes, hence why I'm not using any names, but god was it a time.

and this is only about the tumblr side of things. I was barely active of twitter so idk what it was like there but I was on tiktok for about a year during that time and the vibes were wildly different. iirc people there were less confrontational and there wasn't really a callout culture like on tumblr, but the extremes of the takes were FAR worse.

[olderthannetfic]

Now I'm wondering how countries like Japan and China teach literacy.

Since kanji / hanzi don't really have that much in the way of phonetic elements, they kinda have to teach them by memorization and I don't think they have many reading comprehension problems over there.

(Although both countries do have supplementary phonetic writing systems in the form of bopomofo and pinyin for China, and the kanas for Japan)

--

FAVORITE SOAPBOX TOPIC UNLOCKED!

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

It's a little closer to teaching vocabulary than spelling, but the same kinds of principles apply: You teach the building blocks, like the traditional radicals, which aren't so different from teaching Latin and Greek roots in an English class for English speakers.

And, as a matter of fact, lots of those radicals do predict pronunciation, just not in every single case. They can also be clues to meaning, but again, not absolutely consistently. Many characters have a sound-cueing radical on one side and a meaning-cueing radical on the other. It's just that only some are still useful in the modern day, while others are more like the English word 'plumbing' where knowledge of Roman lead pipes explains why this word comes from the one for lead, but the root probably wouldn't help a kid learn the word in the first place.

One similarity to teaching phonics would be teaching students to tell very complicated and similar characters apart: you want to help a student spot all the little building blocks of the character and then spot the ones that are different, not just glance at the whole character and get a general overall vibe. If you do a whole look-based approach, too many characters are too easy to mistake for one another.

Remembering a bajillion Chinese characters is hard if you're trying to memorize them in a year and not all of elementary school, but I think people who don't read them underestimate how many component parts there are and how approachable they can be if you start by learning fundamentals, not just memorizing a few individual characters as though they have no relation to anything else.

They're actually pretty systematic, just in the way that English spelling is with its overlapping systems and historical artifacts, not in the way that highly regular Spanish spelling is.

Having taken a lot of Japanese classes, I will say that Japanese as a foreign language textbooks often do a piss poor job of this and totally do teach kanji in a sight words-y way... But my Mandarin class started with important foundational concepts that served me well in Japanese later even if I bombed out of Chinese class at the time.

Can you tell how irritated I am by all the foreign language learners who think characters are sooooo hard when, really, it's just their crappy textbook? Haha.

They're moderately hard in the way that learning a full adult spectrum of vocabulary is hard, but people do that for foreign languages all the time. The countries that use characters do tend to make sets that are smaller for certain kinds of applications, same as we have things like simple English wikipedia, but a literate adult will always know lots more, whether it's from their career in engineering or their predilection for historical romance novels.

Uh... anyway, the answer is "Bit by bit in elementary school, just like in any other country".

[roadhogsbigbelly]

i'm gonna be honest it's really weird to me how so many people's version of "media literacy" is "take what the author says at face value without using context or knowledge of the authors other beliefs" cause even if rohl dahl wasn't famously antisemitic i feel like the messaging of "you shouldn't just people based on looks, you should based people on their morality which you'll know about cause if they're evil they'll be ugly" is not actually a very particularly useful lesson, especially in our current "vibes based" era

[delicateperspective]

let’s talk about media literacy

especially when it comes to tabloids. because when you’re following someone like L or H (or both), you start to notice patterns. and understanding how this media ecosystem works can help things feel a little less confusing.

first — not all tabloids work the same way.

some of the big names, like The Sun or TMZ, have full-time staff whose job is to track celebrities and write fast, dramatic stories. they might base these on actual tips, but a lot of the time, it’s just vibes. seriously. observation, fan chatter, speculation. other outlets — especially the ones you see quoted in smaller entertainment news sites — get their info from freelancers, social media, or other tabloids. that means they often republish things, change a few words, and present it like a brand-new story.

then there’s this classic move:

“a source close to the star says…”

this could mean literally anyone. most of the time it’s pr-approved. sometimes it’s a fan account. sometimes it’s just made up. the point is: it sounds official, but it isn’t always rooted in fact. this is a way for the tabloid to run a story without being legally obligated to prove the facts.

tabloids are built around narratives. they want drama. they want arcs. they want love stories, betrayals, redemptions. they want to sell an image — not report the truth.

and yes, publicists work with them. maybe to get their client more attention. maybe to push a certain storyline. maybe to quietly bury another one. and when that’s not happening, tabloids will just... fill in the blanks themselves.

when you see something that feels off, it’s probably because it is. or because it’s being presented with a very specific purpose.

ask yourself:

who benefits from this?

does this article use actual quotes, or just “a source”?

are different outlets posting the exact same thing?

does this line up with what you’ve seen, heard, or known about them for years?

not all journalists are tabloid writers. this seems obvious, but it’s a big one. there’s a difference between a gossip columnist and an investigative journalist. there are people in media who genuinely try to do good work, even inside flawed systems.

journalists are often not the final say. even when someone wants to tell a more nuanced story, they’re bound by editors, publishers, and what sells. sometimes they’re told what angle to take. sometimes they write one thing, and the outlet changes the headline to be more clickbait-y. so what looks like laziness or malice may actually be pressure from above.

access journalism is a thing. if a journalist wants to continue getting interviews or access to events, they have to play nice with publicists. this is how pr shapes narratives without technically writing the story themselves. calling out falsehoods or asking real questions too early can get someone blacklisted. that doesn’t mean the journalist believes the narrative — it means they’re stuck.

many are just doing their job with limited info. a writer covering 50 celebrity stories a week is not doing deep research. they don’t know the history like fans do. so while we might say, “how can they not see it?” — the truth is, they’re not looking that closely. they’re skimming pap photos and press releases and writing whatever fits the brand.

some journalists do see it — and leave breadcrumbs. you’ll notice little turns of phrase, sly nods, or “coincidental” timing. some writers do try to hint when something feels off, but they have to walk a fine line. if they’re too obvious, they risk their job. so sometimes it’s what they don’t say that’s telling.

harassment doesn’t help. when fans flood a journalist’s mentions or call them liars or worse, it reinforces the stereotype that we are delusional or dangerous. even if the article was careless or frustrating, the goal should be to advocate for truth, not attack individuals. pushback can be thoughtful. we can ask for better without burning bridges.

media literacy is a kindness to yourself. a way to protect your heart from being pulled in a dozen directions at once.

[djevelbl]

I feel like explaining how Branzy's mannerisms look like in my head is SO. HARD bc he feels like SUCH a peculiar and specific type of person, that even if I TRIED there wouldn't be a fully correct way to string words together to paint the picture. But fuck it we ball — lemme try anyway

(ofc, I'm here talking about his character and personality as he portrays himself in his videos; the same goes for any other youtuber I namedrop as I'm yapping. I don't feel like I have to clarify this, but still. covering my own ass out here, media literacy, yadda yadda, you get it)

In the LifeSteal videos I've watched where he participates/is the main focus of (the Heart Factory + Amusement Park saga mostly, so not a lot lol) he has this... This showmanship, this stage presence, like he's standing alone on the stage floor, the spotlight's on him and the little earpiece hung on him has told him "it's showtime." It's like he's the opening number for the Broadway Musical you came to watch, like he's the circus master of the show; he's all you can focus on once he starts talking, really: he's hilarious and charismatic, disarming with that devilish charm of his, that has endeared him to the deadliest player of the server — even if you never see his face, you can hear his smile every time he talks.

For having been on a Minecraft server that prides itself in death, destruction and preying on players' insecurities before shaking hands on a good season played, Branzy wears his emotions very plainly in how he speaks: he doesn't hide his fear, or his amazement, his excitement, his bloodlust. It's how he is, of course — hiding who you are is hard, but Branzy also plays this all up in his favor: faking his reactions when necessary, blatantly able to disregard his current emotional state to match the attitude of those around him (main example being him matching Clown's attitude even through his own fear of the guy), being able to lie through his teeth about pretty important things (like the state of Carnival Mode to Squiddo at the end of season 5), and others.

His poker face is a smile — all crow's feet and charming show of teeth, something happy and elated as he shows his newest killing contraption and explains it out to his soon-to-be victims. And they fall for it hook, line, sinker. A practiced dance everyone follows Branzy's lead in, subconsciously or otherwise. Because how deadly can it be if it's Branzy who made it?

Not just that, but he's very energetic and has a brand of attitude and sass that kinda reminds me of JT Music in The Details in the Devil (stay with me. I SWEAR this makes sense) — it's the over-the-top singing, the way he goes from a higher pitch to a lower one, the way JT Music's voice rasps around the edges; it all has the same vibe and attitude to me as Branzy's showman persona: all glamour for the camera, a big smile to attract new clientele, charm that oozes out of every pore and you don't even notice that it's a deal with the devil you're making. Until he's gone and you're left to pick up the pieces — even then, sometimes you just don't. notice.

A maybe (hopefully) easier to picture example

To me, in a sense, Branzy feels like the in-between missing link of AM from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream and Caine from The Amazing Digital Circus: all the bloodlust, anger, and sadistic tendencies from AM, and all the genuine, kind, goofy showmaster personality of Caine — a weird combo, for sure, but Caine is already based off of AM so like, thought it was as appropriate of a comparison I could make; especially bc Caine is a ringmaster, and Branzy does give ringmaster vibes to me so idk

Ofc, this is him at his peak, in his element, where he controls the playing chips — he's playing 4D chess and everyone's using checkers pieces. This is him gathering and casually using the power and influence he lords over the server — I mean, have you seen how ppl react to his mere appearance?? People love him, that's where he thrives: where people have an attachment to Branzy, Branzy has power; people kept coming back to the rollercoaster bc it was fun and a challenge and bc it was Branzy who made it — throw the credit onto Clown, ManePear, FlameFrags, any other pvp-skilled player, and watch as people run the other way. Branzy is the perfect combo of charismatic, charming, boyfailure-coded, somehow still competent, and fun to amass server-wide cred that wouldn't be broken no matter how many lives he claims via his machinery.

Clown is dangerous, sure — he's good at pvp and intimidating, he can do his fair share of manipulation when needed, but he's ultimately relatively easy to avoid: he follows a set of rules and while he doesn't vocalize them, if you observe him enough you'll eventually learn them. You'll eventually understand what the triggers are, which convo topics are best to avoid and how to best gain favor with him.

Branzy, though? He's very much a loose canon — beyond keeping his good relationship with Clown for protection (and bc he cares, let's be honest here) and whatever he deems fun today, I doubt he cares about much else; these two things are THE. MOST important to him, and there's little you can personally do to control either, if anything at all.

Branzy is SO interesting to me bc he's outwardly all smiles, happy-go-lucky in a sense and a coward — everyone knows this, it ain't no secret, and if it ever was meant to be we've left that station SEVERAL seasons ago. Yet inside there's a raging beast that begs to be released — the only reason we don't see it too often is LITERALLY bc Branzy is HORRIBLE at pvp; we STILL see it though: in how he encourages people to keep trying his deadly park rides, how he dangles prizes in front of their faces so sweetly and so casually so they keep coming back. In how he doesn't hesitate to betray his team so he can gain favor with Clown, a character he believes will be a bigger protection than his team was beforehand. In how he didn't even bat an eye as he bold-face lied to Squiddo about Carnival Mode being broken when it was most beneficial for Clown for it to "be broken". In how he casually makes a bragging joke about having easily killed two of the strongest players without lifting a finger to battle, because they wanted to play his carnival games.

Branzy has two loyalties: first to Clown and second to himself. Everyone else be damned

So coming back to the mannerisms thing — in my head he's extra extra: I'm talking "dangled upside down from a tree branch to scare someone as he introduced them all to the Chicken Launchers" type of extra, I'm talking "he did a handstand on the rollercoaster cart (with his elytra on, he isn't stupid I swear) as it jumped over the tiny lava pit to introduce people to the attraction" type of extra, I'm talking "he designed a mechanical crossbow he could wear on his arm so he could shoot the door locking mechanism trigger at the bigtop tent the most dramatic way possible" type of extra. He's a theater kid at heart, I just know it — he's dramatic and extra and so fun, so of course he'd have fun with it all! He's an adrenaline junkie (honestly? Why else is he still a sucker for Clown?? Adrenaline junkie + that's his work bf) and he will do a dramatic full split in front of Fleshy's to introduce people to the food stand and you cannot change my mind

So. Yea! In my head Branzy's mannerisms are a combo of showman enthusiasm, theater kid dramatics, acrobatics fueled by his adrenaline junkie ways, and random rubberhose-like body movements that are uncanny on like. an ACTUAL normal human body bc he reminds me of Bendy and I. Don't know. How else. To cope with it, so deal with it.

[teruwasright]

I fuck with your vibes. I love this series so much, imagine my horror when I realized that the fanbase is a cesspool. The disrespect is so blatant, like... I was so happy that I found a series to obsess over and entered a fan space only to bounce right out when I realized that nearly everyone is pretty awful and the media literacy bar is in hell. Sorry for the vent teehee it's just nice that someone else gets it.

When I draw Teru for the first time, I will silently dedicate him to you.

Awwww omg ty sm!!!!! That means a lot!!!

Sighhh and sadly ya- I adore this manga and I genuinely don't know how to explain the pain and disappointment I feel that is knowing how horrible the fan base is...

People fight over everything, people will group bully you if you don't like characters/ship popular ships or agree with the majority not to mention just how toxic almost everyone is and almost no one talks about it.

As a fan base ALL fans should be welcomed...not just the ones that "fit the mold" and as fans shouldn't we welcome the different prospective?? Especially with a story like tbhk?? Instead no one thinks for themselves at ALL or forms their own ideas on this series and just follow blindly the main cast AND the popular people with extremely poor reading comprehension thinking there right (even if there's proof that proves them wrong)

It's genuinely disappointing bc tbhk is an amazing manga rich with story and characters but almost everyone ruins it... almost everyone doesn't even get Kou right.

Sighhh sorry about the yap but like you said it's nice that someone gets it lmao

Also that last part is extremely sweet! If you do end up drawing Teru I would absolutely love to see it!!!

This ask made my day and put a big smile on my face lmao ty sm anon!!!