#Smart Sidebar

[lampiranbaca]

Cara mengaktifkan Bilah Samping Cerdas realme dengan Mudah

Fitur Smart Sidebar atau Bilah Samping Cerdas realme UI adalah fitur yang sangat berguna untuk memudahkan pengguna dalam berpindah aplikasi atau mengakses fitur-fitur penting. Pada Bilah Samping Cerdas, pengguna dapat menambahkan aplikasi-aplikasi yang sering digunakan. Untuk menambahkan aplikasi, pengguna dapat mengetuk tombol Edit, lalu memilih aplikasi yang ingin ditambahkan. Selain…

[cutemeat]

We gonna unpack a peach called "Mac's Pride" filled with Mac's spunk? We gonna unpack the layers of a child being called "my pride and joy" and Luther thinking Mac knocked a woman up when Mac's Pride at the current state was a bunch of spunk filled peaches that had previously been sold under the name Mac's Pride?

and let's talk about how even though Mac does his whole performance he's still all alone and feeling rejected and not even looking up into the light at the end. like he "found his pride" but he didn't internally. he just put on a show for the straight people around him to Maybe understand what he's going through. but he's still left feeling alone and empty at the end, given the black empty space all around him.

damn rob rlly did just watch CMBYN didnt he LOLLLL i bet that credits sequence made him cryyyyy

[theafterglow83]

Stray thoughts from an unhinged mind caused by a song called Robin

Since my teens, I have always been a Karlie Kloss fan. No amount of vitriol from the Swifty’s has ever strayed or strained my conviction that Karlie is on many levels, and aside from being absolutely gorgeous, a better human being than Taylor Swift.

By that I mean she seems to project a warmth and a level of kindness and humanity out into the world that is so pure and honest, when compared to Taylors, sometimes vengeful and darker persona ~as well as her being Queen Mother to one of the worlds most vindictive and exhausting cults who would gladly fillet anyone at “Mother’s “ request. Taylor (the brand) has made a career and a fortune from feeding her tales of romantic misfortune and presumed ex lovers to her hungry mob with merchandise to match.

Karlie on the other hand has a nurturing and supportive side to her and don’t let her beautiful and seductive exterior fool you for below that sultry surface she gives off a warm and fuzzy golden vibe- like a puppy. She’s sophisticated, highly intelligent, NYC chic and street smart , often silly and maturing like fine wine while somehow becoming more beautiful as she ages. She also appears to be one Hell of a good mother to those babies.

All that being said about their personalities is exactly why I believe Karlie’s sunshine is the perfect match for Taylor and her moody, broken, impulsive ,often over indulgent, midnight rain personality. Not only are they equal in status - they have a Yin Yang balance to them - Only that sunshine can dry up the rain in Taylor .

I’ll continue.

While listening to songs off of the TTPD I was stopped dead in my tracks when I came to the song, Robin. I listened three times and found a tear rolling down my right cheek. I was choked up and the tiny hairs on my arms stood up . To say I was moved would be an understatement. There was something so raw, so pure and so loving in those lyrics. I had to sit with my thoughts for a while but I feel the need to share them now among those who i consider “my people”.

The Kaylors.

Sidebar confession: Yes, I’m a Kaylor.

I firmly believe Taylor Swift, and Karlie Kloss had a long running romantic relationship. They were more than friends. They were lovers too. The level of denial it takes to doubt that is astonishing. It wasn’t just Kissgate that sealed the deal. It’s the way those two looked at each other and communicated in a secret language all their own. They were deeply in love.

I believe it all started prior to the public meet up at the VS Fashion Show and even long before the “your kitchen or mine cookie “tweet.

I believe Taylor and Karlie first met when Taylor was showing up at fashion shows that Karlie was walking in as far back as 2009. Where they had a relationship then? Probably not because they were both involved with others but the sparks were flying. Thats when the foundation was laid. The attraction was there. The seeds planted. Destiny and the Universe did the rest.

Think Love Story lyrics

“We were both young when I first saw you” which I believe Taylor wrote about Karlie and which also happens to be Karlies favorite song. I believe they had an ongoing relationship that continued on until late 2017-early 2018 and then I believe something happened and they broke up, as many long-term relationships often do. My guts tell me it was cheating and it was on Taylor’s part and the regret from that will haunt Taylor for her entire life because it caused the trajectory of their path to change.

Karlie married in 2018 yet many speculate they were still together and the unofficial story is the real trouble actually came in mid 2019.

Taylor was furious over the masters, fingers were pointing everywhere, cheating rumors flew. This entire story certainly has all the drama of a Netflix series that could easily do 8 seasons

There’s so much more to this Masters incident than the public is aware of. Also the fact that Josh’s families company ~ the Carlisle Group provided the funding to Scooter is an often overlooked storyline.

Was Taylor angry at Karlie for that but how could Karlie control that if she was even in that loop of that drama. Or~ was there more -because in any good mystery - there’s always several layers more .

What did Scooter have to leverage getting that kind of money from them to buy the masters? Being Karlie’s manager at the time perhaps he has something on her or Taylor or both of them and used it as that leverage . It’s a whole other rabbit hole that I don’t have time to visit right now but regardless Taylor is still angry about to this very day which tells me it goes way deeper and my gut feeling is that Taylor’s dad was the one involved with knowing things and not Karlie Kloss who got fed to the sharks over the situation.

So I’m going on record here saying I never believed Karlie had anything to do with Masters Heist. I believe that story was used as an explanation to explain their separation. I know there’s a whole other level of messy lore involving this and a love blackout and Trumps election and Karlie’s association with the Kushner’s but I’m going to skip over that season and move on -except to say that it was absolutely shameful the level of hate Karlie was forced to endure because of that and still her sun shinned while she was being made the villain online and much of it still continues to this day. At any point during that scandal Karlie could have spoken out but she didn’t. She quietly took one for the team.

I’m not going to pretend that I know what happened during that murky period or what is happening now - because honestly -I do not…but there have been a strange set clues and way too many “koincidences to simply chalk up to being coincidences.

It’s just a gut feeling but I also don’t believe their connection went fully went away or ever will for that matter. They are and will forever be tied together even in the times they are apart but I kinda think they reunited ( again) in early to mid 2020.

I’ve read all the theories. I’ve heard all the rumors ,I’ve been to the rabbit hole, I’ve climbed out, I’ve fallen back in, and most days now you’ll find me sitting on the edge dangling my feet still and kinda wondering. I live my life ~ they live theirs.

So am I a LSK?

No, not really, but some days …ok, maybe. You see for as much as I try to say no…there’s just this tiny string I can’t help but see so I keep my feet planted on the ground but my mind open.

By open I mean open to the possibility that Taylor and Karlie are in one of those kind of “relationships” where as hard as they try ~they just can’t seem to quit each other and they go through periods of on and off times. “pauses” is what I like to call the brakes or bumps along the way. You know that couple that’s over but they’re never really over ?

Where are they now? I have no idea.

Taylor has another year of touring and promoting and probably Travis. My money says Taylor Swift will be the halftime show at next years Super Bowl.

Karlie, along with her modeling contacts ( Carolina Herrera, Estée Lauder, Donna Karen etc ) is venturing into the business world. Along with running Kode with Klossy, she’s CEO of her newly formed media company. She bought I-D magazine and also Life magazine, which Josh also invested in , this year. She’s got a lot on her plate

Yes, Karlie is married but is she really married in the traditional sense of what we all consider marriage to be? On the surface, yes… but once again- the layers and the lore here is incredible.

What a character she’d be on that Netflix show I imagine in my head . Just give her an Emmy already.

Does she love Josh? I’m absolutely sure she does- but the real question is…is she IN love with Josh? You know- romantic love -which, I as an observer ~don’t believe she is or ever has been. You can just kinda tell and no matter how many pictures she posts the connection just isn’t there and whenever I see her with her beautiful babies (even if he’s in the photo) she gives off that “ single mother vibe “

That level of chemistry, no matter how the pictures are posed~ or the hand in hand walks are staged -the passion ~ the look in their eyes - it just isn’t there and honestly it never was.

They have always given off that bff energy and frankly ~ Karlie’s friendship with her “big brother “ Derek actually feels more real, relaxed and genuine.Then there are the gay rumors ( past and present) surrounding their entire little multiverse ~but we won’t go into them right now either. We’d be here all night.

And yes, Taylor has had her share of public relationships but have they been real? Have they had their moments? probably. Did some become more than PR for a brief period of time. Possibly She’s been linked to everyone she even walks by or talks to but somehow it all pales and fades in time. I’m sure there have been flings along the way but flings don’t fly and usually run their course in that 9 1/2 week period that flings seem to take.

If I’m being honest, as I observe from the treetops all of Taylor’s relationships and Karlies relationship with Josh, they never reach the level of the real connection and happiness that I saw between Taylor and Karlie. That’s something you just can’t fake or reproduce with another .

Whatever is going on with Travis is so cringey and sadly embarrassing.I tend to think it’s PR but if it’s real then he truly is her obnoxious karma and karma isn’t usually a good thing. But hey the moneys good. Maybe they’ll even get lavender married so she can stay in her closet and continue to throw red meat to the $wifties.

The future is yet unwritten.

All that being said, I’ll get back to my original point of this ramble and that’s a song called Robin.

So yes, I’ve heard the rumors, I’ve read the theories, I’ve seen photographs of visual evidence. Karlie Kloss was in Los Angeles during the pandemic, the same place where Taylor was in fort part of 2020. When she returned to NYC if you count the months - she was pregnant even if she didn’t look it. I also believe Karlie was there in the shadows during the Long Pond Studio recordings in Upstate NY. Jack kind of gave it away when he referenced “Joe the dog” as being who he thought Taylor was talking about when she said “ Joe and I wrote a song”

I’ve also heard the rumor that there was a ceremony between them that they tried to pass off as a ceremony between Taylor and Joe which Tree later denied that there was ever a ceremony of “any type”.

Ok buckle up because here it comes

I’ve seen the “turkey baster”( IVF ) post that Karlie made. Like who uses a turkey baster in May? What an odd thing to do unless you were signaling an IVF pregnancy situation. Regardless ~ she was extremely happy that day.

I’ve seen the cinnamon buns post ( think the expression “buns in the oven ) that Taylor made a few days later back in May 2020. She was “proud” of her cinnamon buns.

Happy & proud …hum

Is that a crazy set of coincidences? Hand on whatever holy book you set before me ~ I’d have to say “yes”

And it’s Absolutely crazy considering the fact that Levi was born a little over nine months later.

Add in the fact of how emotional Taylor got accepting her Grammy for Folklore when Arron thanked his “ wife and kids “during the acceptance speech.

For a few moments there you could feel the raw emotion in her as she nearly burst into tears andJack tried to console her. Blonde was gutted. It cut deep.

Sidebar:

Yes Aaron has a son named Robin but he’s 9 years old and other than the name cleverly used for gentle cover of the truth in case damage control is ever needed~ there is no connection to that child or a secret, no showmanship to cover it up or anything that would make Taylor react as she did. Other than his name there is no connection to the words in the song

But the fact that Levi’s birth was announced during the Grammys absolutely does connect.

So I’ll just put a pin in that and move on.

Listening to that ballad yesterday rocked my entire world . It was so soft, gentle and living. So heart wrenching that I just let my emotions flow through me as my mind wandered back gathering and processing all the previous rumors and lore I had heard along the way. It left me rattled as it tumbled through memories. Could it all have been true?

So now I’m just gonna say it out loud running the risk of being attacked and also sounding like a supermarket tabloid…here goes “could Levi be Karlie’s and Taylor’s child?”

I know it sounds crazy…secret love child but …

I’m not trying to out anyone and I want to respect the fact that a child is involved here. Honestly I had second and third thoughts about posting this but if I’m being real ~ it’s also a collective of things that have been shared openly about Taylor and Karlie here for years. Somehow the song was like a puzzle piece that snapped into place.

…those loving words ,the emotion in Taylor‘s voice as she sings about her strong heartfelt attachment to a young toddler, as she encourages him in being wild and free in his wonder years, playing with abandon and roaring at the dinosaurs~

There was real love in those words

.

.

Looking out his window over his kingdom (NYC) and speaking gibberish

She also advocates for him keeping his innocence for as long as possible and then speaks of a secret that a inner circle of people have chosen to keep from him” in sweetness” to protect him and the “showmanship” to cover up that secret that he has no idea of.

And as she watches his unabashed play in his toddler purity she prophesies there will come a time in the future when the world he faces will have harsh words for him and she reminds him that he will bounce back like he now does on his trampoline.

“ and you have no idea

Buried down deep and out of your reach

the secret we all vowed

to keep it from you in sweetness

strings tied to levers

slowed down clocks tethers

all the showman ship

to keep it from you in sweetness

way to go, tiger

I’m not crying , you are and Levi looks just like his mommy 🤍

.

Let’s keep this in the family ✌️🤍🏳️‍🌈

God I love this show .

Stay tuned for next season

[pagannatural]

1.02

-Dean is so worried about Sam and his nightmares that he offers to let him drive for apparently the first time ever. The way Sam says “you’re worried about me, I get it” like he’s used to Dean being worried about him. I’m not crying you’re crying.

-there’s just no sane reason for them to stand that close together to look at a photo of a large bear

-I love how Dean teases Sam for using the word “corporeal” but then demonstrates that he does in fact know that word. This makes me believe that Dean is well-read but kinda shy about it because 1. reading was one of the only pastimes he has consistent access to growing up but John wasn’t much of a reader and 2. he wanted to share something with his voracious learner little brother without being obvious, which is why Sam is often surprised in later episodes to learn that Dean read The Odyssey and several books by Kurt Vonnegut

-sidebar was anyone going to tell me those excerpts from John’s journal (about child Dean protectively holding baby Sammy as they slept and Sam taking his first steps toward Dean) are canon or was I just supposed to google it myself?? Anyway the journal also said that Dean did really well in school as a kid before he was a hunter. I love that he’s smart and was probably a little jealous of Sam for succeeding in school when he never really had the chance to.

-Sam seems genuinely hurt that Dean is teasing him about being well-educated. It’s a sore spot.

-Dean: “her brother’s missing, Sam, she’s not just gonna sit this one out” self explanatory

-I wonder when Sam noticed that Dean was still wearing his amulet and if it was a relief or a given

-the way Sam just STARES at Dean when he’s speaking get a room. He has an intense gaze with everyone but his eyes just travel all over Dean’s face in open wonder

-Dean said service to others helps with trauma (saving people, hunting things) and he’s right aside from all the extra trauma he’s racking up. The fact that it’s so normal to him is probably part of why he doesn’t think it’s bad to pull Sam back in.

-Sam’s soft little “are you sure you’re okay?” after helping Dean and then Dean twirling the flare guns to make Sam smile.

-this episode was about Sam letting Dean in after all these years by emulating him, admiring him, and letting him make him feel better by accepting his offer to drive

-it’s been said before but who looks at their brother like this

[weebsinstash]

I was wondering, would Mayday tell the difference between us the the YouTwo?? Cuz from the movie she looks very perceptive and smart enough, so I can’t help but wonder if she could tell when it’s us or YouTwo?

For example; we probably blow on her stomach to make her laugh whenever we greeted her. But YouTwo? She just holds her at arms length and looks at her like she’s a disease

And probably Peter B Parker would know it’s us or not??

I like the idea that certain people and especially the more animal-based Spiders can always kind of inherently tell who's who just by smell alone, but also, something I think I haven't utilized in many of my ideas yet is the Spidey Sense. You can lowkey just spidey vibe check someone and kind of tell or sense stuff about them? And like I dunno if I'm misinterpreting the scene but didn't Miles also have certain visions with some of his Spidey Sense episodes like in the first movie, he has visions of the spider being an alchemax spider just before he meets Blonde Peter, or, idk, he saw visuals with his Spidey Sense

Like sidebar but the whole, kind of vision thing, imagine you're extremely stressed and have you know maybe been doing some self harming stuff and Peter B sees you're going through it one day and, you're actually about to open up to him when you experience the Spidey vision/premonition of, you tell him and he immediately goes and tells Miguel, and you realize oh he's kind of a snitching bastard ain't he (but it's for your own good he promises he's just worried about you kiss kiss uncle Pete loves ya)

But no, I was maybe thinking, YouTwo pops up and Reader is going through their 'beginning a depressive episode' shit and you can tell YouTwo is new and freaked out and, well, it's real easy to see yourself in, well, yourself, and you're like "hey I know what it feels like to feel alone, maybe you could, hang out with this friend of mine, just this once" and you give some tips on how to act around them and, maybe the more you get depressed and feel useless, you actually let them take over more and more and it's when they have some decent "power" that they start actively replacing you and messing with you and trying to kick you out and get rid of you for real

Reader, who is also feeling aimless and depressed: hey other me, why don't you go hang out with this buddy Pavitr of mine, he has this healing energy--

YouTwo: *gets along well with Pavitr and he winds up inviting other friends of yours and YouTwo makes their own independent plans with all of them, basically assimilating deep into your entire friend group and giving themselves more opportunities to steal your friends and more people, and also these hangouts become later 'proof' aka "well im the real one and i can prove it, hey Pavitr remember when we--"*

Reader: hmmmm definitely don't like that!

But no just. Picture Peter B one day finds a little bruise on Mayday, maybe a few of them, and he noticed her temperament is a little different. He can just TELL something is wrong and so can her mother Mary Jane, and Peter thinks, well, there's really not many times she's even out of his sight, ALTHOUGH he DID let 'you' babysit a few times. And at first he wants to play it off, "oh you're just inexperienced with babies and Mayday can be a total handful, you probably just made a mistake" and 'you' even lie and say, maybe it was another kid or Spider animal who got to her when 'you' had barely turned your back

But Peter B gets a little tiny baby monitor/listening device gadget, like a little hard plastic keychain that looks innocent and is ultra durable, and he attaches it to Mayday anyways, just to find out definitively what's happening, and he's with Miguel one day making idle chit chat and they can just hear 'you' over the baby monitor, "why does he keep leaving you with me. I don't even like you, you nasty little monster" and Peter B is just sort of like. ":) haha I'm sure they're. They're joking. They're totally joking" and there's just a series of *yelp* "did you just fucking bite me? Little BITCH!" *Mayday cries out and starts bawling* "yeah you're lucky that's all you get, my parents used to do way worse to me--"

Cue Peter B and Miguel bursting into the room because both fathers are understandably ENRAGED because 1. Dude have 'you' been hurting Parker's literal actual baby and 2. This is not the person they thought it was. Oh SHIT is this not the right person they thought it was

Peter B eventually meets up with you, the real you again, because sometimes i imagine Reader just quietly moves to a normal part of Nueva York and you hand your Spidey life over to YouTwo, and youre understandably a little hateful and dont want to talk to him, but he kinda just, deposits his baby into your arms. Hes gonna baby test ya and see if youre the real one. Mayday just is totally relaxed in your arms, which are noticeably much more careful holding her than your double was because Peter B actually showed you how to hold a baby, and she also has a bandaid on her hand from scratching it against something and you're just like "oh no, you got a little boo boo 🥺 why does your DUMB DADDY keep bringing you around places you can get hurt" and Peter B is like "well ok I think that's a little uncalled for but this one is definitely the real one"

Peter B is then at the front of the Anti YouTwo lynchmob because "that fake HURT MY BABY, Miguel!" which of course wins over a bunch of other formerly skeptical Spiders. You think Jess would ever give YouTwo a second chance? Fuck that, she's not gonna trust some temperamental monster around her baby whenever it's born! Meanwhile Spider Cat who can't talk is over here like "yeah well why do you think I kept biting them, they're a fake 🙄 you see this bullshit, Spider Miette" "jail for faker, jail for faker for one thousand years--"

The Spider Society finally 'gets you back' all "and arent you so happy things can just go back to normal again :)" and you're like "uhhh no fuck you guys, I'll live here but only because you don't give me any other option, the only ones of you I still trust anymore are the animal Spiders, the little kids, Hobie the realest bitch in here who never doubted me, and the toys, isn't that right special edition neon funko pop Miles Morales"

One day after YouTwo has replaced you they get too comfortable thinking everyone is always never once going to question or doubt them anymore and some absolutely heinous shit comes out of their mouth and like they get the social equivalent of one of those Telltale or Fallout video game HUDS pop up, "EVERYONE disliked that" "Miguel will remember that" "social karma lost"

YouTwo, not realizing you did one last thing to fuck them over on the way out: oh hey it's that Hobie guy that's been gone for ages, the real me told me the special password to let him know I'm the real one was "blue lives matter"?

the second that shit comes out of YouTwo's mouth he instantly knows as well as literally anyone around who knows Hobie now knows that's the fake you. YouTwo gets some real life ass [YOU CANNOT FAST TRAVEL WHEN THERE ARE HOSTILES IN YOUR AREA] as Hobie and everyone else for that matter instantly goes into full "I can't kill you but I can beat your ass" mode

[bleachbleachbleach]

[Bleach 072]

This scene is important to me for the express reason that Hitsugaya was apparently the one to tell Jidanbou about these rules. Because they are friends! We know this not from any in-story interactions but from one line in Hitsugaya's Souls profile:

[Souls 133]

I'll be honest with you, I've never actually read Souls and have never thought about where it ties to canon temporally, but the answer to that is apparently sometime before Hitsugaya confronts Ichimaru.

This amuses me because at this point we know all of five things about this guy, and one of the five is that he's friends with Jidanbou. We don't even know the name of his Zanpakutou (that's the "?" in his stats profile box), but we know he's FRIENDS WITH JIDANBOU.

I don't have the English version of this page, apologies, but basically it's just like, Hitsugaya is a shinigami who comes from Rukongai, he's the youngest Captain in history, and he's currently investigating the Rukia business and trying to bring Ichimaru's shit to light. By the way, he's friends with Jidanbou and taught him the "Rules of the City." (Then the bottom sidebar is about how Hitsugaya treats Hinamori like blood, and wants to protect her.)

Which honestly makes this Jidanbou connection even funnier because Hinamori, the reason Hitsugaya is even in this story and the only reason we know this much about him (through Hinamori's Academy flashback), gets a neat sidebar, but the line about Jidanbou is just thrown in at the end of the main narrative like, beeeeee-tee-dubs!!

I've always wanted to write fanfic about this, but I haven't yet come up with a premise that was actually interesting to me. I assume they get paired up in this way for the size kink, though internal to the narrative that only gets us so far. After that it's like, okay, they're both associated with West Rukongai, so there's that. They're probably both socially ostracized: According to himself, people in Junrinan find Hitsugaya off-putting because of his white hair and his, well, off-putting demeanor; people probably make fun of Jidanbou because he's enormous and speaks with a lisp (though this doesn't carry into the Viz)/doesn't come across as normatively cognitively developed. But I'm kinda like, okay, sure, whatever. The most interesting part about that for me is still that Hitsugaya has a casual friend at all, because what few relationships we do see are extremely not casual. But also BTW Jidanbou!

I still think my favorite version of this relationship is the one where, while Hinamori's been off at school, Hitsugaya casually mentions to her that he's friends with Jidanbou the Gate Guardian, with absolutely zero explanation, as a child might about a brand new ride-or-die friend, as though this were completely normal and natural for him, and that's all that's ever said about it. Hitsugaya is definitely someone who has a mental white paper for anything he's ever done, which is why I find the contrast/discrepancy so appealing.

If my life depended on writing Hitsugaya Jidanbou friendship, though, I'd probably start with the City Rules. Because:

Jidanbou has been guarding this gate for 300 years. We don't know how long Hitsugaya has been living in Junrinan, but we do know he would not have had first-hand experience with any City Rules more than ~35 years ago. Not that you need to go to the city to know the rules, but I think canon Hitsugaya establishes pretty well that he doesn't talk about things he's not interested in or things that he doesn't have personal verified knowledge of. So for the first 265 years, no one bothered telling Jidanbou very much about this place he was guarding (not even his brother). He's a utility, and one that lives outside the gates (FUGAIKUUUU)--also one that's not perceived as smart enough for that information to be meaningful. But that whole vibe is not really Hitsugaya's style, because he loves an infodump--but also because he has a bone to pick with the notion of instrumentality.

If we're making a point of saying that Hitsugaya taught Jidanbou the "Rules of the City" (in quotation marks), we're introducing an interlocutor's specific POV. I'm not saying Hitsugaya's just making shit up for the hell of it, but how important these rules are, why these would be the top 3, what their original contexts were vs. being pulled out like this, and what's a literal municipal code vs. a social more vs. just something Hitsugaya has personal commentary about, are up in the air. What I'm saying is, I feel like these have "a gigai is for eating beans" energy.

At minimum, I enjoy this because this is all information that is completely incidental not only to the main storyline but ALSO to the Detective Hitsugaya B-side. But I love that Bleach is consistently so, so interesting about all these characters and their POVs and the rules that do or don't exist in the world, particularly at these early junctures, where most of what we've heard about Soul Society is from Rukia, and a lot of it we've already seen contradicted; and we'll continue to as the arc unfolds. Who even NEEDS Kyouka Suigetsu??

[ombrathefurry]

So I turned them into Dwellers

It started with Smallfeather but I had an idea for Draven and then I did all of them

Smallfeather

Slower than Olive, faster than Giovani

Has a blindspot on his right, but really sharp sight on his left

Can jump

Sidebar appearance, but only ever on the right side

After chases end he sticks around barrels he suspects you might have gone into (he doesn't wander off)

Extras: Thin fabric of of scar tissue leaks blood and starling matter, bleeds a lot, leaves (bloody) footprints that fade after like a second

Draven

Fast as Giovani

Can't jump

When spotted his eyes become a spotlight

You can't hide from him when you're in his spotlight (there is a guarantee he will break whatever barrel he sees you go into)

Light can alert other nearby dwellers too

Extras: Rattling noises when walking, teeth growths, tooth knuckles

Reena

Despawns and respawns often

Uses sidebars a lot

Fast as giovani

Can jump

Mimics both barrels and computers

Can mimic other dwellers (her appearance changes, not her voice)

When you're spotted by her while she's mimicking someone else, she'll revert but also teleport over the dweller she was mimicking (both chase you)

Loading

Fast as Blot

Can jump

The more you look in his direction the more your screen distorts

Also during chases, the closer he gets the more your screen distorts

If the chase goes for more than 10 seconds, Loading drops to all fours and doubles his speed

Best hearing and sight sensitivity

Phoenix

Can jump

Fast as Brandon

Breaks barrels (Certainly if she sees you go into one. Even if she doesn't see you, the further away you are from her when you hide the lower chance she breaks the barrel anyways)

Moving vertically up is slowed (going up ramps)

Contrary, she falls fast and shakes the screen when landing nearby

shows up in sidebar

Very sensitive!

Uses your mic so don't scream

leaves blood trails

fade over time

fresher ones are sensitive (if touched she hears it and comes over)

smart too (remembers where she caught you)

If you try to play tapes to lure her away she will spawn near it but not stay near the noise source

she also does the all fours thing (also after 10s)

Brings up windows too (1st window is always guarantee a warning about the mic mechanic)

Words sometimes pop up on screen like Loading's distortion

Sometimes throws barrels at you -^^-

Player would fall and slow, but gets back up again (takes about 1.25 seconds)

Dodgeable though!

I went a little crazy with the exposed starling matter features I don't even think that's what they're supposed to look like but Hey it was fun to draw

[linda-darnell]

hi y'all!! anon asked me how I made my mobile header and sidebar gifs on my desktop theme so I figured I would make a little tutorial. (this is my first one which is super exciting, but also please bear with as i try to do this lol. if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask!) you will need a basic knowledge of gifmaking. I use photoshop 2022 on mac :)

step 1: making your gifs

you're going to make two gifs in two separate documents. both are going to be black and white, cropped however you want, but if you want it for your mobile header, the dimensions are 640 x 360 — that's what I'm using.

do your normal coloring settings (i'm keeping mine pretty basic since they'll be b&w)

make sure they're the same length. if you're using frames, make sure they're each the same frame length. i'm using video files so if you do too, just make sure they're both the same length when they're together on the video timeline.

to make the gifs look better together, use contrasting shots (for this gif, I have a far away shot of marina dancing and a close-up of her singing)

step 2: making the gradient

choose which gif you want the gradient to be on. i chose the close-up shot

go to layer > new fill layer > gradient. click ok and then this will pop up:

click gradient, then choose three colors you want for your gradient. these are what I chose:

click ok, then go to the angle adjuster (idk what it's called) and make your gradient diagonal (doesn't have to be exact)

click ok, then go to your blending mode drop down in your layer panel and change the blending mode to multiply

now your gif should look like this:

step 3: converting gifs to smart objects & putting them on the same timeline

now here's where the magic happens. on the gif we just worked on, select all the layers and merge them into one smart object. do the same thing to your black and white gif.

i don't know how to explain this in writing, so just follow the gif for what to do next:

now, align the black and white gif onto the gradient gif, then change the blend mode to lighten. now your gif should look like this:

step 4: finishing your gif!

woo, we made it! now to finish, make both layers into one smart object, and add noise (these are my settings)

then i go to my timeline panel, click the four lines on the top right, then go to convert frames > flatten frames into clips. wait for it to process, then go back to convert frames then click "convert to frame animation".

once you're in the animation timeline, click the four lines again, then click "make frames into layers". delete the first frame on the timeline (that's your smart object), then change the speed of your frames to .05.

all there's left to do is to make sure your gif is under 10mb and you're done! here is the final gif:

hope this helps! again, if you have any questions, hit up my ask box!

[sprintingowl]

Writing A Wargame When The World's A Bastard

I think most people looking at an rpg blog are probably familiar with the "Wow! Cool Robot!" meme.

And I think to an extent all play consists of "Situations I Don't Actually Want To Be In But It's Fun To Imagine The Scenario." Even tag and hide and seek simulate escaping from a predator.

However, when I say Over War is both a wargame and a tabletop roleplaying game, I want to be a little more precise about which inspirations I'm drawing on.

Yasumi Matsuno is a name that Final Fantasy XIV players might recognize, but he has a much broader body of work with incredibly consistent themes.

Matsuno also directed and wrote Final Fantasy Tactics, designed directed and wrote Tactics Ogre, designed directed produced and wrote Vagrant Story, and created Ogre Battle, which lit a fire in my head as a child and eventually led to the creation of this game.

In a Yasumi Matsuno story, you can generally expect gothic vibes, a baroque aesthetic, and messy, multi-sided political choices that orbit around resentment, societal disenfranchisement, and a struggle for a better world.

Those themes and elements are what I'm trying to channel in Over War.

There's more than a few splashes of the usual Sprinting Owl ridiculousness (you can build a unit out of just chupacabras and goats in the uneasiest alliance any fantasy world has ever seen,) but the game centers around questions like "Should anyone ever deserve to rule a land?" and "What compromises on integrity and vengeance are you personally willing to make to achieve your goals?"

There's a sidebar at the beginning of the book making it clear that I am not trying to draw real-world parallels---I'm not smart enough to do that without messing it up---but I do want the players to think when the game hands them a thorny issue, and to reach a decision that they are ultimately comfortable with.

This is tricky to do in a game which ultimately also needs to be fun, it won't sell if it's not fun, but those are the compromises I'm making in the hopes that this game will bring enjoyment and disquiet to folks.

[tawaifeddiediaz]

hello! im a newby gimaker and i want to follow your tutorial on sharpening but i dont know how you got to the photoshop page you started from where it looks like a video timeline. can you tell me how you got there? <3

Hey!!

Welcome to the wonderful world of gifmaking <3 yes i can lead you through to that point. I have a mac so this might look different for you, but all the steps stay the same - I just shifted from windows to mac so i know this xD

I'm going to show you how to do this on this gif:

I prefer to use screenshots for my gifs (I also don't know how else to make them), so I use Mplayer for that. I used to use MPV player but that stopped working with my new computer system.

First, you want to make sure that you're using a high-quality file. If 1080p is available to you, use 1080p at the very least. This will make sure your gifs are crisp and sharp.

Open your file with Mplayer. Then find the bit that you want to gif. I sometimes search forward by frame by using the ">" key. Once you're at the start point of your desired gif, pause the video. Then, Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S to start screenshotting. The video will start to play slowly as the screenshots are captured. (They go to the desktop automatically but you can change that in interface settings).

The rest of the tutorial is under a cut:

Once you get your screenshots, you're going to go Photoshop. File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack.

You're going to get a dialogue box. Click Browse and load the screenshots that you want. This is what that looks like when you finish:

Next, you're going to crop your gif, using the crop tool. You can press C on your keyboard for this or use the tool with this icon in the sidebar.

For this, I'm using an aspect ratio of 540 x 400:

Click that checkmark to crop. Once you do, we're going to resize the image. Use the Cmd/Ctrl + I function to bring up this box. For tumblr gifs, you want to change the width. The height doesn't really matter but if the width doesn't match up, Tumblr is going to fix it for you and it'll look funky. Per row:

1 gif , we use 540px

2 gifs, 268px each

3 gifs, 177, 178, 177 px

We're just doing one, so I'm using 540px.

Now, you want to make sure you can add the timeline. In the top bar, go to Window > Timeline

This will bring up the timeline.

From there, click "Create Frame Animation" (you might have to press the arrow in the timeline bar first.)

It's going to look like this:

We're going to use those three lines in the corner of the picture above. The first option we'll select is "Make Frames From Layers"

That looks like this:

Now, when these load in, you may notice that they're all in reverse. To make them go back in order, we're going to go back to that menu and click "Reverse Frames."

Then, in that same menu, click "Select all Frames." We're going to change the animation speed. You want to make sure you have the first frame selected. We're going to click the arrow next to the "0 sec"

When you click that, it will give you a menu. Click, "other..." You should get a dialogue box that says "Set Frame Delay", just like the one below.

You want to use anywhere between 0.05-0.1 seconds. I find that anymore more is just too slow, so I prefer 0.06. This is fully changeable at the end of my sharpening tutorial, and you can use what you want, but that's what I prefer.

When you do that, it'll change the frame speed of all the gifs.

Now, go back into that little menu, and click, "Convert to Video Timeline."

This is what it'll look like:

Now we're going to select all the layers in the right-hand pane. Once we do that, right-click and select, "Convert to Smart Object."

And you're there! Now you can use the sharpening tutorial to your liking.

Pro tip: Make an action with all these steps so you don't have to do them by hand with every single gif you make.

Hope this helps and it wasn't super long winded. Let me know if you have any questions <3 Happy giffing!

[locke-esque-monster]

There are many things I love about SPN's 4x18 "The Monster at the end of this Book".

But the Chuck of it all is fascinating in retrospect. Now to be fair, I haven't finished the show yet, but I know about the God reveal. And I know that there's some debate over if Chuck was ever Chuck, or if he was always God.

I would love for Chuck to be goofy, anxious human Chuck. But I've doubted it before, and re-watching it today just reinforced that.

Here's what this episode looks like if you consider Chuck might already be god:

Because if Chuck's himself, how does he not recognize Sam & Dean from his visions? From the choppy bits we see, I know his publisher is there, so he can see people.

The case at the start of the episode with the comic book store is dropped with no explanation or reference to again. That says to me someone with questionable writing skills used that as a lazy plot device to get our characters here to meet Chuck. Who would do that but Chuck?

He has no recollection of the story he was writing until the characters ask what he's working on. Weird when he was just writing it before they arrived. Maybe understandable with the drinking/headaches. But the way he remembers only when asked, seems more like he's only giving out information when the story calls for it (think a questionable mentor type, like Dumbledore).

He says to Dean when he shows up at the end to kidnap him that he didn't write this. But if that's the case, how was the tryst with Lilith and Sam supposed to end? Bad writing for the show? Or is Chuck surprised Dean broke out of his plot and isn't expanding on details because he thinks he can steer Dean back on course? (Sidebar - I think Lilith's deal was legit, at least from her end. It'd end the apocalypse if Sam & Dean were dead, especially with no confirmed descendants. I just don't think God would allow that to play out.)

If Chuck is god, he takes a chance to throw it out to them that he is powerful so they dismiss it (hoping they won't call his bluff). And then when they do, he's confident enough they bought it to take the chance apologize to them for what he put them through. Sam's trying to make it something he's seen, like psychic abilities, and Dean's playing down the trauma/injuries are probably exactly how Chuck knew they'd react.

The wording of Sam's "wish to god I could stop" conversation with god, and Chuck saying he's still doing it is too uncanny. He's literally wishing in front of god for help, and god is putting it back on him that he's not really stopping, nor does he want to.

Then Chuck in that whole conversation with Sam. He's different in this scene than any other this episode. He doesn't play up his fears or anxiety like he does with Dean, he acts like a writer who not only knows the story, he KNOWS where it's going and is trying to steer Sam a certain way without looking like it or saying too much. His responses are very deliberately worded. It reminds me of Ben Linus manipulating people in Lost.

He says to Sam "I know it's a terrible burden - feeling that it all rests upon your shoulders." How would Chuck know that without the responsibility of God?

He has an answer for Dean and a loophole to get out of going with him - the archangel. But Dean calls his bluff. Basically, if Dean shoots him, either Dean will get killed by an archangel as a threat, ruining his story. Or he gets the shot off and Chuck survives, revealing he's not just Chuck. Chuck had to let his story be ruined tonight to allow the rest to play out (lose the battle to win the war).

To jump off that last point, this episode also acts as a thesis statement for how each character looks at destiny and how Chuck reacts to them.

Sam's the "smart one" - but he's liable to think he knows better and fall into exactly the trap Chuck sets for him. Sam is out to break the system in a big way - Chuck can see it, and stop it.

Cas's rebellious streak always wins out. If his friendship with Dean is on the line, he'll find a way to fall out of line with Chuck's plan in ways Chuck could have never imagined.

Dean's stubbornness with authority, including destiny, knows no bounds. He'll fight and get creative. Dean knows better than anyone how to find a loophole with a strict father. These little rebellions are harder for Chuck to see and correct. And with Dean's persistence and creativity, those little rebellions add up to messing up the plan. This is both how this episode goes, and the apocalypse arch as a whole. Chuck thinks he can outsmart Dean, but in a way, Dean's less predictable than Sam even if it doesn't outright seem like it. So Chuck fails to do stop every time. And a couple of times is all Dean needs.

I want to be wrong. I want Chuck to be like Anna maybe, unaware of of his abilities and knowledge and it's leaking through as maybe a vessel of god. Or even that god is writing Chuck this way for the purposes of the story, as his stand-in.

Unfortunately, I'm not so sure. And let's consider a comment I've heard made on the episode before. The episode title arguably isn't just a funny reference, it's a guide to the show - much like Chuck's writing. The "book", or episode, ends with Chuck, much like the last big villain in season 15 is Chuck. So he's the "monster at the end of this book" all along. It's a better fit if Chuck is god.

[rainbowsky]

GG Esquire Cover Story

A lot of people have written me about the cover story GG did for Esquire magazine. There have been some interesting responses in my inbox, many of which have baffled me a bit, to be honest.

People have asked me for my thoughts on it all, so here they are! 😊

I've been picking away at this for ages, sorry it's coming so far after publication of the article. I have a few things like this in my drafts that are taking me a while to finish writing. I don't have the sustained resources to work on things for very long at a stretch these days.

Disclaimer: Please remember that this is an OPINION piece - my take on the article. I have no special insight, and everyone is free to form their own perspectives and responses. Don't take what I say as fact. It's just one opinion among many.

The photos

I have to start out by talking about the photos, because they truly set the tone for (and perfectly illustrate) the article.

These are not the typical magazine spread photos that a lot of fans are used to seeing. Here GG is practically unstyled. The GG you would see in his downtime. His hair is tousled, his clothing is very casual. His poses are also very casual. He looks like he could be just hanging around his hotel room scrolling through his phone.

These photos are such a gift. They feel so fresh and candid and relaxed. Total Boy Next Door. I absolutely love them.

What a relief to see these photos. Nothing ostentatious or overstyled, nothing aggressively brand-forward (some of what he is wearing is his own personal clothing). Just GG. I nearly fainted. 😅

The article

The original article can be found here, and there is a fan translation here.

My relief in seeing these sweet, casual photos of GG was matched only by my relief in reading the article.

To be honest I'm rarely very excited about the sorts of interviews or stories that accompany these types of magazine covers. They are generally fan servicey puff pieces that cater to a certain type of reader - the kind of people who want to become more invested in an idol fantasy.

They tend to be fairly overtly PR pieces, aimed at positioning the idol in an appealing and often romantic, personable way that makes them more accessible to their fans.

I have often been dismissive of interview statements that other fans have taken to heart, which has caused some friction at times, but what can I say? I think a lot of what's typically covered is awkward, fake and fan servicey. I talk a little bit about that in this post.

I didn't go into reading this article with any particular expectation, except that my expectations were low and I wasn't expecting any surprises. But, much to my surprise, I found a smart, interesting, poetic, uncompromising look at a side of GG that we've rarely seen.

My biggest takeaway from this article was that GG wanted to dampen, rather than fan the flames of, fan fantasies about him; to give people a more realistic sense of who he is and what he's about.

I have rarely been prouder of him than when reading this article. It feels like with this interview he is setting boundaries and putting his honest self forward despite expectations and even demands about who he should be and what he should represent.

Sidebar Rant About Fan Culture

Sometimes I see GG's life as being like an episode of Black Mirror. He is a protagonist who has been strangled by his own fame, in some ways held hostage by people who believe that they made him who he is and put him where he is (despite the role they've frequently played in holding him back).

The situation for stars at his level is pretty crazy. Fans genuinely believe that they know better than their idols what is best for them and their careers, and they will - totally unironically and with a straight face - deliver lists of demands and conditions to their idol and their idol's management team that they expect to be met if the star hopes to maintain their love and support.

These demands can be quite detailed. How they want the management team to be structured, the types of projects they want the artist to take, the types of statements they want their idol to make, etc. It's insane.

And GG's fans have been especially difficult, because they are very deeply invested in old school ideas about fan culture that are no longer viable in the current climate. Pushing traffic, 'comment control' and 'clarification' (aka fan wars), attacking anyone they perceive to be a rival or opportunist or anyone they believe isn't treating GG how they think he should be treated (despite having no access whatsoever to verified information about how he's being treated - i.e. it's all based on their assumptions). Using dirty - even dangerous - tactics to try to harm rival fandoms, regardless of how much that puts GG at risk.

Despite the fact that their behavior has caused problems for him in the past. Despite the fact that he has repeatedly begged them to stop behaving the way they do. Despite the fact that his career has nearly been killed by this type of behavior. Despite the fact that there has been a seismic shift in how fan culture is being treated in China, and despite the policies that have been put in place to curtail some of that behavior. They just don't seem to have gotten the memo.

They have learned absolutely nothing from their past mistakes.

Increasingly, they do not seem to have his deeper interests at heart. At times they appear to be supporting him for their own vanity, clout and sense of accomplishment rather than genuinely loving him for who he is. They seem to take more pride in their ability to bring traffic, out-vote other fandoms and move brand merchandise than in who this sweet, smart man is and what he does.

They actively push some of the most toxic, hateful ideas you can find in fandom. They are some of the key drivers behind the whole 'desperate illiterate' hate campaign against DD, and in so doing put both GG and DD's careers at risk. They are constantly spreading hate and lies about DD and trying to bring scandal upon him. Any time an anti-DD campaign surfaces online, they jump on it and fuel it to the best of their ability.

These are people who have had so many opportunities to grow and change, and emulate GG's kindness and maturity, but have repeatedly failed the assignment.

Being a star can't be easy

I often wonder how GG really feels about his fans. How much of the fan culture mayhem he's fed up with, and how much of it he's taken in stride as part of the job. I know it drives me crazy, but he's obviously got a better perspective on it all and would be a lot more accustomed to it all.

As I said in a previous post, I think we need to treat the idea that he absolutely adores his fans with some degree of skepticism. There's a very real noose around his neck, and that can't feel great. I personally believe he wants to loosen that hold a bit.

With this article GG seems to be saying, "Here I am. Support me or move on, but this is the real me."

He seems to be setting some boundaries and giving fans a glimpse behind the curtain at the real him. He is challenging them to accept him for who he really is, or move on.

I feel like he is taking cautious steps toward loosening some of the stranglehold fans have over his career.

GG is a smart, savvy person. I have no doubt that he is well aware of the assumptions about him. I don't think it was an accident that this interview broke down some of those assumptions.

I love him so much. He continually blows me away with how sharp and tough he is.

Disillusionment and growth

Of course, that's not the entire story of the article. There is some alienation and loneliness here. Frustration and struggle with identity.

One of the most powerful lines in the entire article was when he said that he works for this Xiao Zhan guy as well. When he talks about not knowing anymore which GG is real and which is the persona.

"There are two Xiao Zhans, one of them is here, that’s me. There is another Xiao Zhan, the Xiao Zhan in quotes, but he is probably not me anymore. We are all working for him, including myself."

I admit I was surprised by how fractured he sounded. Not surprised that some of this has happening - that is totally to be expected given his fame - but surprised that he'd talk so openly about it. He's not normally so candid about his personal experience of fame, or about its emotional/psychological impacts on him. In his post-2/27 interviews he brushed off any notion of the emotional burden it was placing on him, for example, even though it would have been understandable had he admitted it.

What stands out to me in all of this is how powerfully he is distancing himself from his idol image and showing a mature, serious, in many ways ordinary person. How boldly he is reminding the audience that there is more to him than meets the eye.

Some might read that as cynical and jaded - the star who is playing the game by performing a role that's separate from himself. I read it as the opposite. I read it as self-actualizing and self-preserving. He doesn't believe his own hype. He is just doing a job, working for this persona, while maintaining his own integrity and independence despite all the pressure to perform and be perfect.

The mountain was such a powerful image. Climbing the mountain as a child and seeing it as this nearly insurmountable ordeal, and then later as an adult feeling like he can take a couple of long strides and be at the top. It is such a metaphor for his career and his success. And that speaks of a certain amount of demystification and disillusionment surrounding his dreams.

It was reminiscent of the line, "Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true" from The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell.

Certain jobs, when taken on, become something completely different from what we thought we signed up for.

I have often been asked why I don't open a restaurant. I always jokingly give them this very earnest and serious answer, "Because I like to cook."

If I were to open a restaurant, food would be among the least of my concerns every day. I would have to deal with marketing, I would have to deal with staff and the day-to-day running of the facility, supplies, vendor relationships, finances and management. Food would be very low on the list of things I'd have time to concern myself with.

I feel like the same has happened for GG. He thought he was becoming a singer or an actor, when it turns out he was becoming a celebrity instead. Those are totally different jobs, with totally different demands, activities and limitations.

He enjoys taking on new roles and learning new things and expanding on his skills and working on interesting projects. I doubt very much that he enjoys managing a persona, or navigating fan expectations, or addressing yet another fan-created scandal. I doubt very much he enjoys being held to the standards the top traffic star position puts him under. I doubt he enjoys the restrictions it places on his career or on his personal life.

I doubt he enjoys the limitations on what he is able to show of himself in that job.

Having the kind of job where you have to hang up your personality at the door like an overcoat every day when you walk in - that's a lonely, lonely world to be in. Soul-destroying.

I have long felt that this situation isn't sustainable for GG over the long term. I have wondered what he will do to shift things into a more comfortable, more stable existence for himself. I feel like this article gives me some ideas about that. And it is a relief to read because I get the sense that he is fully aware of that problem, and working to address it for himself so that he can continue doing what he most enjoys - acting and performing.

We have all had these theories - I'm sure most of us have, anyway - that he is trying to shed the idol image, the 'traffic star' image at least to some degree so that he can be accepted as a serious actor with a serious career.

This is a common career path for idols who want to stay in the industry past their idol shelf life. But it's one thing to believe GG might be working on that, and another to feel like I can see him taking brave steps in that direction.

Some surprises, some not

There were some things that surprise me from this interview, and some things that I was not surprised by.

One thing that really stood out to me is how much his real personality shines through. The smart, witty, intense GG we've all seen in The Untamed BTS and in some of his XNINE activities. It was a surprise. I guess I was expecting to see the persona GG - not the real GG. It was so good to see him that I nearly got choked up.

This is the GG that is very no bullshit; blunt and honest. This was the GG who outed DD for using his own meme pictures or for sending him too many selfies. This is the GG who firmly stated he wanted the het scenes deleted. The GG who was very forthright, clever and affectionately prickly with his XNINE brothers.

GG has said in the past that he is not as sweet and sentimental as his fans think he is, that behind the scenes he can actually be ruthless and demanding. This is the GG we've caught glimpses of and that he is talking about in that statement. The real, unvarnished GG.

I didn't dare hope that he would be so candid. He is usually so image-conscious. Not 'fake' by any means, but conscious of how he is coming across and careful not to offend. But in this article he has brought himself unapologetically to the forefront and for that I love and applaud him.

Another surprise for me was when he was talking about how he handles his inner struggles. I was surprised when he said that he doesn't like to talk through his problems. I had always assumed that - as a very authentic, emotionally intelligent, compassionate, personable person - he would be the kind of guy who would reach out to others during times of need.

Instead he said that he doesn't like to talk about his issues. He had such clear and rational explanations for why that even though I can't relate to his approach, I can understand it. This approach can be interpreted as self-contained, self-sufficient and pragmatic. 'If it can be fixed, fix it. If it can't, set it aside. No point talking about it.'

There's something very Zen about letting go of what you can't immediately change, rather than dwelling on it or digging into ruminations about it.

I also found his rationale for avoiding other people's confidences interesting. He 'doesn't want to be a suspect', he 'doesn't want to be burdened by other people's secrets'. I can definitely see how his approach could prevent people from getting caught up in each other's drama, and his mindset reflects healthy boundaries that can help preserve friendships.

I can see GG's characteristic cautious self-protectiveness in this approach. He's smart, strategic and - based on many things he's said in this interview - quite introverted. This approach serves all those aspects of his personality.

There's that old saying, "loose lips sink ships" and that is especially true for someone so much in the public eye. It's good that he has the sense to keep his mouth shut about personal things.

There is wisdom to that approach. It reminds me of the old nursery rhyme about the owl:

A wise old owl sat in an oak, The more he heard, the less he spoke; The less he spoke, the more he heard; Why can't we be more like that wise old bird?

Having said all that, I don't personally share the same view or the same approach in my own life. I am very much someone who likes to talk things through, and who likes to be a listening ear and a support to others as well.

I think there is a lot to be said for the way this type of communication can deepen relationships, help people better understand each other and become more bonded. Sharing burdens, sharing feelings, sharing confidences. It's riskier but the rewards can be significant.

A lot of the biggest problems in the world come from lack of communication or from crossed wires. Talking with others face to face is a great way to clear up confusion and help people stay connected and bonded.

Being the sort of person people can confide in and who talks about things that are on my mind - this really enriches my life. Although I feel like GG has done a great job of making his approach make sense to me, and even seem appealing in ways.

I want to caution people from over-interpreting these statements from him to assuming GG is uncommunicative with DD. As someone who lives with a partner who is exactly like GG when it comes to 'talking about things', I think it's highly likely that GG has a different approach with those few people who are closest to him. There's a pretty big difference between being emotionally and socially open with friends and colleagues, and being emotional and intimate with a partner.

An ordinary boy

The article focuses a lot on his childhood and some of the nostalgia and memories of his past. It's so interesting and illuminating to read about where he came from, and about the parts of that ordinary boy that survived through to adulthood. The geography of the city and the buildings are used as a metaphor for the changes in his life.

He started out in the factory district, in low grey concrete buildings full of vibrancy and activity, passed through a rainy uphill commute and ended up among shining glass skyscrapers. What a journey he has been on, and he's only 31 years old!

The fact that he's been able to maintain his integrity and authenticity and avoid being devoured by the persona - that's such a testament to his character. He really is the whole package. Smart, strong, determined, sweet, compassionate, ruthless, creative, introspective, pragmatic, down-to-earth, cautious. I have always appreciated his breadth as a person. He is very multi-dimensional.

I've talked about that a bit in the past. It's part of why I feel so frustrated sometimes when fans have really shallow, superficial, fan-fictiony takes on his personality. The sweet, soft-hearted aesthete. The tragic beleaguered victim. The playful, cute, dorky romantic. The sexy, saucy, light-hearted, effeminate artist.

None of these takes can even scratch the surface of who he really is. The more I know about him the less I think I know, but I at least know one thing: he's so much more than fans give him credit for.

Florist GG AU

I wasn't remotely surprised to hear that he sometimes thinks of quitting. Even fans sometimes daydream about him quitting. Getting his life back, getting his freedom back. Living a quieter life. Surely there are many times when he is reminded of everything he is sacrificing to do what he does. Times when it feels like too high a price to pay.

But reading this article, I can honestly say that I feel he is up to the task he's taken on. He really does know who he is and what he wants, and he has all of the integrity, emotional and psychological strength to make the most of this career.

My hope that he will start to shed some of the toxic traffic fans and build a stronger, more enduring, more rational fanbase. That he will begin to break free of the shackles of stratospheric popularity and settle into a more stable, satisfying career as a respected actor.

AND SINGER. PLEASE GG! 🥹

It was such a great article, and I feel like I got a glimpse of something new about him that I did not know, which is so rare. I feel like I've been gifted more insight into him, and I have so much gratitude for his willingness to share that with us all.

Regarding candy

A few people wrote me in a big panic over 'what this article meant' for GG and DD's relationship. They had worked themselves up into a state where they felt that if GG and DD were in a relationship, GG wouldn't have said or felt the things he did in the article.

Glass-hearted turtles will need to transform themselves into tortoise-shelled turtles, or they will not survive this fandom. And frankly, those kinds of takes on things sometimes reflect a lack of life experience or realistic understanding of GG and DD as ordinary humans in a relationship.

Some turtles seem to view everything from or about GG and DD as either proof that they're a couple, or proof they are not, with no neutral content and no in betweens. In short, they look at everything GG and DD-related to see what kind of candy it is. And the thing they need to get through their heads is

👉🏻 almost nothing from or about GG or DD will actually be a candy. 👈🏻

Anyone who has ever been in a serious long term relationship knows, there's actually very little about our day-to-day lives that revolves around our partner. My interests and hobbies, most of my social interactions, certainly everything about my work has absolutely nothing to do with my partner. He almost never comes up as a topic or factor in any of it.

And yet we are happily married, and have been for a long time.

As I am frequently saying, GG and DD are individuals first, a couple second. We need to love and respect them in that same order.

This article is about GG and his career. It's an important article about his inner life experience as a celebrity. It has absolutely nothing to do with DD. I find it baffling why anyone would expect it to.

If you are looking for candy, most of the time you will find no candy. If that causes you pain, you are in the wrong fandom. GG and DD aren't here to give us candy. They aren't here to prove anything. Nor should we be. They don't owe us anything. Certainly not 'proof of life' in their relationship.

If you read that article and didn't get that message, then you missed the entire point of the article. GG was saying to everyone, "I'm not just what people think they see, I'm not just what people expect or what they want me to be, underneath I'm a real human being."

Turtles who remember that, and who are able to love GG and DD as individuals, will be longer-lived and happier.

GG and DD's relationship is for and about them. It exists for each other, not for us. I've no doubt they appreciate the love and support turtles give them, but it's not their job to feed us. It's not their job to be trained ponies prancing around for our amusement. They don't owe us anything. Certainly not any candy about their relationship.

More on fan expectations and black-and-white thinking here.

[scripturiends]

i know one of the biggest complaints about house of anubis was its writing but if you step back and really consider the sitcoms that were airing at the same time on nickelodeon then it’s actually stellar in comparison. one thing that really set it apart was that it was serialized and not episodic so you had to be really cohesive with the main plot whilst being able to keep ur younger audiences hooked with high school hijinks,, which was comparatively less intense with the d*n schn*ider shows but was just as impactful?? and it did so without resorting to constant physical comedy.

just as a sidebar so far on twitter the biggest criticism ive seen of the show was that it was boring but that makes sense if you’re watching an episode that was meant to be the continuation of all the other ones that you may not have seen bc it was the time of cable. streaming was still sorta a foreign concept in 2011-2013. so that was one of its weaknesses back when it was airing but i think actually as time passed by it has now become one of its strongest points because house of anubis is incredibly rewatchable. you can watch it over and over again and discover something new about the plot, the characters, even the random things happening in the background.

anyway back to the writing, one of the reasons i love the dialogue in the show is because of how witty it actually is like im sorry it’s actually so hard to find the balance of sounding sharp without being pretentious and being funny without being too childish and using big words while still effectively portraying what it’s like to be in high school. that’s in the writing, that’s in the delivery – there have been questionable acting moments for sure but the cast were definitely giving it their all.

and this was something i articulated to my friends as a commentary but i seriously love how they wrote the girls on the show. because yes nina and joy were in that love triangle but nina never plotted to hurt joy because of it and when it mattered the most, joy was there to help nina out with all the chosen one stuff. and when willow and mara found out jerome was dating the both of them, willow asked mara if she hated her and she said no. which, if you were 13 at the time would have been so crazy to think about because normally the portrayal of girls is being at each other’s throats, trying to win the guy back, one-upping each other to find out who loves who more. joy did mara dirty during the journalism arc but she straight up said “i will not accept joy slander”. kt always reassured patricia that she wasn’t interested in eddie and even helped them get back together. amber was a girl’s girl the whole show – when she was unhappy with joy it was because she wanted to protect nina. when joy lashed out at willow, she felt bad and apologized. i could go on and on about all the times the women of anubis house had each others’ backs like they would fight but at the end of the day they love each other and would protect each other. just like joy said, whatever fight they would have, it’ll be ancient history by lunchtime.

i think the same goes for the guys as well? the guys don’t fit squarely into just one stereotype. like yes fabian is the ‘nerd’ but he barely went to class. he was smart in the things he was interested in – if anyone cared the most about the school it was mara. jerome was the ‘prankster’ but they did a deep dive into his family in season 2 and we even got to see him at his most lovable when he’s fallen in love with joy. eddie is supposed to be the ‘bad boy’ but in the entirety of season 2 he made me swoon with the way he kept encouraging patricia to lower her walls and talk about her feelings. he was pretty vocal about how he would like to be cared for, and genuinely gets upset when patricia wouldn’t listen. he’s an honest and sweet friend to everyone too.

anyway im sorry i couldn’t do one for everyone but you get what i mean. everyone was nuanced in a way that i think was so advanced for network standards like i really believe nickelodeon didn’t deserve a show as good as anubis but also at the same time im not sure it would be as good had nickelodeon not picked it up and gave it the number of episodes that it did. it’s kind of like how i feel about many of the decisions in the show – nina leaving without a proper explanation, the nina/joy/fabian love triangle, mick and amber’s departures, the way they approached the jerome/mara/willow/joy arc in s3 – i hate it but i also love it. it’s my favorite thing but also my most despised thing. i can’t stand watching it but i can’t get enough.

house of anubis is flawed in the way anubis house and the kids living in it are. they do the most awful things but they are so in need of nurturing. they’re immature but also the most mature people on the show. just a collection of oxymorons that created the masterpiece that it’s always been but also the masterpiece that it’s now just becoming.

[shen-daozhang]

ooh i saw your tags in the post about ppl hating female characters for the same things they love about male characters, and i thought about sqt vs jgy, so i wonder what you think about both of them! (if you feel like answering! it's not like a 1:1 comparison)

*vibrating* Yea I like those characters a normal amount why do you ask!! (Also I had a super busy week at work and I kept thinking about this ask and monologuing about it in my head, so thank you for the enrichment in my enclosure)

(very messy thoughts incoming!)

Ngl, I never considered how they are similar until this ask, and there are a lot of ways that they are! A background that includes abuse, being seen as less-than for the circumstances of their birth (SQT as a Butterfly Boned Beauty Feast, JGY as an illegitimate son of a sex worker), both gravitate towards powerful men to protect themselves, both are navigating the confines of society trying to move upwards, again, in order to protect themselves. Also both use torture (or at least the 0.5 timeline SQT does)! So that's a fun little similarity.

Now, a big difference is there is the element of revenge in JGY's actions on top of the base need to survive (and a desire to thrive in a world that looks down on you), and I think considering his intelligence he would have gotten away with his plans if not for the completely buckwild re-introduction of WWX back into the plot after his death. I personally think SQT is just focused on survival, and even when she is cruel to Chu Wanning in the 0.5 timeline, I believe she does so because considering TXJ's own treatment of CWN she thinks that is want he wants, and doing so will improve her standing with him (which, sidebar, I am always floored by people who hate on SQT for hurting CWN while they woobify TXJ). Her accusation of Ye Wangxi is only done in an attempt to survive, and I think should be viewed in the lens of the danger that Mo Ran's planted evidence places her in - she's a known Beauty Feast and you know in the world of Erha the second she is out from the protection of Nangong Si her life is likely literally over.

SQT is also just not as smart as JGY, which isn't a slight towards her, JGY is obviously brilliant on many fronts. But I think there is an element of SQT batting above her level, and that leads to her downfall in both timelines. Another glaring similarity is the fandom reaction to them and their actions being a smidge... shall I kick the hornets nest and say hypocritical especially when compared to the actions of the main character? Or other characters in the story who get woobified? (I will also throw Ye Bingchang from Till the End of the Moon into this category). At the end of the day, they are people who are just trying to survive in a deeply messed up world in the only way they know how. Now! Are they both innocent of any wrong-doing because of this? Of course not! That's what makes them interesting and why I gravitate towards these types of characters. The TL;DR: of this is essentially, "people doing fucked up stuff to survive in a world where you have to do fucked up things to survive? It's more likely than you think!"

I will say the fandom's feelings towards JGY has chilled a bit lately, but people were nasty towards him back in the day. Unfortunately, people still are towards SQT and I don't see that changing. I actually ended up including her in my 0.5 fic because I was tired of seeing fics that she either didn't appear at all OR was killed off in a way that was obviously done with malice on behalf of the author. Now she uh doesn't meet a happy end in either of my fics where she features but she's actually a character I really enjoyed writing, and I hope I did it with some sense of sympathy.

There was more I wanted to say but this is already long so I shall post this before it withers further in my drafts! <3

Also gonna link my own fics in case anyone is curious since I mentioned them. SQT appears as a character in this one here - my take on "hanahaki but worse" which has a sad ending - and her death is an inciting incident in this one, an AU where Chu Wanning is the one who got the flower and has become a zealot trying to cleanse the cultivation world (a WIP but I will finish it!).

[fictional-crushes-unite]

Cheater, Cheater

Keys x reader! Based off an idea by @loliakeoghan23​

Before the story of Free Guy begins, reports of a hacker stealing user codes pile up to the extent that Antwan enlists Keys to track the culprit down or risk losing his job

TW: Cursing, sexual themes, actual crime

The furious clacking of the keyboard’s tiles echoed around the room as Y/n’s eyes fixated on the screen, finger whirring as she fired repeatedly at the digital avatars.

The Harlequin-style character shot in accordance with each click, sending the surrounding players to the ground.

“You’re pretty good at this,” the chat crackled to life through her headphones as the player count dropped. Y/n rolled her eyes at the condescending tone and flicked down her mic. “I’m no expert,” she replied coquettishly in a sugary voice. “Just playing for fun.”

Clearly it was the right move, as the guy seemed to gain more confidence from her answer. “Your boyfriend help you rack up all those levels, babe? Pretty high score for someone who’s using it for rec.”

Jeez, that was predictable, Y/n smirked, used to the ‘smooth’ lines of Free City’s most frequent players. Judging by his skin and gamer tag, this dude was either some geeky teenager or a thirty-year old who was still dependant on his mother.

Pulling up a sidebar, she started implementing lines of code into the program, mining through the available data as her opponent kept obliviously blabbering on. “I’m just saying, there are hardly any gamer girls that get this far. And the ones who do are like, threes at best.”

Y/n grimaced, stalling long enough for the information to transfer before discreetly moving her character into the enemy’s line of fire, yet not enough so it looked purposeful. 

The gun sound effect mixed with the guy’s triumphant exclamation brought her back to the game, where a heavily decorated YOU LOSE floated over the image of her opponent’s avatar dancing idiotically.  

“Sorry, baby, tough luck,” he crowed, more focused on collecting the onscreen rewards to realise his entire financial information log had been compromised. “We could do this again sometime, I could give you some pointers?” he added hopefully.

“Thanks, but no,” Y/n sighed, double checking the info transfer before exiting the match. The game disappeared into it’s small window, revealing the clear numbers of every purchase ever made with his account. 

Sliding her headphones down around her neck, she started scrolling down each date and timestamp until she got to the core signup information. Free City’s account creator was sketchy from the beginning, with little to no credit security, yet every player needed bank information to join. It was like they were ASKING to get hacked.

“You spend a surprising amount of money on video games for someone with no income, Mr...Brandon,” Y/n mused aloud as she copied each code down and encrypted them. “What would your mother say if she knew you linked her debit card onto your account as well?”

“I really hope you learn your lesson from this, honey” she tsked, 

_____________________________________________

“Keys, Keylime, K with a capital E, what is up, man?” Antwan called from behind his desk. 

Keys hesitated awkwardly as the doors slid closed. “Um. Hi. I heard you wanted to talk about something?”

Antwan hopped up, his jacket swishing as he made his way around the table. “Well, I was just thinking about you, bro! I wanted to see how you were doing, ask how’s the wife, you know,” he shrugged. 

“I’m not married?” Keys protested weakly as Antwan wrapped his arm around his shoulder. His boss nodded, clearly not interested. 

“Right, right, that’s cool. So I had a little question I wanted to run by you, being the smart little nerd you are.” 

He opened his mouth to respond, before Antwan kept on talking. 

“I was talking to my dudes in Account Security, that boring stuff, yeah? And usually those meetings are a total snooze. But this week, they had some new stuff to blab about. You got any complaints about bank info being whisked away?”

Keys frowned. “Yeah, uh, we got like four this week. But I checked through the player data base and there’s no record of any breakthroughs.”

“Hmm. See, that’s the fun thing. I know that there’s a hacker, with a cute setup in a dingy basement somewhere, and they’re smart.”

Antwan tapped the side of his head. “But I, my geeky little man, am smarter. Which is why I’m assigning you to finding our fun little thief.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Keys closed his eyes, trying to process what he was saying. “You want me to find a hacker, who could be literally anywhere in the world? Don’t you have a security team for this kinda thing?”

“Aw, bro, those guys are pathetic. Besides, you’re more than capable. Think of it like a mystery, Detective Hair Gel, assigned to you from the King himself.”

“You’re kidding.” Keys deadpanned.

Antwan smiled, pulling Keys along with him to the large windows at the back of the room. “Look out there, bro,” he said seriously, gesturing to the city beneath them. “There are people out there in danger, losing their hard earned money to this secret villain. Don’t you feel the urge to defend your fellow dudes?” he asked seriously. 

He turned to stare at Keys, a momentous look on his face. “This mission, if you so choose to accept it, will make you a hero.” Suddenly his whole expression changed. “Besides, if you don’t, I’ll have you fired.”

“Antwan, what-” 

“Nice talk, man,” Antwan said nonchalantly, shooing him out. “Good luck on catching the hacker!”

“-but I’m not-” Keys started, before the door slammed in his face. “-going to catch the-damn it.”

_____________________________________________

Keys collapsed into his chair, sending it spinning in lazy circles around his cubicle. 

Mouser looked up from his own desk, a scrutinising look on his face. “What happened in there, man? You left and came back looking like you haven’t slept in weeks.”

Keys groaned in response. Tilting his head back to the ceiling to avoid Mouser’s inquisitive gaze. “Antwan’s making me track down this prick who’s stealing user codes.”

 “Oh, man, that’s awful.” Mouser chuckled. 

“Tell me about it,” Keys griped. “My job is riding on tracking down some deadbeat loser.”

Mouser shook his head. “A genius deadbeat loser. I’ve gone through some of the user complaints, and there’s like, nothing there.”

Keys sat up. “So what, I can’t track this guy,” he put down a finger for each point. “We have no idea how he’s managing to get in the accounts,” Another finger. “And finally, my career is on the line if I can’t figure this out.”

He shrugged, exasperated. “I’m screwed.”

“Man, you can do this,” Mouser argued, leaning on the divider between the desks. “Use the MIT smarts.” 

Keys glared at him.

“I’m serious! This dude is pretty good at taking advantage of idiots, right? So act like an idiot and pull a full whamo on him”

“So what, you want me to just parade around in hopes that this one specific hacker decides to hack me?”

Mouser shrugged. “Sure. Catch a fly with your web of smarts, I guess.”

“Thanks, man,” Keys sighed. 

_____________________________________________

Y/n hummed along to the music playing on her speakers, nodding her head to the beat as she swiped through the Free City menus.

“-and the haters’ gonna hate hate hate,” she sang along quietly, clicking on her avatar. The pixelated figure appeared on screen, along with the customisation menu. Scrolling down, she settled on a lower grade cutesy costume, and selected the Online Play option. 

Y/n leaned forward in anticipation, fingers resting lightly on the keyboard. As the dial up appeared on the screen, she paused her music and lowered her headphones over her ears. 

When the game finally kicked in, she immediately noticed the classic “I’m-an-angsty-teenage-boy” combo, and sighed in disappointment. Easy marks, with next to no security whatsoever. Sad.

She barely had to do anything, letting the appearance of her character do most of the work as the players shot and fired in accordance. 

As she entered in the code, her phone rang, loudly blaring from beside her. “Shit!” she muttered, scrambling to shut it down, quickly entering the last line of numbers before quickly exiting the lobby. 

Pressing the button on the screen, she exhaled, letting some of the tension roll off her. Putting the phone on silent, Y/n pulled her headphones back on and reentered the game.

_____________________________________________

From across the city, Keys sat forward, startled by a security error in the mainframe. A small mistake, only a couple letters misspelled, gave him a pinpoint of someone entering through a backdoor. 

“Bingo,” he grinned, typing in the error location. 

His avatar appeared onscreen, in his default customisation, as he entered the lobby address into the game bar. 

He inhaled deeply as the screen displayed the loading symbol, plugging in his earphones and focusing on the screen.

_____________________________________________

mister-mk86 has joined the lobby

The words popped up at the top of the screen, momentarily distracting Y/n from the current menus in her inventory.

She scanned over the player bio, looking for any irregularities that could equal a bot or scammer. Coming up with nothing, she exited the profile and focused on the game.

new message from mistermk86

Y/n groaned. Predictable, really. The lobby had gone down to significantly less players, all newbies or bots at this point. She clicked on the message.

Hey

“Wow. How eloquent.” Y/n scoffed, pulling up her keyboard. 

_____________________________________________

Keys stared at his screen, watching the typing indicators in the message board.

rebelfan is typing...

Hi there 

He smirked, quickly typing a response.

_____________________________________________

mistermk86 private match?

She rolled her eyes, but clicked on the invitation.

The icon over her character appeared, showing the game type and weapons menu. Navigating it easily, she selected her defaults and began playing.

Part 2----> Coming soon

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Hello, yes you Nandermo shippers, would you like to come along to delulu land?

I have some thoughts on the clickbaitiness of Paul Simms. Reading the transcript of the Nandermo moment (all hail @kyrilu for doing the damn thing on our behalf) and there’s two follow up segments to frame the Nandermo comment from a PR/fuck-around option.

1) the Kiss card was brought up by the interviewer, seemingly pulling the writer ms back to the topic of the panel, segueing to important, pre-planned questions.

I’m not sure where the information about the existence of Nandor+Guillermo+Kiss was first published. Regardless, this had to be a pre-cleared question. Behind the scenes, these media panels absolutely clear questions and topics in advance.

2) Vulture is posting reviews and materials very, very shippy of Nandermo. This was the ship friendliest possible room full of media explicitly gathered to drum up buzz for the new season. It wasn’t a random instagram stream about their writing process. The interviewer confirms the infidelity theme-then there’s going to be some backtracking to make it ‘sooo not sexual’ - the headline is not ‘Nandermo Infidelity Cofirmed’ now it’s ‘That Moment Wasn’t Sexual’

[sidebar: I have no idea how the strikes affected the usual publicity cycle and what impact that has on numbers, other than it definitely did. I would imagine those conversations and reactions to their ‘material’ has some sway/inspiration over the next season, from a producing standpoint or the general glee of a creator reading responses. It’s incredibly fortunate for the show there was already a season in process to come back and make due to the two season renewal. At the time of planning this panel it was not known when the actors strike would end, which I imagine changes the plan for promo cycles, especially one they were already adapting. My guess is the season 5 actors promo was completed based on our media, but any ‘soft power’ that comes from writers work/networking/teasing was altered. We missed anything they planned/reacted/tweeted while the show was airing. TLDR: this panel is coming after a long period of not rattling sabers from the writers.]

I put all of this here to say, as much as I don’t know about the business-side of show business, everyone was explicitly in that room to generate media and attention and demand for the show. That’s the actual point of the event, which absolutely has an impact on word choice. They’re comedy writers, with a flair for dramatic also doing the business part with a streak of evil teasing their audience.

Alrighty, foundation established, the big question and the Best Fan Interjection:

I salute you, sassy audience.

3) The WORDS

Word choice: hook-up

Does ‘the greatest romance on television’ have a one-off hook up, or does it get wrapped in plot and Have Significance and Pay-Off for all of the tension? What’s the most entertaining way in service of the show that’s worth losing the Will-they-Won’t-they dynamic? Can they subvert expectations in a way that makes the writers feel smart and like they’ve spent years building it is worth the investment from the audience? I have theories about A Secret Third Thing for absurdity being the direction they prefer on wwdits. It’s got be a big gambit to land to anyone’s satisfaction.

For an in character analysis of the infidelity not being sexual- I’m just going to put the concept of ‘honor’ and what being a familiar is in vampiric society, that this interpretation is absolutely fair as a breach of trust between Nandor and Guillermo. This response reads as truthful about that specific plot line ignoring everything fucking sexual about vampires, vows and penetration. Yes, he’s right- they didn’t fuck nasty on camera, it was just an intimate betrayal that maps really well giving someone you admire power over you, but realizing what they think is best for you, best for them, and what you want are all different things. That’s another story specific to this plotline. Also super common in anti-sitcom divorce tropes.

Would there be an entertaining story if Nandermo went all-in right now, for these characters? Or would it erase development and stagnate in a hierarchy?

I do think writers feel a responsibility to their stories and their audiences, even if the audience doesn’t like parts. I think WWDITS is a very smart show that loves/hates vampires and sitcoms, and it is always going to choose the highest setting on the dial for dark comedy on a subverted sitcom trope, which means while it can be an absolute riot with horrendous implications so it has to pull back enough for the next episode to be in the format with a new conceit.

There’s toxic co-dependent idiots Nandermo, and then there’s cruel, abusive, worst impulses working against each other being explicit, which kills the heart of the show.

4) What’s the Job?

WWDITS Audience: I don’t think the writers actually think it’s a little group of queer fans getting over invested on Nandermo. In fact, I think they are aware of the past Queerbaiting Sins of Network Television based on their serious storylines for queer characters. I think the archetypes and themes of the show specifically court that audience, and each season has only been more to those tastes by laying a solid foundation to explore what hasn’t been the focus of storytelling in the past. I think writers are a tricksy bunch and they’ve got a team who takes the dynamics seriously enough to tell the story of getting to a better place for the characters and entertainment. Hell, there’s a writer from Frasier on the panel who talks about slow burns.

Knowing that shipping has a long history, everyone is absolutely working from previous playbooks on how to tease and shape a story.

Even if a ship goes canon, absolutely no one is going to confirm it before it happens.

[Trickster storytellers, those liars, always wanting us to see their work unfold rather than spoil the ending. Even when they foreshadow or use dread, it’s just so they can feel smart about their lies when we look back, damn writers, emotional vampires. ]

While I shouldn’t underestimate the power of a straight white guy to mansplain some homophobic spice to ‘deeper than sex’ queerness, looking at the media of the actual show, the romantic ship framing is not in question. I’m of the persuasion it’s been great queer representation by having complex queer characters with varied ambitions and obstacles, often their choices driving the story for comedic/dramatic effect, of very selfish, horrible people.

That established, especially because the show has increasingly grown to be more visibly queer, the characters also have to be compelling to watch in their individual journeys even if a ship goes canon. However, no one would be satisfied if the fulfillment of a Nandermo ship was at the cost of the whole household or the characters themselves. The ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ and ‘No One Ever Really Dies in Shadows’ principles lead to an educated guess even if Nandermo becomes canon and carry their own plotlines, the episodes of the show are still going to be the dark, twisted ensemble shenanigans with sucker punches of heart. We love our djinn-curses in the narrative.

So, if ‘you don’t want what you think you want’ has relevance, I see it as these characters are not at their most compelling to get together-yet, as individuals or in the narrative of what the show wants to tell. That relationship wouldn’t be fulfilling or funny or fair- not that the characters deserve happy endings or an easy road, but to the journey of accepting and receiving love as part of the theme, seeing the love that matters/already exists ties into the conflicts around immortality/meaning. Haven’t we Good Omens fans learned that a kiss is not always the kiss we want?

For a Nandor in Space perspective, central to the vampire in western culture are themes of love/cruelty, class consciousness, the erotic other, transformation/stagnation/decay, inescapable time, the beast beneath the human face, inescapable temptation/indulgence, and cost/callousness of piety.

That’s some inherently kinky romantic shit right there, that necessitates crossing boundaries and abandoning norms. Even if the journey is actually murder-accessory to get what I want at all costs to this guy’s shampoo makes me realize this is a boundary I will not cross today because it reminds me of my own humanity.