#and its not like i think i can personally get youtube to stop choosing to punish videos that don't censor WORDS

[feyarcher]

I think my new personal youtube rule is going to be that I unfollow and stop watching anyone who says 'corn' instead of 'porn' or says 'shit' and then censors the back half of the word. I understand that this comes from tiktok and has been imported into youtube not wanting to promote/ put pricey ads on videos deemed "mature", but I'm a full grown adult and I feel like I'm losing my mind from this trash. And I just have to tap out of it at this point.

[unsolvedjarin]

Thinking about a kimi x fem! Driver! Reader who is basically the female version of Sebastian, where the fic is kimi and the reader doing a challenge for Ferraris channel, the reader being a bit of a know it all, and kimi just not caring

You can choose if it’s romantic or platonic:) thank you!

FERRARI AND CHINESE FOOD

pairing: (kimi raikkonen x ferrari driver! reader)

summary: ferrari has a sunshine driver and an iceman driver partake in a challenge for their youtube channel. thankfully, the sun can melt ice.

note: its 1am sorry i have no comprehensive thoughts this is a bit bad but have it anyways i am proud i made this with less than 5 hours of sleep. okay enjoy anon!!!!

content warning: my grammar at 1am

“Another one,” Kimi groans, throwing himself onto the couch in his room.

“Oh come on it’s not that bad,” you say with a grin, closing the door behind the both of you so no one could come in. You’re sure if Kimi had to talk to another person from the media he might explode. “Besides, this next one is the last one for today.”

“For today,” he emphasizes, groaning into a throw pillow once more. You’d both been doing media duties for Ferrari all day, and while it was tiring, you would say some of them had been fun and enjoyable. Although, evidently not for your teammate.

“Cheer up Kimi, it’ll be over soon,” you smile, sitting on the edge of the couch where he was laying down. You sigh, knowing the one thing that would get him to cooperate. “Dinner will be on me after.”

That grabs his attention, slightly pulling himself up and looking at you. “You mean that?”

“God you’re like a child I have to bribe,” you tease, yet with no malice. “Yes, I mean that.” You loved spending time with Kimi, and whenever there were media duties you both always had food afterwards. It was like a reward of sorts.

“Where d’ya wanna go?” Kimi mumbles, laying down on his side and resting his head on his hand. He was staring straight at you, waiting for a response. You think he looked pretty like this.

Smiling at him, you take your hand and run it through his hair softly, unable to help yourself. You would never normally do this, but you barely got moments alone during media week. Kimi grumbles but doesn’t stop you, you knew he always secretly liked it. “I dunno, what’re you up for?”

“Mmm…” he nuzzles into your hand a bit more, “Maybe chinese. I would enjoy some dumplings right now.”

“We can get Chinese then.”

Before you could have another moment of peace, however, a PR agent walked in the room to remind you that your next shoot was in ten minutes. You quickly pulled your hand away and Kimi sat up hastily, trying to fix up his hair. You give the agent an awkward thumbs up, hoping he got the message to leave.

“Okay, you’re right, this incessant filming is a bit tiring,” you say the second the door closes.

“Told you,” he simply replies. You pout in return, slumping your form beside him. He thought you looked so cute like this. Holding your cheek, he kisses your forehead, your nose, then your mouth, making you scrunch up your face. He chuckles, at least he made you feel a bit better.

“I should probably get ready for the shoot. You good here?” You ask, getting up from the couch. Kimi hums a yes, but doesn’t let go of your hand. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, Kimi, but you will have to let go of my hand so I can get to my room.”

He looks at you with puppy eyes for a second before reluctantly letting go, deciding to lay back down on the couch.

“You’re not gonna get ready?”

Kimi shakes his head, eyes already closed ready for a five minute nap. You scoff softly at him, before heading for the door. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” he mumbles. Kimi was not a man of many words by any means, but he would always utter those back to you. Smiling to yourself, you shut the door and get ready for the shoot.

“So this is how the challenge goes: you have to compete with each other on who knows your fellow drivers and each other the best, and of course, most points win. You’ll write your answers on a whiteboard so there’ll be no cheating.” The interviewer behind the camera explains. You nod, giving her a signal that you were ready for them to start filming. Kimi sat beside you on a couch, his face not showing any emotions whatsoever. Looks like you would be doing the heavy lifting on this shoot today.

They snap the check in front of the camera, and the interviewer asks the first question. “Starting with something simple, who on the grid has the most wins?”

“Oh, easy.” you mumble, writing your answer down on your board. Kimi wrote his answer in silence, not talking even when he finished.

“Done?”

You nod, both you and Kimi showing your boards. Lewis Hamilton.

“Easy enough, next question! Who was Y/N’s idol growing up?”

“Aha! You should know this, I told you about it before!” you exclaim, poking Kimi. He grunts, “Not fair, she knows her own idol of course.”

“Sorry, the question wasn’t finished. For Y/N, who was Kimi's idol growing up?” The girl adds.

Oh. Your smile drops as you look to the man beside you who, for the first time in any of the shoots you did today, showed emotion by grinning wickedly at you. “You should get this, I told you about it before,” he teases, echoing your own words. You think for a second before writing down a guess of an answer.

“Time’s up! Can you both please show your boards.”

You reveal yours first, the words Ayrton Senna scribbled down on it. Looking at the man beside you for confirmation, he shakes his head.

“Awh no way! Who’s your idol then?”

Kimi shrugs his shoulders, not answering your question. He didn’t even give Ferrari an answer for that one. He looks at his own empty board for a second before jotting down an answer he’s sure is wrong, but he’s also sure as hell is funny.

Turning his board around, you see Kimi Raikkonen written down with a smiley face beside it. You snigger loudly before replying, “Sure it is bud. In your dreams, maybe.”

“Unfortunately, that is incorrect, Kimi.” The interviewer calls out.

“Go figure,” he mumbles wryly, making you grin even wider.

“No, his answer is correct.” You joke, trying to tease him even more. He gives you a look but you simply keep your sly grin. He decides to drop it, after all he at least made you smile. That in itself deserves a point.

The questions went on for a while, before they got to the harder ones. “Okay, amping it up a notch, who won the 1985 World Championship?”

“Woah, that escalated quickly,” you exclaim, pausing to think for a second.

So far the score was 4-1 for you and Kimi respectively, as he really wasn’t trying at all. You’re pretty sure he could’ve gotten the question about what year Fernando Alonso came into F1 right if he cared. Jotting your answer down to the current question, you see Kimi from your peripheral vision trying to take a peek of your board.

“Hey!” you smack him lightly with your board, “Cheater.”

He smirks, trying to block your second hit. “Wasn’t cheating.”

You continue writing your answer but this time hiding it from Kimi, keeping it as close to your chest as possible. He looks at you for a second as if planning something before going back to write on his own board. Well– he pretends to write something, but you can see him just drawing a star in the corner of his board.

“What’re you planning?” You mumble. Kimi simply shrugs his shoulders, but you can see the slight grin playing on his lips. Locking in your answer, you feel the couch shift slightly to your left. Kimi inched a little closer without you sensing it. He notices your side eye and realizes it’s now or never, and tries to tackle you to see your board.

You shriek, attempting to hide your board from him by sliding down the sofa, to no avail. Your reaction was too slow and he was already on your side of the couch. You were giggling helplessly at this point, unable to contain your joy. Opening your eyes that you didn’t notice you closed, you’re met with a large smile, your teammate proud of himself.

“Get off of me Raikkonen!” You exclaim, using his last name for emphasis. You try to shove him off but he stays solid slightly on top of you, still pretending to try and take a peek of your board. You knew he didn’t give a damn about those answers anymore.

“Say please,” he mutters, still smirking. You truly didn’t know what had gotten into him.

“Please get off of me, you bastard.”

In truth Kimi didn’t want to, he enjoyed seeing your face scrunch up under him with a laugh. He had forgotten about the cameras a long time ago– they weren’t important to him. He just liked seeing you smile. Still, he knew the faster they finished this challenge the faster he could get some alone time with you.

He finally concedes and moves back to his spot on the couch, fixing his hair and going back to writing his answer as if nothing happened. You sit up straight, fix your shirt, and do the same. The crew looked confused, feeling like they saw something that they shouldn’t have. You didn’t care, though. If anyone asked you would just say what you always did, that physical touch was your love language with friends. It wasn’t necessarily a lie, except for the fact that Kimi wasn’t just a friend.

The interviewer clears her throat before speaking up again, “Okay– uh– answers?”

“Prost, of course.” You answer with a smile. You loved studying the history of Formula One. Even though you couldn’t see, Kimi gave you the softest look he has in a while. He loved how you genuinely lit up whenever something you liked came up.

“And you, Kimi?” The interviewer asks, making the man snap out of his moment of adoration.

Kimi flips his board, a Lewis Hamilton written on it. The interviewer shakes her head but continues, “I’m sure that’s a gag answer b—”

“Is it?” Kimi butts in.

“I’m sorry?”

“Is it a gag answer?”

You shove Kimi softly on his side, “Don’t mess with her like that!”

He chuckles, before raising his hands in defeat. “Whatever you say.”

The rest of the game moves pretty quick, save for a quick argument between you and Kimi on what Sebastian’s favorite track was. As you both leave the set, you give Kimi a sneaky grin. “Bold move earlier.”

“Hmm?”

“Doing all that tackling in front of the camera. I thought you were the one who said we should be discreet. You definitely gave Ferrari a lot of bonus content. I’m sure they’ll cut it out though.”

“Ehh,” Kimi shrugs, not replying for a good while as you both walk out the Ferrari building and out into the night streets. You knew he was trying to find the right words, trying to figure out how to articulate his thoughts. It was part of the reason why he didn’t like talking so much.

Once outside he wraps his arms around you, a sign that he was finally back in the present and ready to talk. “I just wanted people to know, you know?”

“Know what? That you have a quarterback tackle?”

He chuckles at the recent memory before replying, “No, that I love you.”

You blush, hoping Kimi didn’t see it. He did. You carry on your conversation, “And how exactly did you plan to convey that message when they don’t even know we’re in a relationship?”

“Hey, Sebastian knows.” He argues.

“Seb hardly counts, he practically forced his way into figuring it out.”

Kimi shakes his head, his arms still around you. “And he walked into a room at the wrong time.”

His comment makes you laugh, a soft smile on your face as you turn to face him. “I love you, you know that?”

“Mhm. Love you too. Even if I don’t say it much.”

Your grin grows even larger, leaning up to kiss him. “You don’t have to say, I know.” He kissed you back, and he could feel your smile as he did. He thinks it’s crazy that he’s hidden such a blessing from the world. How you ever loved someone like him, he didn’t know, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.

Pulling away, he gives you a smile that only you get to see. The softest in the world, looking at you as if you were the world. He breaks eye contact to hold your hand, headed towards the chinese restaurant down the road. “Okay, now dumplings.”

[strayheartless]

Okay, I’m just sounding ideas here and don’t come at me from behind with a baseball bat or anything…

But do we maybe think that Angeal made the situation in the training room worse? Now I’m not saying Angeal’s to blame and I wanna caveat this entire ramble with the admission that I’m not even sure about this take. However, I was thinking about the actual situation like I was breaking down frames of a film (👋🏻 yoohoo! Film degree!) and when you look at it this:

(Credit for clip: Shirrako on YouTube)

It’s Angeal’s sword that breaks. Now, again, not blaming Angeal, Genesis was being Genesis and the whole thing wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t challenged sephiroth. But there is a line of thinking that suggests that it is Angeal’s lack of trust in his friends that exacerbates the situation.

Fanon aside, there is nothing actually in text that suggests that Genesis and Sephiroth have ever actually taken it too far. Actually apart from that one e-mail from Kunsel:

"It seems every SOLDIER 1st Class has a quirkor three, but I think Angeal has a lot ofcommon sense and is a trustworthy fellow.Let's face it: Genesis never found groupactivities appealing, so Angeal is, in fact,the spiritual leader of SOLDIER.I've got a lot of respect for him, too.And I envy you for getting to work with himso often."

(Source: Fandom Wiki, Final Fantasy Wiki: Mail (crisis Core))

there is nothing at all about Genesis' personality before the accident and degredation at all. We can make general guesses based on what we see of Genesis before that innitial wound, but over all, we do not know. So, why does Angeal stop them?

The obvious answer to this is because Genesis and Sephiroth are literally destroying the training room, he even says "You'll destroy this place," but they've done this before according to Sephiroth and theres no point at shich either of them actually manage to hurt the other. Even when Genesis encases Seph in a ball of fire, he doesn't hurt him, and their swords never aim for flesh.

it would be very easy for Sephiroth to exploit Genesis' weakness' and aim for his vulnrablites.

(credit for clip: Shirrako on YouTube)

As we can see in the above frame, Genesis leaves his left side virtually unguarded. His body is turned to favor his right side, he is quite clearly teligraphing a weakness that Sephiroth does not exploit once. Why? perhaps its hubris, perhaps its trust; who is to say, but what is clear is that, despite the destruction, neither are going to hurt each other.

The problem arises, then, when Genesis allows himself to grow overconfident. He legitimately blasts Angeal out of the fight and goes to defeat Sephiroth himself. Angeal is perhaps alerted to the fact that Genesis has lost some sort of control, but concidering there is not a scratch on either of them, he possibly didn't need to.

What I like about this line of thought is that it works hand in hand with the actual story itself. at the crux of everything it is not just Genesis and Sephiroth to blame for how events unfold, Angeals actions have a greater impact on everything.

When Angeal chooses to get in between the two he is the deciding blow that hurts Genesis, yet it is Sephiroth who is blamed for Genesis' sickness.

When Genesis storms the Shinra building it is Angeal who has left Sephiroth in the dark without answers; yet it is Sephiroth and Zack who have to pick up the pieces after it ends.

in Banora it is Angeals inaction that places Zack in danger and ends with the distruction of his home.

and the most obvious, Angeals death is not just defining for Zack but for Sephiroth too. While it is not talked about in text, Angeals death leaves Sephiroth vulnrable to Genesis' ire, and his own relationship to honour and monstrosity that affects Sephiroth's perseption of himself.

Angeal's decision to not allow Genesis and Sephiroth to come to their natural conclusion creates a consistant feeling of unfinished business. The ultimate question here is, would either Genesis or Sephiroth truly hurt each other. Had Angeal not intervened with his flimsy Shinra issue Claymore (possibly representative of his own morality and honour) Would Genesis have been wounded and would he have felt robbed of the title of hero?

This is all just conjecture and shaky soundboarding. If you have any opinions please feel free to share!

As always be kind and please don't yell or be mean (I am only a little critter I will cry!)

[kunikiden]

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki Headcannons ?!

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki loves video games no matter the genre. However, he tends to prefer games that have a pvp aspect or are competitive due to the skill he holds towards these games. For example, Fortnite, Valorant, Mario Kart, etc.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki always has Minecraft running in the background when gaming, so he can quickly switch to it if needed.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki likes to mine the most in Minecraft. When he's not doing that, he's either exploring or killing off mobs. ( Building is NOT his specialty )

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki wears a soft pink headset that has interchangeable cat ears. ( It was a Christmas gift from Panda. )

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki has a headset that is designed to his likes and his gaming tendencies that also matches the color scheme of his setup, but still wears the ones Panda got him out of appreciation.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki prefers gaming on his PC or his Xbox due to its easy controls, better privacy settings, and raw computing power. ( He is an avid Playstation hater. )

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki has both a regular Nintendo Switch and a smaller Nintendo Switch Lite he likes to bring on his person, whether in public or at school.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki used to be a chronic DS & 3DS user as a kid, but now he keeps it preserved on display in his bedroom.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki was always a big fan of the Pokémon franchise, and some of his favorites are Togepede and the Aloan Vulpix.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki's favorite 'old' Pokémon game is Pokémon White.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki thinks fire starter type Pokémon are overrated and always chooses the water types.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki has a microphone for voice chat but only uses it when he is playing with his friends; aka people who understand his rice ball language.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki wears your classic white boy t-shirts while playing. ( Eat sleep game repeat, I paused my game to be here, etc ) In addition, he has a collection of these but refuses to wear them outside his dorm or house

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki used to rage and go absolutely feral over Among Us in 2020

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki has accidentally cursed someone out of rage, forcing them to log off and delete their account.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki bought a fancy gaming chair that can recline and have adjustable height ( as well as a secret massage mode ) that he can play/adjust by using a remote. ( Panda offered to buy him a toilet bowl attachment )

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki often drags his fellow second years out to arcades in competition to see who can win by getting the most tickets by the end of the night. ( He always wins, but Yuta comes close due to Rika's help ( she's cheating ))

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki has a YouTube channel for gaming that he will occasionally post a vlog on

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki first started posting videos in his rice ball language but realized after a while that the reason he wasn't getting likes was because people couldn't understand him. Shortly after, he stopped talking and just started adding subtiltes/captions.

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki has built his own PC with the help of Yuta. ( All he did was be emotional support as Toge rambled on about it and went with him to shops to buy the necessary parts )

Gamer/Streamer!Inumaki is also really good at board games, but for some reason SUCKS at any type of Monopoly besides the cheaters version. ( and chess, he is horrid at chess )

[prettynalilmagic]

ℙ𝕚𝕔𝕜 𝔸 ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕕: 𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕕𝕠𝕨 𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕜- ℝ𝕖𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟

Decks: Considerate Cat Tarot Vol 2, The Dark Mirror, Tarot of Pagan Cats, The Wild Unknown Archetypes

This reading will be shadow work based on what exactly are we repressing and not aware of. And how to work through it with advice from me and tarot. Take everything as a small guide, tarot is a tool for guidance and not to see or predict the future.

Pile one

First things first, Go get therapy.

"Its not about choosing the chains.

Its about choosing them again and again."

Pile one welcome to your little section. So, I had a theme card for your overall shadow, which was Addicted. At first, I was troubled with finding out exactly what type of addiction was causing you to repress your shadow, and I kept pulling cards and I realized that your shadow is built on way too many situations that come back to your dissatisfaction from your life. Pile One your addicted to hating yourself. You have heavy cards that show me that there’s this feeling of self-inflicted despair. Your shadow emits contempt for life, you hate yourself and honestly hate life overall. The hanged Man in reverse shows me that you grew up very much internally, most of your experiences are based inwardly as you felt left behind on life. Everyone seemed to reject you. Your loved ones, and people who are supposed to be close, turned their backs on you at some point so in turn you did the same. The world rejected you growing up. Life showed you, that you aren’t deserving of love, so you internalized that and have subconsciously clung onto that delusion.

Pile one do you feel like nothing can change you? Nothing can fix you? That things will stay the same or get worse over time? Have you even thought about how you feel about yourself truly? When was the last time you willingly reflected on your own self-image? Do you think there's any motivation for you to live your life beyond what traps you? Going back to your theme card, your repression is very much self-imprisoned. You don’t see you can work through any internal conflict and you in turn have been chaining your own self to depression. Nobody is perfect, that's true, but self-discovery is beautiful however it's also difficult. This won't be an easy task.

Mentally, you’re at rock bottom almost every day. Do you dissociate a lot? Do you even know if you do? Because I recently discovered that I dissociate a whole lot throughout my life and have never known I was doing it. Human brains are truly mind blowing, it can take and hold so much stress and pain, then hide it away from us so when we don’t keep reliving and feeling all that hurt.

Nobody wants to struggle and be depressed, and our brain very much plays a part in helping us hide it away. Chances are you downplay or don’t care to think or consider your own shadow self.

I'm not fit to diagnose, but pile one look into Complex Trauma, C-PTSD, and being Shame Bound. Learn about various types of traumas, habits, and attachment styles on YouTube it will help you get a rough idea on understanding what you need to improve on without using therapy. However, please if you can, look into seeing a psychologist and a therapist.

I know life is super tough as it is for you and you might not be able to afford it but research if there's anything you can afford and if you truly have searched, look into self-help groups online and self-help programs as well. There are free eBooks you can illegally get, pirate that shit. Get a tarot deck for yourself and do shadow work readings. Also please stop reading all the dumbass future partner and next lover readings, invest love into your own damn self before investing it onto some person you most likely haven’t even met or aren’t going to meet. Sorry it's a pet peeve of mine. Chances are you’re reading this on your phone or computer, get on the notes app and write out that little ass of yours. Please there’s still so many ways to make your own mental stability easier on yourself. There's so much stuff you can do if you truly look into it, I recommend watching Patrick Teahan, Heidi Priebe, Psych2Go, and Kati Morton, they're my personal favorite therapy youtubers, and they can help you.

Okay going back to the cards, and not my own personal input, the hanged man in reversed also shows me that it was your environment growing up that has formed you into who you are. Life for you looked like everything was so big and almost outta reach for you to grasp, but you’re still here, you have developed habits that has made growing up easier, you learn to get by.

Which leads me to the present, you got the 9 of cups, meaning that your experiences have made you who you are. It ties back to all those built of moments of isolation and lack of love for yourself that you grew up with. Obviously when we grow up knowing others are treating or making you feel some type of way, you take from that and build your mindset on all those experiences.

This hatred is what we use to get by and we build ourselves up to work with our hatred. You know you felt like you are replaceable or have a deep fear of being left behind, we go outta our way to justify being the ones to leave others and replace other people with anything else to get that same feeling, until the same trigger happens. It's a never-ending cycle and growing up it can actually be helpful. As a child we only experienced all the heavy emotions and were not shown consistent or significant amount of effort for our needs, so we learn to not expect that and run away from anything that triggers that little child in you. No one was there to show love so obviously unhealthy habits and mindsets get developed and grow up with us and only gets worse and worse as time flies by. Pile one, you are depressed and hopeless but cheer up, just because your life hasn’t been the best does not equate to that being a set-in stone reality for the rest of your life.

You can make your own life better; the daughter of cups reverse shows me that there's this desire to play around with stuff, just do it. Stop thinking about it, do it. Fuck shit up, stop being afraid of messing stuff up, you think the ones who have hurt you stopped when they were making you feel not cared for or loved? Nope, so just have fun.

Do that fun hobby idea you been thinking about. Get messy with life, even if it is creating something very sloppy. You want to express yourself some type of way but feel like you shouldn’t? Well just do it, even if you feel like a joke or an idiot just try it and see how it feels. Even if you don’t necessarily want to do something or show off a different look or skill, and your more so afraid of making mistakes and not being perfect, just push that thought to the back of your head.

If you spill your drink and make a mess, guess what you can clean it up, you don't have to get mad at yourself or at the drink. Shit happens, and why should you submerge yourself into all the small things with these big emotions like anger and sadness. Relax and rest those pretty eyes. Which goes into your last main card, Four of Swords. Again, relax for once, don’t guilt yourself. Everyone who has it easy, allows themself to relax from time. Even if they don’t doesn't mean that you should do the same thing. Have fun, learn more about who you are and why you are here. There’s so much self-sabotage that goes unnoticed by everyone.

Learn from yourself, thank who you had to become to get to here, and learn how to work past that when that shadow side doesn't help you anymore. You don’t have to 100% love yourself to overcome your shadow. Because here’s the thing, you’re not overcoming it, you’re learning to accept it and work with it to do better. Your shadow is who you are and use it to your ability to grow. Pile one get outta here and watch some therapy videos pls, you will be happier even for just a second.

Pile Two

"What I can't have forever, I will have for a minute. What I can't have for a minute, I will hold to me for one second."

Hello pile two, welcome to your pile. I assume for the most part your shadow is not something you shy away from because quite frankly there's not a significant amount of repression that is being displayed; I feel like this kind of shifted into a little bit of a motivational reading from your guides to tell you about one specific flaw in you rather to tackle down one serious hindering issue.

You guys got two theme cards for your theme of the overall shadow side that you're repressing. I pulled Masquerade and Queen of my world, for you pile two. Both cards have one thing in common. Both are attached to the word Bargain. Which tells me that you tend to do the most to procrastinate the process of bad emotions or habits. Masquerade is all about living in the moment and doing everything in your power to savor and dwell into the fleeting moments you so desperately want to hold onto and stick to. Queen of my world is all about holding onto a facade that hinders the possibility of being seen as anything other than graceful and powerful. You also pulled the daughter of wands in reversed. Which tells me that you procrastinate as well, and you can honestly be very disorderly as well.

You repress your shadow self because of how uncomfortable you are for being seen as who you wish you could be.

You know when we live our whole lives trying to maintain a certain image, it can be so hard and honestly draining. It makes sense why you want to slack off and just live in the moment because maintaining the way you think you have to come off to other people is very draining and if you think about it, your facade is stressful weather you are or aren't aware of it. Having live off of short moments and a false persona is only going to fulfill you for so long, do you think pretending to be stronger, smarter, or fiercer than you really going to stop you from embracing your true inner strength? Because aren't you tired of always having to consistently perform? I don't know if you are even doing it for yourself because doing that for so long will tire you out and make you unsure of who you are deep down.

Pile two, I did pull the son of cups. Which is a very charming and very appealing person to be around, this just reinforces that you will be this at all times for everyone and everything. Given that this is the card that's supposed to represent your present reality, I believe that you are a very much cookie cutter desired person. Someone who is always on top of how you appear as. All I see is that there's this big grand facade of being this person that is so desirable and welcoming. Everyone wants to present themselves in a good light to an extent but for you pile two it's very apparent that this isn't a want for you, it is a need and you do whatever needs to be done to be this beautiful picture-perfect version of yourself, but your human, so guess what? You are at a point where you have to chill out and learn to be yourself, not the ideal version at all times. It's okay to not be what everyone else wants you to be, or what your parents want you to be or whoever else you want to idealize you. You're a human, you're only capable of so much, you're flawed, and you can want to do or partake in things that are different from what should be expected from you. 

I pulled The High Priestess in reversed for you as clarification for Son of Cups.  Which tells me that you are a very spiritual person, which would make sense, you are reading a tarot reading. Besides that, it brings up to light that your inner self is not being done justice.

Do you even understand who you truly are? Not what you think you have to be to maintain approval.

This facade habit is not aligned with your highest potential. Because face it, do you think you will be happy for the rest of your life pretending to be something that isn't the real you? Just because others think you will be does not make that idea a reality, stop deceiving your true potential.

I don't want to assume but my guess is you may or may not have immigrant parents that have kind of forced this urgency to be a certain way to please them. At the end of the day, you know how you want to be or wish to be. If you don't relate to that portion obviously disregard it, it could be anything from grades, skills, and appearance. Maybe it's a controlling figure, which could be a lover or a person in power over you causing you to feel like you cannot be authentically yourself. 

The next card for you is Chariot, which is all about heading straight to where you want to be. Who you want to be. Nobody is going to be able to do it for you. You have built a wonderful mask for yourself for so long that it'll be hard to take it off and learn what you look like when you aren't wearing one. It will be unnatural to you at first, but you will get used to it. You got this pile two. I hope the best for you beautiful. 

Pile Three

"I cannot recognize myself. But I'm still me."

Welcome to your reading Pile three. I pulled two oracle cards; Downcast Pride and Is this Me, which the purpose is to reflect on the main themes of your reading. Is this Me is associated with the last stage the Dark Mirrors Oracle grief cycle, which the stage of acceptance, whereas Downcast Pride is associated with the depression stage.

Which brings up the primary point- your shadow self that is being repressed, is your own lack of attachment to joy or fulfillment for your life. This pile does remind me a lot about pile one, as both were attached to the stage of depression. There's been this emptiness in our lives for so long, that we become very dull in life and don't bother to work or see things in a way outside of that empty feeling. Yet, on contrast to pile one, pile three is more so at the phrase of depression morphing into the stage of acceptance. Pile three has wisdom and more insight compared to both previous piles. Pile three you have this inward recognition that everyone is within means of having the capacity to alter your method of thinking and act based on that. You're the more self-aware pile so congratulations on that. I got the High Priestess reversed, Nine of Cups reversed, and Two of Swords as the cards to represent what is being repressed from your past. Nine of Cups was the overall main card for the first question and when it's in reversed I read it as dissatisfaction despite all the opportunities that have been given to us. Perhaps, we overestimated what should be given or granted to us and are disappointed that we don't feel satisfied even if our needs have generally been met. In other words, even though you didn't have the worst hand in life, you're not content. It's possible, you have taken your status, or a piece of your own identity for granted. Given the length of time we have used certain facets of our identity for so long, or maybe even briefly; our perspective of our identity can very much be impacted with that facet we once were attached to and what we used to represent. And it also plays a significant role in preserving our happiness and contentment. Now, this "opportunity" or fragment of identify has gotten away as time gives space for it to vanish off. Life is all about change, it's difficult to accept yet we can't and shouldn't allow it to dictate our personal fulfillment. Change is devasting but so is self-pity, a little self-pity is healthy for you, too much is detrimental for us to expand ourselves onto newer and better things. This could mean anything, such as growing up thin and gorgeous. Years go by and now you've gained more weight than you like, eyes have become dull and wrinkly skin has formed in the corners of your eyes, forehead, arms and almost your entire body. Maybe you're blaming yourself for not earning as much money or for not being able to get the same level of love, appreciation or attention from other people. It could be anything—even a passion that ignited a fire in your life that has gradually faded over time. (Mind you, I am not saying that if you picked pile three you have to be old enough to be worrying about wrinkles or having to make more money from the previous year, any age group could pick this. School, family and mental/physical illnesses can be factors as well not just time itself.) Two of Swords also brings up a different point, that highlights being at a standoff with decision-making. Pile three, did you make a lot of decisions based off of what someone else told you was better or what would best suit someone else? Two of swords displays a lot of lack of self-assurance and I think that part of your fulfillment that's displayed from Downcast Pride roots from not being more assertive in your own personal decisions. The High Priestess is a very spiritual card, and as it is included in the spread's earlier sections, I interpret this to mean that either an inner wisdom has been present but has been clouded by the lack of purpose and achievement. You have potential, but with all this chaotic energy, you have suppressed a lot of this fulfillment. Even after all this time has passed and you still feel as though you are in the same place in life. How come you never knew or tried to figure out what you wanted to do? You're not content and have felt like happiness and fulfillment hasn't been present in life. Pile three, it has to feel devastating for you.

Another way that I’m reading the high priestess is that the high priestess is all about our inner calling and inner wisdom. Based on the other two cards, I would say that this is what is blocking off all this magical, inner wisdom being brought up. Meaning, we must solve our own issues to let our inner voice be shined. Seek assistance from anyone or any place that might help you becoming more aware of your inner reality.

You also got the Son of Cups and Judgement reversed. Which just reinforces what I said the previous paragraph. Son of Cups represents a charming and idealistic person that everyone loves and desires. Whilst Judgement reversed is highlighting missed opportunities and failure. Failure to be the Sun of Cups. Failure to grow past who you used to be.

Mourn your past. Accept it’s not with you anymore. Move on so you can grow. I am aware it’s easier said than done, but it still needs to be addressed.

Lamenting over who you wish you still were, or where you want to be is rather pointless. Stop wishing for something thats now unattainable for you. Look for the new you, answers and solutions for yourself. Morph into something better so that the old you would’ve been jealous of new present you. When you think about it, it’s actually good that some things cannot be changed because then there’s a plethora of options for growth and numerous outcomes for who we can be.

Now, I pulled Father of Swords, for advice for you to help you work through accepting your shadow self. This card is pretty straightforward, Father of Swords is a very authoritative and is someone who strives onward. He’s also someone who’s very logical and knows that in order for blessings we have to work and set ourselves up for blessings. He does what he has to do to get to where he wants to be. He dosn’t live in the past, he lives in the present while working for the future. Spirt wants me to tell you to do the same so you can work through your repression of your shadow.

[pixelyssa]

The love of my life has been ignoring/stone walling me, and today it led to a HORRIBLE binge. I couldn’t stop, I was sobbing. I feel disgusting

I guess I’m wondering.. what advice do you have for preventing large binges like that?

hi lovey

first, im sorry about that.. i hope their gears start working properly and they talk to you soon 🩷

i don’t struggling with b1nging personally, and it’s not a flex, its just b1nging is a term i’ve been told not to use here. because for me, its still less than a “normal 1ntake” when i “overe@t” but i def know the disgusting feeling afterwards and the guilt/regret.

(i have to clarify that or i get threats)

anyways!! seems to me like it was obv triggered by ur problem w whoever this person is… like the b1nge was your coping skill.

so to answer ur question on preventing it, make a list of other coping skills you know work.

-distraction coping skills (to name a few: shows, documentaries, youtube, music, games, call/text a friend, read, coloring/drawing, writing, cleaning, showering, exercise, nap) these don’t fix ur problem ofc but itll distract u from the big feelings and unhealthy coping skills, and eventually (hopefully) you will regulate & be safe! a lot of people on this side of tumblr dont realize the distractions we use to avoid e@ting are usually good for us. deciding to go on a walk or take a shower instead of r3lapse in soemthing?? hell ya

-problem focused coping skills! (ex: asking for help, text/call a hotline, deep breathing, establishing boundaries outloud “i will not ___” or “i am not ____” etc) these are harder to do when ur having big emotions because your brain doesnt think “yes lets do some hard self refelction!!

but i wanted to give some examples so you have some incase you can’t think of any rn.

like i said, write it down. that way when this happens, or even other negative things, you have all ur tools in one spot. notes app, a journal, whereva 🩷

besides that, sometimes its alr too late to choose another coping skill. i can only recommend if you give in and you know youre gonna, to try these things

-put the f00d on a plate (small ones r best for me in this situation) that way im not having a whole bag of cookies/chips its just a couple on a plate

-i also get rid of any f00ds that would be dangerous during a b1nge for me lol. ik some people live with others and they can’t do this, but when im rlly hungri my only options these days are strawberries or carrots with hot sauce 😭 so maybe thatll help? if theres no f00d, theres no b1nge?

-watching true crime or g0re helps me bc it makes me unable to e@t the f00d in front of me 😭 sorry if this is crazy but… like maybe when ur upset like that and you have tried to do the healthy coping skills and just still wanna b1nge… you could just watch some true crime? 😭😭

-managing ur daily 1ntake could also help. ik sometimes even if ur full you can get the b1nge urges, but yk it genuinely could be that ur not having enough per day to function and ur stomach is sending those urges to ur brain.

kinda all over the place ik. i havent been active for a bit im going through it 🤭 anyways i feel so bad for u why tf is ur person ignoring u 😭 idk what i would do 💔 i hope this was a little helpful atleast’

ily stay safe xoxo🩷

[philsdrivinglicence]

Killing the white supremacist inside you. Easy mode. From one whitey to another.

Disclaimer: I am not an academic or an expert. Just a white person who's life was changed for the radically better during the BLM protests of 2020 who wants to share what worked for them.

Below is a non-comprehensive list of first steps you can take to begin the hard work of unpicking the layers upon layers of white supremacist bullshit baked into you from birth by the culture we live in (even if you grew up progressive or in a big city you are not exempt from this).

I made this list because POC in the phandom have been doing a lot of heavy lifting the past few days. I figured the least I could do is share what worked for me to understand what racism is and how its more subtle forms can manifest.

I hope we can all use the below as a starting point to help make the phandom a less racist and more welcoming place.

(btw I do think we are generally more self ware than many fandoms but as we are a mostly white space we have to keep ourselves accountable as white supremacy is an insidious bastard that will catch you unawares if you let it.)

So. Without further ado.

- read this article

- Read "Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race" by Reni Eddo Lodge (how you choose to source this book I will not judge but consider supporting a local book store)

- Stop being so afraid of being called racist. - Hopefully, if you are engaging in good faith then you already accept that racism is baked into our society. Racist is not a dogwhistle for "evil person". It is a descriptor of very specific behavior that we can all fall into if we don't keep ourselves sharp. So part 2 of this step is -

- Look back on your life and identify a time when you have participated in racism. My go to example is my 14 year old "never met a black person in real life" self, yelling along to N****s in Paris (uncensored, duh) at a house party with a bunch of other white 14 year olds. If you're getting really introspective you'll probably have multiple of these such moments. Sit with them, feel the cringe, think about what you might say to that version of yourself now, how you might have acted differently had you been aware the behavior was problematic. And then forgive yourself. Self flagellation does nothing good, the thing to do now is learn and progress. But you can't know what to change/avoid if you don't have examples to work off of. (This one is lowkey hard mode but worth doing early on so you can see your own progress over time. Also, if the examples you are thinking of were directly harmful you may also want to consider making amends in some way).

- Look at your playlists/album collection. If you don't see many/any POC musicians make a conscious effort to change that. Seek out interviews with your favourite artists and see which black artists have influenced them. Add them to your rotation.

- Do this with youtubers, authors, actors, screenwriters etc, etc. In all forms or art and entertainment, look at what you consume and if you find it overerall skewing white, make an effort to fill it with colour.

(Kill the voice inside you that says "I just prefer - blank-", or "the stuff they make just isn't for me, I prefer stuff I can relate to". This is the white supremacy talking, POC are not a monolith, look harder, you will find artists you connect with)

- Every time a POC points something out to you that seems off to them (I often refer to this as "this doesn't pass the sniff test") before jumping in to defend your fave/point of view/TV show etc. really sit with what they have said and try to consider why what they are pointing out, while not a big deal to you, could be a big deal to them.

Like I said up top, this is a non comprehensive list and is only intended as a starting point.

I usually wouldn't post something like this as I prefer to stay out of discourse but the conversation going on this past few days has really disappointed me. So many people are being dismissive toward POC fans and completely missing the points they are trying to make. So here's my two cents. Hope it's helpful.

[rosaniruby]

So I watched that video on youtube "It's all about Ruby" where they explain why ruby is probably the cause of all the supernatural stuff and i dont know why i didnt think of that earlier.

I didn't see anyone talk about it here so i just wanted to point out the times when ruby imply that she is the one being guided every time she gains some kind of succes in her career.

and almost always whenever crows appear ruby is there almost like they're connected to her. And they actually guide her.

so the theory that since this town worships amenouzume (the goddes of art, deity off fulfilled wishes.) its probably the fact that sarina prayed to become an idol and died before it could be fulfilled that she was listened and eventually reborn (mind you, she wasn’t reborn for 4 years and just waited till ai will give birth, in contrast to aqua who convieniently died the same night. Why would they give ai's child the soul of a girl already dead for 4 years if she wouldn't be connected.) as ai's child with aqua there with her as 'the only other person she loved'.

That's what the theory says and im inclined to agree. after all, the crow girl says herself that ruby is fulfilling her role amazingly meanwhile aqua still has to think about it.

(But what is ruby doing different than aqua? They both try to get to their father. Unless, ruby being popular is an important factor.)

Let me just point out as well that shes basically saying ai's death or rather the hope of her reincarnation is the factor that would stop them from achievening their goal or purpose, so we can say ai's death was a very important factor in whatever happened and, maybe, just as goro's death to ruby, was supposed to drive them to change their behavior. It's already something we could assume but the question is what role did crow girl played in ai's death and why she choose not to reincarnate her. Bc It's like she's saying aqua can't hope for ai to live a happy life since it distracts him from his destiny, because then he would rest, and he still doesn't do what he's supposed to.

Personally, I think there is a big missing piece of puzzle we still dont know, either in ruby's past with the gods or ai's secret we haven't came to know, that is the cause of it all. But surely all those things contributed majorly as well, after all ruby is more important to the plot than some people might think bc of her absence.

Oh and someone also noticed the mention of amaterasu (connected to amenouzume)

'her children also carry great destinies'

Again, this isn't my theory and I recommend you to watch that video on youtube if you want to know more details!!

[poppyseedmuffiin]

poppys amazing guide to free money for in app purchases (not clickbait)

long post ahead, sorry in advance. now idk if anyone else has talked about this at all, at least in the sky community. but with the amount of IAPs in sky (and seeing periodic posts of people offering services like commissions in exchange for season passes or exclusive IAP cosmetics) i feel like i just cant sit on this knowledge any longer if people turn out to not know about it. maybe almost everyone is aware of it and/or already using it or doesnt care and im a silly goose, but if this can save even just one person some money, or allow them to buy something they couldn't have afforded otherwise, then i'll be happy lol. it's certainly helped me and i'd like to share the love.

getting to the point: if you are on android/use google play (sorry everyone else idk if apple/the app store or other platforms have something similar, might be worth looking into or idk maybe this same app is on there too), then you can use this app called Google Opinion Rewards to get free google play credit.

this is going to feel like a cheesy fake youtube sponsorship or something but For Real this app gives you basically free money in response to answering surveys. i downloaded it a few years ago after one guy mentioned it in a video in passing, and as of now i have gotten from it almost $150 of google play credit.

“poppy, this sounds super sus”, you might be thinking, shaking your head. “answering surveys?? isnt this a scam to collect your personal data??” and fair enough! yeah probably the data is being sold (though on the page they claim to not share it with 3rd parties), im not super internet wise or savvy but idk it seems like everything is selling your data nowadays. and to get the most amount of surveys you can, you have to have certain things turned on in your google account.

it might ask you about a place you've been recently, or if you've been looking up something lately, or if you remember watching a certain video on youtube, or whatever. sometimes it's very accurate and specific with the targeted surveys, and sometimes it's totally fucking random. to me its not any creepier than getting an ad for like. wendys after only talking about it out loud with my phone within earshot, and most of them are pretty innocuous anyway, at least in my opinion. idk. u dont have to use this. im just putting it out there for those who might want to give it a whirl.

Before i go into the nitty gritty rambly details (on the google doc below), here’s the reassurance: this is real. Yes, the reward for each survey is less than a dollar, but it adds up. Sometimes there are a whole bunch at once and that can bring in a good haul. Since downloading the app, i’ve answered 730 surveys, and from that earned $142.11 (as of writing this right now) in total rewards/credit.

That’s not nothing! I’ve been able to buy sky IAPs with nothing but credit that i’ve earned from answering these surveys. The longest of these surveys literally take a max of like 20 seconds, and u can go right to them from the notification on your phone. It takes 0 effort essentially and for me it is worth it to see that receipt for $0 in my inbox. I have a compulsive spending habit and use it rly often so in my case mostly it just acts as a discount, subtracting from the price however much is in my balance, but still! That’s better than paying full price! Free money is free money! You can also choose whether or not to use it when making a purchase, and stop answering questions and giving them the data at any time. You can choose what to share with them really easily from the settings in the app, so if you want to turn off just location or something, you can just go to “survey eligibility”, select what you want to change, and manage it as you like. The only thing you have to have is your age, since it won’t send surveys to users with no age on their account. And you can use the credit on other apps too, since it’s google play credit! I just mostly use it for buying sky IAPs. you can save up to buy a season pass! 

If you’re like me (maybe not. Im kind of pathetic. Someone pls validate me), you’ve tried whatever you can to not pay for microtransactions. Yeah there’s stuff like mistplay and those annoying ass “tasks for coins” esque things within an app that have you sign up for online magazines or download other apps and get to level 3 of PigFarmVille or whatever to earn credit or money, but those never got me anywhere and this is the most effective, legitimate thing i’ve ever used for this purpose. It takes time and patience, but before you know it you’ll have $5 kicking around in your balance and you can buy the cute oreo headband or pair of shoes or whatever tgc has in the shop this time. It legitimately feels like i’m cheating, sometimes, or that it’s too good to be true, but i’ve used this for three years now and it’s never let me down. And no i’m not sponsored, just a broke bitch that stumbled across this. They should give me something for this free promotion tho lmaoo

below I have both the sharing link to download the app if anyone wants to and a link to a google doc with my personal tips for this app on it since this post is way too long already and i dont want to waste more of peoples time, but anyway thanks for reading if you did, and if you try it out and it ends up helping lmk! c: and also maybe reblog to spread around if you think others would find this helpful. I almost never do posts like this especially bc im very unsure of myself and tend to think im wrong but sometimes i get stuff right and this feels like something i got right. Hope it helps you too. 

Get paid for answering short surveys. Download Google Opinion Rewards now: https://googleopinionrewards.page.link/share

[wrightedgar]

I understand posting this on tumblr makes no sense, but if this partially hits one person it’s good enough…

Curing my social media addiction was the best think I ever did, in every single way possible. Not just tumblr.com, I have no accounts. No Twitter, no Instagram, TikTok, whatever the fuck. Can’t delete this one tho because it feels like killing my own child. I also only watch one YouTube video a week and honestly sometimes even that doesn’t feels interesting. I don’t really feel like playing anything either.

You don’t have to be so radical, just get to the point where you control your usage without feeling an agony if you don’t. If you never felt like this I’m so envy, but this has been my experience. I hope it half helps someone.

My life has simply skyrocketed. If you believe you are also addicted to social media really think about these:

Your memory will get insanely good. You will remember everything simply because you won’t be bombarding your head with 257346833 images, words, thoughts, you will forget.

You ware going to get SO MUCH free time. you are going to get more time to THINK, and you have no idea of what that really does. Everything will heal faster. Crazily fast actually (compared to months or years), and hurt a lot less.

You are going to get your creativity back and your curiosity you might have left on the way. No random impulses, you control your own life. Because you have time to think you will choose what’s the best thing to do next instead of jumping into your first impulse or agony.

Nothing will seem boring. This one is crazy but it’s the most true. Also the most important by far. Things won’t look hard or too boring to do because you are not a Las Vegas old man pressing a button 756434523 times. Aka you can make your self do whatever you want, and the struggle will be minimum. You can focus for hours on the most long term reward and not notice the time going by. Whatever struggle you have to go through to stop wanting to be online at every free second you is 100% worth it, I absolutely promise. As you get out you will notice 99% of the things you see are irrelevant. What’s actually relevant will find its way to you, don’t worry. It always does.

Social media addiction is normalized as if losing all of this is normal but at this point I really do not believe it is. I’m happy to be someone else from who I was just 5 months ago. And for the first time in my life I feel like I know who I am and where I want to get. Stay cool 🩷

[genevieveskingdom]

Why I switched from Choices to Romance Club 📖

I started playing Choices in 2019 and I was always so delighted when they veröffentlicht published a new story. I really loved playing that game, but last year I discovered a girl on YouTube who was posting some let's plays from Theodora and I immediately wanted to try this game.

~ The graphic is waaay better and more realistic.

No reused faces nor characters. I am always amazed about every new book and its characters. Even the so-called "unimportant" side characters have their own design and are not reused which cannot be said about Choices unfortunately. 😔

~ Better character development. Your choices really matter and have different outcome for the MC.

The way you interact with each of the characters has its consequences. The LI's also interact like real people and if you date someone and then decide to switch to an other LI, their romance path is closed. You really have to choose wisely for whom you decide to be with.

~ Quality over quantity

I don't really remember how many books are currently published (ended and ongoing) in RC, but it's definitely not as much as in the Choices app. I HATE the VIP books and that fact that you have to wait thousand years for it to get widely released! 😵 And when you open the first chapter you see that it's just another single love interest book with some three macho guys you are not attracted to (I respect everyone who's into the standard "sexy" type of men, of course, it's just not me 😇) and three girls from whom you choose the kleinste smallest evil.

~ More accessible diamonds and teas

I LOVE Diamond Rush, Tea Parties and so on 😍 It's sooo player-friendly and so worth it! Even the access to diamonds and teas is more suited for wide audience and honestly - when RC is so generous and want to give you so much for free, then you want to buy some diamond/tea pack from them even more, because you know they value their players. 🙏

~ No single love interest books!

Oh my gosh, I have been so annoyed that most of the books Choices release lately is meant for single romance. The problem is not with faithfulness, but with the fact that everyone has their own definition of attraction and beauty. And most of the main LIs in single love interest books are written stereotypically (Bad Boy, guy nextdoor, rebellious girl...) I miss the plasticity of their personalities, of their appearances. Not everyone who matches today's beauty standards is actually beautiful. There should be diversity in LIs. Some of them should be curvier, more slender, with glasses, with bigger nose, with disability, with albinism... Just go on the street and look at the classic human beauty seen every day in public transport! Stop giving us some plain definition of beauty which lacks its own charm.

The only thing I would improve in RC would be the option to choose if we want to play as a male, female, non-binary...etc. As far as I know, only Gladiator's Chronicles have a male MC.

Now I have some personal highlights about Choices I'd like to get rid of because it's been in me for so long 🙉

First thing's first, The Princess Swap was such a good book. I loved the idea. Still, I've got a certain love-hate relationship with this book. First of all, biology and genetics does not make sense in this standalone. Secondly, lord Cecil was not as bad as everyone thinks. He and the king were my most favourite characters, actually. 🤭 Third, I was so annoyed by the prince/ss of Ismar. We were forced to marry them, we could not even say no.🤦

I loved BOLAS N° 1. I replayed the story twice. I was in love with Tyril Starfury. Even though I loved Kaya Duskraven more. She was sooo gorgeous! When they introduced the sequel to us I was naively hoping that we might get Kaya back. That we would find some magical artefact, for example, and bring her back to life, so that she can join the party and be our new love interest. I would definitely switch to her. Instead, we got Valax... I am a little bit disappointed by the sequel, to be honest. They were promising us so many mesmerizing things and I was just expecting a little more from the three years waiting episode. Not only did I not understand why Cherta and Willow joined our party and then they left afterwards... I was like: okay, new love interests apparently. And then whoosh, they vanished. And we ended up trapped with the Valax-drama until the last chapters... I respect everyone who likes the sequel, it is just not me. Unfortunately. I will stick to the good old first book, which I love. 🩷

[tkblythofficial]

For someone who was/is a proclaimed "fan girl" R really do be losing her cool easily when it came to her and being shipped with a co-star. You know I totally respect when actors set boundaries if there's harassment involved or people getting weird with speculations, creating rumors etc. She has the right to be uncomfortable with being shipped with someone she considers a platonic friend but the way she approaches this whole thing is weird to say the least

Hates to being romantically linked to T but can't stop sharing pictures of him, obsessing over what shippers do and say in their own spaces and trying so hard to "prove them wrong" 💀like girl it's not that serious, if nothing romantic comes out of zeglyth we'll move on (like people did with Jalle)

Her main problem relies in that she's ON SOCIAL MEDIA almost 24/7 and is obsessed with finding out what people are saying about her. My problem with her is she don't act like a real professional actor, she moves like a social media personality, it might be the Youtuber in her but if her plans are to expand her acting/singing career she needs to take herself more seriously and log out at least from Twitter. Get yourself to networking events like Zendaya did in her time, write an album, get in audition rooms because she's literally the only actor from TBOSAS main cast who has not booked a single role since the movie came out. Like girl, it was the perfect time to build a substantial fan base that's going to support your future projects, it was her time to use her amazing talent to do so much productive and creative shit. Like it upsets me how much time she wastes sitting around at her house having online meltdowns one day after the other over unimportant stuff like shipping 💀

Also it's not lost on me why she despises zeglyth shipping so much, and its because she realizes T is better than her man, she reads the comments and knows what people think of J or I better say how little they think of J as an actor/person. R has an obsession to prove her boyfriend is just as good as T, that's why as soon as she posts Zeglyth she goes back to like Sejanus/Zegvera/J posts lol lt's like clockwork. I understand she's J victim and why she's so defensive of her groomer but there's nothing she can do to make us like her boyfriend because:

1)He's ugly

2) He has the personality of a cardboard

3) We caught on his predatory behavior so yuck /:

4) He's an okay actor but he hasn't proved himself besides being someone who gets his career propelled by his more famous and talented gf, his castings so far are giving charity case 🤷🏼‍♀️

I always support R because I see so much raw talent in her, but her online persona is so annoying. I'll give her she's 22 but her excuses to behave like on the internet are running out. Girl needs to learn to back off a little and ignore shit she don't like. Choose your battles wisely R, instead of running your mouth and embarrassing yourself over dumb and petty fan wars... you should be above that at this point in your career. You're a Hollywood actress not a stan account on Twitter! Act like it pls 🙏🏼

She’s a fan girl herself so she needs to stop acting superior to any of us. She’s always in celeb comments acting like a fan, not a peer.

You’re absolutely right. I don’t care if an actor sets boundaries because I can respect it and back off. But I don’t like it when people set boundaries and cross those boundaries themselves.

People are already starting to move on Zeglyth because of her behavior. It’s tiring. Jalle went nowhere because Halle stop talking about Jonah and moved on from TLM. If R wants us to move on then she needs to stop the Zeglyth pics and liking stuff about T. But that’s issue, isn’t it? She doesn’t want us to stop talking about them.

She needs to put that phone down and get into the audition room. Worried about shipping when she has NYC bills to pay 💀 Rent and the phone bill is due, mama. Time to get to work!

She’s delusional about J. We will never like him. We don’t care about Sejanus. We all know he doesn’t have T’s talent. J needs to go to Broadway or sitcom / medical drama shows. He’s not fit to be a movie star.

R is picking the wrong battles here. I’m a fan at the end of the day, not her enemy. She doesn’t want to be an enemy of her loyal fanbase. She’s losing us already. I’m the one who buys tickets to her projects. I’m going to see Y2K and SW because of her! Stop paying with your hard working fans, R! I don’t need to spend my time, energy and money on you.

But again, she’s about to be 23 and I’m hoping this is just phase and she snaps out of it.

[euroquision]

"The Fairest of Them All" A EuroQuision Article

Hello everyone! I hope you're ready for the first official EuroQuision article release! This one is a mathematical doozy, but trust me when I say this is worth the read. If you wanna download a PDF of the article, you can do so here!

And if you don't feel like downloading the whole thing, I'll be copying the entire article into this post after the section break so you can read it here! Thanks so much to the Patrons and other supporters that make this work possible!

The Fairest of Them All

By Beatrice Quinn

Quickly: what is the most overrated song of Eurovision 2024?

…got an answer? Ok, now: Prove it.

Today we’re talking about one of the most ambiguous, aimless, misunderstood metrics we use to say whether a song is overrated or not, and that is: Ratings. Literally! Now, we’re familiar with “ranking” Eurovision songs – dragging and re-dragging “Halo” up and down your 2022 scoreboard depending on whether or not you think Pia Maria is a real person or not – and other such activities! Ranking is crucial and emblematic to the existence of Eurovision and its fans, it hardly needs to be said. Developing babies watch the dancing fruits of Cocomelon, we watch a series of rectangles and numbers combine to shift and jump around aimlessly until they eventually settle in place. And once they’ve settled in place, forever to remain unmoving from those results, fans all across the world will continue to exist in a frenzy about how they should have landed instead.

But what’s the difference between ranking and rating? And by extension, why are the phrases “overrated” and “underrated” thrown around so frequently? Well, ranking songs is an action that always exists in and around the context of all competing songs that year. That’s why when the first Eurovision song of the season rolls around – usually courtesy of our lovely Albanians – it’s ridiculous and repeatedly unfunny to see YouTubers upload their “Eurovision 2021: Top 1 Ranking” videos. Rating a song is something you can do whether you’re talking about one song, or 42 songs. You don’t have to judge the songs ranked against each other. You can judge it based on its own merits or whatever frame of reference you have. I’m not here to write an article trying to tell people how they can or can’t rate songs – I would only ever tell that to the WiwiJury. And I would tell them politely, yet firmly, to stop.

No, I’m writing all this to do one thing: To give you a quick math lesson! And by quick, I really mean it, I promise. I swear I’m not a nerd! Well, that’s a lie. I’m a huge nerd. But I’m not a math nerd. It would be more accurate to say I’m a numbers nerd – specifically, Eurovision numbers. That’s the kind of numbers we like! We’ve seen our share of Twitter polls, asking us to choose between anything from Biggest National Final Robberies to “do you think Joker Out read the fanfic?” We just love stats and percentages! So I’m here to put those to the test in the most straight-forward, least-opinionated way possible. And let me be so clear about this: This article is not going to try and definitely prove anyone’s personal tastes right or wrong. This is about the mathematical results of how we rate Eurovision songs and whether or not this provides any accuracy.

Before we get into all the numbers: Let’s say you’re an Albania stan – a type of stan I’m familiar with, fond of, and am deeply frightened by – and you go to EurovisionWorld.com to excitedly check the results of the star ratings left by online visitors from every end of the earth, all coming to rate a song you’re excited to rate and enjoy yourself. You get there and you see: 2 stars – 2,815 ratings. Your heart sinks. “Only two stars? Is this actually a bad song? Do people hate the song? Am I dumb for liking it?” These are all things we’ve all felt about certain songs we hold dear to our heart, but it really doesn’t make sense, right? Why should a number generated by the preferences of 2,815 people sway your feelings towards a song you like? Then, as the season goes on, more songs pop up and get rated as well. As your Albanian gem middles out around 2.3 stars after 5,000 or so people decided to rate it, you see a grinning Dutch lad beating out the majority of the competition in terms of stars. “Wait, that just has so many views and over ten thousand more ratings than Albania has, what gives?” Then: the accusations start. “Joost is overrated!!” “Baby Lasagna’s hype won’t last forever.” “Vidbir said they’ll announce the results after six business days, not counting shipping and handling, but when they do, they’re gonna be so overrated.” And on the flip side: “Everyone is sleeping on Dons.” “Hera shock Q in May.” Various statements that however passionate are sadly not actually provable – at least, not in the moment.

It goes without saying that a Eurovision song’s rating out of 5 stars on EurovisionWorld does not, in any way, affect the results and winners of Eurovision. Instead, these ratings exist as a rare form of communal discussion. While the subjectivity of musical taste varies, we all get to share our opinions. And this process is what leaves us with two sides of the same undefinable coin: Over or Under Rated. 

We all have experiences with people or conversations where a fun song may be chastised for being overrated, or overly praised for being underrated. The attitude for or against a song doesn’t always exist like this – you can love an overrated song and hate an underrated one, I don’t care. But the point here is: these terms are something we relate to being an idea or descriptor, rather than something that can be mathematically determined. In fact, by treating the Eurovision “rating” system in its current state as purely a matter of statistics, we can then use that information to reference other claims against it. It’s quite scientific, if I do say so myself. Now, are both my college degrees in film, music, and writing? Yes. Did I ever get anything higher than a B in any math class I’ve ever taken? No. But allow  me to explain!

If someone were to say “Sweden is overrated,” what if there were a way to actually find out if that’s accurate or not? And once you find that out with some quick math, you can use that as evidence as to why or why not Sweden is overrated. My hope is that once we find out whether a song is mathematically overrated or underrated, we can then discuss possible reasons why or why not. Of course, this kind of question is going to be answered by collecting a LOT of numbers and doing a LOT of organization. Luckily I know someone who personally is sick enough in the head to sit down and pour through all the numbers, make the spreadsheets, make the graph, explain the equation, and write the article about it.

…it’s me. I think the “write the article” part was a giveaway, but here we are! So enough fluff, let’s get rating!

CHAPTER 1: The EuroQuision Equation!

Say that five times fast. And if you choose not to say that five times fast: I respect your decision, but I am disappointed in you.

So, we’re working with numbers. That means I am now tasked with figuring out the best way to observe the information I’m given, find out how it all balances out, and how do we compare all of that together? For context, there are two key components to finding out how over or underrated a Eurovision song is. As you’ll see while scrolling down the songs of any Eurovision year, you’ll see the stars beside them which are a result of ratings given by any IP address that rates the song. So not only do you get to see a song’s star rating, you can also see how many people contributed to that average rating. For anyone who doesn’t know, averages are a mathematical result of adding up the values of a set of inputs, then dividing that total by the amount of inputs. It’s hard to explain averages in a proper sentence, so here’s an example. If you are given the numbers 4, 8, and 3, you would first add up the numbers. 4+8+3 equals 15. Then, you take the sum (15) and divide it by how many numbers you added together. You added 3 numbers, so you divide (15 / 3) and find the average of 4, 8, and 3 is 5.

This is how those star ratings show up the way they do. If a song is rated by 10,000 people, you would add up the total stars given by each person, then divide that by 10,000. However, there’s another statistic we can find out by collecting all of this information. Like I said before in the Albania example, there are songs that only get 10,000 ratings by April, and others have hit over 40,000. You would think it’s as simple as saying “The songs with the most ratings are overrated, case closed.” But I’m here to say: not quite! If you were to rank the songs by most to least amount of ratings, that’s one result to find, sure. But I’m choosing to ask: what’s the average amount of ratings themselves? It’s something we can actually find out, since we have all the information!

Needing only the numbers provided by EurovisionWorld.com, we can find out what the average number of ratings is, and what the average number of stars is. We can’t really say who is over or underrated until we have an idea of how many people have contributed to these ratings. After finding these averages, the next step would be to compare and contrast how close or far each country deviates from those averages. Let’s say, if I were to add up all the star scores and find their average, I get an average of 3 stars. Therefore, any song that scores fewer stars than that is under average, and those scoring higher are above average. The same goes for ratings. After adding up EVERY number of ratings from each country and dividing by 37, we’ll know the average number of times a Eurovision 2024 song is rated. This will matter greatly in comparison to other years because the global attention to Eurovision grows every year. A year like 2014 is going to have a significantly lower average number of ratings simply because not as many people rated the songs in comparison to 2024. Sounds easy enough, right?

Ok, even if it’s not “easy” to understand now, it will be very soon! To help guide us into the numbers of it all, I made some visual aids! Let’s stop talking about the numbers and actually start crunching them!

CHAPTER 2: Playing With Numbers

Before we find out if any country is over or underrated, we gotta find our global averages first! Let’s look at the stars first. As you know, a song can achieve anywhere from 1 to 5 stars on EurovisionWorld.com – a very standard format! While we the voters/raters can only select a whole number of stars (one star, four stars, etc.), the website takes all those scores and calculates the average for us and displays that as a more accurate number often with a decimal point. Another important note is that I know this information doesn’t exist in stasis: songs can continue to be rated long after the contest is over. So for accuracy’s sake, I gathered ALL numerical information for this essay on one day: April 25th! This is to account for a few factors. Like I said, the amount of ratings grows over time and has a recency bias, so I didn’t want to get the ratings in late March. I also didn’t want to wait after the contest, just in case any results of the contest cause a shift in mass ratings from the rest of the world. I chose April 25th to write down every song’s current amount of ratings and current star score so that it reflected nothing but expectation and audience reaction, and without any influence from rehearsals or live shows.

Now, a song’s release day does play a part in how many ratings and stars it gets…most times. We’ll discuss that in the analysis chapter AFTER we go over all the numbers. So, this is all you need to know right now: I collected these numbers on April 25th, 2024. Additionally, there’s something else I did for making the math easier and more score-like, which is that I convert a song’s total amount of ratings into a whole number with one decimal point so that I’m operating with two factors closer to each other in size. For example, if a song has 18,311 ratings, I’m converting that to 18.3 so that I’m working with a star score of, for example, 3.6 and a rating total of 18.3, which are easier to put into the equation and find a Deviation Score that is represented by a small, whole number. The last important detail is that there WILL be more visual aids, and if any of this is still confusing by the end, let me know and I’ll figure out how to make this easier for everyone!

Lastly, you might wonder why I’m looking at both stars and ratings in this big equation. If this is about who is or isn’t fairly rated, why do the star scores matter? Well, I’m factoring both ratings and stars in a song’s Deviation Score because these numbers don’t exist separately from each other. A song only gets a star score after thousands of people leave their opinions, and people share those opinions in this medium by clicking somewhere between one and five stars. Therefore, it isn’t fair to say a song is “overrated” simply because more people have rated that song compared to others. Spam rating exists (as EurovisionWorld has learned the hard way), and there are songs every year that are perceivably more “popular” based on things like YouTube video views or Spotify streams. Those things don’t factor into this because simply watching the video or streaming the song isn’t the same thing as “rating” it. Spotify only has stream counts, and YouTube has a like or dislike button. EurovisionWorld has a conventional 5-star rating system that is determined by people from all around the world and is mathematically calculated. So by giving a song a Deviation Score that’s based on how close/far from average a song is in stars and ratings, we’re acknowledging all the factors that go into this question.

Now onto the numbers! Do you wanna take a guess as to how many ratings were left on EurovisionWorld.com from the start of the season through Apr. 25th? There was a staggering total of 689,968 ratings across 37 songs! Over half a million ratings is a lot of opinions, right? And still that’s barely a fraction of the total people who watch the show itself. Regardless, that’s the information we have to work with! So, if there’s a total of 689,986 ratings given out to 37 different songs, that means our avg. # of ratings is: 689,968 / 37 = 18,647.7838. Obviously, 18,647.7838 is an awfully long, complicated number to use. Therefore, I’m simplifying it to just 18.6 (approx. 18,600 ratings). So, 18.6 is our avg. # of ratings. As for avg. # of stars, there is a grand total of 130.1 stars totalled up between all the songs. This is a really good number, when you consider the math. For example, if every song of 2024 only got on average one (1) star, then we’d have a total of just 37 stars. So with this info, it means our avg. # of stars is: 130.1 / 37 = 3.51621622…… and many more numbers after that. Therefore, I’ll state our avg. # of stars is 3.5. Once again, this is a good number! On a scale of only one to five stars, the average of that would just be 2.5 stars, right in the middle. That means the public thinks that overall, Eurovision 2024 is a bit above an average level of quality. And I would agree! Anyway, just to sum up all the numbers we just found out, I’ll list them here:

Total amount of ratings from all songs: 689,968

Avg. amount of ratings per song: 18.6 (simplified from 18,647)

Total amount of stars from all songs: 130.1

Avg. amount of stars per song: 3.5 (simplified from 3.5162…)

For me, the easy part is over and the hard part begins. Now is when we begin to document every song’s amount of ratings, their star scores, and running the math to see how far above or below the averages they are. For the super hot and cool nerds that like excel sheets, I’ll link the viewable sheet of all the info at the end of the article! For the sake of this article, I’m going to choose a couple key examples, and those are: Sweden, the Netherlands, Iceland, and…sadly, “Israel.”

CHAPTER 3: Do We Have a Valid Result?

Let’s actually see this equation in action and find out what we can learn from all of this. The reason we’re going to be looking at these select countries is that each of them exists at a very specific point on the spectrum of overrated or underrated. We’ll begin with the country that receives arguably the most “overrated” accusations thrown at them in a given Eurovision season, and that is: Sweden! Did you find the twins’ song unforgettable? Regardless, let’s run their numbers through our equation and figure out just how “rated” they are.

As you remember from our graphic, the equation we use is shown as (a - x) + (b - y) = z. Let’s take a look at Sweden’s stats, which are documented altogether in the same list as all 37 songs. “a” is Sweden’s star score. Sweden, as of April 25th, has a score of 3.4 stars. “x” is the total average of stars across all songs, which is 3.5. (3.4 - 3.5) = -0.1. This -0.1 means that Sweden is just ever so slightly below the average score, which is something I would agree with (but that part’s just my opinion). The second half of our equation is about ratings. Sweden was rated on EurovisionWorld a total of 18,259 times. We simplify that big number just to 18.2, and we subtract the average number of ratings from that number. (18.2 - 18.6) = -0.4. Now, we can also observe that in its total number of ratings, Sweden is actually still below average, even though not by a whole lot. Now that we have -0.1 and -0.4 reflecting Sweden’s relationship to the global average of stars and ratings respectively, we combine those! (-0.1) + (-0.4) = -0.5. There you go! Sweden got a score of, overall, slightly underrated. Shocking, right? That’s right, in numbers and stats alone, Sweden is very close to the global averages. However, the claim that they’re “underrated” isn’t as true as it sounds once we look at another country through this equation.

Next, let’s take a look at a country that was 1st in the odds…only to fall from those heights down to a last place finish in their semi-final. Iceland’s song “Scared of Heights” is an interesting case. I won’t try and pretend that these ratings exist separately from a song’s public perception – or at times, their public drama. So don’t worry, we’ll address that and much more after we do more fun math activities. Not many people were running around saying “Husavik 2025!” when this got selected, but how was it rated? Iceland has the literal lowest star score out of all 37 songs this year, sitting at 2 whole stars. Since we know the global average is 3.5, that means Iceland is -1.5 stars from the average. However, this is where we can see the ways ratings and stars can differ. When it comes to stars, a song scores anywhere from 1 to 5; it’s not a very wide range. But for ratings, Iceland only has 10,951 ratings (shown as 10.9). Even compared to Sweden, that’s eight thousand fewer ratings, meaning: people either chose not to go out of their way to leave a rating, or it's just not as popular. From the average of 18.6, Iceland’s 10.9 ratings is a whole -7.7 away from the average. Let’s combine those two differences: (-1.5) + (-7.7) = -9.2. In comparison to Sweden, Iceland is actually “underrated” when we look at the numbers. That final score of -9.2 is a culmination of the song not only getting a lower score, but it comes from fewer people deciding to rate it. Would “Scared of Heights” be closer to the average amount of stars if more people had chosen to give it a rating? Or would more ratings just reflect the same sad score of 2 stars? This is something to consider when we have more context about who/which countries have more ratings than our first two examples.

They may have been disqualified for total BS reasons, but they’ll never be disqualified from my heart! The Netherlands’ “Europapa” is a song that has a lot to give it a leg up over a country like Iceland when it comes to public perception: Joost Klein is a more  “established” artist in comparison to most Eurovision competition. “Europapa” contains satirical-yet-universal lyrics that touch on personal and international topics at the same time, and the whole thing is a lot of good fun, even with a touching ending. However, this can all add up to what no sounds like a very reasonable claim of “overrated”-ness. Do the numbers reflect that? Unsurprisingly: yes, yes they do. The Netherlands has a star score of 4.1, which is the average score from a total of 35,557 ratings. Again, we see how the number of ratings can vary much wider than just star scores on their own – I can only imagine how it feels to see someone else’s song get 20,000 more ratings than yours. Let’s run the equation!. (4.1 - 3.5) + (35.5 - 18.6) => (0.6) + (16.9) = 17.5. As you can see, now that we move to the opposite end of the spectrum, the difference in influence is more observable. That score of 17.5 now properly reflects how a star score of 4.1 comes from a severe increase in number of ratings, and Joost’s popularity can very well be a factor in that, all regardless if the song is “good” or “bad.”. Like I promised, we’ll talk about the implications and conclusions these numbers can represent in a moment. We have one more “country” to look at.

“Israel,” as I’m sure you need no reminding, is the reason all of Eurovision 2024 was a complex, un-fun, total mess of a season. All the reasons supporting this can fill up their own article, so we’re going to be focusing on how 2024’s hottest potato fares in terms of stars and ratings. “Israel” and their song “Octo–” sorry, “Hurricane” has the same star score as the Netherlands, which is 4.1 stars out of 5. However, “Hurricane” has almost ten thousand more ratings than “Europapa,” at 45,255 ratings. (4.1 - 3.5) + (45.2 - 18.6) => (0.6) + (26.6) = 27.2. Just for another moment, let’s disregard the implications of this number and just compare it to the 3 other examples we’ve done. At one end of the spectrum, Iceland is underrated with a Deviation Score of -9.2, and Sweden has a Dev. Score of -0.5. As a reminder, if a country is completely and perfectly “average,” they would receive a score of 0; as in, it’s not overrated nor is it underrated. However, the score for songs being underrated are a lot less severe than the others. The Netherlands’ Dev. Score of 17.5 and “Israel’s” 27.2 are up in the double digits, but why?

Well, the first explanation is very easily observable: “Israel,” the Netherlands, and several other countries are simply rated more than other countries are. Therefore, this is evidence to support the claim that more people overrate songs than people who underrate other songs. For context, the country with the lowest number of ratings is Albania, with only 9,094 ratings and a star score of 3.1 stars. The country with the highest number of ratings is actually Croatia, with 47,315 ratings as of April 25th and has the highest “overrated” Dev. Score with 29.5. And now that we have our equation and can actually tell who is statistically over or underrated, let’s actually ask what that “means.”

CHAPTER 4: Take (It) Away

At ten pages (and two visual aids) in, we finally have some concrete numbers to look at and discuss, leading with the question: What are we meant to take away? If being over/underrated is now mathematically observable, what does it all mean? To answer that question, we need to look at the entirety of our data table and apply real-world context to the numbers we’re looking at. As I mentioned near the beginning of this article, this is not about simple labels. Let’s start with the observation I made right before this chapter, “More people are more likely to overrate songs than people are to underrate them.” This is visible in multiple ways. First, as we discovered when we found the global average of each song’s star score, we got a score of 3.5/5 – above average! But it’s not just about the stars; there’s another noticeable trend between the highest star-scoring songs and how many people have rated them. Ten songs from 2024 have a star score of 4 stars or higher – Croatia, Greece, and Serbia were all tied at 4.3 stars. Between all ten songs, they have a total of 292,504 ratings. Now at the other end of the star spectrum, how do the lowest scorers look?

Well, no song this year got less than 2 stars, now matter how much I dislike “Scared of Heights.” However, there are eight songs that scored below 3 stars, in comparison to the ten higher scoring songs. Fun fact: Finland’s “No Rules!” is the lowest-ranking song that qualified for the final (as of April 25th), whereas the highest ranked NQ was Belgium. Anyway, between those eight songs underneath 3 stars, there’s only 129,063 ratings, which is approx. 170 thousand fewer ratings. The numbers don’t lie: if anyone ever claims “Eurofans just like to hate things,” statistically that’s wrong! It’s not impossible, either. On that note, though, one would be allowed to ask “But doesn’t that mean there are songs that are overrated?” And if you’re talking about the literal, specific definition of songs having a greater number of ratings than others, then yes you’re right. But I have a feeling that most people say the word “overrated” more emotionally than logically. Remember how I introduced Sweden as one of the most frequently overrated countries? My guess is that you didn’t disagree with that claim. And I’m not just guessing: I’ve seen every upset Kaarija stan, Mans-hater, and person with ears that dislikes “If I Were Sorry.” Sweden’s no stranger to the overrated accusation, but we just saw how this year that’s statistically untrue. The most perfectly middle-rated song this year is Luxembourg’s “Fighter” with a Deviation Score of -0.4. Sweden, Slovenia, Austria, and Czechia round out the Top 5 Most-Midrated Songs of 2024. And like the title of this article says, these five songs are by all definition “the fairest” of them all. Czechia is actually closest to the average number of ratings (that 18.6 we’ve been using in the equation) with 18,614 ratings. But hey, I like to indulge my own curiosity, so I wondered if these numbers are connected at all to who did or didn’t qualify. In Eurovision 2024, 11 songs did not qualify to the Grand Final. So, let’s look at the 11 most statistically-underrated songs!

They are from lowest to highest (of the low): Albania, Iceland, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Australia, San Marino, Armenia, Portugal, Malta, Latvia, and Cyprus. Now, Denmark and Poland aren’t that much higher than these 11, but they managed to not be in the bottom 11. And of these lowest 11 Dev. Scores, 7 ended up being NQ’s. In fact, it’s more understandable why the few Q’s of the bottom 11 are here. Armenia was the last-revealed song of 2024, and Portugal had the very last National Final of the season. They didn’t have as much time between their selection and April 25th when I collected the numbers like other songs had. And yet, Albania was one of the earliest selections and sits at the very bottom of the list – time may not heal all wounds. 

Cyprus and Latvia are the other two songs from the Bottom 11 of the Underrated’s that qualified, and I genuinely think this is where the legitimate factor of chance plays a part. Cyprus came 6th in its semi, so we can state that the live performance and competition of the semi elevated Cyprus to a better position in the televoters’ preference, despite the odds! Latvia could be a similar case, as it finished 7th in the second semi-final. Then come Saturday, the two songs ended up right next to each other on the scoreboard with Cyprus at 15th and Latvia at 16th. As we keep moving up the list of Deviation Scores, we can spot the four songs that did qualify in the eyes of the raters, but not in the show itself. Denmark is just above Cyprus, and two more spots up is Poland. Four more spots up is Czechia among the most midrated songs of the year, so they were a true “Could go either way” case. Then in the biggest jump to our final non-qualifier, Belgium is 11 spots higher than Czechia and sits at being the 9th Most Overrated of 2024. Here and now, we have finally arrived at the fabled: Shock NQ. Now, a non-qualifier being a “shock” is up to your own opinion. If you’re me, you’re sitting here writing this article knowing damn well you knew Belgium’s Q-streak was over before Mustii hit the stage. This is the honest truth, and only Silia Kapsis has the right to try and say otherwise. But it also can be said that it’s not about asking “Who was the Shock NQ?” and more about asking “Who had the most attention before they NQ’d?” And the answer would be Belgium! Anyway, at this point I’m starting to think to myself “Huh, can using this over/underrated equation be a method to possibly predict a country’s qualification?”

…and then I remembered: Qualifiers are chosen entirely by televote. Therefore, if the Deviation Scores can predict the qualifiers with about 64% accuracy, can it predict the televoting Top Ten?...Let’s find out!

When looking at the Top Ten Most Overrated Songs of 2024, we have:

1st. Croatia

2nd. Israel

3rd. Netherlands

4th. Switzerland

5th. Italy

6th. France

7th. Ukraine

8th. Greece

9th. Belgium

10th. Ireland

(11th: Lithuania)

And for comparison, let’s look at the Top Ten of the 2024 Televote:

1st. Croatia

2nd. Israel

3rd. Ukraine

4th. France

5th. Switzerland

6th. Ireland

7th. Italy

8th. Greece

9th. Armenia

10th. Lithuania

To begin, you’ll notice I included the 11th Most Overrated song in parenthesis, which is Lithuania. I did this to reflect that even though the Netherlands is 3rd Most Overrated, they sadly weren’t able to receive the televotes they deserved the night of the Final. Using the data from this table alone, my conclusion on the Netherlands is that they were easily going to place Top Ten in the Televote, which would then leave who in 11th? Lithuania. All that’s left is to replace Belgium – a poorly-staged pop ballad with a party-harshing climax – with Armenia, which is a song bursting with fun, flawless vocals, and something so Armenian it caused Azerbaijan to get sent to the Doom Dimension. Additionally, mostly out of curiosity, I checked how many more reviews “Jako” has on EurovisionWorld as of May 22nd, and they’re up from ~12,000 ratings to ~18,000 while maintaining their 3.7 star score both times – that’s a show of quality and enjoyment from audiences over time. So other than those cases…I think I just mathematically figured out how to predict the televote? And, I don’t even mean the Top Ten – I mean the whole competition.

So I ask you this: What do we do when we are suddenly given information about the ways the results of Eurovision can be reflected in data before the fact? The answer is not “try and make a profit.” No, that’s not how EuroQuision works. Instead: we use it as mathematical evidence that propaganda fucking works.

CHAPTER 5: Couldn’t See It Comin’

Except: now we know we did see it coming.

Before we dive into the serious stuff, you might be thinking that what I’ve presented is an attempt or desire to “break Eurovision” or take advantage of this information for personal gain. I won’t deny that bets play a huge role in Eurovision – it’s how we get the odds in the first place. But if you know me, you know I’m not in this for the money, even though that may differ from the EBU’s intentions. The truth is that I don’t have any practical means to try and “profit” from any way this information could be used. Part of journalism and sharing of information is the inability I have to control how it’s used despite my best intention.

My intention with this article is to provide evidence that “Israel’s” attempts at utilizing Eurovision to get a good result and repaint their global image was nearly perfect, and the numbers said it was going to happen the whole time. Even without the numbers from EurovisionWorld, we knew how desperate “Israel’s” pleas for votes from the world were. From Duolingo’ing her way across the internet to coordinated efforts to vote en masse in various countries, Eden Golan was gunning for a televote win that she nearly reached, and that’s assuming every single one of those votes were completely legitimate. This is not said to try and accuse anyone of fraudulent voting when I don’t have evidence to support that. I mention it because vote buying is a practice that has been done in the past and actual delegations received punishment for doing so. Given the context of every other effort “Israel” put into their campaign for votes – and I mean everything: begging other artists/teams for positive press and harassing them to the point of retaliation – doesn’t make fraudulent voting seem out of the question. 

Unfortunately, I am no expert on voter fraud – ironic, me being an American and all, but I digress. This is something that, if proven true, will be revealed in the time post-Eurovision 2024. And if it’s true, I will happily discuss it! But for now, I can only  talk about what we do know, which is the newfound connection between EurovisionWorld’s sample of public ratings indicating a song’s predicted success or failure in the contest. This connection is reflective of the greatest tool a Eurovision song has: public perception. Or as some countries treat it: propaganda. Even though “Israel” is a country being sued by the ICJ for genocide, actively commit acts of violence to Palestinians as well as fellow-EBU member countries Lebanon, Jordan, and Egpyt, and were told multiple times by the EBU reference group to rewrite their political song lyrics, they still performed and qualified and finished Top Ten. Truly, did we even need my equation to prove “Hurricane” was overrated? Not really. Instead, “Hurricane” being so statistically overrated was a symptom of the larger effect of a successful PR campaign. When you consider that “Israel’s” mere existence inside of Eurovision is in itself a PR campaign, none of this is surprising. “Israeli” media took every possible moment to try and tell the world that their Eurovision participation was a good thing and truly represented being “united by music.” They did this in commercials and even in what “Israel” calls a sketch comedy show. 

All of these factors had me worried that despite my best hopes and efforts, somehow “Israel” would pull off a good result when they should have been removed months ago. However, the numbers were there the whole time. As we can see, the numbers don’t only apply to solely to “Israel.” Just as they came 2nd in my list and 2nd in the televote, Croatia was 1st in both, and the accuracy of the Top Ten as well as the bottom eleven/NQ’s can’t be ignored either. Truly think about that for a moment: on April 25th – several days before we saw any rehearsal footage or official performance – we knew with 80-90% accuracy the Grand Final televote results and who wasn’t going to qualify with 64% accuracy. And before you suggest that this was a Eurovision 2024-exclusive phenomenon, I thought of that too! So as a surprise fun addition, I ran my equation with the 2023 songs as well!

Since I can’t travel back in time to April 25th 2023, there’s no way I could collect all the ratings and stars with the same accuracy as I did for 2024, Thankfully, using the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. I managed to “go back in time” to a window of time spanning from mid-April to early-May and collect all the numbers. Even with a wider window of information, the 2023 Deviation Scores proved to be almost identical in accuracy – even more accurate in some cases. Starting with the Bottom 11 Most Underrated according to my equation, 9 of those countries turned out to be NQ’s. At the other end with the Top 10 Most Overrated, 7 out of those 10 did in fact finish in the Televote Top 10. And who was the most “overrated” of 2023? Not Finland, not Sweden, but “Israel” and “Unicorn.” This shows that for two years in a row, despite the drastic shift in public opinion and discussion concerning Israel’s participation, their songs that directly correlate to geopolitical aggression and self-victimization proved effective in the realm of Eurovision. So once again, I ask you, the reader: What do we do? CONCLUSION

Since I’m aware that a 20-page article is a bit long, I will go ahead and just list out the most important bits of information I covered and discussed:

Using the information from EurovisionWorld.com, we created an equation that figures out how close or far a song is from the global average of both stars and number of ratings.

Comparing these Deviation Scores reflects a somewhat-accurate correlation between how much the public “rates” a song and whether that song qualifies or potentially comes Top Ten in the Televote

Once these connections can be observed, we can discuss what factors or influences play a part in these connections (Is a song more popular? Is it less popular? Is it representing a country committing war crimes and hopes no one notices? Etc etc.)

Finally, here in the conclusion of all of this, we can answer that third point. As I mentioned, cases like Joost and “Europapa” being overrated are fairly easy to explain; well-known artist, extremely radio-friendly banger song, the list goes on. It also reflects why Iceland and “Scared of Heights” is near the bottom; a more “generic” paint-by-numbers pop song with simple English lyrics, a very unambitious composition, etc etc. However, there’s a difference between a song being over/underrated based on merit, and those with scores based on skewed public opinion one way or another.

I won’t pretend for a moment that spam-liking or spam-disliking doesn’t exist. For example, I’m aware of how Bashar Murad was the clear favorite to win over Hera Bjork, but sadly finished 2nd in what felt like a very devastating blow to the potential of Palestinian representation at Eurovision when it’s needed most. Anyone who rated Iceland poorly because of this is able to do so just as fairly as those who rate it low based on song quality alone. I cannot control the reasons as to why people choose to rate a song high vs. low.

Conversely, you might reasonably be saying “If ‘Israel’ is continuing to treat this as one big PR stunt, wouldn’t that mean all those positive ratings and their televote score are a result of artificially inflating the numbers and/or buying votes?” And as much as that’s one possible explanation, I’ll remind you that there are people who genuinely just enjoy “Hurricane” and dislike having to engage in contextualizing “Israel’s” Eurovision participation. For example, Worldvishawn is a Eurovision TikTok creator with over 300,000 followers, and on multiple occasions has published videos voicing his enjoyment and support of “Hurricane” this year. In a video discussing “Hurricane’s” rehearsals, he notes that the song is a “9/10” and is a case where “the live vocals are better than the studio version.” The issue here is not the fact that a fan of Eurovision has a positive opinion of a song that a lot of people dislike, that’s never a problem with me. The issue is that people with large platforms are able to give their opinions to hundreds of thousands of people with the click of a button and provides a space where people can attempt to remove any context of “Hurricane” and “Israel” whatsoever and just say the song is good. This is what indicates to me that all the positive numbers surrounding this song aren’t all completely fabricated and this should not conclude in a baseless accusation of buying or faking votes.

Eurovision 2024 was a year where at every level of control, nearly everyone chose to do nothing rather than doing something. At the tippy top of the ranks, it was up to the EBU to remove “Israel” because of their own previously-established actions and morals concerning geopolitical violence during Eurovision, specifically in the case of Russia. After they refused to do that, it was the responsibility of participating broadcasters to withdraw and refuse to participate. After all 37 broadcasters refused to actually do anything, it was up to the artists to put their career aside and take a stand in the public eye. And then, none of the artists did that! Some showed and voiced their advocacy, but none of them showed solidarity. If you aren’t familiar with the difference between advocacy and solidarity, advocacy is when you “advocate” your morals and beliefs in your words and attitude. Solidarity is when you put those words to action and actually do something actionable to disrupt the status quo to be in solidarity with those who are suffering and against a system of power that is ignoring them. And since none of the artists’ advocacy led to solidarity, there we were with a Grand Final with “Israel” coming 2nd in the televote and no one doing anything about it.

Now, I could go down the entire chain of responsibility of “Who needs to do something about this?” and eventually land where I and many others have been for months, which is the fun destination of Boycottville, but a lot of people hear the B-word and think its an invitation to start arguing and calling me a hypocrite. What I will state is this: boycotting is not something asked of us to try and simply prove our morals for show or optics, and it is not something we ask people do to in order to shame them should they choose not to. Boycotting is what we do when every level of command above us refuses to do anything about a system that is completely broken and exploitable. The numbers were there from the beginning and even I can admit I was foolish when I stated in my own video essay that “‘Israel’ isn’t going to get an enormous televote score.” That is something I said based on optimism and my own reasoning, before I actually came up with this equation and ran all the numbers. I was proven very wrong and I think I’m not the only one.

In the end, I need to remind us all that this was never about the results, it was never about “making sure ‘Israel’ doesn’t win.” If this were truly about making sure “Israel” didn’t win, then we would all have had to agree on one (1) artist to mass-vote for AND hope the juries liked as well, but that would be literally impossible. Whereas Eurofans could argue “Let’s mass-vote Croatia!” or “Mass-vote Ukraine again,” that is nowhere as easily and streamlined as it is for Zionists, “fake” votes, and “Israeli” fans to just spend all their money on voting for “Hurricane.” So once again: THIS IS NOT ABOUT RESULTS. The numbers sadly reflected “Israel” succeeding in their campaign nearly the entire way, and because they know that Eurovision is a system where everyone from the broadcasters to the fans don’t actually want to do anything that poses a threat to this silly contest, they’ll get the numbers they want. Trying to beat “Israel” at the game of Eurovision is a mathematical impossibility as things currently stand, and if EVERYONE continues to not want to change their behavior (the EBU, the broadcasters, the artists, the news websites, even the fans themselves), then “Israel” will keep playing this game successfully for years to come.

“The Fairest of Them All”

Researched and Written by Beatrice Quinn

Research Data Links:

Eurovision 2024: Deviation Scores

Eurovision 2023: Deviation Scores

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[youabandonedthem]

intermission characters incl.team sleuth's opinions on the chemical imbalance theory

spades slick: .

diamonds droog: doesnt really care because hes not mentally ill nor does he personally know anyone who is mentally ill. he sees mentally ill people on the street. is inclined to disbelieve anything slick is this impassioned about. doesn't care to learn anything about it until slick puts together some kind of debriefing-style presentation about it and medical abuse and the industry. doesn't take slicks word as complete truth but won't bother to debunk it. wants him to stop acting like this

hearts boxcars: heard about it sometime many years ago and passively accepted it while not having any reason to think further on it. at some point he hears about it being a disproven theory, maybe from slick, and noncommittally looks online about it when he remembers/has free time/is in the mood to confirm. feels shocked at the information but knows on a greater level what large industries do in the pursuit of money. moves on afterwards because it's not relevant to his life

clubs deuce: trusts in it and believes one in him to be the reason for his anxiety and bouts of sadness. has been told by doctors and infographics about it. believes he is mentally ill but would never make any big deal about it. eventually does online research and comes to a conclusion that the environment can also be a factor in an individual's mental illness, which the chemical imbalance makes them more vulnerable to. (believes in mental illness as defined in DSM)

problem sleuth: has no reason to ever have heard of it, thinks anyone who gets involved in anything mental health related, such as therapy, must be very mentally ill or has been in an asylum (but holds sympathy for these poor insane people), but if it were hypothetically mentioned in his presence he would internally confirm it to be a supporting factor in female hysteria and would make further speculation on how women's brains must be intrinsically different from male brains as a result.

pickle inspector: thinks its a bit rub but uses it to validate his differences and says that everyones brain chemicals "balanced" or "imbalanced" are what make them all very unique, doesnt care to think about it further

ace dick: thnks its very plausible. probably has seen a therapist or gone to some kind of couples therapy involving wife and has heard of it. has no reason to disbelieve. probably takes pills for mild depression/anxiety on doctor's recommendation and has some kind of noir fanfiction scene about it

itchy: wouldn't focus on one topic long enough to learn about it… he would probably love tik tock…. watching it out loud all day long… after crowbar bans tick tock he switches to youtube shorts and watches a 'pop psychology' video talking about it and takes it as fact. however has no personal reltaion to the topic. it is merely one of many things he sees on a short video and regurgitates to others.

doze: i dont believe anyone has ever exposed him to this topic in any form.he must have a very isolated mind. he may have formed some of his own theories on many topics but i think everyone talks over him most of the time so we would have no way of knowing

trace: only formed an opinion if he heard someone he considers smart talking about it first. otherwise he didn't really think about this

clover: completely irrelevant to his life. he seems to note immediate behaviours only so he can choose some way to act or narrate a situation based on whatever is physically happening. may note trends in a detached way

fin: knows it's true because he thinks some people are just very stupid and others are masterminds from birth. the phenomenon must apply to other variables. tries to remember the name,because he knows a few people who have those kinds of problems in their brain, and then refers to his fellow gang member die, who is crazy in the head, and his fellow gang members eggs and biscuits, who are stupid, and they were born that way so it makes sense that the chemicals in their brain must make them that way.

die: uses it to affirm that there is something extremely wrong with him that makes him fundamentally different from everyone else. goes on and off of various medications that he is recommended to try. probably eventually settles on some kind of cocktail involving medications to offset the side effects of other medications but will sporadically quit the cocktail and experience withdrawals. has therapist appointments that he skips occasionally. passively thinks he will never "get better" and that nothing can ever "fix" him. however is not too concerned about it and often just focuses on whatever goals he has rather than spending time thinking about his mental state

crowbar: thinks it's somewhat plausible, somewhat rubbish, knows that depression is a symptom of vitamin D deficiency and connects it to the 'imbalance' of brain chemicals which gives it some credibility in his mind but he doesn't want to assume before doing his own research. learns about it during his spare time and shows his nuanced, informed opinion saying there's not any one 'big pharma' organisation that promoted the theory while it was widely believed in part due to medication advertisements… statements that his gang members derive very little out of. otherwise regards an individual and their personality first rather than any mental illness. describes his gang members as having "mental problems" due to their behaviour the way mark linkous describes his dog but thinks no further on the statement

snowman: doesn't have much concern for the topic and has no reason to do any research of her own. but if she hypothetically had a close contact suffering from issues she didn't understand she would feel curious and go out of her way to seek information about it from a trusted source (professional individual or written, NON-internet based knowledge). what this source tells her is what she would believe. still doesnt care and wouldnt use the knowledge for any purpose merely her own personal records

stitch: thinks of depression as an emotion, knows some people have more struggles than others, believes everyone can overcome any issue with hard work and mental discipline and would laugh if someone thought they were fundamentally broken

sawbuck: no clue just no clue

matchsticks: not enough information to say

eggs/biscuits: they have both formed their own rudimentary, spiritual ideas of a 'chemical imbalance' from being told all the time how fundamentally stupid they are

quarters: not enough information but he seems like he would take the concept of depression very seriously and could be unexpectedly sympathetic to anyone he thinks has a mental illness

cans: not enough information..

[horseshoemybeloved]

wait i am really intrigued with your versions of the suitehearts i love the designs and seeing your take on them so please infodump about them to me about this obscure fob au that i’ve been insane about for years

It is now time for my long ass ( my version of the ) suitehearts masterpost * wiggles fingers *

Keep in mind!!!

So basically first things first, my versions of ‘em are Completely different characters. Some draw/view the suitehearts as fob in silly costumes ( which is super chill ) but my versions are very different. So when I say “ Benzedrine is a repressed gay wizard obsessed with abba“ I am in no ways implying that Patrick is a repressed gay wizard obsessed with abba. There are some similarities between people but it is never intentional. ( also I’m constantly changing stuff nothings set in stone lol )

Da world!

The world is kinda like a purgatory, everyone there has died but could move to another plane. Thusly there are people from all different decades. Magic is very common here, a lot of people can do small basic spells. But it takes years of practice to become a wizard, and decades to become a good one. There are 5 main,,, species? Races? I’m not quite sure how to label em. But we have:

your average human, nothing really of note here

elemental benders ( they are born with a cavity in their chest relating to what “ element “ they control. Some control water some Disco music! )

Pixies/sprites, they usually have abnormal colored skin, pointy ears, and the ability to float around. They naturally have good connection with spirits and can summon them when needed ( if they’re good at it )

Angels, they’re naturally fun colors, have magical hair, and vaguely cow like ears?. Angles can use their magic to make themselves look like normal humans tho. They usually live together and provide comfort for people. But there has been a rebellion happening and now a lot of angels try and live life not for the sole service of others but now for themselves ( is allegory 4 womanhood moment )

And then of course furries xoxo

Now the reason you even started reading this, info about the suitehearts!

Dr. benzedrine is vaguely narcissistic and full of himself, but in an oddly charming way. Personality wise hes a mixture of howl ( hmc ) without Any of the swauve, mostly just the dramatics, and aziraphale ( good omens ). Hes a middle aged man who Will Not admit hes gay, he is Incredibly repressed. He was apart of the huge royal academy of wizards, best one they’d ever had. But had a falling out with the leader in charge and now just has his own little wizard store. He befriended Donnie at a little diner because he made a reference to a Kate bush or Fiona apple song, or something or other. Him and sandman do Not get along, sandman often visits the store just to annoy him. But they have more similarities than they know, they just need to stop bitching at eachother!

( also he was born like 5’ something but the spirits in charge of transferring people to this plane were like “ I’d be mad funny if we made him really short he’d be so mad “ )

He is my autistic little meow meow 😔🙏

Horseshoe has a regal flowyness to him, semi-oblivious to his own charm, and loves to dance the night away. When everyone around him is disheveled and falling apart, he still manages to look fantastic. He appears to be the dumb blonde of the group, which he definitely doesn't mind and loves to indulged in the trope. ( he may not know where or even what Sweden is but at least hes pretty ) But he is a deeply creative person, and that in its own special way shows an intelligence. He works at a small local craft store ( bcus then he gets first dibs on all the cool new art supplies :D ) he is an angel, but chooses to focus his little magical power on constantly disguising himself cus he doesn’t wanna be bothered lol.

Donnie is very nurturing and kind, yet extremely energetic and bubbly, think kinda like,,, super sweet valleygirl. He’s slightly based off YouTuber Garret watts. He is very big solid guy. He has a bit of a problem with feeling like he Needs to take care of everyone, like it’s job ( he’s workin through it in therapy ) Like I mentioned there are people who are like elemental benders, Donnie is one of them. He has a little terrarium with either a mushroom or a daisy, and can make vines grow from his hands and legs. Donnie is also autistic ( heavily based on my experiences with it, he’s also just kinda heavily based off of me ) He's from da 60s, during the whole hippy thing.

Sandman is your typical bitchy mallgoth, who goes around calling everyone a " poser" and everything " poser shit " they put up a bitchy angry front but deep down theyre an insecure sensitive little guy. Sandman is a Pixie so that means they can summon these ( usless ) spirit guys ( they’re not very good at it ) shes also kinda Super into typical """ cringey """ stuff from 2015 ( ie undertale, fnaf, the lving tombstone, mlp ) Sandman is semi kinda not really it’s complicated openly non-binary, but still seems to repress quite a bit and just push away all deeper feelings. I thought it would be interesting to experiment with a character who is a trans femme gay guy, kinda like a reverse trans masc lesbian I guess. Idk lol don’t get mad at me

Anything else kiddo?

The format id choose to express this story would def be a movie. Uhhh… I can’t really think of much else right now, but feel free to ask questions I luv talking about em :3

[lumbar-puncture-to-the-skull]

The UCP vs. Juvenile Agency: A Tumblr Essay/Vent Thing

I hate my government.

Provincial government, that is. I can't say I'm head over heels in love with whatever Trudeau is doing either, but the point is, this is about my province's government; the government of Alberta. I'm aware of the extreme locality of this post, as I'm referring to a government that represents only 4 million people and I doubt every single one of them uses Tumblr, but I can assure you what I'll be discussing here goes beyond the scope of my province. At least, that's what I predict.

You can probably guess the United Conservative Party's game based on their name. Liberals bad, fossil fuel subsidies good. But there's more to their story than that. The UCP, under the leadership of the current premier Danielle Smith, really, really don't want to look like the bad guys. Smith even describes herself as a "caring conservative"; she's publicly pro-choice and supports same-sex marriage. But as friendly and kind as she so desperately wants to present herself and her party as, the cracks begin to show with her treatment of trans people. Cracks that, unfortunately, have let her feelings slip into Alberta's legislation.

I've already discussed at length Smith's anti-trans policies on my YouTube channel. The link is here if you wanna watch it, although in retrospect I think it could've been a better made video. Here, though, I'd like to discuss a concerning pattern I've notice in Smith's discriminatory legislation, and one that I feel has been a part of the conservative landscape for decades.

Danielle Smith really likes to talk about the safety of children. That is, supposedly, what all of this anti-trans legislation is about; protecting kids. But Smith's idea of child protection is, in my opinion, misguided. To her, protecting children means giving the parents the final say. Wanna get any kind of gender-affirming care? Get the parents' green light. Wanna change your name or pronouns in the school system? Ask your parents. Wanna make literally any personal choice concerning your identity as far as the government is concerned? Better make sure mom and pop are down. And this isn't just children children, either; I'd say by the time you're 15 you're pretty well prepared to make your own choices, but not according to the UCP, who are now signing into law that any student 15 or younger must gain parental consent to change their fucking pronouns.

But Smith and her party will look at all of this and say, "no". No, this is just how it works, they'll say. This is how you protect kids; you get the grown-ups to make the big choices. It's always worked this way; think about how many regressive laws, how many restrictions and bans, book bans and media regulations, how many shackles have been placed on so many ankles, in the name of protecting the children. Who, really, is being protected?

It's not about safety. It's about control.

Kids, including teens and young adults, have ideas. A lot of ideas. Some of those ideas are actually pretty good. But some people might not call it that; they might call it "misbehaving". And we can't have that, can we?

It's not until you exit youthfulness and enter the adult world, after your brain stops developing, after you finally accept to take the world as its given, that your right to carve your own path is finally relinquished. Only than can you watch "offensive" movies, read books with "indecent" material, and most importantly, find out who you really are. But what if it's too late for that?... Well, that's kind of the point, isn't it?

Youths have the most potential to change the world, so, if you want the world to stay exactly the same, exactly the way you like it, you make sure they shut up and fall in line. Why give them the right to choose when they could use that right to create a world you don't think is right? Where people are the way they want to be, rather than the way you want them to be?

Here's the tl;dr for people just scrolling to the end; In my opinion, Danielle Smith's UCP party wants to control the lives of the youth. They should just zip it, listen to their parents, and do as their told, and if their parents say no, that's the end of it, feelings be damned. It's a story told countless times throughout modern political history, and it's one that, horrifyingly, is finally beginning to take away the rights children have to decide who they are as people.

I'm 16. I'm going into my last year of high school late this August. I have just barely dodged this apocalyptic scaling back of children's rights in Alberta. I can't help but feel scared for the kids just a few years younger than me entering a world that wants to shape them according to its vision, by whatever means necessary. It's a thought that keeps me up at night.

To the UCP, I ask of you to explain yourself and your motivations for creating such a controlling environment for the future of your province to live in. It's not a question I expect a response for, but a question I ask nonetheless.

And to you, the person who has, hopefully, read all the way through, or at the very least from the tl;dr, thank you. I'm not sure how you're doing wherever you are in the world, but I'm living in a province that seems dead set on keeping me, my friends, and everyone in my age range down. I wish I could tell you exactly what to do to help, give a link to a donation page or organize a rally, but I can't. Hell, chances are you're dealing with your own regional stuff that you could write a whole essay about too. I just ask you take a look at what I've written here, maybe look into some of the UCP's other doings and Danielle Smith herself, and understand what I've said here today. And hey, the repost button is there for a reason, if you wanna spread the word.

It's hard to live in this world. I'm hoping beyond hoping that, with this essay, I can make it just a little easier.

Take care everyone.