#and that was just in the 2010s!! I can't even imagine how bad it would be in the mid 70s!!

[karmaphone]

actually you know what I'm not done talking about this. do you know what it would have meant to fat girls to see a fat Carrie rip her abusers to shreds in 1976. Sissy Spacek did a wonderful performance but it absolutely does not carry the nuance that the book did, or the literal weight that the book did, because she wasn't bullied for being fat or pig-like or ox-like or big or slow. a fat girl wasn't tripped and laughed at for physically blundering after she was covered in pig blood after the first and only time in her life she ever felt even remotely beautiful or even marginally accepted, and so her breakdown scene means significantly less

[karenandhenwillson]

Some thoughts about Karen's early life

We learn in "Tomorrow" that Karen was woken up by her parents early in the morning of June 18, 1983, to watch Sally Ride become the first American woman who had traveled to space. We also know that Hen was born in 1978 or 1979, so I'll assume from these two information that Karen is a little older than Hen. Because I can't really imagine a four- or five-year-old being woken up for that event and then for her to really clearly remember it to the exact time she was woken up. So, let's say Karen was anything between six and eight when Sally Ride flew into space for the first time.

We also know from conversations in the flashback scenes of "Tomorrow" that one of the major hurdles in canon for Karen to become an astronaut herself was DADT. I've done a little bit of research and NASA seems to claim that their members weren't subject to DADT because they weren't a military organization (though many of their astronauts are military or former military) but I guess we all know that what such an organization says now and what was reality back then aren't necessarily the same thing. And also, DADT was only one of many, many policies used to discriminate against the queer community. But that research aside, the show tells us very pointedly that DADT is the cause Karen didn't follow her childhood dream and I'll just accept that as canon.

On June 18, 1983, young Karen decided to become an astronaut. And she was still holding on to that dream 27 years later when she met Hen in 2010 despite knowing that her chances were bad. We have also seen Karen to be very determined to hold onto her goals and work for them no matter how hard it is at other times. So, I'll assume that Karen worked toward the goal of becoming an astronaut ever since that much too early morning in 1983.

Let's say Karen was seven years old that summer. Then she would have finished high school in 1993 or 1994 )if I've managed to figure out the US school system). This means all through the years of Karen planning for the time after school--of her planning how to approach becoming an astronaut--she watched the debate that eventually led to DADT.

So, after growing up in the 80 she then sees this debate while figuring out herself and sees how much it will impact her dream and her life going forward. So, I think Karen struggled for a long time with liking girls. I think she might have told herself that, no, she really didn't like Mary as anything other than a friend no matter how much she liked how Mary smelled and how much Karen's heart beat faster every time Mary laughed. And then a couple of guys asked her out to go to the prom with them, and she was flattered, of course. But couldn't quite decide if to go with James, who was nice and gentle and wouldn't be complicated if she told him there wouldn't be anything more than dancing. Or maybe she should go with Leon, who was nice enough, too, and who had been Mary's first and she had said he was super gentle and careful and maybe people were right when they said that you just needed to experience it to know how much you liked it.

I'm not sure with whom Karen would have gone to prom. But I think she kept the pretense up for some time, even convincing herself of it for a time. Enough to eventually make some intimate experiences with guys, though maybe not Leon after prom.

But for the most part, I think Karen hid behind her studies for a long, long time. Kept telling her family she didn't have time for a boyfriend or even to date. That her place as one of the few female students in physics was so exhausting on the social front that she just needed to concentrate on her classes (and who knows how many of the other girls were Black, to top it off).

Eventually, Karen understood her own desires and longings, but she had her dream to hold onto, right? And there was this nasty rule of DADT that would prevent her from realizing that dream if she was outed. So far, there had been no single woman to risk that for. (Maybe Mary would have been worth risking it for, but she was going to college on the other side of the country and was engaged now.)

But life changes your plans without you even noticing that it's happening. So at one point, something happened to make Karen re-evaluate her stance. Maybe she met this woman who just rocked her world and convinced her nothing was worth it hiding who she was, who she loved. Or something happened that made her re-think her big dream at least in a small part. Probably both of those things are true in parts.

When Karen met Hen she was clearly comfortable with being a lesbian. She talks about past relationships, so I think she had been dating extensively for a while and had also had several long-term relationships. And she had accepted that being open about being a lesbian meant she wouldn't get into the space program.

But by the time she met Hen, there was already talk about DADT being repelled. So the hope was still there. And Karen had done a lot of work in those 15-plus years since she had started college. I'm convinced she is the kind of woman who was very dedicated to seeking out any opportunity to further her goal. Going the extra length whenever it was possible, never letting a chance to make connections or gain experiences go by.

Karen had decided long at that being happy was more important to her than going to space, though. And she had found happiness with Hen, no matter their recent fight, when she was invited to Houston.  So when she sat in that airport she was already debating blowing it all off and going back to Hen, building that family Hen had offered her now even if Karen might feel very uncomfortable about the child's biological mother. (Semi-unpopular opinion ahead:) And then Howie called and behaved like the biggest asshole to ever exist--which nearly got him un-invited to their wedding later on because Karen will always remind him all he did was cause pain and nothing else--and Karen decided that making sure Hen was okay was more important than whatever chance she might have in Houston.

And so Karen came home to Hen and agreed to build a family. And when DADT was repealed after all not that much later, it barely stung to know that now might have been her chance. Because she had already found something else much more precious she had never dared to even dream about before.

Being an astronaut had just not been in the stars for her. But what had been in the stars for her with Hen and Denny and hopefully soon Mara was so much bigger and more important than space could have ever given her.

[marumafan]

Hello, I am an old fan of KKM and I am really glad that I found your blog. Especially, since I have seen your conclusion about some additional information: You are right. Indeed. Yuuri is gay or bi...and he did go on dates with guys before or he would have had no reason to feel bad at a certain point in time, when the one whom he had defended resigned the team.

Yuuri has basically no interest in going out with girls, but pretends that he is solely interested in them.

What I also considered interesting is that he basically was thrown out of the team because of defending a love interest...He punched the coach, when I remember correctly...and he did get himself into the engagement with Wolf, because he did not dare to really punch him with a fist, because he felt at least attracted to him physically at that time.

So thank you for your your analyses up until now.

Hello there! Yes, but it's not like he goes around acknowledging it. I think that Yuuri is deep in the closet.

He's a character of his time. No way a teen would admit to being gay in the 2000s (they don't even do it in the 2020s here in Japan).

Just go to wikipedia and look at the summary table at the end of the article here to see how many rights LGBTQ+ individuals lack. Every red cross is an inequality. The dates Yuuri went on with those guys were very hush-hush, and I don't think he could quite admit to himself or others that he's gay or bi. For me, the clearest acknowledgement that he's 'not straight' is when his mom asks him if he's into 'people who wear uniforms' and he starts crying in Change /(Convert) the same story where he goes on a 'Christmas date' with the other guy.

After that story, there was no doubt in my mind that he already knew he was non-straight before meeting Wolf; but also that he was keeping it quiet.

I think his extreme closetness is difficult to understand by younger people and/or people who do not live in Japan. Anyone who lived in the 2000s America and is or knows LGBTQ+ people knows very well how closeted people were, especially after Matthew Sheppard. All of my closeted friends went deeper into the closet... and the ones out of it, quietly went back. It was a time of horror and I can only imagine it was worse in the past. That's simply the case that I recall as the horror of my time in the West.

I have many personal stories about the cruelty in treatment of LGBTQ+ people in the 2000s by Westerners AND Japanese, but I don't wanna get into it.

I'm just saying, I get Yuuri. Anyone living as 'non straight' during those years 'gets' Yuuri. And his wishful thinking about how 'getting a girlfriend will magically make him straight ', I know well and have seen myself.

This is a very realistic character of the 2000s.

It gets annoying at times, cuz he is a fictional character and why can't he just get it on in this fictional world with the cute guy that he's very much into?!

Stories are fantasies that we go on to escape the cruelty of reality, and when this guy 1) goes to a place with no sexual discrimination, which is what has kept him closeted 2) is surrounded by cute dudes and 3) the cutest dude is also into him , also he's like the king, you wonder... why can't he just accept the blessings the rest of us don't have?XD

But I think he struggles, like a lot of people, with his sexuality, and so he doesn't know really what to do.

Having said that, idk.... I feel like once they 'start sleeping in the same bed and have a child', there's a very clear innuendo that they're banging , but idk. The author keeps everything in a state of 'deniability' .

Which again... understandable.

You didn't read this from me, but def she's writing herself in Yuuri.

I think it's clear though, as the years go by, that she turns Yuuri and Wolf into a very solid couple with stories like Do you want an Exorcism, Crossheart, Misepan 2. Misepan 2 was released with the ending of the anime on DVD (2010s when she stopped writing), and Yuuri showing his love for Wolf in that story with the 'I would give you anything, Wolf' phrase, really sealed the deal for me.

After that we've gotten quite a few stories, and she even married them in It happens to everyone 2 and Shibuyas , two of the last stories that present them in the 'future'.

Like I said many times, they've been end-game for a while... it's just that no one noticed, cuz they're two guys.

[roykleinberg]

Oh now you have me curious about your spicy takes! 👀

hooooo boy okay, some of this is about the franchise and some of this is about the fandom (which I love with all my heart okay please no one throw rocks at me lol)

90% of program/user ships give me the ick

continuing on the shipping train of thought, I don't actually find the Encom trio (Alan/Lora/Flynn) all that compelling as an ot3. and a lot of it is a personal pet peeve I've come across in a number of fandoms, but honestly most m/m/f ot3s feel like they're just a way for people to focus on the m/m dynamic while patting themselves on the back for "including" the female character instead of sidelining her completely........ even though said female character is rarely if ever a major contributor to the dynamic or a focus of whatever fanwork. but on a less meta side eye note I just find the perceived sexual component of Alan and Flynn's relationship to be the least compelling thing they could've had going on

and I know she's barely brought up in canon outside of Betrayal but uhm Jordan exists??? and perhaps it is an unpopular opinion but I would like to see more of her in things instead of relying on Lora to be the only human woman in the Tron universe

once again I might not be so harsh on Uprising if there was more to it, but taking it for what it is and how much of it exists -- a lot of the episodes were boring filler to me. also I don't like how they drew Tron

actually I don't like how Tron has been drawn in any rendered/animated media with the exception of maybe Kingdom Hearts

I don't think of Rinzler as a standalone character, and he's not at all interesting to me when removed from the fact that he is Tron with the serial numbers filed off. I feel like I've increasingly seen people portraying Rinzler as his own thing and it simply does not work for me. I think the whole point of his character / existence is that he doesn't have thoughts or feelings or any real personality of his own. he's a backflipping blank slate whose only real character moments are when Tron's overwritten personality peeks through

to that end I can't conceive of an ending where Tron or anyone around him would allow him to remain as Rinzler, and I can't imagine that Rinzler's capable of forming an autonomous opinion to not want to be Tron again

the fandom collective spends too much time talking about how hot the live action and animated men are and not enough time talking about how hot the Sirens are. or how hot Yori is especially in the deleted love scene. or how hot Paige is. or

Daft Punk (rightfully) gets a lot of hype for the Legacy soundtrack, but Wendy Carlos's soundtrack for 82 is unfairly slept on. love that those funky robots got to cameo, but we should be giving Carlos just as much credit for her work

for as much as it pains me to say it, I don't think Tron ever would've been a tentpole franchise for Disney even if they had treated it better. and it's mostly because of the sad fact that the general public has never been that into Tron. I see it tossed around a lot that Disney ditched Tron in favor of focusing on Star Wars and Marvel. A New Hope -- an original sci fi movie that had absolutely no brand recognition, so to speak -- made over $400 million in 1977. the original Tron made $50 million in 82. the first Iron Man movie -- which sure had comic fan recognition but was still a very early comic blockbuster -- in 2008 made over $500 million. Legacy made just over $400 million in 2010. and Disney advertised the shit out of Legacy, they didn't set it up to fail. yes it sucks that things like Uprising were dealt a bad hand (a garbage release schedule that lead to poor viewership that definitely killed the show), yes it sucks that capitalism impacts what art gets made, but the fact of the matter is that Tron has always had niche appeal, and niche appeal does not a successful franchise make. and while it'd be nice to live in the universe where Tron blew up, I look at what's become of Star Wars and Marvel and maybe I don't lament it all that much

[sneezemonster15]

https://www.tumblr.com/sunshinecherryblossom/732710854315933696/wtf-it-is-true-oh-my-god-when-is-this

This seems false, what do you think about it?

I find it highly unlikely. Unless someone gives me a legit link to it, I wouldn't consider it. Lots of fake interviews of Kishi are doing rounds in this fandom. And Kishi would never say something like this given how he has treated Sakura's character for 700 chapters and beyond. This part is from his 2010 interview (at Jump Fiesta Tokyo-Japan) :

When the interviewer asked Kishi about Sakura, and called her a detestable girl (most people can see how Sakura's character is written as a detestable character, can't speak for delusional people), Kishi replied in a very convenient manner - "Realistic girls are like that..."

Lol. Once he calls his character realistic, what can one say? Realistic characters are never black and white, they stand in the grey area. So you can get away by saying - "Oh, she is realistic", without expanding on it.

Shounen characters are generally larger than life type characters to create a large impact since they serve a pedagogic purpose for its target group. People who are from the good guys camp, are generally taken as good, people who are from the bad guys camp are generally perceived as bad. So of course it would confuse people when Sakura is from the good guys camp but acts like a total douchebag. And naturally they would ask questions about it. But Kishi totally avoided to take the more controversial position by saying - she is realistic.

We know Sakura's character can be realistic, many women are the way she is. But is she a good role model for women of any place at any time? No. She doesn't really serve the pedagogic purpose other characters do. She is a negative person, selfish and immature. We know that. But Kishi cannot say it explicitly in his interviews because it would lead to all the other kinds of controversial questions, and would potentially open a can of worms for him. First question would be - If she is from the good guys camp and remains till the end, why did you write her as negative, even after she got so popular? You could have used her character's popularity with the girls to say something inspiring, something kind. So why didn't you? Any other writer would have jumped at the chance. Writers are supposed to work off the popularity of characters in a medium such as commercial serialilized manga.

Kishi kept writing her as detestable. If he could, he would have told them - I wrote her that way because I needed plot device for Naruto and Sasuke's romance which I was writing in the disguise of ninja manga. Team seven is about S and N. It's a love story about them and Sakura doesn't figure anywhere in their relationship and I want to make it clear by showing why.

And I have a feeling quite a lot of Sakura's characterisation comes from his personal experience of women. Of course he couldn't say all that. But he can be indirect about it. Although when you are indirect about something so many times, with context it becomes quite direct. Hehehe

Just look how Gege responded when he was asked a difficult question from Kubo. Female characters are not given much weight in shounen given its target audience. Most female characters in shounen aren't even given half the character development male characters get. And look at Japanese society, it's so patriarchal, who's surprised their representation of female characters is so backward? I doubt most of these mangakas get out very much, to actually put some effort in knowing how women act and why.

Look at Kubo's interview with Gege. Gege's female characters are kickass, as strong as men, as smart and well developed. They have agency, self worth and esteem. Their characters don't revolve around male characters. But female characters like these are beyond Kubo's imagination lol. Look at the female characters in Bleach hahaha. So this is what he asked Gege.

Kubo finds Jjk women formidable because he cannot even fathom independent women, women who don't depend on men for everything. Lol. They can walk shoulder to shoulder with men, they aren't less than men, like they are in most shounen. But of course, Gege cannot tell Kubo these things. Hehe. Kubo is his senior, and the Japanese have a whole set of etiquette on how to behave with one's senpai. Gege won't say anything even remotely offensive to Kubo, so the best way to deal with such things is to be vague and use self deprecating humor, so as to not appear confrontational, it's a communication tactic. I also use these kinds of tactics when talking to difficult people or people in high positions I don't agree with. I have interviewed hundreds of people in my work. So I understand that one needs to be subtle even in their disagreements.

In Shippuden, later on, Sakura was written with heroine like qualities. So what this means is that Kishi doesn't have a very good opinion on either women or women in shounen. She does get some footage in the manga, where other characters praise her skills, like one would expect a heroine to get. She confesses to Sasuke and Naruto both. Never mind the rejection from both. But it's clear that Kishi would never have made Naruto end up with Sakura who treated Naruto this badly. Kishi is not a fool. He plainly says that she comes off as detestable because that's how she was written. Lol.

Lots of rumours have been doing rounds about Naruto's remake or live action film etc. but as far as I know, nothing such has actually materialised. So I wouldn't worry about it either.

I think it's high time that SS, NH and NrSk accept the reality and move on. It's been years. Sasuke is gay. Naruto is gay. Was established as closeted gay in both parts one and two. He would not suddenly defy his character traits and become straight just because NrSk can't keep it in their pants. So pathetic tch. Guys, there is nothing for you in Naruto except heartbreak. Grow up and move on.

SNS at least have legit reason to still be hopeful. The het shippers have nada. Zilch. Zero. Hehe. But well, who can fight desperation? Not these peeps.

[greater-than-the-sword]

Don't ever say "I will send my child to the public school, and they will keep their Christian beliefs I will just teach them differently at home." How would you feel about this scenario: you teach your child from the Bible that the Bible says it's wrong for men to have sex with men. 12 year old Jamie goes to school. In the class the teacher says "and well guys it's totally okay for men to have sex with men! Nobody should feel bad about that. I know that some people say otherwise, but we call those people "homophobes" and they're just scared of gay people and don't want them to express themselves. Love is love guys."

Now Jamie loves her teacher and has to pick between you and the teacher. Also, Jamie can't 1. Say anything, because that would out you in front of the class. 2. Commiserate with peers because for all she knows all the peers agree with the teacher. 3. Opt out of assignments with elements pertaining to the normalization of homosexuality. 4. Opt out of endorsing class sponsored gay messages (in my class back in 2010 they made us all participate in environmentalist messages even if we didn't agree with them, do you think they're not doing the same thing now with gay?)

And if she does let on that something different is being taught at home, i want you to imagine the teacher pulling her aside after class and saying "Now Jamie, I heard that your parents aren't being very tolerant at home, that you come from one of those strict hyper religious households, so I just want you to know that you're loved and accepted here, and if you ever want to talk about it you can talk to me or the counseling office anytime. Just in case you don't feel safe talking to your parents about it at home because they're creating a hostile environment. :(" imagine that Jamie is maybe a little mad at you right now because you grounded her for not doing the chores or something. Who is she going to sympathize with? You, the person who loves her unconditionally but has to raise her and prune out her bad behaviors, or the person who says they accept her 'as she is' and tells her that you're evil for not indulging her every whim?

Also, imagine that 5-6 of Jamie's classmates become "they/them" or swap pronouns and if Jamie refuses to use these pronouns she faces dirty looks at best and formal discipline or getting beat up after class at worst.

Even if she wants to tell you about any of this she doesn't know where to start. You'll still send her back tomorrow. All her passing grades are contingent on being liked by her teachers. They assign books about gay history and papers about the books. They watch "Milk" in high school.

Is this an environment YOU want to be in??? Let alone wanting your child to be in??? Best case scenario she lives in fear, worst case scenario she deconverts to blend in.

[utahlive]

This ask isn't directly for Wilbur or the blog, but rather the person who runs this. A bit of an ooc ask about world building and expanding this universe since I'm invested

Are we as the audience perceived as people in this universe watching this show/documentary about Utah at our homes, sending in questions via telephone. Or are we just random people that show up in the gas station and keep coming back one by one at random times to talk about the "Dabi cosplayer". (I'd like the imagine the second one; just a but of faceless people pressed up against the glass outside asking the weirdest questions. Fits the vibe)

Do you, the owner of this blog, have a part to play in the universe? Are you the director to the show, a main camera man, or something else.

The fanart that's made for this blog, I'd like to imagine it's—again—just faceless people running up and slapping drawings they make on the convince store windows and running off, leaving the producers and Wilbur with it. Stuff like that :]

Im gonna be honest I said I was gonna do author q&a today specifically so I could answer this ask because I feel weird just answering it willy-nilly

I tend to be... pretty bad at storytelling. I always get wayyy too into my own head, and things get so complicated to a degree where only I can understand whats going on, which is something im obviously trying very hard to avoid. However I don't wanna sacrifice the story I want to tell, so I'm just doing my best here.

One of the biggest limitations right now is that I'm just struggling to explain exactly how the world works/the translation between "Utah" and irl/us. The biggest ones are time and what exactly is being aired, because obviously it doesn't take one whole day to answer two questions, but I don't have the energy to answer more than two q's per day. And of course the 'film crew' arent actually filming Wilbur while he's sleeping or anything like that, but it's hard to tell the story I want to tell without having scenes like that. Im hoping that things will get smoother as we go, but for now I've just been making it so that episodes that dont have 'transcript's in them aren't filmed (or have "artist rendition" notes), and lets say that even though its been over a month of answering questions for us, it's only been two or three weeks for wilbur.

As for what you guys are, you're viewers who are calling in from home! Kinda like a radio show. No one is physically showing up to the store or his house (that would be really funny though). I did have some scrapped ideas that I may bring back later about the film crew, but for now "they" dont have any deeper place in the story. I'm the camera man, I guess! I've been imagining it as just some guy with a camera in one hand, a headset to listen to calls, and a little paper pad to write down answers.

There are 886 asks in the inbox right now! Not all of them are asks, some of them are just comments about whats happening (which I love, I <3 hearing what you guys think) but unfortunately I can't answer all of them. I have a general outline so whenever I do pick story/plot asks, its ones that fit that outline, and every other time I just try to be funny.

nor/mal (jk. he/they/xe)

I was typing out the whole story and reasoning behind the pictures I chose but it was getting way too long (because I ended up going down a rabbit hole). Basically I found an old blog from 2010 where a girl had posted a picture of her room, it was a very positive post so I didn't think it would be offensive to use it (also there's a comment from 2016 on the blog post asking if the image can be used as reference, no reply, the author of the blog has not logged in for years). The bathroom was made in the Sims 4/I used pictures of my own dorm bathroom

smoked a blunt in the woods and thought about cwilbur's character arc a little too hard

im shy 👉👈

fucks me up that people continue to think about this blog after liking/reblogging

[petitelepus]

THE FOX'S WEDDING, PART 10

KITSUNE!RENGUKO KYOJURO X FEM!READER

Summary: You host a scary movie night with the Kitsune brothers and get a little tipsy.

Warnings: Drinking, Kissing

A/N: Female Reader, Kitsune Kyojuro, Kitsune Senjuro, Kitsune Rengoku, Monster Musume!AU

PART 1 II PART 2 II PART 3 II PART 4 II PART 5 II PART 6 II PART 7 II PART 8 II PART 9 II PART 10 II PART 11 II PART 12 II PART 13 II PART 14 II PART 15 II PART 16 II PART 17 II PART 18 II PART 19

Life went on with you and the Kitsune brothers, but now after your special night during the last full moon, Kyojuro noticed that you were stealing a lot of glances at him. At first, he didn't think much of it, thinking that you just really liked him… Which was true, but you liked him more than he could ever imagine.

So a couple of days passed and you, the fox brothers were going to be watching this horror movie called 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' and you and Senjuro were currently shopping for food, treats, and drinks.

You were excited when you found out that the younger brother seemed to enjoy horror-related stuff just as much as you did! Apparently, he had found your horror manga and despite being a little startled, he enjoyed them very much. So much in fact that he wanted to see a classical horror movie and you thought about the movie with Freddy Krueger as the bad guy, but you couldn't find the original one so the remake from 2010 had to do.

"Big sis…?" Senjuro looked at you and you blinked, realizing that you were staring at the chips shelf like you were in a coma. You turned to look at him and smiled, "I'm sorry Senjuro, what did you say?"

"How scary is this movie really?" He asked and you hummed as you you tried to remember, but it had been a while since you last time seen the said movie so you couldn't be sure.

"I can't remember." You replied honestly, "But not that scary that you would get nightmares."

"But…" The young boy blinked, "It's called 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'?"

"We can watch something else if you want-!"

"No!" He swallowed and put on a brave look, "I want to see it."

"Then, in that case…" You grinned as you looked at him, "You better get some movie snacks for yourself."

"How much should I get?" He asked and you smiled at how diligent he was. "Everything."

"You mean…?" His gorgeous eyes widened and you nodded, "You get to eat all candy, chips, and soda you want!"

"Really?" Oh, those eyes of his shined like stars and you were happy to see him so excited, "Yes! Go wild and grab anything you want. If you don't like something you picked then I think your brother will probably eat it without a problem."

"Alright!" Senjuro ran ahead to look for candy that he found interesting and wanted to try and you smiled as you followed him. This movie-night would be fun… But in reality, it was an excuse for you to get Kyojuro and that magical night the two of you had out of your mind.

As you followed Senjuro, you passed the alcohol aisle and you thought that hey, maybe you could have a couple of drinks? You grabbed yourself some hard lemonade and followed after the young fox brother to the candy aisle.

Soon the two of you were done with shopping and after buying everything you needed for dinner and movie night you made your way back home. The house was empty when you returned, but it was already pretty late so you figured that Kyojuro had gone out for a jog. His missing shoes were a clear clue.

So you and Senjuro put your groceries in their rightful places and got the dinner started. Oven vegetables such as carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli with some lemon pepper salmon. This was a simple dish to make and healthy as heck, so you didn't need Senjuro's help. No, you made him sit on the couch and relax for once. He was always helping you with housework, now was his turn to take things easy.

It took a moment for the veggies to cook properly, but you had no hurry since Kyojuro wasn't even home. Then, when the veggies were halfway done, you added salmon into the oven and while you were waiting you set the table… But soon both dishes were ready and there was no sign of your fiance. You had to take the food out of the oven or risk burning it.

"The food smells amazing," Senjuro said as he joined you in the kitchen and you nodded, but you weren't exactly smiling, "Thank you, but your brother isn't here yet…"

It was getting late… This wasn't like Kyojuro being late for dinner or any time when there was food served. You reached for your phone, ready to call him and ask where he was, but just as you did that, the front door opened and your fiance came back.

"I'm home!" He called and you rushed to welcome him back and call him to join you and Senjuro at the dinner table… But you were shocked when you saw that his clothes were torn and dirty and he looked like he was dragged through thornbushes.

"W-what happened!?" You asked, but just as Kyojuro was about to answer, you rushed to his side in panic and looked around him to see if he was hurt or worst.

"Hm! A little girl's cat was stuck in a tree so I stopped to help the little creature down!" The fox explained and you blinked, "What was that cat, a sabertooth tiger!?"

Your fiance just smiled until you sighed in relief, but just as you were about to scold him for doing something so dangerous he smiled as he sniffed the air while he was taking his shoes off. "It smells amazing here!"

"You're lucky, I just took the dinner out of the oven." You shook your head as you pointed at the toilet, "Go change and wash your hands before joining us at the dinner table."

"But my clothes-?"

"They are torn and beyond saving," You nodded, "We need to buy you new clothes, but these lasted for a good while."

"As my bride says!" Kyojuro nodded and rushed upstairs to freshen up, before joining you and his little brother on the dinner table. The three of you ate happily and once you were done with your veggies and fish, you chased the brothers out of the kitchen so you could clean the place before your movie night.

While you cleaned, you listened to Kyojuro tell Senjuro how exactly he saved the cat from the tree and you were reminded just how kind and sweet he was. Just like he was with you a couple of nights ago…

You found yourself reminiscing the night of the full moon when you had pleased yourself on your fiance's thigh and kissed him passionately… And just how kind and patient he was with you and your virgin heart.

Shaking your head, you tried to chase the memories and feelings they brought up away and instead, you went to get the drinks, took out the candy, and poured a generous amount of chips on a bowl before juggling everything into the living room.

"Movie time!" You cheered and Senjuro and Kyojuro immediately grabbed the bowl of chips and drinks from you and placed them safely on the coffee table. Once you placed the candy on the table, you made yourself comfortable on the couch, grabbed the remote, and opened the movie menu, ready to start your scary movie.

"Ready guys?" You asked and the brother nodded excitedly. You put the movie on, but just as it started, you remembered your own drinks. You quickly got up and fetched yourself a hard lemonade and joined the foxes on the couch.

Kyojuro took notice of your drink and got curious. "My Hime, what is that?"

"Ah, a little drink of my own." You nodded and he seemed satisfied with that and the two of you focuses on the movie.

The movie went on just as you remembered, Freddy Krueger haunting and killing teenagers. You weren't sure if it was really as scary as it was gory, but you enjoyed yourself and your drinks throughout the movie.

You took a peek at the brothers here and there and Kyojuro stared at the screen, not one bit scared, but Senjuro looked away during the goriest scenes. You kinda felt a little bad for picking such a gory movie as his first horror movie, but it was a classic, even if it was a remake, that usually had a bad reputation for not being as good as the original.

Once the movie ended, Kyojuro had eaten most of the snacks, Senjuro was a little startled, and you were a little tipsy. You hummed happily, your mind a little clouded thanks to the alcohol and you got up to clean, but your fiance quickly stood up and gently made you sit back down.

"Do not worry, me and Senjuro will clean this up!"

"But I-!"

"Have done enough!" Kyojuro smiled and pecked your forehead, "Rest my beloved!"

You did as he told you to, relaxing, and letting your body rest against the back of the couch. You sighed, letting your body go completely limp as you enjoyed yourself and the little buzz you were having due to alcohol.

A moment passed as you calmly listened to the brothers do what they did in the kitchen. You reached for your phone on the coffee table to check the time and saw it was already a little over 8pm. Huh, time sure passed when you were having a good time.

You hummed thinking about all the things you should do before heading to bed when suddenly Kyojuro popped up and sat across from you. "My Hime, are you feeling alright?"

"Yep, just a little tipsy." You nodded with a grin and your fiance nodded, "Do you need help to get to the bed?"

"I'm not that tipsy!" You laughed a little as you got up and you couldn't help but notice that Kyojuro followed your example, moving right behind you as if you could faint at any given moment and he would be there to catch you.

"Kyojuro, I'm not going to just pass out." You said, but you were also happy because of how thoughtful he was being, "I'm fine, trust me."

"I do trust you!" He nodded with that smile of his, "I just don't trust alcohol!"

"Ah-!" You blinked, remembering that both you and the Rengoku brothers had a bad history of alcoholism in your families. You hadn't even stopped to think how your fiance or his little brother would react to you drinking some.

You frowned as you realized that you might have offended them with your drinking. How could you be this selfish? Kyojuro and Senjuro were always so thoughtful, always thinking of others before themselves.

You turned to look at Kyojuro and cried out, "I- I'm sorry Kyojuro!"

"Hm!?" Your fiance blinked in shock, still smiling but even a tipsy person like you could tell that it was a tight smile.

"I should have asked if it was okay with you guys if I drank anything… I'm so sorry, I was such an idiot, please forgive me-!" You were cut off as you were suddenly embraced. You blinked, shocked, and looked to see Kyojuro hugging you close to his chest.

"Don't apologize when you have no reason to do so," He said gently and you pressed your cheek against his chest, "You're not mad at me…?"

"No, I'm not." He smiled as he petted your head, "It's not like you drank a whole bottle of sake or hurt anyone while under the influence of alcohol."

"I'm still sorry…" You mumbled and you could feel his chest vibrate against your face as he hummed thoughtfully, "And I keep telling you, not to… But I forgive you."

The two of you hugged for a minute, just enjoying each other's embrace… He was so warm and listening to his heart beat in his chest made you realize just how intimate this actually was. It was actually so intimate that you got flustered and had to pull away.

"Okay, so, uh, how about we settle for the night?" You asked and your fiance nodded and just as you got the words out, Senjuro joined you and his brother, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes," You and Kyojuro said in unison and then glanced at each other before smiling.

"I'll head to shower to clean up before bed!" Kyojuro said and you and Senjuro nodded as the two of you headed upstairs and towards your own rooms… But after the stairs and before either one of you made it to your rooms, the younger fox turned to look at you, "Big sis?"

"Yes, Senjuro?" You asked back and he looked a little uncertain, "I… I don't mind it if you drink a little bit if you really want to."

"Oh, Senjuro…!" You smiled a little sadly as you reached forward with your hand and gently ruffled the top of his head, the space between his fox ears, "I'll never drink like that. I promise."

"I trust you," He smiled a little and the two of you wished each other good night as you retreated back to your rooms to get some well-earned sleep. After changing clothes to your pajama shorts and T-shirt, you made yourself comfortable on your bed and peacefully closed your eyes, and prepared yourself for a trip to the dream world…

…Only, you couldn't sleep. One would think that falling asleep while tipsy would be as easy as pie, but you couldn't get even a wink of sleep.

You grumbled as you got up and decided to head downstairs and get some water for your parched mouth. One of the more unpleasant aftermaths of drinking. Once you had gotten your glass of water you felt a lot better. You yawned and headed back upstairs… Only you were so tired you accidentally walked to the first door and stepped into the wrong room.

Kyojuro's room and the said owner of the room was sitting on his bed, reading a book when you suddenly barged into his room. Tipsy and slow as you were, you blinked as you looked around in confusion and slowly you realized you were in the wrong room.

"This isn't my room." You blurted out and Kyojuro nodded as he put his book down on the small table by his bed. "My bride, did you get lost?"

"Yeah, um, sorry, I'll just-!" You were about to leave but the fox behind you called after you, "Come here!"

You stopped on the spot and glanced at your fiance over your shoulder, "What?"

"Come over here!" He raised his blanket and you blinked as your brains tried to make some sense of this situation you were in. Then suddenly, as if you were in a trance, you turned, walked over to his bed and you dove under the blanket…

…Only to find out that Kyojuro slept only in his boxers, but it was too late. It was like he was a venus flytrap and you were the bug lured in by the plant's sweet nectar. As soon as your body touched his bed, he threw his blanket over both of you, wrapped his arms around you, and hugged you tightly against that well sculptured body of his.

You were blushing from embarrassment, feeling his tight muscles press against your imperfect body. You tried to wiggle and get some space between the two of you, but the more you struggled, the harder you were pulled against that body of God's and you soon found yourself being the little spoon.

Suddenly, you didn't feel tipsy anymore. Apparently, nothing sobered you better than complete and utter shock.

"K- Kyojuro…!" You mumbled shyly as you tried not to look straight at him, for you were sure you would faint on the spot if you saw him properly while he was being almost naked.

"Yes, my beloved bride?" He asked as he held you and you felt your ears burning in embarrassment. "I can, uh, I can go sleep in my own room…"

"Too late!" The fox laughed happily, "I have you here in my arms where you belong!"

Ack, how could he say such cute and kinda romantic things like it was nothing!?

"I- if you won't let me go I'll bite you…!" You threatened, but it only made your fiance laugh harder and you pouted, "I swear, I will do it!"

"My bride is the cutest- Ouch!"

You did it, you actually bit his arm that was holding you against his chest, but as soon as he cried out you let go instantly.

"Ah-!" You gasped, immediately feeling bad for what you had done. Without wasting any time, you gently kissed the spot you had bitten, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-!"

"Don't worry my Hime, it didn't hurt!" Kyojuro smiled and he meant it, you had only pinched him with your teeth. No harm was done, but you didn't seem to catch the joke.

"Sorry…" You pouted as you kissed the spot again and the Kitsune tried his hardest not to tease you any further.

"It's alright, my beloved. If you want to sleep on your own, I won't hold you back." He said as he opened his arms and seeing an opening, you jumped out of the bed. You glanced nervously over your shoulder as if expecting him to jump at you, but he did no such thing. He just smiled as he looked at you and you nodded, heading to the door and reaching for the handle…

But you didn't open the door, you didn't even touch the handle. You felt like you were making a mistake. You could feel his gorgeous eyes looking at you, curious about how you hadn't left yet.

"I…" You turned around and blushed, "I changed my mind…"

"Hm?" Kyojuro hummed as he followed your every move as you timidly made your way back to his bed. You could barely look at him in the eyes, and your pretty face was so red when you whispered, "Can I… Can I still sleep with you?"

The fox smiled as he lifted his blanket and this time when you sneaked in, you took a bold step and hugged him. Kyojuro blinked as you hid your face against his pecs, the hair on your forehead tickling his muscles slightly.

"You… You smell so nice…" You muttered in a mixture of shyness and happiness as you nuzzled closer to him.

"Hm!" He nodded, "It's the soap you bought for me!"

"I like this scent…" You hummed and Kyojuro felt so happy that you had picked him a soap with a scent you would love. As the two of you made yourself comfortable he heard you softly murmur something, "…ike…u…"

"Hm?"

"I like you…" You murmured quietly and Kyojuro's fox ears shot upwards in excitement. He wanted to tell you how much he adored you back, but before he could say a word, someone knocked on his door. The fox blinked as he looked at you clinging to his arm in your sleep and then at the door that slowly creaked open.

"Big brother?" It was Senjuro who peeked inside his brother's room. "Are you sleeping…?"

"Senjuro!" Kyojuro whispered as loudly as he dared with you there by his side. "No, I'm awake. What's wrong?"

"That movie…" The shy boy muttered, partly scared and mostly embarrassed for being scared in the first place, "Can I… Can I sleep with you?"

The older Kitsune smiled as he moved you a little bit so he could use his free hand to lift the other side of the blanket as a silent invite and Senjuro quickly closed the door and climbed on the other side of the bed.

Good thing Kyojuro's bed was huge so he could sleep comfortably with all 5 tails of his, and have enough room to have his brother and bride there with him.

"It's not real, right?" Senjuro asked quietly as he swallowed, "The dream demon?"

"No, it's not," Kyojuro smiled, "And as long as you're with me you are always safe. I will not let anyone touch the people I love and care for."

Senjuro smiled, trusting his brother to keep him safe… And then he noticed you, clinging to his brother's other arm. The younger fox's ears twitched as he looked at you and then at his brother.

"Ah, was big sis scared also?" The young fox asked and Kyojuro's smile grew as he glanced at you sleeping so peacefully by his side.

"A little," He admitted, but Senjuro didn't know that you were actually scared of. It would be a secret between you and Kyojuro.

[fallout-fucker]

As much as I don't wanna take away from the 50's aesthetic of Fallout, a part of me wonders if any other country did progress past that era, mostly for the music and cultural movements. Like, how do we know the UK wasn't in a 70's hippie and/or 80's punk reminiscent era?

Sometimes I get this little headcanon that a lot of the same songs and music genres that came out of like the 50's-90's, perhaps even to the 2010's, still exist in the Fallout universe. Maybe not every artist, understandably, but a few? But the reason that there's only 50's music is that at some point a few decades before the Great War, America quietly and gradually banned the majority of music genres and songs because they didn't fit into the 'Clean, good, family-friendly' American culture they wanted. Also, it was a move the government made to control the populace. Take away art and music and things that could add to the already existent tensions due to the Resource Wars and such, and there are fewer things to stir the pot. If people aren't inspired by music and its influence, then maybe they won't be influenced to make a stand. It was a way to control them and keep them peaceful. Bring in more songs about love from the 50's, and people start settling down like in the 50's. Want people to embrace nuclear energy and robots, even if they're potentially a radiation risk? Atom bomb, baby! Have a few party songs, a few innuendo-filled songs (The Wanderer, Rocket 69), and one or two slightly political ones (Anything Goes), and they still think they have a choice.

The reason there's only a few songs in the games isn't just because they're the ones that survived the bombs, it's also because they're the ones deemed acceptable by the government and the rest were already destroyed. When I do think about this stuff, I always imagine people smuggling holotapes of music into the US.

Maybe Sole had a couple pirated holotapes? Maybe they never will again and that sucks. The 'Wealth might not even know there's other music. Perhaps Daisy heard some? Perhaps they try to remind one another how a particular song went, or what the missing lyric they can't recall is. They bond over hating the limited amount of songs now compared to what it was. It was bad enough when the US government discreetly banned ABBA, but now there's nothing. If Sole has to hear one of those songs again and nothing else, they'll go storming old recording studios and illegal Pre-War clubs themselves to find other music.

What I'm saying is, I would find it funny if the US is stuck listening to the same 40 songs, whilst people in other countries could be popping everything they have to Dancing Queen or Barbie Girl.

I like the mental image of someone fighting for their life against raiders to Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, or fighting glowing rats to Toxic by Britney Spears. What if Fallout-verse Taylor Swift is like 90-something when the bombs drop, and is now roaming the Wastes as a Little Old Lady Ghoul and the locals dub her as 'Granny/Grandma Ghoul'.

/Joke/Shitpost/

[littlealeta]

Why the cheesy pre 2010s stuff were much better than the stuff after

So lately, I've been kinda peeping in on old black shows from the 90s and 2000s like The Parkers and One-on-One and I was wondering, "Okay, I don't usually like normal slice of life type of stuff so what is pulling me into these shows?" And I've also been thinking about a lot of my guilty pleasures from when I was a child that I used to watch over and over again that people aren't too fond of, wondering why I still like them now, even with some of their flaws, is it because of nostalgia?

Well, I just saw the film IF and it made me think of many of the family films I watched in the 2010s and 2020s that were just bland and generic. But, they're kids films, so is it the films or are we just too old for them? I mean Sharkboy and Lavagirl and Ralph Breaks the Internet are good films for kids but not so much for adults.

And how the hell is a slice of life like Full House more entertaining than IF an imaginative fantasy?

Well, thinking deeply into my review for IF and the film Wish and many of the recent Disney films, the Pixar movies from the 2010s and whether or not kids would enjoy them, I think I'm starting to see a pattern. The thing that differentiates kids movies today from the kids movies from yesterday (I'm talking like the Rugrats films, All Dogs go to Heaven, Zathura, even a few of the Disney films) are the appeal.

Sure maybe some of us think that they're cheesy and corny and probably even more so back then but here's the thing you can't deny. They were actually entertaining. The characters had lots of personality, they were actually funny, and the most important thing, they had an engaging story. They didn't take like 30 minutes to get going, they put you into the plot either immediately or on the right beat like 15-20 minutes. And before they start, they actually introduce those characters as actually interesting characters, with personality and humor.

The stuff we have now compared to that? I personally find much worse. And I don't see how kids could enjoy them. I mean, none of the kids in my theater for Wish seemed to care for it. The humor is cringy, either it's dumbed down or full of potty humor. The characters lack charm. The actors don't seem like they're putting much effort. The writing is just straight-up generic with like little-to-no twist or personality to make it engaging. Like sure, Full House might've been generic (even the Nostalgia Critic points that out) but every character had their own personality. Danny was a neat freak, Joey was a cartoon fanatic, Jesse was edgy, DJ was rational, Stephanie was sassy, and Michelle was a spoiled brat. And they all played off of each other humorously while also contributing to some zany and sometimes relatable conflict. And say what you want about Mary-Kate and Ashley as actors, but they always seemed like they were having fun with the movies they were making.

Another thing that interests us when we watch these older stuff is that they are a product of their time. A reflection of what the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s were like. A different and simpler time without technology, when there was no mental health crisis, and the children respected their parents more. Nowadays, we want to watch and escape into something new that's not too close to our lives and while that may have also been the case for audiences back then (and maybe future audiences will look back on 2010s/2020s stuff and write reviews on how they're not that bad either), since we didn't have as much to do as we do now, I think audiences were a bit more forgiving of something slower and unoriginal and especially wholesome. There were a lot of wholesome shows that taught good things back then. And I understand that maybe some people don't want messages shoved into their face nowadays, but I personally believe there is a good place for that, especially in media aimed toward those in their formative years. And not just for them, but we adults can learn from those too. After all, none of us are all-knowing Gods.

Kids aren't going to watch and read meandering crap. Especially not nowadays I'm pretty sure. Life isn't like when I was a kid and all we had were TV, DVDs, and non-online video games. Like if you don't engage a kid in like 5 minutes, they're going to go back to playing Fortnite and Candy Crush.

When I'm watching a movie or reading a book, especially for children, this is just me, but I want to watch something with a decent pace, creativity and personality and humor.

I'm glad we're starting to see a new growing appreciation for those older corny, cheesy stuff, maybe partly due to nostalgia but also looking at them myself, they're really not that bad and there was a reason we watched them over and over again as kids.

[randomthefox]

Even when you look at idw from the perspective of "Im a comic stan who hates the sonic games and I want sonic media, that's nothing like the games" the comic fails to do so much as that

Usually, the problem with sonic spin-offs is that they do too much outlandish nonsense that doesn't belong in Sonic at all.

Idw's issue is that it chooses to do and be nothing. The comic has a festering hatred towards the source material, but the comic never does anything to stand out from the source material. The comic refuses to do the most basic of things that anyone on earth would expect from a sonic spin off.

Nearly every sonic spin off ever made as a "gimmick" of some sort to stand out from the games. Yes, those gimmicks usually suck but they did the bare minimum of trying to do something in order to get people's attention.

The idw sonic comic is doing everything in its power to be as stale, forgettable, unnecessary, and boring as possible. It has no purpose as sonic media. It has no purpose as its own standalone series. It doesn't even serve the purpose of being a soulless attempt at getting people to spend their money on something. The comic does nothing to justify its existence and has only brought frustration.

Yeah frankly I cannot conceive of how anybody could possibly like IDW Sonic for any reason. The things people usually say is the writing in the games is bad and the comic is bringing good Sonic back, but the writing and characterization in IDW doesn't even remotely resemble the way the series was written back during the Adventure games. If you're nostalgic about the 2000s Sonic vibes and don't like the direction the 2010s games went in (because you're a whiner who hates fun) then I still can't fathom how IDW Sonic would be satisfying to you because it doesn't feel like the 2000s era of Sonic. It just feels like an insincere hodgepodge filled with "lol the games sure do suck amirite" sniping.

Frankly if you are someone who just thinks that video games are stupid and Sonic is for dumb babies, it does seem like what you should be attracted to is Archie. Archie pretty proudly sets itself apart from the video games and does its own thing. Its own thing is stupid and bad and dumb and idiotic, but if ALL you care about is consuming something that ISN'T the Sonic games then Archie has your number.

Even in terms of pure spite I can't imagine what someone would be getting out of IDW. It fails even in the respect of being a comic by people who hate Sonic for people who hate Sonic.

[thribby]

Endless Ocean Luminous

I wrote this as a review on backloggd.com, and I figured I may as well post it here too.

It would take a lot of work to convince me that this game was not a hit piece to prove that smaller and older franchises are not viable.

I wrote some shit down below that I'm sure has been said elsewhere and better, but I already wrote it so I'm not deleting it. I'm gonna talk about something else that I'm speculating on.

Did they want this game to be good? Let's think about this. The Endless Ocean franchise hasn't had a game since 2009, then all of a sudden (13 years later) we hear there's gonna be a new game in a few months. That's exciting and surprising for fans of the series, like me. Can't wait (although, background alarm bells were already ringing for me [I never trusted the "roguelite map," Thanatos' model looks so bad, and I think the look of the characters is so much lamer than what we had in the last games, and all of that was shown in the first trailer]).

So next the game comes out, and it's got less features and mechanics than the previous games. How come? Were we running low on development time? I hope not, it'd already been over a decade since the last game, you may as well take your time with this one. Was it a problem with the budget? I REALLY hope not, as if that's true you are charging $50 for a game you didn't quite finish (also, Endless Ocean Blue World cost $30 back when it released in the US in 2010).

Alright, so I've given them the benefit of the doubt that the game did not run out of time or money to make sure Endless Ocean 3 had all of the bells and whistles from the first two games. Which leads me to the conclusion that they had simply never planned on making Endless Ocean Luminous as complex of a game as Endless Ocean 1 or 2. They had always planned on making less and selling it at a higher price.

Ok, why would they do that? Corporate greed following the general trend of seeking higher profits for less effort? Yeah, sure. But I also think that they wanted this game to do badly. Or at the very least, they don't particularly mind if it does.

So there's a simple way to group the people who play Endless Ocean Luminous into 2 categories: people who have played previous Endless Ocean games and people who are new to Endless Ocean games. I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that people who have played previous Endless Ocean games are gonna be disappointed with this one more often than not. The Endless Ocean games are cult classics and here comes this new entry that doesn't even do as much. The aforementioned "cult" of these "cult classics" will not like that. Which means that the group of people who were most likely to buy this game is now a lot smaller.

As for the new players, you just need to win them over with the fun and engaging gameplay loop! But, oh wait. There are three things to do in this game. And you must do them hundreds of times. But, who knows, maybe enough of the new players will like the game anyway.

Ok, so really, how can I believe any of this? I think this game was sort of a test. If it was popular, cool, that means "less effort with higher price tags" can work and the executives can take that idea and run with it. If it fails, the execs get to go "ahh, we should've known! these old video game franchises are so risky, it's probably best that we just stick a couple of proven franchises and non-franchise IP's." And instead of a big variety of games being produced, we see less and less of these smaller franchises, and more individual games that get shuttered after one game, because "we tried doing sequels and reboots of games once before and everybody said it sucked!" Like how Netflix cancels shows ASAP.

I really just struggle to imagine that this game was made in good faith as an Endless Ocean game when it clearly does not compare well to the other Endless Ocean games.

Here's that shit I wrote back before I decided to just write my little conspiracy theory instead:

The first Endless Ocean in 14 years and it's so much less than either of its prequels (except for the price!). No more hub world in between dives. No more walking on small islands or beaches, or even poking your head above the water, because all of that would require designing and programming an entirely different kind of gameplay, and that's a whole lot of work so why bother? No more specifically and intentionally put together maps, now it's just generated! <-that's where I got fed up with talking about the lack of content and made my pivot

tumblr exclusive thoughts:

Yeah sure, it's just a chill lofi game to relax and swim to now, and it is good that we're not treating sharks as inherently dangerous. but like, how good of a defense is that when 1: the only thing keeping the evil killer shark thanatos from attacking you is the magic sea's water which makes him a pacifist and 2: we're already in a suspension of disbelief with how marine life works in general on account of all of these freshwater and arctic aquatic lifeforms congregating in the fucking tropics of the pacific ocean (not to mention the extinct animals)

It is nice to see some of the models got better but then they also made thanatos look so bad like so so bad oh my god why is he so lumpy why are his eyes bulging out like that????

what were we thinking?? why did we do this to him?

[soft-cookie-aka-aquadrop]

Ever hear a parrot swear? I'm guessing you probably have, if you've watched parrot videos on YouTube. Now, imagine that you had one inside your head, which repeated every single swear word you heard or read, over and over, whenever it felt like it, just to torment you. Just to remind you how little power you have over people, over media, over pop culture. To remind you of what you've lost and can never get back.

But most of all, it swears at you to remind you of how pathetic the uncountable masses of strangers on the internet think you are for being emotionally weak enough to allow this bird to take residence inside your mind in the first place.

And that's me. That's what I have to deal with, every day and every night. It wasn't so bad back in the 2000s, before social media pushed all the other websites out of the spotlight like a cuckoo chick kicking eggs out of a nest (guess I'm continuing with the bird metaphors, here). It wasn't even as bad in the 2010s, before the lockdown happened.

But as I've said before, my time spent on Twitch over the course of the lockdown has set me back in my ability to tolerate swear words. Not all the way back, otherwise I wouldn't be using social media anymore at all, but far back enough for it to become a problem.

The best solution to this problem would be to find a way to stop my mind from copying others' swear words, because everyone would benefit from this solution. Having me decide which people and/or media can have swear words and which ones can't would only benefit me, and trying to force me to fit in with the internet's swear-positive culture would benefit others at my expense. Silencing the "parrot in my head", however, would be something that we could all be happy with.

The question is how to do it... 🤔

[beevean]

I've been kinda following the reaction to recent IDW, Frontiers and now Prime's story stuff and after reading enough threads and comments I started wondering: is the mainstream fandom really this easily emotionally manipulated?

I mean it like, you have IDW, you got Surge being painted as this badass and a portion of fandom claiming her as the new girlboss, but suddenly one panel of her looking sad and scared and people go "o no poor babby she has the feelies 🥺". Or the Prime clip with Sonic and Tails that's making rounds right now. Apparently the pretty standard parallel/alternate universe plot of "a character meets a slightly different version of a character they are familiar with so interaction is going to be a little awkward" is enough to make some go into crying all over the keyboard mode because muh feels and muh angst.

Concepts like these sound emotional on paper and they can be executed well, of course, but like, is the bare minimum drama really enough to illicit this strong of a reaction from people these days? Or do fans just... imagine this high intensity of feelings because there are none in the actual source material and then run purely on that?

I don't know. I really don't. I've been feeling so alienated, and I don't want to think that everyone else is stupid and I'm the smart one to not fall for these obvious emotional manipulations.

It's like I'm seeing something different. I don't see Surge having a panic attack: I see her behaving in a wildly OOC way, because this behavior comes out of nowhere - since when does Surge, whose personality has been since page 1 "fuck yeah I wanna fight!", care about "being hurt"?. I don't see Sonic being horrified at the discovery about the true origins of Surge and Kit: I see an asshole who immediately brushed it aside and went to fight a traumatized girl with a grin on his face.

Do you seriously interpret this as HORROR? He doesn't care! He doesn't! What are you guys seeing?!

I've already talked about Frontiers in length. I see the game as empty. There is nothing there. I can't feel bad for Sonic if he gets better 1 minute later. I can't feel bad for Sage's death if she spent most of her time on screen being stubborn (for sensible in-game reasons, but still). I can't feel bad for Eggman being all sad because THAT IS OUT OF CHARACTER. "oh but bowser can be evil and a dad" "oh but muh humanization" it's out of character, sorry. 31 years, and Eggman not once displayed any characteristic that would lead him to feel genuine affection for anyone, let alone an AI. No, Eggman saving Sonic from lava to preserve a Chaos Emerald doesn't count as a good action of his. Sure, Eggman saving Tails from Orbot in Colors was uncharacterisically nice... but you're not going to use an example from a game written by Pontaff, the people you consider on par with the 11th plague of Egypt, as source of good writing, right? You would be consistent, right? :)

I don't even care about Prime. I really don't. It slides off my brain. Oh, Tails became edgy because Sonic wasn't there, okay, sure, there are at least a dozen fanfictions like that.

(the fact that I watched Netflixvania right before Frontiers, and I went through a similar feeling of "why can I only feel rage at this poorly written mess?", doesn't help my mood. I genuinely felt like I lost all my ability to enjoy things)

But I know what's going on with Sonic. The idea that everything from 2010 to 2019 was horrible, flat, OOC and nothing but Cringe permeated the fanbase. So now, any kind of emotional moment, no matter how shallow and try hard, gets praised to high heavens. Add a good dose of Adventure nostalgia (because muh Meta Era if the games reference the Classics, but thank you Lord Flynn for saving the franchise if the games reference the Adventure era), and there you go. (meanwhile I'm still here getting my heartstrings pulled by that one scene of Sonic realizing that he's all alone on Lost Hex and it's all his fault...)

I'm being bitter. I also realize that I'm sounding like an arrogant cock, and I don't like it. I wish I could see what everyone else is seeing. I wish I could love Surge and think of her as the best villain the franchise has to offer. I wish I could gush about how deep Frontiers is. I wish I could be interested in Prime and have something to look forward to. This is not fun. I don't feel oh so smart bitching about stuff that others like, I feel like a thief of joy and not a nice person to be around.

And yet, something as simple as hearing Maria say to Shadow "you used to run so quickly on these slopes", implying that edgy anti hero Shadow used to play on the ARK like a normal child with her best friend before tragedy struck, makes me feel more awful than anything else I've mentioned. So it's not that there is something wrong with me.

[lunarpanda]

💀🗣️💘 Hii Mika!! *waves*

Hi Max!!!!! *waves back*

💀 How do they feel about horror movies?

She doesn't really like horror movies especially kinds that deal with body horror or anything like that. She also can't deal with jumpscares so that's off too. Best she can do is one of those bad sci-fi channel movies or something like Zombeavers. Something that's really just too ridiculous and dumb to be scary. I'd like to think she would work better with animated horror movies if anything. I'd like to think if Ichi's the biggest horror movie fan in the house he kinda tests what she likes and what she's afraid of so that way they can have an agreement for a spooky movie night together.

Also somewhat related if we're talking about horror games... especially those early 2010's RPG maker games well that's one of her jams.

🗣️ How do they handle public speaking?

She's honestly working on it. Since occasionally she has to present her new exhibitions to the gallery in Akatsuka she would have to be ready to talk about it. She's still not 100% perfect but she's better than she was when she had her first speech.

Of course having the brothers as practice helps a lot esp when they're all crowded around her. Sometimes Matsuzo and Matsuyo would help fill out too.

💘What do they find attractive about their partner(s)?

Mika adores how soft the Matsus are especially Ichi and Oso, they make the most perfect cuddle buddies especially after a hard days work. There's nothing Mika loves more than to just be snuggled up against them and maybe take a little nap<3

Speaking of snuggling and taking naps, she also enjoys how laidback and easygoing they are. Even Choro who talks a big game about not being lazy and being hardworking and whatever, if she says she wants to take it easy today I think Choro would fold and just relax with her too.

And of course she adores how down bad they are for her. She's not really into dancing around feelings and she just loves how transparent they are about her. She of course reciprocates~ Imagine how down bad they are for Totoko in the show and then getting the same treatment in return and they're all so happy<333

[mejomonster]

I used a grammar checker yesterday and i'm still frustrated. Like the new Microsoft Word, it underlined like 77 words as grammar or spelling errors which weren't. Things like expecting me to remove a period (sentences and paragraphs can't end on empty space... they need periods), correcting words like space to spae (the word space was indeed correctly spelled as space...), just in general having no idea how punctuation works (a good reason to reference punctuation with a guide as a writer... because automated grammar checkers make frequent mistakes checking punctuation and aren't reliable). And while i expected those sucky mistakes from a grammar checker (but i'm still frustrated as like... in 2010 at least if i ran spell check on it's own i'd get 90-99% correct replacements and only occasional incorrect spelling suggestions... now spell check is more like 20% accurate so i am better off proofreading for spelling errors myself the slow way). I was ultimately using it just to check my writing tenses. Because switching from past to present tense sometimes happens in stories with flashbacks, and people thinking back to older moments and thoughts, so I wanted to quickly machine check if I'd been inconsistent with my tenses and used the wrong one somewhere. Not a single tense error was flagged by the grammar checker. Maybe i got lucky and didn't make any. But i think it's more likely the grammar checker was just completely incapable of checking for tense, let alone accurately (since it gave 80% false errors for spelling then i imagine it'd flag a lot of correct tense usage as incorrect anyway if it could). I picked a grammar checker FOR it's inclusion of checking for tenses. And it didn't even do that.

It's just fruatrating because like. When i was a kid and a teen, you could run a grammar check and mostly get some quick useful spelling corrections (unless you wrote a name) and it only flagged grammar it was usually correctly identifying (such as changing a comma to a ; or an uncapitalized first letter of a sentence to a capital letter, or replacing a misused word like too with two). You'd get maybe 10 flagged errors in a 2 page essay, at least 8 were usually real errors in spelling or grammar (with maybe 1 being an incorrect suggestion to switch ; with , or to spell a name differently). It was fairly useful, took 2 minutes or less to go through. Now in 2020s if i run a 2 page piece of writing into a grammar checker, i get 77 errors flagged and only 3 are real errors (a missing letter in spelling for 3 words, and a missing comma in a long sentence). It takes longer to manually check all 77 errors and notice why they're actually suggesting i make my writing worse... compared to just rereading with a critical eye. But the grammar checkers WOULD BE FASTER AND EFFICIENT if they just quickly flagged real spelling errors like they used to! I know i may always need to check grammar errors myself, technology has always been fairly bad at something that complex to identify. But spelling? Really? Why is machine spell checking so fucking bad now? Why is it flagging so many correctly spelled words now? It's brutal.

I edited a 600 page book a year back with modern word. The book was already edited, publish worthy, i just was formatting it for print and running spell check in case i backspaced and messed up a word here or there when editing the format for print. The Word grammar check flagged 800 errors. At least 95% were not real errors. The last 5% were mostly names getting incorrectly (but understandable from a machine) flagged as spelled wrong. And maybe 5 errors in the entire 800 error heap were actual missing periods I had messed up in formatting and needed to add back. It took like 10 hours to go through those 800 flagged errors and manually check. Whereas years ago, if only actual spelling errors got flagged, i could've probably gone through those 5 errors and maybe 50 incorrectly flagged names in 10 minutes.