#anyways. this is the inconsequential discourse of the day

[kaeyapilled]

when people talk about that honkai character that has ball joints like a doll and say that they wish scaramouches design had those too and mfs in the comments are like "YOU DIDN'T PAY ATTENTION TO SCARAS STORY! >:(" they're kinda missing the point. this is less about scaramouches fucking ball joints and more about how bland and repetitive genshin is allowed to be because it will bring profit either way

[moe-broey]

Random small talk event at the yard sard set-up, very nice lady, but ESP when asking "Oh are you still in school? ☺️" I literally never know how to say "Oh I graduated a long time ago. Yeah. I mostly do art now" and she says "Oh to sell?" and so far I'm having a reasonable and effective small talk conversation, when I hit that pitfall and lock up and I worry I'm becoming unfriendly bc I locked up. Because I REALLY don't know how to say, "Nah, I kind of do fuck all. I'm 25 and I do fuck all. For nothing." Like I can see the conversation tree in real time and I know that's the worst dialogue option. And there are no other dialogue options there's just Press B to get the fuck outta there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[askinkiskarma]

Hi x i wanted to talk about something that has happened to me recently, because i feel like it needs to be addressed lol. I would have never considered talking about it if the person in question had had an ounce of maturity and respect, but she obviously doesn’t, and it’s my reputation on the line and my fault for expecting it hahahah.

So a few days ago, the whole Jake is Jacob debacle happened on tumblr, which to me was cute and harmless and fun. Now some people really feel the need to bring other people down and prove (to themselves only, let’s be honest) how “superior” and “intelligent” they are, so she started making fun and basically insulting the OP of the post, which really upset me. I didn’t say anything about it and quietly unfollowed the person, because if i find content I disagree with, that is (to me) the only way to approach the situation.

Anyway, later, i was made aware that she continued trash talking people in the fandom, continuing this tired narrative that despite being the one to initiate it, she was the “victim” bullied by “kids”, which i resented, for a couple of reasons.

1. Ageism is ageism no matter the form it comes in. It is no different to shit on a person just for being young and minding their business, than it is to do so with people who are older.

2. I’m tired of the “i was here first and therefore i am inherently better than you” stupid narrative. You don’t get a cookie cause you found something sooner, pls PLEASE understand that.

3. The “everyone is so young” bs is simply not true. I am the same age as her, so are some of my mooties or just a couple years older, and we’re all here, and we’re all trying to have a good time, and that’s what matters. None of us are out here flaunting our age or our maturity, because it is inconsequential.

4. Saying to someone that their “pre-frontal cortex” isn’t fully developed, is fucking ridiculous. What a stupid argument. You’re really going to insult someone for something they have reasonably absolutely no control over and try to use it as an insult against them? Girlie, in 2023? Do you understand how stupid that is? You think you’re superior cause your mum pushed you out a few years earlier like you had anything to do with it??? Like idk that is wild to me.

5. You can’t insult people on here for “being young and dumb” and how much “better” and “more mature” you are, and then in the same breath pick a fight with them and be willing to die on that hill. Because if you have any sort of common sense, that would imply that you must be succumbing to their levels and you are not capable of having any higher level discourse. Like how do you not see that that you're just proving to everyone how immature you truly are?

So, i wrote her an ask. Not on anon, not trying to start anything, just an ask telling her my opinion and telling her that as someone who is the same age as her, her behaviour is disappointing.

Now i need you to see the message because she won’t show it to you, because she wants to build this narrative that people are “harassing” her. Please note that nobody is “harassing” her. If i wanted to harass her, I could and I would not do it with my username intact. I wanted to her to understand the opinion (that i share with my friends and mooties) of someone who’s the same age as her. She won’t answer it because she knows there is no way to spin this in her favour.

Instead, what she can do, is what she does best. Trying to spin this negatively, insulting me and my writing (you’re 26 and the best you could come up with is “god awful cringey ass fics”? ouch, that hurt.) and tagging it “neteyam imagine” cause what person who wants to read neteyam fics doesn’t want to see that. Now again, she is blocked for me because I absolutely do not want to engage with people like her, but i was made aware of this and since she’s talking about me and could potentially come to people’s inboxes or dms and talking trash about me, i wanted you besties to know and to read everything and make your own minds about it, having all the information, not just what she deems appropriate to give you.

Anyway, sorry for this long ass rant, but it needed to be said. Please, if you don’t agree with someone, especially if it’s over something so incredibly trivial as a name, let it go. It’s not worth it. If it’s something not trivial, block. It’s not worth it. Insulting someone for things they have no control over doesn’t put you on top, it makes you a dick. Acting like you’re inherently better cause you’ve been in a fandom longer isn’t cool, trust me. Just please, save your energy and put it in your art, in your job, in your relationships, in yourself.

Now, i will go write my cringey ass fics 😉 good luck besties, and smooches.

ALSO!!! DO NOT engage with this person. PLEASE. Please do not prove her right. Please do not leave her anon hate or anything of the sort, please please please. It’s not worth it.

[kimberlyannharts]

ftr I loved the return, namely for the kim content, but am I alone in feeling like Olivia's role basically being morpher delivery girl after all the months of build up is a bit of a letdown. like everyone was excited for the tomberly daughter green ranger before the comic said anyway thanks for saving us now immediately give back the dragon coin in favour of an approved Girl Coin That's Way More Your Colour. I feel like I came to this series for her and barely saw her 😅

This is an interesting critique because while I would definitely say Olivia's reveal was the thing that got people talking about The Return after the initial novelty of "the original Pink Ranger is writing a Power Rangers story" wore off, the premise was always meant to be Amy's contribution to the 30 year anniversary; centered on the actual MMPRs and their lives thirty years after this traumatic event and coming back to finish things once and for all, not Olivia. And you guys know I love her more than anything but that was ultimately for the best, I think.

Thinking back to Once and Always, Minh is absolutely the best thing about the special because she had the most depth and was the emotional core of the whole thing, but that's kind of.....not great? For a special supposedly meant to celebrate the classic characters and concepts from thirty years ago giving all of the good material and focus to a completely new character? It's why there was so much discourse about Simon and BeccAlwyn not being the right ones to work on such a special; because they're great with their original concepts but don't really understand the classic ones beyond "hey! Mantis Style was a thing Trini did in the original show, right? idk what she's done with her life in the thirty-year-timespan or even how Minh came into existence or what she thinks about being a Ranger while being a parent. But I know she was scared of heights!"

The Return makes better use of the actual show characters and treats them like people beyond what you can read about them on the wiki and that's why it's a far more successful 30 year anniversary celebration. I don't think it would have if it went the OaA route and made it all about the OC kid we only just met. Especially when BOOM giving their OCs more and more priority these days is starting to get noticed and criticized by fandom.

As for your second bit I think implying that Olivia ended up getting the Pterodactyl Coin because that's the Girl Color is a bit unfair? Like first of all Olivia getting Pink was ALSO part of the early drafts. Second of all it makes sense for the narrative presented about Kim's trauma and attitude toward Rangerhood that she feels she needs to step back and let someone else take over vs how the Green powers are the only stable thing in Tommy's life after he was gone for twenty years. (I know the theory of him getting White was tossed around but if we're being real idk how that would have happened outside of "well Tommy was White in the og show, so......") Third of all I just like that Olivia has now had her hand in both parents' legacies. The fact that Tommy and Kim are BOTH important to Olivia's character is one of the best parts about her, versus how JJ was all about Tommy with Kat being inconsequential and Minh's dad never being considered at all. (I do hope being pink means she won't ditch her jacket though. It's already an iconic design.)

In the end while I am hoping and praying we'll get a sequel because Olivia will absolutely be the focus character then - going back to the early drafts again, she WAS the main protagonist there! - I think she got enough personality and presence that I'm very happy with what we got. I like that she wasn't immediately a pro with the powers and was mature enough to know she had to hand them off to someone more qualified but at the same time had notable contributions of killing Finster and bringing back Tommy in the first place. I like how she and Kim clearly love each other more than anything. I like that she's canonically kind of stupid just like we hoped. I like that she wears tops that are way too big for her. she's just like me fr

[lunar-years]

I see we do salty takes today, I want to participate! The shippers made me dislike r/k, bc they are absolutely vile to others. Sorry why are you being casually homophobic bc someone enjoys another ship. It irks me with r/j and I hated it with jack/k. Especially bc they started that shit before we knew anything about their relationship. I also think the break up was a good decision, I initially wanted them to get back together, but after watching them both not really bettering themselves (+crazy takes) I think maybe they're just incompatible. You can love someone and still not want the same things in life, or have your needs met by them

oooh please do participate yes!! to be frank I carefully curate my tumblr experience so I only see what I wanna see and I never ever go into the tags because I'm afraid of what I may find. However, I do see that shit on twitter (where I lurk but do not partake in fandom stuff) and some of it has been...alarming to say the least. As another anon said, i think since the finale especially certain people have really taken something as inconsequential as their ship not being canon as blanket permission to flat out bully and insult the creators & writers of the show as well as other people in the fandom.

Not to preachy-preach at y'all but for a show centered around kindness and learning how to be better for one another as human beings... some of you... well...

Anyway it sucks when people being mean tarnishes your enjoyment of a ship or even a non-ship related thing so!! I'm sorry and you are so valid for your opinion! Personally I love roy/keeley, but these days it's pretty exclusively in a royjamiekeeley context. Mostly because I think they're both inextricably intertwined with Jamie Tartt iykyk, but I won't deny the crazy r/k takes have also played a role.

... If we want to be really spicy (and I say this in the least generalized way possible because there are AWESOME PEOPLE in all corners of this fandom 1000%)...I will say i find it...interesting...that royjamie exclusive shippers are by and large still so welcoming and nice to ot3 fans even when they don't personally care for the ship whereas roy/keeley shippers are much more likely to act like ot3 enjoyers are personally making threats against their families and blazing their crops or something idk like....hmm! I wonder why that might be! you need to calm down methinks 💖 jamiekeeley shippers barely count in this discourse because there are like five of us in total

[panelshowsource]

then this one is dedicated to u anons ❤️❤️❤️

LMAO listen... it’s for a niche audience but that audience is DEDICATED aka the summary of this blog. i don’t know if people see it and unfollow purely because of the inconvenience having to scroll through the whole damn thing (it is tagged #longpost...) or because they find it cringey but — they’re missing out. phil wang IS hot whether they want to admit it or not!!!

when i reblog the thirst post, i always lose 50–100 followers 😅 the asks posts cost me a handful of followers as well, but i’m not too worried about that! i can’t skimp on these and leave you guys hanging, and i’m sure those fussy people wouldn’t like it if i was spamming individual asks 10 times a day either. you just can’t please everyone! UNLESS...you’re david mitchell. he unites us all 😌 (don’t worry i’ll get the thirst prepared — send it in now if you wanna be in this quarter’s reblog! hehehe)

if there’s one thing about my followers it’s that they have OPINIONS [taskmaster s10 discourse flashbacks]...

...and if there’s another thing about my followers it’s that too much joe wilkinson content maaay have stolen a couple of their braincells ✋

the amount of ya’ll who asked me to do this!!! shady!!! LMAO listen..if u have the goss, stop by my inbox...trust me with your secrets...

re: giles i only saw the shitstorm on twitter and but i cackled alone in my room for about an hour

first of all i don’t know whether i should laugh or cry at this but since it’s his comedy PERSONA i won’t take it personally!!! hehe~ second of all this is very unrelated and probably inconsequential to you being a brit or aussie or kiwi (i’m just peeping “mum”) but my company distributes midsomer murderers in the usa so if any yanks reading this wanna go stream that on amazon prime then ya girl might get a bigger holiday bonus this year just saying~~~~~

i see u sneaky snek 👀 we’ve definitely been robbed of the sweet, sweet david mitchell content that could have been from more series of the bubble and was it something i said. the thing is, panel shows live and die by their casts & group chemistry. shows like big fat quiz and have i got news for you are both bog standard ass quiz shows with no particularly unique or engaging qualities outside of their roster of personalities. why, then, is big fat quiz so much better than hignfy, you know? if i don’t take the formats into much consideration, then it just comes down to shows led by comedians i personally like. BUT...you know...i do like to believe i have some taste...so 💅 i’d tentatively suggest comedy world cup, you have been watching, and argumental as those that either died too soon and/or might thrive were they resurrected. the first two because i think david tennant and charlie brooker are stellar hosts and i miss seeing their lil faces on the reg, and the third because the format of the show really lends itself to some hilarious dynamics — almost like taskmaster, the comedians are forced to heavily interact and it was one of the only panel shows with a serious teasing dynamic that didn’t turn particularly ugly, which i know many of you aren’t big fans of the way old-generation panel show fans were/are. (god, remember how fucking mean panel shows used to be lmaooooOOOO) there are “debate”-type shows like hypothetical, but argumental was...chaotic, especially with king of chaotic evil panel show menaces sean lock at the helm. do know what i mean? it would be wild to see argumental with today’s comedians, i think. worst? eep... why do i keep saying i won’t answer questions like this and then do anyways? 🤡 personally, a league of their own is borderline unwatchable to me despite the panel having perfectly decent chemistry, and hignfy either needs an entire reboot à la buzzcocks or...retirement. ya’ll probably get me. anyways bring back charlie brooker!! [bangs pots and pans]

IF THEY HAVE EYES, YEAH.............

to wrap up the shade in this ask post (lmaooo), i actually got quite a few anons about lou sanders, a...controversial character. but i’m so happy you enjoyed the show!! i think the format is wonky and the editing doesn’t do it any favours — i’m not really sure why it had this forced bake off-inspired pleasantness about it — but it ended up being delightful casual viewing. especially with the advent of jess & jamali as a newfound power couple. who would have thought! as for your question... none that strongly, i don’t think? just general preferences seeing a comedian on one show over the other, like, for example, finding aisling borderline unfunny on 8oo10c meanwhile being a delight on taskmaster. it’s very true how different formats suit different comedians! i was actually just thinking about that re: sara pascoe, who is so great on new world order. (the new season of nwo btw omggg why is every line a goldmine! oh wait, i know why!! frankie!!)

do we need to start mass-tweeting at richard osman again? i wear i have about 40 bones to pick with that man, he needs to start answering my phone calls

honestly, yeah. i mean, i know what you mean, speaking as someone who’s on the receiving end of a lot of panel show excitement/reaction. but ofc i only feel this way when i believe someone to be...overrated. which, you know, i feel from time to time, being a human being with opinions and all hehe~ 😅 last time it happened on taskmaster for me was probably s7? a fun season with some fun people, but james acaster was not the standout personality on that series. in fact, not even top 3. rhod, phil, and jessica consistently had better jokes, better banter, better dynamics with greg and alex, better moments every episode, but 80% of my inbox was about acaster. but what can i do? when you’re a huge fan of someone, you think even the way they laugh at other, funnier comedians’ jokes is funny, and that becomes part of their entertainment value in your mind. i do it with victoria every week, who i don’t think many other people would consider the standout personality of the series thus far (if you have an opinion on this, send it in!! i’m curious...). so i don’t want to be a hypocrite, but at the same time....i am a lil but huh 🤪 anyways look how cute victoria is here 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

I CAN’T STAND SOME OF YOU LMAOOOOO ...see you in LA later this month

um pls send stephen mangan recs? I ABSOLUTELY CAN PICTURE JACK DEE ON TASKMASTER but you know what i feel like the older, cynical contestants like jo brand just don’t land with my followers as much as others, so i don’t know if anyone else would want him there :(

james “uber-liberal” carr

WAIT SHOULD WE DO AN ALAN DAVIES APPRECIATION POST AFTER THE SERIES ENDS ;_____; i really need an excuse to make compilation-style gifsets like this of a bunch of different comedians. it might be time to bring the polls back...

aw anon ♡♡♡ i will keep this in mind and try to do my best with the fonts & text! i’m always experimenting because i’m never happy about it, but i’ll make sure to keep it legible even when it’s ugly ♡

—

F.A.Q. // Tags // Ask

[bestworstcase]

What are your opinions on the whole Rapunzel-Varian drama in S1 post Queen For A Day, especially with the whole "Rapunzel should've checked on Varian after the snowstorm" or whose fault it was for their conflict?

tbh… if i had to pick one single representative example of the tts fandom’s general inability to handle nuance in fictional conflict, it’d be the QFAD discourse™

because! while this isn’t to rag on anyone, if you pick a random person with an opinion on this question, chances are they will fall into one of two camps. either: 1) corona’s treatment of varian was horrifically unjust and everyone involved except him is a terrible person, or 2) rapunzel did what she had to do and varian’s anger is irrational, unfounded, and fundamentally unfair.

people in camp #1 tend to believe that rapunzel was simply being selfish and acting like a sulky child when she failed to check up on varian after the storm. people in camp #2 tend to point out that rapunzel was traumatized by the events of QFAD too, and believe that this justifies her failure to check up on varian.

but the thing is imo the conflict in QFAD + the rest of s1 is just as complex and messy as the argument cassandra and rapunzel have in RATGT, in that there is no One True Right Answer and no person who is one hundred percent “at fault.” the question of blame is… honestly sort of beside the point if you ask me. to break this down:

#1: rapunzel is a sheltered teenager with minimal social skills dealing with a national emergency halfway through her first unsupervised couple days on the job.

the girl has had like eight months tops of training for the monumental task of ruling a country. she grew up in a situation where the only choice available to her was how she would wile away her free time inside her tower; gothel exerted total control over every other facet of her life. and while she has a little more wiggle room now that she’s out of the tower, she is still basically living her life with all the big, consequential choices made for her.

QFAD was intended to be her first taste of true authority, while still being ultimately inconsequential. if all had gone according to plan, corona would have ticked along more or less on autopilot—just as frederic left it—while rapunzel got in a little practice making judgment calls about minor, unimportant things, like mediating small interpersonal disputes between her subjects.

nobody expected, and rapunzel was absolutely not prepared for, a legitimate national crisis to explode in her face out of nowhere. this was supposed to be pedaling by herself for the first time with training wheels and what she got instead is careening down the freeway on a motorbike at 95mph with zero warning. it is a miracle that she held things together as well as she did.

#2: varian is a child with an emotionally distant, unsupportive father who sets him up for failure.

he’s smart but he’s also fourteen. he has little if any formal training in alchemy, he’s figuring stuff out by trial and error, and he has zero adult supervision. his efforts have caused significant levels of destruction twice in only a few months—the exploding boilers in WTH, and his invention going haywire (with a little help from st. croix) in GE—and it’s implied that this is a fairly regular occurrence with him.

and yet quirin does nothing. he shouts at varian, shuts him down, and at several points orders him point blank to stop messing with alchemy… but he makes no effort to connect with his son or understand where he’s coming from; he doesn’t try to impose reasonable restrictions (like “don’t mess with volatile chemicals unless i’m there to help”) that would allow varian to pursue his passion while minimizing the danger; and he doesn’t create an environment where varian feels able to turn to his father for help. and then with the black rocks, he lets varian come along to see the king, but refuses to explain why he “lied” (/spoke in code) to the king, destroying any credibility he had in varian’s eyes and making varian panicky and desperate because it seemed like no one else cared.

so the end result is that varian feels like he has no choice but to sneak around behind quirin’s back. he can’t rely on his dad for help if anything goes wrong, but the situation is so dire that doing nothing also isn’t an option. he tries his best to be careful (before quirin barges in on him, varian is attempting to put just one drop of the amber serum on the rock) but even if quirin hadn’t startled him, a terrible accident was bound to happen sooner or later, and the responsibility for that lays just as much if not more on quirin’s shoulders—the adult in this situation—as on varian’s. the kid is FOURTEEN.

(i think a neat argument could be made for varian as a deconstruction of the teen/YA fantasy trope of the hyper-competent teenager with absentee parents whose absence allows the teen to get on with the important work of the high-stakes fantasy plot; but that’s a whole different post)

#3: rapunzel did the right thing, but lost control over the situation due to lack of experience.

it would have been wrong to abandon everybody in corona to run off into the blizzard with varian, and frankly it wouldn’t have helped quirin anyway. he was already encased in amber by the time varian got back to old corona, and rapunzel couldn’t have done anything in the moment had she been with varian then. the only benefit to her presence would have been to comfort varian—which is not a small thing, obviously, but it’s not in any way a reasonable exchange for the hundreds or thousands of lives that would have been lost if she left corona completely without a leader in the middle of a crisis. so broadly speaking, staying in corona was the right call.

however.

rapunzel was not in control during that scene in the palace. varian bursts in, panicking, explains his situation and begs for her help—and rapunzel just says, basically, “i can’t help you, there’s an emergency.” then nigel comes in and reinforces that, which makes varian freak out; he grabs rapunzel and shakes her, nigel signals for the guards in response, and varian gets dragged out of the palace while rapunzel pleads with the guards not to hurt him.

(sidebar: the hate nigel gets for describing varian as “attacking” rapunzel is unfounded. varian grabs her and shakes her roughly back and forth and that is, in fact, assault. nigel is not wrong to describe it as such.)

anyway, notice two the things that DON’T happen here:

1) rapunzel doesn’t offer up any alternative solutions. a more experienced or better prepared leader could have responded to varian’s plea with a plan of action, like: i need to stay in corona to oversee the evacuation, so we can’t leave right this minute, but cassandra will take you to ask xavier for advice right now and the minute it’s safe to leave we’ll go together to help your father. or whatever—the point is to engage proactively with varian’s problem, make him feel heard, and give him something productive to do so he isn’t just sitting around fretting in the palace or struggling back home by himself in the middle of a blizzard.

2) raps doesn’t challenge nigel’s decision when he summons the guards to throw varian out of the palace, which is something she absolutely could have done. she could have said no, i can’t go to old corona right this minute to help him, but we are not throwing him out into the storm again, he stays here with me. this is, again, a sign of her inexperience; she’s not used to being an authority, she’s never been in a situation like this before, and she’s under a ton of pressure—so when an older adult whom she sees as an authority (he’s her father’s advisor!) makes a judgment call, it probably doesn’t even occur to her that she can challenge it.

this is why i say that rapunzel lost control over the situation—because even though she made the Right Decision, she got a kind of awful outcome, ie varian being tossed out into the blizzard to struggle home by himself to deal with his problem without any support, and rapunzel inadvertently breaking her promise from earlier.

#4: rapunzel doesn’t immediately go to check on varian after the storm because she’s traumatized, busy, and trusts her father.

painter’s block is all about how the trauma rapunzel feels as a direct result of her decisions during the storm destroys her ability to choose anything. she feels so debilitated by the fear that she will make the wrong choice—because she worries that she chose wrong when she allowed varian to be sent away—that she can’t do anything at all, let alone find the emotional strength to go to old corona and confront her mistakes. and while she tries to process and move past this trauma, mrs sugarby exploits it in an attempt to force her to free zhan tiri.

the next episode, not in the mood, involves rapunzel being put under enormous pressure to entertain an irascible ally of corona’s while he and her father negotiate a trade deal with the threat of a war breaking out if they fail. NITM is a silly episode, but it has the highest non-magical stakes of any episode in the entire series. this isn’t an event rapunzel could have reasonably skipped out on for the sake of one person, no matter how much she cares. she’s slammed. she’s still being forced to prioritize just like she was in QFAD.

and in the third episode after QFAD, rapunzel is tormented by nightmares about varian and what happened to his father, so she presses frederic for information about the rocks and varian’s safety. and frederic assures her that everything is fine. he lies to her face about the rocks having been removed, and rapunzel has no reason to doubt him, so she relaxes… until varian contacts her directly, and she immediately jumps to help him.

#5: at the same time, varian has been forced into hiding because frederic is attempting to cover up the rock problem.

what happens to varian after QFAD is plainly unfair and unjust. his father is trapped in amber, the rocks have completely destroyed old corona, most of the villagers have presumably moved to the new land frederic set aside for them, and frederic’s secret police are crawling all over the village trying to suppress information about the rocks (and fred’s role in creating them). the blame for this lies squarely at frederic’s feet, and varian is right to be angry.

i believe that varian interprets rapunzel’s absence as a sign that she’s complicit in what frederic is doing, making his anger at her justified as well. he doesn’t have access to the information we do about why rapunzel doesn’t seek varian out immediately—he doesn’t see how distraught and shattered she is after the storm, or the high-stakes political nonsense she has to deal with, and he certainly doesn’t see her trying to pursue the matter of the rocks and varian’s safety with her father and being flatly lied to to convince her to stay put in corona. all he knows is that rapunzel kicked him out and now she’s ignoring him and her father’s agents keep chasing him away from his home, and he draws the conclusion that makes the most sense to him, ie rapunzel must be okay with all of this because otherwise she would be here.

and once he has that idea in his head, the fact that rapunzel immediately jumps to help him when he contacts her isn’t enough to dislodge it. he’s a scared, lonely fourteen year old boy looking at this situation through a purely interpersonal lens while rapunzel is an overwhelmed eighteen year old doing the best she can while juggling about a million things at once and putting varian low on her priority list because she’s been told by a trusted source that varian is fine.

they both make mistakes, they’re both missing important contextual information, and neither of them handles this situation in the best possible way. but neither of them is “at fault” in the sense of being purely in the wrong, and—imo—frederic and quirin hold the lion’s share of the blame here, because they had all the information, and they refused and refused and refused to deal with the black rock problem until it overwhelmed them both. varian and rapunzel are both just kids scrambling to deal with something that should not be their problem to solve, and both of them fuck up! (and even then—the best fred and quirin could’ve done was just be honest and upfront about what the problem was. neither of them had the means to fix anything, and neither of them was responsible for the very unfortunate timing of the blizzard. so it’s not as clear cut as everything bad in s1 happens because fred and quirin stuck their heads in the sand. a lot of it honestly was just sheer bad luck.)

a n y w a y, i think by s3 and after a lot of introspection, varian has figured a lot of this out, and that’s why he’s so quick to let go of his lingering grudge against rapunzel. he’s realized that at the end of the day, rapunzel was just as unprepared and lost in that situation as he was, that she’s not responsible for (and wasn’t complicit in) her father’s decisions, etc, etc.

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Maybe this applies for all fandoms, but good god Queen fans could be so overdramatic and petty sometimes. Theres the Q+AL discourse, which is annoying but to be expected, then I saw discourse about the WWRY Pepsi commercial. Excuse me its just a commercial for a bloody soft drink brand and its a decent commercial anyways. There are massive threads dedicated to that saying its a ‘bad decision by Brian and Roger’, that they ‘disagree’ with the commercial. Lmfao what’s there to disagree with…. Its a Pepsi ad. Also some people are strangely fixated on believing that Brians constantly lying and using Freddie as a ‘scapegoat’ for Queen decisions after his death. Like Ive seen people say that Brian made up the ‘youre my Jimi Hendrix’ moment saying we have no proof of Freddie saying that, and how he also lied about how PR was a singer that Freddie admired because they all liked Free back in the days, so as to justify the Q+PR decision. According to them Freddie also never gave his blessing to Brian on releasing Driven By You as his solo song or on going ahead with his solo album because ‘we have no proof and he probably made it up to make himself look good’z And Ive seen people get mad at Brian for saying Freddie wasnt very confident with his guitar playing because they think hes trying to put Freddie down, even though its been said by other people, Freddie has joked about it in concerts and Brian has said hes actually very good and wrote songs like Ogre Battle on the guitar. Freddie could be decent at guitar but also self conscious about playing himself at the same time, its not mutually exclusive At this point theyre starting to sound like conspiracy theorists and its so annoying 😒

I’ve been in several fandoms but the Queen fandom needs to go outside the most.

What you mentioned here is actually kind of infuriating lol because there’s a running theme: shitting on Brian. These people are really claiming Brian lied about several things Freddie said to him, and they’re obviously doing so because it contradicts their narrative. They hate Brian and think he’s a hack who should have shut up after 1991, but Freddie always being supportive of Brian flies in the face of that, so these clowns would rather believe Freddie never said these things so they don’t have to re-examine their bullshit grudge against Brian. Honestly what kind of weird fuck are you to insist Brian is lying about what his dead friend said with zero evidence?

I don’t even wanna know what they say about a stupid Pepsi commercial lol. Queen songs have appeared in countless commercials. Who gives a shit? This fandom cannot cope with anything, and sometimes the shit they get mad over is so inconsequential.

[slimedogs]

i have not touched this tumblr account in 3 years

i don’t think i ever made original post of my own on tumblr. i used to just religiously reblog stuff on tumblr back when i was a teenager and into fandoms. i started college and stopped using tumblr, because i didn’t want to get distracted from my studies by it (b/c i would spend A LOT of time on tumblr)... so i do not know why i am now making a post on tumblr after years of ignoring it, and also years prior to that of being too anxious/nervous/awkward to use it. 

it’s 4am, i am just Speaking Now, so... 

i left before a lot of major milestones tumblr hit: like getting rid of its spicy content for example aksjd. i am sure there was also a whole lot of other stuff i missed out on as well, because while i haven’t been active on tumblr, i at least heard news of what’s been going on with it. i just can’t think of it off of the top of my head, lol. i know a lot of people migrated over to twitter.

i do not use twitter, because i grew up on tumblr essentially (started using it when i was, like, 12/13? didn’t stop using it until i was 18/19). using tumblr during my formative years was rough, and after i stopped using tumblr i, like, physically felt my mindset and attitudes changing to be a bit less... like, hyper-radical? i wasn’t as angry all the time, i wasn’t as anxious to get back to the computer all the time, in fact -- i became pretty productive (not now... right now covid has me perishing (though i did finally get my vaccine)). anyways, the point i’m trying to make is that: if i survived through tumblr circa 2014 during its peak No Brain Cells, People Have Never Been Outside & Touched the Grass phase, then i’ve decided that i do not want to relive that phase over on twitter, lol. i like to think i’ve matured a bit, and become less... hypersensitive? as reddit neckbeardy as that sounds.

i’ve definitely changed a lot of my viewpoints, become a bit more realistic, and i try not to be as bothered by little/inconsequential things anymore. i’m sure i will be in for a world of cringe if i go through and look at all of the old stuff on my blog. i am very tempted to see if there is a way for me to nuke its contents, because i don’t think i’d agree with many of the viewpoints on it anymore -- at least not to, like, the radical extent that i once did. signing off this blue hell sort of grounded me to reality and let me see the grey area of life.

i’m not sure who out of everyone i watch is still active, or what followers i have are still active (i only ever made it to ~400 followers, lol. i remember wanting to be tumblr famous so bad as a 16 yr old asdkjaskdjasd). i’m not sure what the general vibe and demographic and energy of tumblr is these days. back when i left, it was sort of bleeding users, but not as much as what i’m assuming it has at this point with other social media replacing it. 

i’m not really sure why i am making this post... i think i just felt nostalgic for what was once a very big part of my life. i’ve been thinking of coming back to tumblr, because i’ve been told by some discord friends that it has sort of mellowed out. everyone that was a mouth frother sort of went on over to twitter to discourse about things that don’t matter. i’m not into fandoms or anything like that, though i’m still into things like RP, drawing, writing, etc...

i think... now that i am a more well adjusted adult i want to use my account again, because i sort of miss the comedy/humor of tumblr. again -- i do not know who is even reading this if anyone at all, and i never had any friends on tumblr, really... but if you have read this then hello! i am rambling! i’ve missed this blue hellscape to an extent! 

maybe if you want?? suggest some people for me to follow down below? if you’re still an active watcher say hi? i don’t know! i have said a lot of words here just now. never in the past did i ever feel the need to actively engage with this website, but i thought it would be sort of funny if i came back and just started to reblog like normal. just clocking back in, lol. 

anyways, if you read all of this, you are a trooper! i am sorry for rambling and sorry for bad formatting if formatting is still a thing. it’s been a hot minute. i hope you are all well! 

[rensflr]

Post essay 👀

oh god since you asked for it-

before i start this, i just want to say that i’m not trying to start discourse or anything. i honestly do not care if the creators of that post see this or know about this or whatever, i just want to talk about the specific things that bothered me because when i am upset i have to get my thoughts out. so scroll past if you don't care as this post is long (this is also going to be very incoherent as it is 2am)

1. this is just nitpicky but this person says if you can't have a job you shouldn't engage in nsfw stuff but like. 16-year-olds can have jobs. my 16-year-old friends have jobs. tommy can have a job (i mean, he already does). also, surely if tommy is ‘too young’ to be interacting with people who make nsfw jokes, the op of that post is too? considering they're a minor, i feel like according to their rules they shouldn’t be watching that stuff at all. unless you want every single person to wait until their 18th birthday to Use the Internet, i feel like this point falls apart quite quickly. the second person says that people like tommy will make younger kids want to get into streaming, but ask any creator when they started making youtube videos and the answer will be quite young! also, that is not his fault.

2. i don't know if i’ll be able to explain my thoughts about this point perfectly, but the way they talk about adhd makes me feel weird lmao. he is not making hyperfixating seem like the solution to everything! a person with adhd publically displaying their symptoms of adhd and in general just....having adhd is not glorifying it whatsoever! techno would have hyperfixated on that stuff regardless of if he had an audience because that's what people with adhd do! we fixate on things for hours at a time because that's just how our brains work. i’ve farmed wheat for hours in minecraft in order to make as much bread as possible just because my brain felt like it that day. it is not his fault whatsoever if people see him hyperfixating on things and copy him because he is not advocating for people to do that. also, the second person saying for techno to not do something if it makes him stressed while also using it as an example of a hyperfixation is....weird. sometimes people with adhd hyperfixate on things we really don't want to and we have little control over it! and maybe techno hyperfixating on things isn't teaching adhd kids to glorify their hyperfixations maybe it's.....showing them that its ok to do that! it's okay that sometimes you focus on silly or inconsequential things. it can be unhealthy for us, but seeing someone else do it makes me feel not so alone. someone having adhd and living their life with adhd is not an endorsement! also he’s not teaching people that bullying=funny. not to sound harsh, but i beg you to examine your own friendships and realize that that's just how friends Are.

3. WHO fucking cares. seriously who gives a shit if wilbur soot is gay. other than the people who are weird about gay men. also how the fuck do you ‘present as bi’! what does that even mean! someone being slightly feminine and comfortable making jokes with his friends does not mean that he is bi and i feel like thinking that is just playing into stereotypes. and for the love of god stop saying that minecraft men are queerbaiting. jesus christ. if someone says they are straight...they aren’t queerbaiting! end of story! jokes are not hints of someone’s sexuality for you to decipher! just because you want someone to be gay or bi or anything else does not mean that they are that thing or have ever tried to convince you that they are. as for the second part of their stuff on wilbur, i can't really say anything because i’m not super involved with his content. so this could or could not be a real issue idk

4......why is this his fault. like genuinely. i don't have much to say on this one because it is not his fault that you are using him as a coping mechanism. it's not his fault that some of his fans have an unhealthy parasocial relationship with him. sorry to say this, but creators are not responsible for their fans’ mental health because - like you said - they don't know you! this is a valid issue and something that happens, but i have no clue why this specific thing makes philza problematic in any way.

anyway, that’s all i have. again, i don’t really give a shit if they see this or not but i wanted to share why i thought that post was so hilariously off the mark. also, i am not coming after the op of that post. they seem like a fine person but i just really disagree with what they said. please dont attack them!

[clairen45]

About that Dark Visions comic...

I think it’s fair to say that when Marvel’s Dark Visions miniseries about Vader as seen from a different perspective was announced, everybody was excited. We have been hammered on the head since ROTS that “there are heroes on both sides” , and with the expectations concerning the end of the saga as a massive redemption and hope plot, you were bound to be curious about what they would come up with. TBH, I was not expecting to see a softer side to Vader. It would be wrong to expect anything like that, and it would somehow diminish from what happens to him in the OT. He is supposed to be more machine than man. So, no, I definitely did not expect him, or wished him to be the kind of guy operating as the Death Star Secret Santa, knitting socks for the poor and needy, or rescuing people’s pets. It was not my understanding that he was much loved by his Imperial “colleagues” either. When we first see him in ANH; he is derided and dismissed both by a colleague (sorry, forgot the name but you all know whose faithless person I am thinking of) and Leia. Respected for sure, because of the fear he instills in people. So if awe is obviously the right word to use, in the most etymological sense of the term, that is to say “ a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder”, how many people found Vader awesome? Besides the audience. There had to be. And as a concept, it was pretty cool.

That being said, if you think of the title for the series, there were already many ways of interpreting it. Dark Visions... Visions of the power of the Dark Side? The way some people saw Vader? The way Vader thought people saw him? Did the stories happen for real or are they just what the title imply they are: visions. Images. Fantasies. Daydreams or nightmares? Possibly just the imagination of some deranged mind. There is something there that implies that we are not dealing with something too objective. But rather something unhinged and disturbing.

Now, I intend to keep this in mind about the issue that has been raising so much concern: “Tall, Dark, and Handsome”. I think malaise is really the word we should settle for. This issue is problematic in many ways.

For those who haven’t read it or just heard about it through social media and people complaining about it (possibly people on the other side of the spectrum fanning about it), this is how you can sum it up: this is the first person narrative of an unnamed nurse, working on the Death Star for Vader’s personal doctor. The nurse has developed an obsessive infatuation for Vader that has her snoop around him and collect bits and pieces about him (mostly gorish remains of his time at the medical bay) that she hides in her room. She keeps on daydreaming about him and the connection she thinks they have, until one day she musters up her courage and goes to talk to him in his private quarters in order to let him know of her love for him. He cuts her off in all the meanings of the word, both interrupting her speech of eternal devotion and undying love, and piercing her through with his saber. Last moment we see her is lying dead on the floor while he moves away and asking for the sanitation to rid him of the “garbage”.

Ok, that’s a tall order. Here are points that I find entirely problematic.

1.The Question of Agency:

The authors decided to give a voice, a narrative agency to a character that is presented as inconsequential to the story. She is an anonymous nurse, a dot, in  the bigger picture of the Empire. Much, let’s say, like our current ST heroes: Rey, Finn, and Rose, who started as “nobody”, even more so in the case of Finn and Rey who have literally been deprived of their identities. You could think it’s cool to thus give a voice to this nurse. Even more so when you consider that throughout the comic, she is presented as downtrodden, poor, pushed over, abused physically and verbally, dismissed, and despised. Her employer disrespects her constantly, calling her “fool”, “idiot”, or “stupid”. He shoves her around, and also diminishes her job, calling it “not a real job” or insinuating that she does not do her job correctly. Cases in point:

And what do we get in this story? A female nobody who starts asserting herself. Wow.

She tells her own story. First person narrative. She becomes an agent.

Look at the evolution of her daydream fantasies. She starts from damsel in distress who needs a man to protect her from her daily abuser

From nurse whose job means something, to a solid professional, and equal partner to her fantasy Lord:

And finally a powerful woman in her own rights, even overshadowing her partner, and who is able to defend herself.

Which then matures into her mustering up the courage to speak for herself, and tell her feelings to the (unwilling) object of her affection.

Except that.... well...she is just presented as a massive psycho. And, ok, it’s fair, we all know that there are female stalkers, and that her obsession for Vader is totally crazy because she doesn’t know anything about him, and she actually fell for someone who was treating her as poorly as the others. But there is the malaise there... The mix of female empowerment and batshit craziness. That’s what put a lot of people ill-at-ease. I wouldn’t even call that subversion, because, dudes, what are we subverting there exactly. It’s not like women are not daily abused and treated poorly at work and in their relationships on a daily basis... And are we supposed to take that as a cautionary tale about fangirl craziness? Because, there again, why did they need to have that girl get such a shitty treatment all through the comic. It is like the comic says that she deserved it. In the end it’s not just Vader calling her trash. It’s also the doctor calling her trash for most of the comic, and even have her literally waddle in a trash compactor. Cause this was supposed to be subtle?

Like, fine, if it were only Vader calling her garbage because the man is just dead inside, which, fairly, is represented in the comic. But it’s just not Vader, it is the way the character is presented through the eyes of the doctor AND even through the eyes of a cartoonist who keeps on representing her with the stupidest darned faces.

And there is no other viewpoint. Family, friends, other nurses or colleagues who could give us another idea about her. Or explain why she is like that. Nope. Basically, this woman is given a voice just so she can be cut off mid-sentence and made... fun of... I guess? Was that the author’s goal? Is it what we are supposed to feel? About this pathetic character and her pathetic life, dreams, goals, feelings, and eventual demise?

The “Subversion” of Female Romantic Tropes

Like ... LOL... How is that “subverted” anyways? But, ok, let’s go through them. It has all the classic elements of female literature.

The Cinderella story: nobody falls for high lord and expects to be swooped off her feet. Complete with ball scene, because, yes, why not? I give them a point, though, for the cool reflection on the ground which has her in her regular scrubs... BTW, Beauty and the Beast in the mix as well.

the nurse complex! Otherwise known as the Florence Nightingale effect. You know, woman is going to take care of the guy... They even made her a real nurse! Again, so subtle. Couldn’t make her any other profession and still be victim of this complex.

the reference to so-called “trashy” female lit, think bodice ripping, Harlequin, and their infamous covers. Even the title of the comic: “Tall, Dark, and Handsome”

The effing Phantom of the Opera!

and of course all the female discourse about love, because, yep, trashy: “kindred spirits” etc...

And again, how are we supposed to interpret it? Well, hang on, this woman, remember, is a bat-shit crazy deluded psycho, who has delusions about life and love. Oh, and the doctor says she is trash. And he throws all her stupid gory, disgusting trickets in the trash. Oh and also Vader says she is garbage. Well. Ok. So, I guess all of that which mattered to her, all her ideas, all that she loved, was just that. Trash. Garbage. Well, take that, you female reader!

But wait, it gets even better...

Star Wars is just trash!

Yep, because on closer look, most of the fantasies this woman has are very Star-Warsy. I am floored that they are actually trashing these:

Anakin and Padmé’s Naboo scenery, green, lush, terrace, nightgowns...

The scene when Anakin learns about Padmé’s death:

and of course, the one that you were not expecting... Reylo... “You are not alone”

Again, why is this problematic? In itself, it is fine and fair to be making fun of trashy female literature and campy romance novels, it is also fine to make fun of crazy stalkers, and it is also fine to be making fun of Star Wars. So why does it feel so icky in this comic somehow?

You can’t help but feel disgusted when you consider how poorly this woman is represented. There is not one aspect of her life that is not ridiculed. And again, this is about a woman who has NOTHING. They could have the girl fall in love with Vader and being killed by him because he is a cold-hearted machine. He killed his wife, the love of his life, so yea, of course he will feel not a pang of remorse or hesitation at killing this nobody who thinks she is in love with him. But they did not need to make fun of the very little she had in her life: her dreams. Her effing dreams. Plus the crazy stalker psycho. And the crazy face. And the fact that again we are talking about a woman, who had NOTHING. No family, no connection, no friends, no respect at work, not many possessions except her sad little Vader treasure chest.

And again, context. Here we are, reading a Star Wars comic where a lot of fanboys have been using the EXACT same terms to ridicule women in the fandom. Especially in the Reylo context. Trash. Garbage. Crazy bitches. Ridiculing theories about ... well, well, ain’t it a sweet surprise... Phantom of the Opera, or Beauty and the Beast parallels with Reylo. I’ll be damned. It feels crazy awkward, if you ask me. I mean, again, it’s all fair, but you don’t do that when you are in the midst of a toxic fandom war.

So why do I give zero F...  about it in the end?

If some antis in the fandom saw that as validation, well, let them have their moment of happiness. It won’t last. We can give them that.

One, I don’t think for one second that it means anything about what will happen in the ST as far as Reylo is concerned. Again, they are even making fun of Anidala in the comic, and dude, that thing happened. As my good friends from @lordsofthesithpodcast would tell you after their glorious SWCC panel : Romance, these ships belong in Star Wars.

Two, as I highlighted in the introduction, this belongs in the Dark Visions series. It is meant, in my own opinion, to be disturbing and unhinged. Not sugar coated. So maybe the whole point was shock value. Mission accomplished. It was poor taste again given the context and the awful treatment THEY (and not just Vader) give their female character, but yea, dark visions. Not Star Wars Adventures. You have to look at the target audience and everything.

Three, if it were not for the in-your-face references to female tropes, I actually took most of it as a critique of fandom in general. The problem is not that she is a fangirl. There are some crazy obsessive fangirls, mind you. The problem is that they are making fun of all things female on top of that. But, remove the romantic aspects. Couldn’t that apply to fanboys as well? I could totally picture a cadet, or some other young imperial, developing the same crazed obsession over Vader. And it was just as toxic. And, tbh, it could very well be. Collecting trinkets is not just a girl thing, and after seeing with my own eyes the tons of merch purchased by fanboys at the recent SWCC convention, or the obsessive way some guy could talk to you about Vader and the minute trivial details in his life, or that they are the only ones understanding the guy, well yea... it works...

I’ll even go a step further. I wondered for a sec if the whole thing was not even a critical meta about the franchise as a whole. Let me explain. Some fanboys have complained about the femininization of the franchise, that is “polluting” the shades of Pemberley, I mean Star Wars. Claiming that what is happening right now is utter garbage. Also also, I have another possible reading which has the nurse representing the current state of the fandom and how crazy obsessed they can be over a franchise that some currently view as tired and dead inside (especially since it has fallen into the fold of Disney). Representing the unhealthy relationship between the two. And guess what, it doesn’t end well for the fandom. Who will never get what they want.

I will finally quote this from Chuck Wendig who was fired from the project and came up with that particular comment on Twitter, and which actually seems to go with how I tried to read it myself:

Apropos of absolutely nothing, my issue three of SHADOW OF VADER was about a toxic fanboy (a morgue attendant on the Death Star) who became obsessed with Vader. (And it didn’t end well for him. Er, obviously.) I thought it was good and I’m sorry you won’t see it! Onward we go. 

I think they kept some of the original idea from Wendig, but it took a turn for the worse. It would be great if the authors cared to explain about their intent for this piece if any. I am not saying they should. I actually totally respect and support full freedom of speech and authorial choices. It is our choice, then, as a reader to read or not the material we don’t care about. I am just curious to know their opinion I guess, and I was not able to find any comment online. If anyone has a reference, I am interested...

In any event, I think everyone should read the comic for themselves if they are curious about it. Better to make your own opinion about it.

[acroamatica]

i’ve been feeling like it needs being said, so.

the problem with tumblr lately, for me, has been bandwidth and guilt. there are so many real problems in the world and i am so stressed that my energy needs to go towards being fed, being washed, going to work, actually doing the work, and keeping the jittery static of my personality coalesced into some semblance of an adult capable of doing all that and not just sitting down and screaming for a year or so. i don’t have time for that. nobody has time for that. 

and i’m not asking for help, because frankly, nobody should be spending their energy centering me and my problems when i am the whitest person imaginable, straight-passing (sigh), cis-passing (bigger sigh), not under immediate threat of being legislated out of existence or shot or hurricaned or dogpiled out of a job, and able to pay all my essential bills. i am the least important person to have their complaints listened to at the moment. we can get to my personal gripes when we have a better baseline. now is really not the time.

but at the same time, self-soothing ain’t free, and anhedonia is real and has been eating me alive since about march, and there is little enough left that i find restorative. i can’t, i can not care about ship wars or fandom infighting or whatever the Powers That Be have done lately to spoil something i took joy in; i can’t discourse, i won’t debate, i don’t need my mind changed, and i don’t have the fucking spell slots to cast dispel negativity. or even to ignore fandom trends i don’t like. i just don’t. if i am to have anything left at the end of the day to help anyone with after i’ve dealt with who and what i am responsible for keeping alive, i can’t waste what little power i have on inconsequential bullshit. and i know it’s all in fun, technically. but does it feel like fun? does it?

it hasn’t felt like fun to me in a while. that’s probably the anhedonia too. nothing much is fun anymore. and scrolling through a feed of stuff that just isn’t fun for me anymore only reinforces that it isn’t, and that everyone else is having fun, and that there’s something wrong with me. which there is. i just don’t need to stare into that particular abyss right now.

so i haven’t been here much. and i feel bad, because i genuinely care about y’all, and i hate that i’m missing out on your amazing work and your excitement and your passion and your terrible jokes, and i hate that you might logically think i don’t care about you anymore. it’s not you, okay, friends? it’s not. it’s me.

anyway. i got my tax return and i have just enough money to get my next tattoo if i can get the design sorted out in time. i can’t write but i spend a lot of time thinking about plots and will someday have the emotional energy to get my book back out in queryland. the dog is great. halloween is soon. i’m quietly obsessed with stevie nicks and michelle gomez. my hair is still cool. i’m trying new skincare. i dunno. i got nothing.

but i’m still around if you want to talk.

[softestkabru]

So I finished s6 last night

Overall, I really liked it! There were plot things I thought were kind of..... blah (like, romelle was rlly inconsequential as a character. She was just. Blond, white allura that yelled at ppl bc she didn’t know what was going on. Idk her character was pretty flat. Plus the whole “hello there is an altean colony that exists” should have had a bigger impact on allura and coran, just my onion :/) but everyone else’s characterization felt really well done and genuine!

Lance made me cry like 3 times? I love the genuinely selfless and caring person he has become. Ofc he’s still got his insecurities and that’s to be expected but he really is his best self when it comes to how he interacts with Allura now and that’s just!!!!! I just love it. I love him. He’s my boy.

As usual, I really wish Pidge had gotten more screen time but I could watch a series that was just abt Pidge and think it needs more Pidge. That’s my lil space gay wife. It was distressing to see how much pressure is on her to hack and fix everything all the time. She’s just a bab. Let her rest. One thing I found really concerning was that she did make that copy of the coding of Shiro’s arm... “in case something like this ever happened” ??????? Like what? At that point they didn’t know Shiro wasn’t Shiro and was a sort of sleeper agent for Haggar. For all they knew, Shiro just straight up betrayed them? If Pidge was emergency planning for if Shiro would turn on them, does she have full trust in anyone?? Pls baby gorl n o

Moving on. Again, as usual, Hunk took a back seat to the other paladins which I guess is inevitable witch such a big cast of ppl but I would have liked to see his whole interest in Galra culture that was bought up in the first episode be carried through the season. But whatever. U do u I guess, Dreamworks :/

Anyways, time for me to scream abt Keith! My boy! My MAN! Spent 2 years on a space whale planet with his mommy and most certainly came back from it a better leader and fighter! I was so proud of him constantly it was so good. So this makes him like, 21 now? Wow he’s all grown up :’) ofc I wish we had more Krolia n Keith but I guess we can’t have everything. We did get all those quality flashbacks of her with Texas dad. Those were fucking great. Also, I couldn’t handle the flashback Keith had when trying to get Shiro back. Little baby Keith and Shiro telling him he’d never give up on him. To never give up on himself. God damn. That hit hard

U have no idea how much I was screaming when Allura brought Shiro back from the Black Lion. I was first pumping and crying like “nOW THATS #MYSHIRO HELL YEAH” he was the tragic white haired anime boy the whole time :’) 1 question I have tho is, why did haggar make so many Shiro clones? Like? She only needed the one? Why she have like 6 extra shiros just chillin?

So that’s all my non-ship, non-discourse thoughts! I’ll vague abt the others in the tags of reblogs over the next few days bc that’s how I am :)

[atulme]

How we Understand the Digital Marketing!!!!

Digital Marketing

 This week by week blog ought to be intriguing for anybody associated with web based business and web based promoting either as scholastic or expert. The blog centers around vital and business instead of specialized issues of E-Commerce and on the points of view of the Marketing in a worldwide, computerized and Social Media ruled commercial center. In uncommon cases a few issues of more broad intrigue may be likewise examined. It is astonishing how an unfortunate emergency like the Coronavirus can move things: After talking for over 10 years about online training we at the University of Twente and numerous other of our partners overall changed to online instruction in multi week. Furthermore, the instructing as well as assessments arranged for the current week needed to go on. After an active difficult period stages and changing the tests to make them reasonable for understudies at home (with admittance to books, notes, outlines and Internet and even assistance from others) we had today the main such test with a class of 75 members. Things went in a way that is better than we had trusted and the understudies helped additionally with a genuine and expert mentality. We will continue chipping away at enhancements however this was a decent beginning, From today, following seven days of arrangements, the University of Twente is authoritatively back to the typical operational mode, with the distinction that no physical exercises are conceivable since all college structures are shut and individuals shouldn't be in the city.

How was my first functioning day following seven days of interruption that should give us an opportunity to change in accordance with our new online college reality? The day began with an online office meeting where pretty much all of the office partners took energetically part; we were all extremely happy to see each other again and offer a portion of our encounters and stories.

The remainder of the day was less wonderful, taking into account that the Coronavirus emergency, close to restricting our life and disturbing our day by day schedules, additionally constrained the BMS Lab to close and hit severely the neighborliness part. What two occasions have to do with me? A ton I am apprehensive since both my classes in the third quartile is legitimately identified with the BMS Lab and the vacationer segment! My Master understudies following the course, Advanced Topic in Digital Marketing is utilizing the BMS Lab hardware for their useful undertaking (testing the ease of use of Websites) and my understudies of the college class Digital Marketing is cooperating with genuine organizations (and this year it happens to be fundamentally organizations from the friendliness area in Twente) for their gathering venture: creating and executing a 3-week AdWords advertising effort.

 You can envision that my partners and I are quickly searching for choices since the ace understudies can't utilize the lab hardware for their tests and the accommodation business is shut so not generally inspired by web based publicizing since no client or potential client can utilize their administration. Finding and actualizing options for understudy ventures in the quartile, when just a month are left, isn't a simple business, I can let you know. Today I went through a large portion of the day noting messages of friendliness organizations who have inquiries regarding the estimation of the venture for them, attempting to convince them to remain ready. Likewise, understudy bunches email me the entire day with stresses over their activities. With two classes adding up to 27 undertaking gatherings and 17 outside accomplices, you can envision the volume of correspondence included. Close to this, the "typical" business must go on, just online which implies a great deal of making arrangements for doing things like talks, gatherings, venture recommendations, and so on in untested waters. Anyway, having endure the main day I am anxious about the possibility that that tomorrow won't be better. I realize that I am not by any means the only one confronting such a circumstance, so I wish to all in this position all the best and quality

 The 2020 BMS Faculty New Year's social affair

Early today the Faculty BMS had its yearly New Year gathering in the chamber of the Ravelijn building. After a discourse by the Dean, four extraordinary prizes were granted. Pleased that the collaboration grant was given to my associates of the BMS Lab: congrats for the incredible work and participation with us in Digital Marketing research

 The UT study Int. Business Administration is a Top report in 2020

The University of Twente study International Business Administration/IBA (along with 5 additional examinations) is one of the Top Studies in The Netherlands in 2020. Taking into account that the University of Twente is a specialized college this is an incredible accomplishment. The mystery is the emphasis and greatness on points using the one of a kind UT environment to its most extreme. Close to this, the UT is picked as the best specialized college of the Netherlands in 2020 (Source Keuzegids, 2020)

The University of Twente was articulated the best Technical University in the Netherlands for 2020

The difficult work pays off: in 2020 the University of Twente is the best specialized college in the Netherlands (despite the fact that not the most popular) and the International Business Administration is a Top-appraised program unexpectedly

 Digital Marketing subjects as per Google Scholar: Nanotechnology in dentistry, disease immature microorganisms and Photocatalytic Degradation of Pollutants

Like most specialists, I look at times how my exploration work performs versus crafted by individual scientists in the field. Google Scholar offers a simple to utilize apparatus for this reason: it permits you to see the quantity of references of your logical articles every year and altogether, the number references per article and your H-record. Measurements like references and H-list are significant markers of logical quality and exploration sway; they are additionally broadly utilized, among other rules, for advancements and selecting of scholastic staff.

While Google Scholar offers on a basic level a decent support of scholastics, I watch with disappointment for quite a while as of now the rankings in my area, specifically Digital Marketing. The issue: close to notable names in this field (like Prof. John Deighton from HBS and Prof Utpal Dholakia from Rice University) there are five people on that are absolutely obscure to me (and to the remainder of the analysts on Digital Marketing I assume). A more intensive gander at the distributions of these high-refered to people uncovers that their distributions are originating from absolutely inconsequential fields like medication and material science for instance. Indeed, even a blogger seems to involve a high situation in the rundown with distributions dating to 1993 when most presumably this individual was a little child!

Perhaps a fortuitous event yet all names being referred to appear to be basic Indian names; this carries me to the end that Google Scholar is including all distributions having as (co-)creator somebody with a similar name regardless of what the logical field is, and puts these people in the rundown without their insight or expectation yet acknowledging them for distributions that are not even theirs. In the Digital Marketing classification, 4 of the main 5 in the rundown are such mistaken cases (at the time this blog was published)!!!

I feel that the individuals who show up in these postings have never really, Google is answerable for this mistake. Close to the exceptionally terrible support of the scholastic network, the inconsistent data in Google Scholar can make additionally issues in scholarly evaluations and enlistment.

I am not mindful of the size of the issue in different orders, however I think it is a disgrace that Google permits something like this to occur. With all the exposure around the boundless prospects of their calculations, their AI advancements and the most recent about the acing of Quantum Computing I think that its fantastic that something so straightforward has gotten away from the consideration of their calculations or the guardians of such outcomes. I attempted to advise them by reaching the Google Scholar help work area yet no reaction after over a month. Likewise, alarming a global paper (who discovered this uncommon and vowed to act) and an innovation magazine didn't welcome any activity on their part up until now.

In my view, it would be simple for Google Scholar to dodge such blunders by putting a portion of their shrewd calculations to work, in particular to recognize such cases by essentially examining the substance of the articles and choose whether articles about Nanotechnology in dentistry, malignant growth foundational microorganisms or Photocatalytic Degradation of Pollutants have a place with the Digital Marketing area. Likewise, on account of normal names, an additional control layer could put the different creators to the right spaces. check this utilizing a portion of their innovation however clearly, they don't do that, making their outcomes dependable.

 As I referenced, I don't have the foggiest idea about the degree of the issue so if different partners know about this circumstance in their spaces can reach me. I likewise trust that Google perhaps will peruse this post and make a move

 The Cambridge Analytica case: Old News

I am truly shocked with the ongoing upheaval of outrage and disappointment following disclosures about the strategies of Cambridge Analytica in impacting the aftereffects of the American races and the Brexit choice with the conceivable resilience of Facebook.

This is in my view old news: In the winter of 2017 the case was at that point introduced to my Bachelor understudies by SocialInc in a visitor address and on June 2017 I examined the Cambridge Analytica's case in a discussion in June in the UT named "Algorithmic Marketing".

I was amazed till 2 days back that nobody appeared to stress over this story that was likewise broadly examined in different stages, for instance in the article in the Observer from May 2017, with an extremely realistic title (this article was additionally posted in our Smart Marketing Group Facebook bunch on 23 October 2017). Perhaps when the established press get a story and conclude that general society is ready to catch wind of it, the story arrives at the undeniably aloof, entranced public.

The inquiry is the thing that will occur starting now and into the foreseeable future: Is this the start of the finish of Facebook or even of the online media

[landofsomethingsomething]

how did you get so good at character & story analysis? like you only started homestuck near the end, and in that short time you've developed a deeper understanding of the characters and themes than people who have been involved for years (i.e. me, a dumbass who only figures this shit out after people like you talk insightfully about it).

I honestly & truly believe that I benefited TREMENDOUSLY from starting near the end, actually. When you start at the end of Homestuck, you get to read the entire thing at once, the way you would experience most types of heavy narrative focused media. You get the whole story in one (months long in my case but at least continuous) bite. 

When you are following any media update by update -- this goes for like, everything, comics, TV, etc -- you tend to be more easily distracted and misled by both intentional and unintentional red herrings. Like, so many Big Historical Homestuck Fandom Arguments were ROOTED in tons of significance being attributed to things that, on a fresh archival read, were completely inconsequential. When a 10 page update ends on a cliffhanger and you don’t get another update for a week, that’s a week that the entire fandom has to tear itself apart over every tiny little detail in those ten pages, because that’s all they had. And they did. 

And some of those little details mattered, of course, but MOST of them didn’t. It’s that old adage about “can’t see the forest but for the trees.” When you’re following something bite by bite, the bite in front of you is the Most Important Bite, repeated for every new update, forever, and it completely skews your reading and perception of something because it’s so much harder to plug This Piece into the bigger picture. You don’t really care about the bigger picture, because the whole story is years or months or whatever away from being done, you in fact don’t know if it will ever even truly finish, and what matters is what you have in the moment. 

More importantly this leads to just like. Rampant fanon. Just rampant, rampant fanon stuff completely based off hyperfocusing on individual updates and taking every little thing from them and going hog wild. In the spaces between updates, the fandom gives the canon a new layer of meaning. The fandom fills gaps with its own interpretation of what’s going on without the benefit of knowing what’s next. The fandom decides what it WANTS to come next and huge swathes of dedicated, passionate people are either disappointed horribly when they’re wrong or vindicated when they’re right or somewhere in between. 

So you get like... I guess the biggest example of this is the Retcon. 

I have never met an archival reader, someone who did not start homestuck until the ending or just before the final updates, who hates the Retcon. I have met some who will talk about what it could have done better, and the ways in which the device succeeded or failed, and some with mixed opinion, but I have never ever met an archival reader that HATES the Retcon with the passion that so many of those people who read update by update do. 

I know people who I otherwise respect and regard highly who like, for example, can’t get into Davekat as a pairing because it’s representative of the Retcon to them and it ruins it completely because they cannot connect to it or see it as “real.” 

Because a week between updates is one thing, but eight months? an entire year? That was a LOT of time for people to get attached to things the way they were in those pre-pause updates. That was a LOT of time for people to pore over every piece of canon that came before those pauses over and over and over and over and decide what they wanted and become SO attached to the characters and story and plotlines how they were. 

My wife tells me stories about how everyone did a “homestuck ending bingo” right after the update that kicked off the long pause before Game Over. Everyone was so excited to see what would happen next, how the characters they loved so much would overcome this insane trial, how it could possibly continue, how the plotlines would resolve. 

And instead, everyone died. John came in and fixed it all by branching them to another reality, where suddenly, these things that people had spent a literal year investing in so utterly were just... gone. Erased. In some cases almost literally never mentioned again. They never got to see the resolutions they wanted and they felt it was unfair and they were duped and etc etc etc the backlash against the retcon is something every homestuck fan is familiar with. 

But to circle back to my original point -- Archival readers just absolutely do not GET that. The version of Dave and Karkat and Terezi and Rose and Kanaya and Jade and John and EVERYONE that existed right up until Game Over were characters hurtling to an obvious Bad End, and the way it went down, archival readers have an easier time processing and understanding and accepting, because we didn’t have the time to get attached to point-in-time versions of things. 

My wife tells me stories of the days when Kare//zi and Joh//nKat were heavily shipped and it’s surreal to me, because from MY perspective, those were blips on a radar. Kare//zi was so early in Karkat and Terezi’s story that to me it was just like, oh, interesting, a failed relationship that informs things about both their characters that they moved on from naturally into other things. (I don’t mean to pick on that ship, btw, it’s just a good example of something that was EMBLEMATIC from a point-in-time perspective that an archival reader would never really hang so much weight on, because it’s there and then it’s gone and we didn’t have weeks and years of space between updates to ruminate on them as a couple or assume that the relationship would continue to be a flagship and how it would evolve in that role.) There are so many more examples. 

I find this with the Alphas, too -- Archival readers overall seem to genuinely love the alphas more, on the whole, than people who read episodically (who tend to favor the betas, or the Act 5 trolls.) Archival readers tend to leave the experience MOST attached to characters and relationships that survived to the end, because when you read it as a full narrative beginning to end, that’s just kind of a natural thing that happens.

Anyway this post is already way too long, but my point is basically, the experience of reading homestuck from beginning to end all at once with very little knowledge of it going in is COMPLETELY different from the experience of reading it episodically. The emotions you have and the things you care about and just the FEEL of your entire experience is so different. 

And yes, I think the archival experience is “better,” when it comes to like, an understanding of the work as a whole? I don’t think this just with Homestuck, btw. I feel this way about, for instance, episodic television shows that tell ongoing continuous stories too. I much prefer to binge watch an entire series on netflix in a week than to watch every friday because I just GET things better. I feel I come away with a more complete experience. 

It’s a trade off, obviously. Reading episodically is better for like, having the FULL homestuck as an explosively popular fandom experience. Us archival people will never know what it’s like to have been around in the full swing of Homestuck’s popularity, never be able to roll around in the absolute GLUT of content that was out there, never be able to engage with SO MANY diverse voices and opinions, never be able to ride the high that comes with caring a lot about one of the most popular fandoms around. We’ll never have memories of this update or that update or what arguments and discourse and fanwork and other stuff spawned from this or that, we missed a lot of cool stuff I’m sad to have missed, and a lot of terrible stuff I’m glad to have missed, but yeah. 

But an episodic reader will never get to be able to read Homestuck from beginning to end with no preconceptions or biases formed from their earlier experience or the hopes and wants and theories they had the first time around, update to update. They’ll never get as clear a picture of the Whole Story. 

It’s a tradeoff. Idk. I’m glad I came in when I did, overall, but I think that most people feel that way about their own experience with it. 

All this to say, I think that the things I and other archival readers are able to connect over the course of the long narrative are less because of any outstanding individual ability in analysis (although I mean, obviously there is some of that or we wouldn’t be meta blogging in the first place) but rather just a simple raw advantage of extra clarity because of our late arrival.

[tinymixtapes]

Music Review: Chavez - Cockfighters [EP]

Music Review: Chavez - Cockfighters [EP]: Chavez Cockfighters [EP] [Matador; 2017] Rating: 3.5/5 Should you purchase/listen to/publicly endorse Chavez’s comeback EP, Cockfighters? Take our fun five-minute questionnaire to find out! --- 1. Did you enjoy either of the New York four-piece’s two previous albums, 1995’s Gone Glimmering and 1996’s Ride the Fader? A. Hell yes — these two records made good on the promise of early math and post-rock, injecting the angularity and experimentalism of Don Caballero and Slint with actual drive and intensity. B. Nope. They had their moments, but ultimately they were a bit repetitive, a bit dry, and a bit emotionless. They displayed good musicianship, but not especially good songwriting. C. Um, who the hell are Chavez? 2. Do you like it when your favorite band from 20-plus years ago reunites? Do you like reunions in general? A. Oh yeah, I dig reunions. They give people a chance to see a band live after having missed them the first time around; plus, they give bands who prematurely stopped operating a second chance to evolve their art. B. No. I’d prefer it if we saved our collective attention for newer bands, rather than for bands who lack the grace to bow out as soon as their relevance and originality dries up. And really, I don’t see the point in going back to the past, except to admit that we’ve given up on the present. C. I just like whatever’s popular. If a reunion is popular, I’ll like it. If a reunited band are being talked about by Pitchfork, I’ll like them. 3. How much are you a fan of 90s-era math rock? A. I’m a massive fan. I think math rock completely revitalized the tired form rock music had assumed in the early 1990s, taking its basic template and making it do weird, unexpected things. Not only that, but it provided a happy compromise between the austerity of grunge and the virtuosity of classic rock. B. Not at all — math rock was for awkward boy-men who liked rock music, but were too snobbish to like any rock music popular enough to be a hit with the people who mocked them at high school. C. What does mathematics have to do with rock music? 4. What’s your opinion on distorted, high-treble guitars, the kind that hit with a hard, percussive edge yet still sound surgically precise? A. They represent the best kind of guitar sound there is. I mean, they have the power and weight of distorted metal/rock guitars, but they produce a greater clarity and focus of expression. B. They’re for nerds and hipsters. Seriously, I’m sick of every band I see whose guitarist has a fucking Fender Jaguar or Jazzmaster strapped around his scrawny shoulders. Show some backbone and individuality for God’s sake! C. I’m not sure if I have an opinion on that. They’re okay, I guess? 5. And what would be your opinion if your favorite band — who made copious use of high-treble distorted guitars and an angular, math-esque style — introduced a little more groove into their sound and softened their razor-sharp edges a little? A. I’d be thrilled, especially if they, I don’t know, worked Eastern-tinged modes and riffs into their arsenal or punctuated their bursts of right-angled aggression with more contemplative and emotive guitar work. B. I’d be cool with that, but if their sound became more generic and watered-down as a result, I’d be disappointed, at least insofar as it entailed their becoming less distinct from the kind of cookie-cutter modern rock that’s drowning Spotify, SoundCloud, and the rest of the internet. C. I don’t care how much “groove” they introduce into “their sound” — if I can’t dance to it, it’s not music. 6. How much do you like the EP as a musical format? A. Very much — it provides refreshingly concentrated bursts of music, leaving you wanting more and geeing you up for any full-length release that might be on the horizon. B. Not at all — it’s what a band does when they don’t know what to do, when they’re feeling blindly around for new ideas and hoping that fan or critic feedback will point them in the direction of the most promising ones. Plus, EPs can be too short, inconsequentially short. C. I like music, isn’t that enough? 7. Which one of these is your favorite band-reformation of semi-recent times? A. Polvo B. Slint C. Bush 8. How satisfying do you find compact, linear song structures, the kind that see a single riff or progression developed to a crescendo, and that see a song play out in under four or even three minutes? A. Extremely satisfying. There’s something profound about simplicity, something that makes what you’re saying all the more substantial and momentous. Linear song structures strip away all distractions, enabling a particular melody, phrase, or harmony to reach its full potential. B. Not at all satisfying. They seem a little aimless, as if the lack of any verse-chorus structuring, modulations, or cycles deprives a song of a “story,” of meaning. It’s like you’re just repeating the same thing over and over, even with changes in dynamics and volume. C. What I find really satisfying are hooks. 9. Do you appreciate allusions to “cocks,” phalli, and male chauvinism in your music? A. Oh yes, I appreciate them so much. I think they’re a representation of the biggest problem in society today — the problem of power. Because it’s a matter of luck as to whether you’re born with a penis or not; they represent power’s arbitrariness. They represent its self-perpetuating nature: you have power because you have a penis, and you continue to have power because you already have power. B. Absolutely not: if there’s one thing I can’t stand in art or cultural discourse it’s talk of “the phallus” and “phallocentrism.” Why can’t people just say sexism, (gender) inequality, injustice, or authoritarianism? Talking about anything else just confuses the issue, just introduces some vague, ill-defined metaphysical abstraction into the concreteness of history. C. I’m happy with allusions to anything, as long as they don’t get in the way of a good tune. 10. How many times a day do you jerk off? A. At least twice. B. Not as many times as I used to. C. I don’t jerk off; I have sex. --- End of questionnaire; see your results below! • Mostly A: You should definitely buy/listen to/publicly endorse Chavez’s Cockfighters. You might find it a little short, but you’ll also think it an impressive return to form for a band that’s been inactive for the best part of two decades. • Mostly B: You should perhaps “investigate” Chavez’s Cockfighters, if only to be able to dismiss it more convincingly and promote your superior taste. • Mostly C: You probably found your way to Tiny Mix Tapes by mistake. Anyway, you don’t need Chavez in your life. You never did. http://j.mp/2jKN6bC