#I suppose I'd have probably liked it more if I was a bigger fan of the games but yeah didn't hate it but wasn't wow'd by it

[galvatronsthighs]

That sure was a FNAF movie.

[dreamerwitches]

Right! Off we go off we go! Andreana and Kako. Yeah I'm still torn on this. I just think the original doppel worked really well and this one just... ruined it..? I don't think they needed to change the doppel aspects and in doing so it made it look worse. The dual blades looks too busy and kinda dumb and why is her hand up there?? I get she's reckless so she might have cut it off but still... I'm unsure about the legs either. Her whole body is a mishmash of colours and her legs are suddenly all one colour? Dunno... I'd give her a bigger book skirt, highlight the bookmarks more (yes I know the legs are probably bookmarks but moreso as a skirt) and probably give her legs more like her arms.

Oh dear Maura... why did they choose the curtain one..? Maura and Nanaka. It's... it's boring, anyone with eyes can see it's boring. I just feel like the witch takes away from everything interesting about the original. My favourite part is how dark Nanaka's inclusion is and of course, that's absent here. And even the upside down curtain was at least a little interesting but now it's just curtains hanging the regular ol' way. I feel like this witch would be way way better animated instead of just sitting there curtain-ly. They should've chosen someone else with a better doppel...

Meiyui and Delanna. Now I know why she's in a crib, she's just straight up babyish and sleep themed. I think she's fine, nothing special. The crib is fun and creepy. I kinda wish the mouths were more creepy but I guess that's just her style :T

Heidesommer and Konomi... ehhhhh this is super boring... the doppel is more fun... witch is just a mound, it looks like a pile of junk. I don't have much to say about it... doppel is better

Cendrillon and Rena. Now. I think the full witch is beautiful. The colours are so pretty, the faces are horrifying and the bird detailing is lovely. But... is it the doppel..? N-Not for me... Like, I just feel the bird theming comes out of NOWHERE. Her theme is Cinderella, where did this come from?! (actually do birds peck out the eyes of the ugly stepsisters or something in the original? Maybe, that would be a bit better) And the three legs don't do it for me. I felt the one leg to highlight the missing glass slipper works well. And the hair pieces being on the side of her body doesn't sit right with me. Neither does the tail(?) piece, looks stuck on like they were like 'oh, fuck, we forgot the fan part!' BUT. It is a beautiful witch. Do I see this doppel coming from it if it was the other way around? No Also here I included Cendrillon's brief anime appearance and it lines up pretty well! I think in the anime one the body looks more lumpy, the beak isn't as big and its missing the wings.

Zola and Kaede. Meh, disappointed. Why is she less detailed than the doppel??? But I suppose we already kinda saw what she was gonna look like anyway, I should have prepared myself... From the anime, my favourite part was her body and it just feels kinda hard to see here, like, show me those RIBS! I wanna see them! And those big ol' arms! But they're so hidden by the background and her body mehh. Plus I think the face of the doppel is weird and creepy and that's just not there in the final... Also don't like how the horns(?) just completely differ from the doppels style. They kinda look like veins but I dunno if I like them.

Also special guest... my own full witch interpretation from (i think) last years witchtober. I prefer mine thank youuu. But if I redid the witch I'd give her the doppel face, I believe I was basing mine off the anime image at the time

Let's finish on a good one! Momoko and Elfriede! Another that's super pretty, I have few complaints. The head is horrifying and I love it and the dress is still super pretty. Only gripe is I prefer the black lace to the gold gems. My biggest gripe is the fat, bloated hand at the bottom. Why..? What was wrong with the doppel's ones? I think such a slim and elegant needed something better than a hand that looks like a balloon dog. If the fingers were longer I think it would have worked better. And the floating fingies look a little dumb but thats minor

[kwillow]

Answering Some Asks!

Forever ago, I said I'd try to answer more of the asks I get with text, so I don't have them sitting around for years on end. Then I didn't do that. Well... gonna try to do a few now!

Character Stuff

Probably not, since it's solid all the way through, so there's no space for the air to vibrate and make cool sounds. It'd be like flicking a column of glass or gemstone, probably just make some tapping or "thnk" noises and that's it. Alas!

Beggars can't be choosey.

But more seriously, probably words of affirmation/compliments or quality time. Though he doesn't believe compliments often even if he wants them - he's more apt to believe he's just being mocked or manipulated unless he already trusts someone (and even then, he has his doubts).

I talked a bit about this in the tags of this drawing, though I can elaborate in a bigger font size as well, haha.

As his story stands now, he has exclusively pursued women as partners. I tend to think of him as straight.

That said, I'm not opposed to his hetero being flexible if, in the future, a story opportunity popped up where he'd need to be curious about a man. (Jack, another character of mine, started off as straight and then slid inexorably to "bisexual, heavy on the girl" so it has happened before, haha.) AND if other people want to write/draw/think of him as straying from straight n' narrow that's obviously fine with me. :P

He's not a royal - he wishes, haha. He is nobility, though! His father his a marquis, which gives him the courtesy title of count (or "comte", using the French variant) until he inherits his father's title (though the Old Kingdoms are destroyed before that ever happens). Tough when he's much older he just assigns himself pope-kingship so I guess that counts as self-appointed royalty.

BUT ANYWAY

Yes he's had crushes, infatuations, love affairs and flings. Too many. Though it's interesting you bring up status - as a lot of his crushes tended to be on people from lower societal positions than he was. His first crush, and one of his longest (and most tumultuous) relationships was with a stablehand's daughter. When he did get infatuated with well-born women, it tended to be women who were already engaged, married or otherwise unavailable for him to marry. He's just got a taste for things he can't have...

It was extremely infuriating for his father.

(Of course, another part of his lack of discrimination between noble and common ladies might be due to him seeing himself as above ALL mortals, so what's the difference between a peasant and a noblewoman, really?)

Non-Character Stuff

Hahaha well I welcome that! Ambroys should be bullied on as many fronts as possible.

Thank you! It's a combination of purposeful research while also ignoring what I research for stuff I think just looks fun. Admittedly, I also am bad at drawing things consistently, so in some ways it's easier for me to just put a character in an entirely new outfit instead of trying to draw an old outfit the same way again, ha. xD

Not to sound like a soccer mom, but I'm a fan of Pinterest for browsing and collecting reference images of outfits that just "feel" like a character, so you have a broad visual library to draw from. You should also pair that with research into how the clothes you want to draw are supposed to fit. For historical outfits, you can get a lot of mileage out of the blogs of historical fanatics who enjoy eviscerating movie costumes from their period of interest. For modern day clothing, you can look at style blogs and tailoring information to learn how clothes are supposed to fit - and then break those rules if you want (for example, in mens' suits, the pants are not supposed to be bunched around the ankles, but I draw Theo's trousers that way to emphasize that he has unusually short legs).

My secret tip for coming up with lots of outfits for characters while keeping them cohesive is to determine a few things about their fashion sense (using Theo and Ambroys to contrast with each other):

What cuts/kinds of clothing do they wear often? What's their "taste", basically. For example, Ambroys wears tight pants/breeches, ostentatious coats and vests, lace and lots of jewelry. Theo, on the other hand, always wants to wear formal clothes that cover most of his body. From that, you can find other clothes that fit that mold and take inspiration from them, expanding what kinds of clothes they wear while still making it feel like "them".

What color palettes do they tend to wear? Theo wears dark colors and red and purple pretty much exclusively, while Ambroys wears a lot of colors, but only in light shades.

What thematic elements can you incorporate into their outfits as decoration? For Theo, I tend to include blood-drop designs and heraldic symbols like the ermine spot, while Ambroys is associated with flowers (especially roses), eyes and wings. You can add these elements to outfits to add a little extra spice (there are a lot of Ambroys' outfits that are really the same thing, but in one I put daffodils on him and another I put feathers on him, for example).

I hope any of that is helpful!

Thank you so much! I honestly have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to rendering, so I'm glad it's looking okay, heh!

I've heard Gravity Falls is great, but like many shows that I've heard are great, I have never made time to watch it. I know vaguely of Stanley Pines, though.

But thank you so much for saying you like Theo. He's a nasty little guy but he's very near and dear to my heart, and it really touches me that you see complexity and charisma in him. I do aim to make characters that are textured, weird little bastards.

And I don't mind you roleplaying with Theo, I think it's sweet. xP I'm glad he got to enjoy some pizza.

[nayruwu]

Heyy~,

Are you still keeping up with the ONS manga?

If so, are you disappointed with the plot development of ONS?

ohh, interesting question!!

it's hard to answer, because my interests are so far off from what is actually happening in the manga right now. so i'm a lot more biased towards "ugh, this sucks" right now, but i'll try to work around it and really think of what bothers me beside the lack of my beloved scrunklies.

generally i think my biggest issue right now is how different the story today is to the events before. if you tried explaining to an anime only how the true villain of the story is actually a six-winged nonbinary hoe with depression that keeps their child's corpse in the hiiragi's basement, they probably wouldn't believe it's the same series. and i know that this was planned from the start, and kagami didn't just come up with shikama three weeks ago, but it still feels bad to have everything that was set up in the beginning of the manga not really matter anymore. they centered the whole start around the world ending, and it makes sense that there was never much worldbuilding because now it's just another thing that happened.

what were the interesting points back then? the apocalyptic setting! the ever looming threat in form of the vampires trying to enslave the remnants of humanity! the unshakeable rule of the hiiragi family suppressing those below them! there were tons of charming characters introduced that probably won't ever show up again (one of which even has backstory with an um, ex main character, i'd call yoichi. goodbye plot relevance). now none of that really matters anymore. it's a kind of "hey there's this bigger threat and bigger secret that renders everything that happened in the past meaningless!" that i don't really like. so what does it matter that krul dies and ashera loses her? they were angels in the past! their souls are bound together! they'll see each other again soon!

i'm not a fan of soulmate plots. i need at least 7 books of explanation for why these two characters like each other before i can see the relationship as true and meaningful. this is also why i can't bring myself to be interested in mika/yuu anymore, but i don't want to put a target on my back right now. they're good, alright. just not for me.

another thing that bothers me is how we're supposed to relate to, and perhaps even root for shikama. they were set up in both vampire reign and catastrophe as this incomprehensible force that planned the fate of the entire human race, leaving them as nothing more than figures on a chess board. and that's cool! that's terrifying! but shikama and the other angels turned out to be... not really incomprehensible at all. they're just humans with wings and special powers. to me, that's pretty underwhelming. maybe a different, more stylised approach to telling the story of angel mika would have made it easier to enjoy for me. something that wasn't just another version of "someone i love died and i didn't want them to so i did this thing". maybe that's the point, a cycle doomed to repeat, but... i don't know, i guess i expected something else.

so no, i don't like the recent developments. i can't think of anything i like about it, honestly. but that's a me problem. most people seem to like it, especially the mika enjoyers that have gotten their wildest dreams fulfilled these past few years! it's a little sad that my brain lost interest in him, i'd be a lot happier with the content we're getting.

this sounds extremely negative but oh well! i still look forward to the chapters and am excited to see what happens next, but without the thought of "hey, X scene has to happen at some point, it'll just take a while", i probably wouldn't be here anymore. i'll just wait for that and let the rest pass me by. yuu the floating eye, sure....

sure.....................................

sure...........................

[snek-eyes]

Omg I LOATHE the coffee theory with all my heart.

About Maggie, I did a little deep dive into existing fan theories (the most "popular" one being that she might be demon offspring) and I'd like to reiterate. I don't think there's anything supernatural going on here. A while ago Neil confirmed that Maggie was immune to Azi's attempt at hypotizing her in the final episode to forget what was happening because he had done so much hypnotizing already and didn't have the spoons to put in the effort it would have taken to actually put her under a spell since she'd already witnessed so much that it would have been harder to change her perception, and that's not only what I initially thought, too, but what feels like the most logical thing. The spelling mistake might be just her being upset because she thinks she'll lose the shop she loves so much. Or it might be a red herring there to make us think there's something more going on but there actually isn't. Or, in addition to my first point, since Maggie is supposed to mirror Crowley, the spelling mistake might be part of that (Crowley himself isn't bad at spelling but the other demons are associated with it so it makes sense, just like Maggie living in her shop because she can't afford a flat mirrors Crowley living in the Bentley). Plus, I don't think Maggie is an important character. She was a main character in the season, much like Madame Tracy and Shadwell and Adam in the first season, but the story is centered solely around Crowley and Aziraphale and their love story and I feel big reveals like "Maggie is a demon/is offspring of supernatural beings" doesn't really fit the story. All of which to say yes I think you're right 🤣❤

-💫 (btw I love being halo anon! feels very sophisticated and ethereal 🤣)

Seeing everyone play around with theories and ideas is overall fun. That's what fandom is for! So most of the time, I don't like being like "It's Not That Deep bro." But then there are times where I'm like, welllll we might wanna just pull out Occam's razor here, the simplest explanation is probably the best one. Especially when it comes to theories that feel like they do the characters a disservice, because character motivations and flaws are what I find interesting. Most of the time, I'd rather spend time thinking about what it says about a character that they chose to do X, than there being external factors that Made Them Do It. Maggie being a demon right now is just "well of course she did that, she's a demon," I don't know anything about her as a person who would choose to do this. If S3 introduces me to her, I'm open to it! But until then, I agree with you that I just don't think she's much bigger of a character than what we saw.

[kats-kradle]

Do you listen to music when you write?

3. Computer or pen and paper?

17. What writing habits or rituals do you have?

18. If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about?

21. Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

27. Favourite line/scene

36. Last sentence you wrote

40. Share some backstory for one of your characters

45. How much world building do you do?

46. Do you reread your own stories?

Answer any one/combination of these that you'd like! I'd love to hear anything you want to share about your stories, friend :)

Thank you friend! 🥰

1. Do you listen to music when you write?  

For writing fanfiction, I don’t really listen to music unless it’s a song that inspired that fic. Then I listen to it in repeat😂😂 When I’m writing my own stuff I tend to listen to a few playlists on YouTube that are like “epic music for writing” or other various playlists that don’t have music with words. I’ve got a few I cycle through depending on the type of scene I’m writing.

3. Computer or pen and paper? 

For fanfiction, the notes app of my phone because I can just do it whenever. When I’m writing my own stuff I use my laptop because its easier for me to think bigger if that makes sense😂😂

17. What writing habits or rituals do you have?

Hmmm I think the only habit/ritual I really have is that every other time I sit down to write I read through and tweak the last thing I wrote. I know that TECHNICALLY you’re not supposed to edit as you go but it just makes it so much tidier in my brain.

18. If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about?

Honestly if I could collaborate with anyone it would be my older sister. The biggest fan of our original writing is our younger sister and my older sister and I want to write her a story that has two of our characters interacting together (her two favorites). The problem is we can’t find time to plan it since my little sister is always in the house😂😂

21. Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

Oooooo this one is actually tricky😂😂 I think for fanfiction I more enjoy playing around and pushing preexisting dynamics so I don’t think there’s a specific character right now. For my personal writing… oh boy my babies. So far I think it’s Quinn, the snarky and jovial sci-fi pilot/smuggler who’s moral compass points firmly towards money… until children are involved. He also has a British accent. Yes, it is important to his character. He’s one of those characters who feels things very deeply but tries to put on a facade about it. Absolutely delightful to write he’s here for a good time, not for a long time (much to the chagrin of his first officer and close friend whose self appointed job is keeping Quinn alive).

27. Favourite line/scene

Favorite scene I’ve written (this is cheating) is probably my fic Little Talks. It’s a Les Mis Jacert lives and is redeemed fic and it’s got so many good scenes in it that came out even better than I thought they would that I can’t pick one. 

36. Last sentence you wrote

Last line I wrote was from a WIP for Star Trek TNG. It’s a fic where Riker gets deaged by Q and it’s discovered that his father was abusive to him. Because that ep with his father… super dubious parenting and I think someone should address it so what’s fics for besides forcing people to address things? Also of those lowkey vent fics tbh😂

“What you deserved,” Picard said lowly, “was nothing but love from your father, and it pains me to hear that you believe you deserved such abuse from him.” 

40. Share some backstory for one of your characters

I’ll give you the backstory for one of my side characters in one of my fantasy stories. His placeholder name is Romeo and he was like the equivalent of a medieval fantasy playboy. A true bard. He broke the heart of a sorceress and she cursed him to be nothing but a skeleton until he learned how to love selflessly. He is AWFUL and I love him. He’s just sour and feral all the time and regularly eggs people on the make bad decisions. Which is objectively hilarious coming from a skeleton.

45. How much world building do you do?

Before I start writing, I like to have done enough world building that I understand the general vibes and structure of the world. This looks different for every story tho tbh. One story I’ve been meticulously building for four years and another I made up as I went along. I guess it’s more accurate for me to say then that I do enough that I can understand the characters’ relationships with the world. I’m very much a “people” writer and focus on the characters more than anything else (like, unfortunately, the plot😭)

46. Do you reread your own stories?

Look at risk of sounding arrogant there are very few of my stories that I do not enjoy rereading, and it’s mostly just the ones I wrote when I was like 15. I am the target audience for all of my stories and I will unashamedly admit that I regularly go to my own AO3 page and read my own fics and go “that was a good one good job me”

Thank you for all the questions friend! Prepare your inbox 😈😈

ask game here

[das-gelelenk]

So I read the first chapter of your Cedric x Reader fanfic and came to share my thoughts.

I will say, I'm not too fond of x Reader, I'm more about reading about characters instead of being one. That being said, I liked that there was an effort to include other characters from stf, and I actually got invested from how the fic was formatted as a genuine stf episode.

I don't want to be too critical of the portrayal of some of the characters, but as a Roland enjoyer, I felt your portrayal of him was quite decent until it came to Cedric. I'm not sure at what point the story is supposed to take place in besides being between Great Auntventure and Day of the Sorcerers, but I feel that Roland being unhappy about Cedric coming along doesn't feel in character. At most points in the show, Roland is shown to not mind Cedric, let alone with Sofia. Cedric's Apprentice was an episode where Sofia literally became Cedric's apprentice so he could help her for a test, and Roland never once objects to her being with Cedric. I think Roland doesn't have as big of a gripe as people think because he's more disappointed at Cedric not being able to do magic than him as a person overall.

That being said, I love how you wrote him as someone who respected Sofia's wishes and let her bring Cedric along to the carnival. That is very much like Roland to see that Sofia likes something and sets aside his biases for his daughter. I can understand headcanoning Roland not liking Cedric as a person, and It's not something I'd agree with, but I absolutely agree with him respecting his children and their wishes.

As for the royal family as a whole, I didn't expect them to take as much of a focus as they did, and it was a pleasant surprise to have the children interact with Y/N. In fact, the format of the fic was so creative, with the royal family being so involved, I found myself being invested more in that than the x Reader parts. That's just me liking things not involving Cedric more because of how focused he is in the fandom. I wanted to talk more about the other aspects of the fic because I think people would find these elements such a treat.

While the royal family isn't THE main focus, I found Amber and Miranda to be a bit weird as characters. The fact I preferred the writing for James over them says something. With Miranda, I felt she wasn't a character like everyone else. The only role she seemed to have was as a mother and nothing else. The way she didn't have as much of a prominence as the others bummed me out. And it's not that she had to have a bigger role, but I felt myself questioning where she was.

My thoughts about Amber are based on my opinion, but the way she was written felt mixed to me. There were parts where she felt like Amber, like her excitement at getting her fortune told, but her being interested in whether she has a spouse?? I don't know, I personally don't think she would be too interested in that, or at least would be more interested in other aspects of her future. Plus the "I AM EASY" part caught me off guard. That part with the part before of Amber eating fast but elegantly did not pair well. It felt like Hildegard core.

These are just my thoughts though. I really enjoyed reading this fanfic despite some parts I didn't jive with. I would recommend it for anyone who likes a storyline with their smoochies with Cedric rjdbhdidjdjdjrj

Thanks for recommending me this fic /g /vpos

I ain’t reading all that I’m happy for you tho or sorry that happened /ref

No but seriously thank you so much for writing all this 😭😭

First of all I always try to make my one shots feel like they could more or less happen in the StF canon, so I’m glad it works!!

Regarding Roland, I know that you love him but I don’t necessarily like him that much. I think he’s okay most of the time, I just hate him for fun lmao (that’s probably why I wrote him as less likable than he actually is)

About the characters overall, this was my first piece of StF fan fiction and when I was writing this I hadn’t finished the show yet (I was maybe at the beginning of season 2) so the characters hadn’t gone through all the development they had to go through yet, and I guess I didn’t have that good of a grasp on their personalities. Now that you point it out, looking back Amber was never boy crazy so I agree that that bit doesn’t make any sense (😭), and yeah I guess Miranda ended up being just… mom.

All in all thanks for the feedback! ❤️❤️

[typekiku]

Thoughts on Mahoyo Movie

hello hello everyone!

how are all my fellow type moon fans and other "people" doing?

good? good!

anyways so i saw some shit takes going around on the net and decided i would write out my opinions on them here. screaming into the void can be real therapeutic especially for a fellow mahoyo fan like myself.

without further ado here i go

AOKO RINFACE?!?!

(Ignore the somewhat low-quality picture here.)

This is probably the funniest take since it actually is the very opposite: Rin is based off Aoko!

"bUt hOw kIkU? "You poor lost soul may be thinking, and this is actually correct. FSN did, in fact, come out almost a decade before Witch on the Holy Night did. Congratulations, you are right! Pat yourself on the back, champ.

With that being said, Rin is still based off Aoko! Don't believe me? Let's see what Nasu himself has to say on this matter.

NASU: Yes, the heroine with glasses from old "Fate" named Ayaka Sajyou had a rival character who was a total rich-kid, spoiled heiress type. She would look down on you and laugh at you, like Luvia. Her servant was the Lancer. You could say she was the basis for Rin's character. When Shirou snagged the main character position for "stay night", it was this character who transformed into Rin to fill the rival role. We wanted Shirou's rival to be more likeable than the snobby heiress, though, so we took inspiration from Aoko Aozaki, a character Takeuchi and I both like. Azaka, Akiha, and Rin are all Aoko-type characters, but I'd say Rin is the most like Aoko. I really didn't feel like making "Witch on the Holy Night" when we were working on "stay night", so I made the executive decision to create a feminine Aoko. Though I suppose she turned out to be more of a clumsy Aoko than a feminine Aoko... Takeuchi seemed to intuitively understand what I was going for, and his "Fate version Aoko" meshed well with my vision for Rin.

from : Fate/ Character Material II

(https://tri-hermes.org/Materials/cmii-rin.html)

So yes, indeed, Rin was based on Aoko. If you are still confused on how this is possible, you must understand that Witch on the Holy Night is one of Nasu's very first works, written all the way back in 1996, being an almost 500-page novel at the time.

It was obviously shelved for a long while, but the characters within it have remained influential, showing up throughout various different works of Nasu's, but especially Aoko and Touko, who would go on to be important throughout the Nasuverse.

(Also, Soichiro Kuzuki is basically a colder soujuuro and probably even from the same organization.)

Hell, we even have some original artwork from how Aoko looked back then. Compared to how Rin looks now, they don't really look that similar, to be honest.

Now this Aoko, drawn by Takeuchi in TYPE MOON character material all the way back in 2006, after fate/stay night, could be argued to look a lot like Rin, but even that would be a stretch of the imagination (and eyes).

Regardless, what is my point here? Its silly to call Aoko a rin face when:

a) She doesn't even really look like Rin (I'm not even going to bring up Koyama's version of Aoko since that's meaningless).

b) She precedes Rin in both having been created before her and designed before her.

That doesn't mean the movie version of Aoko doesn't look like Rin, because not only does she kind of look like her, but it's probably intentionally meant to provoke these kinds of takes since, in the eyes of most of the audience for Witch on the Holy Night, Aoko might as well be a completely new character.

Honestly? who cares? This "Aoko looks like Rin" business pales in comparison to a bigger worry of mine... How will Ufotable properly adapt Mahoyo?

Mahoyo is a visual novel that has more quiet scenes than action, and will they really manage to adapt that well or lean more into flashy, hyped action scenes?

This worry of mine stems from Ufotables Heaven Feel films, which while I still thoroughly enjoyed, I felt disappointed at all the cut scenes that served to establish the relationship between Illya and Shirou, and likewise the cut scenes between Shirou and Kirei, which are both just as important as Sakura to the main story.

Instead of focusing on the main climax of Heaven's Feel and the climax of the whole FSN, which is Shirou's final battle with Kirei, they extended the Salter vs. Rider fight and made it out to be the centerpiece of the route, which it is in fact not.

Judging from the trailer it will likely adapt up to at least chapter 6 which leaves the rest for maybe another film? possibly even a trilogy which i mean i just don't see happening to be frank but i could be surprised!

Most importantly....

WHERE IS MY FATE ROUTE ANIME DAMN IT??? I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SO LONG... TEN YEARS AT LEAST!

ahem

So yes, that is all I have to say on this matter. I'm both excited to finally get to see Mahoyo in film and for others to get into this series that I so love! It will be great to see others get into it, even if it is possibly a shitty adaptation.

also seeing others call this a fate spinoff physically hurts

Thanks for reading my rant of the day!

cyaaa

[mommyclaws]

i have genuinely never heard of a bluestar-hate video, what video is that??? o_o like. i am certain i won’t agree with whatever takes they have, but now i’m curious

You don't??? The damage it did to the warrior cats fandom for years after is still so vivid to me, holy shitt....

Before I start, I am not trying to start drama. I'm actually a fan of the op. This isnt a cancel or callout post. The video is probably 6+ years old now. No clue if it or the related videos are still up, but I'm not gonna go fishing for them and if someone else finds them, I'd appreciate if you DO NOT link it on this post! Just to avoid any drama yknow yknow

So to sum it up the video was basically saying that Bluestar is a bad person for what she did to Brightheart/Lostface and went on to nickpick things about her, like interpreting her personality as entitled and I vaguely remember some implication that she was judging ThistleClaw unfairly. Which is... fine on it's own. You don't have to like the character or the things she did, but they also had a similar video "defending" Thistleclaw. Obviously not in a condoning his actions kind of way, but it was something along the lines of "You guys are hating him for the wrong reasons. You should hate him for being violent and a gr*0mer. But he was actually nice to Snowfur and loved her so stop making art/content where he's mean to Snowfur!"

And it probably didn't sit well with alot of people because... what difference does it make?

And god I could rant, I could rant, I could RANT about why showing Thistleclaw in any positive light when it is common knowledge that a majority of this fandom are in middle school was not a good idea. And besides that, he canonly calls Snowfur and their son weak after she died. Thistleclaw isn't and was never supposed to be a sympathetic character.

I genuinely dont care if you like him or headcanon him, blah blah whatever. I'm not here to police people over fake cats. Idc. but any Thistleclaw defense is completely uncalled for and has no purpose when his fucking character is a canon ped0 and gr*0mer who might put the age group this book is made for at risk. The things he does in Spottedleaf's Heart are bad, and the book just never acknowledged that the gr*0ming and age gap were the issue, rather just the fact that he was training in the Dark Forest. I think this could be very easily misinterpreted by children because it doesn't show the true weight of how bad Spottedpaw's situation is.

But anyways, after those videos, the backlash against Bluestar was intense and there was definitely a bigger Thistleclaw fan crowd for awhile. I mean this spread like wildfire. Any video, art posted, or mention of Bluestar would always have a ton of people making unnecessary side comments like "I hate her but-" "I don't like her but-" etc. I would even see people link the video if you mentioned liking her😭?? Which is just 1. rude to say on someone else work and 2. Blantantly parroting for the video just because the op was popular.

I don't blame this video specifically, and I know the fandom is mostly kids- even more so back then- but I do think it had a bit of a part to play in how the warriors fandom has long since blurred the line between "This character is bad" and "This character did a bad thing."

Yes, Bluestar did bad things, but the narrative VERY MUCH portrayed those things as bad. The reader knows what she did was bad. The characters know what she did was bad. That was the entire point. Completely opposite of characters like Bramblestar, who do bad things but are defended by the narrative and it's way more appropriate to bring negative attention.

Imo Bluestar was one of the best written and tragic characters in the series and before that video alot of people agreed, but for years after it she was reduced to "She did bad thing so I can't like her anymore". The whole Bluestar stuff has blown off since and I'm glad, but it's so frustrating how many characters get this treatment as well lately instead of being seen as narrative tools.

You can comment and reblog stuff but if anyone starts dropping names, URLs, or video links I'm turning reblogs off okay?

[9800sblog]

Thinking he'll see ghosts if he gets involved in tarot-thats literally me,couple of years ago when I got into spirituality,tarot etc I was so scared watching tarot videos,even sometimes I get scared while watching some particular type of videos,usually the one's with talking to spitit guides or passed on loved ones,I've decided and then undecided to connect directly to my spirit guides,they are allowed to give me message in my dreams or in other non scary ways tho they don't seem to do so much,maybe I can't see it,last year I was trying to astral project for few months cause I noticed I've been doing a lot of the things people tell you to do for astral projection and maybe it was meant to be,after many half attempts,lucid dream nightmares(nightmares are common for me in general yikes) and few almosts I gave up,I thought I could talk directly to my spirit guides there but I just couldn't be nonchalant about oh you might see a shadow figure,you might come across tricksters,for me I need to know everything about something and prepare for it properly,also if you tell me this might or might not happen my brain will cling to it happening so I'm on guard so it's hard for me to take chances with this,even I am spiritual,I have severe anxiety disorder(untreated atm due to things out of my control)and that probably has some hand in this,have you ever felt this way? how do you deal with being scared of things like this?

oh my god when I started getting into these things, I was sooooo scared!! i started doing telepathy communication with my future spouse and sometimes I'd just see or feel the person in my room and I'd FREAK OUT, turn on all the lights, look every corner to see if there's something or someone, then distract myself somehow so I wouldn't think of it while also being vigilant, just in case.

how did it get better? literally just figuring out what's going on and how things work. before being into spirituality, I was super into science, so my spiritual knowledge is intertwined with scientific explanations, makes things less scary. because science explains everyday life in simple ways, spirituality is literally a type of science. I don't like when people explain spirituality in complicated terms or make it feel like magic or something exclusive, spirituality is everyday life and habits. spiritual practices like tarot cards are just supposed to make it easier, it's not a big deal.

I don't personally believe spirits can interact with the physical world, that's why I'm not a fan of talking to spirit guides too often, it can confuse the shit out of you. so that horror movie thing where ghosts pull your feet at night is literally impossible, they can't harm you physically or force you into anything. I think they can bring ideas into your head, but only if you ask and you'll only follow if you're susceptible or agree.

I personally don't like watching general tarot videos and things like that because that type of media usually reaches a bigger audience - it's more difficult to interpret the messages and too many people "popularize" their beliefs for money and attention. I'd say if you don't feel comfortable in a video, just move along, it's not a big deal at all.

I think most of us are chilling when it comes to shadow beings, I like to think of them as black holes - if you came into contact with one, you wouldn't be able to avoid it and it would cause major destruction, but how many stories have you heard of someone dying in a black hole? the other "dark spirits", I think of them as natural disasters like hurricanes, you can easily protect yourself from it, some people are more susceptible to it's consequences, but also most people can and do recuperate from it. and if you're prepared, it's not that big of a deal.

i hope this helps! it's just my personal thing, but figuring out how science explains spiritual beliefs is the best thing for anxious people that are into these things hehe

[atztranspm]

Wooyoung PM 4 : 07/27/23

(Wooyoung did a live with no messages)

He started the live and waited a little for some more people to join and started looking at the comments. He read a few hear and there. He said he wanted to a live since the last one he did was in Saudia Arabia. He said he was on break from doing fan calls so he did a live.

He said that he saw atiny really liked when he danced S-Class by stray kids back when they preformed in madrid. He said that he was was supposed to film a dance challenge with Changbin but since their schedules didn't match up, they couldn't (he dropped this on me and now I'm tearing up. Wym we could have gotten changbin and wooyoung dancing to s-class and maybe bouncy together 😭😭😭😭)

Lots of atiny were telling him to be careful cuz it was really hot and he said, that he doesn't really leave to go out much so he hadn't even realized. (He just like me, we are the same 🤩🤞)

Many atiny were asking if his waterbomb outfit would be revealing and to reveal something but he said he would not be doing that. (Yall can barely handle a sliver of fore arm, and you want him half naked on stage 🤨📸🤏)

Someone asked what he was wearing today and he got up to show us his outfit "it's cute right?" Did a little 360 of the fit and then showed us his shoes. He said these are the ones everyone makes fun of him for wearing cuz they're really big and Chunky (he can stomp on me we those tanks on his feet and I'd be grateful)

Someone ask he was doing and he said that he's in good condition. He is eating right and taking care of himself. He said he gained a little weight recently and was trying to lose it. He said he looks in the mirror sometimes and wonders what an idol should look like and if he fits the description (I'm in tears omg) he said he had to lose weight in order for him to feel like he fits the idol category and to his best (wooyoung got me all emotional. I saw people not taking him seriously on twitter an yall- I'm upset. Please give them lots of love and praise) he said his eyes look bigger cuz his face sinks in when he loses weight. He laughed it off when fans were worried for him. He said that if we're worried now when he hasn't lost much weight, what should he do.

There was a lot of comments asking for waterbomb spoilers and he said it would be no fun if he were to spoil it. He said to look foward to it.

He said that the staff feeds them well and he had abura soba (see now I want to try it)

He was wearing glasses on his head and some atiny asked about it. He said that there's a glare from the light and it bothered him so he put them on his head instead. He said their normal glasses not sunglasses.

He spoke a little about his family, I think someone asked about kyungmin, but he said he hadn't seen his brothers or mom (in person) in a while.

Someone asked about ayun and arin (the two babies they played with on that show...I forgot the name...hold on.....baby cloud? You can watch it on YouTube, it's super cute) and he said that seonghwa, san and him were thinking of going to visit them because he missed them a lot (me when I start sobbing cuz that's literally so cute u don't understand, I'm clutching my chest)

He said he was going to upload pics on insta later (he posted them already btw)

He spoke a little about his hair, he said he had grown it out quite a bit. He played with it a little. He said he hadn't cute it since he dyed it black back in halazia era. He hasn't even thought of cutting it and probably won't. He said he wants it to reach his chin and then he'll keep it at that length.

He said when he cuts his hair, he's going to dye it blonde first. He has set plans for his hair. He said he spent so long trying to grow his hair out that it would be a shame to just cut it off now. But in the future sometime. (Blonde wooyoung making a comeback is all I need)

After that he said he had to go back to doing fancalls so he ended the live with a little babaiii <3

(I aspire to be like wooyoung, he's literally my soulmate idc)

[clairethecutepup]

Puppy Eyes and Doll Eyes (pg. 5)

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First, disclaimers: we all know Ed Edd n' Eddy doesn't belong to me, and the "Assassin AU" of the series is by "C2ndy2c1d". Secondly, it's recommended you zoom into the image for better quality, however possible. For more about this piece and my thoughts, click the "read more" below.

I decided to try my hand at writing the letters, instead of simply typing them out. I also went a little more free-handed with the speech bubbles. True, it doesn't look as "professional" now, but I'm able to fit more words in and it has more "personality," I guess is the right word? I think I'll keep doing so.

Luckily for Claire, it seems Sarah and Jimmy had their fill of fun... this time around. Hopefully, they're not as rough with the pup next time, but I'm not holding my breath. At least we can give them that they seem to know when to give it a rest and do seem to avoid actually harming the kid. … Well, physically, anyhow. Let's just say, Claire's capable of avoiding provoking Sarah into the usual violent rage-- and preventing any physical wrath on Jimmy's end also, given that he's supposed to be stronger and a fighter in this universe.

Interestingly enough, Sarah's treatment of Claire is inspired by how I'd imagine she'd be as an older sister than younger one. Personally, I think it'd be worse than YOU being the older one in the sibling relationship... At least Ed had the advantage of being able to intimidate Sarah when angry enough, since she likely knew someone bigger (and therefore stronger) than her would do a worse number on her than she could on them, if they really wanted to.

There'd likely be NO matter of fighting back if you're the younger sibling: she can still threaten to tell on you ("I'll tell Mom you were trouble while I watched you!"), she'd be even smarter against you because she'd have more years/experience under her belt, and she could beat you into an even worse state of bruises and broken bones! I mean, bigger and thus stronger, right? I'm sure a younger Ed, despite him still being physically strong, would've easily gotten curb-stomped the moment he screamed at Sarah in "Little Ed Blue," if SHE were the bigger and older one... At the very least, maybe Sarah could end up being a little more protective and nice at times, since there's that older sibling responsibility then? Still probably not worth being stuck in that position, though...

Of course, Jimmy tends to follow Sarah's lead, so Claire shouldn't exactly plan for him to be any nicer. Sorry, kiddo, you'd need extremities like bleeding out on the ground, or being a bothersome and complete sobbing mess to get treated a bit more pleasantly. Well, what else can ya expect, when you're essentially a literal living toy to the duo: a dolly and plushie combined? At least Claire can have the relief of knowing they wouldn't kill/maim her, and that it's not personal because you just know this duo will happily turn ANYONE into a living toy. How many times, now, have I mentioned the duo's main weaponization of acupuncture-- which is about manipulating muscles and the like-- and fan art like this?

I mean, I guess they COULD actually care about the kid, but only they'd know for sure.

[macaronnya]

Fresh(?) Impressions (7)

Other parts: |Trickstar| |UNDEAD| |2wink| |Ra*bits| |Akatsuki| |fine| |Ryuseitai| |Knights| |Valkyrie| |Switch| |MaM/Double Face/Crazy:B| |Eden| |Alkaloid|

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Hello Enstarries~☆ It's been a while since my last post. Life's busy as always and 3 events in 3 dofferent games sure don't make it easier 😓 Good news is that I got A to Z Kaoru! Only once but that's alright for my first event aiming for the 5☆! Well, let's not stall for long and begin with the evaluation of Ryuseitai!

DISCLAIMER!: Everything said here is for entertainment purposes only and not meant to attack anyone. This is not an accurate description of any characters but my subjective rambling for fun, so please don't take it too seriously. (Just to be safe, I'm kinda scared of elite idol fans) Also, you will hear me mention other games a bunch of times bc I'm that bad and uncreative at explaining and I'm still grieving A3!EN's shutdown. Eng is my 2nd (or 3rd?) language so there might be some weird grammar or spelling mistakes. And it's usually at 3am.

Without further ado.....Let's Ensemble!☆

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I'm not going to put 2 pics per member because of the 10 pic limit, so just a heads up! First off, for a unit with a ⭐hero⭐ or essentially a power ranger theme, their Ep.1 were surprisingly depressing. Ik judging a book by its cover is really not gonna work here in this game but still.. Anyways, they do seem to have a positive mindset for most of the time. Heroes helping everyone and spreading hope for world peace is a nice concept. They even have their own catchphrases. It actually reminds me a bit of Sailor Moon as well. I'd say they pass the vibe check! Their dynamic is often compared to a big family from what I've seen. 2 parents and their 3 kiddos lol Although they're one of the bigger groups, they're actually fairly normal, if you're desensitized from their eccentricity. Their costumes are fittingly color coded and look more like idols outfits than power rangers suits but meh. That would be a bit too silly for their standard costume, I suppose. Not particularly special but ok nonetheless. Regarding music, it's not bad but also not my cup of tea. It is quite fun to play the beatmaps since it's very on beat and I do like how cheerful and energy pumping it sounds, like a shounen anime op. I could listen to it as background music no problem.

6/10 - more on the neutral side but their vibe is kinda nice

Chiaki Morisawa

His A to Z card came home in 30 pulls!!! Already looking sympathetic here...jk. He is pretty nice, though. Maybe coming on a bit strong sometimes but he's considerate enough to not cross any boundaries. Probably. He somehow gives me Sinbad (Magi) vibes. Both want to improve the world, where everyone is happy, are natural leaders many look up to, popular and charming (tho here less flirty). Small difference is that Chiaki doesn't see himself above others even after achieving lots. That and although he seemed to have idealistic aspirations, he does see reality as it is. Changing subjects, I was very caught off guard by his voice. Not that it's bad or so, it's just the only other roles I've heard from his VA were Sakyo Furuichi (A3!), a serious and authorative but dad-like yakuza, who turned a new leaf by joining a theater group and Felix Hugo Fraldarius (FE:3H), an antisocial noble swordsman, who's sick of the world and grieving his brother's death (angrily). A common character trait is their grumpiness. So to see that very voice being all cheery and shouting RYUSEI RED blablablabla was a whiplash. Although his hair and eye colors are very ordinary, he has this boyish and dashing shine, that makes him kinda cute. His laugh is probably very infectious. Apparently likes action movies and power rangers (or whatever the jp versions are called), which is no surprise. Good for him to be able to follow his dreams. Very likely to be genuinely popular with kids.

6.5/10 - cool guy cool guy

Kanata Shinkai

If Haru (Free!) and Misumi (A3!), had a love child, Kanata would be the result. His "affection" with 💧water 🌊 (and sea life too?) + his floaty vibe aka airheadedness really cement it. Was also a god??? Very Misumi-like. I bet he has inhuman skills as well, like, being able to hold his breath for god knows how long or understanding sea animals. He might have been born in the water like me. It would be very funny if his zodiac sign isn't a water element. Is the mom? of the group, which raises a few concerns but, hey, every family dynamic is unique and if it works, it works. I wonder how "this" specific speech pattern sounds when I hear him "talk". He seems kind of a weird mix of chill and hyper. :3 but like úwù. Kinda random but the mermaid set from Love Live would fit him so much and he'd look stunning in those costumes.

6.5/10 - slightly cute kamichama, sangaku sa- I mean, puka puka~

Tetora Nagumo

Inverted Kuro. Are they seperated brothers??? Is Kuro his idol? Idk but there's no way they aren't connected in some way or another. I mean, his hair for starters, then his athletic vigor, his goal of being manly and.....just look at him! Nothing in a bad way of course. Very much a puppy and all. Just a lil boy who wants to be a cool hero~ which is why he suffers from slight feeling of inferiority and insecurity trying to fill the shoes of his former leader.....Somebody give him a snack 🍪 Reminds me a but of Kumon (A3!), since he also looks like the hyping younger brother type and so. They all seem impulsive but he seems especially so. Is probably actually stronger than he looks. Black rangers are usually former or to-be enemies if I remember right so what does that say about him? Well, at least that one version I watched a decade ago had it like that. And black is usually kinda e~vi~l.

5/10 - a soon to be tragic hero?

Midori Takamine

The irony of not only looking like Tsuzuru (A3!) but also sharing other traits like being just a random boy, crippling depression and being the token :/ in his unit, and then having his VA voice Kanata o.o u_u o.o Well, he does seem even more pessimistic and down, though. Can't say I can't relate....With his parents having a vegetable shop, he was probably a good boy and always ate his veggies. The only cards I remember seeing from him showed him either being flustered, down or just not being paid enough to deal with whatever is about to happen. Has a very sweet voice but like naturally sweet and not through added sugar. Like cherry sweet! Or I'm thinking of sour rn. I mean, they're tasty either way. Anyways, I can't look at him without thinking of other characters so I can't really say anything else worth mentioning.

6/10 - I wanna like him for himself and he should too

Shinobu Sengoku

Speedy ninja boyyyyy~ He may have an emo haircut but he pretty much radiates like a ball of sunshine. A peeking one. Like a sunrise. I bet 100 gems he just likes being a ninja and differently to samurai guy, he doesn't have any ancestral ties to that. His Ep.1 surprised me with how calm he handled the complaints. Probably also a gentle soul and cries at movies. Tragic and happy. Something tells me he likes sweets. His other eye does function, right? While, his voice seemingly sounds annoying, it's actually alright. I wanna see him and Tetora have a collab song with Akatsuki. I'm curious of how their "shota voices" and energetic singing would sound with Akatsuki's somber songs and deeper voices. That and with Shinobu being a ninja and all...y'know.

6/10 - Nin nin into the night my boy

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Conclusion

I don't care for them as much as other groups but I feel a bit bad to give them a 6/10, the same score as fine, though for wildly different reasons. They're just... there....but we're delighted to have them here anyways.

You can skip this if you want but I really wanted to include this funny idea my younger sibling #1 had, when I told them about Kanata's and Midori's impression on me and they deadass created a whole crossfic (Free!, A3! & Enstars) in a matter of minutes 😂 Haru and Misumi were a married couple bc Makoto didn't reciprocate Haru's feelings due to some bro code, which leads to him having an affair with Tsuzuru, who looks similiar to Makoto and is also the responsible older sibling, cook, normal one etc. Kanata is the love child between them but Misumi doesn't know that he's not his biological child and Midori is Makoto's child. After all these things, Haru struggles to discern his true feelings for Tsuzuru and Misumi, whether he actually does love Tsuzuru or smth smth I forgot the rest.

That's all for today, I guess. I feel like I only write at 3am and I'm tooooo lazy to proofread 😩 I'll do it anyways ofc. I'm just gonna include this in my disclaimer as well. See you next time~☆

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

hi ralph! love your blog. have an ask for you for a friend (really lol, she is not on tumblr) who is a huge taylor stan and gaylor-curious. i can't indulge her bc i don't follow taylor closely enough to have opinions about gaylor/whether joe is a beard, etc. and she says her other taylor fan friends think its disrespectful to speculate on someone's sexuality. (I, a committed larrie, can not personally relate to this POV). I respect your balanced opinions and I know you also follow taylor, are a fan, may have voiced opinions on this in the past, etc. So, the questions she would like your opinion on:

do you think taylor is gay

do you think she was ever (or still is) with karlie kloss

what would you say are your reasons (proofs, patterns, opinions or otherwise) for your opinions on the above? Can you also share your thoughts on taylor and joe and why you think those?

I hope this comes across respectfully and look forward to sharing any insights you might have for my friend! xx

Thanks for the questions anon. I think I'd recommend that your gaylor curious fan checks out some of the episodes on the 'What I Will Say' podcast. I don't actually agree with her approach (she puts a lot of weight on song lyrics and social media interaction), but it's pretty thorough introduction.

Here are my not very informed thoughts:

I don't know if Taylor is gay, but I don't think she's straight.

I think Taylor and Karlie Kloss probably hooked up. But I don't think they've been together for a long time. I also think that one of Taylor's problems is that the women she hooks up with chose the worst men in the world over her.

As I've said before, I'm very much just into vibes and good stories when it comes to Taylor. We don't know what's going on with celebrities it's all guess work and to talk about proofs and patterns is to put a lot of weight on it.

The fact that so many of her public relationships are incredibly fake and with closeted men is definitely a large part of it. I also think she engages with queer themes in her art. And bigger than any individual piece, I think there's this real thread of compulsory heterosexuality in her early work - of making herself be who she's supposed to be. And the way that gave way to more explicitly wlw themes feels very resonant to me.

I don't really think she and Joe are together (I have previously said that London Boy is proof that they're not). But the whole situation with the grammys and the credits is pretty weird whatever is going on. So I suspect it's much more complicated than I could imagine.

[vro0m]

I thought we had that narrow window because of our suspension which we were supposed to change this year right??

Unrelated but I really don't want to sound like a worried fan, God knows we have enough of those these days. Alex Brundle said recently that Lewis has an attacking style of driving that the loose rear just doesn't give him the confidence to push. But I've also seen a lot of this theory that George was stuck in a Williams and forced to make those awful cars work which has given him an advantage to work with that narrow setup window over Lewis who has been in relatively good cars over the years and I can see where the idea is coming from I guess but would it be better for both mercs to just flat out give out the same optimal setup and let the drivers chase each other's positions. I do feel like Lewis is always chasing perfection and it hasn't really worked in these regulations imo. Not that I know more than him or anything . But maybe I am too short sighted to believe both drivers would just be a couple of tenths ahead of each other I mean wasn't that what Toto said, the difference in setup is just a couple of secs. Bahrain; a race centric setup which we didn’t see materialize but maybe if you factor in the many issues then idk.

Take a shot every time setup is mentioned. I've been watching f1 for 3 years now and all I've heard from Merc is setup

There can be more than one reason for a narrow window. I'd even say there usually is more than one reason. These cars are like these suspended mobile deco thingies :

All the parts are interlinked, and they're trying to find balance, but if you touch or change one part, like the suspension or the rear wing or the setup or whatever, it impacts all the other parts as well as the balance between them.

Honestly I can only speculate about the rest of your ask. I do think that 1) George is a very good driver and 2) he did learn a lot at Williams. I do think pitting his time at Williams against Lewis' years of domination is kind of reductive because he also had to struggle with bad cars and it underrates the vast amount of experience he has. Maybe Lewis did get a bit rusty from being on top but even then I doubt it would take 3 years for him to shake it off. Maybe he is trying more daring things, but it's not working. Maybe he is trying too hard and taking it too far. Maybe he is not as adaptable as people thought. Maybe these regs just don't agree with him, it's happened to other drivers in the past. Also do keep in mind that in races, it's not only down to the car-driver pairing, it's also down to what the others are doing, strategy, pitstops, etc. In the past two qualis, they weren't that far off each other (0.225 in Bahrain, 0.144 in Saudi Arabia). The whole field is closer so smaller differences have bigger effects. Finally forcing a setup on a driver is probably not a good idea. They have personal preferences when it comes to how the car behaves and it can impact their confidence and driving skills. On top of it, if things don't go too well in the race, the driver will blame it on the team forcing the setup on him and that's not good for relationships. Lewis has spent most of last year criticizing them for not listening to him, can you imagine what would happen if they decided on his setup for him?

[schfiftytwo]

friday thoughts

busy week, lots of moving parts, but we'll keep this train rolling. for a long time, probably for as long as i can remember, i've always put a priority on work. not so much work for work's sake, but work as the single best tool to transform yourself, your skills, your perspective, your everything, into something you can be proud of. i guess you can call it a value, maybe an aspiration, even a hope of mine, to be someone i can be proud of because of what i've done, what i know i can do.

i suppose that attitude is one that is only really harnessed in a place like DC (sorry NYC, I'll get to you another time) - oftentimes i feel young people here pad around our little rhomboid city, waxing poetic to nobody and everybody about the proximity to power, how they wish to be "there" where "things" happen, without really knowing where "there" is or what those "things" are.

obviously anyone can take a stab at it - that unassuming office on the corner is a thinktank that writes legislative proposals for billion-dollar (trillion-dollar?) drug pricing. that glass box employs a lawyer who used to be the attorney general of the united states who now likes to fight against the current attorney general of the united states. that concrete monstrosity has a secret court inside of it that prints authorizations for domestic surveillance like an insipid, cloaked xerox machine of horrors gilded by laws born of overt fear. that other concrete monstrosity houses a collection of folks who like to point fingers and exclaim virtues (sweet nothings?) that nobody really cares to understand.

are all of these examples (real or imagined, you decide) the "there[s]" where "things" happen? probably, and i'd agree for the most part. important "things" abound in DC, and they take place everywhere. and there are plenty of people here who do wield influence (again, real or imagined, you decide).

but to me, the real work, the real impacts, the efforts that go into keeping the gears running and the sun (metaphorically) shining? i'd say all of that is largely unseen and unnoticed, unbound to a "there" or a "thing" that you can readily sense, and acknowledged only with silent nods, handshakes, and pats on the back in unmarked hallways and conference rooms.

maybe that's a bit dramatic, and maybe the folks that staff those "theres" and figure out those "things" would scoff if any of them ever read this - what do you mean? cogs are cogs, work is work, keep your head down and keep on keeping on, collect that $$$, blah blah.

i get it. i was there once. its nice, its comfortable, its equal parts pleasure and pain, and the suit options are fan-fucking-tastic. i argue (maybe facetiously - look at me, i'm writing to the void on tumblr in 2024) there's something more to it than that. i started this drivel with a sentence or three on work as a virtue, and i suppose my point in all of this is that working to work is useful, but there has to be something more to it to make it last - to make it meaningful to you. something noble, something exciting, something intangible. call it inspiration, call it...well, a calling to something bigger than yourself. that's what transforms the cog into something...i don't know, different. there's a beauty to that, i think. makes what can be dull just a little bit brighter.

why all that for that simple revelation - finding meaning in your work can be a good thing, big whoop.

the thing is, i'm just now learning how important that is. how much it means to me. and how much i treasure the moments where I can appreciate not just the product of one's meaningful work, but what that meaning is, and putting it to words instead of letting those moments fade to hazy memory. law is not always a creative endeavor, and oftentimes rocking the boat is discouraged (what if you destroy the fabric of society!?). but to find my moments of meaning, and to have a chance to see, revel, and reflect on + in other people and their work - nonlawyers especially, the ones who write with their hearts, minds, souls, and imaginations - is something i will never fail to tip my hat to and offer my sincerest thanks and praise. you all better yourselves every day (even if you don't know it).

anyway. that's a long way of saying something, i don't even know what. back to it for now, that whole work thing. one day we'll be better, hopefully, maybe. cheers, folks.