#bUT IT IS intended to be. VIBES. and vibes only

[beastwithsixcapezios]

I think equating the idea that “Toby Fox punishes players for playing the game” with “God punished Adam and Eve for eating the apple” is actually incredibly poignant because I don’t believe either were ever meant to be punishments!

Like prev said, in Undertale, the guilt and responsibility you feel surrounding the characters is as much part of the art as the satisfaction you feel for reaching the ‘good’ endings, and both are equally as reliant on you building a relationship with the characters and feeling an emotional connection towards them. You’re not playing the game wrong when Sans chides you for genocide, you’re playing the game exactly how it was designed to be played. The only “wrong” way to play would be not playing at all.

Imagine if God truly had intended for humanity to stay in the garden, just naked and vibing. How boring would that be? No death means no life, no pain means no pleasure. To imagine god as a being that would place a big shiny button in front of a toddler, whisper that it gives them candy, then doom them for all eternity when they press it is to imagine we’re ruled by a piece of shit. I much prefer the idea that God let us believe we were doing something wrong so we would start doing anything at all.

Hey, Undertale! We could all argue about Undertale, that could be fun!

[olderthannetfic]

When people online talk about distinctions between text and visual porn... I mostly think that that's not the most-useful framework. To me... Yeah, video porn is mostly about the sex-acts, about the shapes of the actors' bodies, about all those subtle aesthetic things that are really hard-to-characterize... But pictures! Pictures are all about imagination! They invite you to come up with a story! Sure, a drawing can be mostly saying "look at the proportions on this gal!", and sometimes such a drawing is even good, but... Most of the best pictures are really evocative (in addition to having really good subtle and hard-to-describe aesthetics!). As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words! It asks you to use your imagination differently than a piece of text does.

--

Yeah. Hell, even video isn't restricted to your classic porno movie people are probably picturing. Propaganda Magazine made those bizarre-ass art film VHS tapes that veered between their usual softcore-adjacent photoshoot vibes and bad film school project. Imagination was the whole point.

The reason a lot of filmed sex doesn't really capture this vibe is that it is using cinematic language to say the equivalent of "First this happened. Then this happened. Then this happened."

Film is one of the greatest mediums to capture aspects of the human emotional and psychological experience that are hard to verbalize, but you have to create it in a much more artificial way in order to arrive at an authentic feeling.

A classic porno, meanwhile, is showing you "the real thing" by just shoving a camera in front of a sex act. This is authentic in one sense but deeply inauthentic in another.

Yes, I know pornos have editing. The only award-winning porno editor is actually a slash fangirl and now m/m novelist. But the stereotypical film we're thinking of doesn't have the kind of camerawork and editing that I mean.

If you look at a very sexually explicit film that's intended as ~cinema~ rather than a literal porno, it becomes obvious what I mean—Lucia y el sexo, say, or Lie with Me.

It's just that those of us having these conversations here have a wealth of experience with brilliant erotic writing with a variety of styles and aims but a paucity of experience with the diversity of filmed sex.

[wolfertinger]

(anon)

I used to follow Salem a while back because his art felt kind of validating for me (im a guy who can't transition at all) and it made me hopeful that his followers gendered his sona/OCs correctly despite them being gnc. However after a certain point he started giving me the same vibes as those transphobes that are like "noo your feminine afab body is perfect don't change it" ya know? Especially with how he portrays Philas (why is the only OC of his on T angry and violent all the time?) and how he emphasizes tits and pussy all the time. I'm aware he's a trans guy making art of his sona mostly (duh) and I'm not his intended audience ig, but it still rubs me the wrong way.

.

[starrycloak]

lukewarm milquetoast-y takes:

-I have no idea how the writers are going to justify getting rid of argyle next season, but I doubt I'll like it.

-lucas and max still have some communication/non symmetrical issues to work on, but again, I can only hope they get to that in s5 before their 'happy ending'. I believe they can work them out, but I need to see them addressing them.

-lucas needs a textual apology from mike and dustin for s4. they outta keep an open their minds to see their last disagreement from his pov to understand why and how they hurt him.

-I'm not really rooting for romantic jopper; I hope they realize they work much better as friends and/or coparents.

-jon needs to be certain that joyce will go to hell and back for him too. maybe by doing just that.

-I don't vibe with the idea that holly's age is going to be retconned. How are they going to work that out/explain that in-universe?? I have a hard time even imagining it. idk, I just don't like too many holes in my suspension of disbelief swiss cheese yk?

-I hate how (consciously or subconsciously) attached I am (along with probably many others) to the idea that this show will wrap everything in a nice little bow; that everything will make sense and that everything indeed happened the way it did for a reason. I'm afraid I'm setting myself up for disappointment lol

-I don't buy murray as a "know it all love guru" (both in the show and in fanon). before you say he did read jancy 'most accurately', remember that a broken clock can be right twice a day.

-tommy H def fell for billy in s2. dude was starstruck and as much of a lovesick pathetic puppy as a guy can get for an a bigger-bully-than-you alphaguy wannabe /neu

-giant agree on the treatment of robin by the fandom —that stuff irks me sm. I really like platonic stobin, but whenever I see the words/tag "emotional support lesbian" I close the tab almost on instinct /lh

-ted wheeler needs to reach the climax of his (apparently) small character arc in s5. Everyone's on board with Karen having one and being a badass, and his doesn't need to be the same or similar: I just want to know he was never intended to be only a prop of sorts for the development of the rest of the wheelers.

What are your stranger things hot takes?

[loathemetc]

DELTARUNE THEORY: Is the Knight really "too obvious?"

More specifically, is Dess being the Knight too obvious?

In my opinion, no.

I feel like people who are in way too deep into Deltarune like I am are forgetting that Dess being the Knight isn't actually obvious to the layman player.

Like you gotta remember Dess is a character who is only mentioned in optional dialogue in Chapter 1, in passing a few times in Chapter 2, and once directly in Chapter 3. Tenna is the first character to even call her December. Everything about Dess being missing and her full name being December in Chapter 2 is subtext, and frankly some people just don't catch subtext.

Dess only being called direct attention to in Chapter 3, the same chapter the Knight appears in, is certainly no coincidence, but it doesn't read as a misdirect. After all, up until the Knight appears, the game is busy misdirecting you into thinking Kris is the Knight. Then soon after the game introduces you to Carol, a cold woman who is clearly sus as hell and has pointed antlers just like the Knight.

The subtext is becoming a lot more noticeable sure. Dess's room is labelled as such, it's not supposed to be entered, her guitar not meant to be touched. But the game isn't giving you much time to chew on that idea before introducing Carol and her obvious villain vibes. There is not much lull between the game wanting you to think Kris is the Knight and the game wanting you to think Carol is the Knight. There's also like 3 seconds of Asgore misdirect that is like, extra funny if you didn't know he was in the house yet, which is weirdly missable information.

But I know what you're asking, isn't the Knight's sword looking like a bat for a second too obvious? Well, besides just the fact that not everybody is going to immediately make the connection that it looks like a bat in those two seconds, no. Every mention of Dess wielding a bat is optional missable dialogue, and frankly, the lyrics to Raise Up Your Bat are nigh unreadable when you're actually trying to win the rhythm game. And if they missed that dialogue about the whiffle bat, they might not even make the connection between Raise Up Your Bat and Dess, even if the subtext of the Tenna scene makes it pretty obvious. Same with the baseball moon scene, although that again requires you to make the connection between Dess and baseball in the first place.

And then, throughout the rest of Chapter 4 and the Knight's various appearances, Dess is never mentioned again, and the actually present character of Carol will linger on most players minds.

In short, the game is definitely dropping hints that Dess is the Knight, but they're not as loud as people seem to think. People playing the game now, all at once, and not being the most thorough definitely won't be thinking it's as obvious as the people who have photographic memory of all facts about Dess from years of theorizing, and they might just not pick up on the idea in the first place. Kris is a much more enticing candidate until they aren't, and then Carol appears soon after. Dess is the underdog option here, being given less attention by the game due to her lack of presence, and that makes her all the better for keeping the mystery going.

I guess this was a sort of weird reverse of a Dess Knight theory, approaching it from the opposite perspective as usual, but I suppose I do think it's the most likely option. But if you think it's too obvious, just ask the people who saw the antlers and still think it's Asgore or Papyrus.

Last thing to remember I think is that this is a game that was never meant to be played in chunks over many years. The intended play experience is going to be playing the game start to back once it's actually done, like most other rpgs. We were never meant to have years in between chapters to obsess over all available information. Now, that doesn't mean theorizing is a bad thing, I love theorizing. But you gotta remember not to overthink it. Something that seems too obvious with years of time to think about it and all available information is not going to be too obvious to some guy playing through the whole game for the first time as intended.

[lilianade-comics]

Thinking about how Dani's episode is called Kindred Spirits, which implies that her unique narrative role is to mirror Danny and act as a foil to him, and then the episode is like "Here's some ✨superficial similarities✨. She is now going to leave the plot entirely and be 💖homeless💖"

[cto10121]

Book Fiyero: *immediately recognizes Elphaba and stations himself at the backdoor to prevent her from evading him, stalks her halfway across town to her aerie (even though at that point in time she was only a college friend he hadn’t seen in five years), insists on seeing her again, instinctively goes to comfort her when she first cries, gets sucked into increasingly deep and fraught conversations with her about collateral damage and freedom fighter terrorism, calls her the “most individual, the most separate, the most real” DURING AN ARGUMENT, says he adores Elphaba’s looks IN THAT SAME ARGUMENT, doesn’t understand Elphaba’s “being born with a talent or an inclination for goodness is the aberration” comment because (implied) he sincerely believes Elphaba isn’t evil, changes his mind about the plight of the Animals all by himself but doesn’t mention it to Elphaba because he is afraid she would distance himself from him, buys scarves for both his wife and Elphaba even though only Elphaba likes scarves, is so concerned for Elphaba and her dangerous Lurlinemas Eve mission that he stalks her instead of staying at his club or just leaving town altogether, and is so worried about her that he returns to the aerie just to see her*

Also Book Fiyero: Am I in love with Elphaba?

[enjolrevoir]

tee hee I bought myself some mini prints from @littlestpersimmon (bottom right), @shamedumpster (top right) and @/macedraws (left) and they finally arrived!! so excited I could throw up

ft. the wall in my dorm they live on 😋🫶

if you can actually locate these very tiny prints on this very large and cluttered wall you get a kiss on the forehead for perseverance and commitment

[x-enocyon]

new ldb in the works

[shiningnightstars]

uhmmm i looked at my loop playlist and saw it had 8 saves. even though i never posted it publicly yet! so since people seem to like it uh. here you go i guess! my very very self indulgent loop isat playlist.

hope you like it 👍

[ilovedthestars]

please send me strength and courage, there's a meeting of the campus aspec group this Friday and after like a year of "i should go to that but the activity they're doing doesn't sound fun" or "i wish i could go to that but I have a time conflict" the stars have finally aligned to produce a meeting I am both interested in and capable of going to, and I'm being forced to confront that underneath those two excuses was actually the third excuse that I'm really scared that i'll go and hate it

[tblsomedoodles]

Donny's info from my 03 separated au (which i think i'm just calling the Ninja Club au for now. b/c it's stupid and gives me high school vibes.)

But yeah! I wanted to post Mikey here as well, but he's not done yet. (my cringe son will have to get his own post. Darn lol.)

ANYWAYS! Details!

Donny, of course, was raised by the Jones family after they all got separated during a sewer collapse (or something. I may rework the that later) when they're about 2-3 yo. Donny gets found and brought home by a 9 yo Casey.

Splinter finds him when he's eight and spoke with him briefly. But Splinter was in disguise so Donny didn't recognize him past a vague feeling of safe (which he fought against b/c this is Donny.) After realizing that Donny is safe and well taken care of, Splinter leaves him be. (the best splinter could offer was a place in the sewers and if Donny was able to not live in the sewers, Splinter was not going to take that away from him.)

They gets reunited with most of his mutant family (Raph's still missing) when their fifteen. And that's only b/c Mikey refused to wait anymore and surprised him late at work before Splinter could tell him not to.

He's pretty confused about it all, at first, but he eventually happy to have contact with his siblings. (tho he's less stoked about the adventures he keeps getting dragged out on during school nights.)

for the first few months, he's very against learning to fight. He's a high schooler. Sure Mikey and Leo can fight, but that doesn't mean he has to learn.

But then there's an incident involving Shredder, Leo, and a very breakable window, and he realizes he needs to learn so he's not the weak link and so he can protect himself and his brothers. (it also helps that they found out the Shredder had been targeting Donny for said treatment first due to his lack of training and how easy it would be to grab him from school. But Donny hadn't went to school during those days so they went after Leo instead.)

I have so many stupid ideas for this, you have no idea. anyways, that's all for now. Mikey's might be up later today, but i have work to get to rn.

edit: Links for Mikey, Raphael, and Leo's info dumps

[g1ngerbeer]

what kind of sauce are they putting in the link click audio drama. HELLO? THE LITERAL LAST SCENE OF THE LAST EPISODE?

程小时: 说起来，我们第一次见面，也是在篮球场吧。 陆光: 是啊。 程小时: 你我本无缘，全靠一颗球。 陆光: 我就不该答应你比那场。

cheng xiaoshi: speaking of which, the first time we met was also on a basketball court, wasn't it? lu guang: it was. cheng xiaoshi: (half-jokingly) you and i weren't meant to be [lit. "originally have no fate"?]. this is all because of one basketball. lu guang: i really shouldn't have agreed to play that match.

(the important bits are from google translate because i am bad at mandarin. also i did transcribe this off just the audio + i don't have access to captions or know where to find official transcripts. so i hope i got this right 🙏)

[local-loudmouth]

hc baseball rarely/never swears but maybe under his breath a bunch- but when he does it’s a literal SHOCK to everyone lmao (I bet u any money nickel teases him about it)

[shoechoe]

i can never get over diavolo being canonically punk

[saints-who-never-existed]

Y'all ever think about Goodsir, Fitzjames, and Blanky?

Y'all ever think about those three characters in a show about every kind of consumption under the sun - physical, mental, emotional consumption, being eaten up by the landscape, by your own demons, by your fellow man. Those characters who don't resist it in the end?

Who die, in fact, with the express intention of being consumed?

I think about them. Not coherently, but I think about them.