#and I like having multiple threads with the same person because variety

[handfulofmuses]

Don’t talk to me and my 30 + drafts ever again / j

[aestherin]

I CAN SEE YOU

4 hotties + 2 nobodies

Scaramouche — a famous solo artist. he might be emo but that's okay, people love him for it. this jerk will usually disappear after dropping an album and will have the audacity to be present again after months just to release another one without any prior teasers or even official announcements. fans beg him to have mercy because for archon's sake, mister balladeer here never gives them time to save up for his albums. he rarely posts photos of himself on social media but once he does, people (even non-fans) eat it up and become feral. was a victim of unrequited love for several years and wrote songs albums to cope. made a hate account for himself for fun because he is a piece of shit like that. he enjoys arguing with his fans lol.

Lumine — our beloved best girl. she is a widely known vlogger and influencer, mostly focusing on travel and lifestyle. she and aether also sometimes does guestings in variety shows (viewers love their banters and chaotic energy very much).

Aether — the loverboy. same as Lumine; they are travel twinnies <3. sometimes (a lot of times actually) does challenges for fun. is dubbed as 'mr. worldwide'. may or may not be the secret boyfriend of another famous artist (spoiler alert: ayaka).

Yae Miko — miss ma'am is a very fun character, a famous variety show host. miss yae loves tea and gossip, some even wonder why did she just not work as a paparazzi instead. people either love or hate her because of her personality. might have actually been cancelled via multiple threads on twitter but our resident fox never gave a single damn. 'i'm too busy enjoying my sake to even bother caring,' she once said.

Ei — everytime anyone in the friend group looks at her, all they probably see is a walking atm (jk). miss raiden is the richest of the friend group because of their family assets (she manages them all what a girl boss). she is scara's older sister and is the group's sugar mommy. even though ei is not in showbiz, she is still known because of her amazing reputation when it comes to handling business. can't cook for her life.

Ayato's Wife (privacy mc lol ToT) — a famous actress signed under narukami entertainment of inazuma. married to kamisato ayato, her fellow actor. was scaramouche’s first love — he has written tons of songs albums about her. (changing our privacy yn’s name and usernames to avoid confusion lol)

I CAN SEE YOU — scara x reader smau

masterlist .

TAGLIST I (closed)

@kararisa @aries-afk @aetherialcrafter @jamieexistss @lordbugs @aerisellesuchi @adres-tia @luvlockettt @kinichval @miiltrix @suzueuieeeee @automaticpatroltragedy @ahirusstuff @kyuki07 @kunikuni1819 @hungryreadingaddict @deariroha @rosieyama @slayzzz @tired-jaz @mellowberrie @kyouzki @riabriyn @ravenbc @lalalaloveallmydays @moonlitreveri3 @skyoverkill1 @xiaomainlmao @phoenix-eclipses @yomishen @anemosmybeloved @iaraluvs @kunikuzushiit @lockandkeys @yoursockstinks @idkwhattoputasmyusernme @d1gital-data @shyentsmissingink @liuaneee @najaemism @mywillt0live @aswiftiechildofapollo @toekissers @meigalaxy @nishiriks @executeher @verafunny @gl00muraaii @lily-isalittlegirl @just-a-hopeless-romantic @franaby @shrimplyasleep @scaraenthusiast1 @kyon-cherri @kunikissr

[blubberquark]

Are Game Blogs Uniquely Lost?

All this started with my looking for the old devlog of Storyteller. I know at some point it was linked from the blogroll on the Braid devlog. Then I tried to look at on old devlog of another game that is still available. The domain for Storyteller is still active. The devblog is gone.

I tried an old bookmark from an old PC (5 PCs ago, I think). It was a web site linked to pixel art and programming tutorials. Instead of linking to the pages directly, some links link led to a twitter threads by authors that collected their work posted on different sites. Some twitter threads are gone because the users were were suspended, or had deleted their accounts voluntarily. Others had deleted old tweets. There was no archive. I have often seen links accompanied by "Here's a thread where $AUTHOR lists all his writing on $TOPIC". I wonder if the sites are still there, and only the tweets are gone.

A lot of "games studies" around 2010 happened on blogs, not in journals. Games studies was online-first, HTML-first, with trackbacks, tags, RSS and comment sections. The work that was published in PDF form in journals and conference proceedings is still there. The blogs are gone. The comment sections are gone. Kill screen daily is gone.

I followed a link from critical-distance.com to a blog post. That blog is gone. The domain is for sale. In the Wayback Machine, I found the link. It pointed to the comment section of another blog. The other blog has removed its comment sections and excluded itself from the Wayback Machine.

I wonder if games stuff is uniquely lost. Many links to game reviews at big sites lead to "page not found", but when I search the game's name, I can find the review from back in 2004. The content is still there, the content management systems have been changed multiple times.

At least my favourite tumblr about game design has been saved in the Wayback Machine: Game Design Tips.

To make my point I could list more sites, more links, 404 but archived, or completely lost, but when I look at small sites, personal sites, blogs, or even forums, I wonder if this is just confirmation bias. There must be all this other content, all these other blogs and personal sites. I don't know about tutorials for knitting, travel blogs, stamp collecting, or recipe blogs. I usually save a print version of recipes to my Download folder.

Another big community is fan fiction. They are like modding, but for books, I think. I don't know if a lot of fan fiction is lost to bit rot and link rot either. What is on AO3 will probably endure, but a lot might have gone missing when communities fandom moved from livejournal to tumblr to twitter, or when blogs moved from Wordpress to Medium to Substack.

I have identified some risk factors:

Personal home pages made from static HTML can stay up for while if the owner meticulously catalogues and links to all their writing on other sites, and if the site covers a variety of interests and topics.

Personal blogs or content management systems are likely to lose content in a software upgrade or migration to a different host.

Writing is more likely to me lost when it's for-pay writing for a smaller for-profit outlet.

A cause for sudden "mass extinction" of content is the move between social networks, or the death of a whole platform. Links to MySpace, Google+, Diaspora, and LiveJournal give me mostly or entirely 404 pages.

In the gaming space, career changes or business closures often mean old content gets deleted. If an indie game is wildly successful, the intellectual property might ge acquired. If it flops, the domain will lapse. When development is finished, maybe the devlog is deleted. When somebody reviews games at first on Steam, then on a blog, and then for a big gaming mag, the Steam reviews might stay up, but the personal site is much more likely to get cleaned up. The same goes for blogging in general, and academia. The most stable kind of content is after hours hobbyist writing by somebody who has a stable and high-paying job outside of media, academia, or journalism.

The biggest risk factor for targeted deletion is controversy. Controversial, highly-discussed and disseminated posts are more likely to be deleted than purely informative ones, and their deletion is more likely to be noticed. If somebody starts a discussion, and then later there are hundreds of links all pointing back to the start, the deletion will hurt more and be more noticeable. The most at-risk posts are those that are supposed to be controversial within a small group, but go viral outside it, or the posts that are controversial within a small group, but then the author says something about politics that draws the attention of the Internet at large to their other writings.

The second biggest risk factor for deletion is probably usefulness combined with hosting costs. This could also be the streetlight effect at work, like in the paragraph above, but the more traffic something gets, the higher the hosting costs. Certain types of content are either hard to monetise, and cost a lot of money, or they can be monetised, so the free version is deliberately deleted.

The more tech-savvy users are, the more likely they are to link between different sites, abandon a blogging platform or social network for the next thing, try to consolidate their writings by deleting their old stuff and setting up their own site, only to let the domain lapse. The more tech-savvy users are, the more likely they are to mess with the HTML of their templates or try out different blogging software.

If content is spread between multiple sites, or if links link to social network posts that link to blog post with a comment that links to a reddit comment that links to a geocities page, any link could break. If content is consolidated in a forum, maybe Archive team could save all of it with some advance notice.

All this could mean that indie games/game design theory/pixel art resources are uniquely lost, and games studies/theory of games criticism/literary criticism applied to games are especially affected by link rot. The semi-professional, semi-hobbyist indie dev, the writer straddling the line between academic and reviewer, they seem the most affected. Artists who start out just doodling and posting their work, who then get hired to work on a game, their posts are deleted. GameFAQs stay online, Steam reviews stay online, but dev logs, forums and blog comment sections are lost.

Or maybe it's only confirmation bias. If I was into restoring old cars, or knitting, or collecting stamps, or any other thing I'd think that particular community is uniquely affected by link rot, and I'd have the bookmarks to prove it.

Figuring this out is important if we want to make predictions about the future of the small web, and about the viability of different efforts to get more people to contribute. We can't figure it out now, because we can't measure the ground truth of web sites that are already gone. Right now, the small web is mostly about the small web, not about stamp collecting or knitting. If we really manage to revitalise the small web, will it be like the small web of today except bigger, the web-1.0 of old, or will certain topics and communities be lost again?

[jaxt0y]

-- 𝙃𝙀𝙔, 𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙔𝘽𝙊𝘿𝙔, let's all take a peek at the 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕃, ℙ𝕌ℝℙ𝕃𝔼 𝔽ℝ𝔼𝔸𝕂 - he's the jerk with the ＪＯＫＥ of the week . . . 𝑾𝑯𝑶 𝑵𝑬𝑬𝑫𝑺 𝑯𝑰𝑴 ?

[ 1 ] :   INTRO.  hi! my name is mae, i'm 25, i use she/her pronouns & i go by est. this is my semi - selective, low activity rp blog for jax of "the amazing digital circus." icon border & psd are both by jessources. all graphics here are made by me unless stated otherwise.

[ 2 ] :   ETIQUETTE.  you know the rules.  no godmodding, bigotry, racism, forcing ships, or hate of any kind . jax is an ass who loves to mess with others for the fun of it, it's literally nothing personal against your muse, but i will never godmod. just be a decent person i don't do well with drama & i dislike callout culture & i won't be participating in it in any way. of course i want to know who to avoid, but i would prefer these things to be handled & discussed privately & maturely. do not follow if you are a minor or if you use/support: amber heard, gina carano, evan peters, chris pratt or scarlett johanson. if any drama occurs or has occurred with someone i know, i am open to discussing it calmly & in private.

[ 3 ] :   FOLLOWING.  if i follow you,  it means i want to write with you! . if not, it's likely because i can't see our muses clicking well or that i am unfamiliar with the fandom. i will soft block if you don't make an effort to interact with me ooc or ic for some time. i will block you if you break any of my rules.

[ 4 ] :   TRIGGERS & NSFW. triggers you might find on this blog include: themes of existentialism, dissociation, & some violent behavior. i will be tagging triggers as: "trigger cw" & will happily tag anything if asked. my own triggers include: dissociation/depersonalization/derealization, body horror, trypophobia, & eye gore. i'm happy to write nsfw themes so long as we've spoken beforehand!

[ 5 ] :   ACTIVITY & FORMATTING.  my activity is typically sporadic no matter the blog. i do have a life outside of rp & my own mental health to look after. sometimes i'm able to write many replies a day, others only one or none at all. patience in regards to replies is much appreciated & expected. my lengths are usually multi para but they can be shorter or longer depending. never be afraid to send random asks, multiple memes, or turn answers into threads! i love collecting a variety of prompts, but i’m privy to deleting them if they’ve been sitting for awhile or if i can’t think of anything good enough, same goes for threads. sometimes i’ll post one-liner starter calls, but you never have to match my length exactly but i do expect something to go off of. i use small, bold, & italic text. you also do not have to match my formatting & i implore you to tell me if you need it changed for accessibility purposes. my eyesight is not the best, so i ask you to please avoid screenshot-ed replies or using too much fancy text.

[ 6 ] :   SHIPPING. i love shipping with all my heart, exploring dynamics no matter what they may entail is my favorite thing, especially with a complicated guy like jax. he's very closed off & not the most in tune with his emotions, so good luck if you do want to explore a relationship with him (just be sure to talk to me first!). lastly, i ship funnybunny & bunnydoll, but if you write pomni or ragatha i will never expect you to ship with me unless, yet again, we've talked about it. i see jax as panromantic & pansexual.

[ 7 ] :   PORTRAYAL. since tadc is ongoing, my portrayal is subject to change as episodes are released. i know that jax is a jerkwad, but i love to see what makes characters tick, & as of now i don't see him as this irredeemable asshole, just someone who relies on self preservation to survive.

AFFILIATES: @pomniegranate

[4th-make-quail]

🍓🧃🌿 :3

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?  oohhh unofficially when I was really young I was SUPER into Discworld (obviously) and also Redwall, which I had been into on a special interest level for many many years. my first technical fanfiction was hand-written in a reporter's notebook, and it was a Redwall-Discworld crossover with Teatime from Hogfather in Redwall, teaming up with the foxes from Marlfox lmao. I was super into the Redwall villains in general and super into Teatime, so yeah. I can't tell you a thing about it, but that was it!

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before personal lore!! let me thinkkkk 🤔 I used to be a moderator on the RPG (rping basically) board of one of the big Pokemon forums back in the day - Pokemasters! I modded that place for years, and I spent so much of my teen and older life on there, met some really good friends, some of whom I've met irl a bunch of times - including one time at MCM Expo in London where we all laid in a pile on the hotel bed and recited the entire pokedex one after the other.... nerrrdssss eheh.

We had SO much drama on that forum tho, holy shit. One time, one of the mods got hacked and the hacker went through and deleted whole long threads one by one across any boards she had mod privileges in, so I had to spend HOURS in first year of uni helping to restore them all, it was hell.

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity My usual method for writer's block is honestly brainstorming or shooting the shit with friends! I take inspiration from a lot of things like music, random art pieces, random ass thoughts and those all help as well. Also about 70% of the time if I'm blocked on a scene, it often means it's come to a natural end and when I use my "skip the damn scene already!!!" method, it fixes it all!

I feel like for low creativity, it's good to;

a) let yourself have space from creating to let yourself get the energy back (think of that metaphor of farmers letting fields go to fallow between seasons)

b) experience creative things in other ways, such as reading books, watching films, playing video games etc. - just soaking up other art forms can be really helpful for your creative brain! If you can manage it, try to think about what it is that draws you to that thing, about how you could recreate that in your own works. If you're a writer, use it as a free-writing exercise with no pressure whatsoever, just noodling around

c) maybe try pick up a creative hobby in a different discipline than you're used to working in - it helps to stretch your brain and work different creative muscles if you feel like you want to! Being into multiple creative hobbies is one of my own most helpful things, because I always want to create things, and it gives me variety

d) but the most important: try to forgive yourself! Don't pressure yourself or feel guilty for it, everyone goes through the same thing at multiple points in their life. You've gotta be nice to yourself, don't rush things - they say creativity is like a muscle, you gotta let it rest if it's strained or injured, you know? You wouldn't be mean to someone with an injury, so think of it in a similar way.

[pois1ns]

𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘚 𝘐𝘚 𝘈 𝘉𝘙𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘕𝘌𝘞 𝘚𝘛𝘈𝘙𝘛 , 𝖠𝖭𝖣 𝖨 𝖳𝖧𝖨𝖭𝖪 𝖨 𝖣𝖤𝖲𝖤𝖱𝖵𝖤 𝖲𝖮𝖬𝖤 𝖯𝖱𝖠𝖨𝖲𝖤

━━━━━━━━ 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈 𝐀𝐌 ! 🩷

𝑷𝑳𝑨𝒀𝑳𝑰𝑺𝑻. 🩷 𝑷𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑬𝑺𝑻. 🩷

[ 1 ] :   INTRO.  hi! my name is mae, i'm 25, i use she/her pronouns & i go by est. this is my highly - selective, low activity rp blog for angel dust of "haz.bin hotel." icon border, header template, theme template & psd are both by jessources. all graphics here are made by me unless stated otherwise.

[ 2 ] :   ETIQUETTE.  you know the rules.  no godmodding, bigotry, racism, forcing ships, or hate of any kind . just be a decent person i don't do well with drama & i dislike callout culture & i won't be participating in it in any way. of course i want to know who to avoid, but i would prefer these things to be handled & discussed privately & maturely. if any drama occurs or has occurred with someone i know, i am open to discussing it calmly & in private. another thing i won't tolerate is hate for certain ships or characters on this blog. i am here to explore all dynamics.

[ 3 ] :   FOLLOWING.  if i follow you,  it means i want to write with you! . if not, it's likely because i can't see our muses clicking well or that i am unfamiliar with the fandom. i will soft block if you don't make an effort to interact with me ooc or ic for some time. i will block you if you break any of my rules.

[ 4 ] :   TRIGGERS & NSFW. triggers you might find on this blog include: themes of heavy drug use/substance abuse, addiction, SA, suicidal ideation, SW slurs, self harm, child abuse, abusive relationships, guns, depression, and disassociation. i will be tagging triggers as: "trigger cw" & will happily tag anything if asked. my own triggers include: dissociation/depersonalization/derealization, body horror, trypophobia, & eye gore. i'm happy to write nsfw themes so long as we've spoken beforehand! obviously, there will be sexual themes here as well. i will never write it with anyone who is uncomfortable with doing so; i, however, am perfectly fine writing it. sidenote: angel is intersex as well as hypersexual - he is also a gay man; while he does provide his services to and work with women, he does it for that reason only. i will only be shipping angel with non-female muses.

[ 5 ] :   ACTIVITY & FORMATTING.  my activity is typically sporadic no matter the blog. i do have a life outside of rp & my own mental health to look after. sometimes i'm able to write many replies a day, others only one or none at all. patience in regards to replies is much appreciated & expected. my lengths are usually multi para but they can be shorter or longer depending. never be afraid to send random asks, multiple memes, or turn answers into threads! i love collecting a variety of prompts, but i’m privy to deleting them if they’ve been sitting for awhile or if i can’t think of anything good enough, same goes for threads. sometimes i’ll post one-liner starter calls, but you never have to match my length exactly but i do expect something to go off of. i use small, bold, & italic text. you also do not have to match my formatting & i implore you to tell me if you need it changed for accessibility purposes. my eyesight is not the best, so i ask you to please avoid screenshot-ed replies or using too much fancy text.

[ 6 ] :   SHIPPING. i love shipping with all my heart, exploring dynamics no matter what they may entail is my favorite thing, and i implore you to come to me if you'd like to explore a dynamic of any kind with our muses! note that angel as a whole is very flirtatious. this does not always mean he is interested. angel is also an adult film star, this does not mean he is interested should your muses sleep together. while i am willing to explore toxic dynamics, i will never, ever write acts of SA. lastly, i only ship angel with husk at this time. that being said, if you write husk i will never assume you want to ship with me, personally. if you write valentino, i am open to exploring pre-canon val.angel as well as au's with the two.

[ 7 ] :   VERSES. i will make a post to attach to this later describing them in greater detail (as well as angel's backstory), but my verses for angel are in life, pre-contract, pre-hotel, swap angel based on this au, and an overlord au.

[buried-in-stardust]

Something to keep in mind is that Rednote's userbase is generally younger, higher income, and is 70% women, so they are absolutely not representative of China in general. I don't use TikTok and so am not really familiar with its demographics, but I think it's a lot more varied? This is going to heavily affect how people see their own country and the experiences that they're sharing.

Something I've noticed is that the Chinese users try to make themselves look better, while the Americans try to make themselves worse. This doesn't mean everyone is lying necessarily, just that only the ones what have the most shocking things to say will speak up.

For instance, there was an thread asking Americans their income that had pretty normal variety of numbers and work hours, but if you look in other threads you'd think every single person worked 70 hours working two jobs a week making 35k a year and barely able to afford food.

So, some more of the Chinese perspective:

Some users have expressed that Rednote has become foreign to them, not just because of the newcomer Americans, but also because they've never seen their fellow Rednote natives put on such a friendly face before

Along those same lines, others are expressing that it's been tiring being so friendly all the time, and may not be able to keep it up for much longer because they're usually much meaner

Some reminiscing on how it feels like it's a decade ago right now, back when they could access Instagram without having to bypass the wall

Between the stories that Americans are aharing about working multiple jobs, high medical bills, and not being able to afford food, many are wondering why Americans aren't doing anything about it ("You guys have guns!"), while others are wondering if these are all fake accounts created by Chinese people stealing posts from instagram to make them feel more patriotic or Americans are just lying

Obviously there's people who don't like this change, mostly people overwhelmed by the amount of English that's taken over the app. an example of a group that's also unhappy is fandom, because there's been some people just joining that immediately try to police what they ship

Also the way Americans have colonized every comment section asking for English translations or just announcing they are "TikTik refugees" can be annoying to them

More misconceptions: Americans go back to work right after giving birth because they don't need to heal, American homeless people are just too lazy to find a job, Americans don't save any money because they prefer spending

A few things they're surprised by: the existence of lunch debt, that Americans have property tax (In China, buying a house = leasing it for 70 years, no tax), and the fact that Americans like to use their real names, share a ton of personal information, and use their face as their profile picture online

Okay so I got Rednote because I heard about the whole migration thing and I never bothered to sign up before, and the cultural exchange has just been really fascinating

[for-a-future-that-never-came]

RULES

These will make things so much easier for everyone involved. Please read these, and understand that any steps outside of the boundaries made in these rules are grounds for being blocked. With no warning, no explanation, and no remorse.

1. There will be no shipping if there is no build-up to it. While I have preferred ships ahead of time for them, I will ship almost anything with chemistry.

OCs and crossover characters are welcome to try and ship but do not just jump in expecting a ship. Desired characters to ship with will be listed on their shipping calls, but I will never, ever force a ship. That being said, I love shipping and will most likely be into it! Just let them have some time.

I do not have exclusive ships and I will ship with multiples of each character.

2. HEAVY warnings for: Gore, blood, canon-typical violence, monsters, religious themes, trauma, PTSD, regressive coping mechanisms, mental/physical/sexual abuse, mentioned CSA, unhealthy relationships, witchcraft, supernatural horror, body horror, death, cruelty, sociopathy, animal cruelty, animal death, fantasy body horror, mentally ill muses, mental health, dimension travel.

Know that I will not limit myself or my muses in any way if not asked by a specific partner. I will not write sexual abuse on this blog, though it can/will be talked about if it happens. Everything is tagged with cw -tag-. If you need something tagged I will tag it happily, just let me know. 

I may forget catch-all tags because I have a memory disorder that makes remembering hard. Please be patient with me and let me know if I forgot to tag something!

ANY HATE that I get is going to be deleted. I am not going to tolerate it on this blog. If you dislike what I write, simply go elsewhere. I will block people that overstep my boundaries, I’d like for you to do the same.

My NS/FW tag is (NSFShinra)

For anything else: Please tell me and I will tag whatever you need me to! Just a reminder that I’m not a monster, and I will happily tag whatever is needed. Also, you are always free to ask about what things I tag! I will happily get you a list!

3. If you have an OC, I need to know about them. I would prefer an image and written bio, but at least tell me about them and their relation to my character. Unless you have a good backstory and discuss it with me, no family of them that aren’t canon, please.

4. ABSOLUTELY NO EYE TRAUMA OR DEFECATION. At. All.

5. I have decided to write smut on this blog provided my partner is okay with it. I only talk/plot over DM, I do not rp there. If you cannot do Discord we will figure something else out. I do participate in Sexual Sunday and Hump Day, so Sundays and Wednesdays my memes will be of the horny variety all day.

6. If you have read these rules please say ‘It's fine, darlin', you're still divine!’

7. Please understand that my muses are heavily canon-divergent.

8. PLEASE no minors. If I follow you and you are a minor, please let me know. I do not have anything against you, but I am not comfortable rping with underage kids as I am over 30.

9. I operate under “reblog karma” rules. If I reblog a meme from you, I will also send at least one ask from said meme to you. I ask that you do the same for me. If you reblog from me constantly and never interact, it is an instant block.

10. Due to an influx in personal blogs following and not knowing rp blog etiquette: I do not mind if personals follow me. I do not mind if you like my threads. But do not reblog my rps, and do not like my starter calls. I understand that you like the gifs and that is fine, but do not interact with my starter calls. It messes up my bookkeeping system.

11. I have the right and ability to block anyone for any reason. Do not come to me about it. Do not block evade. Do not send your friends after me. I only hardblock, I never softblock.

12. Do not bring drama to my doorstep. I don’t care. I don’t want to be involved. I’m not going to be involved in any kind of call-outs, or any slandering of anyone. I do not condone bullying or harassment. If this applies to you and you do these things, do not interact. Only I decide who I will and won’t interact with.

I have never experienced a callout post that had any factual evidence to it. If I am interacting with an actual predator of some sort and you have actual proof DM me about it. This goes double for minors lying about their age. These are the ONLY exceptions to this rule.

13. I am semi-selective and mutuals only. Due to some recent-ish events, I have decided to become mutuals only. This is because people keep following me and breaking their own DNI. Semi-selective here means that I will write with almost anyone, but I don’t accept one-liners unless it’s a crack thread.

[tealeavesandthorns]

// So last night I did a bit of a clear out of followers, it's absolutely nothing against anyone personally, it's mostly to keep my dash clean and me sane. If I've unfollowed/forced you to unfollow me. It's likely because we don't have any threads or I've found our styles don't gel or our characters haven't interacted much. I have to point out I do say in my rules too if you run multiple blogs and follow me from them/want to play with me from them please tell me who you are/the other blogs you run, people often put names in their rules/use pseuds but when 50 million people have the same pseud its hard to parcel out whos who.

I need to take better charge of myself here, my time and what I actually want to write and such.

If we have plotted/spoken lots/have plotted threads we were both excited about this will have been a mistake.

I'm going to update my rules later aswell, I need to make a list of clear, concise basic ones and then the extrapolated ones.

I also changed Maria's main verse a while back to her bond verse but I haven't really enforced this. Now I'm thinking of maybe a sort of bond/kingsman/(spy) thing verse (inspired very much by agent-scotch who is amazing and you should all follow). Bond verse allows for easy links with like Kingsman, Sherlock, general spy verses and such.

I need to work on a timeliness though and ages so Maria can play with a variety of muses in a variety of ages and such...

The muses I play with the most, those who always get me excited to write are all in this type of setting and Maria's stories in this setting really interest me too.

[wherenightmaresroost]

just gonna go through the @staff update post.

"Tumblr is not easy to use"

Create a tutorial for new accounts, or an official, up-to-date, easy-to-find FAQ and guidelines. Both would be good.

"Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience."

Nearly everyone using Tumblr for the longest time had been praising the site's commitment to user-curated feeds as one of its advantages over other social media sites. Listen to them. Listen to your users. They are not just "a small portion". Do not repeat Coke trying to taste more like Pepsi.

"For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. "

Highlight the site's customization ability - Tumblr is one of the few remaining sites that allow this level of customization - and encourage your users to use it, so that logged-out visitors can be enticed to join in.

"Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards."

That will probably also improve user experience and increase user activity, so it's good for everyone.

"We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product."

Listen - Tumblr is great exactly because it shows me only the things I decided I want on my dash. It is great even if I'm getting bad content, because that means it is within my power to remove that bad content from my Tumblr experience.

Again, no one wants algorithm-determined content. We want 'better' content in the form of images actually loading and being easy to zoom in, videos loading in and being easy to pause and seek, minimal format fuck ups, and not losing our place in the dashboard scroll.

I understand wanting to show relevant interests to new NEW users (saw a few people complain that there's nothing on Tumblr, not knowing you have to fill the feed by yourself) but we'll probably better off by letting the users select interests from a broad variety of topics, and then recommending posts and blogs based on their choices.

"Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread."

This is good! I think this will actually improve discussion somewhat, and prevent OP from repeatedly receiving the Same Points when they've already addressed it in a different reblog chain.

"Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. "

There are people who view this as a feature - so might be better to give people the option of collapsing them, instead of removing it for everyone.

"However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  "

Improve the search and tagged functions of the site. Focus on the development of multiple dashboards - so we can group our interests, especially those from slow updating blogs. Focus on the development of followed tags, because I swear to the gods above and below, it does NOT update properly. The followed tag dashboard usually tells me the most recent post was one week ago, when in fact more than 10 posts had been created over that time. Remove that weird feature where posts with links do not show up in either reblogs or search or tags - plenty of artists like to link to their other accounts or personal sites in their post.

"Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral."

This is a good thing lol I only had the misfortune of having my dashboard unusable (2010s) / having my activities unusable (2015s) like thrice and. Never again.

"Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery."

This could be good opt-in feature, especially if we get to choose which blogs it applies to. Slow-updating blogs often get lost in the dash. But again, this is only good if it's a feature people can choose to use, and not use. I think a lot of people want to separate their e-mails from their social medias, or have a hard boundary between Tumblr time and Other Things time. This is also something a multi-dashboard feature / better tag-tracking can easily solve.

"Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events."

No.

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Again, NO.

If someone has their push notifications off they likely just straight out do not want to ANY notifications about it, especially e-mails, which are typically already clogged to begin with.

I am begging you guys to actually listen to your user base.

Principle 6 atm is the only point I have no issues with.

"You deserve a digital home that works for you."

Then do not focus on algorithm-determined feeds. Let your users build their own homes. Provide them with the tools to do so.

[avicinda]

Hey I'm glad I could help even a bit!!! I 100% know what it's like to feel burnout on a beloved game so I thought I could offer up some of my experience with this topic

I don't know your experience with gacha games but you have to keep in mind banners are designed to be nearly impossible to complete without paying real money if you haven't been saving gems, especially with how they run multiple banners at the same time. Free gems outside of dailies are also finite! Infinity Nikki is not really the sort of game where gacha is required for any kind of meta (Shining Nikki managed to have this because of a character/outfit card mechanic) since Mira Crown is usually 90-100% completable with free/standard banner clothes even if they put requirements that make it look like you need gacha pieces. FOMO is 100% the enemy with gacha (I am not immune to this—despite what I'm saying I am very bad at actually saving gems but I do try to pick and choose what to pull on more carefully nowadays) so we are lucky the only thing we really need to decide on when pulling is how much we genuinely like an outfit. Personally I'm also holding out hope we will eventually get reruns. Older Nikki games did/do reruns, most other gacha games do reruns in some form, we have to have some hopium that stuff will come back eventually even if it takes a few years.

Also to your tags—dailies are a huge contributor to burnout especially when you're trying to be efficient! I've seen the "daily bling cap" paths that take like 30-40 mins to do and honestly I would rather do Caged Greed boss fights for 10 hours straight than do something like that everyday for even a week. Personally I can do the daily tasks in Infinity Nikki within like 5-10 mins because I prioritize the tasks that give 200 progress (listed on the bottom left corner when you select the task).

Pear Pal Dig contributes to tasks that ask for collecting materials so you can set it up to collect not just what you need but a variety of animal/insect/fish/plant. Energy can be quick if you choose 1 thing to focus on—bouldy mats for? Nourishment for insights? Eurekas or bubbles? I also only do legendary materials when I actually want to make something needs it.

I know it's kind of counter to what I have said throughout this thread but it's certainly possible to do "low effort progress" when you're still wanting to play a game or login everyday because of things like the monthly gift but not really have your heart fully in it. When that's the scenario, you can choose one tiny thing at a time to focus on and let go of other "I should be doing x". Since Wishful Aurosa is the big goal right now, maybe you can choose just 1 random piece of it to work on until you're feeling up to doing the whole thing (you can select 1 sketch at a time to see the mats for it even if the tracker only does the entire outfit).

These are of course just suggestions and my personal ways of doing it, you kind of have to figure out for yourself what works better for you to combat the burnout.

FINALLY

[corrodedcoughin]

Hi darling it's been a bit

I have soulmate au stuff rotating in my brain

What about a universe where soulmates are a rare and uncommon thing and there are three kinds

Familial, platonic and Romantic

Steve is super unusual, not only does he have a soulmark he has not one, not two but 3 one of each kind

Robin of course is his platonic (duh they say so themselves)(they have matching ice cream scoops they end up finding out when they both are puking their guts out in a mall bathroom and Steve's shirt slides up as he drags himself under the stall )

His familial is Dustin or maybe max depends on what relationship dynamics you want to describe (or maybe they're matching marks and all 3 of them have the same symbol I feel like the nailbat would be good for that because that's when Steve met and first protected them both then steve pulls the bat from his trunk and swings and they both grab their upperarms where a nail bat wraps around their bicep)

And finally eddie

His romantic soulmate the d20 that sits on his ring finger that they both cover with rings because it's not socially acceptable to show soulmarks unless you like cannot avoid it and it's on your face

How I'm picturing in this au is that there a record of soulmates or something because that's definitely something that kids would be figuring out and somehow somone stumbles upon the fact that Steve Harrington has 3 (all while missing the fact that eddie munson and Robin buckley both have soulmates as well (maybe even multiple themselves))

It would be interesting if it was based on bonds with people

It's more of a promise that this person will have an important bond with you so its not always good because if there is going to be a war more kids end up with soulmarks because trauma bonds people

Somone figures out that something happened to these kids because they have so many soul bonds intertwined between all of them

I don't know could be interesting especially like starting with will

Like

'Joyce byers loved her sons both of them so it was to her great joy that both of them had soulmates, people who they would have strong bonds with people who's lives their would forever be entwined in. But she also knew what so many bonds usually ment, she had seen the men who went to war with bonds they hadnt yet found and come back bonded but broken from trauma. So Joyce byers feared what was going to come to Hawkins to tie these kids together so strongly. Joyce wouldn't relize till years after will disappeared to the upside-down and had returned that her son was the catalyst to bring all these people together, at least in the begining'

Something like that

I don't know I have many thought on this what do you think

-✏️

Hello anon how are you?

I personally think this is a lovely idea and you’ve got so many threads running through it that it could be as multilayered as you want it to be! The variety and diversity of what a souls mate can be in your au suggests the potential and I think that if you are enjoying it then you should for sure write it!

There’s so many dynamics you could have interacting and seeing relationships shift. I love that Steve has three and that trauma bonds people. That the party potentially all bonds to each other, the angst of is some bond with some and not others. Idk man I think you got something really interesting here!

[sn33z3s]

notes on contemporary south park fandom and its approach to fanon & headcanons

originally i posted this as a thread on twitter about a week after The Big Fix, in response to the various tweets i saw referring to tolkien as stan’s new best friend, how tolkien is now another character to visit tegridy farms before kyle (who hasn’t at all) and what that means for stan and kyle’s relationship, etc… this is just an observational post on fan culture and not so much a speculative piece about canon, so take from it what you will

a thing i tend to find within new (2015 and onward, i’d say) south park fans of the shipping fandom variety is this interesting way that some of them internalize overlapping character dynamics. beyond subjective shipping morality discourse, there’s a recent insistence of relationships “dying” out... and that is what i want to talk about in this post. warning: it got long, reader beware

for the record, since i got into south park and stan/kyle over a decade ago and have lurked around sp fandom on and off, i have seen folks say “style has died” in multiple waves, and each time i've thought to myself: they’re story arcs. character arcs. it all cycles. it’s reflective of weird insecurity to be like “characters A and C have interacted, therefore the dynamic between A and B is over now.” how so? 

ultimately, my concern is mostly about projecting said negativity onto other fans (non-constructively). however, it’s not a Versus thing exclusively; that is, it’s not just some people being win-or-lose about “opposing” ships, it’s also present in how people talk about specific dynamics. like stan and kyle: “stan pines more” “kyle pines more” - is there a correct answer? their relationship shifts the way that sp as a show itself has. simply put, i feel like some fans react in a way that implies moments of canon entirely “cancel” each other out, rather than ~*containing multitudes*~ or such. it’s not that i don’t think there are concrete ways that stan and kyle (for example) “are” - i certainly do - but i feel confused by the one-dimensional approach to their relationship, among other things. i’m applying this to fanon details and ship wars, but i’ll elaborate on the second issue further in this post…

“stan cannot be a jock, because he is depressed, and likes board games and music.” “kyle cannot have androgynous features, because that’s the same thing as an antisemitic trope.” regarding both of these, i’ve yet to see a good argument as to how. i’m still not sure about the insistence on jumping to the extremes for both. i have a lot of feelings about the complexities of stan and kyle, but i see it flattened for silly reasons. this discourse is also decades old, but still. i like jock stan precisely because of stan’s docile personality. i like that kyle is hot-headed, yet very fussy, all the while. kyle via the post-covid specials is shown to be comparatively well-groomed, decorative, etc, to the other three. i’m not sure how that conflicts with his personality, though, as per claims by parts of this fandom. does it need to be any more profound than that? (i don’t like getting into the "why i think it's concerning that some fans strongly dislike masc-fem gay fictional couples" thing because it’s fundamental to me at this point, so i digress because i’m getting off-topic!) (also, plenty of masculine depictions of fandom kyle are antisemitic, but whatever)

anyway, it’s not that matt and trey aren't inconsistent; they are consistently inconsistent. still, i’d say they know their characters. they’re theirs. not to sound like an apologist (buzz word, i guess) or like south park has never made me complain, but this constant scramble to claim “i know what trey parker thought here, what he meant, and you don’t…” is not a healthy way to consume your media, and at that point, taking a step back to focus on other hobbies may be necessary. the truth is that none of us know: we are all just re-interpreting the art. i worry about the fans who reach the level of tin-hatting (a thing which we all do, by the way) that it encroaches into “i am demanding that the creators of this show give me what i think should be canon, and anything else is pure shit” territory

many older south park fans have already prodded this question (phenomenon?). still, my own reasoning for this personal catharsis is that now i’m active in the fandom and i’m seeing this and above all, i feel that after Return of COVID, it’s happening so much more often again, and i don’t understand why

indeed, what i’ve been wondering since becoming an active instead of passive participant in the south park fandom: why spend any time thinking or talking about what you dislike, anyway? if it is coming from a place of such negativity. why be competitive? why not just relax and enjoy? there are nearly 25 years' worth of multiple character interactions, all in fluctuation, with recurring themes. i think the COVID specials were some withstanding point of that. for the record, every individual in fandom reserves the right to critique the art as they feel is best for them, but i don’t mean stating “this is my critical opinion on…” i mean stating “i am asserting my opinion as fact, and i am getting angry and passive-aggressive on public social media when i see others expressing a conflicting take.” reacting to an outright attack is normal and justified, but taking any disagreement as a personal sleight indicates an unhealthy connection to the source material.

when i recently got called a “child abuse apologist” on tumblr for saying [in what was very obviously a self-aware and comedic tone] that i like stephen stotch, it supplemented my curiosity about some parts of the fandom’s ability to recognize satire and subtle dialogue or writing choices. twisting and/or ignoring elements of south park’s canon to postulate your favorite pairing as better is unnecessary because shipping can happen regardless of what canon provides. we have the ability to create the fan content we may feel is lacking. all dynamics in south park have a baseline. whether or not you read into these character dynamics romantically is up to you, but to vaguely refer to others’ ship- or character-related headcanons on public forums in a punitive(?) way is immature at best and downright worrisome at worst

i also saw recent talks about kyle’s choice to tell yentl that cartman gave him AIDS in that scene from Post-COVID instead of mentioning, like, cartman’s constant desires to imitate hitler and-or reinstate the holocaust… well, kyle said that because south park is a comedy, you guys. the plot of a thing can change drastically based on a single line, a single character interaction, and matt and trey only have so much they can fit within a time frame. also, it was just a funny thing for him to say. that’s kind of it

how upset one person “should” get about south park fanfiction or fanart is subjective, but taking to the streets over trey parker’s writing is a bit much, and to be specific, it’s a bit much when you say that “xyz interpretation is wrong, unless adjusted to apply to what i prefer, in which case it is right, and it is not fair game for people to say anything about the characters that i favor, though i will disparage other people’s favorites.” like, okay, let’s all go outside for a walk and some fresh air. being nice goes a long way

there needs to be a two-way relationship in fandom which allows discussion, disagreement, and civil debate on both sides. (well, i don’t know how i feel using the word “debate” like the south park slash fandom is “the marketplace of ideas” or what have you, but…) moreover, it’s basic empathy to understand that this is south park and, with the exception of actual online harassment directed toward other fans, people are allowed to express their discomfort over things that the canon itself presents as uncomfortable. i understand that we all make exceptions, but sticking to your guns and following the consistencies you apply to your fandom consumption is, like, the best way to not look hypocritical or spiteful

[hyaciiintho]

❀ || As I’m sure some of you have noticed, I’m slowly making a return to here  ♡ I’ll more than likely start clean and just do new threads (I do that all the time, I know, I’m sorry pfft~) but I mostly want to get specific things done first before diving in too hard into the rpc again. I’ll see how I do trying to reply to what I have right now in my drafts, but-- no promises, so I apologize!

For the things I want to do, specifically it’s re-write rules and create card pages for everything instead of relying on tumblr’s constantly breaking code gfdjklhg but to simplify it: 

- I’ll probably be sticking to shorter threads, and if they become longer the more it goes on, then cool. But otherwise... I need something to hook me into an actively going thread so I can become invested. My attention span has gotten worse over the years, and I just need some more fast-paced interactions to keep me hooked!

And that’s really about it honestly pfft~ I hope others can be patient with me as I try to get back on my feet. I’ll give more IRL updates below the cut, but aside from that... I hope everyone has a lovely day and has been taking care of themselves!  ♡ ♡ ♡ If anyone really wants to keep anything we had, just let me know, otherwise it’s just up to my silly little brain to determine what I want to keep pfft~ Okay, I love you, bye-bye  ♡

Psyche, it’s time for the IRL info dump whoo !!

Just a lot of adjusting and battling with my brain. It’s hard to commit to things and start on others once you’ve fallen off the wagon, so it’s been an incredibly hard battle trying to get back into the swing of... anything, really! It’s tough! 

I did catch The Plague™ in December (I felt awful around the 20th) and now I’m still feeling the after effects. I jokingly said wow I hope this doesn’t awaken the secret asthmatic in me haha and it really does feel that way honestly pfft~

Aside from that, 2022 has just been a whirlwind of up’s and down’s, but I’ve been working through it and moving passed it. I’m hoping 2023 turns out to be a more productive year for me, so I’ve been trying to make a schedule for myself to try and accomplish that... with how my brain works though, it’s been harder than it really should for a person, but I’m doing my best  ♡ Trying to get back into streaming and getting more of a variety of things done (like not play the same game every night and actually play the other games I have that I have yet to touch and still have wrapped in plastic)

And also make time for friends I don’t usually get to hang out with and talk to and play games with. It’s sucks because I know it’s an awful feeling of being like... scheduled to hang out with, like it’s an appointment or something, but man, honestly, with how I function? It’s amazing I get even the bare basic functions of my own life handled without collapsing and wanting to sleep for 7 years :/ 

Social stuff and online stuff... hobbies and activities... work... all of it is so draining and I don’t think people really understand how hard it is to even just go to work and come home and then make dinner for myself. I hyper focus on one thing (work, mostly) and then get nothing else done the rest of my day. So this scheduling thing is really the best I can do to try and fit everything and everyone I care for into my life... it’s the best I can do, and I’m sorry about that, but I am trying.

Kind of why doing smaller replies on tumblr for rp would be best for me too. I just really can’t keep my focus on these things, and I want to enjoy writing and rp, I just cannot sit here for 2 months waiting on a long ass reply that isn’t going anywhere and still have that huge drive to drop multiple paragraphs in turn. I am patient, I do not rush anyone because I do not like to be rushed in turn. This is just the trend I’ve found myself falling into, because I write so much and get so much in return-- that we both need so much time to get the energy and drive to write a bunch for our replies, that I just... fall out of interest or drive when that reply comes in because I’ve been waiting too long for my brain’s liking. It’s not because I don’t want to reply or don’t want to write with you. It’s just my brain loses the drive and suddenly that exciting thread is less exciting, more like work. I don’t want that. So I’m doing my best to fix that  ♡ 

2023 is the designated year to try and improve myself in every aspect  ♡ as a person, in my outlook, inside and out-- Just improvements all around. The quote I’m living by is “Romanticize your life more; There is magic in every little thing. You just have to look hard enough.” So that’s what I’m trying to do  ♡ 

This was a lot, so I’ll stop rambling pfft~ I hope everyone has a lovely day, take care of yourselves, and if you read all this?? You’re insane-- but also thank you, and I give you well wishes  ♡ ♡ ♡ Okay... back to work I go!

[gothmods]

For the record i dont consider ai generated images to be art theft in of themselves because of how machine learning works but i do think having your artwork used for machine learning should be voluntary in the same way you would volunteer any other kinds of data or information for any other tech sciences venture - which necessitates transparency around how the data will be used/applied

And because of that i also think its extremely dicey for ai imagery tools to be paywalled or for ai images to be pay-for-use

But the problems that arise are not new problems, they parallel a great many prior discussion in art around creative freedom, derivitive or transformative work, economic exploitation of artists and so on

As well as other conversations around art and the accessability of mediums - who is excluded when we attempt to define what is "true art" beyond our own personal taste

And a lot of arguments made make me uneasy both as an artist with an interest in the expanse of art history in particular modern art, and as someone in close proximity to other disabled artists who rely on the assistance of others to create - sometimes to a degree where their only involvement is directing someone else's hand

But also on a shallower level i find it ironic that some of these argumenents are coming from people whove previously applauded fanfiction and other transformative works, and defended their creation wrt intellectual property laws

And i find it ironic that given how often ive seen the term neo-dadaist thrown around that people argue against ai art on the basis that its "just collage" or "presenting a premade thing as your own" (which, while inaccurate to how ai imagery works and the involvement of the human hand in it, is also blatantly dismissive of the multiple art movements that made use of techniques such as collage and premade commercial objects)

But also i just keep coming back to, you can dislike an artwork and feel it offers nothing of interest without trying to define it outside of art

And that perhaps some ai works feel soulless or uninteresting not because of the medium but becausr of the intent behind the work (am reminded of a twitter thread decrying ai art using overly smoothened disney sfm looking big titty porn images as an example - which i find very comical given the amount of those types of drawings done by digital illustrators that are equally bland)

As an artist i do not feel threatened by technology, i feel threatened by capitalist applications of technology

But im a ceramicist so this is not new to me, the invention of processes to mass pour-cast identical ceramic cups to be sold for $3 at target has not crushed the creativity and variety of the medium out of existence, nor has it crushed peoples interest in my work (the low wages of those people however has crushed their ability to buy things that are not those cheap commercial offerings)

The solution here is never going to be a further expanding of capitalist intellectual property laws nor is it going to be the ascent of artists to a higher wrung in the socioeconomic hierachy

But also some of you are just very pessimistic, art is one of the earliest recorded human behaviours, it has a long history before capitalism and despite the difficulties i truly believe it will survive long beyond it too

This is a somewhat rambly post but i have a lot of feelings about art and i dont appreciate being used as leverage against people exploring different modes of creation to my own and i really dont like that some people are effectively arguing for a legal framework wherein someone could take me to court over exhibiting a vase shaped similarly to one of theirs and i would just have to bleed up my limited income to defend myself

Because defining art theft in traditional mediums is murky in a way that you cannot capture in a set of legal guidelines - and even if you could intellectual property laws will always be applied in a way that primarily benefits the corporate world because taking something like that to court costs money that myself and many other artists do not fucking have and because the construct of intellectual property exists to protect capital

[marimopeace]

there's a limit on how much you can be an isekai intellectual...

a bunch of analyses have been popping up before me all day so i wanted to throw my hat into the ring. all love to ppl who are exercising their creative minds + ppl like geoff here who just talk about these things because of fan interest but i feel like there reaches a point where exploring the "types" of isekai is pointless? i've seen ppl list out the different types of villainess revenge isekai or fantasy mmorpg isekai but eh why fit them all into separate boxes like that?

i think it's easier to think of isekai as a "type" (genre) of itself with only two categories: 1) a focus on isekai (lit. another world) 2) tensei (lit. to be reborn). this allows for a variety of applications and thus tropes that ppl see so many trends of!

with isekai - in another world

you see everything from:

pure fantasy (inuyasha, digimon wait maybe not the best example but in my childhood mind i count digimon as pure fantasy, fushigi yugi)

mmorpg inspired fantasy/adventure (.hack//legend of twilight, sao ugh, log horizon, overlord (LOVE OVERLORD!)

otome game-esque worlds >>> this is where it gets complicated with "villainess routes" since i admit there are multiple villainess tropes but this is why it's nice to not think of this as a "sub-type/genre" bc it frees you from those complications! (the saint's magic power is omnipotent, the white cat's revenge as plotted from the dragon king's lap soso cute!, the savior's book cafe in another world, i'm a villainous daughter so i'm going to keep the last boss wait i can't remember if she's reborn in this one lmaooo see this is why rules make everything hard)

with tensei storylines - being reincarnated/reborn in another world as *insert character/role*

you see...

the same tropes!!

pure fantasy (a returner's magic should be special, reminiscence adonis, the lady and the beast, light and shadow, i can't think of a manga off the top of my head for this ah)

mmorpg inspired fantasy/adventure (so i'm a spider so what i stan kumoko so hard, her majesty's swarm, can't name another off the top of my head ah i hate lists shorter than two things...)

self-insert based games/novels (fiance's observation log of a self-proclaimed villainess, who made me a princess, death is the only ending for the villainess, the villainess wants to marry a commoner, honestly games vs novels are different applications but i'm not in the headspace to try to remember a bunch of both lol)

*insert line break to give random ppl a break from scrolling but tl; dr just enjoy things for what they are no need to micro analyze*

similar variations occur in both genres (if ppl want to be super technical i guess i'm arguing that isekai itself is a massive genre that has the "another world" subgenre and "reincarnation" subgenre tl; dr) so i think it's honestly a huge pain to try to separate all these trends into so many different types of stories. for me personally it's easier to not get overwhelmed by this gigantic umbrella of "isekai" that spans light novels, manhwa, manga, and mobile games by just stripping each story down into its trademark tropes (aka character archetypes, story structures) and slapping "oh this is a person going to a world that's not ours" and "this person gets reborn as blank in another world". none of this "omg this power fantasy is such a this kind of isekai moment" or "there are 14 different types of villainess revenge stories and this series fits into this" bc AH labels! limitations! circle-jerks via ppl trying to compartmentalize everything and sound smart for leaving a comment on story analysis instead of ooh-ahhing over a character's face! dividing things into light novel manga vs manga vs korean manhwa ft. female characters!

the last bit is mainly why i feel frustrated by ppl's insistence to group everything?

the video linked at the beginning of the post (honestly good video essay, i enjoyed it, i just kept thinking in my head the whole time "marimo these are tropes do not take the genre talk literally") has a baby comment thread talking about "korean isekai manhwas" as a genre featuring nothing but reincarnated villainess' and i can't.

like i cannot acknowledge that as a genre of any sort. the energy i felt reading through some of those insights takes me back to 2012 when all yt americans discovered k-pop and deemed all korean music k-pop from then on! (ppl still do this now, yes you are seen and don't talk to me pls i don't like you. k-pop is korean pop music and nothing less and nothing more. take a few seconds and try to parse apart aspects of korean culture instead of slamming everything into a monolithic label that has the letter k and a hyphen.) it feels so odd to see a bunch of young ppl on ig and tiktok acknowledge korean media that happens to be in the form of a webtoon as "oh stories all about young girls becoming villains in stories they made/played" bc it feels so reductive u.u

(positionality disclaimer that i'm praying isn't actually necessary: i am a 3rd-generation korean of japanese descent do not fite me i am exhausted irl of ppl asking for validation/verification bc massive shove off.)

breaking news! korean manhwa...is just as multifaceted as japanese manga...bc how can comics as an art-form not have multiple genres...huh such a shocker?!?! same likely applies to media in other parts of the world like chinese manhwa and french comics--not my place to explain either of those i just know those industries exist bc of wakfu and donghua shows by Tencent.

at the end of the day it's not like analyzing any kind of isekai is wrong--absolutely not!! i think it can be super fun to think about how isekai elements complicate a story (MCs trying to go back home, ppl from the og world, reincarnation plot-twists) or maybe even bash a series for including some kind of other world element when they could have just written a super fun fantasy.

insert marimo's brief ramble that hey you can get sick of truck-kun's hitting disillusioned guys who happen to be super duper smart or girls who happen to be master chefs/craftsmen but transporting a fully-grown being into a fantasy setting is the ultimate cheat code for making mundane modern technology seem cool and overpowered, and being reincarnated as a fully grown person in a world with a pre-made story/game set-up completely bypasses the need for an author to slowly flesh out world-building in a natural progression so isekai is actually a really smart writing tool it's just that there are some series where the author didn't use it well at all and it's cheesy or clearly isekai was misused as a vehicle for character/story development and it was pointless *DEEP BREATH OUT*

in this essay i will argue...lol i am such a culture studies major!! if i were an english major i would be talking all about writing but here i am having a side-tangent about world-building via someone being reborn wow i love this for me (don't get me started on when an author has someone reincarnate as a baby and the story is mostly them having warm fluffy moments with their family--typically father figures--and getting lots of powers i could and would and probably will rant about east asian toxicity)

but anyway am i crazy????? like yes for being passionate about the technical use of a word like genre (i am a scorpio rising let me be fussy pls) but i don't think it's a lot to ask for ppl to not unironically see "villainess revenge isekai" as the definition of korean manhwa.

idk as someone who resonates with why japanese isekai is so popular domestically + why a lot of korean manhwa feat. the same tropes (it's not for great reasons lads it's actually depressing tbh) i'm just starting to feel kind of pained by the generalization and need to separate "cute japanese girl in an otome game"/"japanese boy finds a harem in another world" from "korean girl dies and comes back as a villainess" bc they are just! applications to the same story device!!

recommendations for any who makes it this far down below <3

// also gladly recommend any of the examples i've listed in the above rant as i've read/watched all of them and adore them v much! //

save me princess

super refreshing fantasy manhwa ft. a princess and her ex-boyfriend having to save the world!

the beginning after the end

an AMERICAN web novel turned into a comic (but see it being not korean/japanese doesn't really matter when you just consider isekai as a genre...isn't it nice to not overthink it?) ft. a super-powerful wizard king reincarnated into another world and starting from scratch--gives mushoku tensei vibes but huge twists!

the reason why raeliana ended up at the duke's mansion

love love LOVE this story--read the title and you'll learn how this girl reincarnated as the character raeliana in a book gets married to a duke!

trash of the count's family

such a good novel!! a guy gets reborn as a lazy oaf and he takes the hero of the story under his wing...plot twists come up later on!

this time i will definitely be happy!

v good and refreshing for a shorter series! she's been reborn 3 times and remembers every time the hero's stabbed her in the back, and now she just wants to break up with him!

silver diamond

older manga but v good adventure w intrigue! a boy who loves plants get sucked into a desert world with demonic lizards and a mysterious bodyguard by his side. shonen-ai not BL but wonderful vibes nonetheless + great side characters!

the princess imprints a traitor

adore everything in this from the world (not in that way this society makes me so angry) to the machinations at play and the dynamic between the fl and ml