#but what really gets me every time are the little cultural details in the music

[queenlucythevaliant]

We see him come and know him ours

Russia: "Carol of the Russian Children," traditional // Kenya: The Nativity, Elima Njau // France: "Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella," Nicolas Saboly // Haiti: Madonna and Child, Ismael Saincilus // Australia: "The Three Drovers," William James // China: Tryptic by Lu Hongnian // Canadian/Algonquian: "Huron Carol," Jean de Brébeuf

[flamingo-writes]

What would you think if Hobie asks reader to cut the ends of his hair that bother him because of the mask and while she was doing it, she sang a nice song to him, meanwhile some little flowers began to bloom around them.

Really like the last post and this came to my mind immediately.

Listen, I’ve been daydreaming of this the entire day. I think this idea was very cute!

Also, little disclaimer: I was born and raised in Mexico, so, I’m very unfamiliar with how black people’s hair works. I know culturally it has a lot of importance, but other than that I knew very little of the different types of hair and ofc the insane variety of treatments and proper care as well as the different ways to give maintenance to different kinds of dreads. Also, as someone who has had very short hair for 2/3 of my life, as well as shaving my own head for the better part of the last 4 (5?) years, in general hair care and routines are something I’m wildly unfamiliar with, the longest I had my hair in the latest years was a 6 inch or so Mohawk I grew two years ago. Hobie has been a very good opportunity for me to educate myself a lot in hair (especially black people’s hair) and I spent a good portion of my evening watching videos/TikTok’s and reading on dreadlocks and their maintenance. If I wrote something inaccurate or wrong, please let me know, help me see my mistake, and I will fix it as soon as I can.

This came from this other request, I’m thinking of turning into a series.

Flower Bed — Hobie x Reader

Also, you said little flowers, but my brain decided to go for a full flower bed 😭 I hope you like this!

Warnings: none.

“Oí, luv…” Hobie said walking out of the bedroom, looking around you.

“Bathroom!” You shouted as he followed your voice, noticing the bathroom door opened and you kneeling by the shower.

Plants cramped in the shower as you watered them.

“Oh, never mind, you’re busy” He said.

“I’m almost done. I just need to water the ones in the kitchen sink and the monsteras…” You said as you’d todo up and stretched your back. “I’ll be done in ten minutes, what’s up?”

“I wanted to ask you if you could help me trim my hair, it’s starting to get long and gets stuck in the mask and, you know…” He asked softly. “But I can’t see the back of my head,”

“Sure, I’ll help you,” You said giving Hobie a kind smile.

He smiled back, walking up to you and kissing your forehead.

“Need help with the plants?”

“As you wish,” You replied happily. “You were asleep earlier and didn���t want to wake you, so I started watering them on my own…”

“I’m awake now,” He said. “I’ll water the monsteras,”

“Thank you, babe,” You purred.

By the time you were done with the plants, you went ahead and started helping Hobie out. You sat on the edge of your bed, as he sat on the floor. Since Hobie was tall, this was the most comfortable arrangement. It wasn’t also the first time you trimmed his wicks. He asked you to help him every few months.

As you put some soft music in the background, you got started, trimming dread by dread. Taking care to cut the hair while keeping the end of the dread rounded. Cutting just across each wick was already hard as they were thick, but you also wanted to keep them looking nice and rounded. Which was also a reason why Hobie asked you for help. You did a much better job at it than him.

Even when he didn’t admit it, or didn’t look like it, every single detail in his appearance was planned. Especially his hair. He liked taking care of it, and over all treated his hair like this very intimate thing, he hated having other people touching his hair. Except you. He actually loved it when you touched his hair, ran your hands through it, your fingers disappearing between the dreads. And the particular care and dedication which which you seemed to tend to every wick.

Deep in your concentration, watching over the little details, you were unconsciously singing. Something you also did quite a lot. When you were deeply focused on something, you’d start humming and eventually singing. Which only added to the relaxing time Hobie was having.

Between your gentle hands running through his hair, and now the soft sound of your voice singing in a low voice, going along with the music. Hobie lived for these little peaceful moments, making him feel absolutely contempt with his life. These little moments were everything to him.

As he had his eyes closed, focusing on every brought of your touch against him, he didn’t notice at first the plants growing around you.

It wasn’t plain on obvious. In fact, Hobie didn’t notice until he felt something tickling his elbows. He opened his eyes and saw flowers growing out of the floor, tiny plants growing buds and flowering. All in a matter of several seconds. And you continue to sing, concentrated. He blinked several times, wondering if you were aware of what you were doing, as he kept staring at the flowers growing and multiplying, coming out of the wooden floor tiles.

“Uh, luv?” Hobie asked in a low deep voice.

“Hm?” You hummed, answering Hobie’s question, sounding way too focused in your job as you were rounding one of the last wicks.

“Are you aware of the fact that you pretty much brought spring into our bedroom?”

“Huh?” You asked confused, breaking your hyper focus and looked around, noticing the flowers covering almost the entirety of your floor. White, red, lilac, and pink flowers, extending across your small bedroom. “Fuck,”

Hobie laughed softly.

“You didn’t notice?”

“N-no…” You whispered softly.

“That’s amazing…” Hobie sighed. “It’s beautiful, by the way…”

“The thing is I don’t know how to…un-grow them…And they’re a lot…” You said softly, the concern building in your voice, making Hobie chuckle. “What are we going to do with all of them?”

“We can always collect them and sell them or whatever, you know?” Hobie chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…”

“In the meantime, we can always enjoy this beautiful scene, what do you say?”

“You’re way too calm for someone who has his bedroom full of flowers…”

“You made them. They’re beautiful. I don’t see the issue, basically a work of art,” He said looking at you over his shoulder, as you rolled your eyes playfully at him.

“Hobie, pollen give you allergies,”

“Sleeping on a flower bed one night isn’t going to kill me,” He pointed out. “Besides, ever since the spider thing, I get less allergies from flowers,” He said lifting a finger up, making you chuckle.

“Fine! You win this argument!” You chuckled.

“You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah, I love you too”

“That’s why I don’t mind the flowers. Because you made them,”

You leaned forward and pressed a kiss on Hobie’s cheek before you continued tending to the last two wicks.

“Thank you,” You said.

“For what?”

“Being you,” You sighed. “I’m not precisely fascinated with all the flowers in the bedroom, but the fact that you are, makes me feel better”

“Why, you’re welcome, sweet’eart. Thank you for helping me with my hair,” He said looking at you and giving you a cheeky smirk.

“Anytime,”

[jmdbjk]

Baby Stud Candy

JK still sounded very nasally. I hate it when they have to fight a cold while performing live. Yoongi had to do that too while on his tour.

JK said he felt worse the day of the One Show performance than he felt the day before and he was a little stressed about it but then all of that disappeared once he got in front of Army.

He said promotions were over and some of it didn't go as planned. It felt really limited but he was grateful.

He goes on for a few minutes about singing off key a little and messing up a little during the performance. He knows he can't be perfect all the time but he still had fun even if he made mistakes.

JK wants to have an ease and openness with us. He wants to just be himself and say whatever is on his mind... honesty. That's all he wants with us. Honestly, he's been that way for a while now.

He said if he didn't have that heart, he would just be done with work and just have fun getting drunk. But here he is telling us what he truly wants.

Mr. Unserious.

He apologizes if the sculpture has some sort of cultural significance...

I'm afraid someone in the hotel's housekeeping staff got fired yesterday...

the unseriousness...

He reiterates what every member has said... that after solo activities, when BTS comes back together as a group...

He contemplated again, why do Army love him so much? He said he would try harder to live up to our love that he feels.

He doesn't care. Think what you want. He just wants to be comfortable being himself when he is with us like this.

He reads a comment about growing a beard and he says he has very little facial hair... a true baby face. Which adds to his Giant Baby Villain label.

And now we get to the nitty gritty...

His reply? "Tell me why is that a dirty version? Explain yourself." And he looks a little perturbed at that question. Like about to throw hands or something. Then he says people have different attitudes about what the explicit version means and there's nothing he can do about that.

He went on to say he's been in this business for ten years, please respect his age, and that unless he shows us something new using his own free will to do so, he knows he won't be acknowledged. It's only something HE can do. He has to be the one to set things straight because AS WE'VE SEEN when things are not said clearly and in detail, people will run with whatever narrative suits their know-it-all-glass-half-empty view of life.

He goes on to say he's had the image as "youngest" and he knows we've loved that. But he is not the youngest amongst idols anymore. He admits he lived up to his maknae image but now he wants to break free of that. It's HIS life that HE needs to change.

HOW. MANY. TIMES. HAS. HE. ASKED. TO. NOT. BE. BABIED?

He questioned if he and us could be happy until the end if nothing changed. Realistically, no. But there are those out there who don't want anything to ever change. I've heard people say they wish BTS would make music like they used to do in the first few years... which is antithetical to everything they've been telling us this past year. Things change, people change, everything changes.

JK says he was fearful of trying new things/changing but he decided to stay true to himself. It is unclear to me if he meant we created this circumstance or we created the motivation for him to change.

He says his choices may make some of us uncomfortable and he will try to keep that in mind. He is using his lives as a way to listen to what we want, how we feel, our reactions. He wants us to be honest, to give honest words back at him. He is trying to tell us to grow up and mature along with him. He has said this before.

He wants to feel like he can collaborate with us in some things. That would be cool except for the people who think they can run his life better than he can. But he does have an idealistic way of wanting to relate and communicate with us. This desire of his is sweet and authentic.

He pretty much admits he is just rambling his stream of thoughts to us at that moment.

We should all know that everything is not always a one-sided proposition. That some people might get "hurt" and he never wants that to happen but he has to balance what he wants and what we want. And surely we understand that. I can't get over how frank he is. I love it. I want Jimin to come here and speak to us like this.

He says he is just a 25 year old man speaking his thoughts and though it might not be "broad-minded" (I disagree, he's been very broadminded this live) he wishes us to "get" where he's coming from... to understand his point of view on these things. He's been very tolerant and patient with us.

He mentions why he stopped using Instagram. What he says is that Instragram has its usefulness but it's not as real and authentic as he wants to be. Its true, IG is great for communicating and its strength is visual but sometimes the images or video clips are not really showing authenticity in its whole. It is a very skewed way of presenting things, which is why companies love it for touting their products.

He read a comment for him to just do whatever he wants, but he says he wishes he could, however in reality, who can really do everything they want? He refers to what he's doing as his job. I think people forget that this is his job. And he can't do EVERYTHING he wants, that would also be unrealistic and we should know better.

And apparently he answered a comment that asked if he was drunk... and he said yes and that's why he was saying all this though even if he wasn't he would be saying it anyway because:

He doesn't want to worry about what we think or what the company thinks he just wants everyone to be comfortable with being real.

He says those who don't approve, thanks for being here while you were here but he's going to continue being himself whether anyone likes it or not. In other words, there's the door, don't let it hit your ass on the way out.

He became interested in the bad lighting in the room and all of a sudden turned on the light on the device he was using...

Does this mean he is done sitting in his dark house with only his Mikrokosmos lamp on and the light from the television screen the only illumination in the room? Please?

Right before stepping away to use the restroom he looks at some notes he wrote...

He made talking point notes which is very endearing and also shows he has a purpose when he comes to visit us

... again, he sings while he pees...

Still keeping it real in replying to a comment about how soft his skin looks...

He expressed his desire to meet up with Army, have a drink, shoot the shit... someone says "would you be able to handle Army?" ... ... ... was that a challenge? Thou shalt not challenge thee Jeon Jungkook to a drinking contest me thinks. The man could probably drink anyone under the table. Except maybe Jimin.

He suggests he make a program in which he can converse comfortably with Army ... and he says the company is going "wtf JK"... a JK version of Suchwita but with Army... could be like Jin on Young Ji's Youtube show except JK with Army... see who passes out first:

TMI: Vodka gets JK drunk fast... (files that away in my fun facts)

He goes on to say maybe one day we can get together and talk about it all like the adults we are... he'll just continue being himself even though...

He had other stuff he wanted to say, he thinks he is bad at saying what he wants to get across. He'll say it again next time. lol.

He continued on as if we were saying our good byes ... "tell your parents I said hello (lmao)" and for us to call him, or wait, he'll call us first... let's have a meal next time (I've heard this is a common idiom in casual Korean conversation and doesn't really mean let's go have a meal, its just polite conversation)... but it appears he'll be hard to contact because:

Don't know how anyone could hate him...

Though he'll always be the baby of the BTS family, we now have this bonified Stud Candy walking the bora streets.

So does this mean I can't call him Kookie-pookie anymore? The Bun? Giant Baby Villain?

He came to this live with a purpose. He has seen the feedback over the song, of course he has, he said he was wondering whether to release both versions and then decided to just go for it so of course he was going to monitor the results. He will certainly keep moving in this direction of a more motivated, more forthright and authentic Jungkook in the future. And he's told y'all if you don't like it, it's ok, just step aside while he and the rest of us come on through.

[jechristine]

I understand why you don't want to talk about it, every time you touch on something related to black people you get multiple asks and sometimes other TZ blogs correcting or enlightening you so it's fair if you don't want to tackle Kaz and his non-existent relationship with his daughter just in case. Your friend who thinks it's "cruel" to talk about it is insecure about being corrected and she wants to seem progressive at all times so it's predictable she doesn't want to touch on that either

How unnecessary it is to talk about something has never been a problem for you two so I'm not buying it. Suddenly you don't want to look deeper into it and make a long post and she doesn't want to be an asshole? Please

I’ll let @wetheoriginals speak for herself if she wants to. But I have to say that she’s never come across to me as insecure, not when we’ve disagreed or otherwise.

As for the first part of your ask: every time that we go around about the Vogue quote + paraphrase—which was Zendaya saying that if she were romantically involved with any of her costars they’d have to deal with her dad and brothers, implying that the men in her family gatekeep her sexuality—I say (or imply at least) that I can’t stand the idea of men, including male family members, “protecting” daughters, sisters, wives, girlfriends, etc. from other men. I don’t care for any kind of chivalry, really. (I do like non-gendered politeness, however!)

I basically think what Jablonka is quoted as saying here:

(From here)

One of the last few times we went around about the Vogue excerpt, a few Black anons wrote in to share that the long history of violence and oppression against Black women, during which they were/sometimes still are left completely vulnerable, lives on in the ways in which some in the Black community conceive of men protecting women—as necessary for survival. I admit it’s still really hard for me to unsee chivalry as “a benevolent sexism that complements hostile sexism,” but I can entertain that my pov is a function of my own identity as a white middleclass woman.

One of the many differences between Tom and Zendaya is that Tom is always talking with great reverence and in detail about his dad’s impact on him, and his dad is literally at this very moment and to some of my followers no doubt selling info about Tom for money. Zendaya hasn’t said much specifically about her dad in a number of years, which is one reason that I bring up that little quote from Vogue every time Kaz comes up.

If I have anything to say about Kaz’s impact on Zendaya, then, it’s around this idea of protection. Kaz and Claire brought her into situations (Hollywood/Disney) that then required him/them to protect her an extra amount, and that’s a kind of control, which becomes ickier when you consider how both have tried to profit off of her success. Even if Zendaya has internalized cultural trauma around being a Black woman, and I do believe that’s possible, the specific dynamic of a dad bringing his minor daughter into an adult world raised the stakes around his protection. What’s more, in some ways Kaz let her down. Every time that “read your contract” and Zendaya’s music career come up I think, well, wasn’t it actually Kaz’s job as manager and father of a minor to read that contract? What exactly happened there?

But I’m not sure how that shows up in Zendaya’s life now because she doesn’t let us see too much. Her choosing Tom—a fairly chivalric boyfriend—is maybe the best indicator that she still thinks she needs or maybe she desires protection from men? 🤷🏻‍♀️

But again, Zendaya isn’t regularly talking about Kaz’s great impact on her and all his words of wisdom that she lives by. Additionally, whatever impact he’s had on her has been colored by whatever sort of falling out they’ve had. She’s probably examined their relationship now that she’s got some distance from it.

For that reason, Zendaya’s relationship with her mom is maybe more interesting?

[donnerpartyofone]

Sometimes life takes on the thematic consistency of a movie, and this is always thrilling even if you know intellectually that all of your impulses and machinations have to come from the same subconscious place.

At the beginning of the week I saw an interesting horoscope prompt to write an obituary for your past self and bury it in the ground. I decided to do this, perhaps because I have been burning for change for several years now on a level that has been making me much more insane than I already am. I thought it would feel forced and pretentious to write the obit, but it was really easy, particularly easy to see what the "past self" consists of when I notice all the things I do now that I couldn't before. It was a good feeling, that it was so obvious to me what to write. I buried it where we spread our lizard's ashes, a place where there is a view of the Statue of Liberty. Sometimes I hang around there and analyze what "liberty" means to me in a culture where we often take it for granted as a foundational principle, even though this isn't very true in practice.

It happened to be the summer solstice. On midsummer's eve I had been strangely full of energy. Someone posted a section of coptic midnight praise music, so I got out of bed and listened to that on repeat for about an hour before getting two or three hours of sleep. I woke up around dawn feeling refreshed and experienced no fatigue for the rest of the day. Then I did the writing, and the burial. Oddly (or not), I would spend the next two days finally-finalizing my married name change on every outstanding account. Becoming a different person.

In the night I'd found myself looking at pictures of snakes, my favorite animal since childhood. In the morning I vaguely remembered something having to do with snakes and midsummer; in fact there is a Lithuanian grass snake entity that is supposed to protect the home and bring good fortune, and it is connected with a sun goddess who is naturally celebrated on the solstice. I even remembered that I had some Zaltys-themed perfume in my collection, so I dug that out and enjoyed it, a sunny and snakey smell. My seemingly random snake meditation was well-timed, not only calendrically but because my husband and I have been desperately searching for a new home. We got one the next day.

In less than 24 hours, we viewed an apartment in our (really MY let's be honest) favorite neighborhood, applied to lease it, and were accepted. Of course nothing with me is ever as cut and dried as that, and in reality it took several hours to get my application materials together and do banking bullshit and just stop fucking everything up. I started a post yesterday detailing all this, but now I'm too exhausted to fix it up and post it. Suffice it to say that almost every adult activity is almost Too Hard for me, I wish I understood the world better and I really do try but it's beyond my intellectual functioning, but every time I have to take care of some administrative nonsense I'm like a goldfish passing the same plastic castle like it's brand new. Sometimes it feels like everything I do is the hardest thing I've ever done, and my only source of pride is the willingness to keep doing it.

The apartment is only slightly too expensive, which we will trade for slightly more space in a much nicer neighborhood. We've been sitting on each other's heads in a hilariously small place surrounded by toxic waste (literally) for ten years, and in the last few years it began to feel like something that was holding us back, as people, in life. Like I needed so many things to change about my health, my job situation, my daily routines, my worldly possessions, and it just didn't feel possible for anything to shift in this little place that seemed to be shrinking every day. I became convinced that moving house would trigger all of the other changes, no matter how unrelated they might appear, and I still think this may prove true.

It may not be surprising that I started going to church during this time of constriction, when I could only expand my mind. I find it easy to love the intense fetishism of Catholicism, and its enormous pantheon of different guys with different attributes. It's got more guys than GI Joe, all with cool little backstories. Somewhere I read that you can bother St. Joseph for domestic needs. He is a guy who we know very little about, which is curious because the holy family is such a big deal; it seems that he died sometime before Jesus turned water into wine, but no one knows how. There is an incredible statue of him in Star of the Sea that is epically sad and exhausted-looking, I need to get a picture of him. I actually said a novena to Joseph for the new apartment...so now I guess I'm on the hook! Good thing I confused things by also asking my favor of the Lithuanian snake entity, so I don't have to just become a fanatical Catholic. I'll have to make a little joint altar in the new place for Joseph and the serpent.

While I was changing my name on the last bank account down in the financial district, my husband texted me to say we got the apartment. It was about an hour after we submitted our application. When I stepped outside, I realized I was around the corner from St. Paul's Chapel on Broadway, an ancient-feeling place surrounded by modern steel and concrete and glass. The cemetery that wraps around the building has a view of the Oculus, which presents an extremely strange view that I couldn't get a representative photo of, so all these exteriors are stolen and you'll have to try to imagine what I mean. I did go in, though. The atmosphere is very powerful, a center of oldness and spirit and allegorical thought in the center of this futuristic business orgy. I think that I'd like to be wealthy because of course that's what everyone wants, but also because it would increase my ability to be helpful and contribute to changes I want to see around me. I thought about this while I put some money in the offering slot and lit a candle.

In esoteric thought there is something called an egregore, which is sort of like a large-scale tulpa, an entity that arises from people's collective mental and emotional investment in it; Wall Street has an egregore, and the NFL, and Broadway, and Disney, and so on. St. Paul's Chapel does a great job of announcing itself as the seat of the egregore of New York City. I regret that I couldn't get a picture of this painting without the glare in the middle, although that does add a certain amount of drama. But anyway here we are, back to the concept of Liberty. Here's hoping the new apartment brings lots and lots of growth and change.

[whatmakesagod]

Some things that have helped me (so far) on my journey to writing a novel

Caveat that I am not agented and am still writing. I'm just sharing what is helping me in case it might help someone else.

Writing a query after 10k. Nothing sucks more than getting 40k in and realizing that you don't actually have stakes. Or character motivations. Or a throughline. Or worse, all three are missing. If you are a pantster/gardener like me, it really pays to write until you've had a bit of time to get to know the world, plot, and characters and figure out what they are and what they are doing and then write a query. If you struggle to write it, you might need to pivot, especially if you realize all you have is events and characters passively doing things.

Be willing to let projects marinate. I'm not gonna talk about how many WIPs I have because that's a really embarrassing number. The amount of ideas marinating in the back of my head is even longer. When a project is just not working and you cannot force it, set it aside and give it more time. Come back to it when you're ready to tackle it; maybe you'll have new ideas and better ways to handle the subject matter or characters.

Writing short stories can be a great way to try things out. Want to improve your descriptions or combat scenes? Or maybe you really just want to get a better grasp on word choice and sentence variety. Maybe that idea can be developed further or maybe it's only meant to be a short story. Either way, the idea has been exorcised and you have a new project to develop your editing skills on on top of having worked on your other skills.

Do a reverse outline as you go. If you are not a plotter/architect, the idea of the outline can either be really scary or it can be counterproductive. If I write an outline before the work, I feel as if I've written it. The journey matters more to me than the destination and I lose all motivation if I have a finished, developed outline. Instead, I write a chapter and then jot down what the audience learns, what the characters learn/are revealed to have known, and the contents of the chapter. I also keep notes in a spreadsheet on characters, motifs, potential changes, themes, and worldbuilding details.

This is to my fellow pantsters: do not let yourself become too inspired by your New Favorite Thing when it comes to the WIP. Do not do it. Do not let the themes of infertility in the Witcher invade your retelliing of Snow White if you never had plans for it to be there without seriously thinking it over. Make a note, let it sit, and decide later when you are no longer as inspired. Sometimes it really can work and is the right choice. Other times...no. Mermaids do not belong in every project no matter much you love The Little Mermaid. Save yourself the grief of taking hard pivots you have to undo at a later date.

Not keeping everything in my head and writing it down. Things still in your brain are beautiful and perfect and are still so very malleable. You cannot possibly keep track of every aspect of your WIPs if it's only in your head and, worse yet, if you're anything like me, you cannot edit what you cannot physical see on the page. When it's on the page, then you can do the real work of figuring out if it actually works.

Regularly consume media from a variety of cultures, genres, and voices. Netflix has an incredible catalogue of works ranging from a Nigerian legal drama to a South African conspiracy teen drama to an Irish comedy about the Troubles and life under normalized violence to a South Korean historical zombie horror series. For books, there is a growing wealth of translated works from many different cultures and a sharp rise in diverse authors. Australia has it's own literary movements as does Japan and Brazil. There are more and more books by and for Queer and neurodivergent people. Even listening to music can help. It's important to see what groups outside of your own are doing in media and art, how they represent themselves and their identity/culture/history, and the kinds of stories they want to see and make. It might inspire you, but it's also a great chance to learn and help uplift other voices.

Reading. This is tied to number 7, but reading really cannot be understated. Read the age category and genre you want to write in. Read short stories professionally published online. If you do better with audiobooks, listen to audiobooks. Thankfully, more and more authors seem to be getting them.

Resources:

[journeytalkzsp]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: From the POV of a fangirl (Spoilers. Duh.)

So my friends asked for this and I adore that they actually care so I made it!

I needed at least a day to relax and collect my thoughts. I don’t normally do movie reviews as South Park is the only thing I talk about on here but Mario has taken over my life this year and it’s somewhat thanks to this movie! Again beware of spoilers! I have a lot to say, some good, some bad. But just know I warned you.

Just to give a little background, I’ve played Mario games since I was a kid, with my main two being Mario Kart Wii and New Super Mario Bros. on the DS. I’ve always enjoyed the games and I became an even bigger fan after playing Mario Odyssey (which to this day is my favorite Mario game… actually my favorite game of all time right behind Bully). I’ll admit I was worried the first time I heard about a movie, especially considering it was being made by Illumination. But after seeing the trailer I was HOOKED LIKE A FISH and reeled into the fanbase! I knew the promos and trailers would spoil a lot of the movie but there was nothing stopping me at that point.

And unlike most movies, I really enjoyed the months of hype leading up to it! I had so much fun over-analyzing the promos and discovering new fan artists… and read some incredible fanfics imma be honest. And of course catching up on all the games I missed out on as a kid! All this to say that as much as I enjoyed the movie, the outside effect of it was even better.

Now for the movie itself! Let me start off saying that it was clearly made with love. This wasn’t something made to market more games or advertise Nintendo. This was a thank you gift to the fans, new and old. They also went HARD with the promo! Being able to actually call Super Mario Bros. Plumbing? Genius.

The animation was beautiful. The attention to detail—like Bowser’s scales, the decor on Peach's crown and the highlights in the characters' eyes. So pretty. I also really loved how expressive every character was! It was so easy to tell what emotions they were feeling without the dialogue needed to express it. When y’all rewatch it, please pay attention to the beginning of the movie when Luigi finally gets his plate of food. His reaction is so freaking adorable and I wanna draw it. The action scenes were so fluid and Mario and Luigi’s bond was shown through touch alone. I loved that!

Don’t even get me started on the soundtrack. They really put their all into it and I recognized so many subtle melodies and themes that took me right back to playing the games! The end credits music legit made my friend cry, hehe yeah I’m calling you out. Even the few pop culture songs that were added were very well timed and not overused! Also the Plummer Rap from “Super Mario Brothers Super Show” was a brilliant start, even if I already listened to it a thousand times after it was released in the promo. That song even got me to check out the show itself. Only episode one though. Watching ghosts lick Bowser’s feet wasn’t it for me. Speaking of Bowser, his ballad to Peach was absolutely amazing. Wonderful performance from Jack Black and he even wrote it too! Please watch the end credits if you haven't, there’s MORE!

But I’d say my favorite part of the movie was the characterization. I know Miyamoto oversaw the whole thing but I’m still impressed with how accurate the characters’ personalities were. Luigi was perfectly anxious, Mario was protective and charismatic, Peach was agreeable and assertive and Bowser was tough yet insecure. The dynamics were also great! I loved how genuine Luigi and Mario’s bond was. I also enjoyed Mario and Peach's subtle flirting that never gets addressed in the end (which is exactly like the games, I seriously love it!). I’m also super glad that it showed a bit of Bowser and Kamek interaction. Although I would’ve loved them to explore their “father and son” bond. GIMME FOUND FAMILY DAMN IT. Oh yeah and Toad wasn’t annoying! He was definitely the comedic relief but they didn’t overdo it! Him and his huge kart was my favorite thing. He’s just a silly little guy.

They definitely made it their mission to absolutely fill the movie with references and it was much appreciated! My personal favorites being the game cube ringtone, blue shell, cheep cheeps and the environments as a whole. I enjoyed the appearances of side characters like Kamek, Spike and Pauline. But I was honestly hoping for a few more like Daisy, Rosalina, Toadette and JUNIOR AND KOOPALINGS, DANG IT! You’re telling me they put so much emphasis on Bowser's sentimental side but didn’t include him being a father??? (Yes I know the koopalings aren’t technically his kids but Junior is and I was really disappointed at the lack of his presence).

But that brings me to the few problems I did have with this movie. And they all stem from the runtime length. It was WAY too short. And not in the way of “omg I loved it so much I need more!” No. It actually needed to be longer. I even heard it was supposed to be but things were cut? The pacing was too fast and there wasn’t enough time for individual character arcs. Don’t get me wrong there were conflicts, but they were resolved almost as soon as they began.

I’m also disappointed in the lack of Luigi content once they left Brooklyn. He really was just put in a cage for most of it, which is what everyone was worried about. It was cool to see him confront his fears to save his brother in the end but it would’ve felt more emotional and deserved if we got to see his internal struggles during his capture. I really loved that hot air balloon scene where he recalls a childhood memory of him and Mario. That! That’s what I wanted more of! I know there wasn’t much he could do in a cage but I was really hoping he’d be involved in attempting to convince Bowser to not go through with his plans. Or maybe even a scene where he tries to encourage the others that were captured to work as a team to escape or something. Idk man, I’m sure they could’ve come up with something good if they were just GIVEN A LONGER RUN TIME. They could’ve done a lot with an extra 20 minutes. I promise for the animators sake I would’ve waited months longer for this movie. Or they could’ve cut the dog and eel scenes honestly.

And as much as I appreciated them showing Bowser’s sentimental side (seriously it was one of the things I was hoping for the most). I really wish they could’ve done something with it other than just comedy. Don’t get me wrong, Bowser was so cute trying to woo Peach. He made me smile till my face hurt. But it’s clear he’s really lonely and rejected, and they could’ve done something a little deeper with that. When he told Mario that he ruined his chance to “finally be happy” the whole theater went “awww”. In the end he could’ve learned love from his subjects or his FAMILY. Sorry I’m still pretty peeved about that. Even something as simple as him befriending Luigi would’ve been a really nice touch but I guess I ask for too much. But nope they just shrunk him, put him in a jar and left him like that. Even main antagonists deserve good endings at times. I was kinda hoping they’d pull a “Lego Batman Movie” and force him to see that he’s hurting his kingdom in the process of his pursuit and he’d need to help in order to get everyone back home. Kinda corny I know but Lego Batman managed to do it with Joker in a way that wasn’t OOC. I was just missing the complexity. Still, I can’t complain about Bowser getting the shit beaten out of him and the classic tail spin move. I’ll admit I’ve always found Bowser’s defeats hilarious in the games. Please look up the ending of Bowsers Fury if you haven’t played it. I laughed for hours. I’m sorry Bowser but your pain is my gain at times. Also the large group of people who sat behind us had the exact same opinions, which felt validating. THEY ALSO WANTED JUNIOR DAMN IT!

The merging between the two worlds at the end was pretty unexpected. I honestly think they added that in there so that Mario and Luigi could see their family again. But the concept of them being thrown into a magical world and not knowing how to get back home brings so much mystery and excitement. Kind of like how it felt watching The Owl House and Amphibia. But I appreciate that it’s implied they now live in the mushroom kingdom and can probably visit their family from time to time. Now that I think of it… going back to Luigi… why on earth would he want to stay?? He was sent straight to hell the moment he got there and was put in a cage for the rest of the movie and almost died a gruesome death. If Luigi had more screen time where he befriended someone, ANYONE, it would’ve given him an incentive to actually stay, other than just sticking with Mario.

Overall I’d say the movie did what it was set out to do. Which was to give fans a fun, nostalgic adventure. I’m not too sure if one would enjoy it if they’ve never played a single Mario game. It went hard on the animation and soundtrack, the voice actors did a good job (especially Jack Black and Charlie Day. Hell, even Chris Pratt did a good job). It wasn’t perfect. It was definitely too rushed for my taste and I would’ve appreciated it if they had slowed things down a bit. Luigi is currently my favorite character, so naturally I’m disappointed we couldn’t get more of him. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it more on the rewatch.

I suppose I should format this like my South Park reviews for the sake of consistency.

So that means it’s time for the ratings!

Things I liked:

• Bowser. Every moment he was on screen made me happy. I love him so much.

• The characters' personalities were spot on!

• The facial expressions and character designs. Very pretty movie to look at fr!

Things I disliked:

• Too fast paced. Needed room to breathe.

• Kept asking “where’s Luigi?”

• A general lack of my favorite trope “found family” when they easily could’ve used it with Bowser

Should I do ship of the day too? Eh, may as well. Congratulations Bowuigi! That damn trailer spawned a bunch of y’all even though the ship is a decade old. Hope y’all didn’t go into the movie expecting too much. It’s alright, we’ll get ‘em next time boys.

Final rating:

8/10

A good movie that was loyal to the games but the wait for it was better. I’m gonna go play Mario Galaxy now.

…peaches, peaches, peaches peaches peaches 🎶

[interlockingpatches]

Im gonna ramble in your inbox for a bit lmao, I have a few ideas!

What about music themed?? Like music notes, treble clef, etc (idk a lot about musical notation honestly but ik theres a lot of symbols). My next thought was instruments but usually those are super detailed, like string and brass? A Harp?? The simplest i can think is like, some piano keys would make a cute design, or maybe just the headstock of a guitar! God, brass instruments would be so intense to make, i just looked at a saxaphone and I'm freaking out thinking of the detail and how impressive that would be. Or maybe physical media like a vinyl record or a little cassette tape? A little boombox, record player, or radio?

Going off of that, I think people really like decade themed/nostalgic stuff. I love 70s things personally so i may just be projecting, but i think 80s and 90s vibes are super popular! You could look at toys, technology, icons, and popular colors of an era, things like that and that might be inspiring!

Also thinking about summer themed designs since summer is coming up! Seasonal stuff is so cute and I notice people are always looking for little seasonal projects! Surfboards, beach umbrella, a fruity lil drink, are things that come to mind for me!

The more i write the more ideas i think of but this ask is already huge lmaooo so ill leave with these and hopefully its not overwhelming

First of all I will not be out-rambled in my own house lets gooo

These are all so good and sensible and fun! Thank you so much! I spent a day and a half sketching out just some of them (and going off an a few tangents), and there are a few already that I can't wait to actually pattern up and make <3

Musical instruments and notation are both perfect and super hard for the format. They're so detailed, like you said, and their design is so specific; it's hard to know what can be fudged or elided without getting the whole thing irredeemably wrong. (I've had the same problem with birds and arthropods). Like, how many of the saxophone's fourteen-hundred eldritch appendages *do* I need to show? I could include them all, and the motif would be the size of a bedspread and take a month and a half to crochet, and I perversely want to do that now so thanks also for that.

Even in that keyboard motif (which, you'll have to trust me, is a very good likeness of Casio keyboard whose demo song was the soundtrack to my early childhood) is already over twice width of my largest typical designs, and it would have to be twice as big still for me to space the keys accurately.

Decades are a great organizing conceit! They lend themselves to a kind of idiosyncratic hodgepodge that really appeals to me, and "random collection of old things that you remember" is a trope people don't seem to ever get sick of—and new things are getting old every day. They're also a way to ease into pop culture references, which I haven't really done, and which might offset some of my Debbie-Downer tendencies (when you suggested "70s things" my actual first thought was "what do quaaludes even look like?" My first idea for the 80s was "Margaret Thatcher demolishing a council house," and my thought process for the 90s went "Monica Lewinsky's dress, OJ Simpson's gloves, Tonya Harding's crowbar… NAFTA?" Terrible patches, all. What people want as a little picture of a sofa at a jaunty angle with a caption that says "PIVOT!").

Anyway. I'm especially excited to try the disco ball, the record and the off-brand Tamagotchi (I preferred Gigapets, personally). Those all have double-length diagonals that I've freehanded a few times and know to work at least okay, but which I haven't figured out how to notate. Oh! and I haven't got a beach umbrella that I like just yet, but the hurricane cocktail seems like a good way to kick off a summer collection—as long as I don't follow it up with, like a graph of yearly average temperatures, which is something I would absolutely do.

[haruharuz]

Hey

I saw that you currently in the process of learning Korean. I also wanna do, problem is that every resource (Books, Grammar Books etc) start somewhere else and often provide the stuff i dont consider important to learn first (for example i dont need to know the words for Aunt or Uncle right away as i dont have any and don’t think that would be a beginning conversation topic) so i wanted to ask: how do you learn? When do you learn Grammar? Which words did you learn first? Any other tips you have?

OO oo! A question about Korean !! Yay!! Okay so this might be a bit of a long answer but I highly encourage you to read through it.

Something really important to understand is that while those lessons might not seem important, they are. In Korean, you're much less likely to call someone by their name, especially if they're older. This is why they're teaching you things like "aunt" and "uncle" in korean. Because you typically refer to someone by their title and not their name. Now this does change, you CAN refer to people by their name, but it's kind of complicated and you can learn about that later.

Secondly, I use multiple resources but the two highly encouraged will be talk to me in korean and how to study korean.

Talk to me in Korean is typically much easier to grip onto and understand for people, the lessons are very simple and plain. Where as How to study korean goes into a lot of detail and can sometimes be confusing but it is really good for when you need the nitty gritty of some grammar.

Here's what I recommend as someone who has failed time and time again and learned from my mistakes!

Learn the alphabet (it takes about an hour and a half)

Learn basic vocabulary (NAVER dictionary is your friend) and so are anki flashcards

Learn basic grammar (How to study korean / talk to me in korean)

Immediately begin immersion (listen to music, watch shows in korean, begin reading in korean even if you don't understand it)

Use a language exchange app to further your learning

Something I want to stress is that a large part of learning a language is doing pretty much everything at once. An example of a good study routine for korean would be : Vocabulary flashcards > Grammar practice > Immersion > Post to language app

For practicing grammar, take sentences you see and spend time breaking down each part of it. Grammar and all. This will help you get a good grasp on where things are placed in korean!

Listen listen listen! You have to learn how to hear Korean. You can't just magically understand it, there are double consonants etc that are REALLY difficult to distinguish from eachother especially at first. So make sure you're reading, listening, and speaking (out loud) daily. That was a big mistake I made.

My first ever word / phrase in Korean was 배고파요! (bae-go-pa-yo) In Korean, this means "I'm hungry!"

I wanna get into some personal tips about it!

Don't ever let anyone immediately speak in banmal (informal) to you! That is a huge cultural no-no, they're just doing it because they think they can disrespect you. They need to speak formally until permission is established.

When you're talking to someone in korean, do not use 당신 for "you" It's considered disrespectful

Speaking of that, Korean's don't state the obvious. If everyone knows who you're talking about (as in it has been established previously) or it's just super obvious, you don't need to say "i/you/etc" because they already know.

Culturally, Korean people tend to avoid being "too straight forward/too blunt" I'm not sure why, but it's a really big deal there. If you're very blunt, they'll be shocked.

Kids shows and songs in korean will be easier for you to grasp than watching something complex!

Don't be afraid to text people in korean :0 typically Korean people are very sweet when it comes to mistakes. You'll run into some assholes but that's everywhere.

If you have disney plus, watch movies and shows in korean (you can change it in the little sttings for subtitles)

Other stuff and resources:

Test your Korean listening

Listen to korean on your commute

Korean children song

Here's some phrases and words I recommend learning first:

Stop that!

I'm hungry.

I want to eat

Did you eat well?

How have you been?

Sorry!

Please

Of course/Right

Learn well and good luck! You can always send me an ask if you are having trouble and need some help looking for grammar etc. Just remember, it may seem useless to learn certain words/things but it is vital to your fluency later on.

[wikagirl]

Okie dokie my honey sweety sugar boos. I know I said I wasn't gonna get active in this fandom, mainly bc I don't play the game a lot outside of the story campaign because I turn into a terrible person in pvp also, I don't even own the game, my brother lets me snickerdoodle his steam account to play both the og mw2 and the remake story and that's all I did gameplay wise, but I have been obsessively reading the lore of the new characters because my brain chooses my hyperfocus and I do not get to have a say in it so here we are.

Below the cut we've got in the following order: -A warning and explanation about my chaotic writing style that you can just skip -some additional info about where I'm from and how it plays into the headcanons -Actual headcanons -Cultural foods I think könig would like -Music and musicians I think he would like

So I have been chatting with a buddy about the characters, thus furthering both our brainrot (we both have the weird tendency to get overly invested in the lore of games we don't even play, in our case cod, r6s and apex lmao) so here I am to curse your eyeballs with some more könig headcanons. I'll elaborate some more of my previous shitpost thanks to one single person asking real nicely for me to elaborate in the tags of a repost (yeah looking right at you @regretsabaddon, you enabled me to write this, now suffer the consequences <3)

Also this is a warning: I am an unmedicated adhder and you will 100% be able to tell, I am allready rambeling and overexplaining it will only get worse as I go. I'll do my best to elaborate on the really nieche cultural stuff, the elaboration will be (added to the main headcanon like this) so you can just skip over the explanation if you don't care for that kinda shit also I personally support every ship featuring könig, but I do definetly have a special little spot in my heart for könig and horangi in a best buddies kinda way because I love the big reserved behemoth + shorter feral gremlin dynamic.

Additionally, I am from a region called Franken which spans across several of the 16 states that make up germany, one of them being the most northern part of bavaria, idk if that actually matters for any of the shit I'm about to write but I though I might just bring it up......yeah

Now with that out of the way, lets get crackin'. All of this shit is in no particular order, I'm just writing them down as the come into my head. This is what my thoughts look like, welcome to hell.

The actual headcanons start here

-so first, I 100% think he was born in germany and then moved to austria with one of his parents being german and the other austiran. I'm gonna explain in detail why but if you don't care about the politics of serving in foreign military in germany or austira you can skip the whole next block.

(You can not join the german military as a foreigner without citizenship and even if he was born in austria his citizenship would have been revoked the second he joined the german military unless he lived on german soil with dual german-australian citizenship before compulsory service in germany was abolsihed in 2011. In that case he would have been allowed to join without losing his austiran citizenship. Also if I'm not mistaken his bio says he's german but the patch on his gear is the austrian flag so I personally like to believe that he grew up somewhere in bavaria close to the border and just decided to haul his ass down to austira and get citizenship there after his time in the Kommando Spezialkräfte meaning that he now either a dual citizenship or just purely austiran papers. (and I've read on reddit that they changed it to the german flag now? Don't know how true that is tho, can't fact check it atm bc I don't have the game installed. And in an offical blog enrty that you can find n the sources of the cod wiki he is said to be in the austrian jagdkommands? Make up your friggin mind. Or at least explain I'm getting confused))

-country kid, dislikes cities because they are crowded and too complex in layout, is totally fine with towns tho

-in my previous post I said that name wise he gives me major Torsten vibes and I honestly wish I could explain but I can't. You really need to have met a Torsten to know a Torsten and it just really fits. But if I had to decribe a Torsten it would be someone that gives of young dad energy, like has a kiddo in kindergarden type young dad, with a lot of anxiety, kinda protective of his loved ones but also with a childish streak (like an obesession with plushies for example) who can get very violent if he needs to....that's a Torsten.

-Same goes for what I think could be a really nice lastnmae form him. He gives off major „extemely hella old german“ lastname vibes, something like Grafeneck.

(„Dukes corner“ if you translate literally, again not a very common name but also not absolutely unheard of especially in the deep middle of nowhere bavaria)

-tldr. I headcanon his name to be something like Torsten Grafeneck

-Probably somewhere between 30 and 45

-has at least 1 tamagotchi

-is a digimon kid, the idea of having a digital creature buddy is probably also what led him to getting a tamagotchi (digimon somehow manages to have a really unhealthy grip on a big potrion of millenials and older zoomers in germany, especially the music. The german versions of intros and the transformation songs go hard af lemme tell ya)

-was one of these hella tall lanky kids in school and got bullied for being built like a flagpost

-joined the army bc he didn't know what to do with his life after school and just kind of went with it from there.

-emotionally he is still that twig of a man even tho realistically he knows that he could handle the spines of all of his old school bullies like a snap bracelet now

-probably also had some weird interests that only added to the bullying, might have even been the stereotypical nerdy kid that liked videogames and anime before it got cool/mainstream. Distanced himself from his interests/stopped talking about them in order to keep himself safe and now is just a little bit miffed about how something he used to get picked on for is now very popular.

-Mittlere Reife? Got it. (in germany you enter primary school at 6/7, after 4 years it splits into several different branches, those being Hauptschule, Realschule/Mittlere Reife and Gymnasium. Hauptschule takes 9 years and teaches you basicly all you need, stereotypically people who graduate from there do blue collar work. Realschule/Mittlere Reife is 10 years and seen as the standart/what most people go to and it's more or less the same as Hauptschule but they teach you more useless shit just to enable you to do the same jobs but with higher pay and a couple positions up in the corporate ladder. Gymnasium takes 12 years and enables you to go to uni, it's called Abitur or Abi for short. If you've got Mittlere Reife you can tag on additional 3 years in a seperate kind of Gymnasium to get your abitur too, but those ususally have a nieche thing they focus on. For example my abitur has a niche focus on economy and buissness, that's what we call a Fachabitur)

-used to have long hair in his late school years but chopped it off because of the high maintainance also if I'm not mistaken back when we still had compulsory service there were some rules rgarding hairlength that have since been abolished.

-went to a metal festival in his mid to late teens, had a blast but at the same time was constantly so overloaded with anxiety that he never wants to go again unless he can drag someone with him. Would have loved to have someone braid his hair but didn't have the courage to walk up to someone and ask/accept if it was offered to him. Goes absolutely WILD in the moshpit after a couple of beers and definetly has a whole ass playlist filled with songs to listen to back in camp. (there is this weird thing, idk if it's a purely german thing, but we sure do like to play the most annoying braincell-popping aneurysm inducing music while chilling in camp in between stage shows. It spans from hardbass-remixes of childrens cartoon intros all the way to several hour loops of the cantina band. Source: trust me bro.)

-loves his gandma a lot. Even though he's twice her height she still calls him her little boy and he loves it. Like I imagine his granny to be the type that sneaks her adult kids and grandkids candy as if they were 10 and is supportive no matter what even if she doesn't always quite understand. Also yes this is thechnically a gandma headcanon and not a könig headcanon but I don't give a shit and he deserves the greatest country-side grandma there is.

-könig ususally doesn't have a dialect unless there is someone else speaking dialect. Adapts the deepness of the dialect to the person he is talking with, in other words when he's talking with ganny even most other germans won't understand shit. Also as someone that understands the bavarian dialect he can prettymuch also understand every other german dialect because it can't get much worse except maybe what they speak in Köln depending on who you ask.

-can recognize what regions other germans and austrians are from just from the way they speak, sometimes even down to the exact ctiy because of how specific certain dialect tends to get over here.

-humms to himself when he is alone/thinks he's alone or with someone that he feels comfortable with

-has different playlist for different purposes bc he's very selfconcious about his music taste and thus doesn't listen to certain types of music around certain groups of people. As the (assumably) only german speaking member of KorTac he might listen to a lot of german music while on base bc it gives him comfort that noone understands his, in his opinion, questionable taste in music and the lyrics but definetly also has some songs in the playlist that he thinks/knows other on the base enjoy.

-his taste in music is over all very diverse with different languages (mostly english and german) and genres, some of them seem really contradictory (I might make a little list at the end when I run out of other stuff)

-is one of those guys in your friendgroup that seem very chill most of the time but have some deeprunning anger issues and the battlefield is his outlet

-doesn't like being the angry scary murder machine, but he does like the calm that washes over him after he let off some steam. The longer he goes without his outlet the more anxious he gets.

-the longest amount of eyecontact he's ever upheld with anyone was with horangi during summer, when they and a bunch of others had a bit of a dry spell in terms of missions and contracts to they all sat down for a beer together one evening. König gave Horangi the most intense deathglare as he watched the korean veeeeeeerrryyyyyyyy slowly add one icecube after a nother to his glass of beer, never breaking eyecontact in the process.

-Not a very picky eater but if you give him the chance to eat some classic german/austian food he definetly will choose it over any other option. He also is the guy that everyone gives their leftovers to when they can't finish their plate.

-same goes for drinking, however, he'd rather drink water from a swamp than Beck's (a beer brand, commonly the one you'll find at big festivals unless the festival has deals with local breweries, you either like it or think it tastes the way piss smells no inbetween)

-gets random muscle twitches in his eyebrows sometimes and he doesn't really know why

-alternates between having a little uwu kitten sneeze or the loudest eardrum busting ACHOO in existence

-it'll will take a loooooot of coaxing to get him over his anxiety but he's happy to cook with others if their housing situation allows for it.

-Everythone thinks he hates physical affection because of the way he always tenses up when he gets a pat on the shoulder or any other form of casual contact but he actually really likes it, he just doesn't know how to react really

-thanks to his past issues he will instinctively flinch when someone raises their hand too quickly (like for a high five for example), but it becomes less and less the close he is with the person

-has one of these angry-happy octopus things you can flip but the angy side is black and has red lines drawn under the eyes with a marker to match his sniperhood, the happy side is light blue with pale green dots.

-whittels wood to calm his nerves/keep his hands occupied, mostly animals from the wildlife of his home

-he LOVES highland cows. Compared to him they are basicly pocket sized plush cows (he's 210-ish cm and scottish highlands reach a shoulder hieght between 110-130 cm)

-he becomes different types of drunk depending on the perviously established mood and people he's with. When it's just him and friend he becomes the lazy sleepy snuggelbug kind of drunk, if he's in a party setting he will get a bit more hyper and loose some of his anxiety to the alcohol and if you make the mistake of letting him drink when he's allready feeling down then you better prepare for the big depresso.

-hugs people in his sleep, he has no conrtol over it but he's aware of the fact that he does it while asleep so he keeps his distance from others unless it's with his S.O or with a nother close friend but the latter will have to repeatedly tell him that it's fine and chill.

-ueses “Stadtkind” (city kid) as an insult regularly

-backpains....alot....also has a tendency to slouch down to make himself look smaller

-hates public buildings in germany because the standart door height is 1,98m and in some rare cases 2,10m meaning that he either has to duck down or just baaaaaarely fits with his hair grazing the top end of the doorframe as he walks through

-loves Karneval, or as it's called in bavaria: Fasching. He loves the fact that he can get dressed up n costumes, get wasted and basicly be a different person with less worries for a bit. Also loves the sense of community that comes with the events in some of the more rural areas, especially in towns were almost everyone is involved in organizing in some way. If he wasen't away from home so much thanks to being on base, he'd probably join one of the building groups that make the carts for the Karnevall parades on Rosenmontag but you'll probably never catch him as one of the people dressed up on top of the carts, he'd be the guy that walks along the parade in minimal costuming and acts as a security guy to make sure that everything runs smoothly. He'd probably have to do a good bit of Vorglühen (drinking before going to a party) if he plans on attending one of the Prunksitzungen (stageshows with comedy, dragging local politicans, dance, music and acrobatics) bc if he goes he wants to see the whole thing but since there are a crap ton of people there he'll need to muffle his anxiety beforehand.

-in a living with his S.O scenario he'd probably be the diy guy with a garage full of tools. No Ikea kitchen cabinets in his household.

-pet of choice? Big strong floofy dog that could probably murder someone by itself but is actually a really affectionate snugglebug

-casual gamer in his downtime. I can see him playing a variety of games like shooters (r6, apex), singleplayer rpgs (like elderscrolls series or the witcher) but also survival games. He'd probably play survival games as if they were animal crossing with a really aesthetic looking homebase and all the tameable pets where he just tends to his gardens and chills on the porch but with the bonus that he also get to deck some enemies in the face every now and then. Like he's the guy with the over engineered, perfect structural entegrity valheim base that looks like a small medival european town or he's the guy with the empressive treehouse in the redwoods in ark survival that spans across the entire forest and he definetly has one of the shoulder pets with him 24/7

-the only thing going on in his head while on a mission is the song from the "violent vincent-I'm going to kill your family" ring tone and you can't convince me other wise

-German/austiran foods he'd like probably like:

anything that includes Spätzle (basicly a german type of noodle even though it's not really a noodle bc the way the dough is made is very different from noodles but still, looks like noodle, eats like noodle, is a noodle)

Maultaschen (basicly german ravioli, they come in very different sizes. The small ones are usually as part of a soup, the big ones you eat as main dish with sauce and veggies. In some regoins they are also known as “Herrgottsb'scheißerle” which transaltes to “little lord cheaters” because the lore/legend of their origins is that a bunch of monks were gifted meat during the season of fasting and they didn't want it to go to waste so they made it into the filling for the german-ravioli so god can't see them eat the seasonally-forbidden meat.)

Germknödel/Dampfnudel (big floofy bun, usually filled with plum or cherry jam, eaten with vanilla sauce)

Schäufele/Schäuferl (littlerally translates to “little shovel”, it's the shoulderblade of a pig with meat still on it, eaten with sauce and various side dishes depending on the region but usually potatoes, spätzle or dumplings with either red cabbage or buttered veggies)

Lentil stew with flour-dumplinds and Wammerl (specific type of smoked beef)

Ahoj Brause (okay this is not a food but a soda, you can either get it canned or as little packets in powder form that you still have to mix with water. I can totally see him have a stash of the powder packs on base. Fun fact: ahoi brause was originally cancelled and taken off the market for a bit, less than a year, when the company was bought by Katjes (known for making vegan gummies but also other candies) but the germans got mad so they beought it back. Also one of the oldest unchangeing candy brands in terms of packaging in germany.)

bands/musicians and songs I think he'd listen to (but aren't limited to) + a short explanation of what the song is about if it's in german because some of the titles do be looking a bit questionable at first glance:

literally everything that Electric Callboy ever put out

probably some classic stuff (and with classic I mean stuff that everone can potentionally vibe with even if its not their main thing, not the opera stuff that's would be classical) like queen, bon jovi and, as much as we like to meme about them being bad, nickleback

A lot of songs by powerwolf

Also Feuerschwanz, most of their songs are medival/viking themed party songs with metal sprinkeled in, they also have some interesting covers of stuff like “gimme gimme gimme” or “dragostea din tei”

Alestorm

Bannkreis

Rammstein

MyDarkestDays

a bunch of songs by Santiano, Mr Hurly und die Pulveraffen and Versengold for a fun but relaxed drinking mood, all have a very “drinking in a tavern with the dnd-party” vibe

”Fahrradsattel” by Pisse (song is about a girl that wants to have serious relationship and get married but the singer just wants her to sit on his face lmao)

”Das ist alles von der Kunstfreiheit gedeckt” by Danger Dan (basicly just a guy singing about a whole lot of very questionable sometimes literally illegal to say stuff (like denying that the holocaust happened, yes that can literally get you into trouble with lawenforcement in germany) you could theoretically say and get in hella trouble for but get away with by claiming that it's covered by the freedom of art)

”Deine Schuld” by Die Ärzte (this song is literally a callout to all the doofuses that just complain about the world, stating that it's not their fault that the world is the way it is but it will be their fault if they don't make a move to change it)

”ich bin das Gesetz” by Eisbrecher (literally describes what I think König would be like on the battle field. A person that is also a feelingless well oiled machine there to execute a job)

”Hitler Töten” by Sudden feat. Alligatoah (dude thinking about all the stuff he probably should do if he had a time machine, like stopping the titanic from leaving the port or killing hitler, but he'd rather use it to get back into the arms of his last relationship, even if the relationship he describes was hella toxic)

”Du bist schön” by alligatoah (about people that have their looks as their only woth mentioning feature, also a criticism of the modern consumerism and the way we have people in poor countries make our clothes for sub-human pay)

”Willst du (mit mir Drogen nehmen)?” also by Alligatoah (literally just asking a girl if she wants to take drugs with him and a bunch of descriptions of all the fucked up shit they would do as they send their life down the drain)

”Hurt” by Oliver Tree

”Semi-Automatic” by Twenty One Pilots

”Stille Wasser” by Ignis Fatuu (song about a guy confrontig his now ex-best friend after said ex-best friend sexually assulted and possibly murdered a girl)

”Der dunkle See” by Unzucht (a metaphotical description of someones emotional state as a deep dark lake that seems to be unmoving and calm while actually being very tumultuous under the surface)

”Ein Wort flieg wie ein Stein” by Unzucht (a song from the perspektive of a guy who just had his girlfriend confess to him that she cheated. Her confession is described as a stone being thrown at him, shattering his heart like glass)

”Werben” by ASP (a song about wanting to literally be filled up, consumed and merged with ones love, described as dark magic and a devils concoction. Basicly if Gomez Addams were to sing about his love to Morticia but german)

”Krabat” also by ASP (muscial retelling of the german classic by the same name. It's a book about a guy named Krabat learning dark magic at the hands of a miller that has made a pact with the devil, giving him the power to turn into a raven. The song describes him flying across the land to escape his masters eye and be with his love)

”A little piece of heaven” by Avenge Sevenfold

”Love bites” by Halestorm

Songs for the silly “I will torture you with this until your brain goes numb” metal festival campsite/getting into the mood for Karneval playlist. I will not explain these because they either are songs that most people listen to when they are too drunk to understand the text anyways or pretty self explanatory so here I go:

”Helikopter 117” by Tobee

”Saufen, morgens, mittags, abends” by Ingo ohne Flamingo

”Margarethe” by Buddy Ogün

”Bück dich hoch” by Deichkind

”Leider geil” also by Deichkind

”Leb deinen traum” aka the digimon adventure intro

”Through the fire and the trains – Thomas vs dragonforce” by nick totsch on youtube

”Ferien in algerien” the 12 minute version by Knokator

”Tight pants/Body rolls” by lesliehall on youtube

the covers of “Barbie girl” and “boom, boom, boom, boom” by little V on youtube

And finally: Some phrases and quotes as well as german memery I could see him toss around with other german speakers. Also the dialect-ish stuff is written the way a german would say it, there is no gramatically correct way to write dialect....so good luck trying to pronounce that in your head

Starting off with a classic “Sprich deutsch du Hurensohn” literally transaltes to “Speak german you son of a bitch”, most commonly used in the german r/ichiel subreddit, though könig would probably only use it with peopl that he REALLLYYY knows he can use it without hurting anyones feelings so...almost never but just imagine him being in a convo with somebody in german and then somebody non-german, horangi for example, walks up and asks whats up, he drops the line and horangi just stands there, expression completely blank thanks to his mask and sunglasses, staring until könig start to apologize all worried and horangi just starts laughing because our big guy just worries too much.

”joa mei!” transaltes to something like “oh my!”

”na moin”/”ja moin” there is no literal transaltion for this, but it is used as an exclamation/reaction akin to going “lmao” after someone did something incredibly stupid or something funny happened.

”Pissnelke” literally transaltes to “piss carnation” it's just an insult used the same way as asshole but originated as a term for girls that men find....lacking in willingness to do certain stuff but it's just used for everyone nowerdays and I think it sounds hella funny

”hinterfortzig” is a verb that literally translated to “behind the cunt” so...just a very funky way to say someone behaves like an asshole Example: “man, Kyle really is acting like an asshole today” - “Mann, Kyle verhällt sich heute echt hinterfotzig”

”sapperlot!” exclamation of surprise.....if I catch anyone use this in an nsfw situation I will have you in a box

”warum liegt hier stroh?” it's.....from a clip of german porn that gets memed a lot....we LOVE to meme german porn because germans find german to sound very very un-sexy funnily enough. Just look up the clip on youtube if you really want to know I honestly don't have the braincells to explain this one

Also I think König would be the type of person that would be able to quote both “Schuh des Manitu” and “(T)Raumschiff surprise”, both movies by Michael Bully Herbig, by heart forwards and backwards. I don't think that there is a version with english subtitles out there saldy but they are a huuuge part of german meme culture. The first one is a winnetou parody and the second a parody of star trek enterprise.

Oh hey you've made it to the bottom of my size A4 8 page long, times new roman font size 12 adhd induced not proofread ramble about a character from a game I don't even play. Wowies you must be really really bored huh...

So yeah this is what goes on in my brain if I develop a hyperfocus and now watch me not even remember who this guy is in two weeks because my brain just do be jumping from one thing to a nother like that and it's honestly driving me insane please sent help.

Anyways I hope you had fun, plz don't take any of the shit I said as me trying to lay down the law. These are literally just random throughts I have in my brain about a fictional man and I honestly couldn't care less if you agree or disagree as long as you had fun on your way down here. And if you didn't have fun...welll...I'm sorry for your loss of braincells that you probably suffered while reading this

Have a good one.

[sensitivewires]

I think the Hazbin Hotel fandom is a really great example of the fruits of fandom blossoming truly because it has been directly and indirectly cultivated *perfectly*.

What I mean by that is that, even since my fuzzy memories way back of watching the snippets of the pilot before it fully came out way young, and the streams, just listening to all the little jokes and facts thrown in and watching the animatics that people would make for the quotes from those streams. Then we also can take into account the fact that (I think) Viv pulled/changed/used most of? All of? The characters in other things beforehand; I remember seeing a comic of Angel Dust being interrogated by an angel, I think, which is what made me start paying attention in the first place. Which is cool to remember, actually. Either that or Viv’s Die Young animation is what drew me in, I also really loved her Meghan Trainor animatic/animation. And the animation about the town with different numbers of eyes!

The point of all of those background faded memory details was to explain my thoughts on how many different ways people were drawn in even before the pilot, or Hazbin Hotel, or Helluva Boss, were a thing. A part of (or multiple parts of?) the fandom could have at one time probably been considered the Vivziepop fandom and to this day still could be called that in some cases.

I also remember that during streams, a lot of fanart would be shown! And animations/animatics made by fans about the streams and the characters/upcoming show/pilot in general would be shown also, if I remember correctly. This encouraged artists to join the fandom, anyone who enjoyed consuming a lot of animatic content on YouTube (which was extremely popular at the time), and the LGBT+ community because as we all know a majority of the characters in Hazbin Hotel are LGBT+.

That even could connect into the art community again, since a large percentage of LGBT+ people are artistic and a huge and main, primary part of fandom and art cultures in most spaces. This show hit the EXACT demographic it needed to in order to become extremely and invariably popular both at the time and in the future.

We can also think about the fact that merch was being dropped I believe long before the pilot even was finished or posted, correct me if I’m wrong, and in batch drops with sale prices which are all fantastic incredible marketing moves. *Vox brain fritzing out here sry love analyzing shit.*

So, you’ve got art being made at a constant rate because of regular streams and buzz and interest and fixations generating. Take into account systems, take into account shippers (shipping is HUGE in the Hazbin Hotel fandom now but it has always been huge and a driving force behind the content’s incredible amounts of widespread popularity) and the fact that shipping is not only not discouraged but has been actively encouraged by people that have worked on the show from day 1 and from Viv herself. Then take into account the fact that art spawns fanfiction, and as soon as something ends up going viral for shipping art, it’s going to start sucking up not only a shipping fanbase like a thirsty sponge but also a general fanbase interested in what’s drawing the shippers to the form of media and if it’s good, like other scavengers being drawn in by crows yk

And then that generates cosplay because cosplayers live in every aforementioned community above and people are typically multitalented, especially with an artistic brain. A brain more prone to art is more prone to write and someone who is LGBT+ or interested in fandom is more likely to be interested in the cosplay community, which presents a unique opportunity to be and feel like anyone and anything that you want (I could even connect the fandoms for musicals to the this because cosplay connects to the theatre kids/theatre communities in general, which are intertwined in fandom, shipping, animatic/animation, art, LGBT+, okay y’all get it moving on now)

Basically what I’m trying to say is there was already too much content for anyone interested in anything about Hazbin to get through it all by the time the pilot came out, which is PERFECT circumstantial fandom food.

And then you actually do get to the pilot releasing, which was highly anticipated and if I remember right it was also delayed at least once. But the fancontent cushioned and continues to cushion any hiatus, and that’s what happened while we waited for the show to come out. Content KEPT GENERATING because the internet is fucking gigantic and fandom culture is like a grapevine that can’t stop spreading. The Hazbin fandom was basically like if someone planted mint but on the internet. The art style and colors are also very bright, unique for what mainstream animation has really been before, but it also is more adult than the things we have been getting such as the newer and groundbreaking tbh She-Ra leading up to making it possible to put this show out there, which makes it possible for adults to get into creating raw personal content for something mainstream that contains LGBT+ characters. There’s swearing, there’s musical numbers (musical fandoms again, ayy), there’s canonically LGBT+ characters and relationships and themes, there’s good grounds for subtext and in-betweens which comic artists and fanfic authors especially *love* as do shippers. And the best thing a fandom can have for growth is shippers.

Vox brain fuckin rocking up and down from his heels to his toes with excitement abt all this shit. Okay okay and so

Then the show went through the fuckery about if it was being properly advertised, if it was delayed again, I don’t even know I stopped paying attention to that tbh I was just waiting, and then it finally *comes out*, and it’s releasing, and the fandom goes buck wild.

If there wasn’t already mountains of content before, hoooooooly shit now.

This fandom does tropes like none I’ve ever seen, I just have to note. My personal favorite is Vox’s one-sided psychosexual obsession with Alastor lmaoreal

My point is—

These circumstances were optimal to drag people from *everywhere*, even some kicking and screaming that had quit fandom and/or shipping culture altogether for *years*. We have folks from every reach of fandom culture writing fanfiction and making animations/animatics, comics, art, comic dubs, cosplays, songs, everything we usually do yk for this one thing.

What spawned this post was the fact that I was reading a fanfiction on ao3 that was written so well that it read like a novel and the author’s vocabulary was reminding me of the amazing shit I used to read back in like 2015 in the destiel fandom, lo and behold the author’s note said they hadn’t written anything since 2011 and the last thing on their ao3 was from Fullmetal Alchemist. Like?? That’s so cool? Do y’all see what we have here and have y’all been seeing this, it’s fascinating and dynamic and very unique. The energy I see in the Hazbin fandom sometimes reminds me of the energy of the micro-fandoms that crop up yearly around the classic books and movies they make you analyze in school (The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite fandoms that is fed partially by this phenomenon).

I lost my point so I’d say this is about done, but fuck yeah! Hope anyone who actually finished this enjoyed my literal rambling about the popularity and cultivation of fandom of Hazbin Hotel bc I read a radiostatic fic on ao3 that was almost a religious experience.

[girlreviews]

Review #162: Different Class, Pulp

I distinctly remember Pulp having their moment in the mid 90s. I was 7 when this record came out, and I burned into my brain is the sound of whatever cool young presenter was rotating in at that moment (I’ll say this was probably peak Zoe Ball/Jamie Theakston era) saying “it’s Friday, it’s seven thirty, it’s TOP OF THE POPS”, and you know, I really absorbed a ton of music being glued to that show so religiously but I particularly remember Pulp’s videos airing because I really felt it and was like, what is this?

That would have been either Disco 2000 or Common People, it doesn’t matter anyway because I love them both. There are a few songs in life that have massive commercial success and infiltrate general popular culture. Sometimes that can really spoil it, because it’s everywhere, it gets overplayed, people aren’t really listening to it, they’re missing the point. To be honest, all of that is probably true for both of these songs, but again it doesn’t matter because I’ve never stopped enjoying them. They’re just as good every time I hear them. Every time. How is that? How?

It’s the subject matter that they’ve chosen to focus on. A particular nostalgia and way of life. It’s the incredible detail that you only know if you know (wood chip on the wall). But mostly it’s the way the emotion seeps out of literally every sound, verbal and non-verbal. Sometimes Jarvis Cocker lets out these little tuts or gasps and you can just feel his disdain and the roll of his eyes. He whispers “Deborah” in such a way. He plays with his delivery and tone so that if you are paying attention you can pinpoint the exact points where he switches from sweet earnestness and sincerity to cutting sarcasm and biting, snarling social commentary that is seething in resentment. There are few artists that can take “ooooohs” and “yeahs” and pack it so full of emotion:

What are you doing Sunday baby?

Would you like to come and meet me maybe?

You can even bring your baby

Ooooooh, ooooh oooh ooooh oooh ooooh ooh

Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh!

On paper, you read that and think, that’s not great. But you hear it, and you think, damn that’s really something. How? HOW?

That’s just Disco 2000. I really am going to have a hard time not writing an entire dissertation on Common People. It’s incredible. The intro is just iconic, and everyone always loses their minds when it starts to play any time, any place. Rightfully so. It’s so clever. It’s so particular. It captures so well this very particular British feeling of hating, loathing, and having such disdain for rich people who cosplay as poor. We all know someone who’s been that person and it just rubs you the wrong way. Musicians and creatives especially who like to play pretend that they are starving artists when really they have a nice little bit of mailbox money and couldn’t even comprehend the reality of struggling with actual poverty. Their romanticization of being “working class” is condescending, insulting and pathetic. Summed up perfectly by this song, and delivered with absolute perfection, as if Jarvis is really trying to hold back losing his shit at someone. There’s a part where he inhales and holds his breath for a second, and it genuinely feels like he is fucking livid. Seething.

“Like a dog lying in a corner

They will bite you and never warn you

Look out, they'll tear your insides out

'Cause everybody hates a tourist

Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh

Yeah and the chip stains and grease

Will come out in the bath

You will never understand

How it feels to live your life

With no meaning or control

And with nowhere left to go

You are amazed that they exist

And they burn so bright

Whilst you can only wonder why

Rent a flat above a shop

Cut your hair and get a job

Smoke some fags and play some pool

Pretend you never went to school

But still you'll never get it right

'Cause when you're laid in bed at night

Watching roaches climb the wall

If you called your dad he could stop it all

Yeah

Never live like common people

Never do what common people do

Never fail like common people

You'll never watch your life slide out of view

And then dance and drink and screw

Because there's nothing else to do”

Fuuuuuuck. You give us all of that, and on top of it, it’s an undeniable banger too. Iconic. I loved it when I was 7. I love it now. I’ll never, ever, be mad to hear this song.

Moving on, which I’m proud of myself for doing because it’s difficult for me to not spend more time picking apart Common People. I could easily go on, but instead I’m going to talk about Something Changed which is quite a different vibe from those two singles. It’s very sweet, and has lovely strings in it, just about how your life changes when you meet someone new and fall in love. Everyone spends time asking questions about how you ended up meeting, what if this, what if that? It’s really lovely. You can meet someone and suddenly everything is different — for better or worse.

Giving a nod to Sorted for E’s & Wizz, which, again, through their talent of perfectly describing specific scenes — I’m taken back to days of frequenting muddy festivals or going to some raggedy show at a pub in Camden that really felt like it wasn’t structurally sound and that if we didn’t stop dancing the top floor might actually fall beneath us. But it was okay you know, because we had our drinks and/or substances. Except, then comes the days following, which aren’t so good:

“In the middle of the night

It feels alright

But then tomorrow morning comes

Ooooh, ooooh and you come down”

Yes. You do.

2020 was the 25th anniversary of Different Class, and on social media it was being posted a lot with the question of what song was the best from the album. Everyone had a lot of opinions, of course, but my correct opinion is that Underwear is the best track. If for no other reason than for this line:

“If fashion is your trade

Then when you’re naked

I guess you must

Be unemployed, yeah”

Don’t go too much longer in your life without hearing this song. It’s classic Pulp, that same thing: earnestness, longing, sincerity, mixed with resentment and bitterness. Delivered perfectly. It’s like hearing someone expressing that they want to save someone that they kind of hate.

Something I think about all the time. And I mean all the time. Is how at the 1996 Brit Awards, Michael Jackson was performing Earth Song. It was this very hammed up thing where essentially he was portrayed as the messiah and it really obnoxious (although I loved this song, but in a comical kind of way, once sang it at karaoke — do not recommend). Anyway, Jarvis Cocker was genuinely appalled at the display and rushes the stage to moon MJ. What should have just been an amusing moment turned into a whole thing. There were children on stage and he was even questioned by police. It was all fine in that there was no serious wrong-doing found to have taken place, but his mental health sure did take a hit after that.

BUT I SWEAR, I swear, and I can’t find it and can’t find any evidence of it, but I swear on my life that in the following few weeks, Pulp were on TOTP again, and they made light of the situation by having Jarvis performing from a set that looked like a jail cell. It’s so specific I don’t feel like my brain could be making it up, but it’s possible I’m wrong.

They had broken up or at least gone on hiatus by the time I was old enough to see them live, which really hurt my heart. Fortunately they would reunite occasionally and I did get to see them at Hyde Park once. Now they actually tour fairly regularly, and are even returning to North America after a long-ass time, who knows. Maybe I’ll see them again. Maybe he’ll cover Earth Song (again, do not recommend).

[margridarnauds]

1. 6. and 12. please!

Thank you!

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

I touched on it a little here, but I feel like I really leant more into the surreal. Which kind of naturally works with my writing style and my influences and is definitely something I'm wanting to pursue. I was actually influenced a lot by what I've seen you do when it comes to fanfic, as well as by what I've seen the Chinese fandom, as a whole do, where you have these character studies where the style is deliberately rich and a little-bit offputting as a way of exploring the darker edges of a character or characters. While I don't think the horror of The Midnight Mass ever landed like I wanted it to, it marked a point of experimentation that I've never gotten to do, and I'm definitely interested in doing more things in that style.

6. What ship(s) captured your heart?

As far as NEW ships, Benvolio/Escalus from RetJ was definitely unexpected. I'm in and out of RetJ as a fandom -- I wouldn't say I'm actively involved, but I keep an eye on it, especially as a mod for the French musicals Tumblr, which made it even more unexpected. I feel like I could still do a lot more with them, even though I've put most of my plans on hold in favor of the TRUE darkhorse candidate, Raphael/Tav from Baldur's Gate 3. Which, on one hand, it isn't AS much of a darkhorse, since Raphael is ridiculously my type (I mean, my taste in fictional men is already rancid enough that a devil seemed like the natural conclusion), but was still unexpected because I truly came in expecting to romance Astarion. I have about 12k words of fic written across 4-5 WIPs, so it's safe to say that we're really only getting off the ground.

12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

As I touched on in my other answer, this year was the sort of year where EVERY fic was difficult to write, because of the sheer number of responsibilities that I had tacked on. I had a massive test that would decide whether I stayed in my program (I passed), my first paper published, several back to back conference presentations, a month spent abroad in Ireland (my beloved) sharpening up my language skills, hosting and organizing events, teaching, and my participation in several different projects and organizations. It was a LOT, and it left very little time to be a human being in-between.

But...I would say that writing fanfic for BG3 and RetJ, in general, is very much a struggle for me. Because I know the 18th century relatively well, or at least well enough to conjure up an image of the 18th century. And if I don't know, I can do research. When I was doing work for an AFO fic (not published....yet), I could look up the memoirs of the people involved and take from them as much or as little as I wanted (since it was AFO, I opted for "as little").

But for the Toho RetJ, you're having to more or less create a dystopian society based on staging hints we get from the musical, and so I was constantly having to drop in details from hypotheticals. Like "What would the world look like in a century or two if a nuclear bomb went off tomorrow?" "How would we rebuild? What are some ways the world would be the same and what are some of the ways it would be different?" These are things that people are asking, but we really don't KNOW. And so in many ways, I'm having to build Post-Apocalypse Verona from the ground up while also trying to drop in cultural details -- this isn't American Post-Apocalypse Verona, this is *Italian* Post-Apocalypse Verona. Things like Venice sinking into the sea *have* to have some kind of impact on how people are sourcing food, for instance, or conducting trade. And since Escalus is The Prince™, I can't even wave some of it off, because these are things he is very intensely interested in and involved in.

BG3 is almost the reverse, where you are contending with forty years of lore, spread out across player handbooks, multiple series of novels, comics, trading cards, etc. etc. almost all of which some people care very, very intensely about while the rest homebrew it and toss it out. There's a lot of material that either isn't explored *at all* or is under-explained, but there's a LOT that's been explored in 40 years, and it's always a matter of seeing what I CAN bend or even break and what I can't. And, unfortunately, the two areas of the lore that I got most intensely attached to are (1) the Drow and (2) the Devils, aka two areas that have a lot of complex lore around them, so I'm reading multiple books from multiple editions to see what I can make stick. (On the record, I'm tossing out a solid 70-80% of the lore around Drow because it was very clearly written by nerd men who hate women.) My goal is always to try to bend the lore around the fic in a way that still honors the fact that people are fundamentally people and behave fundamentally like people.

For the Toho RetJ, I finished two fics for it -- I have snippets of more written, but I did finish the two fics I really wanted to make. For BG3...God knows when I'll have the lore wrangled enough for it.

[caparrucia]

I just finished God of War Ragnarok, and I wondered what your thoughts on it were? I loved all the little callbacks to the first one throughout the game

I hope you enjoyed it, anon!

I really enjoyed my playthrough right until I hit post game and the combat really started to piss me off. It was a bit disappointing. It's not unique to Ragnarok, I had similar issues with the combat in 2018, but the fact Ragnarok had so many moving pieces to its combat (4 weapons, if you count barehand/fists, and different amulets and two arrow sets, and artifacts, and such an emphasis on special effects in armor sets... etc.) really made the places where battles became essentially puzzles with very specific answers, and if you're not willing to meet the game in its own terms, you're gonna have a Bad Time. My bone with gear-based combat is that it reaches a point where your skill level doesn't matter. Your understanding of mechanics and combat doesn't matter. If you're not geared up appropriately, the game will not let you through, or will make the experience excruciatingly obnoxious. I found the valkyrie fights, and specifically Sigrun, to be one of the best combat experiences in a game, because it became... a conversation, of sorts. I did not feel that way, about a lot of combat encounters in Ragnarok. Some of the berserkers were incredibly infuriating because it seemed like anything I tried to respond with resulted in a loud "NO, WRONG! TRY AGAIN!" from the game, because I wasn't spec'd properly, and I mostly ended up overleveling to tank damage and get through some of the toughest fights. The fight with Gna was frankly disappointing, when compared with Sigrun, because it had a lot more about status effects and pushing towards specific needs in your gear load out to make your way through it. Which to be perfectly fair, it's a logical extension of the original gear-based combat in 2018, it's just not one I particularly enjoy.

That's about the only thing I didn't like about the game. Everything else?

Holy fuck.

The music, the visual compositions, the camera work... I've heard quite a few criticisms about rushed writing, but I think the writing of the entire game is superb. I think it's definitely much more effective than 2018's - I think the "Atreus goes mad with power" sections of 2018 are pretty maligned and often blown out of proportion, but Ragnarok definitely doesn't have a section like that. I think the writing reveals a deep understanding of the component blocks of each character and a clear, chartered plan to where they're going. I love that the twists are very well setup and you can actually call them if you're detail oriented (@darkpuck clocked The Spoiler in my streams over an accent mark!) and that the development feels like pay off. Most of the story and writing in this game is just. Aggressively to my taste. People in my streams called out that Kratos echoes a lot of my personal choices writing characters like Cor and like... yeah! Yeah! He's pure Rie-nip. It's great.

The music is absolutely gorgeous and works fantastically well with the visual design. I love the care put into every bit of everything that appears on screen. There's a lot of love and thoughtfulness put into every aspect of this world, distinct design that creates tiny dialects and languages across the different groups of people, the different cultures. I specially loved the way the team clearly knew the mythology, and every specific choice they made, that changed or contradicted the mythology, was done purposefully and with enough build up that it felt like a fucking wink. It was amazing.

I'm going to be having feelings about Kratos, Freya and Mimir wandering the realms and having adventures and figuring out shit for approximately forever. It was a GOOD game. (I just got really salty about the post game combat.)

Speaking of callbacks, the way the most important scenes in the entire game reuse dialogue from the previous one, but fundamentally changing its meaning in the process just... GodDAMN.

I seethe with envy and jealousy at the master skill on display.

[jmdbjk]

In the beginning

Jimin and Jungkook, Part One.

“When did you think Jimin and Jungkook started being together and how do you think it's going?”

I have thoughts but I need to preface it: I do not know anything for certain, these are just my opinions from what I’ve watched, learned and observed up until now. And after starting to organize and type this out, I realized I can’t do a methodical timeline type of thing. My brain just can’t do it. I also cannot be so detailed as to show specific examples of everything or go through it month by month because my mind does not catalog stuff like that. And there is no way to touch on every single aspect because there is SO MUCH WE’VE SEEN AND SO MUCH WE KNOW. I have a tendency to step back sometimes and consider the big picture of it all.

So this is my general synopsis of what I think from what I’ve seen, but it is very long and more or less a series about the different topics surrounding their “togetherness.”

In the beginning, Jimin and Jungkook were young, ambitious, talented boys who had a dream or an idea of a dream and were fortunate to have the opportunity to go for it. The early years (2013, 2014, 2015) together were spent developing their idol personas in the context of that industry at that time. From what I’ve learned, the idol system, especially at that time, is very cutthroat, competitive, chaotic, hardcore, somewhat questionable in how they treat the young people vying for spots in an idol group. It is not for the faint of heart. Reading about k-pop idol culture was eye opening for me and makes me even more surprised that Jimin almost totally shuns social media these days since he was such a “classic” idol at first.

Once BTS was formed, BigHit and the members spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears (see what I did there?) working out their dynamic/sound/look and in the process they became a team as close as brothers...they became family, with their own families included. You might call it their “tribe.” They built a tribe. And a good one if you ask me. The company has grown along with BTS and seems to be transforming the K-pop industry in positive ways. (I get actual hate for saying positive things about their company.)

Anyway. These two did not exist in a vacuum. Working, putting out music, choreography, performances, travelling, Jimin and Jungkook were with the other members 24/7, 365 days a year, with literally very little time off to pursue anything else. They were surrounded by the rest of the members, their staff and the mechanisms of their profession, forming and building relationships between each other and everyone around them.

As happens in a team of people who are working together, their relationships are as different as their personalities...some “click” with others and some maybe not so much and I don’t mean that in a negative way, I mean each person brings their own dynamic to the relationship and sometimes two people will really connect more than the others. I think BTS has that rare element of all the individuals are able to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and work together to make the final product/goal a total team effort. They have a mutual respect for each other. 

In Jungkook, Jimin probably saw someone who was very similar to himself: loves to perform, loves to dance, has a dream, sets out to achieve it. Jimin the natural leader and Jungkook his team mate, dongsaeng, the boy who was a little shy in social situations, is introverted but had this drive to achieve the same dream as Jimin’s. So Jimin being Jimin, takes him under his wing.

I think during the first two or two and a half years, their bond was mostly a mentor/protege relationship because:

1. Jimin had the work ethic of someone trying to prove to everyone that he was good enough to fit the idol mold and that extra effort did not escape Jungkook. Jungkook really admired Jimin’s determination.

AND

2. Jungkook needed emotional guidance. He debuted when he was 15 years old y’all. A child! He just didn’t know what to do in situations that were unpredictable. Jimin was still not an adult either but he thrived with Jungkook by his side. 

This relationship so far resulted in them supporting each other within the team. They fed off each other’s energy. How can you not be attracted to someone like that? It’s fun and exhilarating to be with someone like that. 

Jimin had a maturity beyond his years and knew what was expected of an idol. Jimin had a laser focus on his ambitions and goals. He’s even stated them before: he wanted to attend an arts high school and he did. He wanted to become an idol trainee and he did. He wanted to audition and be part of a group and he succeeded. He achieves everything he sets out to do. In his words: he can make his own way. Very confident, very goal oriented, very focused.

Jungkook perhaps wasn’t as articulate in this way and did not have the social skills and leadership skills that Jimin possessed. Jungkook was still figuring out what he really wanted to do, hence that minute when he considered ditching singing to devote his time to being a dancer. Jimin straightened him up on this it seems and Jungkook followed Jimin’s advice. They told us that themselves. 

They’ve joked many times that Jungkook copycats Jimin but I believe Jungkook really learned a lot about how to behave in social/public/interview situations when they were on camera just by watching Jimin very closely all the time. When else was he going to learn some social skills? He always seems very interested in how Jimin behaves and reacts. I think he wanted to be comfortably expressive like Jimin. Or maybe he just liked looking at Jimin like the rest of us! Some say its because he had a crush on Jimin and perhaps that had something to do with it as well. Regardless, Jungkook watched his mentor closely and eventually came out of his shell. 

And my thinking is, because they became close, because of Jimin’s personality, perhaps Jungkook’s parents trusted Jimin with the responsibility of being Jungkook’s liaison/emergency contact for his family. Your kid is across the country, hell, across the world...doing who knows what with who, maybe Jimin provided a little stability in that aspect.

Again, this was all happening while they were balls to the wall working day in and day out...working their asses off, living together, eating, sleeping, showering together, stinking up the bathroom, 24/7 literally 365 days a year.

go to Part Two...

[secondguessing-reality]

Manifested Wrong

Written privately some time in December 2022:

What really happened, as of summer 2023:

You’re here. You’re finally here on my side of the country, in my city where you always said you’d be. I’m here with you, not living together yet but I made it, and you did too. We’re dating, we’re together. We speak daily, see each other a few days a week unless we’re busy - which happens to be often but at least we get a few days.

This is cute. You moved in immediately, and not only do we spend time together every single day, we sleep together a few nights a week. We speak all the damn time! <3

Sometimes you come over just to watch me with housework while I sip wine and have music playing in the background. These nights we spend together end in us tangled up together. Sharing details about our day as you help me put away dishes and place a kiss on my neck.

Oh, my beloved. Things turned out so much better than I imagined. I come home from work and everything I have piled on my to-do list is done already, thanks to you. When we spend the evenings together there's nothing to be done EXCEPT become wrapped up in each other. When we're home, we get so absorbed in our love that we don't even have time to get through videos and craft projects like we said we would. We're just too into each other that anything else seems almost like a distraction from our endless conversations.

On the weekends we hang out with our friends, with my sister and her family, my fiancé, or just with each other. We go places, do activities, find new places to try, all the fun things we said we’d do together. We have dinner at the fancy restaurants I like, and we find new cafes constantly. I take you to Rise or Asa's and you brag that nothing is better than NY bagels. It makes both of us laugh.

We definitely spend more time with each other than with anyone else. I'm happy to report that everything else is true, except I haven't taken you to a bagel shop here, yet. Soon!

I show you all my favorite spots in the suburbs that I call my home, a place that always felt solid and familiar. Sometimes we go out to Milwaukee to visit my family, spend time with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I’m not afraid of introducing you, especially to my mother's side. Seeing us in the dynamic doesn’t worry me as I thought it once would.

I've shown you many places that hold meaning to me. I feel lucky I've gotten to see similar places to you. The family that has met you has loved you.

Sometimes we go out East to visit your family, your friends. Sometimes it’s for cons, sometimes it's just back to the Island for little weekends, occasionally it's for the City. We watch sunsets, we walk by the beach, I make an excuse to touch seawater every single time I get near it, you tell me about historically significant buildings and landmarks we pass, we share street food, I point out wildlife. You take my hand as we walk through the villages telling me this is the best love you’ve ever had. 

We've been back twice so far. This prediction was surprisingly accurate! Look at it! Everything came true. Well, take me back to the city for another day of adventures.

We share our traditions, or culture, stories from our upbringing and what its like to be raised by parents raised by immigrants. Things I thought most people wouldn’t understand but you do. The good, the bad, the ugly, the dirty, and the beautiful parts.

In the nights we stay up talking, joking, having sex, watching Netflix, laying next to each other in blissful comfort. We trust each other. I never thought it was possible to trust someone this much, I thought it was a myth, that it was something I only read or see on TV but you make it real. The closeness, the vulnerability. I overcame aversions because I want to be with you more than I’m afraid of being vulnerable. We learned from each other. The lessons we knew we needed to learn. You helped me to rely on others, to be open with others, to ask for help and let people help me. With my fierce love and adoration, I hope I'm helping you learn how to see the greatness within yourself. We’ve grown with each other, becoming better, stronger for each other all with the intention to continue to grow with and for each other.

Wow, okay. All true. Plus a plethora of pets. We've been through so much else the last few months, but when you look at it from December's perspective, I had no idea the depth of our bond could take us this far, and almost too easily.

I open up to you in ways I haven’t opened up to people before. And the best part, you don’t look at me like I’m crazy, or that I’m from another planet. Even if you thought as such you never make me feel alien for it. I don’t need validation, and you know that, but you let me find comfort in you without the fear of feeling like I made a mistake.

I let you be the weak one when you need to be. You want to be strong for me because I AM strong for you and for myself, but you know when to put away the façade and take a break. We lay down on the couch, your head on my chest as I play with your hair. Your long, silver, cloud-soft hair that I love so much. You talk as if no one is listening, opening up about things you keep buried deep. I respect your boundaries and you respect mine but we ask each other questions and tell each other our concerns without having any worry.

And when we look at each other and into each others eyes, we know it, better than we’ve ever known. We’re in love, and we always will be.

This is what I imagined for us. Prayed for. Beseeched the old Gods to grant for us. And it's true, except...

It's so, so much better than I dreamed.