pantheraqueen

[pantheraqueen]

nothing has fucked me up more than knowing the australian white ibis has a near-identical sister species called the african sacred ibis. the african sacred ibis is associated with thoth, ancient god of wisdom and reason. the australian white ibis is most commonly referred to as a “bin chicken”.

[pantheraqueen]

I know that some British people take umbrage at Americans calling the Great British Bake Off relaxing, but it's just because GBBO is such a different kind of stressful from American baking shows.

American baking shows will be called something like "Cupcake Knife Fight", there's horror movie lighting everywhere and dramatic stings every 5 seconds. All of the contestants are shit talking each other and fist fighting over the one single deep fryer provided by production. It will show the judges all whispering to each other at their super villain table overlooking the whole kitchen, and one will be like, "Oh my god. Everyone look at Brenda right now. She's straight tanking it." And it will cut to Brenda, who is running around covered in flour and crying and also bleeding for some reason. Then you get a clip from an interview with one of the contestants, and they're like, "I really need to win this. Without this award money, I'm gonna need to close my restaurant, sell my dad, and live out of my car. AGAIN." Then the giant digital doomsday clock overhead lets out a horrid klaxon, the judges tell half of them that their cupcakes taste disgusting, and one of them gets eliminated and sent to walk down the dramatically-lit shame hallway never to be seen again.

Meanwhile GBBO is in a lovely, brightly colored tent, there are delightful and friendly hosts/jesters there to keep everyone entertained, and all of the B Roll is of like... a bumblebee going into a flower, or a lamb running in a field. And yes, there will be moments where someone will mess up their timing or something, and they'll be looking at their bake through the oven door like, "oh gosh I don't think this will rise in time!" Then they stand up to find Paul Hollywood directly behind them ominously. His creepy whitewalker eyes will glow white, and he'll say something like "the 12th of June. 2035. Drowning." And his eyes will go back to normal and he'll walk away. Then the baker gives a playful grimace to the camera and says "that didnt sound great, did it?". Cut to a sweet looking older woman sipping tea on a stool and she says "oo I do hope that Prue enjoys the taste of my sugary, sticky baps!". Then, at the end, someone gets a gold star for doing good, and the loser of the episode gets in the middle of a giant group hug. You see all of them at the end of the series at a giant carnival with their families and the post credits informs you that all of the contestants have become a Partridge Family-style traveling band and stayed friends forever.

[pantheraqueen]

I really, REALLY like the fact that there are no canonical romantic relationships in tadc, and seeing an actual representation of platonic attraction/relationships makes me incredibly happy.

[pantheraqueen]

Fanfiction is the reason I'm not as worried about AI (as a writer)

If you've been reading the internet at all in the last few years, you know, according to the CEOs with a vested interest in this being true, that the next Tolstoy is lying in wait in a server farm currently guzzling up so much power it's changing the climate somewhere in Nebraska. AI is going to write books so well that there won't be any need for authors anymore! People will be able to just put in prompts and magically vomit out the stories they have always wanted to their personal standards!

There are not-so-outrageous claims that publishers are flirting with AI-genned and possibly people-guided stories already. And several publishing houses popping up to publish all those amazing AI-generated stories! And I'm not going to pretend that the writer in me didn't feel a twinge of worry.

Are they coming for my stories? Are these server farms going to replace the hours and days and weeks that I put into having an idea, constructing a plot, filling in ALL the words that connect the plot, editing to make the work cohesive all while paying attention to characterization, prose, voice, pacing, world building, realistic dialogue, humor, continuity, theme, and all the infinite little flourishes and details that go into creating a story? Apparently, so say the AI company CEOs who are totally not trying to sell you snake oil!

These insta-stories that people seem to think are a huge market have a really interesting testing ground: fanfiction. Because if there's any place where there is an instant audience voracious for reading stories that often repeat the same themes and tropes and characters, it's here. Look up the two cakes meme if you don't believe me. It's the perfect market for AI slop, providing an endless stream of soulmates fics featuring our favorite blorbos.

But what have we seen in practice? At least in the fandom I'm involved in, the few folks who have tried to make AI slop happen have... had trouble. Not only do the stories get flagged by members of the fandom as being suspicious, but they get very little to no engagement. People aren't interested in these stories. They avoid them. I want to remind everyone that fanfic is free. It's a click and sometime scrolling AO3. The prompts one would need to feed into ChatGPT are really narrow, since you probably already have the tropes you want in mind and the names of the characters. It's exactly where one would expect AI slop to have an audience, and it just doesn't.

If these models have already used the entire internet to train (which they have, even when people have told them to STOP using their content), and the only people who seem to be claiming we're within arm's reach of artificial general intelligence are the CEOs who are trying to keep the venture capital money flowing, then... do I fear that they are going to be able to compete with human creativity? I don't.

Because it can't even get people who've trawled the depths of AO3, of FFN, and even of Media Miner in a desperate search for a bazillion Destiel soulmate ABO fics to turn to the slop that ChatGPT makes.

[pantheraqueen]

⚠️Warning for a little Amazing digital circus ep 5 spoiler‼️

Hey, remember in the amazing digital circus episode 3 when Pomni said this?

Also, from the newest episode where Pomni told the rest of the cast that she used to do urbex exploring and upload it on YouTube,

Is it possible that whoever 'he' is, is the one that told pomni about the location of the C&A abandoned building? Or maybe 'he' is the one who suggested Pomni to wear the VR headset, so a person she used to go exploring with.

When she said, "I knew it would end up like this!" Maybe Pomni knows about the other people that had gone missing in the building or something? Or, the people who 'died' wearing the VR headset since their consciousness got transferred to the circus?

(Idk the idea of The Amazing Digital Circus game being a lost media/creepypasta because of the people who died playing it sounds cool)

Also, it's a bit unrelated, but the whole segment in the pilot where Pomni is going through like exit doors and stopped by a computer plus a VR headset and then scream before continuing. Maybe she recognized the place since it's the last time she was in her original body.

But it opens a can of worms of how does Caine knows the outside since he's an AI made in a computer, and I don't want to deal with that rn.

(Oh shit, maybe that's why it's never finished cuz he only know the outside as the offices??)

Edit: Adding on to this, is it possible that the mannequin that has been stalking the cast is like someone from outside trying to help them escape? (Like, idk they managed to play the game without their consciousness transferred). Maybe it's the 'he' Pomni mentioned.

[pantheraqueen]

Generations of locking the fuck in.

[pantheraqueen]

Also random when it came to this scene I did not see it as ragatha being controlling or trying to get Pomni to stop at all like:

Maybe I love women excessively [impossible] but this gave.

[tldr: ragatha, in trying to figure out how to act in this new situation realises the person she's trying to befriend is closing themself off to her on a single look. + prefers/laughs with the person she's been actively nicer to counteract than her. Ouch. ] much more under the cut -

Pt1 - pt ??

First pic: Jax is ... eating that guy. confusion. what is going on. Then she hears the laughter.

2nd and 3rd: Pomni was put off by Ragatha's look and thought she shld stop

4th: Big sad, Ragatha realises that Pomni feels she cannot laugh or be properly around her, feeling she herself is offputting. Plus realising that Pomni laughs more with/to Jax that with her. That... hurts. The double whammy hurts.

[note, extra messed up because ragatha wasn't even frowning or creasing her eyebrows in the first scene she was just confused and looked to pomni once she heard the laughter? And pomni stopped laughing and looked away after a regular look of confusion? Damn u aren't comfortable around me so much u have to stop laughing and smiling when i just look at u? damn. Ouch Owie Ouch Ouch]

Imo this scene read like, ragatha was experiencing new crazy shit and did not know how to process it. How would YOU act if the guy you've been living with started eating people on live TV. In trying to gauge how other people were reacting and how she should act in turn, she also realises that people find her .. somewhat authoritative and the person she's been trying to be friends with is visibly stopping her laughs and looseness just by her looking at her, that sucks. It really does. [plus it's jax thing i mentioned up top, trying to be friends with 2 people in different ways and they both prefer each other and not u, i wld also wanna kms]

But yeah on the sociology + psychology student side, reading her character + what she has said in show (and a little personal experience). Yes this, is giving neurodivergence. Not understanding how to react to new situations due to a sheltered life, and lack of learning in depth social cues due not being taught that in comparison to her mother's view of 'perfection', and looking to others for how to act. Quiet curiosity and confusion being taken negatively, and visibly seeing people shrink away from you really just. sucks.

Further helped by the ending seen of her being left alone while everyone leaves in groups. In her attempts to match her perceived 'perfection' and need to be motherly adn useful to the gang, she has hidden her personal self away and has not been able to make true connections. She has tried. [ough for later but this really helps on how i need to go in DEPTH on why her circus form is a RAG DOLL oughh]

pt 2 coming

[pantheraqueen]

Goddamn, Ragatha is trying to be positive all the time because she's afraid of becoming like her mother.

Except she doesn't realize that she's spreading toxic positivity.

Or maybe she does, but she can't stop herself because even the tiniest bit of negative feedback makes her think of her mother.

[pantheraqueen]

its crazy that a lot of what we call 'video essays' these days are basically low budget documentaries on increasingly weird and niche topics. no network approval no tv budget just one guy with maybe a hired editor/writer and a couple of friends willing to read voice lines. and then they put it on youtube like its no big deal. insane.

[pantheraqueen]

earlier my friend said to me “somewhere out there, in an alternate universe, there’s an all female rock band called ‘king’” and I’m STILL recovering from that mental image and how gay it made me feel

[pantheraqueen]

Just before the now-infamous costume change

I think Pomni's a sweetheart for voting against it. She knew it would upset him and didn't want to put him through that.

I really enjoyed their interactions in this episode. It would be beautifully ironic if Pomni, the newcomer, ended up being the friend who understands him best.

The kind of friend that just "gets" you, sometimes without even trying.

[pantheraqueen]

ok here's my theory and then I'll shut up

Ragatha and Jax lived on the same farm. That's where the overalls come from, the fear of corn, and Gooseworx apology in advance to bunny///doll shippers— they may be family. or used to work with each other or maybe they're exes? (ex friends?

next episode is supposedly gonna be a continuation of the last one so I could be totally wrong... but we've been getting crumbs of Ragatha having a huge breakdown for a couple episodes now meanwhile Jax and Pomni are opening up to each other, something Ragatha has wanted from the start.

(this is not an invitation for discourse btw)

(also if yall ship Rag with Jax im genuinely really sorry if it turns out they're related)

[pantheraqueen]

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t seeing the Jax hype at first. He just seemed like a typical jerk (don’t get me wrong, I was patiently waiting for his development), but after ep 5….. I understand y’all now. I have joined the fan club ( u_u )

[pantheraqueen]

More TADC episode 5 redrawing. This line here is very Kadaj-core.

Original scene:

[pantheraqueen]

Can we have a moment to appreciate how Zooble went from saying that Gangle is too shy to speak up…

…to being the one to speak up for what’s best for Gangle when she is too shy to defend herself from Jax bullying her

[pantheraqueen]

Was Pomni in the wrong to tell Ragatha to calm down? Yes but I don’t think that was intentional. She does want Ragatha to express herself but I think she was also worried that Ragatha would say something hurtful that she would regret later.

Pomni does want to help people, but she isn’t a therapist. She can listen to the struggles that her friends are going through but all that can’t be placed on her alone. It’s why she let Gummi Goo come to his own conclusion, let’s Gangle go home early so she can close. She does help, but she lets the rest be up to them.

And that’s what Ragatha needed, not to explode but figure out a way to express herself negative emotions in a healthy way. (Dear god don’t let me get jumped for this.)

[pantheraqueen]

I cannot stop thinking about Episode 5 of TADC because Ragatha is, however unintentionally, one of the best examples of how isolating and difficult it is to interact with the world as an autistic person I have ever seen. To the point it genuinely makes me sad to think about her. I need to make a post expanding on this at some point but rn just. The way everyone assumes there’s some sinister hidden meaning to everything she does and says but she’s literally just trying to be nice and she doesn’t understand why it’s not working. The way she tries so hard to make connections but it constantly falls flat, she says things that hurt without realising how or why. She follows the rules she’s been taught will make her friends — she’s kind, she’s forgiving, she’s accepting and apologetic when she messes up, but for some reason it’s just not working. She tries to mimic other people, she tries to laugh at past experiences, tries to open up about her past like everyone else is doing, but now everyone’s uncomfortable and looking at her like she’s crazy and she doesn’t get it!! She doesn’t get it!!! Jax is a jerk and he’s mean to everyone but for some reason Pomni likes him and she doesn’t get it, she doesn’t understand! Pomni tells her it’s okay to be a jerk sometimes but Ragatha doesn’t like being mean, she wants to be nice to people, but she does it anyway, she gets mean like Jax and Zooble do but now Pomni’s looking at her like she’s done something wrong but she just did what she asked her to!! She doesn’t get it!! At the end of the episode everyone goes off into their groups and Ragatha is left alone, after having tried so hard to make friends and fit in and make people like her, she’s still alone, and everyone thinks she’s weird and unapproachable and she just has to give up and accept that she is inherently unloveable. Her evil alter ego tells her she’s going to die alone and nobody loves her and the only thing she corrects her on is the fact that they can’t die here. The few that might like her when she’s around don’t miss her when she’s gone, because there’s nothing to miss. Ragatha has spent her whole life systematically stripping away everything that makes her different and unlikeable in order to make herself more palatable to others, and in the process she has made herself a personalitiless blank slate with no unique identity for others to latch onto and appreciate. She has nothing to add to any conversation because she’s too afraid of being disliked to have a memorable personality beyond being generally polite and nice. And just. God. Someone get this girl some noise cancelling headphones and a therapist on speed dial, being this good of a representation of what it’s like to be autistic, especially to be an autistic person with trauma, is not good for the soul. That final shot just destroys me right in the heart. My poor girl.