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dazais-guardian-angel · 8 months

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Okay, a good amount of time has passed, and after having seen this post by @weretiger-be-my-horse , I've been turning it over and over in my brain going absolutely feral over this concept. I need to expand upon my thoughts on this idea and all the evidence there is pointing towards it, whether that be actual tangible things, or purely strong vibes I have.

First of all, full disclaimer: I did not like the season 5 finale, and how it wrapped up the DoA arc. To say that I "disliked" it is putting it extremely lightly, in fact -- I absolutely hated it, and I am still, to a degree, in disbelief that I actually even watched those 24 minutes with my own two eyes, and that it somehow wasn't a complete fever dream. While I'm not going to go in long-winded detail into all the ways that I feel like the finale almost completely bastardized all of its featured characters and destroyed any and all buildup we've had going on in this arc for 50 some chapters now, because that's not the main point of this post, I will not make any attempt to hide the fact that the theory-crafting I'm about to pose here is partly influenced and prompted by how much I hated the finale, and how much I desperately hope that it will not end up being manga canon. Therefore, if you enjoyed the finale — and that's fine! — and don't want to read any negativity about it, then I would not recommend reading any further (I mean, you've probably already left by this point, which is fair lol), While obviously it's important that I be as objective and unbiased as possible when explaining my thoughts, some of my negative feelings about the writing will be a part of this analysis, even if this isn't going to be a full-blown rant. Just know that if you proceed.

With that out of the way, let me continue.

So. In the aforementioned post, the theory presented is that the anime may be operating on an alternate timeline, and that this will become evident once we read the upcoming October chapter, wherein things will go completely differently post-chapter 110 than they do in the final episode — probably for the worse, with the s5 finale intending to lull us into a false sense of security and make us assume that everything in the manga arc finale will wrap up as smoothly and consequence-freely(? lol) as it did in the anime one. It also suggests that the Fukuchi we see at the very end that sskk are fighting came from the manga timeline, where he won, and that he used the Book to jump to a timeline where he lost, the anime one, proven by the fact that this Fukuchi is wearing a mask with the same design on it as the mask Fukuchi is wearing on the chapter 110 DoA color spread/title page.

First of all, I want to note the fact that it's not just the mask design that's the same: the entire outfit is roughly more or less the same as well. It's not completely 1-to-1, because the anime can never fully match the intricacies of Harukawa's beautiful outfit designs, and the Fukuchi in this scene has the kimono half-off because of the... super saiyan mode he's in, but most all of the main pieces of clothing are there. Any small inaccuracies could also be attributed to the fact that Harukawa probably didn't have this finalized art ready back when this episode was being made, so the animators wouldn't have had the complete design to work off of. But in general, because it's all so similar, I think we can quite confidently say that the ending episode Fukuchi is meant to be the one from this manga art.

Also, people have pointed this out, but it's worth mentioning that the mask Asagiri wore at Anime Expo in July was referencing this Fukuchi. It's not a crucial detail, but it just proves more that Asagiri is a gigantic fucking troll, and that he clearly wanted to draw attention to this Fukuchi design. It's important. He describes the mask here as made in the motif of an ellipses inside a speech bubble... could that perhaps be referencing meta aspects, like the Book?

Next, I want to talk about the even bigger elephant in the room, which to me is the most damning and undeniable piece of evidence there is of the anime operating on a completely separate timeline from the manga:

This Fucking Hand™️

As we all know, in the anime, Fyodor injures his hand when the password input device blows up, and as we all know, this does not happen in the manga. In the last episode, Dazai claims that the final nail in the coffin of his impromptu plan to kill Fyodor relied on this hand injury: because Fyodor couldn't pilot his escape helicopter himself, he would ask one of his Meursault vampires to do it for him, unaware that Bram and thus this vampire was now on the ADA's side, and said vampire could kill him while his guard was down.

Ignoring how utterly stupid and contrived this plan is when you stop and think about it for more than two seconds, the fact of the matter is that something that initially seemed like nothing more than an odd but inconsequential anime original addition ended up snowballing into being the entire reason one of the big bads was brought down. If Fyodor hadn't hurt his hand, he wouldn't have needed another pilot, and so the traitor vampire wouldn't have had an opportunity to get near him and kill him without him expecting it even though said vampire was presumably with him as they were leaving Meursault, and was probably already a traitor by then, so there was plenty opportunity for him to still die. not to mention by Chuuya's hands at literally any time he wanted to, because Chuuya was coherent the whole time. Also there's absolutely no way Dazai could have known exactly what Ranpo would do, no matter how smart he is and how much he trusts him. idk it's fucking dumb, just roll with it. Therefore, putting aside all other variables for now, we can conclude that, on the most basic level, this signifies that no hand wound = no death.

And let me tell you, this hand wound bothers me. It really, really does. Because they focus on it a LOT — they go out of their way to draw attention to it MULTIPLE TIMES, from the moment it first happens to the end of the season. Fyodor even talks about it to himself, about Dazai being able to cause him tangible, visible, bodily harm, (something that, again, as far as we've seen, has never happened in the manga). Hell, even after Fyodor's death, they're still drawing attention to it, because his right arm is all of him that survives, and Dazai picks it up and gives it to Nikolai to do his hilarious sad little gay fondling of it played completely straight even though there's nothing straight going on here at all! It's like it's a big red flashing sign at all times going "you see this injured hand? This is important. Are you picking up that it's important? Are you taking note of it?" Why is that? Obviously, it serves to give us the lore crumbs about Fyodor and "that man", but that's hardly the main, much more glaring reason, as I've already mentioned.

Fyodor doesn't hurt his hand in the manga. Fyodor won't die here in the manga. I am so dead serious by this point about this, and it's not just simply the fact that this was absolutely not at all the time for him to die, or the fact that his hand is the reason for his death in the anime in and of itself, but how much EMPHASIS they place on this, and on the hand in general. What would be the point of adding something like this, if it's not meant to alert us to the fact that it has a major impact on how the story plays out? We all know Bones: they struggle to get right and include everything that's already there in the source material; they would never go out of their way to add something this noteworthy if there wasn't a very good reason for it, if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I've seen a few people bring up the fact that Fyodor gets shot in the shoulder by Sigma and that that could lead to the same outcome in the manga, but I disagree: although he has blood on his shoulder in the manga, it seems like the bullet just grazed the top of it, because his arm and hand appears completely functional afterwards (not hanging limp by his side or anything). But that doesn't even matter, because this isn't even about the semantics/logistics of how the hand wound caused Fyodor's death because again, it's a stupid outcome, or what could serve as a substitute in the manga — thematically, this is a textbook example of the butterfly effect. Countless parallel universes exist within this series, ones where even the most minute differences lead to a majorly different outcome: this just happens to be one of them. There's no reason to think it isn't, and there's no reason to not think that the anime wants us to clue into the fact that things only went as smoothly as they did on the Meursault side because of this wound; in other words, that things will go very differently in the manga thanks to the absence of said wound. They wouldn't have added it in the first place and put such clearly deliberate emphasis on it otherwise.

Things are going to happen very differently in the manga, at least when it comes to the Meursault crew (but then, if you assume that, you then naturally assume it all will be very different). This is the only conclusion one can come to with the presentation of this anime-only wound, combined with the fact that parallel universes are a very real thing in BSD.

I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent, so bear with me. I play a lot of visual novels, and although such concepts aren't really as original now as they were a while ago, some of my favorite and some of the very best VNs out there are the ones that break the fourth wall and make the visual novel branching route format directly intertwined with the story: you know, the ones where the characters go "if only I had done things differently, maybe everything would have turned out better...!" in a wink wink nudge nudge moment, and the ones where the characters are aware of the different timelines, even, or even have the ability to gain information from their selves in said alternate timelines to influence events in their current one (I'm intentionally not naming the games I'm thinking of for the sake of spoilers, but if you know, you know lmao). It gets very meta in this regard, and this is how I started viewing BSD through the lens of ever since I first learned about Beast: like a visual novel with many branching routes, and only a few routes that feel entirely "right".

When I first read Dazai's Entrance Exam, I was struck by how unnerving the ending sequence in the abandoned hospital felt. Obviously, Kunikida's internal struggle over Sasaki's actions and motives is him still desperately clinging to his ideal world that does not exist, but the specific type of phrases he uses — "who is wrong?" "[who is] the cause of all this?" "there has to be an ideal world" "there has to be something, I'm sure of it" "There must have been something we could have done!" — and the framing of the scene in general, is eerily reminiscent of a bad ending in a visual novel, to me. There's a haunting, looming, bleak sense that a different outcome could have been achieved, if different decisions had been made, or if things outside of anyone's control had been different... and we know that this is true, because in Beast alone, Kunikida never goes through the Azure Messenger incident, because Dazai doesn't have his entrance exam. Hell, you could even consider the anime's version of the Azure Messenger arc an alternate timeline in of itself, if you really wanted to, long before we even arrive at season 5.

When it comes to Beast, this timeline has almost the opposite feeling of what I described above, that I've also encountered in visual novels: the idea of a "good route" or "good ending" that still doesn't feel quite earned, or as perfect as one would expect. Beast is presented as the "ideal" timeline purely for one sole reason: Oda is alive. It is the only timeline where he's alive, and keeping Oda alive is the ultimate goal Dazai wants to achieve, the only reason this timeline exists; therefore, disregarding all else, Beast should be the best timeline, because Oda's death is the greatest devastation in the series to date. We all want him to live, so why wouldn't the timeline where he does be the best one? And yet... of course, it isn't. Dazai is alone, and steeped in darkness and loneliness without Oda, and dies by the end of the story for Oda's continued living. Atsushi has Kyouka still, but he's suffering and more traumatized, and unable to heal while stuck in the mafia, and neither can Kyouka. Akutagawa is living a much better life in the ADA... but without his sister, and without what he has from his bond with Atsushi in canon, that isn't replicated in Beast. And Oda... Oda is alive, and he has his children and his novel, but there is a feeling that he is aimless, that something in his life is missing. He has everything he ever wanted, but all that means nothing without what he truly needs: Dazai, and his time with Dazai and Ango at the bar. In this way, things going well and us getting what we want — in this case, Oda living — goes against how it's supposed to be, the natural order, which is why it feels so hollow. In the specific visual novel I'm thinking of here as a comparison (again, shoutout if you know), there's an alternate ending that involves you inputting information you gain at the end of the game very early on in the game, wherein the protagonist now has memories of the future and is able to bypass and prevent all of the events that take place normally. This means that people who die or are hurt somehow in general are saved from that fate, and nothing bad ever occurs; everything wraps up neatly and nicely... but again, there's an undeniable, unsettling feeling of emptiness, of a victory that rings hollow, because what's the point if everything is simply handed to you easily, where's the sense of accomplishment, without any struggles to achieve said victories, or any growth along the way? How can it feel earned if one doesn't have to, in Dazai's words, "scream within the storm of uncertainty, and run with flowing blood"?

You can probably already see where I'm going with this.

This finale feels weird. Really, really weird. It feels too cheap, too simple, too unsatisfying. So much so, in fact, that for almost the entire runtime, as I was bombarded with resolution upon resolution one after another, I kept thinking "There's no way this can be real. Where's the catch? When is the "gotcha!" moment gonna happen? The "it was all a dream" reveal?". And this isn't just because I hated the writing, and that it really did feel like a fever dream watching fanfic levels of bad (actually, that's an insult to fanfic writers, tbh; they could do better) — no, it genuinely feels so incredibly fake. Even upon rewatching it and already knowing what happens, my brain still naturally keeps expecting some kinda of "sike, you THOUGHT!" moment to suddenly appear. It just.... feels "too good to be true". Dazai and Chuuya come out unscathed, and it's revealed that they were never in any real danger to begin with. Fyodor, one of our biggest threats, is dealt with supposedly for good (I say "supposedly" only because of the Jesus line, but if anything imo, I think that's just a hint that this won't be the canon ending in the manga, so in a sense he's going to "come back to life"), and Nikolai seems somewhat at peace with his death. The other biggest threat, Fukuchi, is also dealt with, and he and Fukuzawa get their final moment together of closure. Yes, Sigma is left in Meursault don't even get me started on how angry this alone makes me, and Fukuzawa loses Fukuchi, but overall, everything is portrayed in a positive light, and any negatives or losses are quickly glossed over. Everything is tied up nicely, neatly, and smoothly. ...And that is exactly what makes it feel so wrong, and hard to trust in.

I'm not sure if this will make sense, but to me, the finale is so incredibly poorly written that it almost feels.... intentional. It's so bad to the point of feeling self-aware in how bad it is, how unrealistically happy and convenient an ending it is. It had to end this neatly in order to rush to wrap up this arc for the season finale and not leave the last episode on a cliffhanger — which imo is chiefly the main reason it turned out this way, and, if this whole theory is true, Asagiri just used it to his advantage — and I'm not saying this was probably an effect Bones had in mind intentionally, I'm sure they just threw shit at the wall and went with whatever stuck, maaaaybe with some suggestions/approval from Asagiri, but the result is that you have a conclusion that contradicts so much of what was set up before and goes against so many character arcs, making some characters so out of character and even regressing in their development Dazai. I'm talking about Dazai abandoning Sigma, because he would never; hashtag #NOTMYDAZAI. Also Nikolai, Nikolai for most of that is so ooc I can't even begin to describe it oh my god. Everyone is OOC to a degree though lmao, and opens so many plot holes, to the point that it's impossible not to watch all that and get the feeling that it is subtly saying to you "did you really think it could be this easy? It feels wrong, doesn't it? It doesn't feel satisfying. It feels unearned." I find it incredibly interesting and suspicious in particular that they confirmed multiple theories people had about soukoku in Meursault: that Chuuya slowed the elevator's fall so that Dazai wouldn't die from it, that Chuuya slowed down the bullet so that it only penetrated Dazai's skin and not his skull, and that the both of them used Fyodor's camera angle to their advantage because they knew he wouldn't be able to see certain things from his view. I'm not saying that Asagiri trawled BSD twitter and tumblr after those chapters dropped for the most popular theories before the final episode was made lmao, there was no time for that (imagine though lol—), but I do think it's highly likely that he already had in mind exactly what theories would be made about these parts (I mean, the evidence for the gun scene was all there), and that Dazai rattling them off in his long monologue to Fyodor at the end is essentially him speaking to the audience and going "yeah, that's what you would predict, right? Those are the clichés, after all", much like him suggesting earlier that he can maybe bring Chuuya back to himself with a few moving words and the power of friendship, and Fyodor using the split personalities trope to fool Sigma. We expect these tropes to be true. Of course we'd fall for them, as Fyodor tells Sigma, especially if the evidence is right there. But Asagiri himself has explicitly said that he likes doing the opposite of what people expect. And so just because people predicted correctly with the three things I mentioned in this timeline... doesn't mean they'll be true in the manga's. Things happened how we wanted and expected it to, and everything turned out happily. So we can relax now, right? Everything will work out just as easily in the manga, right? Or... is the reason most of this finale feels so fake and unsettling and unsatisfying because it's meant to lull us into a false sense of security before all our heroes lose in the manga? Because deep down, we don't want an ending that's this simple, because we'd rather have a conclusion where our characters have struggled more and grown more and come out the better for it, and we know it?

After rewatching the episode a lot, and watching some other videos, and doing a lot of thinking, I am pretty confident in suspecting that the only part of this finale that is actually from manga canon, aside from Aya jumping off the building of course, is Fyodor and Nikolai's exchange after Fyodor leaves Meursault — specifically, them talking about Fyodor leaving Sigma behind, and their "new game" and Nikolai being excited at the prospect of it. This little conversation actually feels in character for them, and it's easy to tell this when contrasting it with everything that happens immediately after, wherein Fyodor is fatally stabbed, and Nikolai, completely at odds with what he was just talking about, just... stands there and watches Fyodor die while Dazai monologues lmao. I'm not sure if the helicopter is still a factor, but I would bet good money on Fyolai getting out of Meursault being manga canon, and that Dazai and Chuuya getting out as well and killing Fyodor + everything with FukuFuku, is part of the anime original ending, in order to wrap up everything positively. It makes much more sense if you think about, in reality (aka in the manga), Dazai and Chuuya still being left behind in Meursault (where they can eventually try to get Sigma), because none of it was an act and things did not go according to plan, and Fukuchi having an entirely different goal that doesn't feel so stupid and contradictory to his character, and Fukuzawa possibly dying — everyone seemingly loses, with Aya still being the last hope, perhaps by awakening her ability like we all speculated.

There's a youtuber I watch who covers BSD in-depth, despite being an anime-only (she reads the respective manga content after each season, though). Going into this finale, she knew about the fact that the anime had overtaken the manga, though she didn't know where the cutoff point was; despite that, however, she made predictions about what was from the manga so far and what was anime original, and it was almost entirely spot-on, based mostly on what she basically described as "anime original dialogue." She talked about how you can always tell when dialogue is veering into the realm of anime-original, because the sentences are very short, choppy, and slightly out of character, but generic enough to not be TOO out of character, and so that anyone can easily write said lines, even if they're not extremely familiar with the character like the original author would be. And when I heard this explanation, everything clicked — because so much of this finale has dialogue like that. The Fyolai scenes just feel peppered with it, around the lines I mentioned earlier, the Dazai dialogue does too, and ESPECIALLY shit at the end like Fukuchi and Fukuzawa exchanging the cliche death lines to end all death lines: "Are you there? I'm a little tired." "Rest up." That just isn't Bungou Stray Dogs. That isn't Asagiri. BSD is cheesy at times, yes, but it isn't like this; it's smarter. The dialogue is smarter, the explanations/plot twists are smarter, Asagiri is smarter, and the aforementioned youtuber I watched agreed. She's a pretty casual fan of the series, so if even she could pick up on these things, I think it speaks volumes.

I mentioned this briefly earlier, but this theory makes sense if you consider that this situation probably came about because of Bones wanting two seasons back-to-back when they did, and this arc being as long as it is. Season 3 aired in 2019, and I imagine Bones would have wanted season 4 in 2020, and might have then been willing to wait a bit longer for season 5 in order for more of this arc's manga chapters to come out — but then covid happened. Because of that, season 4 was delayed to 2023, creating the longest gap we've had between seasons, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if the delay made them want season 5 right together with it, after getting so far "behind", so to speak. S4 was announced in November of 2021, and roughly around that time, Asagiri was finishing up writing the plot of the DoA arc. If Bones came to him sometime in late 2021 and said they wanted two seasons now (so basically, one giant two cour season), Asagiri would know that not only of course would this arc not be finished publishing in the manga for a very long time yet, but that roughly 20ish episodes would not be enough to cover it all to the end, with this arc being longer than any arc the anime has adapted to date. Because of all this, and the arc manga chapters being nowhere near fully drawn to completion, he'd have to make a decision about what to do, and what to give Bones. Without ending season 5 on a massive cliffhanger that wouldn't be resolved for years until an eventual season 6, the only other option would be to rush towards an anime-original ending for the DoA arc.... and for Asagiri to take advantage of that, and integrate it into BSD's lore. Thereby creating a truly unique cross-media experience that utilizes the different mediums to create multiple timelines, that could make both the anime and manga interact with each other and become part of a bigger picture (not that you'd need to see both to get the full experience, mind you, just that it'd provide a little bonus if you did).... and would without a doubt be Asagiri's biggest surprise yet.

...I feel like at this point I'm starting to ramble, and my evidence become more and more incoherent and less substantial lmao, so I should probably end this post. 💀 Thank you if you've read this far, and hopefully it made some semblance of sense, despite not being structured very well; I know I promised at the start to try to be as objective as possible and curb my negative feelings, but I'm not sure how well I succeeded in that regard. If it weren't for the Fukuchi thing and the Fyodor hand thing, I probably wouldn't take how wrong and strange and bad the finale feels to me as serious evidence about it being an alternate timeline, especially since I seem to be one of the only people who actually hates all of it.... but combined with everything else, I am just so convinced of this theory being true. It started off as pure copium, but as more time has gone on, I fully, 100% believe in my bones (ha) that there is no way that finale is the same Bungou Stray Dogs I know and love, for so many reasons. It just isn't. It can't be. I know BSD better than this, I know Asagiri better than this, and I know that it's absolutely in the realm of possibility for him to cook up this whole scheme to completely blindside us with in the upcoming chapters, because that's exactly the kind of shit Mr. "Please Be Surprised!" himself would pull. If I end up being completely wrong, I guess I'm wrong, and you can laugh at me all you want then.... but I just know that ages ago people were teasing the idea of the anime operating on a different timeline from the manga, and I truly do think that only now are we finally seeing that idea come to fruition, as a setup for Asagiri going full-bore insanity with the Book in the upcoming arc(s). if I and the OP of that theory end up right, this will be the wildest time in the BSD fandom's history.

Like. I cannot even emphasize how hard they are trolling us at this point. Something is going on. Something is being cooked over there, the likes of which we've never seen before... and I don't think any of us are ready for it.

Oh yeah, and one last thing of note: both Fyodor and Nikolai here have their right arms hidden from view. Is that alluding to anything? I'm not sure. I also think that since chapter 110 was so short, next chapter will likely be 110.5 instead of 111, and if that's the case, this title spread could still technically be associated with the next chapter... wherein we might see this Fukuchi, who ends up wreaking havoc, right before he jumps to the timeline in the anime, as we see him at the end of the s5 finale.

I guess we'll find out on Tuesday.

#bungou stray dogs #meta #bsd season 5 #bsd s5 spoilers #alternatively titled 'when you copium so hard out of stewing in your denial anger and grief that it becomes reality'#is it still copium if there's strong evidence for it? idk #i DON'T know what i'll do if the stuff in this finale ends up being canon :))) make no mistake about that #but until the very moment the schrödinger's cat box is opened and i am forced to acknowledge it with my own two eyes in chapter 111/110.5 #i am choosing to stay calm and rational and look at things with a sound mind... and acknowledge all the signs that are there #of which there are so many #Asagiri is a troll. he has always been a troll and this is more evident than ever lately #and he would know that everyone who watched the finale would take it at face value #never expecting it to go completely differently in the manga #and he's so much smarter than what was in that finale. he would never write those things. i would stake my life on it.#i don't care how many flaws BSD does have that i do acknowledge; he is a good writer in so many ways and he is so much better than /that/#i could fill an entire BOOK (ha ha) with all of the reasons why this finale does not work. seriously it is a never-ending can of worms #of ooc characterizations and plot holes and abandoned threads and straight up CONTRADICTIONS with what has been stated before in the arc #with fukuchi's motivations and presentation; with things that were happening in meursault; just.... so much illogical shit in general #THE MACHINE HEALED THEIR WOUNDS??? ARE YOU FOR REAL????#*sigh* but i said i wasn't gonna rant alskdjgfkdls #tbh though the only REAL thing i need to know that the finale was anime only was what the youtuber i watch pointed out:#that Bram magically regenerated all his clothes. because if it were Asagiri Bram would be naked from the shoulders down fjdkslsaskd #...anyway. This theory is real and true. I am manifesting it into existence 🙏🙏🙏#Asagiri my man...... you have never let me down yet in all the years I've known your series. Please don't let me down now.#I'm trusting in you more than ever right now...... and your ability to blow all our minds in the best possible way #(guys i'm really really really scared deep down; please hold me hahaha ahahahahaaaa- *cries*)#this would the coolest thing in the history of ever though if it happened though. I am SO EXCITED FOR THE POSSIBILITY!!!!!#ASAGIRI YOU SICK AND TWISTED MF; HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME BEG FOR MY FAVES TO SUFFER JUST SO THAT THIS BAD WRITING DOESN'T BECOME REALITY!!!!!!#he knows exactly what he's doing *SCREAMS* :))))))))

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onesunofagun · 6 months

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You know, I'm going to put a thought down because I'm thinking about this again because of the post earlier.

It might be a vent? I think it's more just me trying to describe a feeling so it's outside me and I can look at it.

I've seen a lotta discourse and a lot of theories and different takes out there. There's always gonna be some stuff that's frustrating because it's something Sus being widely normalised, but generally speaking, I think the varied perspective and ideas are always good thing in a fandom.

I've seen all sorts of ideas be explored-- in fics, in doujins and art, in roleplay, in lore essays-- over the years. I like to think I have a pretty good map on the fandoms I've been online and present in since the early 00s. I can usually remember context about how certain stuff came about, like what tropes or ideas got popular when and how, whether through shipping or fanon or mangas or general knowledge about the development process.

When you've been in a fandom a long time-- especially if you have made a lot of contributions to it, at any point-- sometimes you even have a part in shaping certain idea flows within it, yourself.

So I have had the chance to see and contribute to a lot of conversations that have happened over and over and over again, in a kind of generational way. I have seen certain discussions from old forums, translate to fics. I've seen them pop up on tumblr, then tumble to Reddit, then YouTube. I have watched the spread through the general sphere of things, get added to and turned over and re-examined.

For the record: I love watching that process, and I like being part of that process! Mentally tracking the grandfathered in fandom history has also become its own kinda hobby for me.

I've always found it interesting mapping where new fans come in, seeing how they orient themselves and what they pick up-- how and why and what they do with it, whether I appreciate it or not (I highlight biases that are related to harmful ideas when I see them to illuminate them).

Seeing certain concepts be repeatedly rediscovered and watching how certain waves of fans digest them is fascinating. Sometimes with surprising results, sometimes with disappointing results, but it's fascinating either way. That's kind of part of the appeal having been here so long and why I came back into (mild) activity-- I get to study and dissect the fandom behaviours as well.

But despite all of that, I've found I don't really appreciate a good number of the popular YouTubers who focus on Zelda as their channel topic.

I think I've developed a bit of a distaste for a few of them in particular, actually--the big number Zeldatuber channels. Mostly the ones that seem to be the theorycrafters that kinda followed on from a MatPat style format. All of my love to well researched videos analysing the themes and meta, and all the silly boundary breaks and speedruns, mind. But I found I got really disillusioned with the handful of channels that rose to prominence and how their content shifted with that growth.

With the potential to monetise their discussions and discords worth of people and patrons driving this kinda content, I do think a lot about things that have been discussed in the fandom in the past that get taken up and regurgitated as part of that grind. I have lost track of how many videos that have come out of a few big Zeldatubers of this vein gave me a really weird slimy feeling and I am trying to work out what it is.

I'm not super invested in watching much of Zeldatube at large, mostly because I've seen most popular subjects covered in many variations. I'm a lot more personally interested in analysis, rather than theorycraft, so take it with a grain of salt that I may have a bias too (The popular Zonai fixation really doesn't interest me at all, and Zeldatube burnt out on that hard).

A lot of the channels like this seem to present their stuff like it is brand new and never been seen before, and like it's a great achievement in sleuthing or that they've cracked a code-- but not in a fun feeling way. Not in an exciting personal discovery way, but in a way that feels like it's propping up an exclusivity around that channel, and its validity as a leading authority on Zeldadom. There's something vaguely newsfeed-like, or sensationalist about it to me, with tight knit associations to other big channels making the same type of content (and about the same types of subjects as far as I ever noticed, and widely overlapping perspectives).

I wonder if that's a cynical feeling that I have where I'm just being an old man yelling at clouds, but there's really something that rubs me wrong about the handful of top channels like this. Something about the way they generate and present, and potentially profit from, often long running fandom concepts and otherwise freely shared ideas that have had many contributions feels off.

Maybe it's also me struggling to understand the closed off nature of how a lot of people just absorb the series secondhand now, and how normal it is to have the most popular Zeldatube channels setting the tones and assumptions around lore for large swatches of the newer fans. And not because old guard gatekeeping, but because there's an obvious chasm there between new and old fans of the same media that now exists that's seemingly getting wider.

I do sometimes worry about the trend of recycled old fanon staples presented as brand new takes, because of that-- or worse, sold as the definitive take, especially when a lot of people do just accept them and then go off and start arguments because 'big Zeldatube said so' and they must know best.

Sometimes I wonder if the trend is actually adding to issues with consumption vs engagement, in terms of media literacy and fandom interaction. There's certainly some theories, because of these channels, widely taken as a kind of gospel from the 'zelda experts' like the discussion is already closed; mystery solved. I've legit seen smaller youtubers be accused of stealing or copying theories from the larger channels, when making detailed and well researched videos about canon lore. I have had multiple interactions with fans who just link to a popular video and be like 'here watch this, it'll explain it' like they can't even be bothered to have their own take, but they're also not interested in yours.

The way big Zeldatube presents itself and gets consumed at large, though, I guess I just don't recognise that as the same as seeing a new fan have a joyful discovery of something from their own interactions with the franchise and fandom. I realise that the channel runners are fans themselves, but I suppose I mean that the platform feels more like a degree of professional separation that's very closed. It's become 'Zelda is my job now' thing that's focused on interest trends and news.

Something something, decades of fandom interaction and discussion and archiving getting scraped and haphazardly slapped together again for the content grind because clout and profit??

That feels mean to say but--

"Like and subscribe and join my patreon for more content, often mined from various thoughts around the fandom to make up a new video to schedule" is how it often tastes to me and that's not a flavour I enjoy.

Again, by all means, not applicable to the whole of Zeldatube or many fans who do watch the big channels. But this kinda thing does feel like a pervasive and popular part of the theorycrafter channels. Commodification of theory, and exploitative platforms built off a community's back, leave a lot of the big Zeldatubers without my support or endearment. I feel incredibly conflicted about them.

Is that anything?

#shut up hero #its about the big zeldatube theory guys #I don't know I've got some weird feels about it #long too sorry

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herosplatling-replica · 4 months

Text

Cold Glares, Cold Shoulders

General - Post-Possession Arc, 2,220 Words

The Guardian of the Ebony Backwoods is looking for pain meds. Edega is looking for a fledgling who doesn't want to be found.

[ Author's Note: I ended up writing this the other day, and felt like sharing it since it was directly stemming from the art I did of GEB threatening edega, ahah!! many thanks to @sirwow for both the concept and for letting me have Wally cameo in this, it's a lot of fun thinking about GEB's dynamic with the rest of the hospital! ]

The Guardian was taking a stroll around the hospital grounds when it heard it: the rising voice of Doctor Edega, and the sound of rushing footsteps.

What could be happening at this hour?

The Guardian stuck its clawed hands in its pockets, leaning out into the ward to listen for the noise. It sounded like an argument. They weren’t sure what about, but anything involving that man with the clipboard meant it wasn’t good.

Making up its mind, GEB strode down the hallway. She could barely catch the glimpse of a blur making its way into one of the closet nests – a blur of yellow and blue.

Oh. Wally…

The young intern had made his displeasure known to the Guardian, and had a tendency to refuse any help it tried to give him. GEB had no idea how to alleviate the situation – and to make matters worse, it was now saddled with this dragging feeling Jay had told it was called ‘guilt’. It was rather annoyed with the whole idea of the emotion.

There would be no going into the nest to comfort the fledgling, then. GEB craned its head, listening for Edega’s voice. It seemed like he was coming this way – in search of Wally, no doubt.

GEB huffed quietly, taking up a guard post of sorts next to the closet door. It didn’t like Edega, especially not after the lecture the man had given the Vessel after the possession catalyst incident. If he had to blame anybody for what had happened, the doctor could’ve at least pointed the finger at the Guardian, no?

It made itself comfortable, leaning its back against the wall of the hallway. The Guardian spread its dark wings around itself loosely in a clear defensive stance. The footsteps got louder, almost stomping in anger as the doctor turned the corner and met her piercing gaze.

In an instant, the man with the clipboard’s march came to a halt. Doctor Gabriel Edega’s eyebrows raised, before the man put his arms behind his back.

“...The Guardian of the Ebony Backwoods, I presume?” he asked finally, strolling up to GEB. She glared at him in response, but nodded. “Hm. It’s rather unfortunate we meet at last at a time like this.”

“Pardon?” GEB ground out in response, raising an eyebrow.

“I needed to speak to a subordinate – but that isn’t important anymore.” Without missing a beat, Edega pulled the clipboard back up, flipping to an empty page to take notes. “I presume Doctor Birde isn’t present with us when you are… at the wheel?”

“Hmph.” GEB turned its nose up at him, but decided to humor the doctor regardless. If it could give Wally time to recover, that was fine. “We do not always see what the other sees. There are times when I must rest, and when The Vessel is asleep. So to answer your question… currently, no. The Vessel is resting, and cannot hear you.”

Doctor Gabriel made a thoughtful hum at that, and wrote what it said down. “And… the ‘Vessel’ is what you call your host.”

“Yes,” The Guardian sighed out, pulling one of its clawed hands out to examine the talons. “I had assumed Doctor River already told you all of this, given the questions he had for me.”

“It’s still good to confirm these things,” Edega said. He paused for a moment, tapping the pen to his chin. “What are the limits to what you know of each other, between the Guardian and the Vessel?”

“I know everything about her,” GEB drawled out, checking the sharpness of its nails, “and she knows sparse about me. Only what I have told her.”

“Can you give me an example?” Edega huffed.

“…Hm… An example.” It pretended to think on it for a moment, before lifting itself from the wall to loom over Edega with her wings. “Oh, yes. I can think of many examples.”

Gabriel stared up at her, his eyes widening for a moment.

“I know you accused My Vessel for the injuries sustained by the interns. I am aware of how you have worked the interns to the bone. I know that you are making children work here. I know you have a cat.” It squinted at Edega, not missing the twitch of irritation in his eyebrows. GEB grinned, flaring its wings behind her head in a threat display. “I know a lot of things about you. And you, like The Vessel, know very little about me.”

GEB stepped back at once, tucking its wings to its sides as it leaned against the wall again. “Now, does that suffice for a good example?”

Gabriel grumbled something under his breath, before nodding. “Is the aloof manner you, or Doctor Birde?”

“I cannot possibly understand what you mean,” GEB murmured, shutting its eyes. “If you refer to the protective nature, that is Me. You have seen what it looks like when I am not present. It is rather obvious which one is at the wheel, no?”

That gave Edega pause, before he scribbled something down, reading aloud, “Paranormal entity’s personality is huffy and confrontational… subject not keen on sharing details about itself.”

“I would use ‘defensive’ over ‘confrontational’, Gabriel.” GEB huffed out, leaning its head against the wall. It tried not to laugh at the glare Edega gave her. “Now, I should remind you that I, the Guardian, surface when the Vessel is in pain. Would you happen to have migraine medicine on you?”

The doctor sighed, checking his pockets. “...I do not appear to have aspirin on hand, no.”

“Would you be a dear and find some for me? I was on the way to ask Doctor River and found you instead. My head’s spinning.”

The look on Edega’s face soured, but he tucked his clipboard under his arm and nodded. “I will get some aspirin for you. Hopefully that will… make you a little more open to talk. Stay here.”

GEB huffed again, but made no gesture to move. At that, Edega stalked down the hallway in the direction of his office.

The Guardian tucked its arms into itself, sighing as it watched Edega leave. For a moment its gaze drifted back to the closet door, before shaking its head and staying put. The fledgling wouldn’t want an interruption, even if it’s to tell him the coast is clear…

Regardless, GEB tapped its claws on the wall idly, as if to signal that it was alright to come out. There was no response, so it let out a quiet sigh as it waited for Edega to return. If the Guardian were to leave now, that would risk the discovery of their nest – and by extension, Wally’s hiding spot. The Guardian couldn’t have that happen, regardless of whether Wally was in there or not.

It drummed its claws for a second longer and, when nothing happened in the closet that it could pick up on, crossed its arms again. Any minute now, that man would return, and she’d have to put up with him.

There was a gentle stirring in the back of their mind as Jay awoke, blinking at their collective surroundings before metaphorically turning over in bed, pulling the covers back over.

Why are we in the hall with fluorescent lights, the Vessel whined groggily. It hurts.

I am aware, GEB huffed internally, but one of the fledglings needs Us here to distract Edega.

Huh? Edega? That got the Vessel to lift herself up a bit more, as if one was hovering over GEB’s shoulder to spectate. What’s going on? Everything okay?

We need to just stand guard.

GEB’s head wings flicked up at the sound of footsteps returning in their direction. Here he comes.

Don’t say anything stupid, Jay mumbled in their head as she got comfortable.

No promises.

“Unfortunately I could not find aspirin,” Edega’s voice drawled out, “but I did find some extra strength acetaminophen. Will that suffice?” The doctor rounded the corner, holding out what clearly looked like a used bottle of Tylenol.

“Tch.” GEB frowned, resting its chin on a clawed hand. “Did the budget cuts extend to the pharmacy as well?”

What did I JUST say, Guardian? Jay sighed.

“Pardon?” Edega raised an eyebrow, but the twitch in it told GEB that it had struck well.

“It seems like standard practice for a hospital to have a pharmacy, no? Or does this one not have a pharmacy? I would think that it would be required to have a pharmacist on-hand to work on getting the patients their medication so they may swiftly recover.”

When Edega didn’t respond, GEB turned its nose up at him. “There is no need. I will ask Doctor River instead, given how you failed to find anything.”

“Just because you’re unsatisfied doesn’t mean you can just-”

“Oh?” GEB tilted its head, flaring its wings out again. “To use the word ‘unsatisfied’ would imply you have some. Do you mean to say there IS aspirin, but you opted not to find it? Almost as if it was on purpose?”

That shut him up fast. GEB couldn’t help but grin widely, narrowing its eyes at Edega. “Perhaps you can get away with neglectful care with the other patients, but not with Me. I know how this hospital is run. While I do not have the clearance to get such things on my own, I know where they’re kept. This opened bottle could have something other than acetaminophen in it, and you know the risk associated with that, should complications arise. Am I wrong?”

Gabriel’s face paled at the Guardian’s words, and it chuckled at the display.

“That’s what I thought. You could probably get away with negligence on someone who didn’t know what these pills look like, but I have Jay’s memories of working here to go off of.” It leaned in at Edega, pulling one of its hands out of its crossed arms to wave its claws at him. “Now, get out of my sight. I tire of you. Off you go.”

He was furious – of that, GEB was certain. Yet Gabriel didn’t say anything more, and took his leave. Surely now he wouldn’t bother her again while she was at the front?

You totally got him, Jay admitted, but he’s absolutely going to take it out on me later.

Nonsense. He knows now that I see what you see, he knows he must be careful with what he says around you now.

If you say so, Jay sighed. Now if you’re done, I’m gonna go back to sleep til the aspirin kicks in.

I am. He will not bother us again anytime soon, I don’t think. I will speak to Doctor River to get the pain medication, so please rest.

Cool, Jay murmured in their headspace, retreating to the back once more. Guardian hummed thoughtfully to itself as Jay settled back down, falling asleep.

…Maybe I should go now. Surely Wally would not want me to-

Right then, the door to the nest creaked open a crack and the young intern’s brown and blonde hair poked out of the closet. Wally’s eye met GEB’s gaze, and for a second both of them froze in their tracks.

Go.

Go, you don’t want to make him feel threatened.

Move.

The Guardian tried to, but found her feet were stuck as if sinking into wet concrete. Its wings tucked back, trying to make itself look a bit smaller – it had just been threatening Edega, after all.

Wally simply watched for a second, his eyes flicking around the hallway to see if it was safe.

“He should be gone now,” GEB finally spoke up, and managed to wrench herself out of the freeze response as she spun on her heel. “Sorry to bother you,” she managed to say before setting off in a brisk walk down the hall.

If Wally had a response, GEB was too busy trying to settle its racing heart to hear it. It still felt guilty, and there was this crushing feeling of regret every time that it locked eyes with the young intern – a reminder of how it had failed by pushing the Vessel’s body too far.

…I can… try to remedy this some other time. The nausea from the migraine is starting to get to me…

As it made its way down the hall to River’s office, a small orange foam dart caught GEB’s eye, discarded on the floor. Is this what started the fight? Then again, Wally had a habit of regularly shooting foam darts around the hospital. It was likely left from long before Edega began to look for the intern.

The Guardian stopped in its tracks, staring at the foam dart for a second before finally making up their mind. They’d return it – just, not personally. If Wally knew GEB was the one taking them back, there was a chance he’d take offense to it, so something more lowkey would be ideal.

It sighed to itself as it plucked the orange dart off of the floor, briefly turning it in its claws before stowing it away in one of their coat pockets.

It won’t even begin to make things up, but…

It’s a start, right?

With that, the Guardian continued on its walk, trying to shrug off the cold sting it felt piercing its heart.

#rhythm doctor #my writing #rhythm doctor oc #gabe edega #doctor edega #gagahoruaughrhgourhoauhg im thinking about them. explodes #guardian of the ebony backwoods #wally

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aptericia · 6 months

Text

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but I’m gonna be brave and post it since my friend @dazzlerazz was talking about AI art recently. Razz I realize that we probably disagree on this, and I hope you know that I respect both you and your opinions and will not get angry if you want to convince me to change mine 💕

First off, I personally do not like AI art. As an illustrator, my career is one of the most jepoardized by the spread of AI content. I’m also part of the group that finds a lot of AI art viscerally uncomfortable to look at and I avoid it for that reason. But all that said, I have never liked the argument that “AI is bad because it’s not human”.

Art by its very nature strongly benefits from the personal history, cultural awareness, and generally what’s known as “creativity” that computers will likely never be able to replicate. But my point is that lacking “creativity” or “humanity” is, in and of itself, not a moral problem. A moral problem is something that actively causes harm to people. The fact that AI fails at a major function of art is a technical issue, not a moral one. AI can’t include those personal touches, which means it’s poorly suited to many kinds of art, but it does not make it “evil”.

Ultimately, the way I think of art is that it’s a form of self-expression and communication between individuals. By that definition, AI cannot and will not ever be art. But if it’s not art, we have to realize it’s a tool, and the only thing that can make it “good” or “evil” is how people use it.

The reason I think so many people get worked up about AI’s “humanity” is that, understandably (see the above point about self-expression) we’re very sentimental about art. That sentimentality is a valuable asset. But at the same time, I’ve improved both my craft and mental health significantly by being able to separate it out. There are aspects of the art process that benefit from logic, habit, or random chance over personal feelings. Logic and habit and chance are not evil, they are also valuable assets. Logic and habit and chance being your only assets also does not make you evil. It’s just that if that’s true, as it is with AI, you shouldn’t pretend that you can do the sentimental parts as well.

And that’s where AI art does become a moral problem, and where it might be considered “evil”—if it’s used for something it can’t do, by people who don’t care about the result, to the detriment of others’ careers and lives. “Souless” content that saturates the market with recycled ideas is a real problem, and AI makes such content easier than ever to create. But I’d like the conversation to focus on that, rather than the nebulous morality of the tool itself. Hate AI all you want, I do too, but the argument should never be about the inhuman tool over the humans who use it.

#I will be honest being queer (specifically aro) has made me uncomfy with any argument that says something isn’t “human” and therefore lesse #it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth #and I realize that has influenced my opinion on this ai debate #ramblings #discourse #ai art commentary #art ramblings

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meat-pvppet · 13 days

Note

Hiii hey helloooo really happy i found you! Im in love with your art, its so good! I wanted to learn about your ocs through that one post. Would love to get an answer for every single one, but to spare your time and fingers: alone, desire, future

I love Chasm and Tara so much you have no idea

YESSSS I GET TO TALK ABOUT MY GOOBERS HI HELLO ANON I LOVE YOU /plat

ok for this ill do both chasm and tara cuz theyre my little gabagoos and yes yes yes

ask game

CHASM

alone: How does your OC deal with loneliness? Have they ever been completely alone before? How do they act when there's no one around to see them?

Chasms alone most of the time so he's gotten kinda used to it, but he still has bouts of time where it gets to him, yknow?

Of course, hes never been truly truly alone cuz of Bridge, but generally speaking he gets really introspective about himself and how he interacts with others

how he wishes he could be more outgoing and expressive

hes tried that before though and its simply too draining to him

and it doesnt feel real cuz hes just acting and he knows it

so what would be the point?

he tries to distract himself as much as he can when he starts spiraling like this by doing maintenance on his guns, ship, sparrow, himself

read a little

do some organizing

anything to get him out of his own head

desire: What's one thing your OC wants more than anything in the world? Are they open with that desire? Why or why not? What would they do to fulfill it?

peace

whether that be peace in his own mind or across sol

he just wants all the fighting to stop

for the conflict to end

hes not even sure if he'll make it out of the next world-ending scenario that hes gonna get thrust into

or if his daughter will survive

he doesnt really talk about how he yearns for a day where a threat isnt looming over his shoulder every second of his existence

a day where he can freely relax with his daughter without wondering whether or not he'll get to see her again

or who will take care of her when hes gone

is that cuz he wants to keep up appearances? no

its cuz he knows everyone probably wants that too

no need to state the obvious

to fulfill it, to him, theres not much he can do than continue on as he is

continue on as a war machine

fight for his and all of humanity's peace

future: What's the worst possible future for your OC? Are they taking steps to avoid that outcome? Are they even aware it's a possibility?

i think itd be either he dies, leaving tara alone to fend for herself

or she dies

one he can try to avoid but he can never guarantee

the other is unfortunately inevitable

teehee mortal daughter immortal father moment

TARA

alone: How does your OC deal with loneliness? Have they ever been completely alone before? How do they act when there's no one around to see them?

tara isnt usually alone since she'll be online talking with friends or (on the rare occasion) out n about with them or playing gigs

when she is alone she ends up alot like chasm a little

quiet and stone faced

she gets pretty lonely whenever shes not around other people, but sometimes she just doesnt wanna be around other people at the same time

so she'll rot in bed for a while

or play guitar

or do whatever to entertain herself

she kinda suffers from chronic loneliness much like her dad so yeag

desire: What's one thing your OC wants more than anything in the world? Are they open with that desire? Why or why not? What would they do to fulfill it?

same with chasm id think

she could wish and pray and hope for this but theres not much she can do about it

other than spread peace and love through her music of course but she wishes she could be more proactive about it

like her dad

future: What's the worst possible future for your OC? Are they taking steps to avoid that outcome? Are they even aware it's a possibility?

probably also losing chasm tbh

she already had the wake up call that chasm isnt actually immortal fully from the red war and him losing his light

so she knows he can die

and by the nature of being a guardian, he could die

and it would be a very violent death

#oc #destiny #destiny 2 #destiny oc #destiny 2 oc #ask game #.txt

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horsewizardart · 2 years

Text

Dare To Be Stupid

I hit 1500 followers on Twitter today and decided to do a little writeup on how drawing ponies has made me feel. The long and short of it is that making inherently silly just-for-fun art like the stuff I’ve been posting has been really freeing for me in a time in my life when I don’t know what my relationship to art is anymore. Thanks to everyone for sharing and enjoying my stuff; seeing it spread around has been really unexpected for me, and I appreciate how nice you’ve all been.

Longer post after the break; I can be very self-reflective a lot of the time so this has been on my mind for awhile.

So here’s the main point: Drawing ponies has restored a lot of the joy that I get from working on projects, after a couple years of having a pretty rough relationship to art. For the majority of my life I have thought that I wanted to have a creative career. However, pursuing that idea has, historically, made me less willing and able to actually be creative. When I focused on this idea, I became self-conscious, scared of what I was or wasn’t making, unwilling to follow threads that I thought would be interesting because of fear of making a bad impression on a future boss I didn’t even really want to have. At some point in 2020, after I graduated college and started working a grueling production art job, I stopped posting new work online and only drew when I felt like I absolutely had to. I was thinking of myself less of a person and more as a potential employee at Future Better Job. I’m still untangling that web in my personal art; I draw nearly every day now, but it still takes a very long time for me to come up with an idea I want to pursue from start to finish outside of fanart.

Contrast that to pony stuff - earlier this year when I decided I was gonna start posting my pony drawings, it wasn’t in pursuit of anything beyond sharing what I had been making. I've always been hated doing commissions, so there wasn't a financial incentive, and the fact that I'm using a big company's intellectual property means there'd be some Challenges in trying to make anything more out of it than this. The fact that people are interested in my stuff has been an incredible surprise, and has also compelled me to poke my head out a bit and try to make some friends (note that outside of ponies I’ve never been a fandom person, and there’s about a five or six year gap between when I was first interested in ponies and when I got back into it a couple years ago, so I’m still a little new to that part).

It’s also helped me see an alternate path forward, where I can maybe truly separate work from passion. In hindsight this should have been a little more of an obvious thing; I am a certified Jobs Hater who, even at a job I was generally pretty fond of, has spent every minute on the clock wishing the clock would catch fire. Probably makes sense that crossing those two streams would be a tough thing to make work.

This may seem like a lot of fuss over drawings of the famous little ponies holding up video game consoles and drinking Monster but drawing incredibly stupid things (in a good way) has been way more rewarding than I’d have ever expected. It’s helped me find the joy in experimenting and playing around with what I’m making instead of evaluating its potential outcome. It probably didn’t have to be ponies that opened this up for me, but I’m glad that it is. Thanks for being here.

#not art #going sincere-o mode

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stedipace · 1 year

Text

"What if?" My Pitch for the Dreamcast 2

So after the bird app got bought by a rich moron, I got to thinking: what company would I impulsively buy if I had more money than common sense? I mean I wouldn't, I'd probably try and end world hunger or something but if there was anything left I'd just buy SEGA.

Like, for a laugh.

This started out as a design exercise for coming up with a launch title library but I got carried away...

So here's my plan:

The Actual Console

I think I'd like to honour VMU of the original Dreamcast and seeing Sony's recent announcements, we wouldn't be the only ones hopping on the Nintendo Switch Bandwagon.

The Actual console could stand to be a bit more powerful than the Switch but it doesn't have to be a top of the line behemoth. focus on making it fun, rather than powerful, thats how Nintendo sold a buttload this generation.

Launch Titles

Sonic Adventure 3

Ok, so right off the bat this one is a bit tricky.

Let me be clear: I LOVED Sonic The Hedgehog when I was a kid, but I'm sorry, I'm beginning to think there has never actually been a good Sonic game. Even my favourite ones haven't aged gracefully. Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 are a bit crap, I think we can all agree there. I love them games but the lack of polish on display, considering its SEGA's flagship title, is inexcusable. And since a SEGA console needs to ship with a "mainline" Sonic game (we've seen what happens when it doesn't), I say we go with Sonic Adventure 3 but maybe, like... good?

The idea of a 3D, momentum-based mascot platformer isn't a bad one. In fact, it's kind of a resurging genre in certain indie dev circles.

Twitter user @Cornf_Blue has been developing what looks like the best Sonic Adventure game Sonic Team never made. Actually, let's just hire this dude to run the project.

I'd also refer you to Spark The Electric Jester.

IT CAN BE DONE.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about my idea for SA3 cause I might do another "What If?" post specifically about that at some point but basically, here's the gist of it:

3 Playable Characters are Sonic, Tails & Knuckles

Stages connected by a hub world the player can explore as they like in SA1 but make it bigger and more open to exploration like Sonic Frontiers

3 Kinds of stages: Sonic "speedy" stages, Tails shooty mech stages and Knuckles treasure hunting stages like in SA2 (but keeping it to 3 characters instead of 6 so the team isn't spread itself thin and can focus on delivering quality over quantity).

Special challenge modes like Boss Rush, Speedrun mode etc..

In fact, just put in a bunch of speedrun-friendly features and modes.

Chao Garden! (but more on that later)

Power Stone 3

You need a big, fun multiplayer game in your launch titles and what's more fun than a 4 player fighting game with items and (kind of) platforming elements? It'd be fun to have a big co-op story mode and an online lobby system for multiplayer matches, but mostly, if you've got more than one kid and you're buying them a console for Christmas or whatever, this is the game you'll want to get with it.

Jet Set Radio: Legends of Tokyo-To

Another SEGA IP that started on the Dreamcast, this game was just a ton of fun. The game had a VERY distinct 1999/2000 timestamp on it and I think we're juuuust starting to see the nostalgia wave from that period swelling, so instead of going to the future like the game's sequel, it continues immediately after the plot of the first one. Get Hideki Naganuma, Cibo Matto, Guitar Vader and the rest of the gang back to do the soundtrack, keep the cool cel shading art style BUT make it an open-world game, having all of Tokyo-To available to roam around in, with different gangs controlling different territories, skating and tagging challenges, customizable art (players can make their own tags), and a faction system with rival NPCs (kind of like the nemesis system in those Lord of The Ring games but with graffiti instead of murdering). Heck, get the folks who did Bomb Rush Cyberfunk to make it.

Phantasy Star Online II

So it turns out this game already exists! And it's free to play! I didn't know that before I started making this post but honestly, that's perfect. If there's already a community of players, however small, that's already a lot of the legwork out of the way. Get some crossplay in there and you're set! Imagine getting the new console and your launch title but then, on the home menu, you see Phantasy Star Online II available to download for free! Old school players can enjoy the influx of new blood, revitalizing the game with a massive story event like new colonies being discovered or something, to explain the arrival of all the new players.

Crazy Taxi 3

YAHYAHYAHYAHYAH!

Everybody loves Crazy Taxi, there'd be something wrong with you if you didn't. Honestly, there's not much I'd do in terms of changing up the formula except maybe add a company management element to it, like you're trying to build a little taxi service where the main characters work. Upgrading cars, drumming up business and expanding to new areas. Just something to balance out the relentless fast-paced arcade gameplay. Online leaderboards for challenges and a local multiplayer with a versus mode (see who makes the most money) and a co-op mode (try to reach a set goal together) too, for good measure.

Bayonetta 4

Bayonetta isn't an OG Dreamcast title but IS currently an extremely successful franchise that would absolutely help sell some units on launch. I'm putting it in here because it's published by SEGA so I guess it's technically their IP? But it's also a Nintendo exclusive so I don't know how that would work. Platinum Games has a 4 contract deal with SEGA, but whatever, for this little exercise, pretend SEGA keeps the publishing rights to all their stuff as they move back into making consoles.

Virtua Tennis Pro

So we need a sports title in our launch library and I think it should be Vitrua Tennis. EA Sports games aren't exclusive anymore so you would eventually your FIFAs and whatnot, but it'd be nice to have a proper SEGA sports game again. For this one though, it would have a big, cinematic NBA 2K17 style where you're a rising young tennis star on your way to the top, singing deals, beating rivals etc... Get some competitive online multiplayer in there too of course.

Skies of Arcadia: Dusk

I've always loved the idea of Skies of Arcadia, a big, bright and colourful swashbuckling adventure, and you need one of those in your launch library, but I only played a little bit of the GameCube version unfortunately.

That doesn't matter cause I think I know exactly what to do with this one. Make a traditional RPG title, honouring the franchise's heritage BUT, since we now know how to make a fun pirate game thanks to Assasins's Creed IV: Black Flag, we add in the ship boarding/crew capturing mechanics from that game! So imagine you have the trusty, old-school dungeon crawling/battle systems when you get of your ship but you can get back in and sail through the skies, looting other airships and slowly building your fleet!

Chao Garden

Kinda like Nintendo Land but with Chaos!

Remember the Mii characters in Nintendo consoles? What if they were cute instead of creepy? Every console would have a Chao Garden where the player would create, customise and raise their own Chao. That Chao would also serve as the player's online avatar when connecting with friends and shopping in the SEGA store or whatever.

Players would be able to meet other Chaos, have them compete in minigames and lots more. Essentially the SA2 Chao garden but online. And of course, this would also connect to our Sonic Adventure 3 Chao Garden.

Obviously, this would extend to the console's portability function, like how the 3DS could actively search for the profiles when the user would walk around with it, letting you meet other Chaos!

Make a mobile app for it too so you can check in on your Chao.

These videos were massively helpful to me when writing this post:

youtube

#SEGA #Dreamcast #sega dreamcast #bayonetta #skies of arcadia #chao garden #Sonic Adventure #Dreamcast 2 #Dreamcast Mini #crazy taxi #Sonic Adventure 3 #power stone #Skies of Arcadia #Phantasy Star Online #jet set radio #launch titles #Chao Garden #sonic adventure 2 #chao

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likeadevils · 1 year

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I was trying to find out timelines for one of my favourite artist's songs(not taylor). So can you give some tips? What is the first things you do while trying to find a date? Anything I should remember?

oooh good question

so, first tip, there's various different ways to be useful--one of the reasons this project has kept my attention for so long is i can do it in so many different moods. some days i just want to organize everything, some days i want to compile a bunch of links, sometimes i want to read old interviews, and sometimes if i'm lucky i want to actually use my brain to connect all the clues. don't get in your own way, just follow your gut

step one: organization

i find my spreadsheet set up very useful and i wouldn't be able to keep track of everything without it-- i would say my must haves are track, title, written, recorded, writer(s), producer(s), misc credits, and location recorded (for example here's 1989).

you'll want to set up some sort of key for how certain you are of the date (i do white text if i only know the general timeframe, red highlight if i have no idea where the date comes from, yellow highlight if its a shaky source, and green highlight if it's certain). i also like to color code everything else so i can quickly see basic information but that's just me being extra

in my experience genius has a list of most credits, and if not this website is super thorough (kinda a beast to sort through tho)

i add also add comments to each song and copy paste any quotes from taylor or her collaborators that i think might be useful to figuring out when it was written

step two: interviews interviews interviews

youtube is a gift from god-- i have a folder for interviews from each year and it's so nice (a good place to start is literally typing like, taylor swift 2006 interview, and following that rabbit hole wherever it will lead you), and when i'm in the mood i'll watch them.

old print interviews are a bit easier to find in taylor's case-- taylorpictures.net has a whole section dedicated to it, and i've noticed a lot of other big pop girls have something similar. if not, i've literally google searched "taylor swift interview" gone over to tools, click "any time", change it to custom time frame, and just crawled month by month through target years.

i'd say start with articles around the release date of the album and then work backwards

if you get tired of crawling through a bunch of interviewers asking about literally anything other than the art at hand, search interviews with the producers about the artist, and they tend to be more on track

step three: social media

use twitter advanced search to search specifically your artist and words like "studio" "writing" "guitar" "piano" "song" "album"

i like to add relevant posts to my spreadsheet like this

but i also have a full sheet for just taylor's old posts

if your artist is also insane and deleted all of their old posts, then wayback machine is so helpful

step four: when and where

a fair amount of the work comes down to figuring out where the artist was and when they were there-- especially if your artist works out of multiple studios

location stuff can get a bit icky, so personally i don't track stuff until two years have gone by, and even if you want to steer clear of candids you can still gain a good amount of information from public events only-- most artists are constantly touring, doing interviews, maybe attending award shows, stuff like that, and its useful to keep track of all that

again, the wayback machine is super useful-- most artists have an events page on their website, and smaller artists especially will add almost every television show appearance they have to it

Misc tips

CITE AS YOU GO

get around paywalls by copy pasting the link into the wayback machine

in general, i've gotten so good at googling because of this project it's insane-- check out this article to get more specific search results

i've also gotten crazy good at creating and using spreadsheets-- check out conditional formatting if you don't want to manually color code stuff

go one album at a time, at least until you've gotten a feel for it

have one or more work sheet on your spreadsheet- you'll need to format/sort stuff without worrying about screwing up everything else

i do this all in one massive spreadsheet with little individual sheets inside of it for each thing i need to keep track of, but like. i've literally opened up the sheet and then used my computer as a heating pad for period cramps. so do what that what you will

A rough date is easier to organize than no date-- get something down, and then you can refine it

#asks*#sorry for taking so long to answer #timeline*

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treestargarden · 1 year

Text

i got obsessed with the idea of building out teams for some of my fave bnha characters, so below the cut is an incredibly detailed post about the 8 gym leaders and the elite 4 members. read the tags if u wanna know who is in it

this is literally based on purely aesthetics n the most arbitrary knowledge of the pokemon in general do not come at me about “workability” n “technicality” or whatever. idc. also if u make art of this plz tag me :O if you can figure out good movesets on any of the teams, also plz lmk would love to run it in a game

Gym Leaders

Shouto’s Ice-Type Team:

Ninetales (Alolan variant): Ice/Fairy

Glaceon: Ice

Frosslass: Ice/Ghost

Aurorus: Ice/Rock

Chien-pao: Ice/Dark

Commentary:

Sho’s team is basically the most regal-looking ice types I could think of

Both he and Touya have Froslass on their teams to reference their relationship. Froslass is a dual-type pokemon (Ice/Ghost), so it links them very well

If the character’s typing matched an eeveelution currently available, I tried to fit them on the team

He has one regional variant, one eeveelution, one fossil pokemon, and a legendary

Eijirou’s Rock-Type Team:

Golem: Rock/Ground

Rampardos: Rock

Coalossal: Rock/Fire

Lycanroc (Midnight form): Rock

Commentary:

He enjoys the classics, so I strayed from fancy forms or variants

Except for Lycanroc’s midnight form, because its red, and he’s RED riot

Also I think a wolfish pokemon really suits him anyway

He likes heavy hitters, but if he plays their movesets smart, they can become the fastest bunch on the field too (especially Golem and Coalossal)

Katsuki’s Fire-Type Team:

Charizard: Fire/Flying

Flareon: Fire

Houndoom: Fire/Dark

Talonflame: Fire/Flying

Commentary:

Like Ei, also likes the classics, so I didn’t give him flashy forms or variants

Chuffed that Ei opted for only 4 pokemon, rather than 5

Unwilling to be bested, he also opted to only use 4 pokemon, because how dare Kiri outshine him

Says he didn’t want a flashy team, but has a Charizard

But it matches his attitude

Ochako’s Fairy-Type Team:

Azumarill: Fairy/Water

Togekiss: Fairy/Flying

Sylveon: Fairy

Tinkaton: Fairy/Steel

Iron Valiant: Fairy/Fighting

Commentary:

Of course, she fits the fairy aesthetics very well

All fairy types are super cut and pack a punch (just like my sweet girl)

I think she has an impressive range of typing

Iron Valiant is a tribute to her internship with that one pro-hero who taught her how to fight lol

Hanta’s Bug-Type Team:

Beedrill (Mega form): Bug/Poison

Yanmega: Bug/Flying

Galvantula: Bug/Electric

Araquanid: Bug/Water

Pheromosa: Bug/Fighting

Commentary:

Honestly, I think he just wanted a gag team, but ended up with a really fast bunch

It would be really fuckin annoying to battle. There’s plenty of opportunity for speed set ups/reductions, poisonings. His battle style is definitely more in line with stalling and waiting until your out of options before he slowly chips at your team’s health and morale

He has a really great type coverage for a bug team

I was gonna give him Surskit for the interesting dual-type, but then I remembered Araquanid existed and replaced him instead.

Also I think he just really loved the arachnid pokemon. For obvious reasons.

Has Pheromosa because he has definitely seen NSFW art of the pokemon and wanted it on his team.

Hitoshi’s Psychic-Type Team:

Hypno: Psychic

Espeon: Psychic

Metagross (Shiny form): Psychic/Steel

Gothitelle: Psychic/Dark

Lunala: Psychic/Ghost

Commentary:

I honestly just gave him psychic pokemon I think would act like cats

Tsu’s Water-Type Team:

Vaporeon: Water

Lapras: Water/Ice

Politoed: Water

Samurott (Hisuian variant): Water/Dark

Golisopod: Water/Bug

Commentary:

Lapras was originally on Sho’s team, but I decided I wanted Ninetales on the team instead (they don’t have a dual-type crossing, but I just liked the idea of spreading out the generations of the individuals on each team)

Politoed is here because I think its a good homage to her canon quirk. There are a lot of frog pokemon, but I think Politoed is the most... in-line with Tsu’s personality

Samurott is an homage to her internship as well. I forgot his name, but he’s here lol

Kyouka’s Dark-Type Team:

Umbreon: Dark

Mightyena: Dark

Sableye: Dark/Ghost

Thievul: Dark

Meowscarada: Dark/Grass

Commentary:

Honestly, I just wanted her to have dark pokemon that looked like they would be part of a bank heist

Elite Four Members

Rumi’s Normal-Type Team:

Eevee: Normal

Slaking: Normal

Lopunny (Shiny mega form): Normal/Fighting

Diggersby: Normal/Ground

Bewear: Normal/Fighting

Commentary:

Wanted the E4 to have really hard-to-beat teams, so I put in alternate forms, and at least 1 mega on each team

I’m tickled by the fact that she leads with an Eevee and makes you believe you have this battle in the bag from jump

But then she has an absolute unit of a team behind it

Lopunny is here because why wouldn’t I give the bunny girl a bunny pokemon

Also Diggersby is basically the unofficial Lopunny cheerleader so I had to put him here, too

Kai’s Poison-Type Team:

Nidoking: Poison/Ground

Gengar (Shiny mega form): Poison/Ghost

Scolipede: Poison/Bug

Toxtricity: (Amped form): Poison/Electric

Grafaiai: Poison/Normal

Commentary:

He’s the poison E4 member because he’s a germaphobe. Made sense he would use a poison team on unsuspecting challengers

IDK argue with someone who cares

Also has a very nice type spread

Touya’s Ghost-Type Team:

Drifblim: Ghost/Flying

Froslass: Ghost/Ice

Chandelure: Ghost/Fire

Mimikyu: Ghost/Fairy

Gholdengo: Ghost/Steel

Commentary:

Touya’s was probably the funnest to put together

Ghost type is an homage to his canon backstory

Drifblim has an ability called “Aftermath.” When you kill it, it explodes and weakens your pokemon on the field. I think this pokemone especially fits the trajectory of Touya’s arc in canon (if it goes the way I want it to)

Mimikyu envies Pikachu. Its name is literally “mimic you” and wears a sheet with a Pikachu caricature on it. Considering Touya’s showdown with Sho and the phosphorous technique being copied, I figured this pokemon was in line with that canon

Chandelure is a dual Ghost/Fire type (ghost for the backstory, fire for the quirk)

Froslass links him n Sho

Gholdengo was supposed to be a gag. I just wanted a gold pokemon in his team to reference his manga colors. Its still a Ghost type though

Doesn’t have a pokemon with a mega evolution form, but he does have a legendary, so I guess that makes up for the lack of a team gimmick

Keigo’s Flying-Type Team:

Pidgeot (Mega form): Flying/Normal

Ho-Oh: Flying/Fire

Salamence: Flying/Dragon

Noivern: Flying/Dragon

Flamigo: Flying/Fighting

Commentary:

He likes the fast and strong pokemon, so I gave him a mega, a legendary, a pseudo legendary, a dragon, and a gag pokemon that’s actually really good?

He seems the type for trickery

Also I think Ho-oh is supposed to be a Phoenix parallel or something to that effect IDR

#shouto todoroki #eijirou kirishima #katsuki bakugou #ochako uraraka #hanta sero #hitoshi shinsou #tsuyu asui #kyouka jirou #rumi usagiyama #kai chisaki #touya todoroki #keigo takami #pokemon cross over #gym leader teams #elite four teams

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le-amewzing · 1 year

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A Space for the Two of Us

Am I once again behind on the manga? Yep! But do I need more Ayakine? YEP! 8D

Fic: "A Space for the Two of Us" [FFN] [AO3]

Pairings/Characters: pre?Miki Kinemi/Aizawa Ayano

Rating: K

Words: ~2,120

Summary: A rare opportunity gives Kinemi and Ayano a moment to themselves on campus.

"Extra credit." It's a term teachers dangled in middle school and in high school, in front of overachievers as well as those who definitely needed it. It's also a term Kinemi didn't hear once in prep school, in her pre-Geidai days, and she hasn't heard it since the school year began, either.

Until now.

Technically, none of the professors have spoken the words aloud, and the same goes for the assistants. A bulletin was posted this week outside their section's classroom, and the objective of the extra assignment is as frustratingly vague as a lecture point uttered from one of their professors' mouths (Extra Credit: portray a favorite subject or concept using an unfamiliar or hated medium).

Is it really as on-the-nose as it seems? Express something they love…using a manner they dislike to express it? This makes Kinemi scratch her head and wonder, too, how many of her classmates will take the teachers up on this opportunity when it's a good chance to expose one's weak points. After all, extra credit is a maybe, not a given.

Not to mention they have so little free time in art school. Extra credit. The professors dole out difficult assignments and in the same breath remind them to pace themselves, to "take it easy!" (Just not too easy.) The timing and possible hidden meaning behind this seem like another enigmatic riddle from the mysterious minds of Nekoyashiki, Tsukinoki, or Rosei, for sure.

Still, all her misgivings aside, Kinemi mulls over her least favorite media (hmm, papier-mâché? …maybe…skilled 3D renders of any sort?) and gathers her materials from home and the school store alike. She has an idea in mind already, so that's the next item on her checklist ticked. But next—

Well, the leaning tower of supplies blocks her way heading out from her apartment. …yeah, this isn't a project to be done at home.

Summoning her volleyball-honed strength, Kinemi slings the trash bag-sized loads of supplies on either arm and leaves for Geidai. Her supplies smash her backpack between her shoulder blades, but it's necessary discomfort, since Geidai's her only hope…

…or so she thought. Despite not having class herself until late afternoon today, she can't find an empty room to spread out no matter where she turns! And the library's a no-go. It'd be one thing if her piece were something small she could work on quietly, but that's not the case.

But it doesn't matter where she turns. Stunningly, today every classroom in the oil painting building is in use, by lecturer or by club or by student. Kinemi peeks in the window of every door, mostly ignored, sometimes catching a tired instructor's annoyed gaze. The latter makes the blonde duck her head in apology every time, and it's not long before she's searched every room on every floor only to determine that there is, surprisingly, no room in this place for one of its very own students.

Kinemi exits the oil painting building with slumped shoulders. She very keenly feels the weight of her supplies now (and this isn't even for a graded project…), wondering if she got ahead of herself. The extra credit assignment is due by the end of the month, so she still has time, but Kinemi dislikes this ill omen of being thwarted from trying to start right away.

Her phone buzzes in her pocket then, scaring her, but Kinemi's so overloaded that she can't reach it at that second. But, in jolting, Kinemi's attention is torn from her shoes on the ground as she wanders campus—

—and she catches sight of a familiar pair of hair buns far in the distance, heading into the general studies building.

Reinvigorated by the sight of Ayano, Kinemi jogs after her friend. She doesn't catch up with her outside the front doors or right inside the lobby, but eventually the heavy footfall following her causes Ayano to glance over her shoulder as she descends a staircase. She slows to a stop and smiles when Kinemi joins her.

"Ayano-chan, hey!" Kinemi gasps.

"Ara, ara, that's quite a load you're carrying, Kinemi-chan," Ayano points out. She cocks her head to the side to peek behind the taller girl and surveys the art store Kinemi crammed into bags. Her lips curve downward. "Kinemi-chan…"

"I'm not overdoing it, I promise," she insists, because Ayano's used that tone of voice a handful of time since the mikoshi incident, so Ayano doesn't even need to add anything for Kinemi to understand. She inhales, exhales, gets her pulse under control, and nods to her fluffy-haired companion. "It's all for the extra credit. But what about you? Do I have your schedule wrong? I thought you don't have any classes right now, same as me."

Ayano can't hold her frown long. It melts into a pout first before she caves and returns to her usual smile. She shakes her head. "I don't. Come on," Ayano says simply. No explanation. She faces forward and beckons Kinemi with one well-manicured hand curling fingers over her shoulder.

Kinemi follows Ayano along the tiled hallway. They hook a right at the end and continue for three doors before Ayano stops and tries the handle of one. When the door opens into darkness, Ayano reaches in and flips on the light.

She holds her left arm aloft, motioning Kinemi in first. "Head on in."

Kinemi enters…and gapes. The room is a hair larger than their normal classroom, but this one has two rows of eight black-topped tables in the center. At one end of the room, there's a counter separating two sinks; at the other end, it's wide open space draped with tarps and a thin layer of dust. At least, Kinemi hopes it's dust. She glances at Ayano for details.

Ayano places her oversized purse on the table nearest the door and fishes out a hair tie to gather up the rest of her tresses. "It's an old lab. I heard they were planning on…either converting it or demoing it or remodeling. Something like that. Anyway. No one's been using this space all year."

"And it's just—been unlocked?!"

"If it had any chemicals, those are long gone." She walks to the sink closer to the windows and twists a handle; water gushes from the faucet. "On the bright side, they haven't shut the water off yet. So this is a great place to spread out."

Kinemi's supply bags slide from her shoulders, hitting the floor with twin thuds that make Ayano's eyes widen in concern. Yet Kinemi heaves a sigh of relief (and, ah, do her eyes feel wet? no, that must be the dust in this abandoned room getting in her eyes and making them itchy). "Ayano-chan…! Thank you so much for sharing your secret studio space with me…!"

The apples of Ayano's cheeks pink. Once more, she shakes her head. "There's plenty of space for both of us. Of course I'd share it with you, Kinemi-chan." She clears her throat. "Don't worry about the tarps in the back. It's a little dusty, but it's mostly just some dried concrete. You're good to lay out your own tarp and work back there, if you need to."

Kinemi nods. Once she returns her attention to her own belongings, Ayano returns to the table by the door, and the girls mostly operate in the same room but in separate spheres. Kinemi lays her own cloth down and stages her supplies in the back of the room, and Ayano…well, Ayano quietly works on whatever it is she brought with her.

Kinemi gets down to business, tearing strips of decorative papers and sorting them into piles. She's also got a wireframe to create, adjust, tear apart and redo, and adjust again, as many times as it takes until she feels satisfied with it. Then she begins stirring the bucket with her adhesive mixture and, when it's ready, she builds. One strip at a time.

The hardest part of finding time to work on a project like this and actually working on it is the instant she becomes entranced, Kinemi knows. That's why she's got to set a timer on her phone in her pocket and set it to vibrate so it'll bring her head down from being in the creative clouds. So when it buzzes, an hour and a half into her project, Kinemi snaps out of her trance, is reminded of her buzzing phone causing her to notice Ayano earlier (thank you, junk text!), and turns to see what Ayano's up to.

Ayano's back is to her, but the fluffy-haired artist has something laid out on the table and has a paintbrush in hand. How unusual.

Kinemi's curiosity sparks, but the strangeness of their morning overall strikes her now, too. Kinemi's used to sharing studio space with others, classmates or not. She's also used to being alone while creating.

But this, Kinemi realizes, is the first time she and Ayano have shared the same studio space, just the two of them. And yet, for all that quiet, Kinemi not once has felt alone in this room.

That thought brings a small, warm smile to Kinemi's face (she knows it's warm—she can feel it in her chest), and she hopes Ayano doesn't mind as she sidles up to the other girl. Kinemi leans on the edge of the table and takes a peek at Ayano's work. "Extra credit, Ayano-chan?" she asks.

Ayano's hand stills, and her cheeks take on an amazing amount of red as she pulls a face, but she unfurls from the tiny canvas she's been painting. "…yeah."

"Are those mini canvases? So cute!"

Ayano puts her brush down and runs a tired hand through her fringe with a sigh. "Are they? They're all different shapes, though, so they don't exactly go together. But a mini canvas means I don't have to paint as much…"

Kinemi's heart twinges. Her, doing papier-mâché. Ayano, painting. They're both trying to conquer their enemy media. But whereas Kinemi's will take layers and layers and layers, and she might finish in the nick of time… Her eyes rove over the canvases Ayano has out.

There are six total. Square, rectangle, circle, hexagon, triangle, and star. The rectangular canvas is complete and the square's in-progress, but Ayano's got an underpainting or a sketch on the rest. And Kinemi glimpses the story in them.

The first piece has two tiny silhouettes in front of her and Ayano's prep school.

The second piece…Kinemi can't make out all of it but is sure she glimpses a volleyball and her old uniform.

She reddens when she notes a leg cast on the circular canvas (because not everyone wants their injuries memorialized).

But her heart skips a beat when she grasps little tick marks indicating cherry blossoms…oh, the star is their high school graduation.

In the triangle, Kinemi sees the banner from the Geidai opening ceremony. And on the hexagon…it's only a faint sketch. Is it them in the happi from the cultural festival? Or is it them wearing housecoats while under the kotatsu at Ayano's apartment at New Year's?

Ayano reaches for that one. "Th-That's not fully developed," she mumbles as she tries to set it aside.

"No, Ayano-chan—" Without thinking, Kinemi reaches out, hoping to keep the canvas in place, where it belongs, with the rest of its family, telling the rest of her and Ayano's story.

Their hands brush. It's not as though they've never touched before, and Ayano tucks her arm into Kinemi's half the time when they walk. But this morning, and after this reveal, it's not quite the same, and both girls jolt.

Kinemi's face warms. She watches Ayano re-sort her canvases and hide away the hexagon. Kinemi glances, too, to her own project in the back of the room.

(To the torso. To this papier-mâché model that's from neck to waist and doesn't have arms yet but will. It will capture the elegance of the curves—neck, arms, waist, breasts—that press against her so casually, so regularly, that Kinemi knows them well. That's why she chose decorative paper—only the finest things to drape over such elegance.)

Kinemi clears her throat and clasps her hands behind her back, gently backing off. "Well, whenever you're ready to show yours, Ayano-chan, I'm ready to show mine."

And Ayano nods, cheeks still ruddy, but she's calmer now, and they resume working in silence.

Except now, Kinemi notes, it's a kind of charged silence…because they'll see each other's completed work sooner or later, with this assignment due at the end of the month. And extra credit? Extra credit is a maybe, not a given.

But owning up to each other about what they're feeling? Well, that's….

Done for the 5, 10, 20, 50, 70, 100 Fandoms Challenge as well as the If You Dare Challenge (for prompt #975: head in the clouds) in the HPFC forum on FFN, in addition to minifemslashfeb 2023 (scenario 2: accidentally touched your hand) and Year of the OTP (February prompt: different) on tumblr. :3c So, funnily enough, it's been almost a yr since I last wrote for BP (I've done a little art since then). And my last fic, "soft & cute things," also had an extra credit premise, *lol*. But I liked going this route here, bc I feel extra credit in school could legit sometimes be embarrassing and not straightforward… Also, legit I totes described my old lab room, just shoddy. X'D I do love Ayakine's friendship and tension/vibe that is just like…be married already. I left off on ch50 of the manga, so I have some reading to do, but I also have waaay more art ideas rn than fic (altho another Ayakine occurred to me recently), so pls check out my art tag for mostly Ayakine and Yatoyota things~ This yr I also wanna doodle everyone (more Yuka, more Hashida, compelled to draw Murai finally), so. Hopefully we'll see a bit more than ship art on my blog. XD

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave an anon/unsigned review via the FFN link or comment via the AO3 link at the top of the post, especially if you enjoyed this! Check out my other fics if you liked this, too!

~mew

#blue period #ブルーピリオド #ayakine #miki kinemi #aizawa ayano #fanfic #mew writes too much #femslash february #minifemslashfeb2023 #yearoftheotp #i'm back with the girllssss

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blueaizu · 1 year

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Suspended Twitter

Today my Twitter page was permanently suspended, so this will affect a few things. Needless to say I am not happy. This is going to be a long post, so find out more after this jump if you want to know what's going on.

By the way: I'm not holding back. There will be swearing and unfiltered anger, so if you don't want to see it, don't hit the jump.

First some introductions, since this Tumblr page is still pretty new: my name is BlueAizu. I'm an anime artist who has been posting artwork on websites like Twitter for a long time (psst, check out #BlueAizu's Art if you want to see what I do). I'm also exploring game development and I have also done livestreams of myself drawing or making my game in the past. To this end, I am currently in the middle of rebranding myself so I can enter into the world of Vtubers. At this time I'm not quite ready to do a full reveal of my model, but if you've looked at my profile picture you already have an idea of what he will look like. I'm very pleased with the progress so far and I'm looking forward to finally sharing him when the time comes, but enough about that.

As you may know, Twitter was recently bought out by Elon Musk for an extremely large sum of money and he is, shall we say... not the greatest? He's always looking to try and make back his investment and changing the platform for the worse, saying it's for "free speech" and that he'll be "a savior of social media" like he's the second coming of Jesus Christ. One of the things he's done is allowing people to pay a subscription for verification, which used to be a symbol of authenticity for public figures to avoid impersonation. Not anymore!

On top of this he's started a separate subscription that's way higher than $8 USD per month for organizations and businesses, currently $1000 a month. The ultimate kicker is that it still costs $1000 just to apply and it's non-refundable if you're not accepted, which is scummy enough on its own but the page for signing up doesn't mention that anywhere, just in an easily overlooked "Terms of Service" page at the very bottom. A horrible, horrible practice all around.

So what does all of that have to do with me specifically? Well, I was replying to someone who ended up unwittingly paying the full sum of $1000 (they got the chargeback, thankfully, but not without involving lawyers). My response: "I hope Elon's personal Tesla self-drives off a cliff," which while disapproving of Elon, was meant to be tongue in cheek and I wouldn't want it to actually happen to someone. Apparently this single tweet was severe enough that it warranted an immediate and permanent suspension of my account. My Twitter account, which I've had for over 10 years, was in good standing for all of that time and I used mainly for retweeting art and geeking out about video games I liked, is suddenly unusable and I can no longer participate on Twitter at all. This is completely unreasonable because, while I'll accept responsibility that it wasn't the most tasteful thing to say, permanent suspension from the platform is completely disproportionate retribution. There are so many pages and people who post and continue to share far worse, more offensive content for the sole purpose of spreading unbridled, bigoted hatred and malice for eliciting reactions. The single tweet I made is apparently far worse than that.

Also in the same e-mail as an added bonus, it mentioned that Twitter Blue isn't automatically disabled for suspended accounts, just as one additional middle finger for anyone this situation happens to. Probably counting on people forgetting about it and still paying it anyway without realizing! I suspect that my tweet was used as a scapegoat to get me off the platform for being critical of the decisions Elon has been making for Twitter and generally just not liking him, at all.

So, I'm done with Twitter. I already sent an appeal and I'll be happy to delete the tweet in question if given the chance, but after this? After this complete shitshow? I have lost all of my respect for Twitter. I now realize that it is a shitty platform, with a biased owner that has a cold, self-centered, devil-may-care billionaire toddler's ego the size of fucking Jupiter that's as fragile as a single strand of uncooked spaghetti. He doesn't treat his employees well, he can't take criticism at all, and his actions paint him as being unfit for running one of the biggest social media platforms, which many people have relied on for years, in every way except being able to buy it out. I am very outraged this has happened, and I will not forget this.

And that's the end of my story of why I'm no longer on Twitter.

Good-bye, Twitter.

May you go up in flames, your employees freed from Elon's iron grip and then move on to more fulfilling careers elsewhere.

#announcement #twitter #account suspended #I'm very sorry if this if the first time you're seeing me #I'm not normally this negative #elon musk

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turboacek-blog · 1 year

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Dragon Ball Super, potential arcs

If the anime ever comes back, people already assume they would cover the manga arcs of Moro and Granolah

And probably adapt the movies Broly and Super Hero

But that’s two main arcs and two smaller arcs (the movies wouldn’t be that long even when broken into episodes and the anime fleshing out certain moments)

And don’t know if that would be enough for a return imo

So I’m going to brainstorm ideas to help justify a return as well as just have fun

Android 21 arc

Yeah adapting the Dragon Ball FighterZ story

Mostly the Android 18 version

I don’t think the reviving of the villains will go over as well but the general premise can work

Android 21 makes this wave ray thing that nullifies most of the energy in the world making Goku and co nearly powerless

And without doing the player's soul thing maybe Bulma makes a device like a bracelet that allows them to use some of their ki but it takes a while to make each one so they do need to solve the problem

Along the way the team consists of all the z fighters

Android 21 has a similar story with 18, 17, and a new 16 then her body splits into the good half and bad half and goes from there

Can be a fun arc to level the playing field as now Yamcha could hypothetically beat Vegeta now

Plus depending on how they handle the ending Android 21 could join the Z fighters as she is a fan favorite

Edit: watched DBS: Super Hero

Since she is now officially the wife of Gero and 16 would be her son and Hedo her great? Grandson

Could have some connection with Hedo and Gamma 1 depending on the placement of this arc as before 21 could meet Hedo her grandson

After Hedo can help against 21

Xenoverse arc

This can be handled in a lot of ways

But I’m mainly focusing on the Trunks, SKOT (Supreme Kai of Time), and Fuu aspect from Xenoverse 2 bonus content

In my ideal version, this would be the Trunks that left to join the duplicate of him and Mai in their timeline and through time shenanigans the timelines are fine and Trunks can ask Goku and co to help against Fuu

Can be the repeat of the Future Trunks/Zamasu/Goku Black arc as it’s incorporating Trunks again but this time has a god/Kai approval

Don’t know the details as it would need to be altered a bit to fit the anime as they didn’t do the multiverse stuff the games do

Maybe incorporate the other universes like Jirens 11 or the unknown ones like 1

Edit: realized this is a lot of the Heroes plot so maybe just find a way to connect them somewhat officially

Dragon Ball Online stuff

I don’t know too much about the game but I know it had a lot of stuff that Toriyama helped add that could make its way into canon in some version

Like Tien already has his dojo which was the idea that was first in the game

Some ideas I had without going into detail as these can be one episode “fillers”

Krillin’s dojo, has a dojo similar to Tien for the new turtle and crane schools to exist

Ms. Buu, Buu wants a companion and creates his wife Ms. Buu so can see that happening as even in Xenoverse he just creates kids so some form of Buu having a Major family can work

Gohans book, Gohan writes a book about Ki control that spreads and has many people learn about ki including Mr. Satan, probably more of a post-Z time but can at least get started here plus it ties into his Scholar profession and how he taught Videl in Z

Goten and Trunk different paths, Trunk takes up the sword and is a swords master and Goten with martial arts so they grow in those aspects, in Online they eventually teach so maybe build that idea for the future

Namek on earth, for whatever reason namekians are on earth in DB online and they’re not just descendants of Piccolo and Dende

This could work as Namekians are friendly with the Z fighters and they just need water to live but don’t know what impact it would have

So that was the adaption stuff

Now for my original off-the-wall ideas

Android 8 upgrade, somehow Android 8 gets an upgrade and can compete against the z fighters but is used for evil or something, if Hedo can make androids capable to fight Gohan and Piccolo then anything is possible lol

Adapting some Z movie villains:

Turles and the tree of might, another Saiyan that survived kinda like Tarble but his fruit of the tree of light gives him a power boost capable of actually fighting the Z fighters

Lord Slug, evil namekian can be old yet super powerful like Moro and gets his youth back

Cool Cooler, instead of just Freiza again, I think Cooler could be what Frost was acting as but being a good guy but he has a villain he needs help defeating or something

Janemba is just a pretty strong alien with a good power set, Janemba could take a lot of hits in the bigger form and had the teleport portal blade attacks in his more iconic form

Lastly, the one people are mixed on but for the most part, want

Redo GT

This would have to be after the Z of Dragon ball so it's not likely but if they do go past the end of Z

Black star dragon balls

Just needs fine-tuning, as its main problem was that it was too long leaving it to have a lot of bad episodes,

Plus it can give Universe 7 more world building

Baby saga

Can mostly be the same but obviously more modernized and fix the issues it had

The body-snatching idea was good alone and then adding the backstory was solid on its own

Super Android 17

This would need the most workaround as maybe it isn’t 17 this time but Gamma 1 and someone rebuilt Gamma 2 and they do the fused idea people thought Super Hero would have before release

Shenron/Dragon saga

This can again be mostly the same just modernized

Having there be a drawback for all the wishes they have made is good

The dragons would need some work as outside of Nova Eis and Shin the others can be changed

And the ending can be virtually the same again

And I’m not writing it out but this is again the opportunity to not make GT Goku time

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #dragon ball z #dragon ball gt

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