#if you're not having fun anymore

[strawberrycola]

hello. i made a very long, very indulgent addition to the sam and max subreddit post earlier, and decided to make it its own post because i had way too many thoughts for a reblog. and the idea of clogging notes was eating away at my brain like mice eat a cheese. this is mostly just train of thought, so i apologise if it's complete nonsense. i've just thought a lot about sam and max's relationship, and the connection lgbt (and neurodivergent, for that matter) fans have had to the series, from my perspective since i was like 8. obviously that's gonna be tinted thru a tumblr lens, because ftmp that's where i see The Good Stuff. and i'm gay as hell, so there's bias. ok read more time kiss kiss.

anyhoozles, coincidentally i've been back on my sam and max bullshit recently, as i finally got a chance to play "this time it's virtual". and discovered vr is not my thing.

so to start, listen...i don't think sam and max's relationship is quite as cut and dry as i believe myself and perhaps many others would imagine/hope. i'm eyeing the "susan" gag from the aformentioned ttiv, in particular. but as your resident specialist in "complex and obscure knowledge of three series total or so", the question of sam and max's relationship has been here since the very beginning of the official comics. like. this has been a thing. pretending it's new is foolhardy. and wrong. obviously there's "like butch and sundance", the wedding toppers, hell, the devs of the telltale game trilogy lampshade their relationship a very decent amount, both in the game itself and in the commentary. at the end of 209, "chariot of the dogs", they directly bring it up during the final cutscene tie straightening maneuver max does. one of the devs literally gets excited about it, iirc. and one of my personal favourite examples is "do you find my warmth...alarming, sam?" from 305, "the city that dares not sleep."

that, in particular, is one of several lines directly from MR. PURCELL HIMSELF, that he gave to the devs each game as lines that must be in the game.

and speaking of season 3, i'd like to mention 305, "they stole max's brain".

(i am now holding "noir sam" so close to my chest, jsyk. that trope means the world to me. it has influenced SO much of my work, and i still use napalm's playthrough on youtube as a sleep aid. REMASTER WHEN.)

of course i and many others latched onto that shit, are you kidding me???? that whole episode was RIPE for hurt/comfort. minor spoiler warning for those that would mind, it's a roaring rampage of revenge plot. at least for the first 30 minutes or so. it's part of a long history between the two of freaking the hell out the second they're separated from each other in a way that doesn't end in like, five minutes. (305. if you know, you know. fkin brutal, man.) sam, in the second act of the game, has been affected by an alternate reality plot, and fully believes he has carried max's brain in a jar his whole LIFE and seemingly has no plans to stop doing so!! it's part of a season where the WHOLE PLOT revolves around the nature of their relationship and how it could change. you don't have to be a shipper yourself to understand how that could be incredibly compelling to the people that fancy them as a couple.

and it's a fandom that i give a lot of credit to lgbt people for revitalising in the mid 2010s~ (i was already a fan by then, and i'm still really curious as to why it blew up so much, but hey, who's complaining?), as well as in 2021~ in response to skunkape's remaster of telltale's season one "save the world" installment, and the release of ttiv. (obviously the actual demographic spread across platform to platform is a varied thing, etc. etc. i'd like to stay firmly in my lane, and i don't wanna overstate any particular demos in my discussion here, or hyperbolise too much.)

Obviously, you don't have. to be a shipper. completely fine. pretty common. Who Give A Care. and we're not even gonna get into the "not suitable" content. i can't fault anyone for not being cool with the actual sexualisation of childhood stuff they like. that's something i'm pretty "ambivalent with a leaning towards discomfort" about for quite a few things myself. and it turns out there wasn't even any "unmentionable graphic imagery" to begin with. shocking. HOWEVER. i'm fascinated but not completely surprised by the blatant homophobia and disgust towards the fanart of the ship.

like, to be nuanced about things, and it's not like the admin is extending the same courtesy here, this is clearly an older fan. like i think from around the same timeframe i was first introduced to it, give or take. maybe they missed a lot of the tumblr mid-2010s activity, or maybe that's going in to their Burning Disgust towards Yaoi Sam and Max Kissing Not Clickbait. i know the fanart had some level of cross-posting, at least on youtube as dubs iirc. OR maybe i'm a fool who is actively tricking you with my words and none of the above is true at all. however...pal. again, in my opinion, we owe those lgbt and neurodivergent kids and adults our whole rights as a fan community. you don't have to like it, but you do have to be respectful, jerkbag.

i can't be the only one who was devastated by the drought of content post "the devil's playhouse". we had a [1] singular whole webcomic to tide us over, with the occasional sketch on purcell's social medias. of course, there was a small community of fans, and some incredible stuff they made, looking at you Sam Dies At The End. i weeped. but it was slow and steady. and then, out of seemingly nowhere, people en masse suddenly REALLY CARED ABOUT THE THING THAT BROUGHT ME SO MUCH JOY AS A LITTLE GUY. like, fuck man...i first found out what autism was when i was real young because max's character description on wikipedia contained speculation as to whether or not he has it. (jury's still out, ...but we all have our little comforts. okay? also speaking of, "is max gay?" is like. one of the longest ongoing bits. like cmon dude.) now granted, by 2021 i was a little old for the new wave of shipping that sprouted up. tiktok edits are Not Always My Thing. but that's okay!!!! it doesn't need to be my thing. i'm really glad they're having fun. :] and i don't want to come across as like. infantilising in my discussion of the younger fanbase, so i apologise if my tone has come across that way. it really is simply the comforting thought that kids like me can experience what i had.

i remember how much fun my friends and i used to have when we were 16! (hi xavier, if ur reading this. miss you, buddy. :]) we got silly with it! we got angsty about season 3!! we wrote fanfiction, hell, an amazing fic my friend wrote that i beta'd is still the most kudos'd shipping fic on ao3!! the fanartists i liked had such an INCREDIBLE grasp on how to write sam and max's banter. it was a good time! and knowing these characters are giving joy to a new generation makes me giddy, dude. hell yeah! get "feral" or whatever the hell it is these days. find comfort in characters that don't really care about anyone's opinion except each other's, who get to be as weird and annoying and gross as they want all the time. that tend to punch up. that show love differently than what's seen as conventional. that end up saving the day, not even because they have to, so much as they genuinely enjoy each adventure together. max was my personal opportunity to feel comfort in all my weird freaky mannerisms i kept safe behind the polished exterior i had to wear as a kid. i found solace in the thought that those two were practically made for each other, as i stumbled through my own gender and sexuality crises. i loved how dry and dark sam was allowed to be. the banjo bits, the phone jokes, the repartee. so much of this series has influenced me, and helped me become who i am, as a creator and as a functional guy who Does Things.

so that's a small bit of why i think sam and max had, and still has, a lot of appeal to people that grew up like me. there's a lot of rough stuff i went through that made the idea of a couple of anarchist detectives completely devoted to one another that go around the seedy underbelly of america saving the day ("almost on purpose!") really, really interesting. steve purcell is unapologetic about how gross america can be, especially in the comics. at the heart of it, sam and max do what they do both because they enjoy it, and they enjoy each other. and i think, to overlook that, is to miss some of the whole point of the franchise. oh, i'm sorry, giant cockroaches literally everywhere is fine, streets crusted in various goos, totally chill, but gay kissing is the thing that Absolutely Nauseates you? plugging your ears and screaming gross seems like...kind of a weak move here, ngl. a work that doesn't shy away from how confusing and wild life can be has a decent chance to be compelling to marginalised groups, who often have to put up with the more disgusting aspects of reality anyways. at least these two odd guys are having fun with it. sam and max understand each other, each of their strengths and flaws, and choose to be with each other every day because of and in spite of them. they choose to love where they are, because of and in spite of its many, many, many flaws. they choose to be who they are because they love what they do. there's something touching there, if you like to think about such things. there are some occasions i find myself wishing sam and max's relationship was more...concrete. i wish we had an answer to Does Sam And Max Is Gay? but at the same time, being vague and obtuse is like. their whole shtick. so maybe it's just right how it is. and uh. obviously this is a fictional series. in the end, it's all how we enjoy it that matters, and it's not the end of the world. and as a final cherry on top, nothing beats turning to my husband and asking, "is sam and max queerbait", before delighting in the 3 hr conversation that follows.

and to get to the point. as the old adage unfortunately goes, it's...okay. to not like...ships. and i can even somewhat understand being frustrated by a subreddit you created being "flooded" by a thing you're not into. only somewhat, because a: we've always been here, and b: because you can. just not look at it? idk if reddit has a filtering system, but. the scroll wheel is free. to throw a tantrum and ban topics because you're personally offended people think they're gay? you might be missing out on some of the most fun you can have outside the series, and you're spitting in the face of the people who held this fandom up on their shoulders like atlas.

and you're being a dick about it.

TO CONCLUDE:

wah wah they're gay gay homosexual gay and they don't pay taxes. deal or die, fake fan.

[bilbao-song]

The Police - De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da (x) ↳ requested by @doktordyper

[rotisseries]

tired of people who want pjo movie references in the disney+ show. "logan lerman should've been-" i don’t care. "poker face in the casino-" actually i hope ms. gaga keeps her entire discography miles away from it. i don't care move on

[officersnickers]

Ray with his favourite food asparagus. hope you're happy now 😮‍💨

[fruityfroggy]

Some over analysis of the poses in this TS promotional art, because I can (I think)

(Also, this turned out sooo damn long, so be warned)

Okay, so I had this thought about their hand positionings alluding to a general idea of their (initial) intentions.

There seems to be a pattern with the general placements of the Lis hands that splits pretty evenly. Said placements are: holding out their hand (Ais and Kuras), having their hand on the side of their face/head region (Vere and Leander), and hands that aren't really doing much (Mhin).

Holding out your hand tends to have a more welcoming and helpful association and feeling to it. So, Ais and Kuras holding out a hand could signify an actual sense of wanting to help MC find a cure. This makes a lot of sense for the two of them since they do seem like the least toxic ones from what we’ve been able to get from the demo (of course, Mhin doesn’t seem very toxic either, but their situation is a little different). Also, I did take into consideration that Kuras is kinda…suspicious in a way, but I think that that could be conveyed by his hand not being held out directly toward the viewer. This might mean that he isn’t necessarily as genuine about it as Ais in some way, but he is for the most part.

Putting your hand(s) on the side of your face/head when posing tends to bring more attention to your face. You’re bringing interest to that area by having your hand do something that could enhances how your face region looks. So Vere and Leander on the other hand (pun intended), having a hand placed in said area could represent how they’re planning on “helping you” in a way that prioritizes benefiting them. Vere wants to be free from his magic-bound leash, and he sees that MC is very determined to get involved with the Senobium. He thinks that if he plays his cards right, then MC’s empathy could bring them to help him break free. Promising guidance for MC’s mission is the first step to playing his cards right. Leander’s route though, is clearly going to end in betrayal that would cause some sort of benefit for him. It’s just not as clear when it comes to what it is exactly.

With Mhin’s pose, there’s a clear difference from the others. They’re not doing anything extra with their hands. They’re not posing in a way that purposefully tries to grab your attention, which could represent how they don’t have any particular intentions toward MC at this point in the game. Mhin doesn’t want help, and they don’t want anything from MC either. I don’t even think that they know about MC’s curse yet (unless I’m forgetting something), Mhin truly doesn’t have much of a reason to interact with them again unless MC approaches them first. Mhin could likely not be the one who starts an interaction between the two for a good while in their route. MC is the one that has to try and get Mhin's attention if they want to romance them, not the other way around like the other Lis. MC has to convince Mhin to come with them, as there's no willingness from them (yet).

Another thing I've noticed is that Mhin's pose is compact compared to the rest of the group (all shoulders back, one arm up in one way or another). Of course, it's a fairly casual compactness. They're not completely hugging their knees to their chest or anything. But looking at the image altogether, Mhin does seem to be an outlier of sorts. I mean, they're the only one sitting, they're the most compact, they're the only one who's not being attention seeking to any degree. All of this conveys their closed-off personality very well, yes (it's like they didn't wanna be there and just wanted to quickly get it over with), but maybe this says something about their route too. Like I mentioned before, MC will have to try extra hard for Mhin to gain a sense of fondness toward them. So, the lack of fondness and desire to be around MC at the start could also be a reason that they barely fit in with the pre-established posing conventions (is that a phrase?). No other Li has shown signs of this except for Mhin, possibly making a big difference in how you play their route (as opposed to the rest).

I feel like this is most likely the only actual intentional symbolism that I mentioned so far, but I do want to point out that the mini Eridia at the bottom is heavily scooched to the left so that it barely touches Mhin. I just like this little detail because it's quite a clever way to sneakily remind you that they're an outsider too (if that was intentional). But the fact that we needed to be reminded of that, especially in such a sneaky way. It's almost as if it's emphasizing the fact. I haven't thought of a possible reason for it, but I feel like there could be something in there.

Okay, this was all that I could find and think of. If anything else comes to me, I may do another part. But I think this is enough hidden stuff for an image of Lis to promote a visual novel.....right?

[5hehzada]

was talking w ree about lelouch's casual outfit and was like hold up but the cropped red jacket paired with a black tank is reminding me of something. and so,

[sciderman]

You have the astounding ability to make me consider liking things that I previously did not. Cable and Wade. Shiklah and Wade. Johnny and Peter. I’m a stubborn Spideypool obsessor, I’m sure I’ve mentioned, so pat yourself on the head for being SUCH a stan that you’ve broken through my OTP walls and gotten me to glance at other ways for Wade and Peter to he happy and loved.

i think if you truly love a character then you want them to get some no matter where it comes from

[recitedemise]

𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰, 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗸, 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗮𝗻𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗲. Still, chalk it up to his thirst for knowledge, not so much for any thirst for power. Gale, a scholar—inquisitive, curious, and infinitely probing—boasts an insatiable desire to learn all that he can. However, as a follower of Mystra, he's from her sole Weave that he's encouraged to pull from; yet, despite this urging, this unspoken rule, the chasms of the Shadow Weave yet bubble in his thoughts. It's powerful magic, of course, warped under Shar like bones or metal, but still, the arcane is mystery, and the arcane delights him, and even clouded by corruption, it still harbors its worth. Put simply, Gale believes that all magic is essentially fair game. After all, it exists on their plane, sits waiting there a touch like a well for your thirst, and so long as you're careful, what's the harm in sampling? In the Shadow Cursed lands, he'd felt the itch to indulge himself, to whet his need, and when he fashioned that lantern without his goddess' permission, there sprung a devilish delight that timidly gripped him. It was like, well, being a boy again, to be honest, with his hand in a jar of biscuits he'd been told to not touch. It was an act of rebellion, spurred a quiver by Mystra's spite, sure, but far more than that, it came from a weakness to feel its power, and to feel the heft of it and to taste its tang. If it's one thing about Gale, it's that he so thoroughly loves magic. And even if said magic is cursed and bedeviled, it'll always have a draw for him, tamable or otherwise. To be sure, there is some hubris at play here as well: he'll be careful, he tells himself. He can manage.

For better or for worse, Gale, though more morally aligned than not, can still find himself weak to temptation.

[swiftcast-selene]

Day 13: Color

"for someone who likes to blend in, you sure are wearing a lot of colours." "ah, but i didn't tell you what i'm blending in with!"

[non-un-topo]

Mark me down as unwilling to read fanfiction for media I recently got into because there's not one work out there that isn't about shipping/romance and I'm a hater

[finelinens]

my desire to create art has basically vanished over the last couple of months and i feel very sad about not creating anything :( but i don't know if i should force myself to keep working my drawing muscles so i'm just allowing this extended break to happen... i fear The Horrors have robbed me of my artistic desire for the time being

[babygirlyouretheheart]

Not me accidentally making the saddest fucking byler video out of such a happy beat 💀

[demonslayedher]

Like a lot of other readers, I was surprised that Sanemi and Giyuu had canon-official descendants, as it was hard to imagine them being motivated to start families when they thought they were going to die early anyway, and it didn't feel necessary (from my own cultural and generational perspective, anyway--Confucianism was undergoing a revival in their time period). With Sanemi especially, he had hedged all those bets on Genya instead of ever dreaming of his own domestic bliss, and he probably wouldn't have been motivated to pass on his father's name or anything.

But unless the timing is too cruel it's canon that Sanemi does get to build a family again.

SANEMI GETS TO CUDDLE A BABY AGAIN, AND I SORELY NEEDED THIS, IT'S GONNA MAKE HIM SO HAPPY

But like, he also gets the reality of it again, nothing he can't handle though, Sanemi's the world's greatest papa, he's gotta be.

EDIT: After my tag rant, and because it's clearly related, it felt appropriate to add some of the concluding lines of my post-canon fic about Sanemi and Giyuu's awkwardly budding friendship as they also deal with, like, you know... all the events of canon.

‘Fine. Run away to the hot springs if you like. See you when you get back, smooth as a baby’s bottom.’

‘They might have one by then. I wonder if he’ll let me hold it?’

‘Don’t drop it, man.’

‘I knew it. It’s difficult, isn’t it? Maybe I shouldn’t--’

‘It’s not hard! You really have no idea, do you? There’s nothing like holding a baby, rabbits are nothing. It’s not just the weight and warmth, it’s the smell, and the way they cuddle—’

‘I—I want to see their hands. Their hands look so tiny, but I hear they’ll grasp tight if you give them your finger.’

‘That’s the best feeling! And if they’re yours, it makes you want to protect them so bad. And then when they start smiling, man, Giyuu, that’s the best! You—’ he had stopped himself, blushing for how excited he was.

Giyuu was just as flushed, but not the least bit embarrassed. ‘I want to see what that’s like too. I want to hear them giggle.’

‘There… there’s nothing like it. Maybe you should try it some time.’

‘…Giggling?’

‘No! Idiot! Forget what I said. No promises, got it! You go do your thing, I’ll do mine. When the winds and waves crash together again, we’ll hang out. See you around, Giyuu.’

‘See you around, Sanemi.’

THE PILLAR TRAINING OATH, Chapter 7

[freakthemer]

Okay, in light of homestuck updating it really needs to be said:

You're allowed to be done with a fandom. You're allowed to say "this isn't making me happy anymore" and then move on. You dont have to beat your head against a dead interest until your brains spill out. That shit isnt healthy.

It also isnt the fault of other people if you've grown out of something. Don't try to make people miserable for still having fun. There's no reason to drag people down with you into a maladaptive misery hole.

Just read something else.

No really, it's that simple. Just pick something new that you believe you'll actually enjoy and go have fun.

[skunkes]

i wanna make zine

[bumblingbabooshka]

SNW Christine has the vibes of someone who pours a glass of wine, hands it to Uhura, then starts drinking from the bottle. SNW Christine says she’s going to have “one glass of Romulan ale” and then pulls out a comedically large glass as a goof. Christine wore white converse with her thrift store dress to space prom. I can see this all clearly. She is this to me: