#buy the merch they promote continue getting content

[nori-the-cat]

thanks for answering! the boycott consists in not buying merch and albums, not streaming and not interacting with riize's contents until sm releases a statement about 🫧, from what I understood... the fandom is also quite parted, since there are ot7 briize who boycott, ot7 briize who don't want to boycott (fearing that riize as a whole, instead of sm, would have a loss) and ot6 briize who don't want/care about 🫧's return.

No worries girly!

So, just to be clear. You're asking if the boycott is effective and whether SM knows about them? 🤔

Before you read my tarot readings or any of you RIIZE fans read this. Please please please, take tarot readings with a grain of salt!

Does SM Entertainment know about the boycott? And are they aware of them? Card(s): AoP and 7oP rx

Yes, the company (SM Entertainment) is indeed aware of the boycott. They're most likely aware of the discontent of fans but are either unwilling or unable to take the necessary steps to resolve the underlying issues, leading to a stagnation of the situation (Seunghan's situation).

In my opinion, this is what is happening currently. They (SM) know that the boycott do impact the group's finances (sales), but they think their strategy is going to calm the fans. They (SM) believe everything will be fine.

Meanwhile, the Seven of Pentacles reversed is evident in their growing frustration. They have invested time and resources in promotions and damage control, but the results are disappointing. The executives are impatient, expecting quick fixes, but the fans' discontent continues to grow.

So, yes, they know and they're trying their best to cover up their losses and control the boycott.

Does SM Entertainment know about the big projects that fans are planning. Are they monitoring fans' activities online?

Card(s): wheel of fortune, the hermit rx, 5oS rx, and knight of pentacles rx

Yes, they do. SM is watching. They're watching yall every move.

SM Entertainment is aware of the big projects fans are planning and is monitoring fans' activities online

Is the boycott working/effective? Card(s): the hermit, five of pentacles, and page of wands all in a reversed position.

Personally, looking at these cards alone. I don't think so. *scratching my head*

But, the boycott is affecting RIIZE's sales (5 of pentacles rx). It's affecting SM's finances (sales) too. The pentacles cards is really strong here. There is the 5 of pentacles card here, and ace of pentacles and 7 of pentacles in the previous question.

Do you guys have a project or something? Cuz why do I see a project failing? There is something that the fans are working on and is not working out (page of wands). I also see divided opinions and support on something. (No idea what this something is. But I see online bickering? Why are u guys bickering?) Basically, different people support different things and they have their own opinions and beliefs.

Anyway, what I get is that RIIZE fans are for sure frustrated right now, especially those who are the OT7 supporters.

Okay so, the way I see it is that. You guys are the page of wands. Whatever you guys are working on is not working in your favour. Meanwhile, SM is the pentacles card and in this reading, they are the five of pentacles. Right now, they might be implementing measures to counteract the financial losses or improve their image.

In my opinion, the boycott had an impact initially, but SM Entertainment is beginning to find ways to mitigate the damage.

Do the RIIZE members know about the boycott, OT7 support, and what do they think about them? Card(s): the magician, king of wands rx, page of wands rx, the tower, three of wands, and the emperor rx

I pulled 6 cards to see what the remaining 6 members think.

So, there's a 3 for 3 here. It's not 3 for and 3 against. But 3 members have different opinions while the 3 have their own opinions.

God, what are these reversed cards?

The RIIZE boys want to support the fans and the boycott but they're scared of SM. So, what I get is that they want to support the fans but are uncertain how to do so effectively due to restrictions from the management. Communication among the members might be strained, leading to confusion and lack of direction.

They might be discussing ways to influence the situation positively, perhaps considering reaching out to fans directly or using social media to communicate their thoughts.

I think the RIIZE boys are secretly supporting themselves as 7 (king of wands, the tower, and three of wands). Whether it's 6 or 7, they are thinking strategically about how to navigate this crisis and are planning for a future where they can rebuild their relationship with fans and grow from this experience.

However, the members might feel unsupported by the company's management and desire more effective and transparent leadership. They could be considering ways to advocate for themselves and their fans within the company.

Why is SM Entertainment still making RIIZE perform as 6? Instead of 7.

Card(s): 10oW and 4oW rx

I'm not defending SM here. But SM is doing this for the good of others too. They feel that reintroducing Seunghan at this time would disrupt the group's current dynamics or that the situation is not yet stable enough to make such a change.

The Four of Wands reversed indicates that the company (SM) recognises the instability within the group. They understand that bringing Seunghan back now or without a proper plan could disrupt the fragile balance they are trying to maintain. The performances as six members might be an attempt to keep the group moving forward while they work on resolving the underlying issues.

For the members of RIIZE, the Ten of Wands upright signifies the additional pressure they are under. They are working hard to perform and maintain their image, but they feel the weight of the missing member and the expectations placed upon them. The Four of Wands reversed reflects their internal struggle with the lack of harmony and stability. Despite their efforts, the group feels incomplete, and their success is overshadowed by the ongoing controversy.

It's hard for everybody, girly.

Does Seunghan know about the boycott?

Card(s): ten of swords and temperance

Yes, he knows about the boycott. He probably has seen it online or heard it from someone. He's contemplating a lot right now.

Note: In my opinion, you guys have to wait until SM release a statement about Seunghan.

[roseredsnow]

Rant.

I don't get Harry Potter fans in general like, you know she's a massive bigot but continue to support her?

That's not the point of this, what pisses me off more than that is their entitlement.

I've posted several times on my cosplay Instagram "If you're making HP content, or promoting it break mutuals with me" and the amount of them that I know have seen it and have just ignored it.

Like no it applies to you too, I don't care if we've roomed together and cosplayed together for a con before. You're planning a slytherin cosplay in a group where you'll be buying new official merch in 2024? Grow up.

I unfollowed him a couple months ago when it was posted about she he followed me just before Christmas and has just now sent a message about a cosplsy I'm doing. No I don't want to talk to you, you talk about human rights but then promote the UK's best known transphobe.

Another guy I messaged before breaking mutuals because he lives local and our cons are small.

I end up blocking him because he kept sending messages when I said I was done.

Then he sent his sister saying "He's just really upset you guys aren't friends anymore, it's unfair" we'd spoke three times in the sane number of years? He doesn't mean shit to me.

Another guy bought hogwarts legacy, posted it on his story and then immediately followed with "I know people she's bad but it's my special interest" (Had literally not mentioned it at any other point that year and trust me he talks a lot).

After I called him out he removed that part defending himself.

If you're gonna have your transphobic, racist, antisemetic media at least own up to it.

[tarosin]

The great adventures of y/n tubbo jack and ranboo - relaxing with goats

this is part 15 to the great adventures series

an: i wrote this on my phone with auto caps off and my editor is too tired to edit so i apologise, i just wanted to get this out today :)

you were currently walking alongside jack the pair of you were on your way to visit Niki minx and Rhiannon to catch up and potentially stream, the pair of you hadn’t spent a lot of time with each other the past month as you had been focusing on streaming and coming up with back up plans just in case your career as a streamer came to an abrupt end.

“you’re paranoid l/n the people love you there’s no way they’d just leave you”

“well it’s always good to be prepared”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night what would you even do you don’t exactly have a lot of qualifications you said it yourself you don’t plan on going to university as you’re going to be a full-time content creator like your dear friends tubbo and ranboo”

“you sound jealous manifold and to answer your question I don’t know I’ll buy a couple of animals like goats and pigs maybe a cow for the fun of it and I’ll have a petting zoo, after all, some people pay to pet animals”

little did you know those words stuck with jack and that’s how a week later you got yourself into this situation, sat in the front seat next to jack playing a one-sided game of eye spy whilst josh tubbo and ranboo were doing god knows what in the back of the car. the only thing you had been told was to wear clothing you’re not too bothered about, keeping that in mind you wore Jack's merch just to see his reaction.

“Are we there yet”

“y/n if you ask that one more time I will cry”

“is that so bo….are we there yet”

tubbo sat fake crying whilst ranboo sat trying to hide the fact he was laughing. half an hour later you were all at the farm, ranboo held you and tubbo back as the pair of you were excited to see the animals

“will you two behave we don’t even know what we’re doing here”

“ranboo is in his parent arc”

jack came over to the three of you handing you all a bag of food for the animals

“aw fuck yeah I’m gonna feed animals…hey tubbo you hungry”

you stood holding the food towards tubbo who went to eat the food before being pulled away by ranboo

“hey I wasn’t really going to eat it I promise”

“so what are we actually doing today”

“goat yoga”

“YOOOOOO I GET TO WATCH EVERYONE GET ATTACKED BY GOATS”

you stood waiting with tubbo and ranboo whilst jack and josh continued with the introduction to the vlog well that was until tubbo decided to copy your previous stunt and started trying to feed josh goat food, this didn’t last long as jack realised he wasn’t sure where you were meant to go so the five of you began your journey

“they have religious birds here”

“The fuck did you just say ranboo”

“birds of prey”

“jack… let’s go home”

after walking for a few minutes jack and ranboo pointed out that they hadn’t seen an animal yet you stood hiding behind tubbo laughing whilst he pointed out that there was in fact animals as the pair of you saw an eagle not too long ago. you all ran to where the birds were ranboo instantly walked through the gate that clearly said no entry. you all went off to see the birds up close safe to say you and jack were amazed by this

“I'm very taken aback”

“Hi little one I would die for you- what the fuck is tubbo saying to that poor bird”

“only a small percentage of viewers-“

“he’s self-promoting to a bird…he’s repeating it... TUBBO ITS NOT A PARROT ITS NOT GOING TO COPY YOU”

a few minutes later you had seen enough and tubbo thought the same as he led you to the gate which like before said no entry and took you through it closing it on the others

“it says no entry you’ll have to go around”

“wow tubbo and y/n you both run the park now”

you both nodded and walked away the others caught up quickly, mainly because you found a rock on the floor which reminded you of ted and decided you needed to get it so you could send it to him.

“I wore the corpse drip just in case I got shat on by a goat”

“hey that’s why I’m wearing jacks merch”

“Thanks, you two really lowered both mine and corpse’ clothing line”

“no worries. OH MY GOD MEERKATS”

you ran over to the meerkats and started naming them with tubbo

“that one can be merlin”

“and that one that bit merlin can be called fucking dickhead”

ranboo noticed you weren’t paying attention walked up behind you resting his head on yours luckily for him you didn’t jump as he caught you off guard

“hello boo, if I jumped out of fear we would both have headaches right now”

“well I mean yeah but-“

“it’s crazy they’ve got all these tropical animals here though because they’ve got meerkats then they’ve got giraffes”

you stood laughing the fact ranboo didn’t catch on straight away made it even funnier, he lightly tapped you on the shoulder pretending to be disappointed but ended up laughing and making sure you were okay, you all made your way to see more birds and pretended to be disappointed when tubbo and jack made comments about dnf

“ranboo I'm staying with you tubbos making dnf jokes”

“of course, y/n id love to have you by my side” he turned to the others

“I hope you can sense my expression”

you all continued looking around and found some chinchillas and watched as they all ran around

“nahhh they’re so fast”

“I bet their heart beats so fucking fast”

after watching the animals for a while you all agreed you should probably find your way to the place you need to be. this was going well, till tubbo and jack found toy cars and decided they should sit in them

“short people activities.. you should join them y/n”

“isn’t this how you see normal cars…that’s what I thought”

you stood with tubbo watching jack give a tour of the mani-pad questioning why you willingly woke up early for this. it didn’t take long for their antics to end, yours on the other hand…

“oh my god we found the big boys play area”

you made your way to the mesh climbing area josh not far behind you

“josh you cannot be in there…y/n when did you get up there”

“I ran”

you were about to make your way down whilst the others were playing around with the fake cow however josh and tubbo, bored of playing with the cow, began to climb up meeting you halfway. that was when you all heard a crack

“well shit”

the three of you walked down the ramp laughing the entire time tubbo and josh were playing with the sand when you realised that if you made it to the top there was a slide you were about to climb up again however ranboo noticed and pulled you in for a hug

“absolutely not you’ll get injured”

you dramatically sighed catching josh’s attention, you pointed at the slide and laughed as josh and jack began to climb up until it cracked making jack give up for his own safety, josh however continued, you couldn’t help but laugh as the slide shook whilst he went down.

as much as you wanted to stay in the play area it was time to make your way to do the activity you actually came for. as you were walking you and jack teased ranboo for being tall before being distracted by a shetland pony

“that’s a goat”

“wow I’ve never seen a goat look so much like a shetland pony before”

unsurprisingly you all got distracted by the animals and another play area, you sat on the grass whilst tubbo and josh were on the trampoline and ranboo and jack were sat on a wooden train. you spent this time talking to some of your friends from college

f/n <3: y/n have you even started the summer work?

y/n: no I’ll just do as much as I can later, I brought it with me to tubbos house

Tom <3: call me later I’ll help you

y/n: we don’t do the same subject but okay

f/n <3: I’ll join too

the others had left to race on you tractors and began making their way to the goats before realising you were still on the grass

“I thought it was quiet”

ranboo walked over and picked you up carrying you over to the others

“oh hello boo”

“hello short one”

ranboo noticed another play area and took you along with him, you laughed as he placed you down on the grass and began to race on the obstacle course around 14 seconds later he finished and you all made your way to goat yoga for real this time, you and tubbo said hi to all the animals as you walked by before being interrupted by a goat. you all went over to the rather loud goat, it was around now you were regretting your life choices.

“yo that goat ate another goat”

“I think you might be right”

you were stood petting the goat as jack read out the sign

“Are any of us pregnant”

“I hope not”

“I am”

you continued to talk to the goat deciding to ignore jack and tubbos antics this didn’t last long as tubbo dragged you away claiming he had something amazing to show you.

“…chickens?”

“kfc”

“TUBBO?!?”

you heard ranboo laugh and walk away to tell jack what happened, you and tubbo stood laughing at what just happened, a few minutes later you both made your way back to the others to feed the animals, you laughed as the goat took the food out tubbos and then your hand, it was moments like this neither you or tubbo would forget, ranboo watched the pair of you with a smile, oh how it would hurt when he had to leave. a little while later a worker came over to get everyone ready,

“do you love your clothes”

“no”

“They both made it very clear they don’t care about those hoodies”

you were on the mat between ranboo and jack and watched as the goats were placed into the enclosure with you all, the moment tubbo laid down a goat immediately began climbing on him making you laugh, karma soon caught up as the moment you laid down the same goat began to climb on you.

“Gunther loves climbing”

you watched as the goat named Gunther walked all over jack before jumping onto you, you all signed a contract

“tubbo signed the date as today”

“oh he really did, he signed it as today with a smiley face”

you all laid down watching the goats run and jump around, occasionally running over the four of you

“This is way more dangerous than I was led to believe”

“death by goat sounds pretty cool”

you played with the goats as the others watched one of the goats attempt to eat Jack's hat whilst on his back before in ranboos words trick shotting off his back. you all began to do the yoga, this was going well for a few minutes you laughed as tubbo and ranboo had goats on their back and you didn’t, this didn’t last long as the goat jumped from ranboos back onto yours resulting in you falling from the plank position, a few moments later Gunther made another appearance jumping all over the four of you, this inspired the other goats as they too began climbing and jumping off the four of you

“I am going to feel that tomorrow”

you looked over to your left noticing one of the goats decided to just stay on ranboos back so rather than helping you and tubbo began to play with the goat

“don’t let him up”

“oh he’s balding…stress, goat taxes are getting too much”

a few minutes later you heard ranboo talking about push-ups, not thinking he was being serious you turned around to see he was in fact serious and was doing push-ups with a goat on his back, jack then went on to do the same until the goat jumped off.

“go on y/n your turn, you did say earlier on the way you were stronger than me”

determined to prove to ranboo that you were stronger you too did push-ups with a goat on your back, however, you only managed to do two until you fell, tubbo cheered you on the entire time. everything was going well, that was when you heard them talking about bringing in a goat named Gary

“do we want Gary”

“I'm worried Gary might be one of the pregnant ones”

you and tubbo just nodded, they wouldn’t tell you anything about the goat apart from the fact his names Gary which made you intrigued to see Gary. you later found out that you all had to warm up from Gary and that he was banned from goat yoga.

“well he sounds fun”

“goat yoga with convicts sounds fun to you y/n”

“yeah”

you and ranboo stood petting a donkey whilst the others watched them find Gary and put the smaller goats away, you heard jack sound confused as to why they were bringing out another goat

“jeff”

“they had to put away the baby goats because jeff might bully them”

the four of you made a pyramid for the goats to walk under this worked for a while until one of the goats had better plans and walked over you and then stood on tubbo. jeff began jumping all over the four of you. if you didn’t have a bruise on you by tomorrow you would be amazed, you were quickly pulled out your own thoughts by tubbo having multiple goats on his back, you stood leaning on ranboo watching as jack got on tubbos back once the goats had jumped off.

“oh no tubbo a goat, I think it’s Gary”

you all continued being jumped and walked over by goats whilst trying to do the yoga a little while after the goats and jack had teamed up against tubbo, jacks hat soon became the centre of attention again this time Gary decided he wanted the hat and wouldn’t give up, jack ended up handing it over to Gary

“Stop bullying me please…actually I would like that back eventually if you don’t mind” he did eventually get it back, well you think so. you and ranboo were a little preoccupied as two of the goats were using the pair of you as a bridge and would constantly keep walking over the pair of you. you all ended the session by cuddling with the goats and you had never been happier.

the ride home was quiet, mainly because you and tubbo fell asleep in the back of the car. the rest of the night was spent on call with Tommy and f/n working on the summer work your college had set whist tubbo and ranboo streamed.

taglist

@denkisclown @orkwardx0 @emma0nline @fuzzycloudsz @wtfwriter @milkydisaster @dumb-chaotic-bi-energy @uselesssapphickitten @l0ver0fj0y @etheriaaly @xx-smiley-xx @hawarun @kylobensgirl @cawcaw-pretty-thing @reverse-iak @xenroselle @augustine-is-joy @c1loudee

[sluttyten]

idk why nctzens want sm to stop adding members in nct, like.... Isn't that nct’s concept tho?

it absolutely is, but if you think about it, as a fan it's quite difficult to think of supporting the entirety of nct, like even now it's somewhat time consuming not to mention the money fans that buy albums, merch, and/or go to concerts must be spending so for nct to continue to grow just means that it would be very difficult or just not possible for some fans to continue to support in the ways that they might currently be supporting. Of course, it's not like if you're a fan of one unit or a few of the units that you would have to be a fan of every unit and every member added.

But I think a lot of people also have an issue with this aspect of nct's concept because even right now it seems that they have moments of mismanagement, plus there's the way that mark and haechan are both absent from nct dream events and stuff more often than one would expect of any other group because of them having overlapping schedules with both of the units they're in. And then it also seems that two units can never promote at the same time, so if SM keeps adding members and creating new units, are they going to learn how to have multiple units promoting or releasing music at the same time. Or will we start having to wait even longer between comebacks of certain units?

Like, think about right now. For WayV, it's been a year and like 3 months almost since they released an album together, and I get that that is partially due to the Lucas drama, and also likely because WinWin and Ten have both been busy in China for quite some time too. But there's not even really been any talk about an upcoming album for them, not even as a sub-unit. And then there's 127 who didn't have a comeback from May 2020 (which was just a repackage album) until September 2021 a year and 4 months later (unless you count Loveholic, the Japanese release in February 2021, which was still a 7 month gap). And I know we've gotten full group albums in there, which is fantastic, don't get me wrong about that, but it feels like SM is putting longer and longer stretches between albums for the units, which if you're a fan of just one of the units or something sucks because then you have to go so long without any new music and hardly any content for that unit, whereas if you like all the units then you are pretty much getting new music every few months

[digimonghostgame]

Gammamon Merchandise! 📦

Dear Tumblr,

If you didn't already know, Digimon Ghost Game's latest episode has been postponed until further notice. New episodes normally air on Saturday nights where I live, so I usually do my weekly plot synopsis posts on Sunday or Monday. However, this week's episode was initially delayed until next week due to the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon airing during its time slot. Unfortunately, that delay has been increased due to a recent hack targeted at Toei Animation which breached their internal company network. This is speculated to lead to further delays for many of their shows, including Digimon Ghost Game. You can read more information regarding the delays here and here.

As there's not going to be any new episodes to cover for a while, I've decided to do another non-canon post, similar the one I did for Digimon Con, to keep my blog active with new content in the meantime. This will be what I do if another delay happens in the future as well. Also, if news about the show surfaces, such as when the new episode will air or if further delays are announced, I'll let you know about it. This week's post will showcase some of my merchandise! I figured it would make for an interesting post that still revolves around Ghost Game somewhat. I'll go over some of the memorabilia based off the show, including merch based off of yours truly, and give my thoughts on them. Let's take a look!

Up first is the thing that inspired me to make this post; a Gammamon plush! I believe it's a different plush than the chibi ones that were announced during Digimon Con, as the tweet that first showed it was posted back in September of last year, but it's adorable nonetheless. The detail in the eyes and mouth are fantastic, but the colors of the claws are a little off, as they're the same shade of blue as the scarf. I do love the sitting position the plush is in though, which would make it perfect to place on a shelf, table, or any other flat surface. Unfortunately, I think it may be a promotional plush and not one intended for mass production, if this reddit thread is to be believed. Despite this, I think it will be an interesting footnote in the history of Ghost Game merchandise.

Next up is the Digivice-V-, straight out of Ghost Game! Known also as the Vital Bracelet, the Digivice-V- tracks each step you take with its built-in pedometer. Every step grants you XP that will level up the Digimon inside your bracelet. Occasionally, you'll encounter other Digimon on your journeys and you'll have to issue commands to your Digimon to fight them, just like in the show! The device features a DIM slot on the side to plug DIM cards into, which will give you that card's corresponding Digimon, two buttons to control various actions, and a large, easy to read display with all the information you need in order to play with your Digimon. There's a special edition bundle that includes yours truly, although you can buy my DIM card seperately as well, along with Jellymon and Angoramon! The fun continues on your smartphone with Digimon Vital Bracelet Lab, an app which lets you transfer your Digimon off your Digivice onto your phone! You can store multiple Digimon on the app and even battle your Digimon online against other players, which is pretty cool! You also get a bonus Digimon, Pulsemon, for free when you download the app which is a nice bonus! The app is available on the App Store and Google Play. I'm currently saving up for one of these myself, and I might write a review of it here someday!

While we wait for those Ghost Game chibi plushes to come out, there's a nice set of figures based off the Ghost Game gang you can get a hold of in the meantime! Each comes in their own nicely molded cage with a unique color. One thing I really like about these cages is that they're stackable, so you can easily put this set on a shelf and it will look great. The figures themselves look very nice, with accurate colors, proportions and a nice attention to detail. It's hard to gauge the size of them from photos, but I believe they are smaller figures, probably around a few inches tall. There's actually an even smaller set of figures though, if you can believe it! In the Bandai Hugcot minifigure series, there a few fan favorite Digimon from the past alongside the Ghost Game crew! For such small figures, I'm impressed at the level of detail they have, and I think they'd look great on display together! Definitely something to look into if you're a collector!

The last bit of merchandise I'll cover today are some cards! These cards are from various sets in the Digimon Card Game, featuring yours truly! I don't know much about the rules, strategy, or meta of the card game, so I'm going to look at these from the perspective of them being collectibles. For starters, I really love the artwork on display with these cards. Bandai has some really talented artists working with them and they bring their own styles to the table, making multiple cards of the same character still look unique from each other. I also like how each of the cards with holofoil actually display it in a different way, increasing the uniqueness of each card. My personal favorite is the holofoil card featuring the Ghost Game trio. It's really cool seeing them all together on a single card! That being said though, I love all these cards and I'll definitely pick them up in the future. Perhaps I might even put together a card deck of my own!

All in all, there's a lot of neat Gammamon and Ghost Game memorabilia that's been released so far, and I'm really excited for what new products will come out in the future! If any future Ghost Game merch piques my interest, I'll likely give my two cents on it with another post like this one! Also, I'll keep a tab on the Toei situation and let you know when my usual style of posts will return, hopefully we get some updates on that soon. I hope you enjoyed this week's post! Thank you for taking the time to read it and for visiting my blog! Have a nice rest of your weekend!

Yours Truly, Gammamon

[yukinikuu]

Coloring manga for money is pretty risky in terms of how much trouble you can get into if the wrong person finds out. Fanart is already a pretty grey area but it's usually allowed because it's solely the work of the artist making the money, but coloring manga is a collaboration and you've got no permission from the collaborating artist to make money off their half of the work. I'm not necessarily condemning it but you should be really careful that could land you in some hot water if you use the wrong work and the publisher or artist gets mad about it.

hello, anon. thank you for this. while this is understandable, I will be breaking your argument point by point.

"Fanart is already a pretty grey area but it's usually allowed because it's solely the work of the artist making the money"

Inaccurate. Since I usually work with Manga, I will set the parameter around Japan.

Fanworks of any sort, based on any copyright law, is illegal. Fanart is illegal. Fanfics are illegal. They're all illegal. Taking this into consideration, fan merch sold in cons are illegal as well. Fanfics that were commissioned are, too, illegal. Manga colorings are illegal. The English/Spanish/French fan-translated version of Tokyo Revengers that everyone enjoys is very much illegal. Fanedits. The manga panels that are posted on social media are illegal. The manga icons that people use are illegal. Everything besides consuming and buying the official content is illegal.

However, despite that, these works still continues to exist. Nobody gets reported for having a Baji icon and header that was stolen from an illegally uploaded chapter. Not to mention Japan has an insanely large fan community; they hold large events where they sell fan merch like fanzines, keychains, prints, and acrylic stands. So, why? For Japanese Companies, fanart is not necessarily allowed but tolerated, not because it's 'soley the work of the artist making the money', but because fanarts are good for promotion and marketing. No company could care if it's your art anyway. It's not the drawing alone that is copyrighted, it's the character itself. It's who that character is and where that character came from. But when people make fanart, it spreads the influence and interests of people to read a manga. It's like having a thousand free advertisements.

When you see discourse regarding the "gray area of fanarts", it's not because of people earning small from them but rather others who repost them without the artist's permission which makes it hard for them to control where their art goes. I will explain why on a later point.

"Coloring manga is a collaboration and you got not permission to make money off of half of their work."

Coloring manga is neither illegal (under unwritten terms of the "tolerance") nor a formality. When, let's say, Mangaka B makes art or colors the art of Mangaka A in their style, it is simply done to promote the manga of Mangaka A. I've seen this many times over the years. I'm unsure of how long you have been in fandoms, these aren't a paid collaboration of any sort.

In addition, over the last few months (December to present) I have changed my coloring style. I no longer color on the panel itself, but rather I do a rework of the line art to fit my coloring style better and add my own style in terms of the line strokes and line weight of the work. This tiny change is the loophole in manga coloring that technically categorizes your work as a "fanart" rather than just a manga coloring (but it's still a manga coloring, of course). This makes the piece sort of mine since both the line art and the coloring is done by me, rather than simply taking a panel and customizing under it. However, as aforementioned, it is still illegal as fanarts can be copyright claimed. But! At least the piece is no longer "half of their work", as you said.

But if we take this seriously and by virtue of law, every single fanart is half of a mangaka's work anyway since the design and characters are theirs. So...

I only opened comms because someone asked me to (and another person asked if I do Jojo and if no: "what if it's a commisison". bless that person). Also, it's the reason why I don't charge past $35. I have specified in the terms that these colorings are for personal use only and never commercial. I am not selling my rights over them, as I barely have any, but rather I am selling my abilities as a color artist. The work can technically be considered as a fanart. I have seen many artist taking many fan commissions. Fanmerch exists everywhere as well (though with fanmerch you are only allowed to add a tiny profit percent after the production cost). People who earn on Youtube by streaming fancolorings as well. All of these people are selling "half of someone's work" without permission. They are sold online, at big cons and fanevents in various places in Asia (like this, this, this and this)

Following this argument, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who accepts coloring commissions. I myself have commissioned bigger "color artists" for their works. Like myself, they make their own rendition of the line art to fit their styles better while preserving the original style.

"Coloring manga for money is pretty risky in terms of how much trouble you can get into if the wrong person finds out."

Well, this is the internet. The wrong person is bound to know, and I'm pretty sure the wrong person is already aware that these are happening. Like I have said, these coloring comms has been there since long before. And the 'wrong person' i.e. publishing companies have seen them for years. The only reason why no one has really been sanctioned is because, again, like I said, these are tolerated and taken as a form of free marketing. There's unwritten rules and boundaries about it, and so long as you don't cross them you will be fine.

Another thing to point out with regards to this "tolerance", the primary reason why I, and a lot of fanartist ans manga color arists, do not like people reposting our works is because we lose control over them. If or when the "wrong person" say that fanworks will no longer be tolerated, then we will be able to easily clear out our works by deleting our acocunts and contacting our commissionees (? is that a word). Another thing is that I am a fairly small account. I doubt I will be getting sanctioned. And if I do, I'm going to follow accordingly. I'm not four. If I'm gonna get a letter or a notice to stop, I will stop.

"I'm not necessarily condemning it but you should be really careful that could land you in some hot water if you use the wrong work and the publisher or artist gets mad about it."

You say you are not necessarily condemning it, but you wrote me a paragraph. Thank you for this, I suppose. That being said, I do not appreciate being lectured by an anonymous person online. As you have expressed, this does seem like an important matter. Important things should be discussed personally. I'm sure we can have a civil conversation about these things that you're very concerned about. My DMs are open, after all. Why are you in my ask box on anon?

I, of course, did my research before I opened commissions. I wouldn't have opened commissions if I found anything alarming.

Tumblr is such a small place. You should check twitter some time. And perhaps condemn other manga colorist that accepts commissions like this, this, this, this and this.

Have a nice day.

[nerdylolo]

Yes, you get to choose what content and literature you consume. Yes, that is your freedom that no one else gets to choose for you. But that doesn't erase the consequences of those choices you make.

By continuing to give money to JK Rowling (through buying merch, movie tickets or books), you are giving her money for her to give to transphobic organizations. By talking about and promoting her books, you are raising and strengthening her platform from which she can preach her transphobic, racist, antisemitic rhetoric. By supporting her work (even if you say you don't support her), you are telling trans people you will put your love for these books over their safety and livelihood.

Look, I loved the HP world. It meant a lot to me growing up as a kid. But now that I'm older, I see the transphobia in the story, the racism and antisemitism between the lines. And although that world will have a place in my heart for a long time, I've chosen to not promote her work for my trans friends.

[superlinguo]

Practical advice if you want to start a podcast

I wrote a post for the RED team at La Trobe with some general advice for podcasting, but I’ve found there are some recurring questions that I get about setting up a podcast. This post is here to answer those questions.

If you’re not interested in starting a podcast, but want to listen to more linguistics podcasts, I’ve got a list for you!

I last updated this post in June 2021 - if you find this post a few years after this you might want to search for some more up to date specs. I’ll continue to update this from time to time as new questions (or answers) come up.

Picture your audience

Before you make any decisions about your show, know who it is for. Your topic might be incredibly niche and have an audience in the hundreds, which is very different to a potentially larger but less engaged audience. See the classic blog post from Kevin Kelly on the power of 1000 true fans. Knowing your potential audience, where they hang out online, and how they’re likely to support you, will help your decision making. I have a self-guided slide set for refining your project before you start working on it. It’s also ok to know who you don’t want as your audience, and make choices that don’t actively include them. Do this early and clearly so people aren’t disappointed. For example, having a show with clearly noted explicit language selects away from young kids and their parents.

The length and format of your show are a product of your aims

I personally like shows in the 25-35 minute range. But, having said that, I love Shortwave, which regularly clocks in at 10 minutes, and I’m disappointed when an episode of You’re Wrong About is less than an hour.

Know your audience and the level of depth you want to explore a topic in. The frequency of episodes and the amount of time you have to prepare and edit will also affect how long episode end up. Record a few episodes first and share them with people you trust will give you good feedback.

The best interviews are conversations

Good interviews are just conversations that are intentionally lopsided, and good interviewers make the conversation feel like it’s not lopsided. Do your homework, write out some questions, and then take a step back and actually listen to the person you’re interviewing.

Anyone who has done even a few interviews has already faced most of the questions you first think of. There are some fixes for this: push through your initial brainstorming, think about the specific angles on their topic that are most relevant to your audience and (again) listen to what the person is telling you. Like many podcasting skills, good interviewing takes practice, and you can practice by staying curious about humans you interact with in any area of your life, not just your podcast guests.

Use the best mics you can, but don’t over-invest

You don’t have go and buy the fanciest tech. If you have access to a studio, great! If you don’t, then decide what your budget is. When we started Lingthusiasm, Gretchen recorded into her phone, because we were running the show on no budget and had no idea if we’d stick it out more than 6 months. When we started making money we got Gretchen a Zoom H4n to match mine. It’s still not the fanciest, but it’s rugged and adequate, especially if you make sure you’re in a closet with some blankets. Do I regret the earlier episodes of Lingthusiasm don’t sound amazing? Not as much as I would have regretted investing hundreds of dollars in a podcast that had 4 episodes.

Edit your show

Even a light edit will make the show easier for your audience to listen to, and show respect for the people you interview. I know people believe there’s an aesthetic of authenticity that comes with not editing, but all podcasting is a performance. Editing is a politeness to your audience.

Editing means a very wide range of things. You can do full production editing, including the addition of music, multiple different voice-overs and voices reading parts (e.g. getting someone else to read author quotes to bring them to life) and additional sound effects. Or you might just edit out the start and end of the recording, and any false starts and errors throughout the show. A lot of the pauses and fillers we use in conversation are designed for an audience who is in on the conversation and can reply, and can feel like they’re holding up a conversation when you’re a passive listener like a podcast audience. Many of the best conversational podcasts are given an edit to make them easier on the ears.

I use audacity to edit

Audacity is free to use. It takes a little longer to learn than something like GarageBand, but once you know how to use it, you’ll be much faster at editing. I appreciate that it has stayed pretty much the same since I started using it almost 15 years ago.

Get your levels right

Once you’ve edited your show, making sure there aren’t too many loud laughs, or your two hosts aren’t unbalanced in loudness. You’ll also need to make sure your podcast isn’t too loud or soft compared to others in people’s list. You need to regularise it. A lot of podcasts regularise to -16 LUFS. A few other numbers bounce around (-14, -18), but this is what we use and no one complains.  Audacity can’t do it. You can process a certain number of hours of audio for free each month using the web-based Auphonic. It’s great. 

There’s lots of great free music to use

You want to look for music that has a license that’s free to use. Even if you don’t plan to make money from your podcast, make sure the license includes commercial use so you don’t limit your future options. SoundCloud and YouTube have lots of options, as does Kevin MacLeod - who has created royalty-free music in a massive range of genres. 

Web hosting is different to getting your show on iTunes

We use SoundCloud to upload and share our audio. It’s fine. I have no complaints. Once you’ve uploaded a few hours of audio you’ll have to pay annually for a pro account. Anchor seems to be a good new competitor, it’s free - I assume they make money off people choosing to run ads on their podcasts. You then generate an RSS feed, which is the thing that points all the podcast players to the place you’ve uploaded your recording. You’ll then have to add your show to major podcast platforms (Apple Podcast, Google Podcast), smaller ones will pick it up from there.

It takes a few days for your show to get picked up on all the podfeeders

Launching a podcast is a bit of a mess - it will go live on your hosting site but then you’ll have to set yourself up with iTunes, Google Podcast etc. and that can take a few days to update and populate. The sites that are popular, and the process of linking into those spaces, changes often enough that you should just google advice when you’re ready to launch, and give yourself a few days. This is part of why some podcasts launch a short ‘episode 0′ or a trailer, it gets the show set up.

Transcripts should be one of the first things you fund

Not every podcast has the time or funds to make transcripts. I do think they’re important though; for people who can’t or don’t want to listen, for discoverability and for your own record when you can’t remember when you talked about a specific story. If you have any time or money and want to be taken seriously at all, this should be one of your earliest priorities. This is even more true for educational podcasts, where a transcript ensures all students can appreciate the content of your show.

You don’t neeeeed a website, but it’s handy

You can run a show using a hosting platform and some social media. Having a website does allow you to add more information about the show and yourself. The Lingthusiasm page has grown over the years as the show has; we made a page for our liveshow events, we provide a list of episodes by topic, information about our Discord community, and our marvelous wall of supporters. The website was much more minimal when we started, but compared to just having a SoundCloud it gave the show room to grow.

You probably want socials, but be selective

You need to make your podcast discoverable by people who are likely to be your audience. Social media is one way to do this, but it’s better to be actually engaging on fewer social platforms than overextend yourself. Focus on platforms that are the intersection of where your possible fans are likely to be and where you enjoy being.

Funding a podcast takes time, and takes work

There are three main revenue streams for podcasts: advertising, crowdfunding and merch. A fourth option is institutional support (through your university or business), but then you’re beholden to the funder. Whichever revenue options work for you, think about them and plan towards them early. Part of that is making sure your podcast gets in as many ears as possible. Most successful podcasts spend as much, if not more, time on marketing, audience engagement and business planning as they do podcasting (it’s just not very glamorous to admit that!).

Choose whether each episode can stand alone

Some podcasts build a narrative over multiple episodes. Others allow listeners to jump in at any point and listen in any order. Whatever you choose, make this clear to your audience. This choice is going to influence a range of choices around what information to include in the opening and closing, how topical to make the show, and how you promote your podcast. 

Seasons are a great structure to keep a podcast manageable

Regardless of whether your show runs in a sequence, planning a season with a fixed number of episodes allows you to take some time off, to maybe change some things that weren’t working, or to step away from the project with a podcast that hasn’t been left hanging.

[1ddotdhq]

🎃 Fri 30 Oct ‘20🎄

Naughty List is out, and it’s exactly what we thought it would be: an EDM track over an upbeat, catchy sexy Christmas song (I bet that’s one sentence you did not think you’d be reading today). A limited edition signed CD is available to buy for one week only! Liam went live on Instagram to carve pumpkins with videographer Conor Butler (hi friend!), Conor’s fiancee Meg, and Maya. The camera was only on Liam, but the other three would insert periodic comments, and gave the live show a fun, banter-y atmosphere. Despite being a Web Summit Tech Expert™, Liam still has a bit of trouble running a live show, and abruptly ended his first one only to start again and continue carving his pumpkin. His design, perfectly considered, was Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas - Christmas and Halloween together, like Liam’s weekend! Other high points of the show include Liam meeting Dixie for the first time and asking for some Tik Tok advice (it was a bit awkward and you could tell they were both nervous), another ticket giveaway, his commentary on the Golden video (he hasn’t seen it yet but he appreciates the mustache and the running - uh, same!), congratulating Niall on his upcoming show (“It’s busy,” he says - Liam you have NO IDEA), a scroll through some fanart (I briefly thought he was on tumblr which combined with his "I see everything, you guys don't realize I see a lot" was, uh, ALARMING but it was twitter and he was talking about seeing someone's..toe??), his outfit: he says he was channelling ‘art teacher’, and he hit the nail on the head with his cardigan, flannel, and vintage Guns n Roses T. Also, for any fans that were overly concerned - don’t worry, darlings:  Liam finally got a hold of Louis yesterday, and said that “I'm excited to see what he's got planned coming up. Um but yeah, it's nice - everything is really nice.” The fans quickly went UH WHAT DOES LOUIS HAVE COMING UP, but no one has anything else to say on the matter, so I guess we’ll all find out together. 

I do know what Harry’s got coming up, though: he’s playing the Jingle Ball! It will be a socially distanced performance “from the artists home” where they will be showing fans some of their own holiday traditions and alternating their own songs and Christmas songs. People have started speculating that perhaps the performance with the Free Nationals might have something to do with the performance, but, really, that’s all guess work. Fans have had a great time laughing at the idea of Harry actually walking us through his house, and he definitely won’t be sharing any actual household traditions: for example, his longstanding tradition of celebrating Christmas in the UK is gonna be hard to replicate from LA. Harry also popped up on Instagram to like some posts about Cam’s new album, Otherside, and the lyric video for Changes dropped late last night, featuring - wait for it - HARRY THE PINK FISH! The illustration was a blue tadpole transforming into a frog and jumping from lily pad to lily pad, and then, for Harry’s whistle bridge, a pink fish showed up wearing his Pearl Necklace - an Actual Jewel Fish! OTP: if you’re a fish, then I’m a fish, CLEARLY! 

Niall did some modeling today - selfie not studio pictures (“the pavement is my catwalk”) to show off the goodie basket of Wonder merch Shawn Mendes sent him to promote his upcoming album.The merch included some cool hats and hoodies, to which Niall said, “Thank you bud ❤️️. Congrats on the record. Excited for the fans to hear the rest of it”. I Wonder if that’s it for Shiall content? Nope! Niall took to twitter to promote the album, confirming that he HAS already heard it and that he DOES have a favorite song but not saying absolutely anything else. No Fair, fans complained! Niall, I’m sure, looked at the chaos and jealousy gleefully. Niall also had some instagram tech issues (they’ll get you every time) and accidentally went live when trying to post a story. The live show lasted for all of thirty seconds before he shut it down and said, “I clicked on the radio 1 think and my insta went live. God knows 😂”. And Royal Albert Hall rehearsals are starting: John Bird Jr., Niall’s Bassist, posted a picture of Niall’s band saying, “Dusting off the cobwebs. Feck it’s good to be back!”. Yeah it is! Liam can’t wait to see the show! And, us, of course. We can’t wait to see it, either. 

Zayn is also back to do some (professional) modeling for a familiar brand: Martyre posted an instagram story of his hands holding a guitar and wearing rings! The picture is a close up of his hands only - his bird tattoo and ‘love’ tattoo are clearly visible, and he’s wearing two Martyre rings on his ring finger. Both the rings and the guitar say “pray for us” which is Martyre’s slogan. The picture is no longer up, but hopefully we will be seeing more pictures of him in the future! Maybe the whole shoot (or the whole Zayn) next time?? 

[saltpepperbeard]

A Jotato’s THG Story (novel?)

So a few days ago, the lovely @everlarkedalways asked me to Weave My THG Tale™. And, in being VERY on brand in regards for my THG Story, I’m late to the party lol! Mostly because of work, partly because I was avoiding Ballad spoilers, and a tad bit because...I’m a potato. BUT, now that I am free of any large projects and finally have Ballad in my hands, I’m finally able to look past my potato roots and talk about how a certain wATER POTATO ARCHER CHANGED MY LIFE lmao.

Ara has jokes though, let me tell you. “Keep it short” l m a o; THIS IS ABOUT TO BE A NOVEL AND WE KNOW IT. ARE YOU READING BALLAD? HERE’S A NEW 500 PAGE BOOK FOR YOU TBH-

I’ve told this story a few times before, but it’s always delightful to look back on things and see all the twists and turns I’ve experienced with this franchise. The most notable being, I started out HATING Hunger Games lol!

I was in ninth grade when THG started to become like, a global phenomenon. Everyone was reading it, everyone was talking about it, and it was everywhere. And for whatever reason, instead of actually sitting down and, idk, GIVING IT A TRY LMAO, my reaction instead was to DESPISE IT. Guess it was that edgy, irate, “I’m ABOVE the general masses ha look at me,” fresh-out-of-middle-school mentality. And also, my justification for hating it so much was along the lines of, “Wow it’s just a series about kids killing each other? WHAT’S THE APPEAL???”

Which like fjlksjdksds...If I could look back on my early 2012 self?

She had no idea what was in store for her lmao.

Anyway, the premiere of the movie came and went, and I was still hard set in my ways. THAT WAS, until that same summer. I can’t exactly remember which clips I stumbled upon first? But I know I came across the Joshifer+Liz Banks interview, and also a ton of Perfectly Legal Movie Clips™ on YouTube. Both of which silently chained my soul without me realizing LMAO. I remember thinking that the main actors were so cute and played off each other well (AGAIN LMAO, GIRL, BIG STORM COMING), and also remember being totally intrigued by all the clips I watched. It was mainly clips of Katniss in the arena, and I think it made me realize that wow hey, there’s an ACTUAL STORY HERE, WITH A FEMALE PROTAGONIST NO LESS.

The story gets a tad fuzzy for me here, but I do believe I got the books and quickly read through them shortly after I essentially watched the entire movie on YouTube through clips jdksljdks. I can’t really recall what I thought about the books really? Because, I think I BREEZED through them. I was so excited that I just ZOOMED TF THROUGH. I inhaled the series in one GIANT GULP. I think I even read THG in a single day jdlsjklaads. It definitely wasn’t a cautious read through to get a better sense of the detail and literary devices. 

BUT, despite my excitement, I still hadn’t reached the God Tier “OBSESSIVE” stage yet. The light bulb hadn’t fully come on yet. It wasn’t until late 2013 when Catching Fire came out that I REALLY STARTED TO GO BALLISTIC LMAO. Actually, one of my fondest THG memories comes from this time, because I think it was really like, the OFFICIAL starting block for my obsession.

I was riding on a bus to a Theatre Competition, and my best friend had just gotten the CF Soundtrack for us to listen to. I remember being absolutely enamored with it- Mirrors, We Remain, and Lean in particular. And idk, something at that point just kind of told me that Catching Fire was going to be my anchor. Sure enough, after the competition was over, said friend and I went to go see the movie together.

And I astral projected lmao. I ACHIEVED HUNGER GAMES ENLIGHTENMENT. THE LIGHT BULB SWITCHED TF ON.

I was quick to see it again the following day, and I think saw it another two times in theaters after that. I also started drawing fanart of it, and looking for more pictures/interviews. And the want for more content, the DESIRE to go crazy about it, is what eventually lead me to finding the fandom here on Tumblr. I had had a Tumblr since 2012, but never really used it with a purpose. But when I realized there were people posting all sorts of stuff about THG? Boom- another light bulb. I followed tons of people, and officially changed my url to what it is today. “Star’s” for my internet alias at the time, and “Mahogany” for my love of Effie/that Iconic Line.

HOWEVER LOL, Tumblr would lead me towards a different side, something I didn’t expect to get pulled into so hard at all. Because, I distinctly remember coming on one night in December of 2013, and seeing @joshmopolitan and a few others posting about Josh going to the UK game. And that of course, lead me down the Celebrity Rabbit Hole, and lead me towards the Chaotic, Wonderful, Crazy-

JOSHIFER FANDOM.

((Also, before you crinkle your nose, *raises cane* BACK IN MY DAY, EVERYONE SHIPPED JOSHIFER LOL. *Snow voice* DON’T LIE. Like, everyone thought they were cute to some sort of degree, or believed they were going to get together. Shoutout to the Joshifer Golden Days, man.))

And thank goodness for it tbh. Because it was JUST when I was itching to write fanfiction with everyone else, and just when I was struggling HARDCORE with writing Everlark. @joshmopolitan and @youarebeingridiculous were sort of my introductions into RPF, with @youarebeingridiculous giving me nudges towards my first Everlark fic, before also nudging me towards my first Joshifer fic. And when my first Joshifer fic garnered attention/when I had a blast writing it? ANOTHER. LIGHT. BULB LOL.

So I was dead af from that point on. I was absolutely drawn in. Even though I was still invested in THG, Joshifer was definitely my main focus from 2014-2016ish. I was there for the typical ship wars, there to read and write all the fanfiction, there to read all the theories, and there to partake in all the crazy moments. Shoutout to Cannes 2014 in particular lmao; I was in the car and my phone started going off like CRAZY, with many of my friends SCREAMING at me about the events/articles that had transpired.

Being attached to Joshifer also allowed me to write my first, and so far only, full length, These Words are a Lie. It started out as just a four part series, two parts of which I actually published. Befffooorrre getting to the third part and realizing I had WAY too much to deal with/explain/write, which consequently lead to me pulling them down and expanding upon them! And thus my messy, lovely, 25 chapter peanut journey started lmao. Though I look back on it now and realize how disjointed it was, I’m so thankful I was able to see that story completely through. I’m also very thankful for the SUPPORT and following it got. Wouldn’t have gotten through without y’all! 

ANYWAY LMAO, because this is my THG story and not my Joshifer story, let’s get back to that. 2014 was WHACK because...LG was utterly tripping with its promotional material. And to think, it was just the START of odd/lacking promo, seeing as they were SOMEHOW WORSE WITH MJ2 LMAO. But even though I was incredibly salty at the time, it was so fun to be mad and chomping at the bit with everyone else lol. The SUFFERING OF NOT HAVING ANY NEW CONTENT BROUGHT US CLOSER TOGETHER. Also, going to Best Buy to watch the teaser trailer under Heavy Guard??? Was an EXPERIENCE LOL??? But man was I so stoked to get my poster and pin, because that was some of the first merch I got!

ALSO, MJ1 was the time where I got the idea to create a small YouTube series called “Tributes React.” I really really wish I could have been in the fandom earlier, because it would have been, dare I say, FIRE LOL to react to more than just the MJ1 and MJ2 trailers. But it was so so fun regardless, and everyone’s participation was incredible! And now all of our early, embarrassing, INTENSE fangirling is stuck here/memorialized forever PFFFF.

And, not to mention, Fran Solo himself watched one of them. Someone tweeted the video at him, and he tweeted back that it made all the hard times worth it. MY GREATEST FANDOM ACCOMPLISHMENT RIGHT THERE???

And finally getting to watch MJ1 in theaters lmao omg. I went with my friend before, and also one of my guy friends. And the entire time, he was HARD STARING AT ME WAITING FOR ME TO CRY LOL. SO HE COULD TEASE ME. AND HE GOT HIS WISH BECAUSE OF COURSE THE LAST 30 MINUTES OR SO UTTERLY RUINED ME. I remember shivering so so SO bad when the rescue mission for Peeta started, and having to hold my friends’ hands when they were creeping through the Tribute Center, and utterly SOBBING when Peeta attacked Katniss. Because...hello...I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...WAY WAY MORE INTENSE THAN THE BOOK LMAO??

And then came the beginning of the end. I remember that promo time was even DRYER for MJ2 lmao, and that we were all DYING. Like, I think the big trailer didn’t release until like, SEPTEMBER??? WHICH...LG WHAT THE ACTUAL-

And we were also back to watching trailers in Best Buys jfkssdkdlsk. My Best Buy was also DUMB and didn’t have any posters, but @infinitegraces​ was awesome enough to send me numerous copies! Bless you, thank you; I had them on my wall all through college lol! DESPITE THEM BEING A HAUNTING REMINDER OF HOW HARD LG SMACKED US LMAO.

Despite my salt towards the INITIAL promo though, the premieres and what not definitely lead to MJ2 having a special place in my heart. I had just gone off to college, and was a timid, lonely little freshman with nowhere to turn. But the fandom was there for me, and MJ2 promos/premieres gave me something to be excited for. It all kept me going through that ROUGH first semester, and was there for me before I met my best friends. So thank you MJ2, and thank you all for sharing that excitement with me! <3

Also, I’d like to mention that I was SO desperate to continue the tradition of seeing the premiere with my friend thaaaaatttt...I left for Thanksgiving break two or three days early/skipped class JUST to make it back home in time to see it with her lol! I WASN’T HERE TO PLAY GAMES, Y’ALL. THG > ACADEMICS APPARENTLY PFFFF.

After that though, things kind of quieted down. I found friends and activities in college, the movies were done, and Joshifer was dying out. It lead me to use Tumblr sporadically, not posting AS much as I had before. I still had tons of love for everything, and still enjoyed coming on whenever I did!

Then I sort of stumbled upon our “renaissance,” like the lovely @everlarkedalways​ posting re-reads and re-watches. It tugged me in again, and made me excited to post content! I also branched out and began to write Everlark, and began talking about them/the books/meta more than I did in my earlier years. 

And of course, said renaissance lead me to attending TOASTCON LMAO. Which I somehow managed to name. On accident. *Dabs unironically*

That of course, was such an amazing experience. Going to movie filming sites has always been on my bucket list, so getting to go to HUNGER GAMES SITES??? WITH FANDOM PEOPLE???? GOD TIER??????

I was also suffering from major panic/anxiety problems that summer, having just graduated college and being thrown out in the Real World™. So once again, THG and its fandom were there for me when nothing else could be. And despite me feeling off mentally, despite me feeling plagued by fatigue, I still thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone/having such a once in a lifetime experience. Also, getting to FLEX on my friends when we watch the movies and go like “I WAS THERE! I WAS THERE!! I WAS THERE!!!” is...A Time PFFFF.

Then of course, I started working a full time job, and shifted a bit away from Tumblr/the fandom. Not DELIBERATELY; more like, I was too Mentally Tired to really do much after work. But now that Ballad is here, and now that we have new content once more? I feel like I’m waking back up. Hell, I even went to Atlanta to see MORE film sites right before the virus started to make its rounds.

And so here I am lol! A SEASONED THG VET WITH SEVEN YEARS AND COUNTING UNDER MY BELT. I would very much love to tag everyone who had an impact on me, and/or who I’ve interacted with and shared fun times with over the years. But A. Everyone really out here CONSTANTLY CHANGING THEIR URL’s, and B. The number would be Too Great and I would inevitably forget someone on accident.

SO THEN, if you’re reading this, and we’ve ever shared some kind of THG experience together, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. THG has been such a wondrous experience for me, and it’s lead me to meet all sorts of amazing, talented individuals. It’s also been there for me during darker times, and has supported me in every way possible.

I love you all, I love being here, and HERE’S TO MANY MORE TAGS/RAMBLES IN THE FUTURE LOL! Like lmao, a new movie, you guys??? WHAT??? TRIBUTES REACT ANYONE???

-Jotato Out <3

[villainanders]

hey chloe, have you watched the new lindsay ellis video? if so, as someone who at probably understands shit like this better than I do, what seems to be the inherent issue with engaging with fandom and fanworks in a setting where everyone involved actively hates and disowns jkr? I understand that you can't untie jkrs brand from the books themselves but surely it isn't promoting her influence to like,, read trans hermione fic or whatever bc that's just so far from her original intent

Okay, I have complicated feelings about the Lindsay Ellis video. Generally, I don’t think there’s anything (or at least like, not a lot) wrong with continuing to engage with Harry Potter fandom, consuming fic and art and maybe other fanmade merch. The point against it is that consuming that content is going tot indicate a general interest in HP. It reminds your friends about the series, it makes them read that really good fanfic and then start buying merch with renewed fervor, care enough about the next fantastic beasts movie to actually go see it

HP’s entire value at this point is as a massive cultural property. When we continue to participate in that culture, it still promotes Harry Potter, which in turn promotes this brand controlled mostly by her and makes it more and more of a viable commercial property for her to be greenlit to drop the 15th fantastic beasts movie or another bad play

That being said, that argument is still a little, idk, weak? There’s a difference between dropping 100 bucks on a wand at the HP theme park and reading drarry fanfic on AO3. 

Boycotting fan spaces is going to have so so so much less of an impact than say, boycotting the next fantastic beasts movies, or asking JK’s publisher to drop her. Even removing mainstream HP influences, like taking your Hogwarts house out of your twitter bio, is probably going to have a bigger impact in gauging HP’s cultural relevance when Warner Bros is trying to decide if they should remake the movies or s/t

All this to say that I think Lindsay Ellis’ point with more public and commercial fandom consumption is generally pretty good. I get if people are really attached (there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, etc, etc), but in general, I think it’s a good idea to start making a big effort to distance yourself from the brand. 

That being said, the fanmade media you consume privately or on tunglr dot com, the one place on earth where brands can’t see us, is probably ultimately pretty harmless and really it’s just up to you and what feelings you still have about the franchise. I doubt I’ll 100% drop every Harry Potter influence in my life, but the idea of reading HP fanfic rn just makes me... idk, sad I guess? But it’s also all very fresh, so we’ll see how I feel later on. I don’t think anyone can give you a firm answer on this, it’s really up to the individual and your personal level of comfort 

[edorazzi]

Well, here we are again! Twitter said yes to a review post for a Miraculous magazine that suddenly showed up in my local area. ‘Tis the season after all, and by that I mean someone bought it for me as a joke birthday gift and I was way too happy about that.

I’ve done previous reviews of the Miraculous Christmas calendar, Easter egg set, superhero fashion dolls and action figures, so let’s dive into the unknown world of merchandising yet again!

(As always, if you enjoy my posts, please consider checking out my Twitter page or supporting me on Patreon for lots of bonus content!)

4 FREE GIFTS! PACKED WITH ACTIVITIES! MEET THE KWAMIS! PRANKS & LOLS! CUT-OUT MEMES! FANGIRL ALERT! NAIL ART! 100% OFFICIAL! I’m overwhelmed! It feels like I’m having a seizure just from the packaging!!! 

I should preface this by saying I haven’t bought a magazine like this in years. Possibly ever. I read things like the Beano, Animals & You and the odd Disney Princess zine when I was a kid but I have no idea what to expect from a free-gift-packed kiddie magazine in 2019. If the outside is anything to go by we’re in for a wild ride.

I’m noticing that it says “Miraculous #20″ on the back. Does this mean I’ve missed 19 previous issues? I’m genuinely a little upset by that. My local area is a complete dry zone for Miraculous so I haven’t had the chance to pick these up.

First step: let’s separate everything out and get a look at these freeeee giftssss. Except they aren’t free, because this magazine was like £3.99. This does seem to be the current trend - it’s kinda rare to see any kids’ zines without the excess packaging crammed with ‘free’ stuff. Is it really too expensive to just produce the magazine? Probably, in this economy.

Chat Noir is revealed on the cover! He was on the back of the plastic jacket, but it’s still nice to see the kids as a front-cover duo. Apparently we’re going to learn to draw Pollen, too, which sounds fun. I’m actually liking the look of the gifts as well, but we’ll get into those in a minute.

This hairbrush............. is adorable. Oh my god. It’s pretty cheap and flimsy but it functions the way it’s supposed to, and the Ladybug design has been taken into account in a better way than “it’s red/black, that counts” (lest we forget the UTTER BULLSHIT of the Christmas calendar, and YES I’m still mad about that). I don’t know how well I expect the outer sticker to last, but if it can take a bit of wear and tear this would be an adorable little travel brush. Nicely done, lads!

These nail stickers? Also adorable. They remind me of the kiddie makeup sets I had when I was little, back in the early 00s when plastic stick-on nails and decals were all the rage. Are they still a thing? That’s nice to know.

There are 13 designs (that I can count) - a Queen Bee mask, Chat Noir pawprint cake, macaron, cupcake, heart-print cookie, Ladybug stud, flower, lightning bolt, love heart, Marinette heart, bee, fox tail and star. The majority are directly related to the show and that makes them feel special. No Carapace though? :(

I’ve put a little Marinette heart on my furthest finger. At the time of typing this up (about a day later) it’s still firmly in place. I haven’t really knocked it around, granted, but it’s not flimsy enough to fall off after five minutes either. It’s also really cute to look at. Guess I’m still a decal-loving 2004 girl at heart......

These stickers though!!! Wow! They’re those holographic and slightly-puffy kind and they feel like pretty good quality, and the designs are so cute! I can’t fault these, they’re absolutely adorable. I immediately want to stick them everywhere.

So I’ve stuck them everywhere. I’m especially proud of the light switch pun. My room looks GREAT.

I saved these “mystery stickers” for last because I’m weak for the thrill of mystery bags, and there wasn’t anything on the packaging to indicate what kind of designs to expect. And OH!!!! OH, IT’S MY BOY!!!! Look at him!!!! 

I made jokes with the Christmas calendar about all the Chat Noir items being stolen ahead of time, but that’s definitely NOT the case with this magazine. I have been SPOILED with the presence of my cat son.

These stickers are similar to the sticker sheet (and the Chillin’ Out design is reprinted), but they’re puffier and non-holographic. I’m deeply allured by the “decorate your phone or tablet” suggestion on the packet, but I’m going to see how the previous stickers withstand the wear-and-tear of my laptop lid before adding any more. If I damage these beautiful Adrien stickers I’ll be devastated.

Those are our free gifts! They’re actually very fun and cute, I’m really happy with them! I guess now it’s time to get into the magazine itself...........

I genuinely almost forgot the magazine was the main part of this package. I figured I was done, but we’ve barely even started! Here’s a splash page of the kwami. Kwami with a capital K? Kwamis? I still feel like it should be singular-lower-case-k-kwami. I’ve never been happy about this “miraculouses” business either.

But is that--

It IS!!!! It’s Nino!!! 

I guess this is the new flavour of Miraculous tie-ins. Now they’ve broadened out to a full team we’re seeing a lot more of Adrien alongside the girls, and Nino is the elusive hero who shows up once in a blue moon. At least this time his name isn’t in the title of the gotdam show.......

Anyway, I can see I’m supposed to draw my “fave Kwami”. Better get to it.

Felix just wants a break. Just one break. But not in this magazine.

Speaking of seeing more of Adrien (and, tragically, less of Nino), this is the kind of splash page I want to see! Both kids are here! The banner themed with Marinette’s signature flowers is a nice touch too; that’s associated with her arts ‘n’ crafts in the show already and it makes sense to apply it to the creative portion of this magazine too.

I LOVE the promotion of Chat Noir nails as something the little girls buying this magazine will definitely want to try. I’d expect them to do Marinette vs Ladybug nails, but instead we get a boyish option! Hell yeah!

I’m a little confused by the Queen Bee masks apparently going on the Chat Noir nails though. I guess they’re friends? Is this secret AdriChlo confirmation? Watch out, Marinette, Kagami’s not the one to be worried about.

SURE WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SOME TURTLE STICKERS FOR AN ALL-BOYS THEME BUT I GUESS NOT HUH

Next up is a short merch catalogue (why would you put the big bold arrow pointing right to the underoos.....). Would those Chat Noir socks come in my size? Asking for me.

Then there’s......... this page. FANGIRL ALERT. God. It’s like the Ladyblog, if only the Ladyblog ever gave a heck about reporting what Chat Noir’s up to.

THE SPELL WAS BROKEN AND THE FANDOM IMPLODED WITH JOY.

I really have to wonder what age range this is meant for. Do kids know what a “fandom” is? Do little girls consider themselves “fangirls”? I guess most kids have enough internet access to figure it out these days (all the hashtags and LOLs and memes speak volumes), but I can’t imagine being young enough to fit the target range of this magazine while also knowing these terms. I dunno.

(Also, the definition of ‘implosion’ is ‘an instance of something collapsing violently inwards’, so I’m not sure that’s the word they’re looking for. Unless the return to the status quo in Dark Cupid and the continuing stagnation of the love square was enough to make people quit in frustration? Probably.)

I’m filling it in, of course. Because I must.

I gave up on the pre-approved ratings system pretty much right away, but I think this is an accurate rating of my LadyNoir opinions. 

I might be kinda cynical about it here, but I am actually pretty fond of how this magazine sells Ladybug and Chat Noir as a couple. The show’s portraying it as very onesided lately, with Chat pining over Ladybug who has absolutely no interest in him (Glaciator was a TERRIBLE episode and I’m still hurting from it), but reading this zine I’d guess they were already dating. It’s cheesy, but in a nice way.

I have to laugh at “the most amazing thing about this super duo is that they always look out for and protect each other” though. Chat’s usually pretty focused on LB, sure, but there are endless instances of LB using Chat as cannon fodder and just generally abandoning him to get mauled by akuma while she carries out her personal private plan to save the day. Maybe we’re just focusing on the better-written episodes, huh?

Moving ahead. I’ve been dreading this page since reading “Plaggs Pranks & LOLs” on the back of the packaging. I feel hatred in my very bones just looking at it.

I like that there’s ONE instance of the term “ladybird” in the joke column. This is a UK-based magazine and that IS the word we tend to use over here - “ladybug” is an Americanism - but it’s like they’re worried kids could have got to the middle of this magazine about a superhero named Ladybug and then not understand the bug jokes. Maybe whoever was writing this page slipped up?

OH NOOOOO. MARINETTE, NOOOOOOOOOO.

THIS IS WHY FELIX GOT RID OF YOU, PLAGG. THESE ARE ADRIEN’S PROBLEMS NOW.

(mmm whatcha saaaaay)

I mean........... YEAH, I guess, but we absolutely did see Plagg destroy Felix with an entire shelf of heavy books. I guess he’s nicer with Adrien. It’s all fun and games until someone has a nervous breakdown in the library.

I do love the concept of Tikki getting glitter-bombed by Plagg through the mail. She just curiously opens up the little letter which got slipped into Marinette’s purse, and-- WOOSH. One entire wall of Mari’s room is glittery except for a little Tikki-shaped silhouette. 

Next up is a two-page comic which is absolutely adorable! Look at those little chibis! The warm and soft colour palette! This is nicer than most of the official Miraculous comic book art I’ve seen, I hope they keep giving this artist work.

Nino’s here too (and he looks great!), and I like the touch of Marinette and Adrien playing as each other’s superhero characters. Adrien even wins the match, though I guess there’s something to be said about Ladybug beating Chat Noir (again)...... 

It does raise the question yet again of where this tie-in merchandise is coming from! They’ve had action figures, a movie, music video features, now an arcade game... Who’s getting the royalties here? Who’s profiting? Is this how Fu can afford to buy all those rare ingredients for the magic potions?

Over the page we have an activity to Design your Secret Lair! Right away I love the Marinette theme of the page, the soft pink and flowers, and the drawing space looking like a page in a binder with marker tabs and everything.

I have to design my secret lair, of course: 

What do you think? I’m very creative. I’ll need an adult to send in the drawing of my hideout but I think I’ve really got a shot at those unicorn headphones.

Now we’re on to puzzles and character pages. I don’t know what ol’ Gabe is doing trying to meet a 13 year old girl in the dead of night without telling anyone, you’d think if he’s got that much free time on his hands he could be spending it with his son.

I don’t know how those points in Ladybug’s power profile are awarded or what they mean, but you can tell this is a fan magazine. Official sources would have put her at a 10.

Standard House of Villains page! Most of these were good episodes but I’m deeply offended Riposte isn’t on here. Maybe her motives weren’t dramatic and cartoonish enough to be up in the ranks with Glaciator and Gorizilla?

“Cat Noir’s dad is also the evil Hawk Moth”, huh? I mean that’s not WRONG, but is it really something to put in his power profile when Adrien doesn’t even know yet??? Feels like we’re kinda jumping the gun on the poor boy. What if he picks up this magazine?

Apparently he’s one point weaker than Ladybug (seriously???), two points faster, equally as agile, one point less skilled and two points less cool. Despite all those lesses he still comes out at an equal 9, which is a relief! These kids are a team, putting either of them below the other would have been a big no.

I did the colouring page too, naturally. Je suis un artiste.

Now we’ve got a page fresh from the Ladyblog, a Miraculous quiz! Not a lot of excitement, but it’s nice to see Alya getting her own section.

I like that the qualifications of “you could be Ladybug herself!” are knowing what city Marinette lives in and what school she goes to. Well done, Mari! You’re doing your best!!!

TEACHER I AM SO HUNGRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I gotta say, I’m not so sure about decorating donuts with fondant. I’ve never tried it so I could be wrong, but it feels like rolled icing instead of frosting(?) would be too heavy for an entire donut. The texture is totally different.

I mean I guess if you’re going to load your kids up on sugar you might as well go all the way. They’re going to look like they’ve eaten something horrible with all that black fondant, but they’ll have fun. Adrien would love these.

WHERE’S NINO. THIS IS JUST UNFAIR. You’ll have four out of five heroes, then a double of Marinette and Tikki? Maybe this just goes to show how little memorable dialogue Carapace has.

Though if “Spots On!” is Marinette’s dialogue and not Ladybug’s, why are the other transformation phrases attributed to Rena Rouge and Queen Bee instead of Alya and Chloé? Surely they could have picked something better for Marinette to justify having her on this list twice instead of Nino.

The next page brings us one of those flowchart quizzes! And ouch, yet again the absence of the other heroes is obvious. I can understand not including Chloé here since she’s technically not a “friendly” character yet, but no Nino? Alya and Marinette are close friends, but Adrien doesn’t really hang out with them without Nino around. Having the three of them together just seems strange.

I do like the little fashion page! They’re all cute and affordable and easy to find on the high street here. I’d love to see how other issues of this magazine are structured; is there a different fashion spot every time? Styles to channel each individual hero would be adorable.

Moving on to a tutorial for a Ladybug notebook! I would have made this, but I didn’t have the time nor a notebook to stick it to.

Between this and the donuts, it seems weird that these designs are based on, like... an actual beetle, eyes and antennae and all. Shouldn’t it be Ladybug’s symbol? These come across more like “fun animals” arts ‘n’ crafts instead of themed after Miraculous specifically. I think if I made this (or decorated the donuts) I’d miss out the head and match the spot pattern to Ladybug’s symbol. 

The hidden message design is adorable though. I can see this being a craft kids are super proud of.

Another activity page! I didn’t have a go at these but they’re pretty standard. It’s cute that the coded message designs are the same as the stickers and nail decals!

Also, apparently Ladybug’s ‘secret’ is “LB mask + heart + CN mask”, which was (somehow) stolen by Volpina. Is that the secret Hawk Moth was talking about earlier in the magazine? Is he blackmailing Ladybug with revealing she has a crush on Chat Noir? How did Volpina ‘steal’ this secret? Is LadyNoir finally reciprocated???? THIS IS A WHOLE EPISODE IN ITSELF, I NEED ANSWERS--

Next page we have an ad for another girly magazine (Quizzes! LOLs! Celebs! Cringes! Puzzles!). I think I’ll pass, no matter how appealing that giant microphone pen is. 

And a “Miraculous Identity” quiz! Tikki’s apparently super fickle with her wielders, three seasons of relentlessly praising Marinette and now she’s telling us we’re the Chosen Ones. You can’t fool me with those big ol’ eyes.

My inner superhero is Marvellous Fox, by the way. Though yet again I’m noticing we don’t have turtle options...................

And on the back cover... the memes. Oh, sweet lord, the memes. They’re hashtag-SoRelatable! And I can cut them out to keep! Oh boy!!!

Is this what kids do when they have limited internet access? Cut fresh memes out of magazines and carry them around? I need to know.

That’s a very sinister Ladybug at the bottom of the page though. What’s-- What’s she going to do to me if I don’t cut out and keep these memes. Ladybug what are you going to do if I d--

Well that brings us to the end of the magazine! And yet again I’m surprised by how much time it takes to just put a bunch of photos together and write about them.

This is a neat little magazine all in all! The ‘free gifts’ are pretty nice, there’s a fair amount of content and the whole thing is pretty cute for young fans of the show. I could see myself buying this again - if it ever shows up on shelves, Miraculous is so scarce around here that I fully expect it to disappear again after this one issue - just for the free junk, but it would be interesting to see how they’d structure different issues too!

I notice we never did get that promised tutorial on how to draw Pollen; the one advertised on the cover. Was the “draw your favourite Kwami” activity supposed to cover that? I’m not sure that really counts.

If you got this far, thanks for joining me on this Miraculous journey! We’ll meet again whenever I get another piece of weird ML merch to cover. Bien joué!

[spill-the-milk-tea]

YouTube Rant

(Probably wrong, please don’t come @ me—actually please do, I like to be proved wrong so I can be informed :))

I think the biggest flaw with the YouTube algorithm and how it recommends or demonetizes videos is that it’s basing a lot of its info on the viewer demographics. At least, I can only assume. Why else would YouTubers like James Charles, Danielle Cohn, and Logan Paul get videos to trending with blatantly inappropriate or sexual content despite (or perhaps, because of) their large, primarily minor audience, when actual wholesome youth creators like LifeWithMak get flagged simply for having adult viewers and inappropriate comments? The system actively rewards creators who show and promote inappropriate content to their underage audience, while punishing appropriate creators who are being harassed, when it should be the other way around. You shouldn’t be regulating content based on who’s watching it, you should be regulating content because you know who will be watching it. Assuming the appropriateness of content based on its viewers is so misguided and is the fundamental flaw behind the algorithm that makes everything so backwards.

I think the “algorithm favoritism” can be explained this way also. Big creators like Shane Dawson and Pewdiepie who are literally OG YouTubers that have defined the platform and continue to be huge to this day, are almost never found on the trending tab; as opposed to much newer, comparatively more problematic creators. They rely entirely on their existing fame and dedicated fan base for views. The way I see it, Pewdiepie and Shane Dawson used to be defined by their mostly minor audiences. Now those audiences are all grown up, and most of their fans are now adults. Understandably, I think YouTube favors creators who have mostly young audiences because children are simply more bankable and easy to influence in the advertisement game. Children are also more likely to stay on YouTube longer, and go to YouTube sponsored events like fanmeets or Vidcon, and buy merch. Basically, children are a lot easier to engage and retain on the platform long-term as opposed to adults. I mean, it’s literally a running joke that twelve-year old YouTuber fans are stupidly dedicated and are the reason why problematic creators get so big. So those with older audiences are phased out, and newer creators with newer, younger audiences are favored by the algorithm. Of course I definitely think there are other factors and flaws in the algorithm, like how certain “controversial” tag words in titles or within the videos themselves are immediately deemed un-advertiser friendly, such as LGTBQ+ words or even topics about mental health. The biggest indicator to me is cursing, which immediately gets videos flagged for less ads, since it’s inherently seen as inappropriate for children.

YouTube as a whole seems to be transforming the entire platform and building it entirely around their one interest-group/demographic, which is children. And it’s pushing out any sort of meaningful or somewhat controversial content in the process simply because they don’t think that demographic will respond to it. I think more than just YouTube protecting their advertisers, the advertisers themselves clearly know who they want to target, and any content that doesn’t appeal to their target audience is avoided. That’s why I think there’s a lot of confusion over who is calling the shots with these unfair demonetizations—advertisers themselves, or YouTube. I think it’s both. The interests of advertisers and YouTube itself have merged into one singular unit, and it’s hurting content creators. There’s suddenly no middle man between them and the people who give them their money, protecting their content and making sure they can still get a paycheck. Advertisers themselves are basically scanning their content to determine who gets paid and who doesn’t, and there’s a palpable fear being shown in the content created. There’s so much more censorship, both deliberate and subconscious, in my favorite creators’ videos. Everyone’s afraid to say things they want to say or need to be said because they feel like Auntie Advertiser is always watching. The only real place I feel like I can get controversial, informational content is from channels who share clips from TV shows owned by big media companies, because of course they’re safe.

Maybe I’m speculating too much because I’m stupid, feel free to correct me in the harshest terms possible. That’s just my theory tying together all the reasons why YouTube has gotten worse in recent years.

[americanphancakes]

Not sure why there’s merch speculation exactly (just cuz of the time of year it is plus Dan posting on IG & twitter after like two weeks of silence? Makes sense I suppose), but here’s the thing:

If you primarily buy Dan merch because it promotes Dan and his content & financially supports the creation of his videos, then of course you shouldn’t be buying his merch during a content drought if you don’t want to. That only makes sense.

If you primarily buy Dan merch because it’s your aesthetic and they’re just products you'd want anyway, then there’s nothing wrong with buying his merch during a content drought.

I personally buy the Dan Howell products that fit into my life and that I think are cool, it honestly has very little to do with his content. I think his products are legitimately nice, and I’d be glad to see him continue producing these clothing & accessory designs even if he never makes another video. But that’s ME, and IMO, instead seeing the merch as Dan promo & video support is equally valid.

I’m not gonna get on anyone’s case about being grumpy about merch releases without video content. Just don’t judge me for buying the Dan stuff I like even if he’s not making videos, and we’re good lol

[writingonjorvik]

If I Could Ask the Devs 10 Questions: A WOJ Interview

I think if you’ve known me for a while, you probably know I would jump at the idea of getting to interview the SSO devs, particularly because they tend to have internalized or cherry picked interviews that only focus on what they want to tell us, and not on the questions the players tend to have about the game. So if I could have an interview with the devs, these are the 10 questions I would ask.

Sidenote: I have 10 core topic questions with some brief follow-up questions for clarity. If you counted, yes, there would be more than ten, but there are ten core areas.

What kind of updates can we expect for this year; in terms of new areas, horses, features, etc.?

When can we expect the return of bigger area expansions with full side quests prepared for them and secrets like in the Harvest Counties and Valley of the Hidden Dinosaur launches?

Speaking of updates, about 80% of SSO community wants to see the older Gen 1 & Gen 1.5 models updated across the board like with the update to Gen 1.5. Considering that this is a super majority, and these horses are paid for content, what does SSO intend to do to meet this request from its player base?

Again, since this content is already been paid for, would an “upgrade” feature for purchased old models require additional payment, making player pay to make already purchased content playable again?

If opposed to updating earlier gen models, why does SSO ignore something a super majority of their players want that seems it would also benefit the devs work load?

How does SSO plan to counter price bloat, like what’s happened on the upgraded pets?

Expected counterpoint: SSO has said that the walking pets are more expensive because of “all the hard work that went into them.” This is both a sunken cost and false equivalence fallacy. It’s the developers’ job to continue to make SSO better, and make better content for the game. That should not result in bloated prices for players, but rather more product that they can spend their money on. Saying that “all that hard work” just went into making expensive content diminishes the rest of the work made on the game and it trivializes the job the devs are supposed to be doing. It’s your job to make content for the game. We should not have to pay extra for something we already paid for, and certainly not at a bloat of 4-5x the initial cost for a few bonus animations.

On the note of purchased content, over 70% of SSO’s player base thinks that the game is overpriced, but 90%, regardless of their opinions on fairness, say they would buy more often if the prices were lowered. Is there any intention to lower the prices around SSO to make it more accessible?

Is there any intention is making supplementary content, like more unique items in the merch store that aren’t simply designs with your logo on them?

Would SSO be able to release the comic in English any time soon?

Are there any plans to rerelease the Starshine Legacy games on Steam or the teams merch store?

SSO prides itself for being a narrative oriented story. Are there any plans to establish an official writing team on SSO?

What about a canon wiki about the series?

One of the things the devs have stated about the genderlock on SSO is that it’s to create a space for women in gaming. Does SSO donate to any charities that support girls to play video games like Child’s Play, Code Liberation, or Games For Change, or charities that help women in general like National Women’s Law Center, Dress For Success Worldwide, Girls Not Brides, or Futures Without Violence?

What actions outside of having female leads and job equality is SSO pursuing to promote gender equality?

Can we expect the ability to get magic powers that we can use outside of cutscenes?

Would this involve the “power-up” system the devs have discussed before?

What kind of new customization can we expect in the future of the game?

Would this include the return of the housing function?

Will this provide more options for other gender presenting players besides femme?

Would SSO consider letting the player input their own pronouns into the game without changing the story in any other way?

Would SSO ever consider switching to an expansion based system over the weekly release schedule?

If not, why is the weekly release better for the game than having larger, less frequent updates?

If they would, what would this mean for daily content, in terms of daily quests and achievements, as well as the payment system for an expansion?

Would SSO ever bring back more fan generated content, like the T-Shirt contest?

With SSO branching out to more unique types of story telling, would SSO hold contests for writing companion short stories or producing audio stories like Texas Bluebells?

Will SSO release a public list of community guidelines, so both players and moderators know what is correct behavior, and so also ensure that moderators are upholding SSO’s rules and not personal ones?

What about an internal reporting system to simplify reporting?

Question I Think Would Be Asked Of Me

1. Why are you so critical of the game?

Ok. Here’s the essay.

I suppose it would be easy to say that it’s out of spite. And there’s probably some of that in there. Some innate bitterness over the fact that the PR team, for a period, actively deleted anything critical, regardless of content. The fact that they outright lied about empirical data the players were giving the devs (see the AQH release). Sure, there’s the fact that I’ve seen and had SSO’s dev team do a 180 on me from offering me a space on the mod team for trying to promote a better community to having their devs and outreach insult and demean me on the basis of my comments being “critical.”

And it does drive me a little nutty to see the devs so successfully have turned their player base on anyone who might critique the game. To see my hard work trying to get players to be decent people in the game turned on its head when I say one word crosswise about something that might make the game better. And I’ve be wrong to say I don’t get frustrated when I talk about changes SSO could apply with after being a gamer for way longer than most of the people debating me, with enough research done on my own to be the basis for a master’s thesis, only to be told by someone who SSO is their first video game telling me how the industry works. But that’s really not it. 

So, here it is:

Star Stable is one of the only non-combat MMOs in the world.

Let me repeat that; Star Stable is one of the only non-combat MMOs in the world. And I imagine that invokes a sense of pride, like you’ve hit some kind of niche. But that’s not a truth because of some lucky chance.

Non-combat MMOs survive on small niche markets, before consistently dying off because of failure to expand beyond their initial targets. And it’s not for lack of trying. People love non-combat games; Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Nintendogs, Roller Coaster and Zoo Tycoon, the Myst series, so on. But when those games refuse to look passed their niche, to expand and improve, they have historically failed as MMOs because one niche cannot fund an MMO.

And where SSO has survived on the niche market of “horse girl fantasy,” it is most certainly not expanding. SSO talks about its overall player count being in the millions, but ignores that fact that for every unique player there are five duplicate accounts, which is a metric that continues to bloat. That out of 12 million players, only 3% of those players are regularly active, compared to most MMOs which will hit 15-25% of their player base regularly between expansions. And no matter how you swing those numbers, no matter how much more you bloat the prices, that is not a long term lifespan. You can’t survive on that niche.

I genuinely believe SSO could help influence the industry. And I don’t mean that in a “if you follow all my ideas, everything will end up perfectly.” I’m not always right, and I’m willing to admit that. But the fact that SSO has been so resistant to any criticism results in a mob mentality with its core player base and it ostracizes anyone who can’t put up with that attitude any longer. Not only does it put the developers into an echo chamber where they can’t improve, it continues to push away the people who care enough to sit down and explain why they’re frustrated. You tighten that niche. You limit your market. You run out of resources.

And I do think SSO has already made leaps ahead for parts of the industry. The number of people who say SSO was their first MMO, their first game, is amazing. It’s great to see a game helping young people get into gaming, particularly girls who, when I was their age, were bullied for even liking video games. So for SSO to make that platform is amazing. But they cannot abuse that by taking advantage of new gamers who don’t know any better about how games are made or sold. I feel, and I feel this of every company, not just SSO, that there is a moral obligation to do right by people, and not to take advantage of their ignorance. And with such a powerful platform to invite young people into this sphere, into making new games and telling new stories, it is imperative that SSO does right by people.

I’m hard on SSO because I care, immensely. You could say I have a fixation on the game, really. I am invested in the survival of this game. But you can’t survive without getting better. Not to mention, the criticism SSO gets is free! From thousands of people. When I edited my book, I paid over $2,000 for my two editors I worked with, and that’s not even getting into beta readers and reviewers. I would love to be able to get feedback for free like SSO does. Because it’s an opportunity to improve because we are never going to be perfect. And if SSO wants to survive the trends surrounding their genre, then they can leave no room for quarter to people like me. Not out of oppression of people’s voices, but by listening and making a better game.

Thanks for your time.

[artificialqueens]

Beyond My Wildest Dreams Ch. 4 (Nina West/OC) - multifandomgeek

Nina is known for being kind. The Miss Congeniality of all Miss Congenialities, people have been saying. Not that she would ever acknowledge that and discredit the title of the queens that came before her and are just as amazing and kind and important as her, if not more. But she loves it, and sometimes has to check in to make sure she’s not getting a little cocky about it.

Of course, she can be shady too, if she’s not too worried about the public eye. Especially a few drinks in and with a couple of minutes to think about it. She can also be mean and resentful when she’s hurt like any other human being on this planet. But that’s part of her as a person, not her as a brand, and people don’t see it that often. Which is good, if a little scary. After all, even if she’s loud and clear about not being perfect, sometimes it seems like people see her that way, and that’s just too much pressure to keep up with.

But that’s a thought for another day. Today, as she pretends not to see Vanjie and Brooke with their heads together whispering in the corner of their shared dressing room, Nina tucks a triumphant smile on the corner of her mouth and doesn’t think about being kind at all.

She’s playing with them, pretending to have a secret that’s not really a secret so much as something she wants to shout from the rooftops. She’s acting that way to have a bargaining chip. Maybe that’s not the best way to treat your friends but she couldn’t help herself, but it’s way too much fun.

The bargaining thing came as an idea to have both Brooke and Vanjie’s collaboration on the Big Project (that still doesn’t have a name). Kevin had mentioned how much buzz it would generate if they could have them together, not only at the same time but at the same place. He had said it as a passing thought, but Nina was well aware of the power of the thirsty fans and her gears were already working on making that happen.

Of course, making money while playing with your friends’ feelings was more than morally questionable, but it was for charity. Besides, she had a feeling they were still fucking on the side, maybe when the alcohol was running high or maybe even when they were both dead sober, and she wanted in on that secret. So it was a matter of hitting two birds with one stone. Two lovesick birds, to be precise.

In any case, the project wouldn’t be happening for a while, at least by the end of the year. She didn’t really know exactly, Kevin had the schedule. Nina was sure Brooke and Vanjie could sort their shit until there, or at least brace themselves to have a friendly interaction about their past relationship by then. In any case, having that exclusive content could be the key to a huge bump on Nina’s audience, and even if Brooke and Vanjie months from now would be fine with that, she needed Brooke and Vanjie from right now to sign the deal.

Honestly, though, she didn’t think it would be that easy to play with them. She didn’t even have a plan, just the fact she was acting a little more cheerfully than usual and maybe got away to call Kevin so nobody would pry on their conversation earlier in the evening already had Brooke all curious and frustrated that Nina wouldn’t say anything. Next thing she knew, she was conspiring with Vanjie about it.

Nina liked seeing them liked this. Fucking or not, the relationship they had now was way better than the official one they had before. They were too intense back then, now they were lighter and laughed more. It was refreshing.

After they all performed and de-dragged, they found themselves waiting outside of the club for a van to take them to their hotel. They were a big group, with assistants, local queens, staff, and friends waiting with them to catch a ride too or just to milk their time with the Ru girls until the very last minute. Vanessa was chatting with a group of people, her voice always the loudest. Brooke was having a cigarette and listening to another queen.

Nina had been talking with everybody, but she decided to pull a little stunt. Vanjie would catch an early flight she didn’t know when she would have the chance to talk to both of them again. She excused herself pointing to her phone and took a few steps outside of the group. She called Kevin but acted like she was answering a call, making sure to be right at the line of sight from both Brooke and Vanjie.

“Hey, baby, are you done with work?” asked Kevin in a sleepy voice. They had been officially dating a little over a month, and the pet names still got to Nina every time.

“Yeah, did I wake you?” she said, keeping her voice down but not hiding the foolish expressions that must be coming to her face.

“No, not at all,” lied Kevin, “I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” said Nina sighing. “Listen, if I start to sound crazy all of a sudden it’s because I’m trying to fool Brooke,” she said hurriedly. She noticed on the corner of her eye that Brooke perked her neck at her and was making her way to Vanjie. Nina kept talking, not reacting.

Kevin chuckled on the phone. “I love this mysterious boyfriend schtick, it’s so Disney Channel.”

“Very on brand for me,” said Nina, chuckling too. She noticed two people coming closer to her and schooled her posture not to change. “I can’t though, I don’t want them to know,” she said seriously to the phone, despite Kevin’s laughter on the other side. She paused for effect. “I know, I’m sorry, but I think it’s too much for them right now,” she continued in an apologetical tone, “they pretend to be fine but they’re really sensitive people! I don’t wanna hurt them!” She turned as she talked so she would have her back turned at the two queens, who were now so close Nina was sure they could hear her even if she whispered. She sighed dramatically. “I won’t, I’m sorry but I won’t, not until they prove to me that they’re fine. Besides, if they’re keeping secrets from me why can’t I keep secrets from them?” she finished with a little bit more truth than she meant.

“Ooh, I think you forgot you were pretending, there,” said Kevin, still laughing.

“Shut up,” said Nina, not able to contain a chuckle herself. “Anyway, I-” She turned then, jumping slightly at seeing Brooke and Vanjie behind her, keeping up with the act. “I’ll talk to you later,” she said to the phone.

“Ok, bye,” said Kevin, knowing what it probably meant and disconnecting.

“Hey guys,” said Nina with an adorable smile. She was having so much fun. “Why are you creeping up on me?”

“Why are you sneaking around and keeping secrets is what’s really the question,” said Brooke, crossing her arms and squinting.

“It doesn’t seem like much of a secret to me,” said Vanjie. She clearly wasn’t taking it so seriously, probably treating it like a game, something fun to pass the time with friends rather than a mystery or a friendship-issue like Brooke. “Nina has a boyfriend,” she said matter-of-factly, putting a hand on her hip.

“Why don’t you just say so, then?” asked Brooke, turning to Vanessa.

“Didn’t you hear her? She thinks we can’t handle it because of our own drama with each other,” said Vanjie.

“That’s stupid,” dismissed Brooke.

“What did you just call me?” said Vanjie.

“What? No! I-” Brooke fumbled to apologized.

“I’m just playing with you,” said Vanessa, immediately smiling wide and giving the blonde a playful push. Brooke rolled her eyes and smiled too.

Nina was just watching them like a tennis match. She had to make a move, though, or it would all be in vain. “I’ll tell you if you promise to be part of a project I’m putting together,” she challenged.

“Deal,” said Brooke immediately.

“Ah, ah, it has to be the two of you, together,” said Nina, pointing at them.

Vanjie looked at her suspiciously. “Why do you have to trick us into it?” she said, now with both hands on her hips, “is it porn?” she asked with a gasp.

“What?” Nina yelled, laughing loudly. “Who do you think I am?”

“Well is it?” asked Brooke.

“No! Jesus! It’s just a regular livestream, a youtube livestream! I’ll explain it to you better, but it’s a huge project we’re putting together for charity. It would be an hour-ish live with fans making questions and stuff, you can do whatever you want, do each other’s make-up, something like that. But if we can have you two in the same room, we all know the audience would be crazy.”

“How do you make money from that?” asked Brooke.

“It’s gonna be an event, you would be promoting some exclusive merch we’ll be selling, and also there would be a few things you would use just so we could sell later, like shirts, props, stuff like that. We’ll sell the live itself too, the video file in HD,” Nina was trying to checklist all the things that went into it as she talked. “Also, there’s gonna be a place for donations and the super chats, where people pay to have their questions more visible so they make sure you answer them. You can also sign things or make things if you want, like painting or customize stuff, that’s up to you, whatever it is it becomes a collectible and people want to buy it. I don’t know if I’m forgetting something, I can send you an email with the details, but that’s basically it.”

“What if they ask us to do something we don’t want to?” said Vanjie.

“You don’t. It’s just a live, not slavery,” responded Nina.

“It doesn’t sound that bad,” said Vanjie, considering, “I mean, we could probably just stand there and talk about tacos and people would already be going nuts, the crazy motherfuckers. We’re in!” She declared with finality.

“What, I don’t get an opinion?” said Brooke.

“You already agreed before she even told you what it was,” said Vanessa laughing.

“I was going to agree too, just to be clear,” said Brooke, “You didn’t have to play games to get us into it, Nina.”

“Thanks, guys!” said Nina, hugging them. “I know I didn’t, but it was so funny!” she said, apologetically, earning a eye-roll from Brooke and a scream from Vanessa.

“Well, what is it then, spill it,” said Brooke, excited.

“Yeah, what’s the T, mama?” said Vanjie.

“I have a boyfriend,” said Nina, shrugging and giggling. Vanessa threw her arms into the air and walked around, making the two of them burst into laughter.

“Call me Vanessa motherfucking Holmes!” she shouted.

“Who is it?” asked Brooke, but Nina didn’t have time to tell, they were called to head inside the Van. She ended up talking about Kevin already in Vanjie’s hotel room while she packed for her early flight. Brooke was surprised to learn that it was the same guy they had talked about months ago, while Vanessa said she already suspected so. The ended up waking Kevin up again so the two of them could harass him through facetime.

Nina was so happy she didn’t even remember she wanted to ask about the status of Brooke and Vanjie’s relationship. She supposed it didn’t really matter, after all. She really felt like they were happy, and maybe it wouldn’t be very congenial of her to be another person probing them about it, they certainly had enough of those. She wanted them together for the project because it would be better for the project, it was a capitalist’s decision.

As a friend, she wanted them to be okay, to be successful, to be happy, to be whatever they wanted to be, individually and separately first and foremost. She couldn’t help but root for their love when she saw them interacting, but that could remain safely hidden inside her head. She had her own love story now, anyway. Her own little compilation of moments and kisses and smiles to go through and think about in her free time.

Now that pride was over, work should get little less intense, and her days at home a little more frequent. She was looking forward to that, for more than one reason, but for one more than the others. A nice and steamy green-eyed reason.

Andrew: Jamie says I’ll be in Columbus next Monday!

Kevin: Don’t tell anyone but I have your schedule printed on my fridge <3

The three little words Nina felt like saying next would have to wait to be said in person.

Tags

nina west, oc, fluff, branjie on the background, beyond my wildest dreams, multifandomgeek