#I still don't have any icons bc stuff happened

[httpiastri]

PERFECTLY FINE – 2023 SEASON SOCIAL MEDIA RECAP

author's note: dropping this off for yall ahead of the weekend bcs i have important sports stuff these next two days and likely won't be on here at all (i won't even have time to watch the races 🙃). just a little cute thingy before the first chapter hehe! the twt pics are unevenly cropped so pls open them to read all 😚 also this is my first social media au so go easy on me <3

author's note #2: you may not notice this if i don't say it but i'll say it anyway… i actually edited out zak from like four pics so that i could post this 😭 lol

series masterlist

MELBOURNE, APRIL 2023

yourusername amazing weekend here down under!! so thankful for my fantastic team for all of the hard work, the car is a pleasure to drive. and shoutout to my lovely teammates, i love being annoyed and pushed around by you all ❤️

show all 86 comments

user icon!!!

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frederikvestiofficial i would never annoy you 🥲

→ yourusername oh fred no, i didn't mean you 💔

→ olliebearman did you mean me?

→ yourusername nooo teddy bear, never 😢

→ dinobeganovic_ did you mean me??

→ yourusername take a guess 😐

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user not her calling ollie TEDDY BEAR ??? im out

→ user right in front of my salad 😪

→ user right in front of paul too

→ user chill 😭 she's allowed to have a nickname for her FRIEND

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paularon_ ❤️🏆

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dinobeganovic_ time for a haircut? paularon_

→ yourusername don't hate on the curls, they're cute 🐑

→ paularon_ i can defend myself

→ yourusername do it then?

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user great drive today!! u really deserved that win 💙

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saacha_fqt thank you for the champagne! 🥳

→ yourusername merci merci 🍾

???, MAY 2023

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, JULY 2023

paularon_ p3 in spa. thanks to the team for the good work

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user good job paul!! still not sure why prema thought the slicks were a good idea but 🫶

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user why is he looking so upset 😭 mate you just got a podium, celebrate a little

→ user rumor has it he and y/n broke up… so i would understand if he isn't too happy

→ user omg you're kidding

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user that first lap was mega 🔥

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mercedesamgf1 great job all weekend paul. good points to head into the break with. 👏

yourusername had a pretty good time in spa 🤭

show all 72 comments

user sprint race win and then 4th in the feature? queen behavior

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jakcrawford_ dino and ollie looking great

→ dinobeganovic_ 😎😎

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redbulljuniorteam amazing work!! 💪

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user y/n rlly is red bull personified omg, she truly loves her team

→ user and they love her back 🥺 always commenting on her posts, aww

ZANDVOORT, AUGUST 2023

yourusername look how happy jackie is for his podium <3 thanks zandvoort!!

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user i love to see ollie being bullied on his bike

→ yourusername me too

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olliebearman adorable jakcrawford_

→ jakcrawford_ 👍😀

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user love to see y/n happy even after what happened with paul 💓

→ user yes yes! she was hanging out in the prema paddock all weekend, joking around with ollie and fred. and then she even went out for dinner with jak and clem 🥺

→ user i didn't know she's friends with clem?

→ user she probably isn't lol but she follows jak anywhere like a puppy 😭

MONZA, SEPTEMBER 2023

yourusername the best season ever 😭 where do i even start? massive massive thanks to the entire team. all of the engineers, mechanics, workers back home at the factory, and everyone else involved, i'm so thankful for you all. and big thanks to my family and friends for supporting me all the way, i couldn't have done any of this without you all. and to my dear, lovely teammates: you're the best, i'll see you all again soon. ❤️ (and congrats gabrielbortoleto_ for the championship! 🏆)

show all 132 comments

user why does it sound like she won't stay with prema 😭

→ user tbh it seems unlikely since kimi will probably move up to f2... and ollie will stay with prema too, so idk where she would go

→ user please :( let me stay delusional

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gabrielbortoleto_ congrats on p2! see you again next year

→ yourusername 😉🤩

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user congrats on a great season!! can't wait to keep following you in the future <33

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redbulljuniorteam you made us proud this season 🫡 let's keep pushing!

→ yourusername thank you!! can't wait to see where 2024 takes us 💙❤️

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user had so much fun meeting you in zandvoort 🥺 hope you have another amazing season 2024!

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user is that her and paul in the fourth pic?

→ user no, it's her and dino from when they both ended up on the podium in hungary!

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user she went from posting several pics of paul in her dumps to posting none… 💔

→ user i can't handle being a divorce child 😭

CAMBRIDGE, DECEMBER 2023

yourusername happy holidays 🤍🤶❄️🎄

show all 295 comments

user is that OLLIE in the last slide??

→ user byeeee i've never felt more single

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dinobeganovic_ send me the gingerbread cookies, won't you?

→ yourusername oh we will, don't worry 🥰

→ user WE will ?!??!! 😭

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user kinda icky how she moved on from paul in like a week

→ user it's been months. get over yourself.

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user bearman with a bear plushie 🥺 i'm so soft

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user the matching pjs.... when is it my turn???

???, FEBRUARY 2024

[raayllum]

i'm literally sitting here trying to figure out what EVEN i can SAY about aspec rayllum here? i think about them and i want to combust into heart emojis. i watched the first season when it first came out and then only happened to catch up last year with my qpp, and in between i was like. so infuriated when i found out they'd made rayla and callum a thing bc i - naturally - latched onto the green and purple character as an aroace icon at 18 years old, and my partner was like "no no no no TRUST me you've got to watch it, you'll love it"

they weren't wrong and after bingeing the whole show i'm stuck thinking about rayllum a LOT. they're written so much like my own ideal relationship that i kind of want to explode from it sometimes. anyway, my absolute favorite thing about them is how much emphasis there is about their friendship - to the point that when i watched season four, I can't remember which episode specifically it was number wise but when rayla suggested splitting up and offered to go with callum and he turns her down, my first immediate heartbroken thought was "she misses her best friend..." i just love how they're in love but they're in love cos they're best friends....11/10 no notes i need more relationships like that in media

ANYWAY long rambley ask about my loves aside, my question is what are some of your favorite moments where rayllum are so clearly best friends/goofballs in love?

No like honest to god though — me and the Rayla to my Callum are also in a QPR + dash of romance relationship and like... arc 1 and arc 2 Rayllum are just so goddamn sweet??

I don't agree generally that arc 2 Rayllum is more Mature™ than arc 1 rayllum — Callum is more patient and Rayla is more open, so they've matured as individuals — but merely just that they're different flavours of aspec-ness. Like arc 1 is the craziness and rollercoaster of meeting a stranger and realizing they're Your Person, and arc 2 is the deepness after the fact of "I know you, and I know that we can get through everyone so long as we have each other" mostly cause I think the main reason people label arc 1 Rayllum as more immature is because s3 Rayllum gushes over each other, but that's bc people have a hard time conceptualizing having deep admiration for your partner(s) that isn't infatuation... even though like? It's totally normal and welcome, like any long term relationship is "my partner is the most amazing person ever and i'm also very aware of all their flaws simultaneously" and like, arc 1 Rayllum hits that balance perfectly imo

I just love all of their stages and sides to them so so much

But yeah! Some of my fave moments Rayllum wise for the Best Friends quality has to be when they help each other up in 3x05 (Callum after the soulfang chase and Rayla on the ambler) because things are Weird but they're still always going to help each other? The "I missed my best friend" quality in s4 with no one laughing at Callum's jokes / talking about magic with him (vs their first scene in 5x01 being him telling her all about the magic stuff he's reading) and Rayla keeping her disappointment at bay always hits hard and I loove 4x06 when she's beating herself up and he takes care of her because a Good Relationship isn't about how you treat each other when everything's fine, it's 100% about how treat each other when life is hard/stressful and/or you're upset with each other

But I love all the gentle teasing in early S5 and the fist bump lives in my head eternally rent free. The 2x03 hug also means a lot to me cause that was the turning point she went from being a friend to being family and I think in a lot of ways, that's their relationship's most important turning point alongside maybe 1x06 (trusting her anyway!) 4x09 (forgiveness) and 5x04 (her opening up).

5x02 post-inn and stargazing scene are also faves just because of how happy they are talking about Nothing and everything, and like — that's just so fucking real, y'know? When someone makes everything automatically better just by being there

As Callum says, "We've been through a lot, and a lot has changed. Well, some things have changed, but not everything," and this never will

[xerith-42]

I decided to watch Void Paradox

I'm about five minutes into the first episode and I'm still not entirely sure if this is a good idea or not, but Laurance has already spoken like three lines of dialogue and I felt my heart wrench at just one of them, so clearly I'm in too deep now.

This post serves as my live tweeting/mental break down that I am currently having as we speak. It is very incomprehensible because it is literally just my thoughts as they happen, and given how much I have to say, I'll probably make proper posts out of a lot of these points once I finish the series.

This mess is just giving you a taste of the madness I truly posses.

I am only three minutes in before I have to pause and feel the urge to scream about how bad the dialogue in Aphmau series can be. Like this series is fairly okay, especially based on the standard set by her other shows but man... something is just not working here. The whole thing feels very clunky and while I can get the gist of what Jess is going for, the execution of said gist is leaving a lot to be desired.

[Laurance shows up]

nevermind Laurance is on screen and fully voice acted everything is better

Literally nobody talk to me I need to scream about Laurance Zvahl because he is EVERYTHING in this series. The way he very softly says Aph's name when he sees her, the immediate instinct to hug her because he's so relieved to see her, the fact that you can hear the smile in his voice the minute he registers that she's there and alive!! AUGH I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!

And I literally screamed when he revealed that he was transported to this AU right at the end of season 1. Oh my Irene, I screamed. I collapsed. I was truly defeated by a single line of dialogue. I don't know where this series is going to go but I am here for it. And the fact that he knows Garroth did it and hid it from her???

I can't overstate how genuinely healing it is to hear Laurance fully voice acted. I know Sebastian Todd is retired from voice acting, but when he retired, he took down all his posts, including what I considered to be a comfort video. That video of him reading iconic Laurance lines from before he was in mcd/lines he just didn't act? That video was my everything when I was trying to hold onto this version of the character I knew I loved who was different to what Jess made him. When that video got taken down it was a major cowabummer bc there's so little properly voice acted Laurance content that isn't mcd Season 3 or My Street stuff (and I can't stand My Street like 80% of the time)

Hearing his voice, hearing him get to be properly expressive, it's just doing things to me man. I missed this character a lot. I've mostly been enjoying him through fan content or my own work. It's nice to say I enjoy a piece of canon content involving him, at least so far.

Still not sure how I feel about literally anything else. The whole relationship between Aph and Tommy feels very... weird. She describes herself as "basically his mother" after she's left with him, and treats him like it in the opening scene. But then when he's mocking her for being attracted to Laurance (so relatable), it seems really weird for a [checks wiki] 14 year old kid to be calling out his mom for finding someone hot. Feels a lot more like sibling dialogue to me? Which I guess they could be seen as siblings, but the series explicitly stated that she views it like motherhood??? But I don't think Jess is even thinking that deeply about it, I just over analyze her work for fun at this point.

Okay what the actual fuck is going on with the inside of this house???

Why is the color scheme purple and yellow? And not in any kind of flattering way which is possible with opposite colors, it just has both of them. The wallpaper changes when you get into the living room except not entirely on the windows, and in an earlier scene it looked like it wasn't even put onto all of the walls. And the wood that she used as supports just does not compliment either of these colors as they are. Just make it all purple, you know you want to Jess.

Also is the texture on the table and the glass the same??? I don't know a damn thing about modding or making texture/data packs for minecraft but that just seems. odd.

Laurance: mentions the nether Me: [screams just a little]

Tommy: shows up and gives a random ass lore dump Aph: Kay thanks go back to your room

"I don't know what I can do to help."

"Just be there for me. I just need someone to ground me right now."

I literally want to shake Laurance around like a rag doll and give him a stupid kiss on his stupid fucking face UGH why can't I be normal about this block man and his stupid feelings?!?! The way his voice breaks as despair sets in?? The fact that he's no doubt pieced together that Garroth probably stole the amulet and plans to use it to hurt Aph and he can't do anything about it?? I'm literally losing it.

How did I not watch this series before.

Literally about to cry over him just calling Aph "M'lady" out of pure instinct. He didn't consciously do that. He just misses her that much.

oh no spooky evil alternate Laurance or whatever--

MAN I'm so happy I decided to watch this series. This was probably a mistake though :)

[eisenartworks]

I've already told some of these before to @gofancyninjaworld in asks I've sent them, but I'll make a post abt some stuff I noticed

Slight differences in Tatsumaki's past

We all already know on just how different and far more unreasonable and I daresay straight up abusive Tatsumaki is in the webcomic, but tbh back then, I wasn't sure what caused it.

For a Doylist explanation, ONE needs Tatsumaki to not be so fatally flawed, bc to be fair, if we put wc Tatsumaki in manga Tatsumaki's situation, SHE WOULD FUCKING DIE. Wc Tatsumaki got lucky, but if she herself were to face Psykorochi and the eventual enemies, that sort of mentality would not give Tatsumaki the help she eventually needed. And not surprisingly, most of the problems the heroes faced in the wc MA arc can be traced back to ding ding ding! Tatsumaki!

For a Watsonian explanation... It took me a reread.

Webcomic Blast is... questionable, to say it generously. He's certainly no ideal hero manga Blast is, and that I do think would surely explain its bleaker world. But it certainly also explains why Tatsumaki is so cruel. Her meeting with Blast was brief, and harsh. He saved her life, but there's not an ounce of kindness there.

but the manga -

... They all lead up to the same advise, but god, look at the difference. Not only does Blast makes sure to let Tatsumaki out, Blast guessing Tatsumaki's reasons allowed her to open up to him, reminding her that she was wanted and needed by someone, he also made sure to give her kindly advise on top of the iconic one: Protect your family.

And to Tatsumaki, I do think that makes all the difference.

The two Saitama's costumes are extremely likely to not be the same

Yeah, I admit this also took a reread, so when I came upon this panel, you must understand I was pretty boggled. That would certainly explain why it looks... Like that. It's a genuinely a cheap costume. Heck, I have a feeling Saitama actually just buys another identical looking but different colored costume whenever he damages his. Maybe that's why whenever ONE colors wc Saitama, the suit color differs. This chapter I'm pretty sure was posted AFTER the The Road to Hero OVA, so I do think the change is intentional.

Manga Saitama on the other hand, has insistently kept going wearing the same costume and continuously repairs it whenever it got damaged or dirtied. There's just not doubt Saitama greatly values his costume, and takes pride in it bc it means he's a hero. Even tried entering it in a hero costume contest once and got its leather waxed. In fact he values it so much that he does subtly bend reality around it in that despite tanking attacks that would disintegrate its normal cloth (or literally any matter tbh), it still somehow gets away with dirt at best and a few rips at worst. It's also why when he lost utter faith in his own heroism, is when the suit gets genuinely destroyed except for the glove holding the core. Why though?

Probably because to some extent, the OVAs are canon. ONE did write some of them, or at least approved of them. This panel certainly helps reinforce that, considering it didn't happen in the manga, but in the anime:

That explains why manga Saitama's suit is a bit more quality and actually has good colors - it was made by someone who cared and believed in Saitama.

Webcomic Saitama's mysterious past

I really enjoyed reading the sidechapters in the manga, esp in the earlier chapters. They're pretty charming, some of it was actually a little sad. We get to know a whole lot more abt the characters and their different sides, Saitama especially, a bit of worldbuilding and a moral lesson here and there. Even some additional buildup/insight to some friendships/relationships. It's pretty interesting to see Saitama's past and see how it parallels some characters, Garou being the? Closest? Most poignant? ONE did intend that they're the antis of each other.

What I didn't realize until rereading the webcomic a few times is that we don't know anything about Saitama. At all.

the webcomic to me seems to operate strictly on the rule: if you never read it in the webcomic, it never happened in the webcomic. Opm has no shortage of mysterious characters. Drive Knight is def the one I first would think of. Webcomic Saitama isn't one I'd expect despite being. Well, literally obvious. We don't know anything about him. He hasn't said a word about his past. it's unimportant to the overall story I guess, but still. It's weird. We actually know a bit more abt wc Drive Knight's past than we do wc Saitama's. wc Saitama and manga Saitama may not even have the same backstory except for encountering Crablante and becoming a hero. If it isn't the same... That would certainly explain why they seem to have a different characteristic despite the fundamentals being the same. manga Saitama overall seems to be kinder, and more empathetic. Heck he's even pretty soft to kids, and the manga makes sure to show that over and over. Wc Saitama has never shown if he's nice or even likes kids.

Webcomic Sweet mask never met Blast. Manga Sweet Mask did.

Webcomic SM has this to say abt Blast:

... But manga SM has this:

how this changes SM, we are yet to know. I had to point this out bc I haven't seen anyone point this out, so I had to make sure.

Thnx for reading I have no idea where I am going w this

[jjwho]

What July will be like for You

Pile1. Pile2.

Pile3. Pile4.

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Pile 1

Cards pulled out:Wheel of fortune reversed,ten of cups, seven of cups, eight of cups.

So what I see is that July might be the month where you'll have a few delays and set backs might be mainly revolving family, gatherings and reunions. July might feel like a month of unexpected changes and like you barely feel like you have control over it or anything.

I feel like you might get a lot of options in July and opportunities like a lot it might make you even feel tired and scared, but why you scared? You haven't even picked or chosen what you want or need.

But you might even abandon these opportunities and options. I feel maybe this is opportunities given by your family or so you can help your family. I'm not sure, but I see you walking away from it. A lot of emotions and feelings revolving this month. Might be very exhausting but it will all work out, but I'm still not sure why you didn't take any opportunities.

I will pull out an advice thing from my wheel

Advice for Pile 1

"Let disasters happen and let's build it up again"-JJ'S iconic advice from her wheel.

So yeah something your weren't expecting or just a lot of shit happened, but things like that are bound to happen in life if you expect to receive better in life. You can't have good without bad, some things are meant to be destroyed to make space for more and great opportunities so embrace it. I know it hard after all the kak, but you have to, opportunies don't stay for you. You have to take it not wait for it to catch you.

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Pile 2

Cards pulled out: the hanged man reversed, knight of cups, eight of wands reversed, the fool, knight of wands

Okay damnnn pile 2 so I see July being's a month of love and new love opportunities for youu, ahhhhhh.

So what im getting is that this month you might be a little disinterested in stuff being a little stagnant and being detached when these two suitors come inn. One is the sweet gentleman like guy who will sweep you off your feet ahhh and one is fired and flirty and rebellious, but I see that maybe the sweet guy might take a little longer and be blocked off bc hes slow, then the fire guy gets you first and adventure and shit, it might be a time when you're not caring, being careless and being inncmocent and not really there in the moment. In your own world. They both might be newww saur jaaa.

Or how you might even notice them I'd one is more slow than the ither and one is more careless than the ither. One observes (knight of cups guy) and just being careless and goes for it (knight of wands guy)

I see water guy there giving something solid and romantic Long term stuff but wands guy wants to just fuc.

Anyways yeah-

Advice for Pile 2

"One life, one chance, a world that doesn't care." JJs iconic advice

So Pile 2 so why do you cares about what ithers think, if you like that one then go for em if you like the other one go for em.

Don't be like "ah no but if I choose that one his friend will be upset cause they think I'm playing with him, but I actually just like this guy more."

Gorl you don't belong to anyone and no one should gaf so dgaf.

Okay period bye.

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♤

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Pile 3

Cards pulled out: nine of pentacles reversed, page of swords reversed, the hermit, the star

So I'm getting you'll have instability with someone, most likely someone who you liked but they're a player and you were working your ass off to make em like you or working your ass off in this connection and they were being cold and had nothing to say.

Finally you'll be like stopping and really looking back and reflecting and this whole situation, then you'll realize, fuck this hoe, imma live my life.

Then you'll begin your healing journey and have hope and get some creativity out of this heartbreak and ja you'll be calm. That's good. I'll be rooting for you bro

Advice for Pile 3

"Time never stops and change never stops" JJs iconic advice.

So what I meant by this advice is time never stops right so it won't stop for you and change always happen. So don't fall back. Cause life and time and change won't wait for you to get better and carry on. No hoe, you gotta pull up your big boy pants and ja stop sulking and move on, stop doing self sabotaging shit and feeling sorry for yourself. Okay. Ja I believe in you, stop sulking over ugly boys.

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Pile 4

Cards pulled out: five of wands reversed, four of wands, knight of swords, eight if pentacles

Saur what im getting is that you'll be ending a conflict and coming to agreements with people maybe family members and ja finding solutions to problems. This month could be a month with a lot of celebrations and family reunions and finally feeling welcomed again. Then I see you becoming more talkative, assertive, maybe being a bit rebellious again, being a leader you might get a lot more opportunities again

But then i see you getting a bad reputation again maybe doing the same thing/job over and over again and having a lack of effort and being careless. So do be careful of what you say bru .

Advice cards for Pile 4

"One life, one chance, a world that doesn't care"

Idk now this is confusing for me to even tell. So ig you tried to resolve conflict again with people you don't like, then you were being honest again and speaking your truth now you have a bad reputation again. All I'm saying is just get new people at this point. Why try and try again to fix conflict if it's all gonna start all over again. So ja

Hope that helps byee

[iraprince]

Heyo! Any advice on struggling to get your art seen in the world? I feel like no matter how much I post, or what I post, people never see it or seem to like it. I love art and am pursuing it as a career (hence why Im getting a degree in it currently lmao) but its kind of disheartening to work really hard on something, post it, and no one sees it.

oh, man. i'm afraid for this one i don't feel like i have a lot of solid advice. having a large-ish following online feels like something that kind of just, like, Happened to me, mostly on accident/in ways outside of my control, and even if i had some ideas on how to potentially replicate those gains i don't think they'd work consistently. (also, a lot of my large jumps in follower count came from mental health related work going viral bc it's #relatable; this is something i have complicated feelings about and it's absolutely not a viable, like, "strategy" or something that i would recommend, in the way that ppl can say like, "fanart gets attention!" or stuff like that.)

so, i don't have advice for how to actually GET those eyes on your art; i can maybe help with making ppl more likely to STAY once they do find you, and how to build a following that will actually help you maintain a living from your work -- bc i have TONS of peers w a following a fraction of the size of mine who get more jobs than me, are doing cooler/more "professional" stuff than me, etc! (heads up that most of my experience is on twitter; i know less than nothing about places like instagram + tiktok, and while tumblr functions very differently from twitter i feel like i handle things mostly the same here, aside from doing less personal posting/being less talkative and not 'networking' or following many people).

SCROLLING BACK UP TO ADD A SPOILER ALERT: AS ALWAYS I HAVE SAID "HAHA IDK I DON'T REALLY HAVE ANY ADVICE" AND THEN PROCEEDED TO TYPE A FULL ESSAY. IF YOU ARE ON DESKTOP YOU CAN HIT THE 'J' KEY TO SKIP THIS POST. IF YOU'RE ON MOBILE, I'M SORRY

a very important thing, especially professionally: it HAS to be easy to see what you do. (this is easier here on tumblr, where u can have a designated art tag etc, than on twitter, which is an awful website that sucks. <- guy who makes all his money on twitter) this means, like -- if i see something from you and get curious and click your profile, it should only take one more click to quickly see at least SOME of your art. on a professional account, it's probably best for your icon to be your own work, something snappy and memorable and eye-catching that reads well at a small size; people shouldn't have to dig for 20 minutes before they can start browsing your art. on twitter, this means TRY not to gunk up your media tab with a ton of reaction images/screencaps of your gacha pulls/etc; on here, it means make your art tag easy to find; on any website, a portfolio link, prominently displayed, is the best bet. (i am still working on that one myself lmao and i've been working professionally full time for a few years now so like, there are outliers and wiggle room on all of this).

next! it's great when your audience finds you, but you have to find them, too. find artists who do similar stuff to you and get into their stuff -- sincerely, not just as "networking." (like only do this with ppl whose stuff you actually think is cool, not just trying to get in mutuals with everyone you see in hopes of a bump, obviously.) get interested in other indie artists, find the people who are working/publishing in the spaces that are exciting and aspirational for you, and support them! i don't want it to sound cynical when i say there's a kind of give-and-take built into this; the point is not "well, if i reblog/retweet a bunch of YOUR stuff, maybe you'll feel obligated to boost mine in return," but that when you find other artists/creatives who are on the same wavelength as you, you will naturally stumble into pools of people who want to support art like yours, and you and your newfound peers will help each other when you hype each other's stuff up and direct followers to each other! (again re: things going differently on dif websites: this is twitter-specific for me, bc i use my tumblr as a gallery/portfolio. that doesn't mean it doesn't happen here tho! it can and does happen everywhere!)

it is really not a competition. i know that SOMETIMES it is in like, a really nitty-gritty numbers sense; people only have so much money to spare, they will make choices about whose patreon they can afford/what comic to buy/etc, that's true. but to me that's not competition. people who are sincerely into your stuff will hang on until they can afford it; maybe that means someone follows you for two whole years before the planets align and they have the budget/opportunity to commission you. by hanging out in similar circles you are not taking potential business or opportunities away from anyone else, nor are you risking leading your own audience to Someone They'll Like Better; you're just offering more options, and the internet is VAST and endless, and EVENTUALLY people will show up who are into YOUR STUFF, SPECIFICALLY. helping each other is never going to stifle or delay that!!

and my final chunk of advice is the one i give constantly that everyone is probably super sick of hearing but i just seriously seriously believe in it, even tho i know it's slow to pay off and hard to follow: keep doing exactly what you want to. keep doing it!!! you have to!!! yes, i mean the stuff that's getting like, 2 likes and 0 reblogs! the stuff that 'nobody likes!'

earlier i mentioned i have gotten big follower bumps from like adhd comics and stuff like that going viral. the thing is that, from a professional standpoint: my follower count has like, more than quintupled from where it was at a few years ago; my patreon income has absolutely NOT quintupled lmfao. it has less than doubled, over that same period of like... i wanna say over 4 years. that's still good, i'm grateful for it, and i owe a lot of it to the sheer numbers game (the more ppl see ur work, the more likely it is you'll reach someone who decides to support you), but there is absolutely not an actual direct correlation between numbers and career success/stability.

where there IS a direct correlation is between "people who give a shit about the art i really truly love making" and "people who like my art enough to support me professionally." HUGE chunks of the followers i get any time something goes viral slough off over time; there's nothing wrong with that, they just follow me bc something was funny/interesting and end up realizing my work's not actually their thing. but the ppl who follow me bc they're into all the stuff i post most consistently, the stuff i care about and am passionate about, stick around. and i would not have found them if i wasn't posting the shit i care about!

out there there are people who will be 100% crazy about the stuff that is 100% what you want to make. it's like actually statistically impossible for there not to be. the more niche your thing is, the longer it will take to find them, but they absolutely exist. but if you give up before you find them -- if you start saying, "well, i'll put in 50% of this idea that i love, but the other 50% is too weird and nobody's gonna like it and it'll flop" -- well, in that case, you can only ever find the ppl who are 50% into what you do. don't fuck yourself like that!! you cannot deny yourself the possibility (the INEVITABILITY!!! IMO!!!!!) of finding the people who will 100% get what you're doing.

so: on a pragmatic level, i'm sure there will be ppl who disagree with me on this, and who think it's absolutely mandatory to do fanart as a crowd draw or learn about algorithms and posting times and get on tiktok and do the visibility grind and everything and that it's stupid and irresponsible to tell people not to. i'm sure it's also easy to point out that i'm speaking from a place where i now have more eyes on my stuff than i know what to fucking do with so maybe i'm just totally out of touch and being naive or something. but for me the most important part of doing art now, ESPECIALLY as a career, is to keep loving it and to believe in what i'm doing and to build an audience that cares about the same things i do. and i think it is really really vital to make that your top priority. bc if you don't, then even if you DO crack the code to suddenly getting tons of notes on everything etc -- will you even keep wanting to do it?

this job is hard. it's lonely, in my experience; i spend so much time sitting in front of my computer alone. it's unstable, which is stressful and can be frightening. it's emotionally taxing, for me, because art is so important to me that it's hard to set boundaries and separate my identity from it and actually treat it like a job. it has taken me a long time to find success doing this; maybe i could have gotten there faster if i had tried to find ways to draw an audience specifically, but i think if i had somehow managed to get a big patreon following/tons of commissioners/etc by doing something formulaic or doing stuff that specifically gets tons of attention, but isn't what's natural for me -- i don't think i would have lasted very long that way. this is already hard and complicated enough; i don't think it's sustainable to give up any unnecessary ground on doing exactly what you're passionate about, bc at least in my case, that's mandatory for this even being a livable career for me. i would burn out and decide to do something else very quickly if the only way to succeed was to chase numbers/engagement.

doing it this way is very slow. if i hadn't been able to lean on family/my wife while starting up, i would have had to have a day job for much longer (like, years, probably) while saving up and preparing to go full time; for as long as you struggle to get traction, it may mean going full time has to be on the backburner. but the thing is that there's nothing wrong with that, it's the reality for the vast majority of us (from what i've seen) -- and you'll eventually build a career that can last way longer, i think.

okay oh my god i'm done. sorry about that. like i said this job is pretty lonely and i sit here all day and think about this stuff and then generally do not talk about it with anyone until somebody asks me about it and then i repeat myself at length again. like i did here. anyway have a good night sincerely and i hope some part of this was helpful!!!

[moongothic]

I dont think Crocodile is openly trans in the OP verse bc I think that the only reason he would have changed genders is because he didn't want to be recognized, also nobody except Ivankov seems to know about his past.

I think the only way that Crocodad could work if it's Oda doesnt take what he wrote in the sbs seriously and changes stuff, because I don't see why if Crocodile wanted to hide his identity why he would transition again to a woman for a few years? Could be risky and he could be exposed even if he hides it makes no sense why he would return back.

I dont know I guess we will have to watch and see what Oda does, Crocodile is now to the race of the OP with Cross Guild so he is a direct rival to SHs right now.

Sorry Anon, I'm having a hard time trying to parse what you wrote- Are you implying Crocodile's a closetted trans woman who detransitioned? Or that he's FtMtFtM?

Both are theoretically plausible, the latter is just a lot of effort to go through (in the sense that he'd need access to Ivankov to do any of that) (and there's the question of why the fuck would he have detransitioned and retransitioned), while the former I'm not personally fond of because I fear writing that version of Crocodad could turn very transphobic in a really nasty way if Oda isn't careful (also you will have to rip trans man Croc from my cold dead hands)

Thing is though, we have no reason to believe Crocodile wanted to "hide his identity"/avoid "being recognized", I don't even fully understand where you're getting that idea from? Like yes being trans opens you up to a lot of harrassment but dude's pretty much permitted by the Government to do whatever he pleases, if someone misgendering bothered him he could get away with murder quite literally. But also, Crocodile has explicitly stated he doesn't really care what people call him and does not object to people using cutesy nicknames for him (not just Ivankov and the iconic "Crocoboy" but including Buggy's "Croc-chan"). So honestly I don't think he'd even care if someone misgendered him, because, let's be real, if you misgender this grown ass man with dick and balls and it's you who will look deranged/senile. Or, if you meant Crocodile was trying to hide for some other reason (former slave theory or child of infamous pirate theories), like. Dude doesn't have to trans his gender to do that. If anything that's quite excessive and would be quite unpleasant for a cis person to do. And we have no reason to believe Crocodile had any reason to try to hide to begin with.

Like, keep in mind that Toei added a lot to conversation he had with Ivankov back in Impel Down, all which did change the implications of the convo. In the source material, all Ivankov ever said was that they knew one of Crocodile's weaknesses but wouldn't bring it up if he simply behaved, that's it. That weakness really could be anything, it doesn't have to be Crocodile being stealth trans (/Ivankov being able to out him). It could be about some of Crocodile's combat abilities (his weakness to water, whether or not he can use Haki), it could be about Crocodile's heritage if he has any significant one (like Rocks as some speculate), hell, there's a decent possibility Ivankov would know if Crocodile ever birthed a child

Yeah I just don't quite see where you're coming from, but indeed, time will tell what will happen, if Crocodile will even permit Buggy to join the race because last we saw he still wasn't on-board to humor the nasty clown

[facelessxchurch]

Review/Rant: Official Merch Store

General Short Version

Remember how he said he would hire professional artists for the official merch store? Yeah, Landy lied bc of course he did. Pretty sure he designed this stuff himself. I mean, a too big amount of items are his doodles.

I didn't expect much, didn't even hope for merch for my favs, but I expected at least some new SP art instead of recycled art (some art is so old it's still from when the first trilogy was released) and well, text.

And no, Landy's shitty 5-second doodles of Skul and himself don't count as "art". Neither does the skull silhouette on some items. Couldn't even be arsed to add eye socks and nose smh :/

3 pages full of garbage merch. He really went for quantity over quality here.

And to add further insult to injury, the prices of the items he sells are heavily overpriced.

So yeah, this entire store is a sign of disrespect and balant insult to the fandom. I hope no one buys this.

Long Version

The Notebooks/-pads

Too much empty space. WAY too much empty space. You couldn't possibly have done this in a lazier way.

The sarcasm one is hardly even SP-related. Plus, he didn't even attempt to pretty the text up a little with typography. He didn't use the 'bold' font for "Caution" which would have been the bare minimum. This doesn't even count as trying.

I TRIED to make the two with characters on it a little better by reducing the empty space, but it's really hard to polish a turd. Especially if ya don't wanna put more than 5 min in lol

Totem Bags

This store has totem bags, but they are worse than the Kickstarter one. At least the Kickstarter one had text big enough that you could read it from afar. For the text on the new ones, you'll need a magnifying glass.

Clothing

Some of the text has the same problem as the totem bags: too small to read. The only time text should be that small is if it isn't meant to be read or when it's "if you can read this you're too close" T-Shirt. This applies especially to A6.

If you have B2 you don't need B1. What happened here? Did he have an item amount quota to reach?

A3, B3 and C3 are Landy's shitty 5 second doodles again. Unless they are used to signed the cloths they don't belong on the clothes. Pay for a custom design, you cheap ass scammer!

A4 and A5, the stripe with Skul should be thicker. If it's on a shirt you shouldn't need a magnifying glass to see it. Also, the blue stripe needs more contrast, the blue is eating the black outlines of Skul. The red stripe on the blue shirt... I just really don't like that blue tone and I hate that he doubled down on it. For the website too.

C1 should have had the sold letters bc you can't read it from further away with that effect on top.

C2 at last you can read this one. Not getting any creativity points from me tho. Once again it's just text and probably took him 5 seconds to design.

Now listen, here is what I want instead. I have this zip-up hoodie from Killstar. I love and essentially I want this but in SP.

Faceless One version: The symbol on the front is the Faceless Church symbol. The back is a picture with Mev in the middle and his generals around him and it's done in the style of those stained glass windows you see in Christian churches but black and white. I don't know what I want on the sleeves. Maybe bursts of flames, symbolizing Mev's fire attacks. Or perhaps just parts of the 'Gospel of the Faceless' scribbled along on the arms in English, Latin or even Irish??? Or one arm a snake to symbolize Nef and the other a lion to symbolize Baron as his right and left hand men?

China Sorrows Version: The symbol in the front should be a crest with a scorpion on it. The back image is a drawing of China in the Art nouveau style. The arms should be a roll of paper curling down each arm with various symbols drawn on them, artfully intervening with each other.

Hats

I wouldn't say that "We don't talk about vampires" is one of the more iconic quotes of the series, but besides that not even an attempt was made at typography. Or like, a little vampire head silhouette with an open mouth and exposed fangs. or even just fangs around the text or anything at all even.

It doesn't assault my eyes, but it's also incredibly boring.

To the people saying they wanted to buy Skul's head: just go to a hat store and buy a fedora. It's gonna be better quality than whatever Landy would smack on the store for a criminal price.

Everything with his face on it

No. How full of yourself do you have to be to try and sell merch with your face on it. The quotes are awful too

The quotes on the postcards are so awfully 2012 Tumblr "quirky" I'm-not-like-other-people ^w^ edgy bullshit vibes. Wasn't cute when it came from the emo kids back then and it coming from a +50 year old man trying to be relatable to the kids these days is just sad and cringe.

Also, I'm pretty sure by sending people that greeting card is how you end relationships including familiar relationships.

Baby's first InDesign Skull

It's what it says in the title. Should have just used the iconic Skul logo instead to make it look like SP and less like random shit you can find on Etsy after reaching page 100.

Really should have just used the old school icon. Thee is a reason it's so iconic: it's easy to recognize as Skul and not random skull/skeleton number 5643489. Plus, using the old one is about the same amount of effort as making the new one.

Honestly, it should have been custom art, but the iconic SP icon would be the lesser evil by a far.

On top of hat, black text is hard to read on a red background js.

Also, what kind of chaotic evil alinged bastard uses a metal pencil case???

Prints

Ngl I always thought the "Mortail Coil" cover was one of the best of the entire series. I also really love the OG "Dark Days" cover. OG book covers as prints? Easy win! Still fucking overpriced tho. Plus the OG covers also would have looked good on clothing, way better than the shit he ended up slapping on there.

As for the collage with all of the characters in it: I always thought it looked awful. The characters were just thrown in there without much thought or care. Also hate that he used the ugly ass SoW Nef instead of the way better-looking Book 1 cover Nef.

Rainbow Ruler

This isn't even Skulduggery-themed. I feel like HarperCollins told Landy he had to put something in the store for the gays but instead of making something like a cute lil Valkyrie/Militsa pin he just smacked this into the store.

The Skulduggery Apron

The only thing that makes it SP-themed is that they smacked a sign saying "Cooking with Skulduggery" on it. Otherwise, it looks like every other skeleton apron you can get around Halloween.

Coaster

So empty and boring again. It looked way better with the moth eventho it was a "Silent of the Lambs" movie poster rip-off. Still don't know why a skull is the official Sanctuary logo. Seems kinda weird for the good guys. On a meta level: I guess literally EVERYTHING in universe has to revolve around Skulduggery.

Make the Sanctuary seal more interesting and then invert the values so the background if black and the lines are white and this could actually look decent.

Skulduggery Clock

This looks like a your-photo-here clock that you can order at every random print shop. Here are some examples from HP to show HOW a custom clock for the fans is meant to look like next to it. (Also look at this Thresh watch, it's so good I almost regret not wearing watches.)

Lunchbox and Waterbottle

Same thing as with the clock. Tho the water bottle also has too much white space.

Mouse-/Gamerpads

Recycled art again. The mousepads look weird with Val placed smack dead in the middle. Plz apply the rule of thirds and move her a little to the right.

Pillows and Bag

AGAIN WITH THOSE SHITTY DOODLES Someone tell Landy that if it takes about 5 seconds to draw it does NOT belong on merchendise!

Also, that floating "Bad Magic" Skul really doesn't work on it's own, Just... just use the damn Skul icon if you gotta be lazy.

Final Words

Overpriced lazy garbage that Landy definetely designed himself. No person with self-respect would even consider participating in this cash grab.

It's an insult to every fan, really.

How to fix this? Delete everything from the website, hire a professional artist, go for quality over quantity. A few items that sell really well are a million times better than a bunch of items that don't sell. If the shop goes well you can always expand.

Almost all of the store should have been custom art apart from a few exceptions where old promo art and book covers are used for tops and posters.

[dogtoling]

Splatoon and dinosaurs are simultaneously stuck in my head with no signs of leaving anytime soon and after seeing the post about what inklings think of humans I feel super motivated to dump all my headcanons relating to paleontology in the splatoon universe I definitely think mammals, especially marine mammals would be the "dinosaurs" to inklings and other sea creatures, land mammals and other animals like insects reptiles etc would probably be more akin to like, aquatic reptiles and pterosaurs where they're still popular and iconic but not really on the level of dinosaurs and may often get mistaken as one. I do feel like fossils of species before the Cenozoic could still be getting dug up and studied to this day though I don't know how much of an issue inaccurate reconstrucions of animals would be for them, I mean it definitely would still happen but I don't know if it'd be on like, Jurassic World level with a lot of shrinkwrapping and maybe marine mammal fins are reconstructed as having fingers instead, because assuming it hasn't just completely been ruined beyond recognition there'd definitely be statues, pictures, drawings, etc of former life that could be referenced by researchers and used to help them with reconstructions. I think the problem that'd come up would be trying to identify those resources to a particular species which could cause a mix up like a statue of a tiger being confused for a jaguar. And with drawings, if they reference something more stylized they could end up with a few incorrect traits such as a dolphin's eyes being larger than they actually are, and there's a bunch of species that aren't as popular as tigers jaguars and dolphins that wouldn't have so many things of them made so they don't really have a lot of reference material if they even have any, but like considering we are still making reconstructions of prehistoric creatures and have been evolving with their accuracy when we didn't have a sentient species documenting their appearance and behaviors I don't think that'd be much of an issue Mammals would 100% be used like dinosaurs are in media, a movie where people are exploring an ocean then somehow this killer whale just appears and starts eating them or something is something I can see existing in the splatoon universe.. PLENTY of documentaries about life in the Cenozoic for sure, I think that killer whales would be seen as a T. rex I mean it's a huge and super cool predator what else could it be, other dolphins would be seen as other large theropods, leopard seals would probably be seen as velociraptors etc Yeah normally with larger pieces of texts like this my wording might end up being weird or I didn't really explain something in a way that made sense but I think I got it pretty clear

i dont even know if i'm going to add anything to this bc i agree with pretty much the whole thing. TL;DR i think it's pretty clear that some mammals and land animals that are iconic in our day are also still popular in the Mollusc Era due to appearing in some of their items; and yeah this is likely because humans created so much stuff OF those animals that there is no way a lot of that isn't being found, dug up, and associated with the creatures. Marine mammals are the most relevant in setting to most creatures in the Mollusc Era, so those are also the most popular (we literally see an anthropomorphized manatee on a sweater in Splatoon 3); also i really hope there's a lot of academic arguing on whether some popular commonly depicted creatures like dragons or gryphons or trolls are real animals

[bonesandthebees]

I was feeling a bit down today so I decided to finally reread the clinic prequel (I've been meaning to for the past few weeks) and omg :(( it's so cute man it's soo adorable shfkdkjfkfdj it's honestly one of my favs and I think clinic!Phil is my fav Phil... He is so nice man I wanna cry shfjdkskffk

I adore how real your fics are. I've said this before but I'll point out a new example shfkfk like when they are at the duck pond, you take care to describe the ducks inbetween their convo. Like you don't rush and just say their dialogue, you take the time to describe the world around them. It makes it a lot more immersive

And you choosing to have that interaction with Hannah and though it clearly shows the juxtaposition between their powers and is a good tool to show how Wilbur's power affects him, it also doesn't feel out of place? It feels honestly like smth that could happen in a universe where superpowers are normal also LOVE the transition it gives to Phil finding a common thing to talk about to approach Wilbur with. Idk I just. Everything about that is so good

I also really like how you write young Wilbur?? Like. It's obvious he's a kid, but also it doesn't feel like ur babying him or anything. He feels like a genuine 12 year old, who's mature enough to understand a lot of things, though still immature in others. It also feels like Wilbur, you've still captured a lot of his personality and I think it's really cool to see. You've got such a good grip on characterization man, I can always hear the cc's voices when I read your writing.

Your characters always feel so real and their train of thought and actions always feel logical, even if they're, from an outsiders point of view, not.

Hehehe that's all for now am not even finished the first chapter I just wanted to rant a bit bc God I love this fic so so much man

Like a Dusty Tomb is ICONIC but this was one of the first pieces of writing to make me Obsessed with sandduo and it holds a very special place in my heart... It's also just fucking adorable like no words can describe how precious this fic is shfkfkdl

awww thank you icy!! I loved writing the clinic prequel so much. it was my first major foray into sandduo centric stuff and I had such a good time with it.

I love including small environmental details to make the atmosphere feel more real. like ducks in a pond or the temperature outside or what the kids on the nearby playground are doing. just small tidbits reminding the readers the world around the characters is alive in these pages.

I loved that little hannah interaction for so many reasons. it was exactly like you said, a way to juxtapose wilbur's own feelings about his powers with hannah's. and I wanted to show the type of interactions you'd see in a society where powers are normalized. I just think little kids with fun powers would love practicing and showing them off to strangers in the park :) and I just liked getting to throw another cameo in there as well. the cameos in the prequel fic were so fun for me to include

i'm so glad that you liked how i wrote kid!wilbur in this. I always get so nervous writing child characters because I hate when fics write all child characters like helpless babies even if they're, like, 12. but at the same time obviously I don't want to make the child i'm writing sound like a mini adult. so I try very hard to strike that balance while also till making sure that above all, he sounds like wilbur. also any and all compliments on my characterization make me so happy aaa ty

so glad you enjoyed <33

[defensivelee]

ok... i just blocked anon at this point but heres what they said bc apparently i didn't read what i wrote myself(?!)

i would just leave it at that, but honestly? i do wanna address some things here not bc i feel the need to defend myself to anon, but bc i wanna make it clear to you ppl WHY all this stuff was written.... like im not gonna sugarcoat it, i DO enjoy writing this bc hi. huge whump lover here. making pretty people suffer is my favorite thing. but it's also so important to say that this is FICTION (this is historical rpf which is kinda funny but still, none of this actually happened). there is no real abuse going on so there is no need for any of this performative bullshit. anon is just wasting time bc it goes without saying but i would never ever condone or do this shit irl. idk how it works for other ppl but for me fiction does not affect reality, the only way it does is that it makes me happy precisely because i can do whatever i want and nobody gets hurt. and these mfs dont care, they're dead im sure they have better things to do. anyway i just wanna say:

all the details anon is giving me abt my story makes it sound like they read the whole story, both Dona Dona and the main chapters. that's almost 100k words. when they could have clicked off at any time. when the tags are so clearly right there. like... you did this for what 😭

i assume the gang rape anon is talking about is in the Tenth Hot Spring when Bentinck serviced a bunch of dudes to seal a deal for William. i would find it kind of difficult to describe it as that... but tbh, yeah, it would have been incredibly hard for him to say no. in any case, so sorry to tell you this anon but there are no perfect victims in this AU! he never sees it as rape because he thinks he deserves it, and because he does enjoy it at times. his whole image as an Ally under an Overlifer kind of relies on that. and while i'll tag it properly, i'm not going to sanitize or sugarcoat it as it's a huge part of his character arc. he doesn't think he's allowed to say no or have boundaries, so he won't! in this society i think it would be hard to find a "perfect victim." Bentinck doesn't cry about this because he thinks he's fulfilling his purpose.

Bentinck being described as a shotacon..... im so sorry that was so fucking funny to me LMFAO

i wouldn't say he enjoyed kissing William's father as a boy, he just thinks he did. obv we don't get to see much of it in Dona Dona bc it's from William's POV. but even then, as an adult, he stills sees it as an honor. AGAIN, part of his whole arc of how he views himself, the religion, and his role in it. that event is kind of the starting point of that, it was put there for a reason and not bc i actually think kids can consent/enjoy assault! in my experience, they can think they did. here again, the perfect victim narrative does not always reflect reality.

you're right, kids can't initiate that! like i said in my disclaimer, it's a result of grooming and how they've been raised. they think they are, but it's just making them easier to abuse. i never once believed they could consent.

im not a rapist period full stop. just not

yeah i romanticize abusive relationships. in FICTION. they're fun to write. jamesborough is a delightful ship and the succubus au has been so fun to work on. real life abusers can choke and i would encourage anyone in a relationship like the ones i write about to seek help immediately.

Anne called Marly a slut bc SHE is victim blaming. EVERYONE victim blames Marly in this story. it's part of HIS arc. i would not blame any victim of this sort of shit irl. and even then, in this universe "slut" doesn't have such a negative connotation as in our world. yes, it is still victim blaming, but how can you read the story and still have it completely fly by your head like that

im aromantic, which i dont know how you wouldnt have just picked up from idk... SCROLLING THRU MY BLOG LIKE ANON SO CLEARLY DID?? LOOKING AT MY ICON?? so no need to pray for those hypothetical partners, it's never happening.

[hazbincalifornia]

(I’m pretty sure the way I type is recognizable but I need to like pretend at anonymity bc I feel. Remarkably silly about this)

I wanted to like idk rant to someone in the HB fandom who isn’t balls deep in the “anti proship” sphere bc like, I’ve been struggling w guilt over enjoying a certain ship that everyone hates and considers problematic (I think Loona and Octavia is rlly cute!) and I’d like to make content for it but I also rlly fear being seen as like a pedophile. Do u ever worry abt that kind of thing? And is there anyway ur able to get over it if u do? I don’t like getting into anti/anti anti discourse bc I feel like it’s a very reductive way to view and interpret media but I still have a crazy amount of worry/guilt

First off, it is still ridiculous to me that this is even a problem in this fandom. This is an adult show about characters in Hell, and the main characters are, respectively, assassins and the eclectic cast of the Hotel which includes a cannibal serial killer. (I am eternally both amused and completely baffled that like half the awful puritanical takes I see are from Val icons. Buddy. Pal. The fucked up fiction is coming from inside the house.) I saw waaaaay more fucked up shit on Zim nsfw twitter than I see on Hellaverse twitter and that show was Y7. Up your game, guys.

Personally, I don't really see Loona and Via as siblings/sisters as much as I think a lot of others do, more just friends (and honestly I think canon moved much too quickly to give them such a heartfelt scene together, they hadn't even met officially before that point?) so it's really only the age thing and even then, the plot of HB has seemed to imply that a fair amount of time has passed since the series started, probably around a year- so Via would be 18 or older by the time anything actually started anyway, especially if they became friends first. Setting aside the 'justification' though... they're not real. They're cute together, I agree, and I think you should be perfectly fine enjoying them just in the lens of 'they're similar, I like how they'd interact, and I think they're cute together'!

I was pretty much forged in my opinions about this from Invader Zim stuff, where people insisted that liking two characters that I'd liked together since I was thirteen made you a pedophile. Obviously, I could tell that wasn't true, because it had never been the case in all those years up to people starting to be bitchy about it in 2019. (Before that, it was that it was bad because it was enemies to lovers and, more importantly, gay. Great hater throne to inherit, guys!)

Unfortunately... as stupid as it is, this fandom is way more puritanical than it should be, so it wouldn't be wrong to engage through anonymity to protect yourself. Find the people in the tag who are using 'proship/proship interact' or something along those lines (I've seen a few, although some tend to lean more on hard/dead dove content), post on ao3 into the anonymous collection which removes your name, make a tumblr sideblog that doesn't connect to your main, find fellow shippers and interact with them specifically. Do whatever you need to do to keep yourself safe from people who can't understand that thinking something is cute or interesting to explore in fiction is automatically bad just because they don't like it. The more stuff that's put out there about the ship, the more likely you are to find kindred spirits, that's honestly part of how I gathered my mpreg weirdos to me in both this fandom and the last.

I'm pretty sure that the callout I got for Sunny was why several mutuals who were a friend group unfollowed (and likely muted) me on twitter. Unfortunately, it left me worrying that the other shoe was going to drop any day for about a week because it got just enough notes to make me worry but not enough to get to anyone with any real reach to spread and get it 'over with'.

At this point, I've sort of reached a state of 'fuck it', because if it happens, it happens. I know that I'm fine, and the people I genuinely care about know that too. I know that what I'm making is entirely separate from my morals as a person, if not from how dumb the IZ stuff was than from the fact that I was an English major. Literature is full of stuff that authors don't make as a 1:1 with their real-life morals! And the one you're thinking about isn't 'bad' comparatively at all.

I think the fandom is starting to see that being a dick about fictional content is bad through the backlash to Poison and 'hey, maybe telling somebody that they need to detail their trauma to the public to make fiction is bad?', but it seems to mostly be centered on dub/noncon, so I wouldn't necessarily hold my breath.

At the end of the day though, remember this: You, as a person, are completely fine, no matter what others might think. Octavia and Loona would probably be seen as a totally normal ship like ten years ago (except for people who'd be dicks about them being gay) and there is no judgement to be made on your character in any reasonable way for thinking they're a good ship. You're not a pedophile for thinking a fictional owl and hellhound look cute together, any more than I was for smacking together two Nicktoon characters, and frankly the IZ argument held slightly more water than 'the almost-18-year-old and the 22-year-old' because Zim's age was so ambigious. Try explaining this 'people think the young adult animals holding hands are bad' to any adult who isn't sucked into fandom discourse and they'd probably be baffled that it's a problem.

I know that the guilty feelings aren't always rational and it took a bit of time for me to unwind how I felt about creating certain stuff too, but try to remember that above all else- exploring things in fiction has been a thing people have done for a very, very long time. What matters is your actions towards other real people, not what you do with fictional dolls.

If nothing else, if you want you can always send me a dm and chat that way, I'd be happy to talk.

[mishkakagehishka]

hihi! who are some of your favourite french authors/poets? this is for a school project but feel free to ignore if you want! i already have victor hugo in the list, but if you have any information you'd like to add on him id appreciate it! hope you have a good day~

Hmm! I'm actually not too well-versed in French literature. Even though they did a lotta cool shit, I never really took to reading them that much.

Charles Baudelaire, though. He will always be number 1 in my heart. His poetry invented symbolism and beauty in the grotesque (literally). Balzac had some good ideas, but, similarly to Hugo, I have no idea what French prose authors were on in the 19th century, but I just can't make myself read 20 pages of a street being described (<- literally what happens in Le Père Goriot). That said, I do have Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes and Notre-Dame de Paris on my read list, because like. It's worth it. It's a slog, but it's worth it.

Jules Verne, too. I condemned Balzac for his twenty fucking pages of street description, but Verne's prose is everything to me. It's a slog. It's a fucking slog. But i have been doing my damn best to read L'île mysterieuse since I was in middle school, bc I want to read it despite the fact that Verne is also a 19th century French novelist and Jesus Christ he can describe. At least his descriptions tend to stick to describing technology and mechanisms which actually has a function, though. My mom's warm recommendation is also Un capitaine de quinze ans, but I haven't started reading it yet myself.

If it's for a school project, you can use Jules Verne as a fun fact, too, a lot of his novels are considered science fiction, but a lot of them feature stuff that was later invented and stuff that's now feasible. But it's still super cool to read, even tho "around the world in 80 days" isn't a feat anymore, it's fun :)

And since it's a project, i'm gonna be nice and give you some extra names :> : François Rabelais (renaissance lit rep. I don't even know how to summarise Gargantua and Pantagruel, but we love grotesque satire), Molière (wrote satirical comedies - an icon), Voltaire (Candide actually kinda smacks tho I never finished it) and Albert Camus (Stranger is a masterpiece of absurdist literature, but Mersault should not have been condemned for being unemotional, free my man)

[funnywormz]

Hey hi hello!!! for 003 of that ask game! I would like to know your opinions on either the funky cat man pls <3

im not sure if there was meant to be another character name here since you put "either"? but regardless i am happy to have an opportunity to talk abt my beloved kitty cat let's gooooo <3

003 | give me a character and i will tell you...

how i feel about this character:

I LOVE CAT i love him so so much. he's so funny and iconic and just. a pleasure to witness. it's always so fun to see what new outfits he wears in each episode hehe. im always a sucker for humanoid characters with animal traits as well, im kind of a furry/furry-adjacent so obv that aspect of him appeals to me too........ he was actually my favourite character for a while before he got beaten by rimmer and then by lister but he's still very dear to my heart

any/all the people i ship romantically with this character:

nobody! my personal headcanon for the cat is that he's aromantic so i don't ship him romantically with anyone, he's expressed multiple times that he gets confused or revolted by the idea of committed romantic relationships and i can't imagine that it would be something he'd derive happiness from. just my personal headcanon though ofc

my favourite non-romantic relationship for this character:

oh definitely his friendship with lister! i love love love how they can be partners in crime sometimes and how cat seems to have a weird kind of respect for lister (at least compared to how he feels abt rimmer lol). it's very very funny how lister is technically the god of cat's species and the whole reason why he's even alive in the first place and yet cat just Doesn't Care abt it. i love how in earlier seasons lister would treat cat more like a cat sometimes...... ik it's definitely not canon but i like to think that he still does cat stuff with him sometimes like getting him to chase laser pointers and string. i also think cat should snuggle up to lister sometimes and complain abt his smell the whole time but he also spends hours like that bc he enjoys it. imagining rimmer walking in one day to see lister playing video games with the cat just curled up on his lap and he immediately turns 180° and walks back out of the room LMAO

my unpopular opinion about this character:

call me a sap if you want but i do think he cares abt his friends. i think he loves and cares abt them deep down and idc what anyone says, even canon. if you've ever been friends with a real kitty you'll know that they can be extremely affectionate loving creatures, and although cat himself is pretty aloof i like to believe he has a loving side deep down. very deep down.

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

i would love to see more of the other cats! also the whole thing of "coolness" being an expression of atheism in cats is so funny and i would have loved to see more of his fellow Cool Cats that don't follow "cloister's" teachings. i also would love to see him doing more cat-things in the modern series like he used to do back in the first two seasons especially, like playing with his food and scent marking by spraying perfume on everything and stuff like that. he doesn't do as much of that stuff as the show goes on and i miss it

favourite friendship for this character:

(see the above "favourite non-romantic relationship" answer, it's the same for this one)

my crossover ship:

not really a ship, or a crossover since they're in the same show lol (sorry i rlly am not meeting the brief here lmao), but i would love to see him hang out with dog from parallel universe again. maybe become close buddies with him despite their initial differences. their dynamic was so fun from what we got to see of it

[ghelgheli]

🔥 - furries

oh boy. woof. i was initially overwhelmed trying to pick out an unpopular opinion but i realized. why settle for one!

yeah, furry stuff isn't all about sex for everyone. it would be fine if it was though. it is fine if someone's interest in furry stuff is purely a sex thing. in an AU where being a furry was all about sex, it would still be fine. trying to wash over the horniness of many (not all) furries in an attempt to defend is a waste of time. someone's investment in furry media can be for the exclusive purpose of jerking off and that's all good ✨

there are no requirements to being a furry. it's not an ontological state with necessary and sufficient conditions. you don't need a suit. you don't need a sona. you don't need an account on xyz website. IT'S NOT THAT SERIOUS. nobody gatekeeping furryness in either direction is worth your time. you can appreciate one piece of furry media every three weeks and call yourself a furry. you can follow three hundred furry artists and say you're not. it's not serious.

there is no essential political economy nor demographic composition to "furry culture" of any sort. there are commie furries. there are lib furries. there are nazi furries. there are lots of gay and trans furries and there are lots of cishet furries. furries are, modulo the sort of selection that occurs in filtering who has access to online and offline spaces where furry stuff might happen, basically just a subset of the general population. which is to say that being a furry is value-neutral, and is neither inherently "revolutionary" nor inherently reprehensible nor inherently gay nor inherently straight. there is no one furry culture, and subcultures and communities can differ just as much as with non-furries.

furry aesthetics are a site of ambiguity. this is hardly unique to the furrosphere, but people can and do derive pleasure from furry content that may not in design align with their orientations and that's fine. as a very masc trans lesbian, i enjoy a lot of mlm furry art because i can project my own experiences of gender on to what is depicted (caveat: there is also a lot of nasty transphobia and transmisogyny in furry subcultures trying to misread trans characters, just as in many other subculture)

a lot of furry wlw art by wlws is boring. sorry about it. it's beholden to the same trappings of desirability as any other art and snzzzz. there are many many gems of course (gammelgaedda lookin at u) but the median looks like it was arranged in a sterile room with artificial lighting and forced poses. tbc i am in awe of the technical skill that goes into a lot of this art. it also just makes me feel absolutely nothing at all otherwise. and before someone grabs me by my goat horns: im not saying this is a problem unique to wlw art, nor that wlw stuff is especially vulnerable to it. but I'm a lesbian and that's what I seek out most, so it's what I'm commenting on

you can have as many sonas as you want. some people seem strangely committed to one person one sona. you can be as polymorphic as you like. you don't have to choose.

people joke about furry artists making bank but: a lot of them undercharge. i paid something like thrice the listed price for my icon bc it was worth at least that much.

there's this one furry art style, with airbrushed looking gradients and broad rounded curves and painfully neat lines. sharp colour boundaries and hypersaturation. idk if I'm conveying this successfully but it's everywhere. and i cannot stand it it's so unpleasant to look at sorry 😭

[ca-cupid]

I understand Elvira is a character, but it is deeply uncomfortable the way you and that anon referred to the actress' actual body. I don't care that they change the neckline for the doll, I understand they're trying to make her appear more PG with the neckline change, but her having large breasts isn't inherently sexual. People who are frustrated with the inaccurate body aren't automatically perverts or only wanting to see her body. Many young girls going through puberty are sexualized for their body developing early. The body change is MH agreeing that large breasts are inherently sexual and should be changed in order to be "appropriate," which is wrong.

I understand you are trying to make a point about what other people would call the doll if it was more accurate, but even hypothetically bringing up "groomers" when talking about Elvira is in poor taste. Elvira actress is a queer woman, and the accusation of lgbt+ being "groomers" is a constant argument in homophoc hate speech. Her actress body isn't an inherently sexual thing that will "groom" kids. Again, I know you are not saying it, but just to bring it up in such an apathetic manner is shrugging off the issue instead of arguing against it. It's not just people being conservative and annoying. People like that are actively harmful to young girls and queer people. This is something people are allowed to fight back against because bodies or identities shouldn't be inherently deviant and must be censored for kids. Monster High took the cowardly route in changing Elvira's body shape. Their complacency is agreement that, yes, breasts are inherently sexual and large ones are inappropriate for anyone to have or too see.

I don’t know if you’re confusing me with someone else because I didn’t get any anons about this so I’m not too sure what you’re talking about

And I don’t think that I’m shrugging off any grooming issue while saying that some people would make that accusation, I’m not saying I agree with it (especially as a bisexual woman) but it would most likely happen, I don’t think most people even know that Cassandra Peterson is queer so they might not even make that association, but Elvira is pretty promiscuity as is so I don’t even thing it would have anything to do with Cassandra’s queerness (of course people could bring that up but that may not be what people immediately think of)

I don’t like that they didn’t give her bigger boobs because 1. Super iconic thing about Elvira and 2. Yeah it’s a body type, it’s not like it would be that difficult for them to make a new mould for a collector doll (hi greta) also wasn’t there controversy bc bride of Frankenstein was on the younger sister body?? Like why was that a thing if it’s just a body type?

I’m not saying people aren’t allowed to fight back against it or anything but I do think the entire situation is a bit ridiculous like,, even if this brand is primarily targeted towards kids, this is an 18+ collector line that are mostly made for movies that kids shouldn’t even be watching in the first place

Looking at it from a company perspective it makes sense why mattel chose not to do it (especially with the recent stuff that’s been happening with some mga brands receiving backlash) because while it’s a different line it is still under the monster high brand which is meant for children and yeah boobs aren’t inherently a sexual thing they are just a body type and someone shouldn’t be sexualized just for having big boobs, but the thing is Elvira is kind of a sexual character and her boobs do play a part in that,, anyway whatever mattel chose to do it would be a loss situation and I think they just chose to go with what they thought was the least controversial route