#its been weeks since i saw the original video or post so

[maebyshifting]

i can't remember where i saw it but some advice i saw was taking your stuffed animals (or a pet) and placing them in front of you and just talking about shifting. you can talk about possible fears (or find fears you maybe didn't know about or conflicting thoughts) you have without overthinking and allowing yourself to just talk through it without worrying about others judging or typing it all out. something i wanted to try out but i thought i'd share it too :)

[hockeyandhrsepwr]

Birthday boy

*little Trevor Zegras x best friend (👀) reader insta edit for his birthday**

yourusername

liked by jamie.drysdale, _quinnhughes & others

Yourusername happy birthday Fucker  

view all comments

📌 Yourusername I’m just joking, happy birthday to the best friend a girl could ask for!! 🫶

TrevorZegras wow, really feeling the love

jamie.drysdale you know what you did 

TrevorZegras no I dont?! 

jamie.drysdale right, it’s what you didn’t do

Yourusername ☝️

Jackhughes happy birthday Z

TrevorZegras at least someone appreciates me

Yourusername did he feed post for you?

TrevorZegras now that you say that…..

Yourusername Doesn't even use your full name

Youusername not even a story post either smh 

JackHughes I’m busy!!

Yourusername this is why I’m the supreme best friend not you

JackHughes Trevor!! Tell her she’s wrong

TrevorZegras I can’t

Jackhughes what does she have over you?

Jamie.drysdale too much lol

Anaheimducks our favourite swiftie finally hit his TS birthday 

Yourusername that he did

ColeCaufield Feeling 22

Yourusername wow Cole, so original

ColeCaufield we were all thinking it!!!

Yourusername but only you said it

TaylorSwift happy birthday Trevor!!

Jamie.drysdale what the hell?

TrevorZegras………

Yourusername did I not tell you we’re friends

TTerry19 He’s sat in his stall gaping like a fish. You’ve shut him up for once

Yourusername Thanks for the update Troy

_alexturcotte That won’t last long

TrevorZegras 5 years we’ve been friends 

MasonMctavish23 oh Jesus, here we go

jackHughes The betrayal speech?

Masonmctavish23 yes sir

Yourusername is he monologuing yet?

Masonmctavish23 unfortunately 

Shattdeuces hes recording it because he's too worked up to type it for you rn

yourusername 😂 I've heard it before

_quinnhughes Happy birthday annoying brother #6

Yourusername Quinn I love you for that

lhughes_06 Happy birthday Zeegs, can we circle back to this? Who the hell are #3-5

Yourusername I’m assume Turcs is in there somewhere 

_quinnhughes yep, Alex & Cole & Dylan

lhughes_06 what?

Dylanduke.25 I’m honoured 

User16 Trevors in best friend jail 🤣

User72 wonder what he did

User12 the comment section correction

User22 no one seems to have noticed it😂

Yourusername They saw it, they’re just choosing not to acknowledge it

TrevorZegras

liked by JackHughes, anaheimducks & others

TrevorZegras best birthday present I could’ve asked for #upgrades #shesmygfnow 

view all comments

Yoruusername that has to be the lamest hashtag ever. Are you 12?

Masonmctavish23 mentally yes

Yourusername true

Jamie.drysdale can’t believe it

_alexturcotte FINALLY!!

Jackhughes the gc is going wild rn

Jamie.drysdale so ours!!

Colecaufield he actually did it?

jamie.drysdale 30 minutes ago, I’ll send you the video

Jackhughes me too!

_quinnhughes just add him to the GC 

Yourusername that’s why youre the smart one Quinn

_quinnhughes thanks. Good luck with him 

Yoruusername oh hes a handful 😏

Jamie.drysdale yuck

mattboldy couldn’t have waited 2 fucking weeks Trev?

_alexturcotte oh shit, I won!!

Cam.York damnit!

ColeCaufield I was off by two days😭

TrevorZegras You were betting on us? 😦

Jackhughes duh

Anaheimducks obviously 

Colecaufield dude you’ve been in love with her since high school

Yourusername it gets reevaluated every 4 months for new dates

_johnbeecher we're on the 10th round I think

TrevorZegras yourusername YOURE IN ON IT?

Yourusername to quote one Jack Hughes “duh”

TrevorZegras dont bring him into this!! 

Yourusername You wouldn’t get your head out of your ass! I could’ve at least made some money from it

TrevorZegras you could’ve made a move!!

Yourusername nah why would I do that

jamie.drysdale you could just have this conversation. You’re sitting across from each other

Yourusername shut it Jim

TrevorZegras yeah, zip it

User24 the Ducks admin betting on Trevors love life wasn’t on my bingo card 

Anaheimducks Its the whole team!! 

TrevorZegras Jesus how many people are actually involved?

Yourusername Secretary Alex?

_alexturcotte at this date, 65

TrevorZegras WHAT!!

Yoruusername yep, you’ve just made Lex a very rich man

Tterry19 atta boy!!

Masonmctavish23 be honest, its just so you can meet TSwizzle

TrevorZegras shhhh 

Yourusername 🤨

TrevorZegras I’m joking, I love you very much 

Yourusername 😌

User727 always thought they’d be a good couple

User71 best friends to lovers? Elite trope

User02 FINALLY!!! I’ve been waiting for this!

User542 Bestie we all have!!

User98 65 people betting 😮

User62 I’m just wondering how much Turcotte will actually make

Yourusername it’s at least 4 figures! Everyone had different amounts

Xxx

[jmdbjk]

It's time for the Weekly Bangtan Report!

Happy Birthday Hobi! Neuron Crew has posted a happy birthday tribute on their social media channels. Here is the video on YouTube:

Neuron Crew are a group of Hobi's dance colleagues and friends from pre-debut. He's known them since middle school. This video was shot at Daedong Plaza in Gwuangju, Hobi's hometown city.

I was wondering last time if we'd see him in between training groups and here he is! The birthday boy himself was out and about. He saw his birthday banners and posters! I suspect this is possibly near his apartment building.

And COMING MARCH!!! HOPE ON THE STREET!!!

Personally, I hope its a series and not just one full length documentary type thing.

Ok, now news for the thirsty folks (thirsty folks=all of us) I was going to start this weekly recap with this, but...

I decided to spare everyone. I'm sure y'all are tired of seeing naked Jungkook (of course that was a joke).

EDIT: CK pulled a bonehead and did not add this particular hoodie to their website before dropping the pics. It supposedly is there now.

As I predicted months and months ago, these brand ambassador deals are the gifts that keep on giving (thank you jesus and tight pants).

Jungkook's deal with Calvin Klein ... he said he wears the "tight kind" ... dare I even go here? will we...? did he...? We Wait™️

There is a video of behind the scenes of his music show recordings he did from Seven's release to Golden's promotions is available on BangtanTV.

Yoongi's Valentino campaign is beginning to appear in Japan.

We still know nothing about what he's up to but we keep getting episodes of Suchwita. Perhaps we'll get one with his good friend, producer El Capitxn. We Wait™️

Taehyung has a photo spread in the current issue of WKorea. Flowers. Lots of flowers:

And he posted on Valentine's day but not really a love note (lol, he's a goofball) but the boy is gaining some weight. He's up to 160 lbs...

I present to you my interim report. Attained 72.5 kg I will come again. Salute Trans cr; Aditi @ bts-trans © TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS

Namjoon.... there is that sus image of him playing the saxophone in a red military band uniform (not gonna post the pic). Is it an edit? Ok, so let's think about this.

When have we ever heard Namjoon say he knows how to play the saxophone? That would be approximately zero times he's ever said that. You'd think we would have had some Taehyung/RM interactions or conversations over the years involving saxophones. Nothing.

Do you know how hard it is to learn to play a wind instrument?

And there is only that one single suspicious image. Usually there are multiple weird sneaky angles, blurry shots, etc. I'm just saying I remain skeptical until I hear more from a different source, or from Joon himself. I've seen several pics supposedly of Jimin and Jungkook, one of them sitting in a cafeteria that looked hella real and then the original pic is shown and it's just... wow... edits can be very deceiving.

Joon posted a Lunar New Year message to us on Weverse:

Hello ARMYs, I hope you're doing well. I've come to my assigned military base and am adapting and doing well. I've had some tteokguk* too. Since it's Seollal, I've also been resting a bit, and I'm living well. I will need to spend one more Seollal here before I can see you but, I'm spending my time well. I really believe that this time will lead to different kinds of learning and experiences. Whenever, wherever you are, please stay healthy, and I hope that your life has a lot more good than bad. Hoping that the connection we share continues, I wish you a happy new year ! (*Rice cake soup traditionally eaten during Seollal, or Lunar New Year.) Trans cr; Aditi @ bts-trans © TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS

And his @ rpwprpwprpwp Instagram account posted some pics this past week. Since comments are open on that account, Armys are trying to outdo each other with the corniest pickup lines:

IS THERE AN AIRPORT NEARBY, OR WAS THAT JUST MY HEART TAKING OFF? If you were a triangle you'd be acute one 💋 If I'm the pencil, you're the highlighter. Because I'm gonna draw our future and you're gonna make it brighter.

Jimin also posted a short but super sweet Lunar New Year message on Weverse and mentioned Jungkook:

It's Lunar New Year ARMYs! I hope you have a happy Lunar New Year and I hope this year for you is a healthy year filled with happiness Jungkook and I are doing well so please don't worry about us too much. I'll check in with you again! Hope you have lots of good food and eat a lot today   Trans cr; Annie @ bts-trans © TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS

I was so happy to see a message from him and so glad he said they are both doing well. But I'm still going to worry...

Nothing new from Jin, we've already had his February message. 116 days left. But here he is and I am looking forward to having his grown ass, mature, military experienced man back with us in a few months:

Other Bangtan related news this week: Enhypen released a cover of I Need U. Some people are speaking negatively about it. What the ever loving fuck is wrong with you people?

That song was important for BTS, it was their first TV music show win and it was IMPORTANT and a big WIN for them that broke the door open. They were about to give up!

Be flattered that BTS is of a calibre that other well-known artists want to cover their songs! That being said, if you don't like the way they covered the song, fine, just move on, there's no need to be mean-spirited about it.

Last weekend, a Japanese TV show seemed to tease/spoil a hint that possibly high profile celebs stayed at a resort in a town outside Sapporo recently... the hint was "Dynamite." This was the resort:

Uh... nice... delulu brain activated...

[pochqmqri]

When I saw this video drop in my recommended, I knew it was going to disappoint me as someone who has done personal nuzlocke runs before, used to be an active member of the forums, and even still is friends with people from there. And I was right. Look under the read more for my gripes.

To start off, he makes a rather big mistake by stating that the original Ruby Hard Mode run ended in a win, when it definitely did not, and was the basis for the Ruby character going to Kanto to start the FireRed Hard Mode run. That one isn’t one I think is too bad compared to the others, but it’s still something you could easily research on your own. 

He’s also a little wrong about ShiroInu being the earliest person to post a nuzlocke comic on the forums, but I can also forgive him for that. In general, he spends only a small portion of the video on the Nuzlocke Forums before branching out to videos, and I feel that was a misstep. For one, he completely glossed over screenshot runs, which were just as important as comics and written logs in the formation of Nuzlocking’s early years. A lot of people at the time couldn’t afford recording set ups for let’s plays, and screenshotting on VBA was as easy as pie, making Nuzlockes accessible to most people especially those that didn’t want to draw.

I also think it’s a bit peculiar that Kynim wasn’t mentioned at all, when he discussed Nuzlocke comics. Myths of Unova is probably the most popular Nuzlocke comic outside of the original, especially so for one with actual effort put into the art and narrative. We can go on all day and week about other popular comics too like Petty Nuzlocke Challenge, It’s A Hard Life, FireRed Kick-Ass Mode, Double Nuzlocke Series, etc. That not much time is dedicated to the narrative aspect of Nuzlocking in favor of the more technical and challenge-oriented ones is such a shame especially since a lot of history was made on the now-defunct Smackjeeves website. Like, in the video, fucking Emerald Kaizo got its own section while the forums, comics, etc. don’t even get that much respect. Towards the end of that video it was basically summarizing specific Nuzlocke runs from popular YouTubers/streamers, rather than an overall look. 

Moving onto recorded Nuzlockes, it’s really baffling that Marriland wasn’t given an explicit shout out. While he wasn’t one of the first to do a recorded Nuzlocke on YouTube (October 27, 2012), he was one of the first people to upload Let’s Play content on YouTube period, and he was also one of the important figures in Nuzlocking since he invented the Wedlocke challenge. Granted, the Wedlocke was mentioned briefly in a list of variants and his videos were shown in a screenshot of Google, but that’s not enough respect I feel.

Also, I think it’s funny that PokemonChallenges is attributed as the founder of the Hardcore Nuzlocke, that is, a Nuzlocke with the added rules of “no item use in battle” and “no overlevelling against important trainers’ strongest Pokemon.” The video claims Jan invented that in 2016 for his streams, when in fact, people have been using those extra rules well before he did. I also want to note that I don’t really blame Wolfey for this misinformation, since he said in the video that the research was primarily done by pChal and some guy named Drew, which, yeah, makes sense with how biased it is. 

No disrespect to Jaiden, even if I don’t find her content entertaining, but I feel she got a lot of undeserved credit in this video too. Like, obviously the thumbnail having her in the “Then” portion is just clickbait, but to go on in the video and say that “the way that [original Nuzlocke comic creator] and Jaiden share their nuzlockes might be what caused Nuzlocking to take off” is plain wrong in the case of the latter. Like, yes, Jaiden’s 87mil+ video definitely brought it out of the general Pokemon fandom, so that people like Alpharad and Ludwig started doing them, but Nuzlocking took off well before she made the video. In fact, Griffin McElroy made a rather popular Nuzlocke video back in 2016 on Polygon’s YouTube channel.

The video also misattributes certain tricks and strategies to that Drew guy’s Renegade Platinum run, saying that it would “define the meta.” Stuff like the repel trick to manipulate encounters, which is not true at all, since the repel trick has been documented on Bulbapedia since 2010, well before that ROM hack.

Overall, I don’t want to gatekeep the Nuzlocke from anyone, but it’s just sad how it has primarily evolved to just adding on challenge after challenge and treating your Pokemon as pawns (i.e. sending them out to die), as well as optimizing the gameplay to reduce the amount of failure such as by hacking in rare candies to save time grinding (when that basically cheeses the periods between important fights and removes the possibility of something bad happening during grinding), and manipulating encounters (esp. in newer games without grass) to your biggest benefit. If you want to play it that way, that’s fine. The storytelling part of Nuzlocking was such a huge boon in how the challenge got popularized, also the concepts of using Pokemon and strategies you’d have never thought to have try before, so it’s disappointing that it gets overlooked especially in a retrospective like this.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 05/04/2024

Hey there everyone it's Chaotic Beans! Hell yeah! We're a little angle girl and THERES A BEAN! Oh well hello there Mr bean! Thank you for welcoming me! So we're in the planet of the beans and we gots to find all the beans and explore the beans to find the planet!!!!!

Season 7 Featured on: RIPBLOX

Ripped by The Green Spy, Grambam36

Requested by airy! (Request Form)

Remember just two weeks ago back in March where I was making several posts in a row about rips containing jokes I had little to no knowledge of? Y'know, Poké Village, Viva La LOWAS, Luna, mi Amor - all rips that struck a beautiful emotional chord with me, even though I lacked the full knowledge of what it was in tribute to. In a way, Hey there everyone it's Chaotic Beans! Hell yeah! We're a little angle girl and THERES A BEAN! Oh well hello there Mr bean! Thank you for welcoming me! So we're in the planet of the beans and we gots to find all the beans and explore the beans to find the planet!!!!! is also part of that lineup - only here, its a cacophany of sources I had no clue about making me laugh way harder than they should.

Now, this is the first rip I've covered so far from Season 7's ROBLOX day, an event celebrating the game's 17th anniversary with rips of all sorts made in honor of the game. And as someone who both didn't grow up with it, and has no idea what the platform is like nowadays (other than the concerning monetization), I spent pretty much the entire event as clueless as can be. But even before I had this rip requested to me, it showed up from time to time in my recommendations - something about the ridiculous game title and cover artwork grabbed my attention, so I decided to take a peek.

To put it simply, Hey there everyone it's Chaotic Beans! Hell yeah! We're a little angle girl and THERES A BEAN! Oh well hello there Mr bean! Thank you for welcoming me! So we're in the planet of the beans and we gots to find all the beans and explore the beans to find the planet!!!!! feels like some sort of sensory overload. The original chaotic beans theme by SkyTheFloof is already a high-energy silliness overload song, bringing back memories of rips like :D or Wario's Hampster Mine - its energy is positively infectious, and it's a great touch that the visuals of Hey there everyone it's Chaotic Beans! Hell yeah! We're a little angle girl and THERES A BEAN! Oh well hello there Mr bean! Thank you for welcoming me! So we're in the planet of the beans and we gots to find all the beans and explore the beans to find the planet!!!!! are intentionally made to resemble its YouTube upload. What could then amplify that silliness more than - as The Green Spy and Grambam36 both are best at doing - a good ol' YTPMV?

On the complete opposite side of online silliness, 14 years ago, we saw the upload of the video "cat planet", by the fascinating internet personality raocow. I truly do wish I knew more about this specimen - he's been making "Let's Play" content on YouTube since near its very beginnings in 2009, and has since uploaded new videos almost daily with an unmistakeable goofiness to his commentary, a rhythm and bounce, the kind of voice that just sounds as if he's smiling the whole way through. His playthrough of cat planet sits as his most viewed video for good reason, its such an interesting time capsule of what online content once was, silly, unfiltered, improvised, made entirely for fun - an energy that, I suppose, ROBLOX creators just like SkyTheFloof are continuing to champion today? Either way, the legends behind SUNGORE and Mad Mew Mew Becoming Uncanny, some of SiIvaGunner's greatest YTPMV rips in its entire run, join forces to unite these two pillars of pure, distilled :3-energy. Its the chaotic beans theme with raocow's cat planet commentary melodically added to the song's backing and melody, a duet of two sillies - a shot of pure sugar that I cannot get enough of.

Through just this one rip, I learned a lot about ROBLOX, a lot about raocow, a little bit about internet history in general - and I learned how to have an absolutely :3 time. Hey there everyone it's Chaotic Beans! Hell yeah! We're a little angle girl and THERES A BEAN! Oh well hello there Mr bean! Thank you for welcoming me! So we're in the planet of the beans and we gots to find all the beans and explore the beans to find the planet!!!!! is just such a lovely time, such a cracked idea for a rip yet one I'm glad its two rippers pursued to the end, to give us such true sillycore music for ROBLOX's anniversary. I can never get it out of my head for too long, the two sources are just so infectious and endearing in isolation alone, but hearing raocow's rambles about the lovely cat planet to the tune of chaotic beans just amplifies it to a whole new level, the perfect merger of old and new.

So- congratulations, ROBLOX Day - You got one out of me. Maybe one day I'll take another plunge to see what else you have in store...

[tokyogruel]

Hi, I wanted to ask a quick Milgram question! I saw your theory about Shidou lying about his family, and thought it was really cool :D I'm just having a hard time thinking the project would have characters lie in those interrogation-style questions -- from a writing standpoint, the videos should be looser because they're meant to be debated/studied, but you'd lose your audience credibility if everything was up for debate. It's a really interesting idea, so I was just wondering your thoughts on how/when the characters can lie 👀

hi there, thank you so much for this ask! ive been sitting on this theory for a few weeks, and these interrogation questions have only given me more fuel to my theory fire, so to speak lol.

if im being honest, i think the interrogation questions (as well as the voice dramas) are the only place prisoners CAN outright lie, as it has been stated that prisoners cant straight up lie in their music videos- since theyre extracted straight from their subconcious.

This, however, does not mean the characters are unable to obscure the truth… if they’re sneaky (or focusing on he wrong aspect of their crime, like mahiru)

and of course, what good is a character breakdown from me, if i neglect to talk about both sides of the coin?

so i present to you, yes you dear anon, my analysis of mahiru shiina and shidou kirisaki:

LOVE, LYING, AND INTENT TO KILL: 005 and 006

part one...

a quick disclaimer before we begin: i believe shidou has good intent behind his lies, but he is intentionally obscuring his crime, or misleading us on what his crime was in order to win an innocent verdict also, i apologize if this is way too long, rambly, and if i go on too many tangents. this theory has been eating me alive for weeks

this theory is also heavily supported by this post by @milgrammatical explaining how they believe the MILGRAM extraction process works

if you have the chance, please click the link and reblog the original post! however for this breakdown ill provide a screenshot:

now, to begin this post, i would like to start off by providing more evidence that this is, indeed, how the extraction process works.

to do so, i will use mahiru's first and second MV and VD, as well as shidous second MV and VD

PART ONE: interrogation to extraction

mv. 1 this is how to be in love with you

just before mahiru's first extraction, she makes it a clear point that love is dear to her, in fact it's Everything to her. her video is then titled "This is How to be in Love with You."

mahiru also gets sidetracked at one point during her voice drama, misinterpreting the articles Es has read to relate to articles that she has read: relationship and fashion advice from magazines

because she becomes focused on this idea, and reminisces on the articles she has read in an attempt to be a good girlfriend, Mahirus thoughts shift towards being part of those magazines, inserting herself into the pages that she has learned from in the past. we can assume these advice columns, as well as the accompanying pictures, are being pulled from her long-term memory

please also note how clear these are: her outfits in the first photo appear during the later "days" of her video, theyre consistent. the photos have realistic backgrounds, they are clear, distinct, REAL places that she has been. nothing in her video is obscured, except for her boyfriend. and even then, its because she does not see him as an important aspect of her trial at this point in time. there's one thing that is important to her this time around: love, showing Es who she is as a person, and the events leading up to- and into her relationship

ill be moving on to her second mv, but i cant resist including this fun little tidbit, even if it's just pure coincidence, it tickled me:

mv. 2, daisuke

this one is slightly less straightforward than the previous connection, though i believe it still holds up

to start, the second trial interrogation is where mahiru first starts to acknowledge that she was not the only person in the relationship. she mentions her partner, how they both felt about each other- and she makes it very clear what their relationship was: boyfriend and girlfriend

this is then followed by her mv, where we finally see the man behind the tan jacket in TIHTBILWY, her boyfriend. he is fully fleshed out, his eyes are visible, his style matches that which weve only seen glimpses of in her first MV. he looks unique (in a very.. bland way, but nonetheless recognizable)

his appearance pre-daisuke was also hinted at with this interrogation:

while it may seem unrelated at first glance, you can see there is somewhat of a resemblance between mappi's boyfriend and mikoto- short, brown hair, soft eyes, layered jacket, "the kind of guy they seem to make in a factory" as jackalope would put it. its thin, but its something. at the very least, i cant see any other reason why mahiru would throw mikoto under the bus like this, without knowing him at all.

i dont mean to go on a tangent already, but i would like to note that, despite the comparisons made between mikoto and mappi's boyfriend, they truly do not resemble one another much, and are distinctly different from one another. (this will be important later)

back to the voice drama,

in Love is [Un]dead, Es points out that Mahiru was likely blinded by love, and that the first MV to come from her may have been tainted by it, as they say here:

mahiru also makes a point that she may have been too lovestruck to acknowledge her wrongdoing- even subconsciously.

this winds updirecting the daisuke music video itself, and we IMMEDIATELY see a difference. the opening shot is not of mahiru, like her first MV- instead, front and center, is a very clear shot of her boyfriend hanging by his neck. she is no longer clouded by her ideals of love, and is spitting out the truth, showing us all the ugly sides of her relationship

and yet, we can still see mahiru's original perception of the relationship. there is likely truth behind it as well, a bad relationship can still have it's highs

but there is a key part of this MV that ive also seen people touch on briefly:

the distortion.

mahiru's views of her relationship are warped, it's been that way since trial one. but this is... different. she's suffered head trauma, the "carousel" of her relationship literally becomes warped- though in a way we've never seen before. the song becomes scrambled (though still catchy), and the imagery begins to twist, the video has static cuts, and the bright and shining carousel slowly melts into reality.

in my interpretation, this is because of the damage she has taken from kotoko- a physical impairment, rather than purely mental

but at the end of it all, mahiru has granted us what she has denied (even to herself) in the past: the truth. her relationship was dirty, broken, poisonous

.. to be continued

[leclercsbf]

i just saw your post about how things seem to be a bit tense between the both of them and i agree, i thought i was the only one who sensed it

for some reason it feels like we’re also getting less content of the both of them together this weekend, for some reason and with the little content they’ve posted, the both of them do look a bit tense around each other. they look like they’re being more careful around each other if that makes sense and not as ease as they always seem to be, maybe i’m overthinking this but their smiles don’t seem to be as bright? as usual too.

i don’t want to judge the whole thing of the tidbits we’re getting too so im hoping that its just me overthinking this and we can judge the whole thing better as we get more content.

and that video of carlos saying he likes his teammate, you’re absolutely right it does look like charles gets less tense once carlos says that, it kinda looks like he’s just exhaling out all the tension and he does look relieved, he seems to smile a bit more after that too cause he seemed quite down prior to that. im thinking it just made him feel better and it was probably reassuring too to hear it out of carlos’ mouth, given everything that happened.

truth be told, this was all kinda expected considering it’s been less than a week since the drama and they probably haven’t had the time to kinda straighten things out after that until now but again you’re right, we’ve been through much worse and i think they might just need some time to settle things and talk things out cause at the end of the day they do get along really well, regardless of what people seem to think.

am i kinda upset that this all had to take place in singapore? yes. but again, im sure they’ll go back to being giggly messes around each other in no time (well at least i hope they do)

im sorry for the rant!! i just also wanted to say how much i absolutely ADORE AND LOVE your fics and your content <3

first off, please don’t say sorry! i absolutely love asks and i’m always happy to read through them, especially when they’re bursting at the seams like this one. that said, i will be putting my reply under the cut just to avoid adding another wall of text, but again—the wall is very much appreciated! don’t ever doubt that.

it’s honestly very interesting to me how more of us seemed to have picked up on the tension than i originally thought, because at first it was just me and goggles who were going back and forth about this whole thing. i feel like we were all kind of just second-guessing it, or maybe we were afraid that talking about it would make it seem more real and therefore more of a cause for concern, and overall it just feels a little strange to speculate based off of the little bits and pieces that we have to work with. however, i do feel like the stuff that the ferrari social media team has been posting is very telling. we all know that they release content whenever rumors about tension in the team start cropping up, but putting a photo of the two of them for the quali result post? come on now. they didn’t even do that for monza, and that’s monza. something’s definitely going on here. i feel like that’s the most compelling example i can provide, but generally it just seems like this week they’ve been throwing out content of the two of them that clearly doesn’t have their usual vibe.

i do agree that they probably haven’t had any time to sort things out, especially with charles delaying his flight to singapore. i’m just as upset as you are that this had to happen here out of all places because it’s singapore, goddamn it, i was so excited at the beginning of the week—but i’m not too worried, and i honestly feel a lot more optimistic after quali. carlos seemed pretty intent on sticking to charles, and after seeing this on top of the olive branch that is “i would have picked charles, esteban. i like my teammate”, i’m inclined to think that carlos is trying to mend things one step at a time. charles’ post-quali review is also very compelling, because look at the way he just smiles the moment he talks about carlos—as if it’s muscle memory, as if he simply can’t help it. they’ll be just fine, anon. we just have to wait it out.

this got long as well, but hey, thank you so much! i’m really glad you like my work and my content, even if the latter is literally just me brainrotting all over everyone’s dashboards. i’m currently working on a new charlos fic, so i’ll try my best not to disappoint. ♥️

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Boy Bands In 5 Minutes (post 2/2)

Part 2! Let's get right into this! (For part 1 go here)

...There's a lot going on with the outfits here, but I'm assuming it's decade/era-appropriate? (I learned from one reaction video that apparently the poncho/jumper/hoodie thing that Geoff is wearing is something that people used to wear to the beach a lot or something?)

Geoff used to wear a bowtie a lot when he had shorter hair (apparently, though I don't watch a lot of VP's older stuff), but this is basically the only time that we see Geoff wearing a bowtie since growing his hair out (well, wearing a tied-up bowtie anyway)

I did a study/analysis thing on the varying positionings/line-up orders of the group during this video (haven't bothered to psot it though), and fun fact: Geoff spends the majority of this video on the left side of the screen!

This guy is Rek Dunn, who was a production assistant and friend of the group for many years, before he sadly passed away in 2021 (the Halo theme cover that Voiceplay did that year is in honour of him)

The only outfit change done phyiscally on camera and not via quick cuts. Pay attention to Layne!

The absolute drama. Iconic, we stan 👌😂

Backstreet Boys time! The outfits are similiar to what they started the video wearing, but with a few changes. E.g. they're wearing white pants rather than black, Eli's wearing a white fedora, and Geoff is wearing a singlet/tank top (one of the first times (if not the first time) that Geoff has been the only one with bare shoulders in a Voiceplay video, and certainly not the last (hey, if you've got it, flaunt it!))

Back to NSYNC, this time for the song "pop". And yes, if you haven't figured it out already, this section is filled with scenes relating to "pop" and all its meanings/connotations. So in this shot the guys are playing with balloons (which can pop), then they're tossing around bubble wrap (which people often enjoy popping), then they're eating bubblegum (which you can blow bubbles with, which can then pop), then dancing in bubbles/using bubble guns (see previous), and then doing a toast/cheers with cans of soda/soft drink, which Americans sometimes refer to as "pop".

This section alone must have taken a bit of time to set up and film each scene for, but I bet they had a really fun time with it (must be a ton of bloopers/outtakes)

According to commenters, Voiceplay are in fact doing the same choreography for One Direction's Best Song Ever as was used in the original music clip.

(Also I saw part of a 1D music video on a public TV screen a couple weeks ago and I was like "okay but why is Harry Styles' appearance here giving me Geoff vibes? 😅" (I think it was partially the hair, and partially the fact that Geoff lives rent-free in my head))

Geoff flossing XD (he also did it at the end of his Monster Mash video, or one of his selves did it at least)

Earl, Eli, and J are absolutely killing it with the fashion here! (I wanna know how many of the clothes used were already owned, and how many were acquired just for the video?)

Eli back at it again with the sunglasses-as-fashion-accessory (without wearing them), and also I just realized his pants are the same that he was wearing in the Pop section of the video just a bit earlier. Also J's shirt reminds me of the blazer/jacket he wore in the Queen Medley.

Also it's about time I acknowledge those light bars/poles that have been in the background the whole time and changing colours for the different scenes. Eli's the lighting whiz of the group, so they were likely his idea/doing (and he is credited with lighting in the description), and they're definitely a brilliant addition to the video!

I don't know how much rehearsal time went into this whole thing, but Voiceplay did an overall fantastic job at the choreography.

(Maybe I would have been fine doing this video as just one post, but better safe than sorry imo) So yeah, amazing video, amazing arrangement, amazing performance. What more can I say? They might not be boys (anymore), but Voiceplay is definitely my favourite band! 😁

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #626

Top Ten Arctic Monkey Songs

This is a list I’ve been planning for ages and ages. Originally it was going to go up around the time I saw the band live last year; I can’t remember now why I postponed it. But – long way round – here we are at last.

Anyway, I like this band. I vividly remember the first time I heard them. As I’ve said a million times on this blog, I’m not much of a muso; I don’t follow “the scene”, I don’t pay much attention at all to music unless I like it. So I come to stuff very late, I don’t know what’s from what album, I’ve got very little knowledge of a lot of music history, that sort of thing. So when I first heard I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor played one day on Radio 1 as I was walking around Birmingham, on some errand for the BBC’s daytime show Mind Your Own Business, I assumed it was an older track; maybe something from The Clash that I was supposed to already have heard a million times in my youth. But no. It was new.

It was stunning. I’d never heard anything like that – not a new song, not recently. It was vibrant and full of life, and it was fun, and it was funny, and it was fast and loud. There wasn’t really a lot of stuff like it back then; we were still in the post-Britpop doldrums, the Pop Idol-era of ballads and fluff, where guitar bands seemed to be unpopular. At least, that’s what it seemed like to me; as I said, I just sort of bump up against music accidentally until it gets its hooks into me.

Ever since then I’ve loved them. If maybe in recent years they’ve settled into a sort of rhythm of often-weird concept albums and more melancholy work, they still kick out a fair few bangers every album. They are, I think, the only band I’ve ever seen live more than once – like I said, I don’t really “do” music, I “do” in-depth analyses of what the “S” on Superman’s suit looks like (not that those things are mutually exclusive, of course). But it’s been fascinating watching them grow and evolve, not just musically but culturally, as they become megastars. They’re part of the firmament now; veteran British rockers. My kids will probably look at them the way I look at the Rolling Stones, or something. Crazy.

Anyway, here are my favourites of their songs. I make no apologies for most of these coming from their earlier albums; like I said, I think as they’ve gone a bit slower and more melancholically-introspective, even if I’ve appreciated their stuff, it hasn’t quite got its hooks into me the way their early work did. Also, y’know, I’m not 24 anymore, absorbing this stuff with a fresh sense of a world undiscovered.

So there you go.

I’m going to eschew my usual individual dissection this week; I like writing about the things in my list, but here I feel it hard to parse the differences between the songs for some reason. So instead I say, let’s just enjoy them all; a little smorgasbord of northern musical delights. Suck it and see, and all that.

I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (2005)

Cornerstone (2009)

When the Sun Goes Down (2006)

Fluorescent Adolescent (2007)

A Certain Romance (2006)

505 (2007)

Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair (2011)

Suck It and See (2011)

Brick by Brick (2011)

Mardy Bum (2006)

Fluorescent Adolescent is the best video though, we can all agree on that, right?

[allthingsfern]

Celebrating 7 weeks since I broke my right arm

Hello all. Its been seven weeks (well, it was seven weeks ago yesterday, Friday evening) since I broke my right arm. I'm healing well and grateful that I didn't need a cast or surgery and I am also grateful that I am somewhat ambidextrous.

Anyway, today I finally was able to set up my camera on a tripod and also set up my video studio light on its stand. I am going to continue doing my bi-weekly YouTube videos. Funny thing, BTW, is that I posted my first one a week before I broke my arm and have not done one in all this time. But that's OK, since the time away because of my broken arm provided me an interesting topic to discuss for this one that I'm going to be posting, hopefully by tomorrow, Sunday.

When I finished setting up my camera and light, I noticed the way the afternoon sunlight was hitting my little dining room table and the corner where it is located. For years I have been fascinated by images of white-on-white, and at that moment, when I saw the little brown paper bag on top of the white table with the surrounding white walls and the interesting shadows, my one thought was, “Take the picture.” Actually, I thought “Take the pictures now, before the light changes.” So, my next six posts, over the next six days will be the pictures I captured and created some in color, some in black-and-white.

As always, I am grateful for all y'all and your posts of your own work, of your thoughts and frustrations with photography and sometimes with life. Seeing your stuff on my feed has helped me stay balanced and keep my mind at ease, even with the whole bunch of stuff that's going on in the world, because I know all y'all have good hearts and generous souls.

OK, no more touchy-feely from me. But really, thank you for being part of the Tumblr original photography community.

[ameliedoree]

Amelie! It's been a while since I shot you a message, welcome to tumblr!

I recently got into Civvie 11's videos and had no idea you were helping out with them for a while, how'd you get started working with Civvie? Saw the Hellraiser one last week and really liked the original music you did for that. Take care!

HELLO FRIEND ITS GOOD TO SEE YOU THANK YOU

so one day i got kind of bored and wanted to learn how to use a synth i bought, so i did a cover of How'd I Do from ROTT on it (his credits theme), and he asked soon after I posted if he could use it as his credits theme and from there i got later asked to do music for the hellraiser vid

[nagichi-boop]

Introduction to Psychonauts 🧠

Howdy friend! Are you interested in Psychonauts but don’t know where to start? Well, this post (made by someone who’s been in the fandom for a whole week) might help you! I’ll provide links to playthrough and videos that may help you, as well as a tiny bit of background for each game. Cool? Cool.

Psychonauts

Released in 2005, Psychonauts was the first game in the series. The plot is set at a training camp that is made to train children who have psychic abilities. Razputin Aquato, the main character for the game, is a 10 year old boy who breaks into the camp after running away from his psychic-fearing family.

Content warning(s): Since the game is quite old, there are some elements that are quite outdated, most noticeably the humour. Some of the fellow campers refer to Raz as “Spaz”, which isn’t great for reasons I hopefully don’t have to explain. There are also quite a few meanspirited jokes about weight. There’s a level that has themes of paranoia (mostly with regards to conspiracy of being monitored/watched). There’s also quite a bit of disturbing imagery, especially towards the end of the game, including asylum horror, grotesque monsters and disturbing meat imagery. Also brains, you’ll see a lot of brains.

Now for some links;

• Playthrough that I watched

Note: This playthrough includes commentary and has portions where the person playing explains some of the game’s history. He also cuts any of the filler content (for example, running around the camp for collectibles), but he also tries to go back for some character interactions between missions.

• Playthrough without commentary

Note: I chose this one because it’s the shorter of the two I saw and has labelled chapters for the plot points, but I believe they miss out some minor plot points, such as a hidden part of Milla’s kind which explains a bit about how behaviour in the VR game. If you want to watch the other one that I saw (which I believe is a 100% run) - click here

• My written summary of the main points (coming soon!)

Psychonauts In The Rhombus of Ruin

This is a VR game was released in 2017 as a way to tie the events of the first and second Psychonauts games together. It takes place immediately after the events of the original Psychonauts game and has you in a first person perspective of Raz.

Content warning(s): As this game is in VR, it might not be something a lot of people can safely watch. There’s no intense sequences in the game, but of course not everyone is able to handle VR due to their health.

Now for some links;

• Playthrough that I watched

Note: This playthrough includes commentary. He tries not to move his head too quickly to try and make sure those viewing don’t get ill.

• Playthrough with no commentary

• My written summary of the main points (coming soon!)

Psychonauts 2

This game is the third game in the series, released in 2021 after Double Fine (the developer) was acquired by Microsoft. The game is set immediately after the events of the VR game and explores some of the mysteries presented at the end of the first and second games.

Content warning(s): The game itself provides its own content warnings which I’ve shown above, but I also have a few of my own. The game includes a level that may be too visually intense for those with photosensitivity or sensory issues as there’s a lot of vibrant colours and flashing sequences. There’s a very real depiction of emotional abuse from one character (her name is Sam) which might be distressing to some players. Some players may also find some of the dialogue from Raz’s family upsetting as some of Raz’s family speak unkindly to/of him, guilt him and treat him like an outcast.

Now for some links;

• Official recap video of the first two games

Note: This is a summary given from Raz’s perspective of the events of the first two games. It’s just under 4 minutes long and is really cute, so even if you’ve played/seen the first two games, I recommend watching it anyways.

• Playthrough with commentary

Note: I haven’t watched this playthrough, but given the quality of his playthroughs for the first two games (which I have watched), I can only assume this playthrough is also good.

• Playthrough by a therapist with commentary

Note: This is the gameplay I watched first and is what got me interested in Psychonauts. The person playing is a licensed therapist and he paused the game to discuss psychological concept. Obviously this may be a bit annoying if you’re just there for the story, but personally I think it’s really interesting because it provides some important mental health lessons, like recognising emotional abuse, family dynamics, how to help people with their problems, etc.

• Playthrough without commentary

Note: Once again, I didn’t go for the longest one, but the person who did a 100% playthrough of the original also did one for Psychonauts 2. It’s about 20 hours long instead of the 12~ hours that most other playthroughs are. Click here for it

— x —

Anyways, I think that’s about it. Hopefully this has been helpful! If there’s anything you think I’ve missed, lemme know and I might add it.

Good luck, agents!

[bybdolan]

Celebrity culture is so weird I saw a Tiktok a couple weeks ago about the adad Levine thing making a list of the next husbands that were gonna have a cheating scandal and they're reason were ridiculous like Joe Jonas just because Sophie and him can be that happy or Ryan Gosling because he wants everyone to think he's super nice and eats to keep his family private and other stupid claims like that about people with no valid arguments and all the comments were agreeing and saying they are dying to see it and it's just so sad the way they treat famous people just because they are rich or whatever, someone was claiming that Taylor saying she sometimes doesn't feel like a real person was just whining because she has the money to pay for the best psychologist, like what?

Long-ish answer under the cut because I'm also going to talk about the ask @youareworldsaway sent me.

re your post: its not even just like relationships you see it with people being papped or at award shows or interviews or red carpets. One second captured on camera and the whole world decides what your feeling. Like at Venice with Harry and Olivia sure they didnt interact as much but there are moments but since they didnt go viral everyone was just like “oh they broke up.” Like Joe apparently always looks miserable with Taylor when that could just be his resting face (i can relate my resting face i apparently look sad!) i find it odd we base an entire thought process on someone for .1 second we see them. And like yeah taylor was smiling during 1989 but she was also going through a hard time. How people show themselves as well isnt an accurate description of what they are going through. Human beings are complex! we have good and bad days. Idk i have so many thoughts on this and how swifties in general will make taylors feelings a monolith “shes depressed” or “shes the happiest shes ever been” (ask by @youareworldsaway)

You guys both expanded on the points I was making in the original post very eloquently and probably better than I could so thank you!!! I know that my empathy for celebrities is not something everybody feels and understandably so, but it just seems so HARD to be that surveilled all the time and have people pry apart your every move. The way people will dissect some celebrity videos is honestly disgusting to me because nothing seems more terrifying than a stranger using a moment of vulnerability as ammo to spread rumors about you. It's obviously not a direct treat to your life, but it is tough and scary and just seems super stressful. And it bleeds into the way regular people think about their relationships, too. A recent example is the whole Try Guys shabang where suddenly people were led to believe that it was a red flag when guys talked about their wives a lot, when there is a huge difference between your buddy Craig doing this and Ned Fulmer, who has made loving his wife part of his brand and thus his job and livelihood, saying it. Plus: We only get the tiiiniest look into these people's lives! We don't know them! They are frequently pretending!

[thetaekookcloset]

What's this clip of him getting ready for Paris? Is it somehow significant, I don't remember anything about it.

About a week or so ago, there was a gif spreading on Twitter that showed Tae getting his hair done before his flight to Paris for the Celine show.  He was in the outfit he wore to the airport, in the same spot in front of the mirror where he had appeared in the initial Tae/Jennie photo posted by GH.

From what I saw, the gif wasn’t super widely shared because it was obviously taken from a video filmed in the room, allegedly without Taehyung’s consent and seemingly without his knowledge, at least possibly (because the angle was weird -- it looked like the video had been taken low, as though someone was trying to hide that they were filming).  People didn’t want to invade his privacy by sharing it, which is the same reason I’m not going to go looking for it or post it.

The significance of this is that it shows where the original “leaked” photo could have come from.  The gif is clearly from a video where Tae is speaking, but since it was shared in gif form instead of video form, there’s no audio.  Jennie does not appear in it.  It’s pretty close up on Taehyung.  As far as I know, no one knows where the clip came from.

To me, it seems likely that it was taken by a stylist or some other staff person in the room, very possibly not someone who works regularly with BTS.  Maybe it was shared around with just a handful of friends and made its way to GH that way, maybe it was sold, I don’t know, but it seems to be the origin of the first Tae/Jennie photo, whether that photo was real or edited.

[valerie]

TWITL - week 43 - the cooler turn

The weather has finally turned to slightly cooler. I don't think we can really say "cold" when our highs are in the low 70s. It's definitely sweater weather in the mornings. Glorious! https://flic.kr/p/2pbERGk RUGBY WORLD CUP - The South Africa Springboks won the Rugby World Cup over the New Zealand All Blacks. It was a hard fought match and both teams played with much grit and determination. The All Blacks had chances to take the lead and maybe even win but it was not in the cards for them. Maybe I don't understand all the rules of rugby (I definitely don't) but I won't ever understand how one yellow card was turned red (All Blacks) and another yellow card stayed yellow (Springboks). Regardless of the officials, the All Blacks had their chances and the Springboks prevailed. As an All Blacks fan, it's a definitely a bittersweet feeling. I'm glad they made it to the final and I'm disappointed that they didn't get the win, especially since a lot of the players I've watched over the years have likely donned the All Blacks jersey for the last time. Alas. https://flic.kr/p/2pcmff7 Matthew Perry died yesterday. I was watching a long review of the Pixel 8 Pro when I happened upon a post on Threads that said he had died. I had to pause the video as I tried to process the information. How could he be dead? He's too young! (Just a couple of years older than me.) I checked online sources and saw that it was being reported at various news sites. It was true and oh, the sorrow that overwhelmed me for a moment. When Friends originally aired, my cousin and I would get together to watch those Thursday night shows. We were in the same age range as the characters on that show and I remember the laughs and the sitcom moments that were funny and charming and poignant in turns. I didn't watch the series in its entirety but I'd come in now and again through the years. One of my favorite moments of the show was when Chandler was stuck in the bank lobby with Jill Goodacre (who was already married to Harry Connick Jr at that point). And even though it's been years since I've watched it, I know that I was mildly surprised by how much I liked Fools Rush In. It is utterly sad that Matthew Perry is gone. His light is still there for us to witness in his work. And from the different tributes I'm reading online, it's obvious that he left his mark on the people who worked with him, were friends with him, and loved him. For me, his gift was laughter. His legacy is in his work and in the people left behind with fond memories. May peace find you in next, Matthew Perry. Thank you for your light. You will be missed... https://flic.kr/p/2pboFyW Resigned indifference. This week I found out something that miffed me. I was surprised, in an unpleasant way, and it took awhile for me to dismiss it to indifference. Part of me was a little sad but it was a moment where I had to realize that nothing lasts. In this case, it was a friendship of over two decades. I have so much more I could say but I'll leave that all to my private journal. Even though I shouldn't care about offending anyone in my own space, it's just not worth the bandwidth... https://flic.kr/p/2pc8job TV Milli Vanilli - We watched this documentary this week and it was very well done. I thought it was quite balanced and so very interesting. I loved hearing from the singers of the songs, as well as the faces of the group. I knew it would be sad because of Rob Pilantus' death but it was hopeful too, seeing where Fab Morvan is in his life. The whole story is infuriating too, especially in regards to the producer who concocted the whole thing. How does he not get more of the backlash? Why was his part shrugged off and dismissed? I was glad to watch this and it gave me a better idea of Pilantus and Morvan and their part of the deception. I definitely recommend this, especially if you're like me and lived through that time in music. Haunted Mansion - I was actually surprised by how much I liked this movie. I will credit LaKeith Stanfield because he knew how to pull those heartstrings. There were some very cool jump scares and even though it's been AGES since I've been on the ride, I saw elements here and there during the movie. I thought it was very well done and I bet it looked so good on the big screen. Loki - This show is really so good. I will always love cause and effect/time loops/general mind bending stuff and this show is giving us all of that. The end of the most recent episode was a crazy shock. What will happen next? Does anything happen next?! What will happen at the end of the season. Will there be another season? Found - Here's a show with what I consider a limited premise, as far as the show arc is concerned. The mystery of the week works really well, no doubt, but how long can it go on? Does the show operate on a limited timeline? Doe all these cases happen one of top of another so that time passes slower? I am very intrigued on how it's going to blow up in the main character's face because it will and then what? The Irrational - Maybe I just miss "case of the week" shows because I'm enjoying this one. There's enough room for the characters to grow and it feels like the kind of show that can go on for years. Besides the mystery of the episode, the characters are interesting enough to watch as well. https://flic.kr/p/2pbp5ba This time next week, I'll be writing my next novel for National Novel Writing Month. I still don't know exactly what my main female character does for a living. Yikes! I'll figure it out by Wednesday. Maybe. Hopefully? The working title of the novel is WHISPERS IN THE NIGHT. This could change if I hear a line from a song that makes sense for the story. Something else happens on Wednesday but I'll wait to talk about it in next week's blog post entry. Wait, do I usually write a blog post during National Novel Writing Month? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Well, I might have to write something next week depending on what happens on Wednesday. ;) https://flic.kr/p/2pc7jzh Social handles: - Threads – @kiari - Spoutible – @valerie - Bluesky – @kiari Just because... Read the full article

[uncontrollablesphere]

Living Dex Quest 2018—202?

I suddenly became possessed with the urge to record my progress like a week ago and wrote this in one day. Anyway, here's the goals, methods, hurdles, and current state of my living dex.

Goal

Obtain every single Pokémon of every stage and major form and put them in a single game (ultra sun or moon). Originally this goal was meant to update for each successive generation, but of course SwSh threw a wrench in that when it became the new standard to exclude certain Pokémon from being able to be transferred to certain games. I don’t want to pay for Pokémon home indefinitely, especially when I know it will eventually have its support cut just like bank, so I’ll just have gen 1-7 in a gen 7 game and gen 8 regional dex can stay in SwSh. Not sure I’ll do gen 9, I don’t even own SV and have no plans to.

Never really cared about the pokedex until I saw someone post a video of their living dex on here years ago, and a 5+ year quest was started. I really, really wanted to do it by playing a game from each gen and transferring Pokémon upwards in order to also have a complete regional dex in each game, thereby getting shiny charms where possible, but this is tedious and only practical if you have every game already. I used to.

Dealing with theft

In 2020, my progress was hindered when FRLG, DPPt, HGSS, XY, SUMO, USUM, two Nintendo ds, and more were stolen from me by my former roommate when I moved (everything listed above having a nearly or complete regional living dex on it as well as several long gone event exclusive mythical Pokémon). Five generations, hundreds of dollars, and those priceless mythical Pokémon, unobtainable in any game, lost instantly. To say this was demoralizing would be an understatement. I was slow to unpack my things after the move, so I was still finding out about new things that were stolen months after the fact. I was constantly reminded of a new “loss” every couple of weeks, as I was trying to get over it. I did not play Pokémon again for months, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to try again.

I got a second wind when I realized I had another option apart from buying back FRLG and HGSS and replaying all four: get the majority of gen I and II pokemon from Pokémon colosseum and XD, which luckily were among the games that were spared. This didn’t solve the mythical Pokémon problem, but it was a lot cheaper and more appetizing than playing the same games again (I only had to buy a gamecube/gba cable). Of course it did mean a lot of time spent transferring Pokémon to RSE and breeding since you can’t really catch multiples of most Pokémon in colosseum/XD, but it was different enough from what I’d been doing before to be fresh and exciting, plus I’d never actually beaten those games before! I got to do something I thought I’d never care to do, get the Mount Battle Ho oh (can’t be nicknamed unfortunately), and catch Shadow Lugia as possibly the most badass instances of each of those Pokémon (imo).

Of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Pokémon colosseum extra disc containing jirachi, as a rare opportunity to get jirachi outside of an event. That disc is expensive nowadays and I don’t own it, and iirc jirachi was already available by that time in Pokémon go, so I figured it was overkill to get the disc. More on that later.

There are of course several Pokémon found in FRLG that I could not obtain between Colosseum, XD, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, but only one is exclusive to a single game…

So I did actually have to buy back Leaf Green, but I didn’t want to do a full play through twice to get both omanyte and kabuto, so I looked up how to speedrun it and did that for the first time ever. I won’t bore you with the details but it was casual as far as speedruns go, but I still completed the main story in only 16 hours, a record for me. In order to trade with RSE the game couldn’t stop at the credits so I had to do some of the sevii islands stuff, and that wasn’t too bad.

With gen I-III taken care of, it was time to start buying back games. I started with XY because I hadn’t replayed them the first time I completed their dex and hadn’t actually completed them since they came out, so it seemed like the most fun at the time. I wasn’t too enthused though because I didn’t find the games memorable, but to my surprise and delight they were actually really fun the second time around, perhaps in part due to my relatively new habit of planning teams ahead of time and sticking to pokemon I’ve never used before. I actually battled in set mode for once, and didn’t struggle too much. I’d still count them as the weakest in the core series outside SV perhaps which I haven’t played, but they’re fun enough that I actually have another play through planned just for fun soon. When it came time to play the opposite game for version exclusives, I lucked out: the copy of X I bought was already mostly complete, only one badge missing and with a (fairly balanced) team. One of them was even the fossil mon I hadn’t picked in Y, so I didn’t need to restart the game until it was time to get the third starter. I completed the game and got attached to the three Pokémon on that person’s team I hadn’t used before, a Slowbro named Meiklejohn, a Farfetch’d named Wilson, and an Aurorus named Hull, so they’ll be coming with me on my living dex quest, even though I already had a farfetch’d and slowbro.

But the real highlight of XY is of course…

The Vivillon Quest

As a kid I was never able to use GTS or anything because ds games required a WEP key to connect to wifi and my home wifi didn’t have that. I tried so many times to get it to work without understanding why it didn’t that I just assumed the 3ds wouldn’t connect either and so I never used online services with Pokémon except at friends’ houses. Anyway, at the time I was working on gen VI dex I was living in a rural area with no wifi or data, and the closest place to me with free wifi was a hotel a five minute drive away. So I drove to the parking lot of said hotel, tried connecting to their wifi, and lo and behold, not only did it work, but to that day (and this day as well) people are still on the gen VI GTS trading vivillons!

There are 20 patterns and each (aside from two event exclusives) are only obtainable in certain regions. It is possible to choose which region your 3ds is set to to a certain extent (limited by what overall region your 3ds is, IE JP, PAL, US, etc) but after that it’s one pattern per game. Manipulating this would be tedious and feel like cheating to me, plus I wouldn’t be able to get all the patterns this way anyway, so I caught ~30 scatterbug and evolved them into the not-at-all-uncommon High Plains pattern, then over the course of a week or two I drove to the hotel every night to scour the GTS for the patterns I needed.

Unfortunately most people putting their vivillons in GTS would specify which pattern they wanted in return and as I said, my native pattern is not uncommon. There’d be nothing stopping me from ignoring people’s requests and trading anyway, but I tried to respect their requests as id like others to respect mine (for the record, many, many people traded me their elegant patterns against my will, but whatever). In a few cases I did have to ignore those requests though as certain patterns were extremely rare and I was desperate lol.

A few I got off of the GTS, by trading with online passerby and frantically hovering over my vivillon box to try to communicate what I wanted, which was actually successful a few times. The last two (four) vivillon I got, sandstorm and I believe archipelago (as well as the two event patterns) i got due to tremendously lucky timing: I was playing close to international butterfly day (or something) and someone on reddit did/does a yearly vivillon giveaway on that day, taking requests for what patterns you need. Iirc they did do the 3ds region selection thing to get certain patterns which is not ideal but I feel like as long as they’re technically legitimate and I still had to trade for them, I’m satisfied with that. I did also accept a pokeball and fancy vivillon from them with the knowledge that they were cloned from legitimate event vivillon. Of course I’d rather have non-clones versions of those and I’m still not sure whether I’ll even transfer them upward, but it’s nice to have them anyway. I have no doubt that Pokémon go will eventually feature those two patterns and I won’t be able to transfer those back to USUM, so perhaps the clones can be my stand-ins.

The vivillon side quest may sound tedious but it was actually really fun and exciting, I loved interacting with what few (surprisingly many) people still cared about vivillon in 2021 when I did this, and it increased my appreciation tenfold for a Pokémon I never really cared for before. While it won’t be part of my living dex itself as it’s probably a clone, I even got a shiny savannah vivillon from one generous stranger! I’m thinking of using this in my next play through of X if I decide I want compound eyes for its ability.

Unfortunately for aspiring living dex collectors everywhere (or maybe just me), Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon each have an additional pokemon that is not available in the (story-wise) objectively superior games, Sun and Moon. Blacephalon and Stakataka. This is sad for me not just because I’d rather replay SUMO, but because I’d rather OWN SUMO. There’s no getting around it though (except maybe GTS, which ironically I didn’t think of) so I sucked it up and bought both of the “ultra” versions. I did have to play through to the post game of each to obtain the new ultra beasts, and I believe I spread these out between play throughs of other games to preserve my sanity.

A special little quirk of gen VII is that there is a lycanroc form that evolves from an event exclusive rockruff, BUT the evolution into this form is determined by rockruff’s ability. The nice thing about this is that people are wonderful and have bred many many more rockruffs with this ability and distribute them freely on GTS. This is actually an event pokemon I had myself back in the day, so it was a huge relief that people were so generous with their special rockruffs. In return, I bred a few extras of my own and sent them back out into the GTS wilds.

Another fun (real) little quirk of gen VII is the QR scanner. To this day, you can still obtain the mythical Pokémon Magearna by scanning the correct QR code, specific to your 3DS region! As well as, um, a partner cap pikachu, if you want it. Since my living dex is staying in USUM and I’m collecting all major form differences, I guess…I should include that…

Next up was gen IV, and I was a little bitter about having to play USUM instead of SUMO, so against my better judgment I bought platinum instead of Diamond or Pearl, even though BOTH Diamond and Pearl are necessary up to this point to get certain version exclusives. Joke’s on me; I had to replay all three anyway, at least up to the point that glameow and stunky became available. For this reason there was about a two year gap between my platinum and pearl playthroughs. I also played Diamond somewhere in the middle there; a friend of mine (hi Ryan) very generously gave me his copy of Diamond so I didn’t have to buy back that one.

At this point I had redone pretty much all of gen I, II, and IV, and luckily my gen III and V games were not stolen from me, so all that was left to have another complete natdex (aside from mythicals) was to play the poke transfer lab minigame to send ~490 Pokémon to Black 2. *strained smile* Fun!

Mythicals

Most mythical Pokémon can only be obtained through rare distribution events. Not being able to access Nintendo WFC as a kid, I missed most of these. However, for the 20th anniversary of the series, there was a lovely year-long string of distributions for every single mythical that existed at the time, straight into my copies of X and Y that would get stolen four years later *grumble grumble*

Luckily there are a few exceptions; mythicals that can be obtained in a core series game or a side game, at the time of their introduction or years later. Mew (my Pokémon ranch, pokeball plus), Celebi (crystal virtual console), jirachi (colosseum bonus disc), deoxys (ORAS), manaphy (pokemon ranger, BDSP, LA), darkrai (LA), Shaymin (LA), Arceus (LA), keldeo (SwSh), magearna (SUMO), etc. With the exception of magearna, all pokemon introduced after gen III are only currently available in games in gen VIII and above, meaning I won’t be able to have an actually for reals complete living dex in USUM with EVERY mythical without cheating or trading with someone very, very generous. To compensate, I’m allowing myself to just get whatever I can in USUM and other mythicals can be in SwSh with my gen VIII regional dex. Most mythicals are obtainable in Pokémon Go which I still actively play (pretty much exclusively for mythicals), and I do have every mythical that’s been released in Pogo in that game.

I’d like to have as many as possible in USUM though, so I did look into the above methods as well as some less salubrious methods. For mew, I mentioned above that you can get it in my Pokémon ranch (if you deposit 999 Pokémon in the game), but the Wii eshop has shut down, making it impossible to download ranch without homebrewing my Wii. Another option for mew that I thought was viable up until about a week ago is using the mew glitch in Pokémon blue virtual console and transferring it up through Pokémon bank. Seeing as it requires no external hardware and it is a very easy to perform glitch that I have done before, I would consider this mew legit. However, pokemon bank doesn’t, as it apparently checks both the OT and trainer id of any mew you attempt to transfer and will block it if it’s not correct. Soft-resetting for the correct trainer id is lower chances than soft resetting for a shiny and I don’t have the time for that. I don’t think I’d want to do it even if I did. There’s also glitches that can be used to change your trainer ID or the ID of a specific Pokémon, but that kind of manipulation does seem illegitimate to me and I’d rather not. So I’ll just live with my Pokémon Go mew.

Pokémon Ranger games can also send a manaphy egg — one per Pokémon ranger game, NOT one per save file — to a gen IV game. I already did that with my own copy (stolen) and the alternative is buying an unopened copy online. Again, I’m not trying to spend more money on this project than I need to, so I’ll just count the BDSP manaphy.

I also recently found out that some people have made an alternative to Nintendo WFC for Pokémon DS games, including online trading as well as running old event distributions. With a 3DS it is possible to connect DS games to wifi without a WEP key, so I checked that out and was able to get Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Victini, and Darkrai. These Pokémon are pretty much indistinguishable from their original legitimate counterparts except for the fact that I know otherwise, so again I’m not sure if I’ll transfer these upwards. I do have all of those Pokémon in Pogo and SwSh through legitimate means, so they could be stand-ins, like with my clone vivillons. I’ll have to think about it.

The only mythicals I don’t have in any game are volcanion and marshadow, which I’m just now realizing as I fact check this post apparently had three SwSh distributions each that flew over my head. More than likely they’ll eventually be available in Pogo, so I’m not stressing too much over that one.

Vivillon Quest…2!

As mentioned before, I have no doubts that pokeball and fancy vivillon will eventually appear in Pokémon go since all 18 other patterns are now available in it, but I suspect they’ll only be available after every other pattern has been obtained. I know some people have already done that, but perhaps there will be a special research story or somesuch with acquiring forms as a task. Maybe the fancy form will even be released as part of the staggered release of gen IX pokemon, since fancy vivillon are the native pattern of Paldea regardless of your game’s region (no I will not buy SV just for vivillon).

In Pokémon Go you acquire scatterbugs by acquiring multiples of postcards from each pattern’s region. Because pogo gameplay is centered around tedium and repetition (erm, I mean cooperation and engagement) they decided that scatterbug would take 25 candy to evolve into spewpa, which takes 100 candy to evolve into vivillon. Those numbers are analogous to the 125 candies it takes to fully evolve any starter Pokémon, which are actually generally good in battle. As a comparison, caterpie, another early game worm Pokémon, takes a total of 62 candies to fully evolve into butterfree. For the unaware, the only ways to get scatterbug candy are 1) Catching more scatterbug* (three candies per, 6 if using pinap berry), 2) traveling with scatterbug as your buddy (1 candy per kilometer); and converting rare candies to scatterbug candies. In order to fully evolve a vivillon of every form, you need a grand total of 2250 candies (2500 if the event patterns are given to us as scatterbugs).

*Scatterbug is not found in the wild. Currently the only method of encountering it is through postcards obtained in gifts from friends, which you can only receive one gift from each friend per day, and you have to receive a minimum of 3 postcards from a region before encountering that region’s scatterbug. After those first three, successive scatterbugs for the same region require 9 postcards, then 15. Vivillon is not particularly strong. There is no reason for this except to force engagement. It’s not fun. After almost a year, I have only 504 scatterbug candies. I’ve decided to take a break from actively working on this, though I do passively collect more scatterbug candy from my buddy.

Anyway, I just found out 3DS online is being cut off in April (excluding pokemon bank) so I lost all interest in all of that and spent this last weekend scouring reddit for friend safari codes in XY. TO BE CONTINUED