#expect incoherencies and inconsistencies

[fragmentedblade]

I've actually found a coherent (negative) criticism on Jingli.u's quest!! Wow!! It's in Chinese on weibo

This user said her behaviour is very double standard. That she criticises and condemns both Dan Fen.g and Yingx.ing severely for trying to bring back Bai.heng in any way, but then she goes to visit Bail.u and tells her that seeing her is better than any medicine. And the user is right! That's exactly why they did what they did (well, I've always been of the opinion that Dan Fen.g had more reasons going on based on the in game information), so why the insistent asking to Blade?

The user also says that Jingliu doesn't really behave at all like a friend, that while very believable that she loved and was close to Bai.heng, it's hard to believe the same thing when it comes to Yingxi.ng and Dan Fen.g. They said that nowadays we still see instances through the Xianzhou in which they are both spoken about in positive terms, that Yingxi.ng is talked about as a legendary furnace master, and we can even stumble upon good opinions on Dan Fen.g, but that Jingli.u never shows that kind of understanding for people in theory she loved, knew personally and was close to.

I don't agree entirely with this, I do think there was a lot of fondness from Jingliu shining through despite everything (especially towards Yin.gxing, in my opinion), but I do think it's a somewhat fair criticism. I loved how they mention that despite everything the Xianzhou's view on Yingxin.g and Dan Fen.g isn't just negative. They're right, and it's a detail I love.

[snorky]

Hi how are you?

I was hoping you could write something with Vince? Angst and fluffy ending? Please ❤️

Hold Me Close, And Never Let Go

Hey y’all, and hi to the lovely person who requested this Vince Dunn angst and fluff story. I'm doing well, and I hope you all are too. The pronouns for the reader in this story are they/them (so if you want it changed, let me know *directed at the lovely requester*). I’ve been busy recently, and so I apologize for this request coming out a little later than I wanted. I hope you also all enjoy this fic, and take care of yourself!

Pairing: Vince Dunn x GN!Reader

Word Count: 1.1k

Warnings: Angst, Stressed reader

—

—

Heavy storms raged outside their Seattle apartment, the rain pitter-pattering against the windows as they tried to focus on their work. Thunder snapped now and then, and the wind seemed to whistle in the air as a warning.

The paper in front of them was taunting them, a blank page with no answer. All the numbers, letters, formulas, instructions, whatever it was, just didn’t make sense. It was all an incoherent mess to their tired eyes.

Deadlines were chasing them, yelling, screaming at them as if the time ticking down like sand slipping away through their fingers.

The pen in their hands seemed to be ticking them off at every moment. Ink flowed inconsistently, slipping on the paper in the wrong direction, scribbles and scrawls seeming to be the only thing that marked up their page.

A knock came from their door as they were lost in thought. 

“Baby? I miss you.” He called out from behind the door. “Can we cuddle together?”

It had been so long since they heard Vince’s voice, gentle compared to his figure. As badly as they wanted to cuddle with him, they had work to catch up on and do.

They just wished he could hold them, telling them that ‘it’s alright’ and ‘you’re doing lovely,’ to calm the storm of stress in their mind. The storm seemed to mirror the outside weather that was rampant, windy, and rainy.

Instead, they sighed, almost in irritation. “Can’t. I’m working.” Even though they mumbled, their voice still cracked, amplifying their exhaustion.

“Please.” The door creaked open as he came in, his steps careful as he walked towards them. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” he said quietly. “It’s been so long since I’ve even heard your voice.”

The storm continued outside, a flash of lightning followed by thunder disrupting the silence in the room.

Taking a deep breath in, it felt uneven, irritating them further. “Vince, I need to get this done,” they groaned. “Leave me alone for a bit.” Their voice came out much sharper than they had intended, and it was evident when a look of hurt appeared on his face.

He stood there in the middle of the room in silence, looking at them, arms crossed over his chest. They turned their head and looked at him for a brief moment, noticing how sad and disappointed he looked when they said that, and a pang of guilt struck them as they turned back to their work.

“Why.” He sounded hurt, his words came out so emotionally and yet empty and hollow all at once. “Why can’t you just rest with me for a moment?”

They thought about it in silence for a bit. The deadlines seemed so sudden, and the pressure to keep the expectations high was suffocating. Their body felt worn out, tense, and exhausted.

Turning to look at him, tears welled up in their eyes, blurring their vision. “I don’t know,” they croaked. “There’s just so much—”

Vince walked over to them, crouching down to be lower than eye level, and rested his hand on their shoulder. “You need a break.” He pleaded. “Okay?” His voice was always gentle with them, even when they both were upset or hurt. He never spoke louder than he had to, ever.

They finally let out a sob, exhaustion catching up to them, tears streaming down their face as they leaned into his arms. His hands braced them, holding them close as he carefully moved them off of the chair and onto the ground in his lap.

Their breaths were rough and ragged, uneven and unsteady.  “I’m sorry,” they mumbled, sniffling slightly. “I’m sorry for getting upset at you.”

“It’s okay, you’re alright. I know you weren’t feeling the best and that you weren’t in the right state of mind.” His words were genuine, smile sweet as ever.

Vince being this kind to them, even when they were upset, made them cry more at how sweet he was. The tears continued to fall, running down their cheeks, their nose now stuffy and irritated as they cried.

 “Shh, it’s going to be alright,” he soothed. His thumb rubbed small circles into their back, their face hidden in the crook of his neck. “Stay here with me, just for a bit.”

They both remained like this for a while, on the floor together in each other’s embrace, the storm calming down outside to a gentle rainfall. His deep breaths steadied them, a solid rock in the ocean that never seemed to move in the most hectic storms. Despite the tears continuing to run down their face, they remained silent for the most part, taking breaths in every now and then.

He hummed softly into their hair, pulling them closer to his body as he did so. “Let’s move to the bed, alright?” Pressing his lips to their forehead gently, he spoke, “We just need a quick nap, that’s all.”

Tears welling up in their eyes again, the kindness and patience he showed never failed to disappoint them. He never once upset them or made them feel bad about themselves. He was always caring and sweet, he was always perfect in their heart.

“What’s bothering you, sweetheart?” His hand went up to their face, cupping it gently in his palms as his thumb wiped a tear away.

They shook their head, choosing to remain in silence in fear that if they tried to speak, their tears would start to fall again, unending.

“It’s okay, we can always talk about it tomorrow, okay?” he spoke softly.

Keeping his arms wrapped tightly around them, he got up and walked to their shared bed. Setting them down gently on the bed, he then got in bed and lay down beside them. He then pulled the covers over both of them, encasing them in the soft, thick blanket.

“Cozy, baby?”

They nodded in response, scooting closer toward Vince under the blanket. He wrapped his arms around them, holding them warmly as one of his hands held the back of their head as they rested it on his chest, the stress slowly crumbling away.

It was just the both of them, just him in their world at the moment. The deadlines faltering away somewhere else, the stress melting away as he held them close.

“I love you,” they mumbled quietly.

He gave them a gentle peck on the top of their head and smiled sweetly at them. “I love you too,” he said. “And I’ll never stop loving you, baby.”

They smiled at his words, and before they could start tearing up again, he peppered soft kisses all over their face, making them let out a small laugh. “That’s what I like to hear,” he hummed.

[34saveme34]

MOST INCOHERENT MARWARE RAMBLING INCOMING

I'm so obsessed and I must talk because I love the amount of potential here

like it's. villain x hero's silly sidekick. that's hilarious

like think about it. Puzzles didn't quite get to Mario like to the others

babe's collateral and did he make Puzzles regret that

their dynamic

just the silly in general. I love the early time ship art "what those antennas do" hell if I know but Mario is keen to find out.

it's silly fun! really cute and fun, especially when it stop Puzzles in his tracks. When he expects fear or devotion and instead he gets such a weird and unexpected and chaotic form of adoration with which his heart (if it is still there) cannot handle. it's beautiful. Mario in general just having feelings for him. It's so good

but also I wanna explore the like, specific eroticism that you can put into the Hunt. The way how Mario hunts Puzzles because he craves Entertainment and he'll have it No Matter What, it's so disgustingly amusing and something I could think about forever. I never really understood this before but these 2 REALLY made me understand. Mario smashing every single TV on his way until he finds His One and the Hunt is over? I'm so fucked up, I'M SO F U C K E D

ngl I realise a certain part of the fandom would probably call me a freak for this. I'm calling them catholic guilt ridden

anyways!

the emotional. oh the emotional. Mario already had a different thing going on when it came to villains

I think he is like, the best candidate in general to help Puzzles in redeeming himself. Mario can be SO caring and like like like

it's just ONE facet of this, this isn't how it starts but over time it would become such an important part of this because he grows like, genuine attachment

but the most important thing in the beginning would be is that he's casual. He also has like. a very specific type of emotional maturity, which some people like to call inconsistent writing, I like to call it a quirk and acknowedge it with my whole heart

but it would like, allow the 2 to speak on like, more casual terms

where Puzzles isn't a danger anymore and Mario just so happens to be there at the right time, say the right words

the rights words for Mario to just so obviously see that Puzzles needs a friend so so badly and letting him have it

this once, maybe he can prove to be a cool friend

and oh would he.... oh my goooood would he aaaughgh

because at his core, like, Puzzles isn't evil for the sake of evil, he's evil to obtain what he wants

so like, if he isn't obtaining anymore kdsldlsk I bet he could be fun. Mario would make him touch grass, they would go places together, have some silly adventures together, some more chaotic than the other

a dynamic that would form between the 2 where Puzzles becomes just a bit too soft that he lets Mario get away with things he shouldn't

maybe even helps him because he finds it fun anyways

considering what he was before..... finding solace in chaos and forgetting perfection for a second there...... he finds perfection right beside him....... maybe like, for example in the middle of a food fight Mario causes because they gave him shitty spaghetti or something and Puzzles just seeing the glee on Mario's face over the fun chaos and just. Feeling something in himself. And he wouldn't, for a long time, realise that it's love. He never felt it before

I can almost imagine him turning to romantic movies and such, trying to figure out if the feeling fits. Because it's so so intense in him, he never felt anything like this. He can't talk to anyone about this, he has no other friends in all this. And oooh dhslksdjsd ooOOhOohK?,s,,s,s dsooooooooohhh,,, dsdldk

guys I think he would create. Idk I just think. ijust think .

having experiences in life now, things that just keep replaying in his head, as he is starting to have a life. he would create something from his own head. And it would be like a love letter to Mario. And he would GET IT. And by it I mean. You know. 😲😳😳😳😳😳😳don't make me say it............

okay okay.......!!! He would get Puzzles's homosexual ass.

[diiwata]

district four thoughts ⛵️

I forgot who said this, but I saw a post a long time ago about a d4 that's not as tropical and sunny as we think it to be. california has incredibly inconsistent weather, after all!

(apologies if it's incoherent. I'm writing this while on a road trip)

mornings are cloudy and chill you to the bone. the fog is thickest around this time, dancing around the land like flowing lace. they wear their jackets around this time: thick sweaters and coats that leave them snuggled up and warm. it's usually like this around winter, too... for majority of the day, at least!

by midday, it clears up, and the sun's rays pour down over the district! the citizens of four are annoyed, having to take off their top layers and letting them hang over their arm or wrapping them around their waists. despite their mothers' protests, some kids are brave enough to wear shorts in the thick fog because it's going to "warm up later anyway".

in the winter seasons, a cool breeze would blow over the region even with the sun beating down on them, leaving citizens wondering if a jacket is truly needed or not. it's cold and hot at the same time. however will they cope!?

now I'm imagining coral or finnick having a wardrobe crisis because of the weather.

"I really wanna wear these shorts because it's cute, but it's really foggy outside today... so do I endure the cold until 1pm, or do wear pants? :("

mags is the type to wear her thick puffer jacket around his waist. annie gets upset when she has to wear a sweater over her really pretty outfit because the temp was colder than expected.

also! no one carries an umbrella there. ever. it only rains for short periods of time on normal rainy days, and struggling with/carrying an umbrella is so embarrassing anyway!!! wear a hood or NOTHING! it's not like the sensation of wetness is a foreign thing to them.

in a modern au, mizzen is the type to wear neon nike shorts on any kind of day. I'm calling it.

that's all I have so far!!! inconsistent weather in d4, my beloved 😍

[queencolondarkwing]

AngelicaASMR’s current change

This post only about any info posted as of 7/25/2023 (will update in future if needed).

Ok so I’ve been following the Angelica Asmr shit pretty closely (don’t expect me to comment on gwen gwiz too because that girl is a grifter from the start). And as a mental health worker it REALLY freaks me out for her. I worked in a rehab for awhile. For people quitting drugs, but many of them also had bipolar, ptsd, schizophrenia, and similar diagnosises (some people also had the behavior due to being in crisis as well due to loss, recent homelessness, police brutality, etc.). So I know what psychotic breaks look like. I won’t armchair diagnose anything specific because I am not her medical provider, but while I can’t say she has anything for certain - she has a history of manic episodes in the past.

As someone with ADHD, a history of sexual and religious trauma, and c-ptsd like Angelica, I can honestly see how she fell into this. As someone who is also anti-capitalist, I can see why she thinks finding community would be beneficial (not sure why she would choose the Catholic Church instead of something from less individualistic, Eastern philosophy doesn’t make sense to me personally though...) to finding growth in an online era of isolation following a personal loss in her life. It seems weird how she went from talking about her Jehovahs Witness trauma from her youth...to going full on Orthodox, but I’ll get into details on why mentally this is actually super common in a minute.

I can also see how she would become a SWERF after having done OF, since as a former sex worker myself (camming, porn, fssw) who quit doing it after being raped - I can safely say that I myself am neither pro or anti sex work. I’m pro-decriminalization to keep workers safe, but also do feel a bit sick sometimes that MOST fssw on the streets are marginalized people. It is a complicated issue with nuance that non-sex workers have no business taking a side on. However, she is very hateful recently and anti-sex in general. Which is an issue.

She originally joined OnlyFans during a manic episode. So she HAS a history of mental illness and making major life decisions during mania. 

She went from pro-lgbtq to anti-lgbtq. Deleted her old progressive videos. Claimed to be a victim of MKUltra. Started making up delusions around the Catholic Church being anti-capitalist (Catholics individually can 100% be leftists, but the Church itself is VERY Capitalist). She posted homophobic and transphobic tiktoks where she would yell practically incoherently. Lots of staring. Inability to talk without looking away and laughing (she is normally a skilled actress).  Posting WAY more frequently than ever(she reposted 3 deleted videos last night and deleted them by this morning). She posted a video and lots of shorts and is way more active on Instagram. 

 The worst breakdowns I saw working rehab mostly always cycled through 4 topics: fame/self importance, inconsistent political and religious rambling, and sex. Always. Angelica has shown inconsistent spiritual beliefs (she has been mixing up Catholic, Orthodox, politics, and other religions). She has been focusing on sex in the context of trauma and posted a short of her in a bathtub on youtube again. She has been posting and immediately deleting content that has even positive comments on it.

Some medical signs of possible mania and/or psychosis that she is exhibiting:

Paranoia, trouble talking in a clear way/rambling, withdrawing socially (posting more often/online more but also alienating from her former fans), Confused speech, trailing off/lack of focus in videos, Generally disorganized way of thinking, no sign of restraint in expressing self, racing speech, goal-directed activity (seems to have a new anti-sex work goal), distractable/trails off topic, random giggling at nothing at camera like it is a person she is conversing with...etc. Tbh the amount of red flags I’ve seen are alarming.

I hope she gets support and help. And it is one reason I can’t blame her as hard as I would most, because she seems clearly unwell.  It isn’t an excuse. At all. And I don’t blame people for not supporting her going forward, but I plan to keep an eye on the situation for now and am hoping that somehow she can pull out of this shit, because I’ve seen this shit happen to a LOT of people with hard lives. Hell, I’ve even lashed out in smaller degrees and been delusional during my own ptsd breakdowns too, but when people are as far gone as Angelica is...I don’t usually see them come back again to the same state they were in previously. I’m hoping for the best, as a former fan and as a social worker, but Idk.

[wood-row]

thinking about the medic again. he laughs and lives and breathes, but is he really?

somewhere, deep within the base, locked inside a private office, a little boy sits criss cross with his back against a wall.

Dr Ludwig pretends he doesnt hear the boy breathing, heavy, and continues filling the map with incoherent scrawls.

rain taps on the tin roof, thunders past his window. the little lamp buzzes inconsistently, illuminates only the desk, and the man hunched over it.

"We should rest." the boy says, his voice nearly lost to the spring storm. he stares at Günter. the doctor does not return his gaze, instead reaches a free hand to pinch his temples, soothing the headache that lays beyond. sweat dampens the page where his hand once rest.

its late. he considers the gurney just beyond the doors. shakes his head and looks back at the map. the letters swim.

Günter untangles his glasses from his hair. tosses them on the desk, broken, and runs a shaking hand through the fine strands that fall.

no. he resumes the stroke of the pen, working through the cramp. the boy speaks again, grating on the ears.

"we need rest."

"we dont," he hisses, turning his head to glare. blinks at the empty space.

a cigarette butt on the ground, fallen from the ashtray sat precariously on the tables edge. as he stands, he snuffs it out with the toe of his boot. looks too long at the string of smoke that rises.

the door gives way with a gentle hand. Günter stumbles into the lab, fumbles in the pitch for the overhead lights. they buzz to life, a whirring white that drives straight through the migrane.

there is a young man in the room. barely seventeen, covered in shit and ash. Günter contemplates his twin; the severed arm, the ugly scars.

"well?" Günter asks after a long silence.

the man says nothing, Günter wonders if he can still speak at this point.

this continues. the doctor moves from room to room; the hallway, he double checks the shadows, lest a glint of glasses catch his eyes from the lights.

the kitchen greets him alone, a pot of coffee still out. leftovers in the fridge.

meat on the table.

theres meat on the table.

engineer expected to be alone, trekking into the kitchen five past two, seeking the stale coffe no doubt uncleaned from the day previous. the sound of retching meets his ears, stops him in his tracks.

as he rounds the corner, medic kneels over the trash bin by the counter, grips its edge for dear life. Dell's half inclined to rub the mans back, he puts on another pot of coffee.

(cant be arsed to fix this good fucking luck)

[stars-n-spice]

Thoughts on s3 ep 12!

Ooh boy, finally got the chance to watch this baby, y'know how it goes: spoilers and inconsistent, incoherent screaming under the cut-

Ayo when the FUCK are we going to get a Clone X reveal HUH???

TANTISS BASE I HATE YOUR UGLY ASS OHHH MY GOD

Emerie seeing Omega again :(

"For what it's worth, I'm glad you're safe" - "Am I?" FUCK

PUTTING OMEGA IN THE VAULT?? okay but I want to see her interact with all the other kiddos :(

Emerie is so going to do something to help the kids and I'm so scared it'll end with her sacrifice

THEY STILL HAVEN'T EXPLAINED LIKE,, EMERIE AS A WHOLE LIKE, HELLO??

SO MANY QUESTIONS?? SO LITTLE EPISODES LEFT???

Hemlock I hope you choke

EUUGHHEHH so happy they didn't time skip so upset that they didn't show us the conversation Crosshair had to have with Wrecker and Hunter about what happened to Omega but like,, I'm disappointed but not surprised

The angst potential and then it was just,,, Wrecker being grumpy and Hunter being like, "okay, well let's just move on and figure something out"

I mean, I guess I'm happy they aren't fighting or whatever but still

fuck,, Crosshair's hands,,, I was just waiting for one of them to like,, grab them or something like,,

Crosshair not telling them he knew somewhat how to get to the base because he's terrified of going back

baby what the FUCK did they do to you there???

aaahh,, that whole conversation was painful

ALSO IS IT JUST ME OR IS HUNTER GETTING SMALLER??

Every time he's in frame with his brothers he seems to shrink?? Like after this episode I went back to watch random clips from the earlier seasons in Korean and Hunter didn't look as small/short as he does now???

Tell me I'm not going crazy,, I swear this man gets shorter everytime I see him and his waist gets skinnier

PHEE AND CROSSHAIR INTERACTION FINALLY!!!

"Sparkling personality" IM-

HEY THOSE HIDDEN PASSAGES WOULD'VE BEEN NICE TO KNOW ABOUT FUCKING LIKE,, THREE EPISODES AGO!!!!!

waauughhh I love Phee's ship,, the colors the shapes,, it's like a little fishy or something,, fucking love it

FUCKIN ADMIRAL RAMPART!?!?!? i was not expecting that

Burst out laughing when they showed his face though,, and for some reason I thought he looked like Jordan Klepper

Was absolutely cracking up over all the interactions between Rampart and the boys,, fucking,, manhandling him like a rag doll?? The banter between him and Cross? fucking gold

PHEE'S PILOTING??? OMG - Hera would've loved it

Also love how she gave them like,,, zero warning,, not even a "Hey, you might wanna strap in" I love her

I love Phee I love her I love her I love her

My jaw was like,, on the floor the entire time they were in that transport,, the fucking animation,, the action,, all of it aaggghh

Even my mom's cat who is an absolute menace stopped biting me for once to sit and watch that whole scene

"Wrecker, remember plan 55?" - "*silence* OH yeah!!" - WRECKER MI VIDA

wonder what the fuck Rampart is yapping about

I MISS ECHO SO MUCH WHAT THE FUCK

BRING HIM BACK WE'VE GOT LIKE. WHAT?? THREE EPISODES?? FOUR EPISODES LEFT??? AND HE'S HAD LIKE LESS THAN TEN MINUTES OF SCREEN TIME??? FCKING HELL WHAT THE FUCK I'M AAGUUGHHHH

this episode wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be and idk if that was a good thing or not

Disappointed, yet not surprised, but I still had fun <- could literally be applied to a lot of TBB episodes

but like,,

auughhhhhhh

I can't believe it's almost over

[inkdemonapologist]

what did you think of batdr?

So, grain of salt, at time of writing, I have not played or watched BatDR all the way through; I got it liveblogged to me by a friend (which honestly was an ideal experience) and then watched some cutscenes. INITIAL FEELINGS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

When BatDR’s release date was announced, I told friends that I thought it was going to be a pretty tight balancing act – if BatDR was REALLY GOOD, it could kill the enthusiasm for the fandom; yknow, a lot of times when you get what you actually want out of a story, the fervour fades. If BatDR was REALLY BAD, I could become too embarrassed about this franchise and not enjoy playing in it anymore. It has to be the perfect balance of messy and unresolved, but not TOO sloppy or thoughtless, and unfortunately for my ability to stop thinking about it, I think it kinda nailed it. BatDR has some heartfelt and startlingly compelling ideas that it executes sort of incoherently, which makes it FASCINATING.

The joke I keep making is that it’s not a sequel, it’s not a prequel, it’s a fanfiction. And I don’t mean that as a diss – it has a fanfic off-the-rails willingness to commit to a wild, self-indulgent take and just go with it, and I think that’s great. But it’s also sort of… disconnected from the original BatIM, in a way? It doesn’t follow BatIM’s themes at all when you think about it. Conflicts and questions in the original game (the downfall of the Studio, Who Was The True Creator Of Bendy, etc.) are strangely brushed aside in this game, rather than developed or resolved. 

Which is why you get weird things like, there’s a REAL ACTUAL NEAR-PERFECT TOON BENDY wandering around, but the original BatIM characters (Joey, Henry, Sammy; people you’d expect to have some kind of big feelings about a true toon Bendy) don’t ever get to interact with him because their feelings on toon Bendy aren’t the point here. BatDR explains what the loop in BatIM was, but that’s not something you discover yourself, because the loop is obsolete now – it’s just explained briefly in order to get to the real focus of this game, Joey Drew having a daughter. Even before you get to timeline questions/possible inconsistencies, the game feels less to me like an actual sequel that builds on the previous game, and more like a neat AU with its own headcanons bouncing off of and interpreting the previous game. 

Anyway, some random specific thoughts that come to mind:

They really coulda done something with the family theme if they’d just had Wilson go ahead and say who he was early on. Why did that have to be a surprise? I don’t think saving it really added anything.

Everything about Audrey being Joey’s daughter is AMAZING and I can’t stop thinking about this. Absolutely fascinating development. Have a lot of conflicting feelings on how this was handled but THATS FOR ANOTHER POST; I really do like this, though.

"Something he had always wanted, but could never have: A family." SO JOEY'S LIKE, CANONICALLY GAY IN THE GAMES TOO NOW, RIGHT??? THAT'S PRETTY CLEAR CUT????? LIKE ITS THE MOST OBVIOUS REASON JOEY COULDNT HAVE A FAMILY BEFORE??? HES A GAY SINGLE DAD!!!!

I RLY LIKE THE DESIGNS FOR HENRY AND JOEY. I was surprised to find that the way my brain parsed them was like, they’re the designs for the BatDR AU. Like BatDR is a new fan showing off their designs for their crew, and I’m drawing fanart for their cool AU.

The Ink Demon/ Bendy stuff uh, resolved very strangely. Am very into Bendy and the Ink Demon being the same entity but wish that had been explored a little more!

I actually like Sammy’s cameo(s). I’ve always gotten the feeling that the creators of BatIM were never entirely sure what we all saw in Sammy, so if they didn’t have anything they were particularly hyped to do with him, I think cameos were the right call. The Subject 418 moment is PERFECT. NO NOTES. His 5 seconds before getting shot at the end is like, it’s silly that he died immediately and we all joke about it, but also there’s an element of OH, IM SO GLAD HE GOT TO BE HERE FOR THIS for me, too.

GENT being all OOOOO LOOK AT ALL THEIR SUPER UNETHICAL SCIENCE, LOOK HOW SINISTER THEY ARE is kinda uninteresting to me. Something like, a single audiolog going “huh, that’s weird, when GENT left for their new building, all the ink left, too….” would be way more unsettling than explicit confirmation of GENT taking over and doing lethal human experimentation. And like, idk, I feel one of the things that made BatIM compelling was that it had all these spooky tropes, but motivated by a startlingly mundane desire – people believing in a cartoon so strongly that it accidentally veers into unhinged science and dark occult worship along the way. As soon as they’re just doing normal unethical science with ambiguous motives that seem totally disconnected from the studio, it becomes kinda generic.

Nothing about Wilson is coherent, to the extent that I honestly wonder if the original plan for Wilson was different and he had to be shuffled around for some reason.

What else happened in this game….. Im glad alice got a murder party but I don’t know why she’s here. That One Scene with her and Allison feels very fanservicey but not in a bad way lmao.

Probably other stuff but I think this post is long enough!!

[blunt-force-therapy]

Finally, an intro post!

POSTING LIMIT: no hit

Drafts counter: 1624 of 1750 left

ASKBOX: Askbox open, Asks w/ media open, Anons open

SUBMISSIONS: Open

Basics:

My name is Maximilian, or Max for short. I am Brazilian, 19 years old, panmasculine but mostly nonhuman, bi, maybe a little ace. Preferred pronouns are it/its, but he/him is also fine (no they/them). I've been here since January 2023 and still haven't figured this place out, but I hope you'll have fun snooping around my blog.

My Community:

So I made this thing. I didn't expect it to be approved but it is indeed one of the things that exist. Come in to have some fun if you want :3

Hobbies: work in progress

Main interests:

Academic: General history, particularly of European and Amerindian societies, ancient European history, early Slavic history, 16th and 17th century Taiwan, Tokugawa Japan, the Republic of China, and of course Brazilian history. Language and linguistics, particularly Romance and Slavic languages.

Anime: Code Geass, Soul Eater, Death Note are the ones I like the most (will reblog stuff from Hetalia, Dungeon Meshi, and whatever's gay, cute, or even both)

Fanfiction: Meh. Only recently getting back into reading Harry Potter fanfics and that's after a while. If you have fanfics from a fandom I'm not in I'll still read them though.

Games: Uhhhh, Minecraft? And Tetris? I play Grepolis too.

Literature: For non-fiction I mostly enjoy historical and biographical works; my favourite authors so far are Anthony Beevor and Laurentino Gomes. For fiction I mostly enjoy fantasy and historical fiction, some of my favourite books are the Harry Potter, Leviathan, and Artemis Fowl series. I also love anything ever written by Finnish author Mika Waltari.

Movies: I don't do that.

Random: Calligraphy, conlanging and conscripting, language learning (currently Russian), legal history, true crime, execution methods, calendar reform, antidisestablishmentarianism, and others, and others, and others.

Stuff I'll block you over:

Just the usual. TERFs, "gender critical", radfems, serial killers (unless you're hot), and so on. Due to the current context I've also been very careful to avoid any interaction whatsoever from antisemites and people who spread antisemitic language and materials. Furthermore, if you seek to deny, minimise, justify, or ignore war crimes and crimes against humanity by any regime or political movement (communist, capitalist, fascist, etc) I wish explosive diarrhoea upon you.

If you're a minor and make any advances towards me I'll tell you to cut that out once, if it happens again I'll softblock.

If you're devoutly Christian (which is not a strict DNI criteria) and post about it very very frequently, I might not want to follow you back in order to avoid that sort of content.

Sideblogs:

Active: @extendedcyrillicblog

Inactive: @official-svetka

Inconsistently active: @aljamianova @todays-julian-calendar-date-is

Good stuff about me:

Proficient in Word, Excel and PowerPoint;

Always willing to at least listen and in the case of an argument, to hear out your side of it

Aspiring casual writer; occasionally creative and even poetic when not hysterical;

Poly, Trans, NB, Intersex, Therian, etc friendly;

Will make an effort to use your pronouns accurately;

Have been cringe enough in my time to not be upset with "edgy" humour, just vaguely disappointed;

Will react to your ships positively or neutrally, no ship is truly bad, I may not enjoy it though;

I pee sitting down

Bad stuff about me:

I have a lot of trouble with communication and that's very frustrating, so might take a good while to respond if you message me;

You might see a lot of very incoherent vent posts here, I don't mind interaction with them;

I don't enjoy talking or hearing about most subjects to do with maths or physics. I also don't enjoy talk of Christianity no matter how progressive;

I tend to lash out at mostly inconsequential things sometimes.

Tags:

#s3lf for posts I write myself

#pos reblogs for posts I reblogged where someone in the reblog chain is a genuine piece of shit (will specify who)

#büllshit (old) for joke posts, I'll figure out another tag to use sometime later

#mail💜 for asks from my beloved mutuals or asks I especially liked

#mail for asks from people I don't know

#...mail for generally weird asks and anon hate

#vent, kinda self-explanatory

#bad music, also kinda self explanatory

#!!!!!!!, for beautiful art and beautiful mutuals :)

#nsfw, anything my boss wouldn't want me to see at work if I had a boss or worked

#@~@ for all the horny shit I'm REALLY into

I usually trigger tag starting with "tw", as in "tw blood", "tw violence", etc. Send me an ask if you want me to trigger tag specific stuff, I really wouldn't mind at all

I should collect those text bands that tell you stuff like "this user is a faggot" and other things like that. This is still a work in progress, I'll Ship of Theseus the hell out of this bitch

[aeliussaionji]

Scattered thoughts on my relationship to media

I often muse "since criticism is subjective, how do we confidently asses a thing? Who decided what makes something 'good'?". hbomberguy's "RWBY is Disappointing" video is making me do just that.

Going in I expected him to reveal things I overlooked, as I can be pretty bad at noticing inconsistencies in media. But to the contrary, in the first half of the video, he focuses on talking about aspects of the show I don't care about, or even find endearing. The latter half(ish) focuses more on how the writers drop the ball in trying to tackle the subject of racism. In the rest of these scattered thoughts I am not referring to that- largely because I didn't watch it all at once, and much of my thoughts happened following my first intermission.

But first- something else entirely:

Some years ago, friends and I discussed our thoughts on the new star wars trilogy. The movie where Kylo and Rey team up for the fight in the throne room is easily my favorite of the three. The first entry was boring and the third one is a crime. But the second- it explores new ideas about the Force not being binary, has amazing visual scenes (some of which everyone hates for the lore implications), it has that friggin' amazing throne room fight where Light and Dark team up, after which there's a very compelling "we should join forces" moment. Given how much the movie had broken off traditional star wars thus far, I was genuinely uncertain what Rey would do, and in that moment I was more engaged than I had ever been with any star wars content before.

People who dislike that movie counter with "but why would the commander do X in scene Y? Makes no sense!" or "the whole sequence with the casino was bad". And to me that's… I literally don't remember those things exist until people complain about them. I am laser focused on what I enjoyed and tune out what didn't work for me. In the discussion I was having among friends, the primary complaint they had is how the second movie breaks continuity of the trilogy. As I see it, the first movie is unobjectionable and technically good, I never hear passionate criticism for that. It's also just a nothing burger. I've near forgotten the entire thing. Nothing happens in it to pique my interest. It seems that's true for others as well, given that any discussion of the trilogy I've heard very quickly becomes about what the second movie did wrong. Would the second movie be "better" if it were as unobjectionable as the first? Would the trilogy? Many seem to prefer simpler works with competent execution, which, I can get into as well! But when shards of creativity capture my attention, I find myself either forgiving flaws, forgetting them, or filling in blanks where no details were provided. So: I don't give a damn that the trilogy is now incoherent as a whole! I really, really, like certain scenes of the second movie and give zero thoughts to the rest.

To which my friend responds, "do that in a different story!" But does that mean they'd prefer something competently constructed and less creative, like the first movie was? After all, I see plenty of energy spent dressing down sloppy execution of the second movie, but hardly any energy is given to criticizing how creatively bankrupt the first movie is. In this dichotomy I've constructed, I feel I'm in the minority for preferring a creative mess.

(Also the reality of capitalism in Hollywood is that writers don't often have the freedom to just make new IPs; existing IPs are what's on the table and writers make due. That's how it's gonna be, might as well consider such stories to be standalone. Blame capitalism, not the writers.)

Back to RWBY: hbomberguy keeps complaining that RWBY's animation, writing, voice acting, songs, etc are all amateur. And, yeah man, it's literally a first work by amateurs. Halfway through his video, the point he keeps returning to is that the show has good ideas but the amateur efforts holds it back. And… yeah man, amateurs have good ideas sometimes? Ep1 pretty firmly establishes the level of quality the creators are bringing to the table, and I calibrated my expectations accordingly.

More than just calibrating my expectations, I can find the amateur aspect endearing, and I enjoy seeing the voice actors and animators and writers improve as the series goes along. It's like its own meta narrative- we the viewers get to witness the voice actors grow more confident over time. They come a long way from their early shy and clunky performances.

Now, I don't necessarily think that criticism should be "calibrated" to expectations, or that media should be graded on a curve. It's completely fair to judge what's on the table no matter who made it. I agree with basically all of hbomberguy's criticisms, I'm enjoying the detective work he has done to outline how and why the quality may have suffered, I'm laughing along with his jokes, and certainly his criticisms could help the team grow as creators. It's just that his delivery leaves me wondering if he's playing up his reactions for comedic effect, or if he genuinely can't engage with amateur efforts. This leads me to an introspective thought spiral- there are many examples of media I quite like where the execution is fumbled in some way. There are many examples of media with stellar execution, but I'm simply bored by the content. If I were to ever try and formally criticize something, what form should my criticism take in this framework? Should my criticism value execution over creativity? Excellent execution can be an art in of itself and I often do enjoy a job well done, but in general I don't derive much enjoyment from how technically well executed the art is. Should I, though? Are my media recommendations to friends worse off for my tendency to forget that which doesn't interest me? Should my critique spend time grading creators on form, even when the mistakes don't bother me personally, or is it enough to simply expand only on what I personally experience? Does loving content with poor execution mean I have mid taste in media?

There is another more personal layer to my thought spiral reaction. hbomberguy spends some time demonstrating that certain concepts in RWBY are not explained well and would be confusing to first time viewers. This leads me to think that I'm so accustomed to being out of the loop that I don't blink when something doesn't make sense, and in fact I might not even notice ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

There are many works which avoid directly stating authorial intent, instead (hopefully) leaving enough information for the audience to arrive at the conclusion themselves. This is often stated as "respecting the intelligence of the audience". Problem is, I may not have enough context to work it out, and I'm not always on my A-game while consuming media. Probably most of the time I am very much not! I think I've come to assume that when I encounter a point of confusion, the failing is mine.

Me, enjoying a show as much of the subtler meaning flies over my head:

[vivelareine]

just a quick thought on the marie-antoinette series now that I’ve watched more of it

and by quick I mean “I rambled a bit”

I was expecting the Marie-Antoinette series to be Sofia Coppola but amplified. I was expecting Fersen, we can’t escape him, I was expecting the same modernistic Coppola-style “she was just like you guys,” etc etc.

I was not expecting the episodes to be genuinely incoherent at times, in just about every possible way. The cinematography is aimless, though it has its interesting moments. The writing is inconsistent, never showing us what it tells us is there (see: lack of etiquette on screen but trying to pretend that it exists when the narrative calls for it)--sometimes showing us reactions or moments that are sudden and wild and make no sense. Like showing Marie Antoinette walking by Du Barry and Du Barry being ShooOoOOcked, but the narrative did not set this up whatsoever.

I certainly didn’t expect the random, pointless violence that simply would not have existed in this manner at Versailles. I still can’t believe that Noailles slapping Marie Antoinette across the face for not having sex with Louis on her wedding night, the guards roughly dragging Marie Antoinette back to her rooms, wasn’t a dream sequence.

I didn’t expect the show to be completely lacking on a vision in regards to costuming and hair, to be constantly jumping aesthetically from the 1770s to the mid-1780s. Marie Antoinette is constantly sporting the show’s take on a 1780s hairstyle but it’s the mid-to-late-1770s. In episode 8 she’s wearing a structure chemise dress that is more appropriate to 1785 than anything worn in 1778-1780. But then in the next scene she’s back to wearing a pouf. What is up with this show’s costuming trajectory?

I didn’t expect the show to completely disregard the historical timeline to the point of nonsense, but also to the point of being detrimental to Marie Antoinette’s narrative.

For example: Episode 4, I think it’s Episode 4,  has Marie Antoinette dressing in private with Rose Bertin and snubbing Noailles who says it’s not etiquette. This is before Louis XV dies.

Now Marie Antoinette did change the dressing ceremony etiquette--retreating to closet with her chosen ladies and Bertin instead of everything being done by ceremony in the Queen’s chamber--but it was after she became queen. The point, narratively, is that Marie Antoinette COULD do that after she became queen, because she has the power as queen that she didn’t have as dauphine

. The show just has her start being a rebellious little sneak when she’s dauphine and it’s like... why? Why make that change? You’re robbing the “transformation” of its power. It’s especially ridiculous because the show’s marketing and creative team has made it clear that that is what they were going for, that Marie Antoinette used her power as queen to transform life at Versailles to suit her needs. So why doesn’t the show actually want to set that up in a clear and cohesive way?

Every choice the show makes is baffling. Whether it’s the writing, the costuming, the characterization. The only thing not baffling is the acting, which is, for the most part, interesting to watch and well done. (Especially considering the writing choices being mad.) I’m genuinely sad Louis Cunningham isn’t playing Louis XVI in something written coherently.

[thundercrack]

I've heard a LOT about gideon the ninth but have never picked it up, i'd be really interested in hearing your thoughts on it and why you don't like it (if you want to)?

ok i'm home i'm watching the fulham vs chelsea game (go fulham) i'm ready 2 answer this (I am always happy to hate. this is just my spitballed opinion on a book i read like three months ago so take it with a grain of salt)....first off i'll say: i read this whole book so u don't have to! i HATED gideon the 9th. literally the worst book i read in 2022. i say this as someone who generally likes some degree of mediocre scifi/fantasy. here are a few reasons why...

Trope city! and done extremely poorly. The book is advertised one way -- lesbian necromancers in space! although I dislike identitarian advertising in general, the book is literally 1) nothing like that 2) ten million times dumber. I read a recent review that lauded Muir's skill at flipping tropes on their head to reveal something new. I got absolutely none of that. It felt like poor execution of...well...take your pick: a) rivals to friends/enemies to lovers b) underdog achieve their goal to find out it's not what they expected c) murder mystery d) house tournament...I could go on. And this is just in general...

Weak plot. Well, like I just alluded to, I think the plot sucks -- or maybe it's just the godawful execution. Somehow there's constant action throughout Gideon the Ninth and yet somehow, I found it completely boring the entire way through. The plot is supposed to carry tension. Will Gideon and Harrow figure out how to work together? Who killed [insert name here. there's plenty]? Why is Harrow pissy now? Given that I wasn't engaged in the characters (see previous complaint) and I also had significant confusion about the worldbuilding (see complaint 4), Muir gave me absolutely nothing to make me care. The bizarre pacing and attempts at humor didn't help.

Weak characters. okay, the plot sucks. well, maybe she's got interesting characters? nope. Jumping back to my trope-city complaint: Muir's investment in the characters read entirely superficial to me -- a translation of the dumb jock, and the cold ruler with a troubled past -- like she could thought she could rest their entire personalities on tropes. In no way did they feel three-dimensional, or did they work as vehicles for plot, or did they say anything about...well...anything. If the main characters in Gideon and Harrow felt flimsy, that's saying nothing about the members of the other Houses, who barely existed with any clarity as actors in the text. Again, tropes, tropes, tropes.

Inconsistent worldbuilding. I've read that Muir built her world in a way that leaves a lot of explanation out on purpose -- it's tight POV to Gideon, so of course she won't explain things that seem standard about her life. Yet...this left me confused, irritated, and frustrated. One minor example: Muir notes a shortage of paper in the 9th house, and then have Gideon (who is apparently in a wretched state) reading porno mags. I think part of the frustration here is that I definitely could have had some interest and investment in Muir's world. I don't mind dark topics. I like extensive space set ups. I like when writing can turn my stomach, or subvert genre expectations and surprise me. Instead, Muir presents an incoherent and inconsistent world. There's only so much imagination can do to make it tolerable.

Funny? No. The most egregious example of Muir's attempted humor is her dialogue. Look, I'm not opposed to a bit of sarcasm, or irony, or anything else. But the way Muir did it was 1) not funny and 2) often jarring within the text (a level of quippyness that just did not work) 3) basically "edgelord" characterization. I generally LIKE some level of referentialism in my work, but the way Muir does it through "memes" etc didn't enhance my understanding of the book, and actively frustrated me, especially in conjunction with the ways she plays with the characters lack of understanding about say... a bath. Muir isn't bad at writing prose, but her decisions here are just baffling to me.

Is there more? Probably. I guess these aren't the most thoughtful critiques, but at the end of the day, Gideon the Ninth felt like it failed at the basic tenants of a novel: coherent characters and some sort of plot. I feel like it's the worst kind of book by an author who went from writing fanfiction to novels. Muir assumes a certain level of investment in her story without giving the reader the tools to understand her characters, and seemingly, without much of a story to tell. I was sucked in by everyone on Tumblr posting about it -- I've gotten some great recommendations here -- but it was truly one of the most dogshit books I've ever read. I feel like, normally, when I dislike a book, I at least can understand why someone might like it. With this one, I had no clue. I finished the book bored, frustrated, annoyed, and feeling like I wasted my time. Anyway. Cheers. and fulham won!!

[mondayxmorning]

open to: f/m/nb suggested connections: a friend, fling/someone's partner after finding out he cheated with, his gf’s family, his shitty parent, etc.

PLEASE READ MY RULES BEFORE RESPONDING *made with beta.

Fuck.... fuck, FUCK! Was there a chance that Zachariah was far too drunk to hear the other correctly? Probably not. The news stunned him enough to render him speechless-- opposite to how his mouth constantly ran with bullshit. He got his girlfriend pregnant? A million, incoherent thoughts clouded his mind, except one-- he was not or never would be ‘father’ material and blamed the universe, immediately. While it was bound to happen (as he rarely gave two shits about playing the rules), Zachariah wasn’t expecting this news to be told from someone OTHER than his current girlfriend. It made him a little angry-- or maybe it was the alcohol. 

“You’ve gotta be joking, dude,” Zachariah coughed up, and absentmindedly reached for a nearby glass to pour some MORE liquor into-- not for the drink itself, but to push away the bitterness he had to swallow. “It’s not my fault. I didn’t do anything--- she,” Taking another quick swig, the inconsistency overclouded everything again, making no sense. He tried to lie, like he always had done but it wasn’t working. “She told me she was on the pill.” To be fair, he was equal parts scared of the outcome AND her family, what was let on by his glossy expression. “Did she tell you this? She’s a fucking liar.” 

[natequarter]

popularity always seems to be a tremendously nebulous concept in terms of historical figures and difficult to get a firm grip on... first of all we must reckon with what popular actually means and from where said popularity comes; are we talking about genuinely popular [as in of the people] popularity? or a core group of supporters from the upper echelons of society? in the former case, records often simply do not survive of what ye average person thought; in the latter, we can expect propaganda (either from the supporting party or in order to smear the supporting party) to exaggerate the extent or lack of said support. and then there is the person narrating this support to be dealt with: it is impossible for a historian to be truly partial and especially in the case of something so obviously vague and malleable as support it is very easy to conceal evidence of (un)popularity or to argue an instance as being something it is not. then there is the accompanying tendency to retroactively interpret someone as being (un)popular even when this becomes an inconsistent and incoherent argument - if the ensuing centuries of history have revised or warped someone's legacy into something significantly more (un)popular than what people actually thought at the time, it is often automatically assumed that relatively neutral actions or ones whose popularity we can assess were clearly (un)popular because future chroniclers of events have relayed them to us that way. so what is popularity? can we ever do anything meaningful with it? it's a tricky one.

[ogradyfilm]

Recently Viewed: Demon Pond

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

At times, Masahiro Shinoda’s Demon Pond feels like two different films awkwardly stapled together.

The first is a hauntingly atmospheric arthouse horror movie about forgotten folklore, self-destructive superstitions, and the conflict between “traditional values” and “modern rationality.” The opening montage is particularly impactful, elevated by the immaculate sound design: the oppressive howl of the scorching, dusty wind; the mocking “crunch” of parched, cracked earth underfoot; and the resounding “thud” of a stone hitting the bottom of a bone-dry well elegantly convey the borderline post-apocalyptic desolation of the setting—a remote mountain village ravaged by poverty and drought.

The second is a fairly conventional Japanese ghost story reminiscent of Daiei’s 100 Monsters and Daimajin, with all of the tropes that one would expect from the genre: morally corrupt humans desecrating the natural order, wrathful gods and guardian spirits exacting terrible revenge, cataclysms of every conceivable variety (floods, typhoons, tsunamis), and hapless innocents caught in the crossfire. Shinoda’s unmistakable authorial voice, however, enriches this familiar narrative structure. The scenes depicting the Dragon Princess’ heavenly court, for example, deliberately embrace the inherent artificiality of live theater—much like the director’s earlier effort, Double Suicide (in that case, he was emulating bunraku puppetry; here, kabuki serves as the primary influence). The relatively simple yet dazzlingly colorful makeup and costuming of the monstrous retinue—lumbering ogres, grotesque Cyclopes, wizened Shinto priests sporting fleshy catfish whiskers—reminded me of Tomu Uchida’s equally evocative The Mad Fox.

While I enjoyed each of these plots on its own merits, as a whole, Demon Pond never becomes quite as compelling as its individual components. The inconsistencies in style and tone create a sense of dissonance and disharmony; the frequent shifts between the mundane and fantastical worlds feel contradictory rather than complementary. Ultimately, it’s just a muddled, confused, incoherent cinematic experience—occasionally enjoyable, but difficult to recommend.

[complaintreviews]

US$12 million Agyapa deal promoters put Kweku Baako in trouble

The revelations by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mineral Income Investment Fund (MIIF) that a staggering US$12 million was spent on the failed Agyapa Royalties deal, has consumed an unintended casualty, veteran journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako.

He had in the wake of the scandal first broke by Herald newspaper in a spirited defence, insisted that Africa Legal Associates, an Accra-based law firm owned by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, was not paid US$2 million for its work on the Agyapa Royalties deal. But recent revelation challenged his claims. The figure was bandied about nearly four years ago by some persons as the amount Gabby and his firm grabbed for their advisory role on the deal. But Baako claimed the quoted amount was way above what was paid to the law firm by the government.

“It is not true that Gabby’s firm got US$2 million from the deal. It is not true that his firm is a beneficiary of US$2 million. It’s not even up to US$105,000. It is the main transaction advisor that paid Gabby. It is about US$103,000. It is not US$2 million”, the editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper had insisted.

He clarified that, Britain-based White & Case LLP International Law Firm a UK-based law firm, was the principal advisor on the deal and Africa Legal Associates worked for the firm. Also there was Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah.

The Herald’s investigations had landed that a knighted Ghanaian with British nationality, Joshua Siaw, a partner in White & Case’s Global Debt Finance Practice and director of the Firm’s Africa practice, is a known friend of Gabby. Their law firms, have been involved in gigs involving the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The deal was fraught with assertions of nepotism, the presence of some key individuals and their companies, as well as their financial interests, including the immediate past Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and his Databank Financial Service,s as well as its South Africa partners, Imara Holding Limited of South Africa.

The roles played by Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Maafo, the son of ex-Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo and a Deputy Director-General at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) in charge of Investment & Development and Gabby Otchere Darko, a cousin of the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, were also at the centre of the scandal.

However, before the government placed the deal on ice to allow further deliberations with Civil Society Organizations, Baako held the view that people were making a mountain out of a molehill.

He was quoted by Ghanaweb in September 2020, as having likened the conflict of interest situation to Ibrahim Mahama’s companies getting contracts during the John Mahama regime and Nana Konadu Agyemang under the Rawlings regime.

“We have to be consistent. We have to be coherent. I don’t expect everybody to agree with me and I expect people who disagree with it vehemently if they like violently, disagree with me and criticize me”.

“The way we’re going around this politics, the so-called conflict of interest relative to political office holders over the period, I see a certain huge area of inconsistency and incoherence and I’m worried about that. This is not going to be the last time this will happen; you bet me!”

Ken Ofori-Atta’s company, Kweku Baako Jnr, further insisted that Data Bank, had as of November 2020 not received any payment for their role as financial advisors in the Agyapa Royalty agreement.

This was after it was publicly held that the investment bank which is owned by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, enjoyed monetary benefit from the deal.

On Tuesday, November 10, 2020, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) demanded the government to retrieve monies it claimed had been paid to Data Bank.

The opposition party gave the government a seven-day ultimatum to recover the monies, the failure of which will propel them to embark on a mammoth demonstration in the first week of December. The protest did not happen.

“The NDC, hereby, demands that President Akufo-Addo retrieves the state’s the billions of cedis his government has illegally paid under the shady ‘Agyapa’ deal to Databank, which is owned by his cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of his, Gabby Otchere Darko; and their foreign compradors, within the next 7 days, failing which the NDC and other like-minded progressive forces shall embark on series of protest and legal actions to ensure that every pesewa paid to these companies are refunded back to the State for nation-building,” Asiedu Nketia, the then General Secretary of the NDC said at a presser.

In a reaction to the NDC’s demands, Kweku Baako, said that information available to him indicates that Data Bank, received no monies for their role in the deal.

“They made some demands that the president should ensure that some monies paid are retrieved. I have been told on authority that Data Bank as we sit here has not been paid a pesewa or dollar. But some payments have been done for Africa Legal Associates and the others,” Baako disclosed on Peace FM.

But in a post on Facebook, Gabby Otchere Darko, a leading member of the governing party, said that Data Bank, would have been given a certain amount of money had the deal been successful.

“You are calling on your supporters and Ghanaians to join you on the street to stage a massive demonstration to ask for a refund for fees paid to transaction advisors, including law firms for services rendered per a contract? (Note: Databank has received no money for work done so far. Databank was only to earn a success fee at the end of the transaction). That is why, with tongue in cheek, I wish to proclaim: I love the NDC! Fantastic bunch of patriots! Bless them! part of the statement reads.

Almost four years on, it emerged last week at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, that US$12 million was spent on setting up the offshore company which never materialized, but died on paper.

The CEO of MIIF, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, disclosed to the PAC that the Akufo-Addo government spent US$12 million on the failed Agyapa royalties deal.

But the US$12 million might just be the tip of the iceberg as the Auditor-General has, according to Kofi Adams, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Buem and a member of PAC, not captured the Agyapa Royalties deal in his report three years since it collapsed.

It is, therefore not clear how much Databank, Imara Holding Limited of South Africa, White & Case LLP International Law Firm, the two Ghanaian law firms Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah, and Africa Legal Associates, got as transaction advisors for the monetization of Ghana’s gold royalties through the dual listing of the Agyapa Gold Royalties Company on the Ghana and London Stock Exchanges.

Interestingly, MP for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea, a cousin of Ken Ofori-Atta and Gabby Ochere-Dark, has cautioned the opposition NDC against its rhetoric on allegations of corruption in the Akufo-Addo government, accusing the party of resorting to concluding that allegations of wrongdoing in the government are crimes, even without any shred of evidence. He gave this caution while reacting to members of the NDC, including the National Communication Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi, saying that government officials and individuals implicated in the US$12 million expenditure on the suspended Agyapa Royalties deal are guilty of a crime and would be dealt with if they come to power. Atta Akyea, argued that the fact that something went wrong in the Agyapa deal does not necessarily imply that a crime was committed. He cautioned that the NDC was only endangering Ghana’s democracy with its baseless allegations, which are only aimed at winning the favour of Ghanaians for the upcoming elections, myjoyonline.com reports. “Bear in mind that, in this feverish pitch to succeed Akufo-Addo, the NDC, should not sort of make a fetish of every issue as if everything is criminal. “This nation is not safe with this level of propaganda, and press conferences are not just conclusive evidence of culpability and criminality, as it were. I want to stress also, let’s be careful. If there is a poor error of judgment in the investment in Agyapa, it will not be tantamount to criminality,” the MP is quoted to have said on JoyNews’ Top Story. Sammy Gyamfi, who was also on the show, contended that if there were no illegalities with the Agyapa deal, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), would not have asked the president to suspend it. He said that OSP’s investigation, proved that the Agyapa deal was not beneficial to the state, which led to its suspension. “If the Special prosecutor was not a court and the President does not agree with the position of the Special Prosecutor, why suspend the bill?” he quizzed. However, Atta Akyea, did not agree with the NDC National Communications Officer’s suggestion.

He said that if the NDC has an issue with the deal, they should go to court and should stop calling people who have not been found guilty of any crimes criminals.

“If you convert the thinking of NDC to the decision of a court of competent jurisdiction, we know what the law is like.

“The accused persons will have a right to stand; they present the evidence and the rest of it, and it will culminate in a decision. If we don’t go this route and we still believe that in the name of propaganda, let’s turn the laws of Ghana upside down, and in the convenience of a one-sided press conference, let’s denigrate others; I am afraid that is not democracy, that is propaganda,” the MP said.