#don't mind me im just rambling here

[homemade-clones]

Thinking about Charm saved Cheese from the mouth of a krayt dragon. How the incident never made it to the reports. Because it can never be learned by anyone there's a force sensitive clone in the ranks. Maker knows what the kaminoans would do with the knowledge, with their vod. With any other clone that shows affinity for it - because it's expected they would search for more of 'non standard' units.

And they stay quiet to keep every vod safe, even from their general, who could offer guidance.

Even when the dreams of what could've been wake Cheese in the middle of the night, screaming his heart out for months on end.

At the time it felt like the best option - it probably was -, but years later when the ship flies trough hyperspace between a bounty and the next, and there's nothing to distract from, to keep away all the memories, Cake (now just 'CK') wonders if there was no other way.

Something other than seeing his brother lose himself to the cold of a war that didn't seem to ever end. Than seeing something - jaded and hateful and hopeless - bloom, take root, and then over everything that was his twin.

[aqqleshiqqing-archive]

im literally in love with him

btw I drew these all ^^ would prefer to not use them as icons because these r all oc x him HAHAJAJSAKAKAK

[thrilling-oneway]

whenever people want to hate on d4dj why do they jump straight on "It's queerphobic bc..." as if it doesn't have the best queer rep of any rhythm game out there.

1757 words about queer representation in D4DJ and other rhythm/gacha games below cut

Like there are actual valid reasons to not like d4dj. There's definitely an issue with sexualising the high schoolers, I've made posts talking about it before. But at the same time, if you as someone who plays other of the major gacha/rhythm games is going to say that, you should probably address that SIF, bandori (and maybe enstars? it's been a while since I played) have some dodgy cards as well. Admittedly these cards are mainly old whereas D4DJ is still producing these, but you shouldn't act like your preferred game is perfect either.

But especially saying that D4DJ is queerphobic is so weird. To say that just proves you have no idea what actually happens in the game, and you're just taking screenshots out of context.

Firstly hayakoko. Okay so in the flashback where they get together they said "but we're both girls". Yeah, it's a cliche line that screams 'written by a hetero person', but within the context of the story it's not that bad if a little cringe. Neither Hayate or Kokoa had liked a girl before they started dating, this is literally stated on screen: Hayate says that she was a little surprised to realise that she had a crush on Kokoa. They're baby gay at this point in time. I think Kokoa's an interesting one to point out as well, because she's the one who said the line in the first place, and even after she admits that she likes Kokoa as well and they start dating, the True Love Kiss side story shows her being insecure about PDA in school. It reads a lot like she's had a very heteronormative upbringing, which is very common for queer people. It's probably more common in Japan where they still don't have equal rights for queer people (they don't have marriage equality, same-sex couples can't marry, the exception being if one is trans and hasn't legally changed their gender. and after they're married they can't legally change their gender). Not to mention she goes to catholic school, and as far as I know there's some issues there. So I don't see anything wrong with Kokoa not wanting to be out publicly, and being a bit insecure when she and Hayate confess. You gotta remember they are 15 as well (and ~14 when they started dating). Their relationship isn't going to be perfect, and that's normal.

And then Aoi and her gender presentation. Aoi has always been a very masculine presenting character, and is explicitly GNC, so I can understand that some people were disappointed with her wearing long hair and a ballgown in the Aoi & Haruna Relations event. But the anger some people hold towards this. Come on, how badly can you miss the point? Aoi's gender presentation has been a part of her character since her initial card story. She says she actually used to dress more feminine and have long hair in high school, but decided to change her look because she thought she suited the shorter hair. She also mentions that when she presented fem, she would be told she looked like a cross dresser, which obviously offended her. It's not hard to see that Aoi just wants to be seen as Aoi. It's not about how she presents her gender, she's still Aoi no matter how she dresses - Tsubaki mentions this in the A&H Relations. Nothing was retconned or de-canonised when Aoi wore hair extensions and a dress, it wasn't a sudden unnecessary change. The event explores the fact she wants to try different looks outside of her usual 'princely' one, but she's a bit of a people pleaser and is unsure about it because people associate Aoi with "androgynous good looks". There was no pressure from anyone to be feminine, there was actually pressure the other way. She wore a dress and had long hair for one (1) event, and 2 illustrations. Her most recent card has her in trousers with short hair again. Like you don't have to pounce on it being erasure because Aoi wanted to dress more feminine one time. She doesn't hate being GNC now, she's not permanently feminine now - Aoi being GNC is a part of who she is. Aoi being fluid with her gender expression is a part of her queerness and I don't get how you can miss the point so badly to call it erasure.

D4DJ is genuinely one of if not the best mainstream gacha/rhythm game for queer rep. There's so much more than just this: Tsubaki and Aoi are canonically in love with each other and there was even an attempted confession (they got interrupted), KyoShino have implied romantic feelings, same with NagiHiiro and RinMuni (mainly from Muni's side). Haruna was pretty much confirmed as lesbian during the A&H relations, and has had crushes on two separate characters. Saori's sapphic as well (there's one or two implications that she's bisexual). Having Hayate and Kokoa in a relationship opens the doors to more ships becoming canon in the future. The only negative representation I can think of in this game is Noa, so if you really want to go out of your way to say D4DJ is queerphobic, there you go. Noa likes cute thing, cute girls, and flanderisation took hold quickly to the point of her being creepily obsessed with the ri4 girls and a few others, and literally stalking them. Yikes. Her writing is improving though, especially in All Mix where she just occasionally comments on how cute they are without taking it too far, and they actually let her have other personality traits expressed that had pretty much been forgotten.

My point here is that if you're going to say D4DJ is bad rep or homophobic, you're admitting that your game is worse for representation. I'm not saying that the games in the "Big 3" (proseka/bandori/enstars) are bad by any means (idk about enstars actually I didn't play for very long), but D4DJ has definitely taken some big steps in queer representation that those games are seemingly too scared to make. Having a canon sapphic couple is a game like this is a huge deal, I'm not even sure if it's been done before. And before anyone says "but anhane and minoharu went on a double date in Buddy Funny Spend Time", neither of those pairs are stated or even fucking implied to be in a relationship outside of that event. It kinda just happens in one event, and even then it's still a bit vague on whether either of the couples are actually dating in the event. It's definitely heavily implied that anhane/minoharu have mutual romantic feelings, so they are arguably canon in that sense, just not in an established relationship sense. Bandori has done this as well with PareChu, have them go on dates and be clearly romantically interested in each other, only to never actually be a couple (I know tsumutsumu and reochi have called parechu an official couple, but that's word of saint paul rather than word of god, so take this how you will). Hayakoko is HUGE for this genre, and could mean good things in the future of other rhythm games (especially other Bushiroad ones).

--Break here where I went on a tangent about non-D4DJ queercoding--

Outside of schroedingers dating, both bandori and proseka have characters who are implied/canonically queer. I'll make this short because this is getting really long now and I apologise to anyone who's still reading.

For bandori, Arisa has a crush on Kasumi, Kaoru can be considered as canonically lesbian just from how she's presented, YukiLisa has a lot of implications for romantic feelings, as do MocaRan. Himari is also an interesting case, as she could be read as bisexual or comphet lesbian, it's never really made clear (at least as far as I know, I stopped playing bandori a while ago, and am not up-to-date on story, so anyone who's still reading feel free to add to this or correct me). There's probably some stuff missing here as well.

As for proseka, it actually has quite a lot of queercoding. I already touched on anhane and minoharu earlier, but Kohane and Minori are both heavily implied to be lesbian, An as well (although there's like one or two hints that she could be bi. I can cite them if needed). Mizuki is canonically transfeminine (their gender is unconfirmed), and they have been shown to be attracted to women. ShizuAiri and AkiToya have a lot of romantic implications in their relationships, EmuNene has gradually been getting more and more actually (Amidst a Dream). Ena is implied wlw and Rui is implied mlm okay I think I got everything tangent over.

--End of break--

Regardless of my criticisms, all of the games I've mentioned definitely show how much queer rep has grown and become a lot better in the last decade or so. While not focused on the rhythm game, the first generation of Love Live (2010-16) queerbaited* a fair amount. To give one example, there's an 'interview' with Honoka from 2015 where she heavily implies that she's straight, despite having ship tease with other female characters. Compare that to what we have 8 years later, and you can definitely see improvement. However I think it still needs to be addressed that what we have isn't perfect, and it probably will take while to get to a point where we can have more openly queer characters/couples, especially considering Japan as a country (and american/else localisation teams). But I think more people need to recognise how important D4DJ is for queer representation within this genre. It's really not common to have queer romance and gender presentation be directly addressed and frequently shown, and not just for the sake of making money.

I'm bad at ending essays.

* Queerbaiting - intentionally and maliciously leading a queer audience to believe they will receive representation which is then not provided. Whether the rhythm games mentioned do this or not is... debatable? It's done for the money which ticks the intentionally malicious box, queer people aren't for capitalising on. But a good amount of the time it's done to bait straight people who like yuri/yaoi. I do think it's queerbait though like heavily ship teasing a couple and then throwing in a line to imply one of them is straight definitely queerbaiting. april edit: it took me over a month to realise that there were words missing in that last sentence sorry about that. hi anyone who's reading this in the future

[hvstias]

okay but what if the "floral entity" warning they dropped on sunset map is a lil easter egg for the new agent bc i also remember seeing a skateboard w purple themed girl when i was tryna understand the map on ghost mode and it kinda gives me thee vibes

[chaotic-on-main]

Can I just-

I hope the people on here realize that y'all came at such a vital time for me. I needed y'all so much more than I thought and I'm happy to have y'all in my life, regardless of how short or long lived our friendships and acquaintanceship lasts. 😭

[4arconinoma]

And on the topic I just have to rant about Bruno's characterization in this fandom. Listen uusually i dont give a fuck about mischaracterization for the simple fact that I am so used to it and it will happen inevitably. So i dont let it bother me But there are some examples in which its so egregious, that it feels like people watched a different show or something...

After rewatching Vento Aureo it just blows my mind how the fandom got to this, weird, "mommy bruno" thing this state for his character that is hardly even present in canon. Its strange because when I was younger and i first watched it I kind of subscribed to it too, i think just by seeing people act that way it cemented itself in my mind as fact But rewatching it now, its so obvious that its just MISSING his entire character, and so many little details and aspects of it that the show makes quite Clear!

Its not just the fact that he is so young. But that bothers me too I wish people acknowledged that hes barely an adult. People act like hes 30 or something HE'S TWENTY he's BARELY AN ADULT okay and I Know he acts older than he really is and maybe that's why people mix it up, maybe people haven't seen his age on the wiki, but don't they state it in the show ?!?! Either way, the thing is that's Literally a canon element of his character, he DOES act older than he is because he HAS to he HAD to grow up so much earlier than everyone else he has to act more responsible than even the 22 year old on the team because that guy just cant step up like he does And hes had no other reliable figure to guide him ever since he was young it was only Him and he had to become entirely independent at what fucking 12 years old.

Right and wouldn't it just be really cool if people actually took that into consideration? That he's so young he's tired that maybe he's JUST as scared as everyone else on the team and he feels lost and confused too but he just CAN'T let that show because he's the ONE person who is keeping the team glued together? And Giorno yes he stepped into his place — Which is its own sort of tragedy to me, that the 15 year old had to follow in Bruno's same steps of growing up too soon because no one else could manage things like he does and he has only himself to depend on now while running the Entire Italian Mafia — but either way it's just the way this attitude of his is brushed off as Mommy bruno mama bear hes such a mom 🥺🥺🥺 Is almost insulting? And i wont even get into the gender role aspect of that, some people have discussed that before too, that in contrast with Abbacchio who is the "father" (nevermind that he can barely even take care of Himself, and is cold to his entire team, not a great example of a father is it) is mischaracterized too for the sake of woobifying Bruno! Also hate this as a Bruabba enjoyer but thats another discussion entirely

And the last thing that puzzles me is just, that he doesn't even act close to being motherly in canon. Maybe save for the Trish thing, and the thing with Narancia's backstory, which is indeed him caring for younger people But due to what i stated previously, he HAS to and Id bet he feels compelled to. I wont deny that he is kind and he doesnt want kids to lead a life like his, because that's literally a part of his character that they show. But I think people are forgetting that he fucking beat up a 15 year old immediately after meeting him, then didn't even invite him to his gang: GIORNO did that HIMSELF, Literally went "you Will let me join your gang. I will join it' now." and bruno was like Okay. And the thing from my previous post, is that they literally canonically show that Bruno does act detached to his gang, not... not the other way around. See why this characterization misses so much. He doesn't have TIME to build any particular bonds with his gang Yes he is kind to them of course he is But like the scene of Abbacchio's death where he orders everyone to just go on because they don't have time for this even though he's just as distraught, or Trish feeling frustrated that he acts so cold, he puts some sort of wall between him and the gang even if it's subtle. Narancia even says he knows this about Bruno, that he knows him because of his past with him he noticed that Bruno PUSHES people away because he doesn't want them to go down the same path he did, not because he is their "mommy" it's because his life is fucking MISERABLE and he is a kind person so he doesn't want that for others, especially not younger people because HE was in that same spot too so YEAH okay he cares about kids WHO WOULDN'T What kind person would want to let a child down his lifestyle... This displays his kindness and virtue as a leader, not his. """"Motherly instincts"""".

Okay. I don't know, I just wish the fandom left room for this sort of nuance to his character. I have never seen anyone bring this up. It's always people just making up this completely different Bruno than the canon one, I understand why people confuse this. I used to as well, when I was young and many people in this fandom are, but fuck, it would just be nice if people took this aspect of him into account, because I think it's interesting! Its so much more interesting than going Aww Mommy Bruno he loves his kids (ugh) and completely ignoring the rest of his character! Just... a thought !!!!! Or several !

[gardenofdismay]

?

[didsomeonesayventus]

damn so how about the latest fe engage manga chapter (tw for talk of crucifixion under the cut not like. horrendously detailed at all but also hi most people may understandably not want to read about that w/ out a warning sjakghsdkgh)

I HATE TO SAY IT BUT LIKE. kinda giggling thinking about this you're telling me back when I was writing Black Tourmaline (which, for the uninformed, has Alear kidnapped by Fell Cult Leftovers a few years post canon that I finished like back in mid June you should check it out maybe) I could've included crucifixion as a means of torture* and it would've been confirmed a canon aspect of fell worship a matter of months later

damn i could've crucified al- (a comically large frying pan slams against my head, knocking me out instantly)

* tho also I will concede that, while swift intervention + lack of nailing (which I don't think there is any here *squinting*) means you could have a chance of survival, typically the goal of crucifixion is uh. execution. remember kids crucifixion is an obscenely nasty ass way to go and frankly im not surprised it would be involved in Fell worship given the kind of attitudes Sombron takes up of course he'd probably be chill with if not promote something that- if you're lucky -would still take hours of agony to kill you, if not days.

fuckhead sombron fuck you

[aqqleshiqqing-archive]

i think like everyone else we're all worried that tumblr MAY obliterate (and i really hope not, i genuinely enjoy using this app) and that many people are dropping their alternative social medias accounts but other than tumblr, i don't use social media at all. i'm still 5050 with twitter so i wouldn't reccomend that 😭 there's discord but i'm really selective with whom i talk to due to past conversations that discouraged me from reaching out/easily allowing myself to drop my discord handle

[todayisafridaynight]

Y'know I'm not big on shipping so sometimes I'm like: "Man, why is it all Kazumaji." when searching for fanart but then I am on Twitter and... I think I am fine with Kazumaji on Tumblr.

i don't know the further implications of this and the diff between twit and tumblr kazumaji but Personally to me it just isn't my cup of tea and i don't really get the pairing

[magnus-the-maqnificent]

You guys @carelessflower and I witnessed the weirdest most surreal Taylor Swift experience ever 💀

Okay idk of anyone will believe this, but after some discussion, this is what we believe happened -

Rando hacker dude hacked Taylor Swift's Youtube acc, started a live, played what I think was some old interview (Taylor was talking w some dude, she was wearing this light cream coloured sweater, hair was braided, she had airpods in, and she was talking about Haim and her collaborations with them.) There was a QR code at the bottom of the screen which I didn't scan and a message that read "do you know *some japanese sounding name*? If yes, yiu should scan the qr code immediately!!".

And like, the live cut off right in the middle of Taylor talking about something about Haim and an SNL something-party

Oh, and the live was titled something something (midnights world tour 2023-2024), most likely clickbait.

Anyway, the weirdest, most scariest part - the live chat was on, and there were no comments (they were disabled) except for Taylor's own

And what did those comments say???

One or two comments about how *gag* Taylor was going into crypto 🤢🤢🤢🤢

(Yall. The heartbreak I felt)

And then. Three comments posting this exact link over and over : www.swiftmusk.com

(Cue more heartbreak)

Anyway. The live abruptly ends, cutting Taylor off in a sentence about Haim the band and I'm like. ????

Taytay's youtube channel doesn't show that live anymore. Not even the video.

(At this point, we're very confused. We don't know there's a hacker, but we're suspecting it. Anh calls Taylor an ecological tayrorist)((We're both very heartbroken, if you couldn't tell)

Anyways, I look at the tumblr taylor swift tag. Nothing about the live. According to Anh, nada on twitter either.

So, naturally, I open the website Fake TayTay posted in the live

It's a real website. My heart breaks again.

I apprehensively click on "bitcoin" to see what's going on

There's a broken youtube embed, which I assume is of the deleted live. Sooo I scroll a little lower to the "more info" section

Y'all

Its a very clearly fake crypto scam website 💀

At this point, anh and I are 100% sure this was a hacker.

Unfortunately, we don't have screenshots of the fake live

Now we're sitting here all like. Wtf just happened??? Shit feels like a fever dream 😭.

TLDR; Hacker hacks Taylor's yt account, starts a live, which turns out to be part of an elaborate crypto phishing scheme 💀 and Anh and I were two of what? A mere 1.4k people who witnessed that fake live

[anothermonikan]

The Yellow Guy age debate isn't a 'New fans vs Old fans' thing it's a perspective of the new show vs interpretation of the YouTube series thing

[arrowpunk]

Guess who learned this morning that she apparently has selective amnesia

[noxtivagus]

I MISSED THE SMELL OF THE BEACH AAAA

[fabulouslygaybean]

idk why i even try to talk about the stuff i like

[floaromaxtowns]

Deathmask x Aphrodite x Shura!!

Seen a lot of ship bingos so I made my own [Accepting]