#absolutely insane that they got funding to make it into a show

[dr11ft]

Happy 2nd anniversary to cruise ctrl! I've decided I'm gonna try and post more lore-related stuff in light of the hazbin hotel show coming out bc it really made me realize that as long as its better than that I'm good (💀)

[theamazingannie]

My sister just told me the elementary school that she works at’s principal didn’t actually have the credentials to work there but they let her anyways why does she literally work at Abbott Elementary lmao

[lostonmyroad]

Moments That I Want Tattooed On My Forehead From S-Classes That I Raised Chapters 50-70

As always, BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!! Future chapters may be referenced!!!

The insane amount of lore dropped in these chapters wow

Chapters 50-60

help its genuinely still so funny to see yoojin in the early chapters going: “all i have to do is complete this one (1) task and then i can live like a slacker” before he gives up (cries in cale henituse)

everyone referring to yoojin as “monster daddy” and asking him to raise their children is amazing. no notes 

ARRIVAL OF THE KING SUNG HYUNJAE!!! He's a bastard he's amazing he's always on my mind

"...no matter how amazing Sung Hyunjae might be, he wouldn't be able to notice it easily. He wouldn't press his nose against my body and smell me, like my idiot brother had, would he" um. ok??? yoojin's completely normal though process

sung hyunjae essentially telling yoojin “aren’t you tired of being nice? don’t you want to go apeshit” within 5 minutes of their first real conversation

i forgot shj gives him a pair of earrings!! (and a bone for Peace)

yoojin’s disguise to get to the f rank dungeon being a fucking sun protection hat…it’s giving marvel baseball cap and sunglasses…and he has this because he used to stage one man protests??? sir what were you protesting against

oh that’s right the dungeons will appear at a faster rate because “time was only reversed for yoojin” oops

Chirpie makes its debut!!

yoojin trying to hide where he got chirpie from “i found it in the hallway”. king if yoohyun wasn’t suspicious of you already that would do it

yoohyun yeeting Peace and mama yoojin scolding him

chef myungwoo :))

bleh bug dungeon. i’m with you yoojin that was disgusting

yoojin not wanting to use Last Repayment :((

Riette makes an entrance! do you think riette demonstrated girl power when she abused her brother until he became an s rank

yoojin thinking about how he had raised yoohyun and was so happy about sending him to college…saving money for his tuition…and just losing interest in riette :((

yoojin saves bak hayool!!

this is where we see peak yoojin mafia behavior. unhinged. but justified revenge?? this is why i don’t understand fan interpretations where he’s like a wallflower like this man has murdered multiple people quite violently 

chapter 60 is just so much. like. i cant even describe. yoojin you need so much therapy

the way he sees people’s last memories before they die ugh…

yoojin playing 3D chess while everyone else is playing checkers fr

him calling his friend who doesn’t remember him bc of the regression and telling them to live a happy life always gets me ufffff i wish we got to meet this character

Chapters 60-70

Yoojin and the Awakening center — a tragedy in the making. Pre-regression trauma galore

The Association rears its ugly head!!! Yoojin has an authority figure problem (but it’s completely justified)

love how chill Yoojin is about Chirpie. random F rank monster that’s cute as hell that’s eating Peace's weight in magic stones and was born from an error in the system??? ehh no big deal it’s my pet now and i’ll kill for it

love the absolutely random detail about seok hayan’s pineapple earrings. thank you geunseo you know what the people want

yoojin funding public research!! hero of the people and my heart

yerim refusing to praise yoohyun and myeongwoo to their faces hahahaha. all of them petty as hell

MYUNGWOO GETS HIS SS RANK SKILL BABYYYY

yoojin still trying to protect myungwoo i love them

yoojin: *is keeping secrets from yoohyun and putting himself in danger*

also yoojin: why is yoohyun being cold with me

everyone’s giving yoojin flowers today lmfao

sung hyunjae you’re everything to me. you’re so bizzare. the bouquet??? showing up in a 2-seater car?? bullying seok simyeong??

Shj reminding Yoojin to wear his seatbelt because he's an F rank HDJEKXIDKD

oh yoojin. “who’d want to place themselves through hardships on purpose” like SIR are u that un self aware

yerim listening to this bullshit, eyes falling out of her head: i’m literally going to crazy murder you with yoohyun

the dungeon ppl have the actual worst timing. yoohyun is going to McFreaking lose it

yoojin and yoohyun finally work things out we love to see it :))

chapter 65 starts the explanation of the 50 s ranks requirement!!! water droplet is going through it

so much is just casually dropped in this chapter like. yoohyun is a born s rank! the dungeon ppl are manually inputting things for yoojin! the world might end! anyways!

yoojin having such strong mom energy that the dungeon people forgot he was a dude

one of the moments ever when yoohyun and Peace burn down the dungeon in worry and yoojin’s just there like. ah. shit. my bad i fucked up there a little

grown up Peace my beloved

chapter 67 yoohyun my beloved. you are so crazy. “hold still while i chop off your arm and fake your dear so i can keep you safe” 

the han brothers finally having a real conversation. yoojin i love you but you really needed to do this sooner

PEACE STAYING SMALL JUST SO YOOJIN CAN PICK HIM UP UWAHHHH MY HEART

Newcomer joins the battle

Chirpie turnin on the TV by itself and yoojin praising it like every proud parent ever

more monsters!!!

unicorns (white + black bc yoojin is terrible at naming) + gryphon (named Blue)

yoojin’s training method of using himself as a human chew toy is traumatizing for everyone around him.

same hyuna i would also be taking 10939392 photos

Peace and Blue WWE match. flex on em Peace

nobody:

yoojin: wow myeongwoo is hot now

BLUE LEARNING HOW TO OPEN THE FRIDGE

i love the monster shenanigans

[waitmyturtles]

BLUBBERING SPOILERS BELOW FOR I FEEL YOU LINGER IN THE AIR, EPISODE 12/FINALE:

YEAH. SO. YEAH. SO!

This can't be meta. I don't think I can conjure it. Just blather. I'll try to be sensible. First, a little housekeeping before we start the meeting:

We know there will be a special episode (the preview looks..... LIKE A GODDAMN HOLIDAY GIFT, GAAAAHHH).

Peeps are going back and forth on a second season, and while it seems that Nonkul Chanon blurted it out during the final episode fan meeting (lol you cute, Nonkul), Tee Bundit is rolling back a bit, *likely* due to funding. But seeing social media going absolutely INSANE over this ending, I can't imagine that Dee Hup will have any issue with finding the moolah for a second season -- especially after that after-credits scene, WITH HORSES, WITH MUSTACHES, WITH TATTOOS, WITH ARMOR, the whole thang. Tee let that shit hang all out like that. Warrior-era Thailand, let's m'fing go. That was a hell of a lead into a second season that may not happen, come awn.

Alright, with that out of the way:

I didn't think a show would top Moonlight Chicken for me this year, but IFYLITA is my top new drama of the year (with the HEAVY CAVEAT that I have not seen La Pluie yet -- that's for either after my Old GMMTV Challenge, or just making sure I watch it before year's end).

Part of the reason why I lost my gatdamn mind last week on episode 11 is that Tee Bundit did not interfere with any damn nonsense last week -- he let the episode's story unwind without any noise. He let the emotion roll.

The same light touch (or rather, a lack of interference) happened here, BUT: there was a LOT more happening firstly by way of closing some loops that were open, moving to new loops, and shedding more depth into Jom and Yai's final moments together

We got closure on Yai's dad, who was grumpily like, uhhh, I dunno what happened in my life, but yeah, daughter Eaung Peang, you go have a good life with Maey, crotchety crotch. I think that's the best we could get from politically involved dads of 1928 Chiang Mai. (EP AND MAEY SWINGING THEIR HANDS WHILE WALKING AWAY -- SAAAHHSHAY FROM ALL THAT, LADIES, SASHAY.) It looks like EP's herbal abortion left her safe -- thank goodness. We didn't see James or Ming this episode.

For loops that weren't closed, I'm not complaining, because we got an explanation for how Jom's beloved ones will repeat in his reincarnated futures and pasts, through the explanation of the northern Thai ceremony of having 32 blessings reinstated to you after illness or misfortune (THREE CHEERS for @blmpff for capturing screenshots of this explanation!). (AND THE WHITE THREAD, PEEPS, THE WHITE THREAD, I'm coming back to this in a second.) If we do get a season 2, then I will not be colored surprised if we see Ming and James in different roles. (And, yes. Your bitch here has relaxed on Pat's shooter, finally. My nose was trained on James being a colonialist interferer, but he did good last episode.)

But this episode belonged, of course, to Yai and Jom, their final moments together in 1928 Chiang Mai, saying the slow farewell as Jom slowly disappeared in front of Yai's eyes.

LORD. WHEWWWWWWWWWWWWW. The lacy fabric with which Yai used to cover the mirrors so that Jom wouldn't see himself fade away. The empathy of that. The scene where we heard their lovemaking over the flashbacks montage. WHEW. WHOA. (I did say, to my friend @shortpplfedup, something something Jom started really fading away after that intimate scene and something something had the ontology cough cough outta him, ANYWAY.)

The way that Yai pitched forward when Jom finally disappeared.

AND I MOTHERFUCKING SCREAMED WHEN JOM AND MUSTACHIOED YAI WERE ABOUT TO TOUCH INTO THE WATER AGAIN, AND THEN THE DIVER EMT WAS LIKE, BLOOP I'M HERE AND OH, JOM, YOU'RE ALIVE IN 2023. I yelped in the deli, shit. The way Jom was silently screaming in the water for Yai.

And, so. In the "present" day (present dimension, really), Jom survived that CRAAAAZY car accident (LIKE! WHAT?! He flew out of the car into the water, bros! The magic of fiction, anyway.)

He.......he holds space for Ohm?! Looking BACK on that scene, AFTER we get the explanation of the 32 blessings, we realize: despite Ohm's infidelity and his promise to a new woman, Ohm is still important in Jom's life -- he's still a beloved presence, as he did mean something, for a long time, to Jom. Of course, modern Jom did NOT let a moment to shade Ohm pass him by, oh no. But wasn't that interesting to note? That Jom's dimensions would allow Ohm to be in those dimensions -- that Ohm would be reincarnated through Jom's 32 blessings (at least in the past direction).

You know what I also loved about seeing Jom in his present-day apartment, with the present-day Jeed, Ohm, and Khaimuk (aka Fong Kaew). I LOVED WHAT THAT CASTING, THE SHIFTING OF THE CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATIONS, SAID ABOUT JOM'S PERSPECTIVE OF EQUITY IN 1928 AND 2023.

Jeed is NOT Khun Eaung Peang. Jeed is ALL SASS. But Jeed is YOUNGER than Jom. Jom, in 2023, is P'Jom, with the honorific. Present-day Jom can smack his little sister's head in jest. Jeed can be OUT and SAFE and have a crush on her girl friend, safely, and can ask for her brother's support, OPENLY.

Jom never stopped being Jom, whether it was 2023 pre-accident, 1928, or 2023 post-accident. Jom is comfortable in his own skin, and wants happiness AND EQUITY for the people he loves around him. I love that the casting and characterizations of the incarnations of the characters reflect Jom's state of mind that all people are equal and the same, no matter a fancy honorific or a royally appointed residence.

I screamed at @shortpplfedup when I saw Jom wearing the white thread in bed during the thunderstorm. I stopped, rewound, and saw he was wearing the white thread in the water scene with Warrior Yai. The white thread never left his wrist -- he still has his blessings intact.

And, and, and, back to the house of Palanthip in 2023. Who's the lady of the house? This lady knows Jom's the only one who can open that chest. The chest opens, the drawings are there, THE PICTURE OF THEIR PARTY, AND THE LETTER FROM YAI TO JOM, THE LETTER, THE TEARS, AKSLKDF, AND, AND, AND --

Oh my god, I was crying, y'all. Shit. Just our confident dude, striding in, asking Jom, sweetheart, why are you crying. And Jom jumping into Yai's arms.

I was shaking my head. I mean. I love that we learned that Yai actually HAD HIS OWN BLESSINGS CEREMONY because he was so lost after Jom's departure. WE LEARNED ABOUT THE REST OF YAI'S LIFE. We know, now, that the Yai of 1928 yearned for Jom for the rest of his life. So much so that, at the twilight of the life of 20th-century Yai, that he had the good mind to leave Jom a letter, to let Jom know that his life was a good life, because Jom had been in it. To let Jom know that Yai's love had never faded away.

AND THEN THAT YAI CAME BACK TO JOM.

Jom, dude, you're a good dude, for these good people to be coming back to you, in dimension after dimension. That monk was right.

I told you this was just blathering; I can try to put some sensible thoughts together in a few days, but the structure of this story, the empathy of this story, the way this story was leveraged by drama and romance and HOPE. I mean. This series was utterly fantastic.

I know there's the lifelong debate of whether or not BLs "count" as queer media, and in many, many instances, they do. But since I've had the disappointment of Only Friends and GMMTV on my mind lately, I had to note, mentally, particularly during the lovemaking scene, and during the closure of this episode, that Tee really fucking handed it to anyone who criticizes BL as a not-as-sophisticated drama genre.

And you know what? I also wanna say that Tee fucking handed it to GMMTV as well. I am so DAMN glad this series was airing when Only Friends was airing. While Only Friends sat on the opportunity to present progressive ideas on queer love and queer community, IFYLITA ROLLED right into it.

(I'll ask @lurkingshan to fact-check me on the following:) Because this series was a historical drama with a queer romance centering it, I think Tee Bundit could feel free from the chains of BL tropes and expectations to do something truly singular. I felt that what I was watching was cinematic, it was moving, it was strikingly emotional, particularly because I felt that this show was showing me something that transcended any viewer's expectations of what we should be watching, as opposed to, say, a BL set in an office like Tee's Step By Step. Where that show fumbled was in the show itself not knowing if it was a workplace drama or a BL-centric romance.

IFYLITA knew what it was: a historical drama, certainly centering romance, but also balancing conversations about equity and wealth disparities across eras. With that uncomplicated centering, I think Tee Bundit made an absolutely BRILLIANT show, and it fucking WORKED.

I will scream to anyone who'll hear me. If you haven't watched I Feel You Linger In The Air yet, do it, PLEASE PLEASE. Y'all know I am an Aof Noppharnach girlie for life, and I LIVE FOR MOONLIGHT CHICKEN, I DO, I DO, all of my Asian references in MLC and the food and everything, god I loved that show, but --

IFYLITA was a cinematic masterpiece. Full stop. All hail @neuroticbookworm and @lurkingshan for telling me to keep with it after my Step By Step-PTSD. This show was worth every last minute I spent watching and writing on it.

Season 2, Warrior Yai, let's get him a better mustache -- let's FUCKING GO, BABIES.

P.S. BRIGHT AND NONKUL FOR LIFE, FOR LIFE!!!!!!! THE ACTING!!!!!! MY GOD!!!!!

[theredtours]

Pls spill the tea this is my new niche rabbit hole of knowledge

Anonymous: GIVE ME THE DETAILS BESTIE

Okay, so here's how it all went down, below the cut, because it's a lot:

A couple weeks ago, someone (assuming hiloy, as they're like the main character for the rest of this stuff) had played both All of the Girls and Need over a discord call. A sneaky second person then recorded said discord call and leaked bits of the songs to Twitter.

Cue the insanity. The leaks sent some people into a blind fury trying to find the rest of the song, while also simultaneously upsetting those who had been vaulting it. One such vaulter was, as previously mentioned, hiloy. They then took to a site for leaks and started trying to get a sale going.

Initially, they were trying to get an individual person to buy, but when the price was too astronomical, and after several days of back and forth, hiloy finally settled on allowing a group buy to happen. Now, I've never been part of a group buy before, so naturally, when I was sent a link to the discord server where it was all happening, I was intrigued. Here was my first glimpse at how the trading/selling world works. To stay in the server, everyone had to donate at least $5. The set goal was $2600, and that was going to purchase both "All of the Girls" and "Drama Queen."

Easy peasy, I thought. Man, I was wrong. The server blew up almost immediately, with people threatening the seller, demanding they leak other songs or get reported. Within a matter of hours, people had donated over $1k, and with that, hiloy leaked a small snippet of "Forever Winter," as a treat. Then, the server got nuked.

Thankfully, they had a backup. As soon as the back up was, well, back up, everyone was re-invited and the madness continued. In the middle of it all, "Forever Winter" leaked. While it wasn't true that it was hiloy who had leaked it, the person who did so did it under that name, so HUNDREDS of people flocked to the server to donate. The rest of us just ran with it, saying things like, "Yeah, they leaked it to prove that they have the goods." Was it dishonest? Yeah. But did it work?

Well, we hit the goal within I think like, 10-ish hours? So I'd say so. Everyone was cheering and partying it up in the group chat and then... right afterward, the server was nuked again. And so was the backup. And the backup backup. I then took to the leak site, and tried to get re-entry. I even messaged hiloy on twitter. Everyone just told me to wait for the leak. So overall, I was not impressed and felt pretty scammed. In all honesty though, I felt worse for the big donators. Someone had dropped almost $300 and then lost all access.

Fast forward to today, after a few days' silence (which I am told is pretty normal; transactions apparently usually get converted from funds to crypto), they just... Showed up on the leaks site. But the problem was, "All of the Girls" was not HQ, like it was promised. The backlash was almost immediate, with people calling out hiloy left and right for misinforming the server and trying to scam everyone out of their money. Hiloy then had the nerve to turn around and tell some of the donators that they should be grateful to have even received what they did.

And then all hell broke loose, again. See, the part I didn't tell you was that, provided all went well with this first group buy, hiloy was going to be selling off "Need" and "This is What You Came For (Demo)" to another group buy next. I guess this really unnerved someone else who had them, because basically right afterward, we got the second leak out of nowhere. My best guess was that they leaked "Need" and "TIWYCF" to keep hiloy from being able to make any more profit off those who just want the songs.

I'm sure I missed some of the drama, but that's honestly like the shortest summary I could give of it. It was absolute chaos. Wouldn't have missed it for the world, though.

[starcanwrecked-confessions]

I get that there are reasons people may have funded Cinderella's Castle and not Tinlightenment/why Cinderella's Castle got funded quicker than Tinlightenment, but I do not think you guys saying that understand JUST HOW BIG of a difference this was.

Cinderella's Castle fund goal was $250K, Tinlightenment fund goal was $200K and they raised $220K in total.

Tinlightenment raised their goal amount just before the final day of the kickstarter campaign, their campaign lasted a month. Cinderella's Castle got funded in a little less than 30 hours.

CINDERELLA'S CASTLE RASIED MORE MONEY IN 30 HOURS THAN TINLIGHTENMENT DID AN ENTIRE FUCKING MONTH. I can not understate how insane that is!

I have noticed in the past couple years people seem to only care about Hatchetfield, and it's okay to love Hatchetfield, I absolutely love Hatchetfield, it is my favorite of all StarCanWrecked productions, I became a fan because of Hatchetfield. But I remember during the first year of covid that there was so much love for EVERYTHING starkid, tcb and shipwrecked. But then after that first year it seems people only care for Hatchetfield.

Now I'm really so excited that so many people are excited for Cinderella's Castle, that's great!! I'm glad we are giving love to more stuff. But why are we only giving all our love to Cinderella's Castle? Why couldn't we give more love to the other productions going on? Hardly anyone talks about vhs christmas carols. Nobody talks about how the grunch cribbed Christmas. "but those are holiday things" ok sure but still hardly anyone was talking about grunch when it was actually coming out. Hardly anyone has been talk the case of the Greater Gatsby as that's been coming out and fear bc of its break even less people will talk about when it returns. In the tin can bros fandom it feels like I never see love anything except spies are forever really. The entire pulp musicals fandom seems to be just like 5 people.

I am begging fans who have seen more than just Hatchetfield to give love to more than just Hatchetfield. Please. You have seen how amazing all of this stuff we get to watch is. Go give it some love. Make some posts about it. I have some old fans/fans who have seen more than just Hatchetfield complain about fans who have just seen Hatchetfield and if you really think that then WHERE is your love for other stuff? You don't even have to make art or fanfic, you can just reblog stuff!

I am begging fans that have only seen Hatchetfield to at least TRY to watch something outside of it, you might like a lot of stuff, you just have to start with trying to find something that sounds appealing to you. You like spooky towns? Go check out wayward guide, solve it squad and headless. You just like musicals? Well starkid and tcb have many. Maybe you like short films. Maybe you like a certain franchise starkid has parodied. It is ok if you end up just liking Hatchetfield but I do think you should give other things its a try.

I know I'm probably coming off as rude and I'm sorry. And you don't have to go a show love for or watch anything outside of Hatchetfield if you don't want to. I just wish that people would. And I am frustrated that no one seems to care about 90% of the amazing stuff that has been made.

~~~

[pixeljade]

I'm kinda broken up over the whole Watcher Streaming Service debacle and I guess I generally land in the "This is a horrid decision" category. Like idk. I'm very vocally a "SUPPORT INDIE CREATORS" kinda gal and despite their popularity the Ghoul Boys ARE ABSOLUTELY STILL INDIE CREATORS, and I despise the sort of person who says "you see them everywhere and they make [insert number which sounds insane to non-business people] off patreon so theyre clearly rich" (if you say shit like that you got no clue what youre talking about and i mean that as someone who used to be like that), but like. I keep coming back to "nobody's going to pay for this under the current economy"!

I feel bad for them because they want to have their creative control, AND the funds to do what they want, but thats a unicorn situation and trying to go for that while the economy and global political situation is what it is is like. Grade A "learn to read the fucking room" shit. I could see it if they did this in conjunction with a number of big name new show announcements (Like what if you got BDG on board? What if you got the rights to bring back the MBMBAM show? What if you partnered with Dropout TV or Try Guys or any other huge name creators?) Or if they had an "eventually shit will go free" approach? Then maybe itd be a reasonable move. But without that? Fuck this. And fuck them

[bogbees]

bunny is like. idk. there's stuff going on and I'm going to try and compose my thoughts ab it.

in Tweek Vs. Craig we get Kenny in home ec learning shit like "i think a trip to Hawaii will really improve our sex life" and being told the likelihood of him marrying a rich man is unlikely, and he's put into shop class for it.

and like. how Kenny ends up traveling to Hawaii with Butters so Butters will be able to chill out — in a way that mirrors the plot of Amok Time, thee sprik episode, the grandaddy of slash fandom.

And how Butters ends up being Kenny's right hand man in the future, both funding the projects and being the only other one who can access the research with voice recognition...

how we just had an episode where Cartman uses Kenny to manipulate Butters into getting what he wants, Butters' Paycheck, all like "Kenny deserves smth nice don't you agree? Do as i say and he'll get smth nice" ab it?? And it's just like "well Butters has always been down to give Kenny money"

the way in Major Boobage Butters is there like "there there buddy" comforting Kenny's brutal withdrawal. the lil drawing Butters made of him and Kenny in Kenny Dies. the way Kenny held Butters hand for most of Going Native.

and the line "I can't believe I had a secret crush on you Princess Kenny!" fr Paladin Butters in The Stick of Truth after Princess Kenny turns bad?? That's real and not smth i dreamed up???

and Mysterion vs. Professor Chaos??? like?????? the whole. hero vs. villain thing????? Mysterion Rises opens with a comic spread of the two fighting even!!

and then there's the Princess Kenny and Marjonne?????? genderqueer bunny??? t4t lesbians?? nonbinary and genderfluid?????? Kenny's interest in boobs ending up being a longing to look like that???

The way Kenny looks like he belongs on a beach in the future???? going back to hawaii?? how he and Butters both have sunglasses on????? how we saw both of their dicks??? no one else had their dicks out, just them??????? how tin foil is crucial to time travel not killing ppl, how professor chaos wears tin foil...

there's just. stuff. stuff i feel absolutely insane to be looking at like this. feels more insane than our schematics of creek that turned out to be canon. batshit crazy ab this

like, Band in China has Butters and Kenny in Stan's death metal band, and while they're trying to make their biopic Butters says this and Kenny looks at him?????? For what purpose animate Kenny's eyes and nothing else besides Butters?¿ He's surely just surprised at how upset Butters got over this, right, yeah, that's all this is, I'm just insane and my bff who got me to watch this show and doesn't care for the fandom aspect going "i remember noticing that when i watched it!" is like. nothing.

im insane looking at the colour of the popsicle. looking at the colour of Butters swim trunks. Butters wears teal, navy and green. Orange??? Orange?????????????

how Catman accuses Stan of inviting Butters but he says he didn't and they all look at Kenny

you need to kill me. Like for real just kill me.

[melonteee]

If nothing else, OPLA’s marketing campaign was downright diabolical. Because the community shift from skepticism to outright hostility towards that same skepticism really started when the show runner went onto that YouTube Reverie a couple years before the show came out. Not only was that the first time the showrunner began doing similar “interviews” with YouTubers (who are, generally speaking, The Worst interviewers), not only is it where many of the common talking points in defense of the show originated from (most notably “It can’t be a 1:1 adaptation” in response to any changes), but he told all these YouTubers that he was *such* a Big Fan of all of them - even the ones who were critical of the live action - and that he was using their videos as inspiration for writing the live action episodes.

Now, I’m not saying that the showrunner was lying when he said those things. But I do think that such a move meant there were no boundaries and a MASSIVE conflict of interest between someone who should be considered a representative for Netflix and creators and fans with huge reach in the fanbase. Because suddenly the OPLA was getting reframed not as another Netflix product, but as a really expensive fan film (that Netflix happened to be funding) - a fan film that Fans Like Them were having an indirect hand in helping create because the showrunner was also a fan of them. Combine that with how heavily it was pushed that Oda had to approve everything, and the whole thing started gaining this undercurrent of the live action adaptation almost being an endorsement of their interpretation of the source material… even as it became more obvious OPLA would deviate heavily from that same source material. But that sentiment only got more pronounced as those same YouTubers started getting opportunities to privately tour the sets and some even spoke to the writers that led to being labeled as unofficial-official consultants. Now, with another One Piece YouTuber from the same Reverie that the showrunner took part in a member of the season 2 writers room, there’s kinda this unspoken atmosphere surrounding that corner of the community that if you heap enough praise onto this adaptation, you too could be scouted for the next season and get endorsed (maybe even meet) Oda too!

It would be funny that the whole thing was that such a painfully transparent move on the showrunner’s part (most blatant example being that he hosted an anime podcast that totally wasn’t made just to endorse the show guys! He just wanted to talk to all his friends about anime and just HAPPENED to make the last episode the same day the live action aired!) if it hadn’t been so effective.

Like I said: diabolical.

I can't speak on whether or not those YouTubers are good interviewers, because I literally cannot blame them for jumping at the opportunity since the early stages WERE exciting and I have no doubt they were barred from asking certain questions. But my opinion is...perhaps stick to journalists for interviews since that's their job hh.

But god the marketing was absolutely insane. Was having Iñaki meeting Oda and putting a hat on his head, AS WELL as Mayumi Tanaka, not insanely performative to anyone else? Does anyone seriously think Oda willingly asked to do this and 'pass down' the hat for a project we KNOW he was continuously not listened to for 😭 all I can see is Netflix doing the MOST to make One Piece fans side with them, and it WORKED!

When the live action came out it got INSANELY review bombed. It'd only been ten minutes since the episodes had come out and the final episode already had hundreds of reviews and hundreds of 10/10s. Netflix did all they could to make sure NO ONE cared to look at this critically, and it's so frustrating that it worked cause I can't even have a reasonable conversation about why this adaptation simply did not work as an adaptation without tons of people biting my head off.

I've said it before but I will never forget the shift of people questioning why the hell this live action was being made, and why the hell the Merry looked like that (la Merry had been leaked) because...guys she looked like shit!! There's no colour or personality in it and she just looks creepy as hell.

And that's what everyone was originally saying! But suddenly you have the show runner reaching out to YouTubers, you have the announcement that Oda's approving EVERYTHING (we know for a fact he didn't), and suddenly the public opinion shifted like THAT!

Honestly if anyone wants an a grade course in how you market to a loyal fandom, just look at what Netflix did! Because EVERYONE can have their own opinion and say they liked it, but as an ADAPTATION? I stand my ground in saying it failed miserably. Because the fact people who NEVER saw the animanga are coming out of the live action with DIFFERENT perceptions of the story and characters- to the point you are genuinely talking about two different characters - the adaptation has failed.

Because, yes, an adaptation can't be 1:1, Matt Owens is correct. But what he DIDN'T say, is when you adapt something, what you need to keep in mind is fidelity. If your goal for an adaptation IS to bring an existing property into a new medium, and WANTING to replicate the characters and EXPRESS the same story - which the producers said this would be MULTIPLE times! - you better damn well hope the non One Piece watchers can jump from the live action to the manga/anime and go "Oh! Yes this is the Luffy that was presented to me in the live action!"

And they don't, especially not with other characters. The amount of non One Piece fans who then picked up the anime and were SHOCKED at just how focused on Sanji and Usopp were in the original should speak volumes, should it not?

Again, you can like the live action! I think it did its job in essentially being an advertisement for the original One Piece. But as a story and an adaptation of One Piece, it just failed. And I simply hate being unable to bring anything into question because Netflix's insane marketing has made this environment of "it's good cause I said so and everything's fine, shut up" 😭😭

It's genuinely an insanely good example of anime to live action adaptation and why, in my opinion, it just doesn't work. But I can't go into any kind of depth about that in a long form video essay the way I'd like to because my anxiety would go off the charts - even if I speak reasonably about it, because of the air created from Netflix's insane marketing. I just think it's kinda sad hhh

[serendertothesquad]

OKAY LET ME TALK ABOUT THE ARTICLE NOW.

There is...there is so much to discuss. How do I even start this post, honestly? Current stays winnin' with their long-ass articles but stays bitchin' in the worst way with their shitty-ass paywalls. Fuck paywalls, all my homies hate paywalls.

Anyway, look below the break.

casting calls ended on october 17th they just finished filming

Look, for 12 episodes, that's a hell of a crunch. Proud of 'em, really.

Also, I think we all know what it's gonna be marketed as in the States. If you don't then I'll give you the money to go to college so you can attend my Odd Squad class. It's only fair.

So I guess this explains why Netflix wasn't part of the deal. Either that or those articles I read were wildly incorrect on Netflix being a contributing helper.

...I mean okay, granted they could still be handed off to Netflix, just not in the US because...well, it's Fred Rogers Productions. They'll be damned if they plop their IPs into the hands of any streaming service that isn't named Prime Video.

This also means that maybe FRP will have a lesser hand in this than I thought, which isn't really all that surprising if one looks through their social media pages. Odd Squad was barely promoted on Twitter even before that account went near-radio-silent.

Okay, this is actually kinda interesting. Makes me feel like I should move to the UK just to see what, exactly, appeals to the British there. I mean outside of the comedy, of course.

Also, I know the pandemic affected a load of things about the franchise, but for it to birth an entire-ass new series is just downright insane. Not that insane, because that's how Lockdown was born, but yeah, pretty fucking insane!

...

Wait, Season 4 has 12 episodes? Like an anime? When Odd Squad already has anime elements?

Oh I'm gonna be an insufferable bitch when this comes out. Y'all have been warned.

Hey, hey, does anyone remember when Fred Rogers Productions got in trouble for not meeting grant requirements when it came to Odd Squad? Along with failing in accounting when it came to other IPs?

Pepperidge Farm remembers. I remember. No one else in the fandom remembers, but oh do I remember.

(Odd Squad cost $18 million for Season 1. Sit on that for a minute. Really think about how much that shit would be worth now, especially with inflation as bad as it is. It was a lot back then and it still is for some but it seems like mere pennies now, huh?)

I point this out because the fact that they had to seek out funding from outside sources that were not part of the hellshow of circus freaks that is the US government is absolutely hilarious to me.

You guys are married to TVO too, but you apparently don't like to talk about that. Shit's for people in all of those states that border Canada. Everyone else can go fuck themselves, not my quote.

That aside, though, I do like how PBS airing British media has finally implored them to do a "what if" scenario with their cartoons. It's been, what...decades? That's like swinging the bat long after everyone's left the stadium. Except for the audience, they're sticking around for some reason.

Look, Tim McKeon said the same thing about Season 3 and we all know how that turned out. I pray derivativeness is a virtue that will be buried deep into the ground by the time Odd Squad UK rolls around because we really can't afford to pick 12/24 episodes at random across 100+ of them to pry and copy plots from. And believe you me, I will know the difference between a simple harmless continuity nod and sheer derivativeness.

To put it simply: Sinking Ship and I have very different takes on "the same but also different".

Damn, RIP to Mark. I'm glad he's still working on the show, though for him to step down as showrunner for Odd Squad UK is...well, it's probably the best move looking at what we ended up with.

...I'm probably misinterpreting that. And/or it's journalism being journalism. C'est la vie.

I guess them sending over wardrobes is why Orli and Ozzie aren't decked to the nines in...uh...well, British versions of the Investigation agent uniform. Whatever those look like.

Again, you could say the same thing about Season 3 and we all know how that shit turned out.

I still have optimism, but there's a real damn pessimist side of me waiting to break free.

I'm choosing to believe "socioeconomic diversity" was how they picked about half to 3/4 of the writers for Season 3, because a majority of them either have very small resumes, have never worked on anything with a kid demo, or both.

The difference between them and the kids in this spinoff/new season, however, is that one group sucks and the other one likely doesn't.

(Yeah yeah, I'm making a lot of Season 3 jabs. But it's easy to make comparisons to that versus Season 1 and Season 2. Bite me.)

To maintain continuity with the original series' Canadian cast

Or "we need to have at least one Canadian thing to qualify for all those Canadian tax breaks and subsidies, and also uhhhhhh we're no lawbreakers".

There you go. I fixed it. Thank me later.

Also, they don't mention it, and it probably won't be mentioned until some article pops up in 2024 about it, but rest assured they're talking about Orli here. While I dig her backstory, I'm not so sure if I'm so keen on another audience surrogate after how badly they flubbed Osmerelda within 13 episodes. Granted, this is a different kind of audience surrogate -- Orli's not a "haha relatable funy thing for kids and the 'rents" surrogate, she's an "I'm a Canadian idiot who has never been to this country, please teach me" surrogate -- but still, I'm not so hopeful about them being able to write her well. Worst case scenario, we end up with a character who drinks maple syrup by the bottle, loves hockey, and drops an "eh?" every other sentence.

Oh I'm sensing a load of "tube" puns are gonna be made this season, lemme tell ya.

Okay okay, but real talk, this is actually kinda neat. Gonna be a little weird to see, but neat. The hell needs the lil' kiddie cars when you got trains to ride?!

Hey, hey, you guys remember when Odd Squad first premiered and PBS Kids put out a whole ton of new stuff for it? They had games at the ready and everything? They were so hyped for this shit they poured everything they had into it?

Pepperidge Farm remembers. I remember. No one else in the fandom remembers, but oh do I remember.

Needless to say, they don't really do that anymore for new shows. It's all the same cookie-cutter pre-release formula. When they did it for Odd Squad it was special. When they did it for Alma's Way and Elinor Wonders Why...not so much.

...Oh yeah, and the math stuff, the math stuff is cool, I like that. Here's hoping they can put new concepts into play instead of rehashing old ones.

"just 10-year-olds" the show is aimed at a 2-5 demographic

Now, see, this is where the funny irony comes in. Everyone laugh at the funny irony here. Now everyone cry because this seems more like a fitting comment for if GO! still existed and the show was on it.

Ahhh, now, see, this is where things get interesting.

Those of you keeping up with PBS Kids news might be aware of the network shifting to more short-form content as a way to nab viewers while also cutting costs significantly, hence why we're getting new podcasts and other short-form content in addition to full-length shows. PBS Kids has been in the short-form game since the late 2000s with the WordGirl shorts but they never truly dipped their toes into the short-form format until Elinor Wonders Why's That's So Interesting shorts and the Odd Squadcast came out. Those were the true floodgate-openers right there, paving the way for a host of old IPs being refreshed in addition to new IPs.

I remember when they dropped eight new shorts of two different series and thinking it was an April Fools joke because they were published on April 1st with absolutely no forewarning. I found out the news from someone else who had put the images up on the Wiki and I laughed my ass off at just how ridiculous it was. And then I found out they were real, and I sobbed.

...No wait, not the Meeting. Scratch that. I forgot it's changed dramatically since the days of yore. Moving on!

Whether this comment means we'll be getting Season 2 of the Odd Squadcast (which, y'know, is unlikely now), Season 3 of OddTube (ah, now that seems more likely), or more shorts outside of the two series we already have (Gadget Testers and Book of Games) is unknown at this point. But if anything, news is gonna break during upfronts like the TCA Press Tour and the PBS Annual Meeting.

It'll air in a year and they're already milking it for all it's worth. Byootiful. Clearly they have not learned from the last time they did a dramatic franchise shift and it paid off. AHEM MOBILE UNIT AHEM.

If they wanted to, they could grow some balls and go for broke. Do 28 more to be on par with Season 1.

No but seriously, I love how the fate of Odd Squad UK is so contingent on ratings. Let's not forget how Ready Jet Go and Let's Go Luna got unfairly sniped with no reason given (and then they brought back RJG with a movie like they still cared...lol get rekt) and let's not forget that they could easily do the same with Odd Squad at any time in spite of its ratings. They revived Super Why back from the dead, they revived Clifford back from the dead...they did it with Odd Squad and it's only been a wee bit over a year.

------------------------------

I'm not really opposed to Odd Squad being set in other regions -- it probably does better internationally than it does in the States, but we have no way to know that for sure -- but they're acting very sus with this portion specifically. I've got my eye on them.

All in all, this article has me pretty excited for the new spinoff/Season 4/how the fuck am I supposed to market this. Shame it's supposed to air in late 2024 (though maybe it'll air on CBBC in the spring because of that casting call...holy fuck I just thought of that as I was typing this post, real shit, lemme get my poker chips and bet on this RN) but I'm hyped for it either way and will happily lap up any and all press coverage on it until it airs. 2024's gonna be a big year.

If you guys reading this find any news on it, send it to me through an ask or a submission! We've got one more month before we launch into 2024 and if my theory about CBBC airing it earlier is true then we'll have to really be on the lookout for it as soon as January.

[thebookofcommonprayer]

i'm answering this from my main; thank you for asking! here's my tweet for a little further context for everyone else:

essentially what i have going is that rusty and the boys live in death and decay in a miserable ramshackle apartment building in a bad part of denver (probably five points or capitol hill, i'm not sure yet, i'll have to do more research). rusty used to be the child star of the action/adventure show that his daddy produced and when he turned eighteen, hollywood realized that he's a terrible actor and jonas realized this too. he focused his attention entirely on funding jj's career, who became very successful for his science shows on documentary channels. jonas dies and rusty gets very little from his will. he uses this to very, very briefly live large and he tries desperately to make money by starring in terribly, critically-panned indie movies. he gets nowhere aside from briefly falling in love with one of his costars, knocking her up, and not trying that hard to make it work with her for the next several months. feeling miserable and confused and trapped, she leaves and abandons her twin infants with rusty.

so throughout the years rusty drags his kids from bad to worse places, getting constantly fired from wageslave jobs in fits of pill-addled hysteria or drunkenness. the boys are pulled in and out of school until they're around eleven or twelve and then they never go again. rusty continues to build up tolerances to prescription drugs and finally decides that things can't really get that much worse in his life and he maybe-sorta-kinda decides to try heroin via the ambiguously gay albino and little person duo that lives on another floor. and things obviously immediately get worse.

rusty's concepts of morality and shame and guilt are endlessly twisted past the point of no return after suffering so tremendously during his career and beyond that and even though he gets a little bit of welfare every month, it's not nearly enough to fund his drug habits and also pay his meager rent and also keep his children fed, and they're clearly never going to be able to go to college or amount to anything at all, so rusty starts to force dean into secondhand dresses and heels and stolen makeup and he sends him out into the streets with hank acting as his pimp (he's got more business sensibilities anyway and he knows how to handle money and sell a product). they both try very hard to make money for daddy even though this is really, really scary and weird and it feels so awful. they'll crawl back to the apartment at dawn and hand the money over and they always pray to a god who won't listen that it's enough.

over time, hank starts to pocket some of it so he can use it during the nights that he sneaks out. dean doesn't like it and he doesn't go with him, but he begrudgingly promises not to tell. if he's not trying to make awkward, insane conversation with the 24-hour convenience store cashier (21) a block away, hank will go see the gruff, ruggedly handsome former soldier a few rooms down from theirs who's been hiding out and doing spy work over the past six months. extremely sympathetic to the situation (despite not ever really letting it show), brock will let hank stick around and vent and complain and cry while cleaning weapons or doing paperwork. hank is absolutely crazy about him and whispers stories about him to dean when they're curled up in bed together, huddled on a twin mattress across the room from their father.

i have this idea that malcolm was also a former child star whose accomplishments were constantly overshadowed in comparison to rusty, who was always thought to be his much cuter, pluckier twin on screen. malcolm and sheila are a deeply codependent couple that also live in the crackhouse and they're trying desperately to scrape their way out of poverty and they've kidnapped the boys a few times for ransom, because they're really the only kids they've ever seen in the entire complex and they're very kidnappable. obviously, this never works and they're always quickly let go. malcolm is constantly overcome with rage that rusty pissed away all his money even after getting all the fame and glory over him and never being grateful for it.

there's a lot more to this whole thing knocking around in my head but this is all i have rn ... i'm thinking about it. i'm thinking about it hard

[jumpinginmuddypuddles]

heyyy whats up sunnyyyy

this is a pretty neat concept, maybe there’s one for artists too!

no idea if any of these have been asked before, but could i get 4, 25 and 35?

✨

hi hobs im doin alright on this chilly october morning

4. Are there any writers that inspire you?

is it possible for me to say every single one to ever exist? in terms of fandom, there are definitely writers that are absolute weapons when it comes to gut-wrenching beautifully-made stuff that i worship (maybe i need to make a fic rec list or a collection or something idk) but in terms of actual published authors, i adore madelline miller's prose, it's just so beautifully written and makes me sob and scream and cry every time. i also love donna tartt's prose and also her characters and how deep and subtle some of the nuances in her novels are. i also love love love kazuo ishuguro and philip k dick for both their science-fiction works that manage to be so funny and so heartbreaking all at once, as well as their masterful dialogue. so yeah, i've got quite a few inspirations, but whether i actually manage to emmulate any of the gorgeous stuff they have written is TBD.

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them!

Literally ALL THE TIME. As its you hobs, my lovely mutual, I'll tell you about that hermitcraft fic and it's worldbuilding that i had planned. Before my muse was ripped from me and I fell out of touch with hermitcraft, I had visions of creating loads of off-shooting oneshots and works that explore all the different members and their backstories, and how they managed to end up in the main timeline in that au. it included a prequel of how mumbo and grian met and slowly gained each other's trust - it was agonisingly sad I will let you know now. I still have that stuff half-written because I am too attached to it but I am unlikely to ever go back to it and expand on that beautiful, tragic little world

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!

It's a topic that's been spoken about so so much in recent years, but I just love how fanfiction, especially sites like ao3, are perfect symbols of how communism could and would work in our modern society. because authors do not get paid for their troubles, for their back ache and eye strain and hours hunched over a screen trying to figure out just the right words. we receive little-to-no praise most of the time, especially in smaller fandoms. so in theory, it shouldn't work. writers shouldn't post things onto platforms like ao3 and ff.net if, by capitalist standards, our labour is not being paid for. surely if it was simply a hobby, we could just write and keep it to ourselves? but because of the little communities people have built online, and the fandoms that have grown tight and strong, there is a really amazing band of people that group together to write fanfiction just because they love to do it, regardless of the time and effort taken, and want to show their creations to the world. this is especially true on ao3, which is non-proft, and is run by the people for the people. maybe that's why it receives so much goddamn funding every single time it needs it. (what a beautiful thought) sorry that last bit got super sappy, i just think it's super neat! Equally, I do think some people on ao3 need to relearn politeness and ettiquette. so many times i've had people either trauma-dumping without warrant in my comments or just rudely demanding the next chapter?? like? i am a person with work and school and a life, i cannot sit by a computer and pump out chapter after chapter for the rest of my life. it's insane and I think more people need to talk about it. I've been thinking about putting a blanket disclaimer in my notes about doing stuff like that because it sometimes has gotten so bad.

thanks so much for the questions! this turned into an entire essay lmao

check out the 36 questions for writers here

[theomnicode]

That scene when they say there' no such things as absolutes, but only "if you're talking about "people" and they show Saitama... That must mean anything man

Hah I was just gonna get into that because we all share the same braincell here on tumblr when it comes to OPM it seems.

New arc, New struggles; Dealing with dehumanization and emotions

Dehumanization starts when you see people as lesser beings. Not capable of feeling pain and hurt, not having empathy for them, even if they are simply worn down by everyday struggles.

Worn down to the point of exhaustion from being too empathetic and too compassionate. From feeling too much compassion fatigue.

So what would happen if...for instance, Saitama started to get too fed up with how the world is going around him and really, REALLY started to struggle as empathetic person?

There are apparently people going without housing because rich elites are buying them since HA need funds. Sickening corporate greed.

Random robots looked like they tried to attack him and then he almost got into 9 billion yen debt EACH (60million usd, which is frankly so insane it has to be exaggerated). That would be enough to financially cripple him for the rest of his life if word got out.

Other heroes probably coming around his house and having preconceptions about him, that he's rude, lazy and other kinds of awful persona when he's not. Someone or something gave him access to A-class while he didn't do much anything, shooting past slew of other heroes and breeding discontent and envy towards Saitama. A PR disaster in general, one that may get something even more added to it if what he did on the moon gets out. Then heroes being taken advantage of is abuse of power on itself.

The environment outside still being a wreck. Saitama's house is probably very sparsely furnished and little items in it because he can't afford anything. Dark, urban, enclosed and packed environment with no sunlight I may add is not very good for someone who frequently walks outside in the sun and who's chosen apartment was an empty ghost town higher up so he has a decent view from his balcony.

Just lack of sunlight alone is enough to de-vitalize a person and cause depression. People living in the northern parts of the world perpetually suffer from seasonal depression just from lack of sunlight.

Not being in touch with nature is generally bad for empathic person, because they need the serenity nature offers to them.

They need the escape from the world around them and decompress in the safety of their own home. Home which won't really even feel like homely and welcoming anymore, it will feel unfamiliar, cold and foreign and impossible to relax in.

Sparsely itemized, he only managed to scourge a frying pan and couple hangers and a broken Game boy. And even that left Saitama feeling like he personally wronged King for not taking good care of his possessions and then not feeling like inviting him over for playing, because the negative emotions would just accumulate. So he declined and pushed King away and distanced himself emotionally.

But having less people around him is even worse for him if he remains in such an environment in solitude. Social connections and especially emotional connections are really important for empathic person to be able to decompress and not get overwhelmed.

All this creates A TON of emotional stress. Empathic people will feel this even more keenly than the rest.

So, what will happen if Saitama is too fed up, because apparently, he's being more attuned to his emotions lately and more impulsive and holding himself back less? Less inhibition. And become more depressed from all the shit things going around him and the shit environment he's thrust into, with no fault from his own?

He'll start to make mistakes, react in anger and resentment at the perceived slights against him and even tiny things become more and more irritating. Moody, irritable, impulsive, what have you. If he has no way to decompress and emotionally vent, all those feelings will just start to pile up. He has learned that he can vent by hitting stuff.

Coincidentally, the chapter name is "The Cruel Staircase"

Someone will notice if he will go around trying to defend himself and acting up because he's going to be feeling like shit, because everything is going to shit, everyone else feels like shit and even the place he lives in is shit.

He himself will also notice and will also start to think of himself as monster. Because feeling pissed and reacting in anger and everything only gets him into trouble and into deep shit. If he accidentally hurts other people, especially those he cares about, he'll truly feel like he's a horrible person and feel like it's unsafe to be around him.

Someone will also notice he's housing monsters. At some point.

Dehumanization, aka the cognitive dissonance of monsterization. What it truly means to be a monster? Are Saitama's emotions monstrous? Is divine power monstrous then?

Integrated AI has massive capacity to learn, but machines are not humans and so do not have a shred of empathy. They just do what their AI tells them to do and what they learn to do.

That special sensor is probably capable of learning of Saitama's divine power. It is the same power that monsters use. That Saitama just used to defend himself and other monsters who happened to be with him.

Once the AI learns to correlate divine power = monster = human form...

Damn straight Black S.

Saitama and his monkey paws.

(Which is even funnier because Black S is pretending to be a monkey and he's the one who said he has a bad feeling ahaha I love this writer)

Future plot point unfolding in front of our very eyes.

But also, the dehumanization will be on point. If Saitama defends himself against an aggressor or simply expressing his emotions or even empathy for other people, he will be made to feel like he's the villain, he's the monster and the bad guy and will be deemed danger to society. He will have to fight against cognitive bias of fading compassion when there are more and more people he needs to help. It will breed cynicism and at worst, misantrophy.

Caped Baldy is in for a rough time when the depths of his emotional intelligence and his empathy will be tested. In the harshest environment possible.

It is time for the Hellish Training arc.

(The shitter's clogged yo or maybe someone's toilet is leaking because they had enough of humanity's shit. Someone who talks through people like they're in a bathroom or something...)

[kylewalker-peters]

what's frustrating is we get managers who have won before. we're not pulling a chelsea and being shocked that we aren't winning trophies when we have a manager (potter) who never has. so it just makes US look shit rather than the manger. like idk how much this is the players just being shit or the manager being awful with this group in particular

the thing about us getting managers who've won before is that the ones we've gone after specifically have a philosophy and management style that doesn't fit the club's reality. this club has lost its way in terms of a clear philosophy or way of playing/recruiting BUT regardless of any of the theoretical "we want to be a club that does X" talk - this club realistically cannot and will never operate as a "win now" club under our current ownership. that's not even inherently a criticism of them, when done correctly and successfully that can be a fine club model - the issue of course is we are acting delusionally.

we're not a club that will spend half a billion in 2 transfer windows. We can afford to spend a lot more than we do but we do not have the funds to start throwing money around like that and quite frankly given our high profile flops year after year i can see us announcing the £150 million signing of alvaro morata if we did. but if you're not a club that will do that why are you bothering to bring managers in that demand that sort of backing? why are you hiring a manager you immediately don't completely see eye to eye with from day 1? what exactly is the plan here? what vision have we sold these managers on?

out of poch, jose, nuno (gone too soon fly high king), and conte the most shocked I've been at us not winning anything has been under poch. not the "serial winners". there was an idea, a project, a concept etc etc under poch with young players coming in and ACTUALLY BEING COACHED to be better and create a squad that all bought into what the manager was trying to do. the transfers themselves had the usual Tottenham hit or miss to them but you had a sense that every single person involved was moving towards the same thing.

us not winning under jose or conte is v embarrassing (even though i find us being the one blip in jose's resume so funny i cant begin to explain) but i don't think it's a sole reflection on us. it's never just one thing that goes off the rails. it's a combination of players and the manager and the ownership coming together to maximise their joint flop.

it's not all on jose/conte for us not winning things (player mentality and ability and the general squad are all absolutely massive factors) but those managers should have improved our performances. granted jose got us to a final he never got to manage so it's hard to fully judge his legacy in that way but he flopped in enough competitions and oversaw as much crap football as conte so if he'd been sacked at the end of the season no one would have cared too much which says everything.

since the end of poch's tenure we have been on a downward spike so bad it wouldn't even fit on a graph if i tried to show it visually. the fact none of those managers have improved our style of play or the player's mentality or managed to win anything with players that let's face it are shit but mostly bloody internationals for god's sake makes a lot of the "back the manager" rhetoric feel hollow and like a scapegoat which is insane because it is an actual problem. it means the manager absolutely 100% HAS to take a minimum of a third of the blame.

these players are playing like shit though. part of that will be on conte because of his tactics, his subs, the information that the players may or may not understand it's hard to tell from how they play and what seems to be an inability to actually improve players other than bentancur. i mean good god perisic is literally a conte type player who has played and done well under conte and he is a disaster out there - how are you failing to improve your own good player???

like yes romero and davies and dier (and perisc and royal) is not the defence from heaven but it should be conceding less. son, kane and kulu actually IS an attack from heaven and yet I'm not convinced they could tell me what a goal looks like let alone how to score in it. part of that's on conte and whatever he's doing with them. part of that will be on the players and this mentality block/ lack of effort/ no concentration/urgency they tend to display for no rhyme or reason. it's like the style of slow backwards passing lethargic wasteful play is ingrained in our DNA at this point because 4 managers haven't escaped it. and so at a certain point that's on the players.

[qcomicsy]

I demand to hear more on your thoughts about harley quinn. For science. No other reason.

First of all you can't demand things here without sending money on my account but since I'm feeling extremely nice today and since is for science...

Buckle up.

Harley funny enough might be one of my first full fledged blorbos from DC universe, in fact I like her so much I just forget to talk about her much here because

Well, because she's always been there.

She's my best friend, she’s my pal. she’s my home-girl, my rotten soldier. she’s my sweet cheese, my good-time girl-yeh.

But you're giving me an open right now anon, you're giving an open and I'll be absolutely havoc about it!

And for full context for people reading this, I got this ask after tagging a post asking “who's the character that makes you act the most pretentious about it” and I cannot express enough I will, in fact get the most utterly unsufferably pretentious as I write this.

So viewers advised.

And without further ado

My thoughts about Harley Quinnzel!

Or might others say...

Shit that people get wrong about Harley Quinn

First of all,

She's not stupid!

And this is not a “she has a PhD motherfucker” post we have a lot of posts already talking about how good of a psychiatrist Harley is and how she's actually smart.

But >this one< isn't one of them, I can make one if y'all want it but not today.

In part because I think is well talk enough people been known, it got to the movie! And in part because… Well honestly? I'm sure every time someone doesn't know how to write Harley or doesn't want to explain her past or her as a full fledged person they just slap a “She has a PhD motherfucker” and doesn't do more than that and this in fact pisses me off.

Harley is much more then “the good psychiatrist Joker turned bad” and I honestly find so fucking exasperating how much DC doesn't use her other habilities. I mean sure she is a good psychiatrist, she's so good that contrary to popular belief Harley was just “the only psychiatrist around that could deal with the joker and got manipulated by him” she was THE psychiatrist leading a full project on reabilitating Gotham Inmates funded by THE Bruce Wayne himself.

She was so good that back in the nighties she wasn't only able to kidnap Lois Lane (Check Batman Superman: World Finest 1997) when Joker was working with Lex Luthor but also literally able to kidnap Batman himself just to please joker. I'm saying that because most of the time people talk about when Harley was under joker command (because that was it a command she was liking or not his henchmen henchwomen and the best he could ever had in his sorry forsaken life) as “poor she, she didn't knew what she was doing” or “see this show how stupid she actually is” and this both statement couldn't be more wrong. I mean sure she was being manipulated, it was a toxic and abusive relationship, but that doesn't undermine any hability or fait she had in this whole time.

Harley is and was one of the best hand to hand combat villains Gotham has, and the fact that she didn't had any actual martial art from a goddamn master or teacher or anything makes this even more insane (pun intended) she's been shown countless of times in Batman stories and solo series as someone that's not only good on a combat but also an extremely good strategist that works on her best under pressure. Which is so hard is absolutely amazing. Not only that in her solo series on the New 52 (one of the few things the New 52 did right) was shown she was a great leader being able to make her own gang in a span of months.

She's not “like batman's little sister” and is absolutely comfortable in her own bisexuality.

I don't know where that came from, but I've seen time to time again people pushing “Harley treats Bruce as an older brother” and “Harley is mean with men” narrative over the internet and honestly? They couldn't be more wrong.

Harley despite her relationship with Bruce being entirely platonic (and for my point of view it should, Bats does deserve to have one female "friendship" that's entirely platonic) that's on Bruce's part. Harley has shown time to time again not only to have been attracted to Bruce but also to actually have (had by now) a pretty enormous crush on him.

I personally dislike this argument not only because it puts Harley as one step down Bruce league (as a person not romantically) but also absolutely erases her bisexuality. The love of Harley's life is a woman, she and Ivy are soulmates I'm not denying that, but the constant internet disdain for her previous relationships and attraction to men does more wrong to her character then right.

Harley isn't the bisexual girl stereotype that when dating a man goes around telling the entire world “wow damn I am dating a man UNFORTUNATELY if I COULD I'd be dating women instead, I AM SO GAY GUYS” or the character who will go on a whole tangent on how men suck (even though a good part of them does). She's the character that is absolutely comfortable in her own sexuality. She likes men, She likes women, she had a couple of healthy relationships with them and it's actually pretty sweet seeing her actually being treated right and recovering from her past abusive relationship and making her own choices and her own history in a much more healthy and growing way.

What Harley dislikes is abusive, controlling and disgusting men, she'll beat the shit out of them if they're lucky and put a bullet in their brain if she's in a bad mood.

If you're writing her as a boy crazy that'll flirt with the first random guy she sees or the girl who’ll say absolutely out of pocket things to humiliate or bully the first men she sees (Harley animated series) I'm sorry but you're writing her wrong.

Back on the “Harley is Batman's little sister thing” as I said before is bullshit, because people love to write Harley as this side-kick crazy 🤪 girl who'll let Bruce exasperated, and that's how they started back on the 1996 animated series but since then their allyship evolved. What people need to understand is that despite not having as much training as pretty much almost every character in Batman's world is, she holds her bullet as any other, she is as capable as any other and she's treated by Bruce Wayne himself as a competent ally or a threat.

They're "friends", they're platonic, Bruce cares for her but they're both adults, and they're both on (almost) the same level of respect. Harley's silly and playing dumb attitude around Bruce is the dynamic she plays to antagonize him, not how actually her character behaves in serious matters or at all and they both know that.

If you don't write her as a competent ally but an outgrown child that Batman is babysitting you're not writing her right either.

Her relationship with Ivy is much deeper than Harley being smitten for her.

I've seen a special after the animated show Harley being written as this kind of girl version of the “wife guy” and it's extremely sweet and endearing and absolutely in a brand of sapphic relationships but unfortunately makes people forget that before Ivy was the love of her life… Ivy was her best friend.

She is her best friend. They ride and die for eachother, Harley is absolutely in love with her and this is not up for argument, but I see so many people focusing on her romantic love for Ivy that they absolutely forget that Ivy and Harley just get each other on a much deeper and committed level. Ivy and Harley compliment each other and they understand each other. It's so exasperating reading people slamming the “miscommunication” trope over and over again when the time that they really shine is when they sit in front of each other and… talk. That's how their relationship got into their romance and that's what makes them so compelling.

Harley and Ivy went through a lot under the manipulation of horrible people, and that makes them being over and over extremely honest and kind with each other over the years and it's not something that should be forgotten just for the sake of drama or obstacles in their way.

She's way more friends with Catwoman than people think.

Cat and Harley might be one of the closest relationships Harley has over the years, they are the friend you call in the middle of the night and the other comes running. Harley is also one of few people (by my knowledge) that accepts and respects Cat as she is and never considered betraying her (contrary to poison ivycofcofcofc we love messy friendships!)

She's not mean without a reason

This is a thing that I rarely see people talking about Harley (as a skill not just a thing they like about her character) and that I didn't notice how I missed as a core aspect of her character until I watched the animated series. And the thing is that...

She's so goddamn likeable

The animated series kind of has this take on Harley of being the skeptical mean character that always has a roast to say just for the sake of comedy. Which isn't horrible we love mean women.

But it's just not her. This is what I call the Deadpoolfication of Harley Quinn, where it's very fucking clear DC want to make a million dollar selling character to compete with Deadpool popularity and since their own knock off knock off (never forget Wade is a satire of Slade, never, never let him live away from it and neither Slade because it's so fucking damned funny) didn't worked they just picked Harley because it's fucking easy. But then they just pick mean jokes Wade would do and Harley would just not?

And I can hear you saying oh Q why the fuck you care so much? Because Harley being likeable is just a fucking core aspect of her character that not only works writing wise but in her fucking skill set!

She's the personality hire of any shit she's in! She makes allies as she goes and it's what puts her way far ahead compared with any DC villain or anti-hero, you can put Harley on a supermarket line and she'll get out there with seven different murder allies and a fucking gang to beat your ass. She's the "I know a guy" friend that'd take you out of a pickle and forget this or write her out of it take several points of her bullshit ways of slaying.

And you know why? Because out of her murderous and careless way she also has the capacity to be irrevocably and undeniably.

Kind.

She's not just quirky.

For the love of god free my girl of the deadpoolfication of Harley Quinn. Harley unfortunately suffers from the same bugs bunnization that Wade has been suffering for years, unfortunately people have goddamn difficulty in writing funny and compelling characters without making them a joke.

They keep writing her as this manic pixie girl, as this character that will make out of pocket things just because she can or because she's crazy and again a slam the same argument I've been making for Wade all over this time. She 's so. Much. More than that.

But to be honest, to write my argument for this post would be much longer than it already is, so it would have to be an entirely different post to compile it.

So I'll end it here. Thank you so much for asking for a chance to talk about her, if I could I would talk about Harley for days, weeks, months.

She's just… she's so special to me.

[duskythesomething]

music asks: 1, 4, 6, 8 (or artist tbh), 13 and 19!!!

1. what is your favorite song. right now. tell me.

proooooobably Lovejoy's cover of The Perfect Pair, but Dropshipped Cat Shirt from Wilbur's newest album goes DELIGHTFULLY hard

4. what band started it all for you?

growing up i listened to a lot of the same rock music my mom did, and my first mp3 player had all those types of songs. i'd say Skillet and Three Days Grace were the first of those bands i notably recognized as favorites for more than just 1 or 2 songs. the first artist i personally demanded be put on that mp3 player was Selena Gomez, but the first artist that really got me insane about music and lyrics and how it made me feel was Fall Out Boy!

6. what bands/artists do you want to see in concert?

Lovejoy ofc but also Streetlight Manifesto and Joywave!! i've been fortunate enough to see quite a few of my top artists but these three have slipped by me due to timing or lack of funds when they were coming to my areas. other artists that would be cool would be quadeca or Freddie Dredd :3

8. tell me about your favorite band. go on infodump for me.

i mean currently it's Lovejoy duh but also those who know me know my LOVE for Yung Gravy and bbno$. i've seen Gravy 3 separate times (with bb for 2 of those shows) and one of them was a whole 4 hour drive away. any time Gravy goes on tour i immediately buy tix if he's coming close enough by to convince my friends to go with me (since i can't drive myself just yet). out of all 3 shows the 2nd one was easily the best! they played in a college auditorium and had a pre-show experience that came with a free pin (mine has a visual defect and i LOVE it) where we all took a big selfie. the 1st show i saw of him was at a local small bar/concert venue where i got separated from my friends, but it was fun! the 3rd time my friends and i didn't have great time management and missed the first chunk of the show trying to get back and forth from the state fair to our hotel to get ready, and get back to the state fair to the concert hall, and the seats were just folding chairs crammed REALLY close together. it was stuffy and i could barely see despite buying seats that WOULD HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLE in any other typical seats or standing room. not the artists' faults though, the venue just sucked and after a terrible day at the state fair itself it just wasn't a good time.

(below is mentioned picture from Gravy Baby pre-show experience!!)

13. what is one album that has irreparably damaged your social skills?

i could easily just say Your City Gave Me Asthma but, honestly rather than album i'd say artist, and that artist would be Quadeca. something about the absolute angst and anger he put into a lot of different songs carried me through a really rough time at my old workplace, but not necessarily in a good or productive manner. i'm an angy person by default, so angy music doesn't always help that.

19. what is your favorite album art from one of your favorite artists?

let me highlight a personal favorite artist i practically never talk about, The Used!! their 2007 album Lies for the Liars is my fucking JAMMMMM and i specifically asked for that specific CD as a kid! the funky boxhead guy has always stood out to me, and i think his expression really captures the feel of the album. i'm also a fan of Streetlight Manifesto's 2003 album Everything Goes Numb, the red and black palette makes for great merch and the songs on it all slap. another notable mention is Joywave's 2015 album How Do You Feel Now, very funky and again perfect for the sound of the album!!