#It was 90 degrees wtf was I thinking

[env0]

II have exactly (1) pose

[applejarjar]

Ah, my apartment is livable again

[noneorother]

The art director & the Good Omens book cover tier list of doom, part 1

part 1 l part 2

This is going to have to be a multi-part series because there are *checks notes* 64 different covers that I've found so far.

I am your resident Art Director/Good Omens enthusiast, and welcome to my completely meta-free book cover tier list. Listen, making a book cover is HARD. I should know. But while we salute these artists for their hard work and time, I think we can all admit that once in a while, the vision is just not on. And on very rare occasions, publishers seemed to have managed to commission the cover art directly from hell... 1. The original UK cover

Ahh, the standard by which all shall be judged. We're starting off with a nice & easy cover, with adorable woodcuts of Aziraphale and Crowley flanking a custom Good Omens font! While I have to take a few points off for the terrible kerning of the word "GoOD", the blockprint vibes and general bitchiness of Aziraphale's teeny weeny wittle face, along with the sick colour palette puts the orignial in my good graces. Tier: Great

2. The duelling US covers

Progress! Hail to the designer who figured out trying to make "GoOD" and "OMeNs" fit the same width was a fool's errand, and even managed to IMPROVE on the original handmade title by adding a little halo and devil's tale to the design. Aziraphale and Crowley are facing each other, while also managing to serve absolute cunt. Aziraphale is wearing EIGHTIES SNEAKERS. Crowley's little snake boots have HEELS. They've managed to keep the woodcut vibes and colour simplicity, while balancing out the full title of the book. Both authors get to trade off on who's name comes first! Dare I say, this is a work of genius. I could dock some points for Crowley's sad bat wings growing out of his right clavicle, but who am I to question greatness.

Tier: Blessed by God Herself

3. The Halo Master Chief(?) cover

How the mighty have fallen... As a Canadian child, I was subjected to maybe the most horrifying ad in existence by the War Amps warning children about machine safety. This cover is the paper embodiment of that ad. I am confused by the purple haze. I am frightened by the seeming ethereal flatness of Adam and Dog. I am strangely aroused by Aziraphale's eyebrows, and intensely saddened by the terrible outline/drop shadow they had to inflict on the type to fit "Pratchett" in that god awful space. Tier: WTF

4. Germany, Ein Gutes Omen covers

This cover inexplicably exists in two colour ways: red and teal. I put the audiobook cover here so you could experience the full illustration, and also how fucked up it is that they cropped the book version to include three horse-people of the apocalypse, but cut off DEATH on the regular cover. Points must be given for drawing a pretty slick Bentley, but I think we have to take even more points away for turning Crowley into a Ray Charles/Mike Wazowski hybrid. The ducks are nice. Tier: Not so Good (Omens)

5. Germany, Ein Gutes Omen covers continued

I don't know if the German designer of this cover *knew* that they were using western yeehaw cowboy woodblock letters when they made this cover, but judging by how they spaced the rest of the text at the bottom, THEY DID NOT CARE. And that seems to be a running theme for this one. We get kind of a duality thing going on with the black and pink background, but it just seems like somebody whispered the general themes of Good Omens into a jar, and threw it down a well, and this poor chap came along and picked it up. The baffling choice to align every piece of text on the cover *except* Neil Gaiman's name which is right aligned and rotated 90 degrees (not even real vertical type) will haunt my dreams, I think.

Tier: Bad

6. US, UK The Traffic Jam cover

For the love of Good Omens, WHY. I can think of so many more interesting symbols to put on the cover of this book than the ODEGRA SIGIL TRAFFIC JAM. Props for keeping the good colours and type, but like, I think this cover was secretly designed by @amtrak-official, or someone who just really, really likes public works. Tier: Does the Job

7. France, De bons présages cover

Leave it to France to make sure people know that Aziraphale and Crowley fuck severely. While I can't condone leaving out half the title of the book (and thinking a red carpenter's square counts as decoration), I can begrudgingly acknowledge that Ron Pearlman and Benedict Cumberbatch's love child is excellent Crowley casting. I think I give this a solid dark academia/10. Tier: Good (Omens)

8. France, De bons présages covers continued

Just imagine with me, if you will, the absolutely hilarious reality that this cover posits: Good Omens is exactly the same in every respect, but Crowley drives a pink 1950s convertible. Why do all of the colours on this cover look like they've been pre-digested? Why are the font choices and placement so bafflingly bad. My face is the demon's face holding that car. I feel his pain.

Tier: WTF

9. France, De bons présages covers continued

Minus points for not managing to write the full title of the book once again. I don't know what it is with the French. They seem pretty set on Good Omens being demonic. While I do appreciate a good Bosch-style demon party, the dude in the middle confounds me. All-caps Museo Sans that isn't even *centred* in the frame is just so lazy. I am le tired. Tier: Bad

10. France, De bons présages covers continued

Uhh. The font. The font is okay.... I think? Yeah. The font and kerning are. Okay. OHHH GOD I LOOKED DOWN BELOW THE TEXT WHYYYY. Tier: WTF

END of round one. I need a nap.

[mapledyke]

Yeah things got to a point where certain actions (like trying to force Sarah to fuckin kill herself) couldnt rly be justified but like up until that point?? Oh no Bonnie who is deeply insecure and think shes ugly because of her scars is kinda self absorbed now because theyre gone oh fuck what are we gonna do now that she has a self esteem and is kinda bitchy sometimes. Oh fuck Rochelle how could you make this girls hair fall out all she did was be a racist piece of shit omg wtf Rochelle you've really gone too far. Nancy you're traumatized and angry and killed your abusive stepdad and an attempted rapist holy shit someone lock this bitch up she's out of control!!! Thank god someone put them all in their place, they were so evil.

I fucking love this movie but I feel like to some degree they went out of their way to frame the situation like these girls being understandably angry about all the shit they went through is what made them turn "evil" or whatever. Nancy pulled some sexually aggressive shit and at that point her actions are obviously indefensible regardless of him being a complete piece of shit. But like before then they were all literally right lmfao. And not even Bonnie or Rochelle getting any kind of sympathy felt awful. Not to mention wrapping it all up with Nancy in a fucking psych ward being presented as some kind of well deserved punishment instead of a tragedy and not to mention YET ANOTHER TRAUMA, like hello?

Also the presence of the threefold law is something I'm not rly a fan of but that's not the point of this post, I do think they did a pretty good job overall framing witchcraft as neutral rather than intrinsically evil. And Rochelle and Bonnie literally should have dated sorry

Tldr I really do love this movie and ik its from the 90s so of course its going to be extemely flawed but I'm stil annoyed lmfao

[tammyfeabakker]

I got into a car accident... I managed not to total my car. My supposedly soulmate thinks I'm accident prone yelled at me bout driving down there fast. I lost my privileges I'm not aloud to pull my car out or in the shop. I realized I have a airbag light on. Lol not from me my brother had a seizure behind the wheel. And hit something. We had our first fight! Because he hurt my feelings! I havnt had one since 1991. Only in his head. He thinks I'm trying to banter over the price so wrong. I said jus because you have ptsd because you dated Amy fishers. We aren't all like that!! I asked you how much? You said ? I said ok. I forgot 20. He definitely doesn't like it when I make him eat his words. I came back with that amy fisher remark. He choked then laughed. Now his ex is trying to spark up conversations with me. Because she can't go to the shop no more. I said something he said and your a paying customer. I'm Alitalia more then that I thought you spill your heart and soul out to me. But I didn't say it. Yesterday he kept saying family and friends discount. Thats to lemme know I'm more then a paying customer. He tells me how good he is to me. He walked in the office I left him peanut butter m n ms. He was so happy he told this makes everything better. I said I appreciate everything you do for me. He does bend over backwards for me. He taped my bumper wrote ouch on it. I said write bunny fucked up again and crashed her car!! I'll never get my shop privileges back! Because I'm wreckless God fuck up one time. I told my other job I was in an accident I won't be in until next week. They put 2 wawa i don't want I got enough going on. You think my field manager would put them up. I told him I was in an accident he said I could extend the stores for me until Sunday. I was like wtf! I SAID I WAS IN A CAR ACCIDENT I WONT BE IN UNTIL NEXT WEEK. STILL POSTING THOSE STORES SAYING OVER DUE! I don't wanna have to email Nicole because Nicole sent out a survey bout our new field manager. I don't think his marks were good. I hate getting people in trouble. I thought to wait until I get in trouble for not being there. Then I'll through him under the bus. Not to mention I was hurting still hurting after slamming into a 8 inch curb hit a stop sign going sideways 35 mph. Like that really made me want to jump in my car do 2 wawa I never wanted and do my regular I got into the accident while working for them. And to top it off I don't have my car! Its still being worked on! The only thing this guy can say ill extend it till Sunday. Like I have rental car insurance! You don't pay me to have full coverage let alone pay my insurance! Then I dropped my phone and took out my charger cover. Which really pissed me off. Because I would of needed that to do the fucking wawas. Because their scanner runs out of charge you have to sit in your car running it in 90 degree weather to charge their scanner and not get paid for it. I'm telling you I loose my job over this shit is going to hit the fucking fan!

[branwendaughterofllyr]

Branwen reads ASOIAF (again) - AGOT ARYA I

yeah, uh, it’s been a couple months. I spent that time FIGHTING for my life during the last semester since I’m in the final year of my degree and it’s only going to get worse from here. But I’m back and ready for GRRM to absolutely massacre me again. And it’s going to be a rough start, because I really don’t like this chapter and, believe it or not, I’ve already rewritten this summary at least once because I’m not trying to engage in ~the discourse~ too much. 

And listen, I like Arya a lot. She’s always somewhere in my top five. I like the whole justice versus revenge narrative she has going on. I like feral little girls with knives. There should be more of them!

But this chapter is not it, y’all. Now, I’ve read quite a lot of 90s fantasy with spunky tomboy heroines in my day, and this chapter is like middle tier at best. If I’m gong to read 90s fantasy with a spunky tomboy heroine, I’d much rather go for the crème de la crème like Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce or even The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (which is actually 80s and the likely originator of a least a few spunky heroine tropes.) But I’ll freely admit that I’ve always been sensitive to men writing female characters who do a lot of hating on other women. Sue me. 

ANd I guess I’ve come around on this chapter some??? I think it’s a pretty good piece of character writing and unreliable narrators upon reflection, but I still don’t have to like it. 

So onto the chapter, I guess, though  @alaynasansa has already summarized this chapter better than I ever could

That’s it, that’s most of the chapter. 

But no seriously, Arya is a nine year old kid with a well-behaved older sister, who she resents for being well-behaved, and needs a lot of recess time to in order to pay attention in class. Give Arya scheduled run-around time, and I feel like half of the problems could be solved. 

We open on Arya having crooked stitches, yet again, while Sansa’s sewing her perfect.

“Sansa’s work is as pretty as she is,” Septa Mordane told their lady mother once. “She has such fine, delicate hands.” When Lady Catelyn had asked about Arya, the septa had sniffed. “Arya has the hands of a blacksmith.”

Mordane, I’m begging, at least put the tiniest of effort in to not showing favoritism. We all know you’re Wenda the White Fawn and should not be anyone’s governess, but a shred of effort towards maintaining your cover. please!

Also, rip to all that Gentry foreshadowing struck down by the time skip being cut. You will be missed. 🫡

 Arya thought that Myrcella’s stitches looked a little crooked too, but you would never know it from the way Septa Mordane was cooing.

The Starklings need to stop dogpiling on Myrcella. She’s done nothing to you??? She has like two character traits, both of which contradict each other, and she’s an incest baby. She’s got enough on her plate. 

She studied her own work again, looking for some way to salvage it, then sighed and put down the needle.

I ask the same question every time. WTF have you done to your sewing, Arya? I’m assuming some comically big knot that would never exist in reality. 

And then we get EVUL Sansa talking with her fellow preteens.

Sansa was chatting away happily as she worked. Beth Cassel, Ser Rodrik’s little girl, was sitting by her feet, listening to every word she said, and Jeyne Poole was leaning over to whisper something in her ear.

Beth is, what, ten? And Jeyne is the same age as Sansa. Keep this in mind when GRRM decides to fridge both of them. (The wiki refers to them as Sansa’s “more glamorous retinue” and who ever wrote that needs to be shot.) 

So Arya wants to be included in the conversation, which fair enough, Arya. I, too, am a gossip hound. 

“We were talking about the prince,” Sansa said, her voice soft as a kiss. Arya knew which prince she meant: Joffrey, of course. The tall, handsome one. Sansa got to sit with him at the feast. Arya had to sit with the little fat one. Naturally.

Now, now, Arya. Don’t go judging appearances, or you too will be almost raped at knife point. Also, people would (and do!) kill to sit next to Tommen instead of Joffrey, so. 

“Joffrey likes your sister,” Jeyne whispered, proud as if she had something to do with it. She was the daughter of Winterfell’s steward and Sansa’s dearest friend. 

It’s feeling sad about Jeyne hours.

 I choose to believe that Sansa and Jeyne have one of these:

“He’s going to marry her,” little Beth said dreamily, hugging herself.

This chapter is just making me sad. 

Sansa had the grace to blush. She blushed prettily. She did everything prettily, Arya thought with dull resentment.

Peak sibling behavior. Your sibling is literally just sitting there, and you're like “they’re doing this to spite me specifically” and half the time, you're right. 

“Beth, you shouldn’t make up stories,” Sansa corrected the younger girl, gently stroking her hair to take the harshness out of her words.

I hope nothing happens to these sweet kids. 😬

“What did you think of Prince Joff, sister? He’s very gallant, don’t you think?” “Jon says he looks like a girl,” Arya said. Sansa sighed as she stitched. “Poor Jon,” she said. “He gets jealous because he’s a bastard.”

Is she wrong? No, we all read Jon I. We saw the breakdown. Sansa just succinctly summarized one of Jon's core character conflicts in one sentence, and I have to laugh a little. More Jon and Joffrey foiling. (Actually this whole chapter is JoJo foiling, really.) 

“He’s our brother,” Arya said, much too loudly. Her voice cut through the afternoon quiet of the tower room. Septa Mordane raised her eyes. She had a bony face, sharp eyes, and a thin lipless mouth made for frowning. It was frowning now. “What are you talking about, children?”

Maybe Syrio’s greatest lesson was teaching Arya how to use her inside voice. 

“Our half brother,” Sansa corrected, soft and precise.

EVUL Sansa. How dare you!!!!!! (Nevermind all the times the other Starklings call  Jon their half-brother, shhh, Sansa is the evil Catelyn 2.0)

She smiled for the septa. “Arya and I were remarking on how pleased we were to have the princess with us today,” she said.

Look how smoothly Sansa covers for Arya! 

One thing I’ve noticed about this chapter, is how chill Sansa really is to Arya. She’s just very relaxed and isn’t that interested in picking a fight with Arya. It’s such a contrast to their later AGOT chapters, when both of them are under immense amounts of stress. It seems that fist fights at the breakfast table is, in fact, not their default state. 

Septa Mordane nodded. “Indeed. A great honor for us all.” Princess Myrcella smiled uncertainly at the compliment.

Somebody help Myrcella. She has no clue what's going on. 

“Arya, why aren’t you at work?” the septa asked. She rose to her feet, starched skirts rustling as she started across the room. “Let me see your stitches.” Arya wanted to scream. It was just like Sansa to go and attract the septa’s attention.

Unreliable narrator Arya Stark. You were the one being loud three paragraphs ago. But love the commitment to blaming it on your sister, peak sibling behavior! (Is George an only child? He must have a sibling, he captures the dynamic so well). 

The septa examined the fabric. “Arya, Arya, Arya,” she said. “This will not do. This will not do at all.”

I am once again asking what Arya has done to her sewing. 

Everyone was looking at her. It was too much. Sansa was too well bred to smile at her sister’s disgrace, but Jeyne was smirking on her behalf. Even Princess Myrcella looked sorry for her.

Yeah, being the negative center of attention can be rough. I get it. But also, love the assumption that Sansa would of course smile at Arya getting in trouble if it wasn't rude, when she was covering for Arya five seconds ago. I will not be commenting on Jeyne at this point in time. 

Arya felt tears filling her eyes. She pushed herself out of her chair and bolted for the door.

I am struck by how similar Jon and Arya are. Both them run out in tears in their first chapters. This is probably on purpose. 

Arya stopped at the door and turned back, biting her lip. The tears were running down her cheeks now. She managed a stiff little bow to Myrcella. “By your leave, my lady.” Myrcella blinked at her and looked to her ladies for guidance. 

Myrcella is literally just here. She’s only got brothers, she’s completely lost here. 

“Just where do you think you are going, Arya?” the septa demanded. Arya glared at her. “I have to go shoe a horse,” she said sweetly, taking a brief satisfaction in the shock on the septa’s face. Then she whirled and made her exit, running down the steps as fast as her feet would take her.

Arya Snark makes her first appearance. Rip that gendrya foreshadowing. 

I don’t know who’s more glad that Arya escaped that sewing lesson, me or her. 

It wasn’t fair. Sansa had everything. Sansa was two years older; maybe by the time Arya had been born, there had been nothing left.

This is just what having an older sister is like. Most realistic thing George has ever written. This is peak realism. 

Her hair was a lusterless brown, and her face was long and solemn. Jeyne used to call her Arya Horseface, and neigh whenever she came near. It hurt that the one thing Arya could do better than her sister was ride a horse.

The realism of the steward’s daughter name-calling the lord’s daughter aside (because, really? You don’t think Vayon is pulling Jeyne aside and nipping that in the bud?), Arya is usually covered in dirt and can mistaken for a stable boy and she loves riding horses, so I feel like this nickname might be for multiple reasons. 

Well, that and manage a household. Sansa had never had much of a head for figures. If she did marry Prince Joff, Arya hoped for his sake that he had a good steward.

We’ll see about that, Arya! Sansa’s taking a summer class on how to run a castle in two books, and we’ll see what grade she gets. 

(But love the hyper nine-year old asserting that she could be a better household manager than the patient eleven-year-old. Never lose that confidence, Arya)

Nymeria was waiting for her in the guardroom at the base of the stairs. She bounded to her feet as soon as she caught sight of Arya. Arya grinned. The wolf pup loved her, even if no one else did. They went everywhere together, and Nymeria slept in her room, at the foot of her bed.

I am not immune to the cute prehistoric killing machine and it’s cute little paws. 

She had yellow eyes. When they caught the sunlight, they gleamed like two golden coins. Arya had named her after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow sea. That had been a great scandal too.

Somebody smarter than talk about Nymeria’s golden eyes. Doesn’t Lady also have golden eyes?

Also, love Arya’s naming choice. When I was ten, I named my cat Cleopatra. Very relatable. (But also, what's the scandal? Did the septa sniff when Arya announced it? Seems like a fine and very Arya name.) 

But a warrior queen and body of water. HMMMMM. The ship girl foreshadowing starts early.

Sansa, of course, had named her pup “Lady.”

Be still my heart. 😩

The boys were at practice in the yard. She wanted to see Robb put gallant Prince Joffrey flat on his back.

Have I mentioned how fond I am of Arya?

There was a window in the covered bridge between the armory and the Great Keep where you had a view of the whole yard. That was where they headed.

Another puzzle piece for the people meticulously reconstructing WF in Minecraft. Godspeed to them.

Jon is watching from the window, and Ghost and Nymeria have a cute moment that melts my frozen heart. 

To her disappointment, it was the younger boys drilling. Bran was so heavily padded he looked as though he had belted on a featherbed, and Prince Tommen, who was plump to begin with, seemed positively round. They were huffing and puffing and hitting at each other with padded wooden swords under the watchful eye of old Ser Rodrik Cassel, the master-at-arms, a great stout keg of a man with magnificent white cheek whiskers.

I know that this moments gets a ton of callbacks, being a big moment of King Bran and dead Tommen foreshadowing, but look at the bundled-up seven year olds! SO cute! 

“A shade more exhausting than needlework,” Jon observed. “A shade more fun than needlework,” Arya gave back at him.

I mean- we all know where this is going. 

Jon had their father’s face, as she did. They were the only ones. Robb and Sansa and Bran and even little Rickon all took after the Tullys, with easy smiles and fire in their hair. When Arya had been little, she had been afraid that meant that she was a bastard too. It had been Jon she had gone to in her fear, and Jon who had reassured her.

I am not immune to Jon and Arya being adorable together. 

Little Arya is afraid of being a bastard because she sees how Jon is treated, so she goes to him, and Jon puts all of problems to one side to comfort his little sister. Argh, my heart. 

“Why aren’t you down in the yard?” Arya asked him. He gave her a half smile. “Bastards are not allowed to damage young princes,” he said. “Any bruises they take in the practice yard must come from trueborn swords.”

It’s- It’s irony. Becuase- because the Baratheon kids are bastards, and Jon is a prince. 

(Is Jon actually a bastard, or is he true born through some horrible shenanigans? Let’s keep a running list.)

“Oh.” Arya felt abashed. She should have realized. For the second time today, Arya reflected that life was not fair.

I feel like this speaks for itself mainly. All of Jon’s siblings can be thoughtless when it comes to Jon’s situation. 

She watched her little brother whack at Tommen. “I could do just as good as Bran,” she said. “He’s only seven. I’m nine.”

The sibling age hierarchy is so very real. 

Jon looked her over with all his fourteen-year-old wisdom.

This will never not be funny to me.

“The Lannisters are proud,” Jon observed. “You’d think the royal sigil would be sufficient, but no. He makes his mother’s House equal in honor to the king’s.” “The woman is important too!” Arya protested.

Get em, Arya! 

“Perhaps you should do the same thing, little sister. Wed Tully to Stark in your arms.” “A wolf with a fish in its mouth?” It made her laugh.

I- I can’t. What do you want me to do with this??? Because my mind is in fact a gutter. Someone put me out of my misery. 

“Girls get the arms but not the swords. Bastards get the swords but not the arms.

This feel significant on multiple levels. The way that daughters and bastard sons are permanently slotted below true born sons in the Westerosi patriarchy. The way that a bastard son and true born daughter could consolidate their claims together to make a stronger one. Something something. 

Prince Tommen was rolling in the dust, trying to get up and failing. All the padding made him look like a turtle on its back. Bran was standing over him with upraised wooden sword, ready to whack him again once he regained his feet.

Yeah, Tommen’s pretty toast. There can be only one apparently, and its going t be Bran. 

Ser Rodrik has got to one of my favorite silly old men, with his silly little beard. 

And then we get the Joffrey-Robb conflict foreshadowing that feels like they were actually supposed to have a more personal showdown but it got dropped.

Arya could see Robb bristle. His pride was wounded. He turned on Ser Rodrik. “Let me do it. I can beat him.” “Beat him with a tourney blade, then,” Ser Rodrik said. Joffrey shrugged. “Come and see me when you’re older, Stark. If you’re not too old.” There was laughter from the Lannister men.

Is this or is this not fulfilled by the war of the Five Kings? You decide, I guess. 

The Hound is terrible, Joffrey is terrible, Theon has to hold Robb back from committing some serious treason, Jon has a cryptic description. 

Jon watched them leave, and Arya watched Jon. His face had grown as still as the pool at the heart of the godswood.

Huh. Always interesting to see how Jon is identified with WF early on. 

“You had best run back to your room, little sister. Septa Mordane will surely be lurking. The longer you hide, the sterner the penance. You’ll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers.”

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, JON. DO not foreshadow your little sister like that. Now she’s definitely losing her fingers, if not her hand. You’re worst than Ned, I swear. 

The chapter ends with a funny haha sitcom moment that does not make me want to gouge my eyes out at all.

It was worse than Jon had thought. It wasn’t Septa Mordane waiting in her room. It was Septa Mordane and her mother.

I’m laughing so hard, guys.

Conclusion: Uh. Arya is peak sibling behavior in every way, Sansa is actually very chill when her spirit animal hasn’t been killed, the Bran and Tommen see saw is real, and Jon is a great big brother when he’s not foreshadowing. 

And no women wins under patriarchy?

Who’s next? Bran? Thank god!

[vixx-ari]

For no reason at all I decided to compare all my favourite characters from a few different medias I engage in and,,,I think i'll just show it:

First off: My profile picture and 3h 31m playlist

: Ball of sunshine, workchaholic, and idiot (affectionate and literal) , is the main character but is very outshined, blue aesthtic, goes through lots of pain and suffering(throughout both movies) and is never really properly addressed, somehow pretty underappreciated, suffers 90% but wins other 10% because protagonist, also absolute geek (I think he had these big nerdy glasses in concept are)

Number 2: My profile picture on 3 different websites and my 4h 34m playlist

: somewhat of a workaholic??, ball of sunshine & energy, somehow (still) pretty underappreciated, socially awkward, blue aesthetic, goes through a lot of pain and suffereing that isn't really properly addressed imo, sufferes 70-80% but wins the other 30-20% bc,,,not that relevant until much later??, also glasses geek

Candidate #3: Loved him to bits, got reminded of his existance and still love him to bits

: debatable workaholic, ball of sunshine, and idiot (affectinate and literal), is the main character but gets kinda outshined, socially awkward, blue aesthetic, goes through a BUNCH of pain and suffering that is never properly addressed, suffers 99% but wins the other 1% bc protagonist, also glasses geek

(are we starting to see a pattern her?)

Candidate #4: The guy i'm dragging to therapy next week (affectionate)

: debatable workaholic, depressed ball of dim sunshine, is the main character but is kinda outshined??, socially awkward to some degree, goes through SO MUCH F*UCKING PAIN it's not even funny, suffers 99.9% but wins the 0.1% bc protagonist, glasses and greyish-blue aesthetic

Candidate #5: The guy I would really like to hug bc he need it, like actually and desperately

: workaholic in terms of how much he does throughout most of the anime series, ball of dim sunlight, is the main-ish character but is kinda outshined??, socially awkward as hell, goes through lots of pain, it's addressed somewhat but still-pain, suffers 70% but wins the other 30% bc the authour is nice, greyish blue aesthictic, did I mention socially awkward?

Honorable Mention: Idk why he's fits but somehow he does (so angelic)

: workaholic when in comes to voleyball ofc, an asshole & an idot (affectionate and literal), ball of sunshine when he feels like it, SOCIALLY AKWARD OML, outshines most charcters-, blue aesthetic, happy life but sad ass backstory ;(, wins in the end bc he deserves it, also very gay-

Yeah, I think I can see the pattern of charcters who have never properly been told "great job" or "i'm so proud of you" (except maybe kageyama) in their entire lives.

Now WTF does that say about me-

[pivsketch]

today's 45 minute work warmup was this pleasant architecture photo from gord.cook on instagram. it was nice working off something besides a fisheye landscape from mapcrunch. missed a few spots that needed that darker floor colors on it, but im ok w/ where we stopped here. with more time i think i would just start painting over everything, polishing out the lines, and gettin all the texture in. all the fun time-intensive stuff

i actually enjoyed working on this one a lot more than the previous ones, maybe its because i incorporated more "tools and techniques"? discussion about that and a timelapse video under the cut:

i started using a thirds grid "out of laziness" recently but honestly? i think i dig it a lot. the grids i used on many of the previous environment studies were really dense (csp has a max grid size of 1000 pixels... wtf) and i think that mightve actually made it harder to place things in the space. i definitely get much less distracted with the comparatively looser rule-of-thirds grid, and i dont get too stressed out/obsessed about placing everything EXACTLY correct (this was a huge problem and i couldnt figure out how to stop). things actually end up matching pretty close to the source photo in the end, anyway, so its a win-win kind of result

oh yeah, unfortunately CSP doesn't have a percentage setting for the grid like photoshop does (it really really bothers me because i used that a lot, idk, maybe i should send in a feature request or something). i looked into this a while back and found the best you can do to get a 33.33% division grid is to set up an auto-action that'll generate a 3x3 comic page panel layout with no gutters on your canvas. its not dynamic so youd have to reapply it if you crop your canvas differently, and its a layer so you have to deal with that, but hey! better than nothing. and it works pretty dang well despite that.

to get all those straight lines i maxed out post correction on my brush, which reduces every brush stroke to a flat line that goes from the start of the stroke to the end. i think it feels cozier than using a line tool or the shift line-snap thing, because you get a liiiiittle bit of pen pressure out of it. plus, removes the temptation to hold shift and snap it 90 degrees. those funky little off-kilter angles add character, or whatever. this was one of those things that i knew you could do but i never actually used it-- now that i have, i understand its utility. i'll definitely be using it anytime i need to draw a lot of hard surfaces now

[theosb0rnway]

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?

7. earbuds or headphones?

10. what game you were best at in p.e.?

12. name of your favorite playlist?

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?

18. ideal weather?

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

32. top five favorite vines?

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?

38. lemonade or tea?

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

54. what did you learn from your first job?

58. four talents you’re proud of having?

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?

73. favorite weird flavor combo?

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

82. pc or console?

83. writing or drawing?

86. cookies or cupcakes?

90. luckiest mistake?

94. favorite season?

95. favorite app on your phone?

5. Soda bottles ALL THE WAY

7. Earbuds

10. Ultimate Kickball (if you want the FUN story that goes along with it, just ask!)

12. "I Could Crush You!" by Punkarsenic or A Million Little Gods by Aisu10 (both on 8tracks)

14. Sour Patch Kids

18. Sunny, lower than 50 degrees, fluffy clouds or cloudless sky

26. I love long taking walks!

31. Ripped black jeans, MCR t-shirt, leather jacket, studded belt, shit ton of jewelry, my three inch heel "Stolas" boots

32. Fre shavacado, "this is why mom doesn't fucking love you!", "I taught a robot how to fear!", "What the FUCK, RICHARD??", "Chris is that a WEED??"

34. One that's local to my area so I can't say it LOL

38. Tea, hot tea

42. PANTS. POCKETS.

43. Already answered!

49. "Every warrior must learn the simple truth that pain is inevitable and suffering is optional." Malcolm Merlyn, Arrow

"I am stronger than this." Andrew Detmer, Chronicle (2012)

50. Oh god, probably when I got drunk on New Year's and watched ZeroZeroZero... or pretty much every time @clanofjones and I plan a Ghosts of Our Days chapter-

54. Kids are weird, people change, don't rely too much on anyone you think is a friend, they WILL turn on you. (My first job was being a camp counselor at a theater camp-)

58. Can get away with anything, gifted English kid, untangling knots, maneuvering through crowds EXTREMELY well

59. "I'm just that good!" (I say this WAY too much, help me-)

68. WTF IS WATERMELON FLAVOR EVEN I HATE IT

73. Spaghetti and balsamic glaze. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. Balsamic is life.

76. Baked potato with sour cream, chives, onions, and broccoli and cheese on top

82. Not a gamer, doesn't understand computer speak-

83. WRITING. Jay and Ren could tell you that-

86. Cookies, but I do love small cupcakes!

90. Too deep to share here

94. Fall! And winter too

95. Notes App, Photos, or my stargazing app

Thanks, Dagger!

[thrudgelmir2333]

“Anxiety Writing”, Imperator Rome, Antiquity, Lance’s Role and my infuriating obsession with a “Catholic Fantasy” cartoon for children

Since I’ve decided to focus a bit more effort on Tumblr after basically being a whole year quiet, to the point I published ten whole chapters since the last time I publicised one here, I thought I’d try my hand at writing a blog post too, since that’s kind of what this site is supposed to be about. 1. Confessions about being the biggest Saint Seiya Tsundere People who know me online, even tangentially, whether on Discord, Fanfiction.net, Twitter or Tumbler, know one thing about me; I have an obsession with a pathetic excuse of a show called Saint Seiya. Or Knights of the Zodiac. Or whatever you wanna call it, I don’t care, call it Power Rangers: Ancient Greece if you want to.

But frankly? I kind of despise this franchise. I mean the whole of it. I really do. It’s so bad, to an embarassing level, like a B movie cashing in on a trend. It makes me genuinely embarassed that half the things I have to talk about with anyone about the last 10 years of my life are either about depression, college or Saint Seiya. And when I’m not embarassed by it, I’m infuriated, because Saint Seiya, for those of you who don’t know, is one of those franchises that has become endlessly commodified online. They’re a bit too aware of their own success and have decided to bank on it for the rest of its irrelevant existence, endlessly pumping out bad cartoons and CGI-filled movies to raise the appeal of the toys and DVDs they want to sell.

And yet, I have the ignoble badge of having spent those ten years writing a shockingly long fanfic of it, a fanfic that I pretty much work on every other day or so for the past 4000 days of my life. And this is the only life I’m gonna get lol Not only have I written Lance’s Role, a incoherent behemoth of a fic, but I’ve befriended SS fanfic writers, I’ve reviewed SS writing, I’ve commissioned art, I’ve climbed my way to a top of a SS Discord server that I didn’t even create, I’ve hosted streams of episodes of all of its spinoffs to friends and I’ve endlessly discussed every minute aspect of this franchise, from Seiya’s character flanderisation in classic Saint Seiya, to the accidentally sexual language of the scene of Athena “taking in Saga’s knife”, to the lighting on Chakram Europa’s monologue in Saint Seiya Omega. Like, the bots on those servers tracking everyone’s posting experience speak for themselves; I’ve talked about SS more than some of its oldest and most ferverous members combined.

Why do I do this? lol Wtf is the matter with me? I’m a 30 year old college graduate that barely even liked this show when I saw it on TV back in the 90s, in the few moments of my off-hours when I wasn’t being dragged to church masses, or other social gatherings my parents didn’t really even believe in. Why have I revolved my headspace around a show I don’t like or respect?

A couple years back, my friend @zebulonwallace told me that a friend of hers once described Saint Seiya as “Catholic Fantasy”. We talked in-depth about it and why her friend claimed it and really, even when discounting the regions this show is popular at (France, Latin America, etc). While I feel like that moment made a lightbulb turn on my head about why I can’t forget about this stupid show, it’s just too easy an explanation. It’s too convenient and comfortable and it puts the hot lightbulb too away from myself. It doesn’t take a degree in media literacy to see that SS is packed to the brim with catholic imagery. Saori herself is one big Virgin Mary figure, especially in the 4th movie of Saint Seiya which, guess what, stars the DEVIL as the villain. So, I think it’s time to fess up that there is no good reason for these last ten years of my life. I’m just an obsessive idiot who found an easy target. That’s the truth. Saint Seiya is my stress toy because, frankly, it’s easy and comfortable to criticise it. It doesn’t take a lot of in-depth thinking out of me to point out its flaws and, frankly, that makes it less of a threat to my ego. It also has a very fractured and, paradoxically, unquestioning fanbase, which makes it very easy for me to levy arguments against pretty much every single niche in it whenever I want to feel superior to someone who thinks “Seiya is a true role model” or that “it’s fine that Lost Canvas has bad writing, cause Gold Saintz be hot”. If I was writing for One Piece or something, however, a franchise I have much greater admiration for, I would be competing with people with a lot more imagination and media savviness. Lance’s Role, which is essentially my personal anxiety outlet, would be under a lot more scrutiny in such spaces.

Why Saint Seiya, of all things, though? Why not Bleach, which is more modern, equally flawed and even somewhat inspired by Saint Seiya? Well, because fucking Bleach doesn’t have Ancient Greece on it, you dingus! Duh! It’s about fashion magazine Samurais wearing hip clothing, not people being drawn on pots chocking a lion or something : v 2. Imperator Rome and Antiquity Nerdism So, what some people might not know about me in my spaces (or maybe they do), is that I’m also a big fan of history and geography. My mother was a geography teacher herself, my father was... part of a questionable culture of historical revisionism BUT ALSO a respected journalist in our area, so I think I just have it in my blood to have a deep curiosity about how history and geography relate to eachother. It permeates everything I do and, even in my early years, I had a fascination for Ancient Greece and Rome, because they were the closest sources of the topic I could understand.

As such, I’m also a big fan of video games heavy on history and geography. This manifests itself in me having 1250 hours of playing Imperator Rome, a game even some of the most ardent Paradox Interactive fans barely have a tenth of the time spent on, and that time in IR is almost a tenth of the time I’ve probably spent writing Lance’s Role. Imperator Rome, despite its name, is frankly a lot more about celebrating the Hellenistic Period than the Roman one, with a lot of features and tidbits dedicated to the history of the Diadochi states, Makedonia, Greece, the Indian Mauryias and even the extinct Aechemenid Empire. Hell, Rome is almost just the easy-access gateway civilisation you play before you inevitably dive into the rabbit hole that are Diadochi soap-opera intrigues.

And if you dive into this rabbit hole, the first thing you realise is that there’s so much more to Antiquity than you even imagined. I never heard in my life of Antigonus Monophtalmos, and now I think he’s some kind of super one-eyed mega-general worthy of his own page on Badass of the Week, a dude who spent his life routinely dunking on his fellow former friends and was the first of Alexander’s subordinates to dare proclaim himself King and try to reunite his lands, only to then meet his end when some random dude hit him with a javelin. Yes, the guy got killed by a freaking random mook who got close enough to throw a stick. And that was the first battle his side would ever lose. That’s so comically tragic that its like something out of the Illiad or whatever. Eumenes of Cardia, the secretary of Alexander the Great that Antigonus defeated and killed, is such an obscure and interesting character that there’s AN ENTIRE AWARD-WINNING MANGA made about him by Itoshi Iwaaki called ‘Historie’. Imperator Rome even references it in its achievements. How cool is that? Moreover, I also never heard of how much of a dingus Antigonus’ son Demetrius was and how his fuck ups and delusions created a cascade of fails that, through his descendancy, led to the fall of Greece to Rome and effectively the beginning of the end of the Hellenistic Period. And did you know Phyrrus of Epirus, the fabled coiner of the phrase “Phyrric Victory”, died not in battle, but because while he was occupying Argos in a war, some random old lady hit him with a roof tile over the head, and his enemies decapitated him? The guy spent a decade of his life going up and down Sicily, fighting both Carthage AND a nascent Rome, and the thing that does him in was your nasty gradma complaining from her window how your horse was eating her flowers, or something. This was such a tragic end that Phyrrus’ enemy, the descendant of Antigonus, punished his son for cutting off Phyrrus’ head, because it reminded him of the curse his own family felt. Forget it, this isn’t like the Illiad, this is borderline Shakesperean. This is Hamlet, Greek-edition. Or I guess Hamlet is Phyrrus, Danish-Edition. Or is it English? I also never understood the cascade of complexity that was Egyptian dynastic history and its screwed up mix of monumentality and petty intrigue until Imperator Rome gave me a framework to understand its geography and rulers and encouraged me to read more about Antoquity outside of Ancient Greece. I found myself thinking back to the character of the graphic novel Watchmen, Ozymandias, and how he went from admiring Alexander the Great to admiring Ramses instead, cause holy crap, Ramses... was also kind of an incredible character of history. No, really, there are so many characters in antiquity, female and male, poor and rich, generals or philosophers, Greeks or Persians or Egyptians or Levantine, who are so immensely interesting and wrapped in legend that, in a way, Greek Mythology *falls short* of real life Antiquity people. I feel like I’ve barely dipped my toes. And hell, this is just one region, in one continent, in one era of the world. I will never understand fully the complexity of the Chinese Warring States period, because there’s just so much to go into it, but I definitely appreciate more the immensity of it. In a way, you could say reality, at least the recorded one, is endlessly more fascinating than the myths it inspires. .... *sigh* And then you have a show like Saint Seiya. ╯︿╰ 3. What Saint Seiya is, what it is not Allow me to be serious for a second; I don’t believe Saint Seiya should or could be this one big epic tribute to the comically complex history of the Eastern Mediterranean. At the end of the day, it’s Power Rangers: Ancient Greece. That’s all it’s ever going to be. It wouldn’t even be entertaining if it was loaded with all this lore. Saint Seiya appeals to a very popular conception of astrology, greek mythology and catholic imagery, all three things popular and various demographics, both in the West and the East, and mixes it in with shounen fluff from the late 80s. Saint Seiya is a show for children. And (wo)man-children. It’s not “Game of Thrones”. And that’s fine, lol

... But it doesn’t mean the potential isn’t there, does it? Or that its appropriation (if this term can be used) of Eastern Mediterranean mythology (specifically the Greek one) to drive up its appeal in markets is any less apparent. Right? And when you combine it with all the loose ends, unfinished character arcs and wonky timeline welding between the various spin offs, there’s just this big, fertile middle ground there, just tempting you to do something with it! So, what is an obsessive nerd like me supposed to do with all that untapped wealth just sitting there? Just bitch and complain that no one with a Toei badge on their suit will dig it for me, like so many do? Just endlessly whine that no one will put at the helm some sycophant artist regurgitating Shingo Araki’s style on Twitter? Well, no. That’s stupid. There’s honestly a lot of fertile ground in Saint Seiya to tell stories. All you really gotta do is plant a seed and water it and I guarantee; it will bloom. I have had endless conversations with friends of mine like Kenshiro and Zeb about the insane amount of fun things you can do with this world and some of them even expressed desire to maybe one day give writing them a shot. So maybe Saint Seiya isn’t Game of Thrones, or even Dragon Ball, but it does sound like it is something. And that if a passionate fan just takes the time, they could make it that something. So why doesn’t it happen? Especially when some people, like me, are obsessed enough to give it a go? Well, frankly, cause it’s a fool’s errand. 4. Saint Seiya Rewrites and “What the Fans Want” Saint Seiya fans don’t want Saint Seiya stories. They want an elevation of Saint Seiya stories into something of mainstream impact. The reasons for this are not monolithical, but it is the main driving force of what I’ve seen constitutes as the motivation of the core of the fanbase. This, the fandom believes, can be done two ways:

a) Finishing and adapting the now, pretty much, mythical “Heaven Chapter” that Masami Kurumada just won’t get into, which will usher Saint Seiya into a new age of Shounen relevance that will put it back in the pantheon of anime along with Dragon Ball and One Punch Man

b) “Fixing” early Saint Seiya, usually through some kind of new manga edition, rewrite of Sanctuary Arc or outright remake of the old anime, preferably cutting out filler

It is no coincidence that half the new stuff coming out the past 15 years for Saint Seiya that has gotten any sort of traction online (and not scoffed at or ignored like Dark Wing and Sho were) were either pseudo-sequels like Omega (see method A) , or movies and tv shows retelling the story of Galaxian Wars and Sanctuary Arc with new computer-assisted animation, 3D and now live action (see method B). There is a firm belief among fans that all that Saint Seiya needs to do is just get through Next Dimension and have Seiya finally climb Mount Olympus, Kratos-Style, and defeat Zeus, so that everything will be right with Saint Seiya and it can reclaim its spot of relevance, where fans can debate online freely in scaling forums and anime Discord Servers why Saint Seiya is *so* important as an influence to popular shows like My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaizen. I don’t know about you, but this to me just sounds a lot like Abraham Simpson fantasies, the kind where he complains he “used to be with it”, or how his descendants don’t appreciate him or give him the attention he feels entitled to. Its the kind of thinking that has no concern for the characters themselves, the voice of Kurumada or the style of storytelling they oh-so-love-so-much, and more to do with fragile weeb egos desperately trying to prove to teenagers online they shouldn’t laugh at their old show. But regardless of how I feel about it,... it’s the market of Saint Seiya. These attitudes are what define what the fans seek in Saint Seiya and what market researchers will tell their directors and animators to appeal to in future projects. Hence the glut of revisionist shows and remakes of Sanctuary Arc like Legend of Sanctuary, Knights of the Zodiac and now the 2023 LA Saint Seiya movie. So is there really a place for originality in Saint Seiya? No. Sorry. Well, don’t turn away just yet, this post ends with a positive message, just stick with me first through the valley of darkness. @melosfantasos​  is an author currently writing a remake of Saint Seiya. By their own words, “Saints of Athena” is what they wished Knights of the Zodiac by Netflix had been like. It is a fan rewrite of Saint Seiya, just like Bruno Masei’s “Legend of Seiya”. Melos, in some ways, represents this wave of wanting someone to ‘fix’ Saint Seiya, but rather than sitting around waiting for someone in Japan to read their minds and get to it, or stan accounts of fanartist shills on Twitter endlessly posting more and more ‘tributes’ to Shingo Araki, or make posts online about “Why aren’t things better? ＞︿＜Boohoo!” Melos took upon themselves to sit down and effing write. And you know what? Melos is doing a pretty good job. “Saints of Athena” is of relative quality and Melos has written 250,000 words in a year, which is a level of hardwork that should be respected no matter your opinion on the product. People, including me, have praised Melos for harnessing the potential of the characters and setting in a narrative form. And you know what? For a fandom that seems to think that the height of characterisation is Aldebaran in Kotz talking to a couple of Hoplites for five seconds about how tense things are in Sanctuary? Melos’ writing oughta be Shakesperean to them. Applause *clap clap* We got a real fan! This is it, right? This is what SS fans have been looking for. Someone with passion for the ‘narrative’ to take the reins and really use the characters the way everyone wants them to. So how many reviews has Melos gotten? 100 like Bruno? 180 like I have over 10 years? 450 like Jenny has? Maybe a 1000??? ... He’s gotten 7. For a year’s work. 3 of them are from the same people and one of them is from me. And I pretty much tell him in it that I won’t be reading because I am not interested in rewrites, but new stories. Uh.   I’m sorry, what the hell? (￣﹏￣；) 5. Spin-offs, Fanfiction and ‘Originality’ in Saint Seiya It’s no secret around FF.net that Saint Seiya fics have been going through a review drought. I publish in AO3 as well and, frankly, I don’t see that much of a difference. In fact, I get a lot more hits per chapter in FF.net. So, the question is ‘why?’ Around a week ago or so, Melos asked in a Tumblr post (mentioning me in a flattering light, btw, thank you ^_^) how come fans don’t support more original stories. I’ve conversed with the fans in various spaces over a decade and I don’t think there’s one common answer to this question. I’m not the type that thinks my work (or even Melos, no offense, please keep reading) should be given more attention simply because it’s *original*, because let’s face it, nothing is really original. Especially in fanfiction. There’s nothing new under the sun. That’s just a fact. I don’t care how weird or quirky you think you are, you’ve been influenced by something other people are already aware of. I love @jennydevic ‘s Love You, Kill Me, I think it’s one of the most ‘original’ things ever done for Saint Seiya, but guess what? I can also see the influence of South Park and Batman Animated Series in it (especially after she told me she was influenced by these lol). Her Cepheus Albiore and her June are very much Bruce Wayne and Batgirl in their dynamic. The Andromeda Island gang are various Robins, at least as far as their relationship with Albiore goes. And it’s great. So, asking why fans don’t try more ‘original content’ just... doesn’t really mean much to our markets. I can’t blame casual fans for being skeptical to when I say they should read LR because “it’s different” or subversive, especially when a lot of inexperienced writers use this as a shield to their flaws. Besides, being original or subversive is subjective. I’m sure that to a lot of people, especially people of taste, LR is nothing new or ground-breaking. It’s just ambitious, at best, and not necessarily well guided. BUT... I do think there’s a lack of curiosity on the fan’s part hidden behind a veil of feigned-curiosity, and that fans that endlessly bitch about bad spin off and movies, but then would rather buy a ticket to them or spend some extra bucks on Saori’s beach-going attire on Saint Seiya Awakening (a game designed, by the way, to make it very clear to you that the franchise exists to rip you off) than search for things fans are making, are acting fundamentally hypocritical. And I’ve been seeing this happening for well over a decade, so imagine how resigned I must feel with it. “More than Gold” is an incredible story with a premise fans should love. It’s a freaking AU about Aiolos surviving in exchange for Kido leaving behind the Sagittarius Cloth in Greece and it delves into his emotions and survival guilt and having to live in a wheelchair and rebuild his life and relationships and fighting! If you’re a Saint Seiya fan of any kind, you should stop what you’re doing and go read it right the fuck now. What are you waiting for?! To get off work?!  Quit your stupid job! All you’re gonna do with that money is spend it on Awakening anyway ￣へ￣ So go read it! More than Gold Is also about Jenny gradually discovering her love for Yaoi writing, but let’s leave that aside. There’s enough homophobes in anime fandoms. But if “More than Gold” is so goddamn perfect, as I say, how come it’s not being read? Quoted even? Because ‘something original’ isn’t what fans want. Despite what they might say. I don’t know about you, but there’s just an ugliness in the soul to going on Reddit and Twitter all the time and complain Toei doesn’t give you what you want, and then refuse to lift a finger to seek out works like Melos’ “Saints of Athena” or Jenny’s “More than Gold”, which give you everything you SAY you want, and very passionately so, but off the hand of someone that doesn’t have paid composers, animators and marketeers to legitimise it. It screams ‘envy’, not adoration, because it proves all you really want is for Saint Seiya to be what it’s not; a Dragon Ball show, but you don’t want it to work anything about itself to achieve that. In fact, many of these people don’t even try spin offs that are too different. I will never forget whiny comments made on Saintia Sho online publications that “I’m not gonna read this, because it’s Saint Seiya without Seiya. How does that even work? （︶^︶）” which is especially shocking because Chimaki is easily the most passionate spin off author of them all, in my opinion. She’s also the only spin-off author who writes Deathmask correctly, yet got the most horrible adaptation ever done for an SS manga and has been treated with dismissiveness by the fans since. What they want is something old with a fresh paint, so it won’t look so old. They want the LA movie filled with Marvelisms or a remake of the anime in the style of Hunter x Hunter’s, so they can ‘enjoy’ their cartoon without the shame of being confronted with its obsoleteness. Something ‘ truly new’ is the last thing many Saint Seiya fans want, because it doesn’t respect their nerd religion. And I don’t think people like me, or Melos, or Jenny or anyone else who want to write new things in Saint Seiya should be hanging on the hopes that these people will one day recognise them, or recognise some other fan’s work when they themselves are just sitting around waiting for a new cartoon to drop. But what choice do we have? To go ask Naruto fans to read them? And this, of course, hurts creative writing people who are passionate about what they do, because it puts them in an ever shrinking box of rejection and apathy. Jenny has made clear in her “More than Gold” chapters, even though the fic had a premise any fan of SS would love, that part of the reason she winded down production was because the lack of reader feedback was driving down enthusiasm. In her final words to the last chapter of More than Gold, Jenny says “Part of the joy of writing fanfiction is for an audience, but if there is no audience, there isn’t any point.” How heartbreaking is that? －_－Don’t worry too much about Jenny, though, she is perfectly fine. The author of Love You, Kill Me, the best Saint Seiya fanfic ever made, has moved on to greener pastures and is having fun again, bless her heart. The heartbreaking part is that we, Saint Seiya fans, have allowed this to happen. So what does this mean about me? And my obsession with Saint Seiya? Or with fans that aren’t interested in reading what I write? If there is no place for originality in Saint Seiya, why do I even bother? Pah, cause it shouldn’t matter. ＼（〇_ｏ）／ Duh! 5. Spite, Anxiety, Passion and Obsession - Why, after ten years, do I still write for a junk show I don’t like with an audience that isn’t there? It would be easy for me, after everything that I’ve written so far, to say that Lance’s Role is an engine that moves on sheer spite. I’m sure part of the truth lies in this, but that’s just too self-flattering. It paints what I do as some kind of protest against fans I don’t personally like, that I take joy in not being read by them. That I am, in a way, superior to them. That would be the Spite. But the reality is, no. I’m no better than any of them. I make plenty of mistakes in my writing and my beta-readers aren’t afraid of whacking me with their newspaper roll over them. Some of the most exciting moments I’ve had writing this fic is getting the Betas back from Jenny or my friend Elly and they let me know they like what I’m doing with characters like Lance, or Olivia, or Dohko. I am overjoyed when Jenny says she really cheered for Lance in this last chapter I wrote, or when Zeb listens to my character rambling, or when Elly tells me “hey, this is actually pretty funny”. It’s a very “please praise me some more \(￣︶￣*\)) “ kind of moment that any creative person can relate to. I still very much care what people have to say about what I write. I’ve recently joined a real writer’s server (as in, you know, people who PUBLISH) and I’ve had moments of incredible self-consciousness about everything I do, from my excessive use of ellipsis to the many references to mixed mythology that Saint Seiya forces me to employ.  I’ve been embarassed to show them what I write, but it’s also been a very interesting experience because, for the first time, I’m around a group of people that admire writing in and of itself, and not just what panders to them. This means that, paradoxically, I am aware of my flaws, terrified of them and I crave the feeling of knowing I have defeated them. For now. I think that would be the Anxiety. I think that, in a lot of ways, people write these big fanfiction projects as an exercise of fan energy. We have these crazy thoughts in our head influenced by colors and music and animated movements and, like a composer, we want to put them into paper, even if it’s really bad and you can’t really put music, colors and motions into words so well. But we also want to celebrate with others that we can find that kind of joy in what we do. I can’t speak for other writers like Melos or Jenny, but to me LR has also been a vehicle to work out some very toxic emotions in myself. The 2010s were a very difficult period for me in a lot of ways and part of the reason why I’m still alive, not just in a physical way, is because of this fic. I’m a better person for having adopted this habit and I want to know that after I’ve gone through the valley of depression and self-doubt, I have something fun and engaging to give back. Something that excites others. That in turn, would be the Passion. What is the obsession, then? Why am I obsessed with Saint Seiya? ...Well,  I’m not. I told you from the beginning of this post; I hate this franchise. It’s fucking lame and has no soul anymore. It’s largely just a vehicle, a setting for the story I want to tell. You could say I am appropriating Saint Seiya for my story the same way Kurumada appropriated Greek myths when he can’t even point on the map where the fuck in Greece Sanctuary is supposed to be at. He doesn’t even like his own show that much and his understanding of what Cosmos is changes every 2 years or so. The proof of it  is that I don’t even know what to talk about in it anymore, and I’m one of the goddamn admins at the R/SS Discord server. Everytime I want to talk about Saint Seiya, I find myself steering instead towards the things *around* it, and noticing how similar they are to other cultures I have gripes with in real life, like culture wars, politics or just the conflict of attitudes between non-prospective people and prospective people. Even in LR, the things I write with are largely manufactured concepts of my own creation within Saint Seiya. Shamballa is not a real Saint Seiya place. The map of Death Queen Island I have made is 50% headcanon. Neither are real to Saint Seiya half the things that Dohko shows Lance in Rozan, or the Princes of Hades, or the False Holy War, or even Lance himself! So maybe the Obsession... is just writing! Fuck! Ugh, I’ve inherited all of my dad’s manias, and directed them at a cartoon! (=~= God help me! So that’s the lesson, kids. Write for the sake of writing. And if you get ignored, write some more, because if you really got the itch, that’s the only thing that will scratch it.

[archersgaymerblog]

This is Val like. 99% of the time he’s in Hisui BABDBSJ poor bab… tfw Arceus teleports your disabled ass back into ancient Sinnoh and they didn’t even have the damn DECENCY to teleport your wheelchair with u. If Volo’s aim wasn’t to end the world, shit, Val would’ve thrown hands with Arceus too WHEVSJSB

SLEEPY BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Val has an Alolan Vulpix on his team… reminds him of home 🥺

Volo’s little face tilt here is so… he’s so puppy shaped wtf. Asks him if he wants to go outside and watches his head tilt a 90 degree angle BSBDJSB also with my meta for Volo this interaction is so funny… “huh you know a lot about Hisui, Volo” “thanks I was literally born here and am descended from its ancient peoples :) and I know all of its original legends :)) if you care :)))” BDBDJ

Val hearing this is immediately just. Flustered HWVDJS “y. Your Valerio you say. You say I’m yours. Hm. Ah. Many feelings I’m having right now I have to leave this cave I think” NDBSNSB it just flies right over Adaman’s head. Until he realizes like “… WAIT WAIT A MINUTE WAIT NOT LIKE-”

… two bros… Chillin on Lake Acuity… literally no feet apart these are homosexuals HWVDJSVSJS

Had these two side by side and it cracks me up HEVDJSBSJS… “okay there he goes again with the opening caves and shit” and Val’s just. :) “I did that!” HEBDHDBSKWBDJSBSKS

[endlessbag]

Hi there, long time no see^^

let me give y'all some life updates cuz my life's been somehow crazy 🫨

I lost 90% of my friends...i still cannot process it since i lost my 2 best friends as well.

tried to get into a psychology degree at uni, didn't enter, and now i am at Foreign languages on Rusian and English...wtf am i gonna do with this fr.

found a new "boyfriend" or shit. My first "relationship" after being single for 5 years. We are in an open relationship of some kind and i am not the happiest but is oke...it's manageable.

i think the new "boyfriend", let's call him "bone" cuz why not <<ik i'm random stfu>> it's using me for money and i feel neglected by at the same time cared for? rlly weird fr...

my therapist just dropped me :|

i started drinking again and smoking much more than i usually do

i feel like i am falling into my own trap <<depression>> and idk if i can handle it.

i'll go to Berlin on the 22nd :D

rn i'm feeling really empty and tired...things really are overwhelming for me

But i just remembered about tumblr so, here i am again!!!

i love it here/srs

[chasingcrystal]

Kindness is everywhere. This is a 3 part story time that I’ll divide into 3 posts. Get ready for your heart to open up. Part 1/3: Morning Romania is HOT during the summer. It’s 90 F/ 32 C degrees out. I’m hot, dehydrated, sweating in my gear and my bike is burning my right leg because the hot air is making my engine hot. I’m miserable. I finally arrive to Vulcanii Noroioși Pâclele Mari (a mud volcano). I park my bike and elephant walk in my boots to the ticket booth. I ask the man if they take credit card and he shakes his head: no. FUHHH!!! I don’t have any cash on me. He doesn’t speak a lick of English and I don’t speak Romanian. But I just ask what am I supposed to do? I start to think WTF Crystal, you just rode all this way to not get in. I mean where is the last ATM you saw in the countryside? Like backtrack an hour away in the last village? The man sees my frustration and just waves his hand to me, meaning “Go in”. 🥺 This is exactly what my face looked like. I said REALLY? and he just kept waving me in to go towards the park. My little heart 🖤 After I was done exploring the mud volcano, I went back to the ticket booth man. I used my phone to google translate in Romanian that: “I was thankful for him being nice to me to let me in the park without paying and that it means a lot because I’m traveling by myself”. I then gave him one of my stickers and guess what he did??? He one upped me and gave me a magnet of the volcano. OMG they usually sell these things for a Euro or two. I was like I’m thankful, but I gotta get out of here before he gives me more stuff because I literally have no cash on me. I tell him thank you and try to run away as fast as I can. Haha. I literally have to run away before he shows me more kindness. So somewhere in the middle of Romania in the countryside at a ticket booth, there is a wonderful human who showed a biker kindness who had no money on her and let her see her first mud volcano. #chasingcrystal #mudvolcano #romaniatravel #romania🇷🇴 #vulcaniinoroiosi #vulcaniinoroioși #vulcaniinoroioși🇷🇴 #asianwomen #motoexplorer #hondagirls (at Vulcanii Noroiosi) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChrITKXOySa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[heartual]

depressive episode in the middle of spring i think i fucked smth up somewhere

[whysojiminimnida]

Hi! Do you have a master list? I just saw a post about them standing at a 90 degree angle and I was trying to read what you said about it. Thanks!!

I do not. Mainly because I only started this blog in like July, I think? And I expected four people to read it. Probably fewer.

It seems to be getting a little bit bigger now, so maybe I should consider organizing things a bit. I mean had I known y'all were coming I'd have gotten a cool layout and a better user name and learned some graphics, maybe branched out to other social media. I SUPER DON'T THINK STUFF THROUGH SOMETIMES KIDS. But while you're waiting, here are a few things I've already posted on the whole Jeon-Park Angle Of Rotation:

But it really got started over here, in the Peace Signs and WTF DO THEY MEAN section, when Kevin From Itaewon pointed out peace signs, I showed him some shoulder grips that he thought were perhaps a bit aggressively gay, and I started eyeballing the angles of Jeon-Park orbit.

I dunno if any of that is, like, at all interesting or helpful, but at least I'll know where to find it without using my search bar next time :) Thanks nice anon!

[rainbowsky]

I am a straight turtle and it makes me sad to see toxic straight antis bashing WY and XZ. I think that has to do with their narcissistic cancerous personality and desire to ''own'' a celebrity and not with their sexual orientation. I would support them if they were asexual, pansexual, trans, bi or gay. I don't fantasize about dating them or objectify them. please know that not all straight fans are the same. I support the right to love whoever someone wants.

Hi Anon.

[ CW/TW talk about homophobia and homophobic violence ]

I don't think that people behave that way because they're straight, they behave that way because they are heteronormative and homophobic. That tends to skew toward straight people, but not because of who they love, rather because they have no concept of queerness in their lives and therefore no empathy for queer people.

That also comes with ignorance about what it means to be queer. Too often people think - because this is what's taught in our society - that queerness is about lust and perversion and promiscuity. They can't get their head around the idea that we are just like them, loving the people we love, wanting nothing more than to just be left to love and live in peace.

It's not helped at all by the way a lot of turtles talk about GGDD. The constant oversexualizing. The organizing of an entire fandom around top-bottom dynamics. Sometimes I can sort of see where some of the solos are coming from when they speak so hatefully about turtles.

If GG and DD had just been a fake CP for promo purposes, none of this would have mattered all that much. But the fact that they are real people in a real relationship - that just makes this so awful beyond words. It's incredibly creepy and homophobic for people to go to war over - let's be really clear about this - which one of these real human beings they think sticks their dick in the other.

Maybe someone can answer me this question because I can't imagine the oversexualizing is happening in straight CPs. Not nearly to the degree that it does with GGDD. But is this a fixture of all CPs, or just gay ones? I have a hard time imagining that Dilraba and Yang Yang CP fans are making posts focusing around the sex they think they're having. Not the kinds of posts they're making about GGDD.

I mean, GG grabs an endorsement for bedding, and DD endorses a detergent, and there are all these people online tittering about how 'handy' that is for them given their 'likely activities' when they are together. WTF people.

This really tweaks something inside me, as a queer person.

People might not realize, but it's exactly this type of oversexualizing of queer relationships that facilitates and even underpins a lot of the oppression and hate we experience. We are treated as debauched and uncouth and inherently perverse and obscene, and that has direct implications for how we are treated every day.

When a guy goes to his parents and says, "I love men. I have a boyfriend and we plan to get married," a lot of the horror that many parents feel comes directly from the thought that their kid is a pervert. Because queer relationships aren't treated as inherently romantic and sacred like straight ones are, they are treated as inherently sexual and perverse.

Why don't we talk about the AIDS crisis that killed hundreds of thousands of gay men in the 80's and 90s? Were you around during that time? Old enough to understand what was happening? Society let thousands of people die, and treated them monstrously in the process, because of the sexualization of the entire thing in people's minds. The world didn't approach this as a medical crisis, they approached it as a sexual, moral one.

The lengths that queer people had to go to in order to be seen as human beings by society at large, were extreme. They ended up bringing actual corpses of people who had died from AIDS, in open caskets to protest rallies. I mean, imagine this happening with COVID. Imagine people having to bring the ashes of loved ones to scatter on the White House lawn in order to get their voices heard and in order to inspire an appropriate response. This is what AIDS activists had to resort to.

How people think and talk about queer people - about anyone for that matter - has real implications for how those groups end up being treated. How people think and talk about targeted groups is usually a reflection of the value they are given by those people and by the world at large.

When I hear people saying homophobic things about a queer celebrity, those comments don't just land as hate speech against that celeb, they land as hate speech against me as well. Because those messages aren't just attacking that individual, they are attacking queerness as a class of people.

So if I get ranty about some of this stuff, I hope people can understand why this stuff matters, and the ways in which it all creates a climate and an environment that is unpleasant for queer people, and helps reinforce and perpetuate some very harmful ideas and behaviors aimed at queer people. And I hope people can understand why it's frankly triggering sometimes to hear people oversexualizing a real life gay couple to this degree.

It feels hostile at times, the constant barrage of sneering offhand remarks, comments about them 'walking funny' the day after they get together (such homophobic BS), interpreting every single thing they say or do as being somehow connected to sex, and then arguing over who they think is the top or bottom.

Every single visibly queer person has had these kinds of comments leveled at them in their daily lives. Depending on where someone grows up, these kinds of comments and ideas might have been a soundtrack playing in the background of every hateful, painful beating or traumatic encounter they had with people hostile to their existence.

And while we shouldn't necessarily be expected to conduct ourselves based on how one or two people with particular sensitivities might be affected, we should definitely consider how our words might land on others. We should definitely consider where our ideas come from and what they say about our attitudes, and about the sociopolitical realities around us. We should think about what we are reinforcing and helping to perpetuate with our attitudes and behavior.

And I would argue that when it comes to queer people, it's not just 'one or two people with particular sensitivities', in fact I'd argue that most queer people will experience a lot of this stuff as homophobic, hurtful and alienating. Many of us have been mercilessly bullied, sexualized and sneered at through our entire lives. These things are a continuation of all of that. They reflect the roots of all of that.

I know I'm not the 'target market' here. I am well aware that most of the fandom are women, many of them straight or else sexually inexperienced, and that it's inevitable that my comfort zone is going to be different from theirs, but god, how can anyone expect all this to be anything other than hostile for queer people, particularly queer men?

It's not solos who are creating this environment, it's turtles. So before we get too excited about what solos are up to, we should think about what's happening in our own backyards.

People don't think they're being homophobic, because they don't understand what homophobia really is. They think it's overt, monstrous hate. They think it's fear. It's so much more than that - it's dehumanization. It's 'othering'. It's objectification.

And oversexualization... that's among the biggest and most serious acts of homophobia. One of the most damaging. It is at the very rotten root of some of the worst oppression and hate in existence. It's why parents don't want their kids to be gay. It's why people fear hiring queer people, or having them live in their apartment building. it's why they don't want their kids going to school with queer people.

A little empathy goes a long way. A little respect goes a long way. A little restraint and self-reflection goes a long way.