#i'm never going to stop using this screencap

[dread-full]

[lonely-coconut]

Blinkie.World preview!

Here is a preview of Blinkie.world, my blinkie collecton site! The goal here is to collect every blinkie on earth (but only if they're free to use, and can be credited). They're all sorted into these color pages, and also sorted into tons of sub categories on other pages (like food, animals, holidays, etc etc). This is what some of the color pages look like now! Once I have at least 300 blinkies in each color, then I'll consider the site full enough to go live! I'm aiming to get it online by Art Fight (aka by July this year).

Do note that this isn't actually an accurate representation of how many I have. I have thousands more than this! I just have to code them all in. It's not as quick as just an image tag and a link, because it also needs to be named, linked to it's source, tagged so I know what categories they're in, have a link to a screenshot that proves who the creator is and their terms (in case the credit link dies one day), have alt text, and have hover text which says the creator and a description of what the blinkie says! So, it's not like this:

<img src="">

It's actually like this:

<a href="" target="_BLANK">

<img src="" alt="" title="Credit: . ID: """></a>

<!--Categories: -->

<!--Screencap: -->

And that's for every blinkie! You can probably see how this is so time consuming, but I think it's worth it. I've never seen a blinkie collection with 6,000+ blinkies, much less every single one credited, and even less sorted into dozens of categories! It's like I have a blinkie for everything, while also knowing the creator of each, and being able to easily search for a specific one via the sorting system! It's especially good for helping others find blinkies, and helping people get the sources for blinkies they already have! It's also great for finding blinkies to use for your ocs (which is my initial reason for doing this).

I'm very excited about this. I really think this could be a very fun resource for people, and that aside, I just really like having so many in my possession. I love to see them. I even have blinkies that I've downloaded before they were deleted off the internet! That's very exciting to me. I have blinkies that are straight up lost media, and I'm happy to be able to preserve them.

Of course as I said, it's going to take forever to add them all, but I'm chipping away at it. I shall not be stopped! Also, if you want a blinkie in any of these screenshots above, just let me know! I'll get it and it's source for you, easy peasy! I'll post more screenshots as significant progress is made, but for now, it's back to downloading blinkies!

[scallioncreamcheesebagel]

hilarious drama going on on reddit, the least respectable social media site i use. someone goes to r/legaladvice with a question about a shitty interaction with a cop. pretty normal post.

some users replied with regular advice, but one r/legaladvice moderator came in saying it was OP's fault, defending the cop. when OP requested they "please read the post", they equipped their next reply with their little mod hat and told them that showing attitude would result in a ban.

after receiving hundreds of downvotes (and many replies, all of which were removed and banned), the r/legaladvice mod nuked the thread in a fit of anger.

so you'd think it'd stop there, right? well, that's where you're wrong.

there's another subreddit called r/bestoflegaladvice, where the more interesting r/legaladvice threads are reposted for audiences to take the piss out of. and of course, a mod throwing a tantrum and nuking a thread because they were asked to read would make that cut. so it was reposted! and of course, everyone started rightfully calling the mod a bootlicker.

people then started pointing out that the r/legaladvice mod team has cops on it, at which point, part two of the drama starts: some people are mods of both r/legaladvice AND r/bestoflegaladvice, and they get really mad when you call them cops (derogatory).

so of course, they take the best course of action, which is to angrily reply to comments calling them cops and then use mod powers to delete the comments they don't like, insisting that only ONE r/legaladvice mod is a cop, so it's totally fine!

the r/bestoflegaladvice thread was then deleted and locked by mods, presumably for "republicizing deleted comments".

the same thread was then reposted to r/bestoflegaladvice. again, the thread fills with people calling the r/legaladvice mods cops.

this thread was also deleted and locked by r/bestoflegaladvice mods.

but it doesn't end there! because there's ANOTHER subreddit called r/subredditdrama, where the juiciest drama from all manner of subreddits gets reposted. and you'll never believe what's gone on long enough to count as drama.

here, free from the shackles of reddit's legaladvice world, users were free to dunk on the mods as much as they want.

the r/subredditdrama thread was eventually deleted as well (but not locked) just because they don't accept links to nuked threads since the original can't be read, but thankfully, everything had been archived by that point.

and just because the streisand effect should never go unrealized, i'm reposting it here, to tumblr. who knows, maybe someone will bother to screencap this and put it on r/curatedtumblr, and it will eventually live on in reddit again.

as for OP, they reposted their situation to r/nostupidquestions and later posted this update:

moral of the story: never go to reddit for legal advice, because the legal advice subreddit is run by ONE cop.

[soundthebrokenbells]

The Pitt has me so down bad I'm posting original (ish) content again, can't stop thinking about those sad lil freaks

Creds:

1. "I get mean when I'm nervous like a bad dog," Cop Car, Mitski.

2. "Please don't allow anyone to help you or be close to you." Photo of an ATM sign, Reactjpg on Twitter.

3. "I am so tired of waiting. / Aren’t you, for the world to become good / and beautiful and kind? / Let us take a knife /and cut the world in two— /and see what worms are eating / at the rind." Tired, Langston Hughes.

4. "i bit the head of god and now he won't feed me either." @necrobrat on Tumblr.

5. "Nothing ever ends poetically. It ends and we turn it into poetry. All that blood was never once beautiful. It was just red." Kait Rokowski.

6. "There is no sacrifice. You have got to want to live. You have got to force yourself to want to." The Cow, Ariana Reines

Images found on Shuffles by Pinterest bc I was lazy will go screencap hunting for the next post🫠

[ofmdrecaps]

10/29-30/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; David jenkins; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Samba Schutte; Con O'Neill; Nathan Foad; David Fane/Rachel House; MCM Comic Con Coverage w/AdoptOurCrew; In Person Events: Calypso's Birthday in Pittsburgh; Fan Spotlight: Gay Pirate News Hour; NeverLeftPodcast; AMuseOfFyre: Badmintons!; Love Notes;

Hey lovelies, my dad is once again trying to come home from the hospital tomorrow, and I am learning how to help with wound care, and tube feeds, so I have been completely and utterly wiped after coming home from that while also working full time (and no sleep because my kiddo had too much candy)-- so to be honest I have been taking some time to rest and doodle because I need it for my mental health! I'm slowly catching up, things are gonna be a bit bare bones while I get back into the groove of things. Hope you're all staying healthy and safe out there!

= David Jenkins =

Just a lovely picture of David and Kinga from earlier this year that Kinga shared a couple days ago.

Source: Kinga's Instagram

Also-- David's been sharing the adorable twerking gif by @smolbus over on twitter!

Source: David Jenkins Instagram

= Rhys Darby =

Rhys is keeping up with his Daily Doodles on his Substack! The last one there is.. uhm, well very specific (I love these goofy doodles btw I hope he never stops, reminds me of the Buttons McGinty illustrations). Check out the Darby Daily Doodles on his Substack!

Source: Rhys Free Substack

There are still tickets available for Rhys's Indianapolis show on Nov 7 at Helium Comedy Club! You can still get tickets here. The St Louis - Nov 8 - Helium Comedy Club is sold out!

If you're going to the IN show-- one of Rhys Buddies is really catering to the Rhys Darby fans and trying to giveaway his red solo cups that have been touched or looked at by Rhys! I'm so glad they know just how feral everyone is for Rhys Lightning.

And a quick clip of one of Rhys's Routines from the 25th anniversary!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Helium Comedy Club Indy (@heliumcomedyind)

Source: Helium Comedy Instagram

= Gizmo & Bumbles Darby =

As you know, I can't resist cat content, especially of Gizmo and Bumbles, so here you are-- Thanks Rosie for keeping us fed!

Source: Rosie's Instagram stories.

= Taika Waititi =

Taika was out at the world series, and the Dodgers won!

Source: Taika's Instagram

= Samba Schutte (and Con) =

Reminder! Samba's Death by Cheese class is one week away! Sat Nov 9th, at 10am PST online with Be Momentus!

Also check out this very goofy video of Samba and con Re: The dish you'll be making!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Samba Schutte (@sambaschutte)

Source: Samba's Instagram

= Nathan Foad =

When Nathan's not interviewing Kristian at cons, he's out with friends!

Source: Michelle Collins Instagram

= David Fane / Rachel House =

Moana2 just broke the 2024 record for most day 1 ticketing presales for an animated feature! Congrats Rachel, David, and Taika! So excited for you!

Source: Fandango's Instagram

= Con O'Neill =

After the recent showing of 'The Men' starring Con at the Alnwick Playhouse in the UK, Con did a Q & A with Rebecca of The Northern Film Blog! Check out the article below!

== MCM Comic Con Coverage ==

Our friends over at @adoptourcrew and their correspondents were kind enough film and transcribe some of the questions Nathan asked kristian at his panel at MCM Comic Con a couple weekends back! I'm sharing a screencap + the link to their tumblr posts with the videos (tumblr only lets me share one at a time on any given post) so please head over there and check them out! Question 1: "Nathan asks Kristian about his personal style and how the way he presents himself has changed over the years."

Question 2: Regarding Kristian's first time working with Revlon

Conversation About Kristan's Life Part 1

Conversation about Kristian's life PART 2:

== In Person Events: PA ==

It's that time again! Harold's Haunt in Pittsburgh PA will be hosting another Calypso's birthday, this time on Nov 9 at 6 pm!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ringa Sunn (@ringasunn)

Source: Harold's Haunt Instagram

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Gay Pirate News Hour =

It's time for another Gay Pirate News hour! Catch it on Our Flag Means Fanfiction's Youtube at 1PM PT/ 4PM ET!

Source: Our Flag Means Fanfiction Instagram

= Never Left Podcast =

New episode of Never Left! This time talking about Flags! (Part 1!) Check it out on your favorite listening platform on their linktr.ee!

Source: Never Left Podcast Instagram

= A Muse Of Fyre =

Our crewmate @amuseoffyre is back -- this time with the Badminton's! The Nigel flicking off the camera one is legit the funniest thing I've seen all week. Love it!

Source: Amuseoffyre's Instagram

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies, just a quick one tonight. I feel like TheLatestKate is basically just following me around because she always has new and appropriate love notes each week. Please please please go easy on yourself right now, you're doing so much, I know we all are. Please be kind to yourself, drink some water, and take a few extra moments of rest. You deserve it (whether you did a million things today, or just survived). Take care lovelies. See you soon.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @thelatestkate

Source: The LatestKate Instagram

[calder]

weve accounted for everyone at this point. whoevers been sending me these snipes is fully just some weirdo in the cult posturing as a survivor. and nobody of substance in my past would opt for these zero-risk drive-by teardowns while refusing a mediated conversation.

you are obscuring who you are on purpose because you always wanted to bury this. it's not because i wronged you at some point and now i've failed my cause. you are manipulating me.

you are monitoring me, misleading me about who you are, and creating a false narrative around me to defend your group while taking on zero personal risk. you attack me when i try to move on to different projects because you really just want me to disappear. you have harassed me, called everything i do "harassment," and monitored me across websites that aren't even directly related to these events.

that is what a cult would do. that is what scientologist squirrelbusters would do.

it's truly disgusting. i'm not going to entertain it further. have a mediated/public conversation with me like an adult or leave me alone.

edit:

you are desperate. this is transparent. the only former friend i have ever called out is tagaziel, who never fucking supported me or listened to me, and i gave her nearly a year of grace to stop mistreating the community. i only called her out when she once again used her power to protect abusive adults at the expense of a teenage victim.

you are pretending i "exposed" someone else because i imperfectly censored a name from a screencap on accident. that narrative was invented by the cult on-the-fly to serve their ends. you believe it because you believe the cult leaders unquestioningly.

as if i would "expose someone as guilty of being affiliated with me" to the fucking cult i'm fighting as 'revenge.' that only makes sense to people in the cult, because they have been trained to treat disloyalty to the leaders as worse than any actual abuse

these are the only two possible people your narrative could be referring to and the premise that either of those people is a "friend i betrayed for refusing to help push my agenda" is strictly part of your cult mythology.

my 'agenda' is that nobody may abuse children or promote hate speech even inside that echo chamber. you are fundamentally hostile to that aspiration and evidence can not change your mind because you are in a cult.

you are promoting the cult's narrative to harm me and protect yourself, and i do not wonder who you are. leave.

[canonizzyhours]

i'm so glad this blog is back! so as one of our fandom's few, proud canon-flavor blackhands shippers (there are dozens of us! well, maybe one dozen. if i'm lucky) i want to celebrate by venting about something that bugs me in fic about the edizzy relationship.

in fic with sympathetic takes on izzy (and not just canyon ones, i see it pretty frequently from even anti-canyon people who are trying hard to be fair to the character) authors will have izzy, in the throes of unrequited love, thinking about all the good times he and ed used to have together pre-stede, how they used to laugh and have so much fun together. i understand where this is coming from but it is completely losing the core dynamic of the relationship! the key thing about edizzy, the thing that defines their dynamic and that makes the relationship so compelling, is that they both deeply (albeit in fucked up ways) love each other but despite that at the same time THEY DO NOT LIKE EACH OTHER, not even a little bit, and they never have.

you'll see canyon meta sometimes try to establish otherwise, but it's always sort of goofy like a lot of canyon arguments, usually the evidence will be, like, an isolated screencap where con smiles for a brief moment while ed does something in the foreground (often if you actually watch the scene it turns out he's reacting to something unrelated). or people will say ed trying to show izzy all stede's stuff must show that izzy used to respond positively to that sort of thing, instead of what's obviously going on in the scene which is that ed is desperately lonely and doesn't have anyone to talk to EXCEPT izzy.

but look at what we know about them. the parts of ed's personality that show the most when he's actually having a good time are the parts of him izzy likes the least. when ed's having fun he gets silly and playful. izzy disapproves of play and silliness on principle, and he especially hates it in ed, because he sees it as ed rejecting the blackbeard persona and therefore rejecting izzy himself. it's oil and water. this is reinforced by the parallels between izzy and mary: it's not like stede and mary used to like each other before their marriage decayed. they were miserable together from the moment they met; they don't have any shared interests and neither understands the other's creativity; and they don't really start to become friends until they give up on trying to make their relationship something it never could have been and try being honest with themselves and each other. in the same way it's not till around s2e6, after ed and izzy have both stopped lying to themselves and izzy has gotten over most of his hangups, that they even really get to a place where they might have been capable of starting to build an actual friendship. this is also part of why djenks ended up framing the relationship as family: a lot of familial relationships are people who've been through lots of huge life-defining events together and love each other deeply because of it but that doesn't mean they actually like being around each other.

if you want two guys who actually like each other, gentlebeard is great for that, in addition to being in love they also just like each other so much. if you want two guys who USED to like each other but don't really anymore and haven't fully realized that yet, you want ed & jack. ed and izzy work well together, they've been through all sorts of adventures together, they've probably saved each other's lives a dozen times over, izzy worships ed for his piracy prowess and general hypermasculinity, ed values izzy's performance as his first mate and also secretly craves his fatherly approval. they care deeply for each other for all those reasons. but there is no way there have ever once in their whole relationship just enjoyed hanging out with each other. they simply do not enjoy each other's company! they have all this deep emotion tied up in each other but on the most basic level they just don't like each other at all and i'm not sure either of them even fully realizes it! and that core tension is THE ENTIRE KEY to what makes their relationship like it is.

#441.

[anamericangirl]

I made a metaphor a long time ago and got in a lot of trouble for it, but now I have a visual representation of how true it is.

I took this screencap to just be like "lol" to a friend, then noticed this

Look how much more activity there is in all of these niche communities. Each one of them a completely random thing but with far more people active in them.

And it's time I explain my metaphor!

Ahem.

Put 5 transgender people in a room. - One is a Warhammer 40k fan - One protests trans rights regularly and never stops talking about the LGBT - One makes coffee at a coffee shop - One is training to be an astronaut - One works at a stock brokerage company

They all have nothing in common and nothing to talk about other than the fact that they're trans, which is a shallow thing with absolutely no depth other than "My gender identity is different than my physical body" which tells you nothing about a person other than that they have a mental disorder. You can't just expect the 5 people to get along when they come from varying backgrounds just because their "identity" is all the same letter in LGBT.

But, there's a part 2.

Put 5 Warhammer 40k fans in a room. - One is a straight cis guy - One is a lesbian - One is trans - One is a gay dude - One is a straight cis girl

Now they're all immediately asking which armies they play, asking to see the miniatures they've painted, asking what they think of video games like Fire Warrior and Space Marine 2, branching off of Warhammer 40k to ask about other stuff like "Do you like Helldivers?" because of similarity in genre, and the two cis people wind up getting married a few years later and have a Warhammer themed wedding that gets frontpaged on Imgur.

So now I have factual evidence that once again everything I say that pisses my followers off is the absolute truth.

Nobody wants to be friends with someone just because they have the same sexuality or because they're trans, and anyone who does is gonna have a miserable life.

If you're a nerd at school you don't walk up to the jocks that look similar to you and ask if you can be friends, you walk up to the other nerds. Jocks band together, nerds band together, gamers band together, etc. because they're PEOPLE WITH SIMILAR INTERESTS.

When you expect people to "band together" because they have the same "identity," you're literally just promoting segregation in the exact same way as racism works.

And as someone who used to be trans, I just wanna say, before anyone says "You took those screencaps at 1am, that's not fair"

Yeah? I used to be trans and I'm nocturnal as fuck, and I work with transgender commissioners all the time who are always talking about being awake at 4am. And also, the point's moot when 3,000 frog lovers are online at 1am. Get owned.

And it's highly likely that the transgender group is just transgender activism. Which means it's a group of people bonding over activism and not "being transgender." Because gender identity is not the end all be all of who a person is even though it's treated as such. It doesn't matter if you have a group of 100 trangender people. If they don't have a common interest between them they will never be as active as 5 people who all have different gender identities and are coming together over their favorite TV show or video game.

Like I don't go looking for groups and can't bond with someone just because they are a woman. If there's a man and a woman and my hobbies and interests align more with the dude then he's the person I'm going to feel a connection with.

It is nice to be a part of women's groups sometimes, but they are women's groups based around a central topic. Not just the fact that we're all women.

Because most of the experiences people have in life aren't based on gender identity and it's sad to see people making their gender identity the epitome of who they are.

[silverxstardust]

As I mentioned few times I won't be publishing any more mods for Hogwarts Legacy. I made the excuse after update to transfer most of my mods there but... After months of hate concentred on me & bullying in private messages or on discord servers I don't have mental strenght to do it anymore.

I used to love sharing what I do with game & same with screencaps, but now everytime I post something I think if or when I'll get hate for it or what if someone made something similar and posted it somewhere private.

Recently I recieved other screencaps from last months 'problems' they had with me, about using the game models we all have access to. They never stopped themselves with mentioning my name in public so I won't stop myself as well anymore. Under this post you can check what I'm taking about.

And everything happened because I was using the same outfit game model as everyone can find and use in game file.

Now with modding kit update new people joined it and used exact models & edited the same meshes, that I was attacked for using - and not one goes hatting on them now. People used meshes I 'first' lol used as well, and you don't see me go hatting on them.

We all joined game for fun, but that fun was permanently destroyed for me, and hatters are responsible for that, they can be proud for that 🤷🏻

Thats all I wanted to say.

Thank you for reading & take care 🫂

It's only little piece of what was happening.

[velvetvexations]

I'm honestly still a little distraught over having caused someone serious distress the other day reblogging their old, low-notes post. Sometimes when you see something while searching for different things it feels like something is just there but then if you actually stop and look it's clear that person is a very out-of-sight blogger in their own near-ghost town section of Tumblr, and this happened before and I felt bad about it then too even though that person was not as distressed.

Because, like, I do have an audience, and even if someone is saying something bad it would be really cruel to deliberately drag them into the spotlight like that, or to not do everything you can to prevent it from happening even if by accident.

And, honestly, it did kinna turn into a small dogpile, because I'm a much bigger blog than than that'n, and it was probably a bit frightening for it to suddenly seven seven people replying to it negatively when it originally got six notes total. I think that huge jump is me finally recognizing that, oh, fuck, I am actually a fairly popular Tumblr user at this point, and I have to make absolutely sure I'm not being careless about that. The first time I was accused of harassing people, I think I had like, three hundred followers? And it was so weird getting accused of leveraging power I didn't have. But that was almost a year ago, and now I do have a modicum of power I have a responsibility to keep in check.

Thankfully I was able to DM the few people who reblogged it from me to delete it before it could spread any further.

From now on, because I'm mortified at the thought of this happening again, I'm going to be using anonymized screencaps a lot more than I have up to now. I know I'm all like "oh keep it to your Discord server if you don't want to be called an asshole for being a asshole" but there is a huge power imbalance between someone with as many followers hanging on to my every word as I have and someone who goes out of their way to keep a low-profile.

If were to keep doing as I have been, and I reblogged another random no notes obscure blog, I would actually just be doing what I get accused of doing, i.e. harassing random people and thowing my followers at them like Pikmin. Carelessness is no excuse and if I can't reliably count on myself to make sure a post is appropriate to directly engage with in public, then I just need to start directly engaging with posts in public a lot less often.

I'll also request that you, Velvet Nation, remember to always be on your best behavior. And, like, I don't think this happened here, but just good to keep in mind: never, ever send anyone I reblog in disagreement asks of any kind for any reason.

[peachjagiya]

Isn’t it abt time we all stop analyzing the romantic lives of ppl we don’t know and never will know and stop trying to desperately find something that probably isn’t there. Every shipping theory anyone has is probably off the mark and reality is probably extremely different than what any of us want or expect. We think we’ve gotten to know these boys, but we only see a minute fraction of their lives. so to jump to the conclusion that tae and jk are in a romantic relationship based on the fact that they hang out a lot and the assumption that random things they own or have done are related to each other is truly ridiculous. These are things that are all easily explained by just being very close friends and anyone who says “friends don’t do xyz” is just bullshitting bc yes they actually do 🙄. Until and unless jk and tae explicitly come out or are seen making out or some shit, stop with the far fetched theories and idiocy.

Ok so I took some screencaps to make this easier to explain.

What you're gonna need to do is go to my profile and top right you'll see this little person:

Tap that guy then you'll get this:

Tap "block" and hopefully that should remove me from your feed. I'm pretty sure this works, I've done it myself.

If you find you're being held at gunpoint to read this content, you could try calling whatever emergency number is relevant to your country:

Alternatively, you can get this stuff at plenty of stores:

Hope this is helpful ♥️

[ohhicas]

i noticed a decrease of LexZex art on twitter in the last couple months (there’s only a handful of artists and i take every crumb i can get haha) so i wandered into the tag and saw so many people dragging the ship, it was disheartening 😔😔 i saw your name mentioned or at least vague tweeted a couple times and i just wanna say even if the antis make online spaces uncomfortable for “bad ship” artists, there are always people supporting your art from the sidelines! don’t let the haters stop you from doing what you love, you’re doing god’s work with this ship! ˚‧º·(′̥̥̥ o ‵̥̥̥)‧º·˚

Hi anon! First up, I know how you feel-- to my knowledge I only know of like two other artists for this ship (both JP; people I'm friendly with) so when one goes missing, it certainly feels like a Void.

As far as people in the tags go; there's a very good reason why I never venture Into the tags, even at the start of my venture into KH. I don't even check my own Username tag because I saw something, once, and went "yknow what, nah". Some people are rancid for just the reason of having a squick towards a pairing with age gap-- despite most of their claims (Zexion being a minor; he's not, by an interview that lists all the Org minus Rox as 20+) (Aeleus being his 'father figure'; he's not. Ienzo has never listed Aeleus as a Father figure, when he lists his parental/mentors [They are listed as AtW, with a mocking commentary about Even's behavior towards him.]) just being headcanon. They spread this like it's canon, and use it as ammo to hurt strangers because they saw something they don't like and threw a fit, like a child being introduced to bitter vegetables. I never understood why they didn't just block, mute, move on. Rather, they'll openly vaguetweet, spread hate, and even screencap and go after users who don't use English as a first language leading to fear and hiding, with "is it safer if I just delete?" worries for their bullying behavior. [<- real situation! I had to speak a friend down from a metaphorical cliff over this!]

This kind of atmosphere does tend to kill a creative drive when someone is just enjoying a Kingdom Hearts fan-ship. I've never personally let these people get to me, but I'll admit I 'fell victim' to drawing for other fandoms and getting kinder commentary and reactions. (That's where I've been! Other fandoms crawled in and took over my mental space since it was kinder to engage in them.) (this also killed my urge to draw for KH at all. Not just the pairing I still love a lot and think of often, but in closed spaces with friends.)

So thank you for this message! It was nice to hear. I don't have any advice for anyone who wants to see more art from artists they love beyond "Support them", even if it's scary. If you support something and want to see more of it, openly support it.

Anyway that's my soapbox adulting for the evening. Thank you for giving me a reason to dust off my shaky skillset for them and draw them again.

[tiffany-loves-broadway]

The Nameless

It's pride month, so I'm finally getting into X-Men. (Okay, I didn't actually plan it out that way, but it lined up.) Anyway, I'm surprised that everyone hasn't already gone nuts about the X2 villain's extremely miserable trans daughter.

Now, the thing is, this isn't explicitly confirmed in the text. But the subtext is in-your-face enough that it feels dismissive to call it a "headcanon". Like, this is the same movie with the line "have you tried... not being a mutant?" in it, and this character being trans isn't particularly subtler writing than that. I don't think it was intended to be so obvious, though. 2003 was a different time.

So, like, quick rundown on the plot of X2. Colonel William Stryker (in the comics he was a minister instead) is a bigot who wants to exterminate all mutants. His most vital asset in doing this is his "son", known only as "Mutant 143", or more often by her birth name, "Jason Stryker". Mutant 143 is a powerful psychic who can control people through dreamlike visions. William never accepted his child's mutation, and pulled her from Charles Xavier's school when he realized that Professor X had no intention of "curing" her. William blames his daughter for his wife's suicide; he had Mutant 143 lobotomized and began a plan to use her as a weapon against all other mutants.

And the thing is, Mutant 143 physically looks like this:

But like. Why wouldn't she, with that kind of dad? He has full power over her and has deliberately rendered her a dependent he can micromanage. I mean, Jesus Christ, the line I just randomly stumbled upon while opening and closing my media player to get that screencap was William Stryker saying

No, Charles, my son is dead! My son is dead, just like the rest of you.

Meanwhile, she consistently depicts herself in her psychic visions as this little girl:

And, like, okay, the extremely surface-level I-never-think-about-trans-people reading of that is that she's picking a "harmless" form to better insinuate herself into her targets' minds. But first off, the film never says that; it doesn't even really imply it. She doesn't pick different forms for different people; we only ever see her psychic ego as that little girl. Second off, her power doesn't really require her to put effort into seeming harmless to control people; the dream visions are more of an aesthetic flare on her power than they are a necessary mechanism. When she gets her psychic talons into someone, she can just directly command them to do whatever the fuck out-of-character thing and they'll do it regardless of plausibility. She's the classic cheesy horror trope of the scary possessed little girl, and frankly I don't think it would be any easier to get Professor X to kill all mutants on the orders of a little girl than a little boy.

She's been reduced to a shell of a person, but some element of personal identity still remains there. In her power. The thing she's being oppressed for.

This character doesn't receive a real name in canon. She gets two names from her shitty father: the dehumanization inherent in "Mutant 143" is fairly obvious and uncontroversial, but given everything I'm saying here, I don't think "Jason" is really better. She likely identifies with that name exactly insofar as she's been brainwashed into wanting her own kind dead.

It complicates things a bit that Professor X, another powerful psychic who would likely know her well, also calls her "Jason" a few times. But given the unfortunate circumstances of the film's plot... even if he knew, what else would he call her? She hasn't been fortunate enough in life to get a real name. It's not like, within the plot of the movie, stopping and pointing out what was going on would have been likely to help anything.

This is thematically important to the movie. Magneto certainly isn't meant to be right about everything, but there is a sympathetic throughline to him and his attitudes about the oppression of mutants. Earlier in the movie, he indicates that he sees mutants' cape names (like "Magneto") as their real names, and he encourages his allies to see themselves that way. The trans applicability here is fairly obvious; superheroes and supervillains make up their own names that make their marginalized status obvious. They can publicly identify with them to advertise their mutant status to the world instead of hiding behind ordinary names they were given by majority society.

This character, this properly unnamed character, never got anything like that. She never got to choose her own name. She was compelled by force to betray herself and commit to an external name that was entirely hostile to her.

Anyway, after the X-Men escape from her devious psychic maze they leave her behind in a collapsing building where she presumably dies because she's unable to move herself without assistance. Life sucks and shit happens. It was 2003.

Looking through relevant tags, I was able to find a few short posts discussing this idea, but I'm surprised that they're so sparse and I'm surprised that they treat the idea as so speculative. It really leapt out at me, watching the movie.

[muthaz-rapapa]

Mirai Days: MahoPre was better

I always thought that the terms "second season" and "sequel" could be used interchangeably.

But now I see why they shouldn't. In the case of Mirai Days, it's definitely more accurate to call it a second season of MahoPre rather than a full-fledged sequel.

A sequel would come with expectations to do better than its prequel and actually rise up to that challenge.

Season 2 (3, 4, 5, etc), on other hand, just continues from where the previous season stopped.

Of course, that's not to say the next season can't be better because that does happen for a lot of series.

But I dunno. Surprisingly, these 12 episodes got me doing the opposite of what it intended. I appreciated MahoPre a lot more because I found Mirai Days quite dull to sit through.

And it's weird because I wholeheartedly agree with Mirai Days' message to not be so trapped in the happiness of the past that you can't face the future.

The writers had a great idea to work off of with that moral. But the execution of it was poor and it kinda showed in how halfhearted everything felt in between the first and penultimate episodes (I say penultimate because half of ep 12 was just fanservice).

The production quality was all over the place (look at that screencap above, and it was for the finale too), the script was lacking in innovation and the plot basically lifted the format of the first season and condensed its story into one cour.

I can't be the only one who noticed, right?

For the first half of Mirai Days, Mirai and Riko were responsible for looking after Hisui just like they did they with baby Ha-chan.

Ire was the main antagonist for those six episodes, then got booted out by an even bigger villain (Chronosto) just like Dokurokushe and his minions got replaced by Deusmast and its kin.

At this point, Hisui disappears back into Ha-chan so that Ha-chan can finally enter the plot just like how Ha-chan evolved from her baby form to become Cure Felice and join Miracle and Magical in MahoPre.

And then the rest is history. They defeat the evil boss (Deusmast/Chronosto) for good, go through a temporary separation (6 years in MahoPre, maybe 5 minutes in space??) but reunite in the end.

Honestly, doing something similar isn't a bad thing but like I said with the updated transformation sequences, it can come off as uninspired if it's too much the same.

Moreover, Mirai Days didn't have what MahoPre did which was all the heartwarming moments and development that were spread out across 50 episodes, making the overall viewing experience of the first season feel more fulfilling.

I think Mirai Days could've benefited by showing more of the girls' growth into adults but in a different way than OtonaPre where the Yes5 girls were already established in their adulthoods.

For example, instead of having Riko take off from teaching to be full-time magical girl for a few weeks, they could've explored the difficulties of her being a teacher in real time instead of in flashbacks.

Mirai as well. It seems college is almost inconsequential for her. She's shown to be attending as she's expected to for her age but we never get any idea into what her major is or what her dreams are now that she's 20. That was one of the flaws of her character during the first season but could be forgiven since she was only 13 at the time.

Now, well, it's nice the best qualities of her haven't changed but you still gotta show more changes than just getting older, y'know.

(I'm not going to include Ha-chan in this discussion cuz she's a mother friggin' goddess so she can do whatever the hell she wants 😂)

As for Mirai and Riko's relationship which is the main selling point of this show, they could've kicked up some drama there as well. With scheduling conflicts, work/school-life balance, different careers or goals leading to different lifestyles (that cause those scheduling conflicts), etc. I find that much more interesting to delve into than watching the same old formula that we already get in the main tv series (btw, just wanted to say that KimiPre is very good so far 😉).

Admittedly, that might take time away from the magical girl part which I know we must keep because it's still Precure, after all. But you can certainly think of more creative ways to portray that without compromising the newer aspects of a new story.

I mean, one of the reasons I liked OtonaPre so much was how the writers were able to integrate Precure duties back into the Yes5 (and Splash Star) girls' responsibilities without completely disrupting their own lives.

In Mirai Days, the Maho girls pretty much had to drop everything to chase down monsters so the outcome became predictable and therefore, was no longer exciting.

Yea, we did get bits of slice-of-life here and there but I stand by my argument because scraps aren't enough for me.

Then there's the new cast, who were quite underused.

Sometimes the antagonist is what makes a story. Since the girls were probably not going to contribute anything drastic to the plot on their own, you'd have to rely on an outside factor to come in and shake things up a little.

Ire could've been that, a complex villain (way more than Chronosto, that's for sure). He already had a somewhat sympathetic motive to drive him towards malevolent deeds and could've been been set up for redemption but it seems the writers lost interest in him and took the easy route with the more generic villain.

Next is Hisui. Even if she is meant to be Ha-chan's successor in the future, they could've done a bit more with her as well. Fleshed her out into someone more distinct of Ha-chan.

But nope, she was mostly there to be Ha-chan's temp placeholder and to prove that Ha-chan can reincarnate like Mother Rapapa did, that's all.

So I'm not sure why they wanted to promote her so bad at the beginning when her character is just standard at best and barely memorable at worst.

Finally, for all the razzle dazzle explosions in the finale, it was rather narmy.

Even more cringey than "Sapphire Smartish" which on the bright side, wasn't shown but on the down side, wasn't shown so we don't get an upgraded Sapphire attack, aww 🥺

But yea, I dunno. Maybe because I'm watching Precure on a regular basis that I no longer find the magical part of the magical girl genre special anymore.

So it's becoming harder for me to be impressed or pleased with most of what the studios put out these days. Especially if the producers choose guaranteed profit through fanservice and favoritism (yea-huh ⤴️) over potentially better storylines.

At least I'm handling the disappointment better than I would have two years ago but...it's still sad knowing I'm always going to expect disappointment going forward ☹️

Anyways, overall, Mirai Days wasn't terrible. It was just passable.

If you enjoyed it, great!

But if you didn't, that's fine. It's not the end of the world.

Can we expect more adult Precure seasons in the future after this, though?

Well, I certainly hope so. Mirai Days may have been a miss for me but that doesn't mean others won't be a hit so it all depends on how Toei approaches their next projects in this area of the franchise.

Precure is currently the biggest active magical girl series in the world. It would be a waste if they didn't take it as far as it can go.

[lover-of-mine]

I assume you either have a lot of free time or you sacrifice a lot of sleep hours, because making your metas, color theories, gifs and the supercuts must take a lot of time.

I love them, tho. Please never stop making them 🙌🏻❤️

I don't sleep lol, so you're right. The amount of times I actually got up in the middle of the night to go to my computer to figure out something because the thought set in as I was falling asleep and I needed to confirm or deny it is kinda embarrassing. I have written a lot of metas at 3 am.

Honestly, most of my metas are things that I was thinking while doing other stuff so it's just a matter of writing things down unless it's something I need a lot of pictures from multiple episodes, like the blue and green masterpost took me a WHILE and my screencap folder for it had about 300 different examples lol. The supercuts, I literally have no idea how long it took me to make tbh, I can tell you I was actively working on them on and off for about 8 or 9 months, considering I used my scene pack one as a base, so the time it took me to make those (which was me watching every episode and cutting the scene every time they were on screen, so I would say 60 to 70 minutes per episode), then the time to adjust them into something fun to watch and then learning to subtitle because making it more accessible was important to me, so that one was a REALLY long project. The gifs I just randomly get in a mood, make a bunch and then post them when I feel like it lol. Like, the countdown has been scheduled all scheduled since the beginning of January, so I'm not doing anything there anymore lol

Anonymously tell me your assumptions about me and I'll confirm or deny them.

[abnormalcleric]

Manic T. Hedgehog is Canonically GNC/Nonbinary

Please note that I'm not a Sonic expert and I didn't feel like scrubbing through the whole show for screencaps, so most of these are from the same four episodes.

1. From So This is Basically Sonic the Hedgehog: "The boys wear shoes and the girls wear entire outfits." This is true across pretty much all media. Some characters have goggles, a hat, and/or a bandana, but otherwise everyone follows this rule. Except the drummer. Manic wears half an outfit.

That's shoes and gloves (gender-conforming boys mostly have gloves, too) but also bracelets, earrings, a bag, and a vest. I'm not going to count jewelry, but no other masc-aligned character covers that much skin in thier regular outfit. The earrings seem to be unique among Sonic characters, though. It's worth noting, but not immediately relavent, that he has a double helix in his left ear.

While we're on the subject of clothing preferences, let's talk about Wedding Bell Blues. Now, it's possible he could be secure enough in his masculinity to be Little Bo Peep, but that doesn't explain the attitude or how quickly he suggested disguising himself as his own mother in the first place.

Look at the elation in those eyes. The disgust at being thrown to the ground. The poise and grace. The fact that apparently both ears are pierced, but he only wears the two earrings most of the time. And he didn't have to go all the way. The lipstick isn't necessary for the disguise. But it is a good segue to point two.

2. You know how Sonia wears mascara (or at least has eyelashes)? And Sonic just has eyelids?

Sonic's eyelids always stop before the edge of his eye. Even when they draw the line a little thicker, it never extends outside of the eye itself. Manic's frequently (not always) flicks out at the end when he blinks. You'd think it would happen equally to both of them if it was just a mistake. And while I have these pictures here, I need you to stop and look at how fucking cute Manic is. This hedgehog slays.

3. Sonia's voice is "girl", Sonic's voice is "boy", and Manic's voice is "sassy". I want to describe it as valley girl/surfer dude. They could have had a Brooklyn accent or used different slang and filler words, but they, like, always go for "like." That's way more valley girl than it ever was surfer dude. You'll notice that they use "dude" as a descriptor and an interjection, but they usually reserve "bro" for when they're actually referring to Sonic. It's not just the dialect, either, because that could be a learned behavior they picked up in the streets. Half of it is their tone. Even Sonic, who is famous for being snarky, doesn't swing his hips and strut the way Manic does.

4. Look at the way this hedgehog stands, especially as compared to Sonic in the same situations.

The confidence.

The attitude.

The lean back.

The dainty way they hold their hands. That's not a traditional drummer's grip. That's a sassy drummer's grip.

5. There are no gender lines in punk. Sonic is basic, Sonia is posh, and Manic dresses like someone who would flip Sleet off for calling them a slur. Not that Sleet would. Look at that cape.

6. Sonic's hair goes back. Sonia's hair goes forward. Trevor's hair goes back and down. Manic's hair goes up and forward.

It looks like Sonia's hair, but spiky.

7. In general, masculine and feminine characters in the Sonic franchise have roughly the same shoe size. In Underground, feminine, dainty characters like Sonia and Bartleby have smaller feet.

Manic's feet look smaller than Sonic's, but only by a hair. It's actually mostly an illusion. Their feet are the same proportion of their bodies and are drawn to be the same size when they're standing on the same plane. But something about them makes Manic's shoes look smaller in most shots.

Now, you might notice that some of these trends remind you of another Sonic character. Full outfit, smaller feet, overdramatic stance, highly expressive tone and word choice...