#like back in 2015 or something. i had so many shows to look forward to for airing

[munchboxart]

It's midnight so I'm gonna ramble again but about animation/cartoons as a whole included with my lack of knowledge about the industry

A few weeks ago, I remember watching some video about Cartoon Network or something and the guy doing the essay mentioned something like "With the rise of streaming and online as a whole, there is a loss of connection with parents and their kids because back then, you could watch the same cartoon with your kids and recognize who that is". They absolutely did not say those exact words but something along the lines of it, and it's stuck to me for days because it's true! Like I don't think kids nowadays have that kind of connection other than theatrical kids movies, which sucks I think moments like these are precious to have.

Another thing is that I think people kind of underestimate how popular cartoon/2d/3d shows are with adults? Especially young adults because the people who grew up with like, 1990s-2010s shows are probably mostly grown adults now. Probably the best recent example of this is Adventure time and how (I think) big Fionna and Cake is. Like I could go on Twitter and be spoiled hell and back on the newest episodes LOL. How about Owl House and Infinity Train? Bluuey too?? I don't know, but with the writers strike and how swept under the rug animation is, especially on streaming, it just kind of sucks where the current state of animation is right now for everyone as a whole

[midnightechoes]

Five years ago today, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power premiered on Netflix. I had seen a few preview articles about it, and liked what I saw. Those articles mostly focused on She-Ra’s, Adora’s, Glimmer’s, Bow’s, and Catra’s redesigns, and I thought they were fabulous. I loved Adora’s new red jacket and bouffant hair style. Glimmer’s entire redesign was inspired, and I loved that they made Bow black so we could have more diversity in the main cast.

It was She-Ra’s and Catra’s redesigns that caught my eyes the most, though. They made Catra an actual catgirl, and not just in the anime sense where she's just a cute girl with cat ears and maybe a cat tail. She was a full-on furry. It was a brilliant design choice. Honestly it’s no wonder that so many were instantly drawn to her.

And of course, She-Ra herself. I loved her new look, and her huge ass new Sword of Protection. In fact, I loved it so much that I drew this picture of her before the show even came out:

Then the show came out, and needless to say, I fell in love. And honestly, it changed my life.

I know, I know. That sounds very hyperbolic, and to an extent it is, but in a lot of ways, I’m absolutely serious.

Alright, I have to back up a little. Back when I was in college, and for a few years after, a couple of friends and I tried to make a webcomic called The Devil’s Gate. It was minorly successful but eventually floundered. Then I met some people and we tried to make a video game, which also failed. After those few years, I found myself on my own and trying to rework the concept of my webcomic. Making comics, creating stories, those have always been my dream, and I was desperately trying to figure out a story I could make work, something that I believed in. But it never truly got off the ground. By the end of 2015 I had given up on the comic, realizing that after working on it for years in different forms that I needed to step away from it.

I didn’t really know what to do after that. I was still doing my quick daily doodles, but I wasn’t writing, I wasn’t drawing anything of note. I felt emotionally and physically drained of my creativity. I was honestly getting to the point where I thought it might be time for me to give up on trying to be creative or making things all together.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power came out on November 13, 2018, but despite looking forward to it, I didn’t actually watch it when it came out. It wasn’t until that weekend that I decided to check it out.

I was instantly hooked. I binged through the entire season in two days, and did plenty of crying and cheering. And then rewatched it immediately. I was in love. I was obsessed. It had been a long time since anything grabbed me like SPOP did. I loved the characters. I loved the colorful, sci-fi-fairy tale world of Etheria. I loved how unapologetically feminine it was. And most of all, I loved how queer it was.

I hadn’t done a ton of shipping before SPOP. I’ve been down bad for harlivy for what feels like my whole life, and I was angry when Mika and HG didn’t get together in Warehouse 13, but more often than not I had just been conditioned not to look for queer things in mainstream culture, and even barely in subculture.

That is to say, when I was smashed in the face with Catradora I was surprised how much I glommed onto it immediately. I was absolutely taken with Adora and Catra and their relationship. Both characters were so relatable, and despite not quite being text (although the subtext was so loud and obvious it might as well have been text), it was impossible to not read their feelings for each other as romantic.

It wasn’t just Catradora, even if that was a lot of it. Spinnerella and Netossa being canon from the start was wonderful. How much Glimmer and Bow screamed “BISEXUAL DISASTERS” from the start was adorable. Scorpia’s crush on Catra was as cute as it was sad in its one-sidedness.

I had never really been in a fandom. That is, yeah I’ve liked things, loved things even, but I never found other people to talk about it at length, never found discords just for that thing, never read or wrote fanfic, barely ever drew fanart. 

But, I watched SPOP, and then I watched it again. And then I drew Catra. And then I drew Adora. And then I drew them again. And suddenly I was on AO3, a site I never frequented, reading Catradora fics. And then I had an AO3 account. That December I participated in Catradora Week 2018 (I’d never heard of this kind of thing) and drew two pictures for it and wrote my first fanfic.

By the end of February I had drawn more in the three months since the show had premiered than I had in the previous year. I was working furiously on a long, multi-chapter fanfic, and writing more words than I had in the previous couple of years combined.

I was inspired again.

In the 18 months that SPOP ran for, I drew more than I had in years, I wrote hundreds of thousands of words. I felt so rejuvenated and happy about my creativity and free for the first time in years.

It’s hard to put into words exactly how it felt. I was so close to giving up my art and writing, which honestly, would have been giving up a part of myself. An important part of myself. It’s not overstating that SPOP saved me, or at least my creative spirit.

I also learned about the wonders of being in a fandom and fandom things like fan weeks, big bangs, zines. And I made some wonderful friends that I cherish to this day.

Even as I inevitably moved onto other hyperfixations, my love for She-Ra hasn’t diminished. Plushie Catra and Adora sit next to me on my desk every day. Catradora art still hangs on my wall.

The inspiration that SPOP ignited in me hasn’t died either. It’s carried me through a tremendous level of creativity that I’ve been riding since the premiere. It let me create a ton of fan art for SPOP, and then RWBY and then the Witch From Mercury, and I’ve written a ton of fanfics for RWBY and Supergirl. And perhaps the best, that inspiration has helped me create more OC stuff in the last couple years than I had in a long time.

I owe She-Ra and The Princesses of Power so much. I am so happy that it exists and that it happened when it did. I’ll always cherish it.

And for real, Netflix, SPOP spin-off movies WHEN?!

[peppertaemint]

Let's talk about Taemin and Key of SHINee wearing the Scottish fashion house Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, an openly queer unisex brand. There’s a lot of talk about whether idols know who they are wearing and, when relevant, do they understand the meaning of what they are wearing. We know there are clear examples of artists not understanding what they’re wearing. Indeed, 23-year-old, non-English-speaking Taemin admitted in 2021 that he had no idea the fly of his pants read “Open Here” during View era. Yet, a lot has changed this 2015/16. Taemin’s English is quite proficient. And what about Key, who has studied English since he was a child? I think we can consider understanding the words and understanding the context or broader meaning behind words or, as the case may be, symbols, which can be universal.

Taemin in the Advice album photobook, 2021.

The Charles Jeffrey Loverboy brand is no ordinary brand. It’s a spunky, fun and edgy unisex brand with genuine British flavour. From London Fashion Week's write up:

"Looking back to look forward, the collections re-render historical references as intrinsically modern while paying respect to an ancestral line-up of costumiers, performance artists and queer icons. Jeffrey’s nightlife-influenced thirst for experimentation, and belief in the validity of mistakes, result in a colourful tension between control and chaos.

"LOVERBOY’s roots are fixed in London’s queer nightlife scene, having been born in 2014 as both a fashion label and a cult club night. The LOVERBOY parties, first staged while Jeffrey was studying for his Masters in fashion design at Central St Martins in London, were attended by the city’s up-and-coming artists, performers, musicians, drag queens and poets, many of whom became Jeffrey’s future muses and creative collaborators."

Live performance of Advice, 2021.

The tartan in these looks is known as the loverboy tartan. In the current collection, they have an “odorable” loverboy tartan raincoat with giant floppy bunny ears. I’m too lazy to link it, but do look it up and peruse the punk-meets-whimsy items on the website.

Taemin’s stylist for Advice was Kim Wook. You can read an interview with Kim Wook in translation here. Wook talks about he and Taemin wanting to do something impactful before Taemin entered the military, and they settled on working with silhouettes that are usually seen on female dancers. I could do a whole post on Taemin’s styling for Advice (maybe I will!), but to connect things back to the brand at hand, the flamboyantly unisex Loverboy brand seems to be at home with the goal of Advice’s styling. Advice was Taemin’s way of saying “I will go my own way and trust myself over others,” and I don’t think the androgynous or even gender-fluid looks he presented are a coincidence; Wook’s interview shows that it isn’t. These looks feel like a push forward for Taemin, and he’s been clear in saying Advice was a breakaway from his past. Act I and Act II were leading to this moment.

Taemin has been wearing Charles Jeffery Loverboy upon in return in 2023. I think the most significant choice is the non-binary shirt he wore a fan meeting during Hard era. The t-shirt is a jab at conservatives’ obsession with the love lives and indeed, bathroom usage, of LGBT+, saying, “They’re happy and satisfied. Are you?” There is a also a good-sized, unmistakable non-binary symbol on the shirt. I hadn’t seen this symbol before but it was still easy for me to comprehend. As an artist who is increasingly wearing gender-fluid outfits, it is likely a conscious choice to wear a shirt that supports non-binary rights.

Now, we can’t forget fashion-forward, English king Key in all of this. Key has always had a love and fascination with fashion; we saw in One Fine Day his interaction with a local London fashion brands. He’s a man who knows his fashion houses, so it seems unlikely he wouldn’t know about the Loverboy brand or its ethos as a unisex brand.

Key primarily wore Charles Jeffrey Loverboy accessories for his Gasoline promotions in 2022. The adorable hat with ears is statement wrapped in cuteness, that speaks to the camp motif present in both Key’s body of work and the Loverboy label’s. It’s cute, but not too cute. It’s loud but soft, and the Loverboy stamp is there for all to see. I think that Key embodies what LSF wrote about the Lovery label as “a colourful tension between control and chaos.” Key is never afraid to experiment, and he can go from creating iconic androgynous silhouettes reminiscent of ancient gods and Beyoncé to the retro-camp shown below that almost looks like it could be at home in a Ghostbusters film. Almost.

There are contexts where, like the above, it is more than reasonable to assume that the artists understand what they are wearing and that the choices made are conscious and in some cases made with the goal of the comeback in mind. And there are situations where it’s possible or even confirmed by the artist that they didn’t know what they were wearing or what it meant. I think it can become an obsession for some to want the styling to be conveying a secret code. With the case of Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, there’s no code and it’s not secret. It’s simply known and recognised by those who know, which is enough.

[reyggtv]

There's only so much I can say on Twitter to truly express my feelings about the show Hilda, and how much of an impact it has left on me to make me the kind of person I am today, so I'm taking to Tumblr to write all about it.

If you don't know who I am already, hi, I am ReyGGTV, though you can just call me Rey. I like to make YouTube videos, memes, talk with other Hilda fans, and make occasionally make art. You may already know me from the Hilda Crack videos I made since several years ago, as well as some more recent big videos of mine like my comparison video between Aster and Hilda. I am 20 years old, and have been a diehard fan of the franchise ever since I was just 14.

Firstly, let's discuss how I actually managed to discover Hilda in the first place. It was 2018, freshman year of high school had just started, during this time, I was still big fan of another animated TV show at the time called Star vs. The Forces of Evil. I was a fan of that show ever since its premiere in January of 2015 when I was only 11 years old. Honestly even if I don't look at it nearly as fondly as I do now, to its credit, the show did most certainly help me get interested into animation as a whole more than any other show I saw at the time.

Not even like 2 months after I got in though, I was kicked out. Not because I did anything wrong, but because for a while, my parents had me enrolled in a school district that I didn't even live anywhere near in at the time, so once they found out that I actually lived much farther from them, that's when they decided to let me go. This was devastating to me, all the friends I made in middle school, were suddenly going to go away, and it was only at the very last minute, at the principal's office that I received this news. I was upset, literally everything was going great and they just wanted to throw everything away for me, in favor for me going to a school that was so bad, it caused my family to move to an entirely new city with a better school by the time Sophomore year came around.

But anyways, about 2 weeks before all this happened, I was in a cartoon Discord server, where someone recommended me to watch this show called... you guessed it, Hilda. I took a lot at the promotional material for a while, and put it at the back of my head, not knowing that I would soon revisit it not long later. Fast forward to when I was out of school, I had like 2 weeks in the beginning of October to just cope with everything. It wasn't long that I just became bored, and wanted to do something better, so I pulled up Netflix wanting to find something new to watch. The suggestion from someone about Hilda just so happened to come up on my mind, so I was like "Eh, sure, why not?". I put it on, and the rest was history. I knew from the very moment I finished watching the intro for the very first time, that this was about to be the show of a lifetime for me.

Despite that however, I did not anticipate just how much impact Hilda would leave on the work that I am now doing nearly 6 years after that very faithful day.

I guess the biggest reason why the show left such a massive impact on me right from the beginning is because of its main title character, Hilda. Look, I may be no blue-haired adventurer from the wilderness that likes to munch on cucumber sandwiches all the time, but Hilda at the time for me, was the most relatable character and the character I found the most comfort in when watching it for the first time. Just like me, Hilda too, was also forced to move away from the place and friends she was always happy to be with, despite all her efforts, all it took was one giant, to come and crush it all, leaving her forced to live a new life in a new environment she was not familiar with at all. But, she moved on. She knew that while this was not the ideal way for things go out, life always comes with surprises. But maybe, just maybe, this could be something that could work out in her favor. This whole becoming friends with other humans and living in the big dirty ol' city, could be the best decision she has ever made. And I think it goes without saying that as the series continued, it was.

This was a message that I desperately needed to hear as I was going through overwhelming times at such a young age, and one that I was so happy to hear and watch once I finally finished the first two episodes of this amazing damn show. It showed me that if an 11-year-old girl from the wilderness can be brave enough to move into the big city, be okay and make the best out of it, maybe I too, will be okay with belonging to a new school, finding new friends, and creating new passions for me to follow for years to come. Hilda inspired me to look towards a bigger and brighter future, rather than doubt the bad that comes with the present. For that, I am forever grateful for the creative and writing team of this show, for helping me go through such a difficult time in my life, and convincing me that even despite all that has happened, there will always be something better to look forward to.

I would be lying if I said that this was the only reason as to why I ended up becoming such a huge fan of the show for the next 5 years. Asides from the writing being so good it literally cured my depression. The animation, worldbuilding, and characters were just unlike anything I have ever seen with my own two eyes. It was simple, yet jaw dropping at the same time. Just a silly kid either helping a Raven jog back his memory, try and fight nightmare spirits or ghosts, or help Jellybean out of a scary situation in which everyone wrongfully accuses him of being a big scary black hound. Even if certain episodes of season 1 didn't always turn out perfect, I would always rewatch every single one of them all day for several hours and for several weeks. I had even skipped multiple days of school especially when it was raining, just so I can head to the living room, cuddle up in some warm blankets, with the heater on during the winter season, and just binge the crap out of it for multiple hours a day. This was just the show that I can always count on to bring back the happiness inside of me. Even when I wasn't necessarily having a bad day, I would still continue to watch it for hours because it just kept on getting better and better with every watch I could get possible, it was almost like an addiction almost, haha.

Hilda was the show for me, and I had no intention of trying to watch anything else.

It was also around this time that I started to also get myself more involved with the show's fandom as well, back when it was a lot more populated and not as niche as it is now. While I'm not gonna say that my reputation in it has always been 100% perfect, at the end of the day, I'm just forever grateful I was able to meet some of the most wonderful people and hundreds of fans like myself because of it like @hkthatgffan, @helgafolk618, and many more I can't list here 'cause most of them are not on Tumblr. So much so that I now have the pleasure of creating hundreds, if not thousands of people who are fans/supporters of ME all across all my social media pages. All because I like to talk about Hilda, literally all the time. And to those reading this who has ever left a nice comment on one of my posts, said hi to me on my Discord server, worked with me on a commission, even went as far as to make fan-art of me or just tuned into any of my content whatsoever, thank you. Your support has left a massive impact on me and what I'm continuing to do now. Because at the end of the day, it's not about any popularity points you get from just talking about a TV show consistently for 6 years, for me at least, it has always been about making thousands, sometimes, even millions, happy with my love for it that is the reason that I'm doing any of this in the first place. I love Hilda, always have, and I want to make people happy the same way Hilda did for me, all those years ago.

Surprisingly enough, even though I was already as big of a fan as I could possibly be by the time November of 2018 rolled around, I still wasn't really a guy interested in getting my hands on Hilda merchandise. I knew that the graphic novels by Luke existed, but the only thing I even managed to get for myself at the time was this old T-shirt I bought from the now defunct official Zazzle store they had up for like a few months lol

I guess that all changed when I got my first ever Hilda plush though when I was 15. While it has now certainly showed its age after nearly 5 years, I loved this thing so much lol. It wasn't official because official Hilda plushies didn't exist at the time. I bought it off an Etsy store from AngelinaLily, and I would literally take this thing out with me everyday to everywhere I went to and take photos of it, especially in the wilderness. It was my favorite pastime. My little Hilda, in the palm of my hand 😆. Hey, when you have to wait more than 2 whole years for a brand-new season, what else are you gonna do to entertain yourself during the hiatus?

I had gotten this in the mail right when I had just exited out the mental hospital because I was actively wanting to h*rt myself and potentially putting myself in danger of committing s*icide. Because while Hilda did definitely help me cope with a lot that I was going through at the time, there was still a lot of overwhelming issues I was experiencing, and my mental health was the lowest that it had ever been. This plush effectively, was a way to help me cope with those thoughts I had, which turned out to be a great thing because I literally couldn't be happier with it.

After that, I just decided that "You know what? What if I just got... ALL of the Hilda merchandise?" Thus... that now leading to my massive hoard of Hilda stuff, that I now have everywhere in my room lol

These photos aren't even all the ones I have!

At 16, I decided to write Luke Pearson an e-mail, thanking him for his work and how much it has inspired me to become the person I am now, explaining everything that I just mentioned in this Tumblr post, and at the end of the day, just wanting him to know, that his creations mean a grave big deal to me, and that I will always appreciate just how much of a positive impact it has left me. I didn't really expect anything to come out of it, but about several weeks later, he said this to me lol

"I just wanted to say thank you for writing and relaying your experience to me. I'm sorry to hear that you've been through such difficult times, but I'm glad that you're able to look back on those times and find yourself in a better place. And if Hilda has played any small part in that, which it seems like it has, then I'm extremely pleased about that and it warms me to hear it. It can be hard to know exactly what good a cartoon can actually do for the world (beyond being a few hours of amusement) which is strange when so many people devote so much of their time and creative energy into making it happen. But hearing something like this goes a long way to making it feel like something genuinely worthwhile. I hope things continue to look up for you and hope you're taking care in these trying times." - All the best, Luke

When I tell you I cried like a baby when I first received this e-mail from him, I really did, lol. Hearing this, from the man who made it all possible, was truly the most inspirational thing I could have ever heard. And I was happy, that he was happy, that I was truly able to tell him for the first time, just how much his creation has meant to not just me, but to soooo many fans just like myself. It was truly something to never forget.

Now I'm 20 years old, still talking about the same ol' dang kids show I fell in love with all those years ago. What's happening now? Well now, I am an aspiring film director and video editor who has been taking film classes in community college for the past like 2 years now, I should've graduated already by now but turns out, college is pretty fricking expensive, and I don't even know if I have the funds to try and even graduate by next year. Asides from that though, I am actually in the works of creating my first ever feature-length Hilda fan-film called The Ultimate Hilda Iceberg. It will basically be one of those iceberg explanation videos you see on YouTube, but with the original source of the iceberg being about Hilda, specifically a version someone made on the r/HildaTheSeries subreddit. I've had the idea for this Iceberg video/fan-film as far back as January 2021, with the current script having started work as far back as nearly 9 months ago. And it's still not even finished! Me, as well as tens of dozens of other Hilda fans like myself, are actively working on it to have it be ready by the time fall of this year comes around, right now as we speak! If you want to support and/or follow this massive project as more updates come around you can either follow the official accounts on Twitter/X (@/HildaIceberg) or on Instagram (@/theultimatehildaiceberg).

Asides from that, the biggest passion project I have for my career moving forward, is directing my own big-budget Hilda movie. Specifically, a live-action Hilda movie. Now now, BEFORE you try and cancel me and tell me that this is the stupidest idea of all time and could taint Hilda's image forever. Let me cook. I am a huge movie bluff, I know which live action remakes are genuinely amazing, and which ones just really suck. My vision for a live-action Hilda movie is to make it sorta like how Who Framed Roger Rabbit was. All of the human characters and outside settings are done with real people and practical assets, whilst creatures like Trolls, Elves, or stuff that would normally be done with CGI, be actually turned into 2D-animation, ideally in the same style as that of the Netflix show. Ideally, I also want it to remain as faithful to at least how the show was as possible in terms of story. Look, if there's gonna be anyone else who knows their Hilda best asides from people like Luke or Andy Coyle, it's gonna be me, just sayin.

In conclusion, I just want to wrap this up by giving a huge shout out to people like @littledigits and literally ANYONE who has ever done any time making this fantastic and wonderful show (I couldn't think of anyone else to tag so I only tagged you Meg so sorry if that bothers you 😅). As this post has indicated several times, this show, has really made the best kind of impact in my life and I'm forever grateful to the creator Luke, the directors Andy Coyle, Megan, etc, the voice actors, artists, editors, composers, everyone who has ever had a part in making this amazing show just, please let me hug you. While I may not have been as enthusiastic with the show's third season overall as I wanted to in my opinion, Hilda will always have a soft spot in my heart, for years and years to come, for just how much it truly inspired me, to not just not only being able to have the luxury to do the things I love to do now, but do so in a way that has made, and hopefully will continue to make thousands, hundreds of thousands if not millions of people happy, because of the love that I will continue to have for this very show. Just because a show is small, doesn't mean it can't leave big enough impacts on people for the better ❤️

[pink-key]

Old 2015 version

A young man was sitting on a concrete block, lacing up his rollerblades. His hands were shaking with excitement. He had been thinking about this upcoming moment for several years. Tightening the tongue of his skate, he stood up and rolled forward slightly. He looked around. The building he was in was once supposed to be a small shopping center, but the company went bankrupt and left the building in an unfinished state. This place had been his refuge ever since.

His appearance was not remarkable: disheveled long black hair and always tired gray eyes with an eternal, distant look. He was wearing an old, tattered sweatshirt and dark pants, in which some small holes were already visible, undoubtedly the result of street fights.

Taking the claw hammer, he swung it a couple of times and quietly muttered, barely smiling, "Everything should go perfectly; it would be a shame to end up in that damned hospital with a broken leg again."

At a young age, he was hit by a car, resulting in hospitalization. At that time, there were many war veterans there. Every day, he heard their groans, cries of agony, and curses when they realized that their limbs could not be saved. This moment stuck in his subconscious; he felt a certain detachment from reality, his consciousness slowly peeling away from his brain. At least that's how he described it to his overprotective mother. Like any mother, she was worried about her son, but she did not consider therapists and psychologists to be real doctors and treated his mental health in her own way. She worked as a court assistant lawyer and often brought pictures from her work. These were photographs of crime scenes, and she thought that by showing them to her son, the boy would not consider blood or corpses, for that matter, as something scary. She was always too close for his comfort.

Ruffling his hair sharply with his free hand, he shook his head. He didn't want these memories to ruin his night. He glanced at his belongings lying on a nearby cement block. A shabby backpack, a couple of trinkets and his old hockey stick. He grinned, taking the hockey stick and putting it in the case on his back that wrapped around his torso. He glanced at his watch. 2:34, time to act. Leaving the abandoned building, he skated on a deserted road.

With every second, emotions of immense joy filled him more and more, although he had not even reached his goal yet. He had not felt such bursting emotions for a long time; they were comparable to those he felt when he learned to roller-skate. 

He considered skates an extension of himself and felt awkward not wearing them. After all, he could run away or catch up with anyone when he was wearing them. He especially enjoyed it when he skated away from a salesman after stealing a sandwich or chips from him. His friends praised him for his agility and speed. However, they were hooligans and often fought and abused stray animals. He didn't spend much time with them; he believed that animals should not be tortured. All human beings, even children, are born spoiled and prone to cruelty, while animals do not have human thoughts and a thirst for sadism. He was so obsessed with this philosophy that the smell of cooked meat started to make him vomit. 

A girl appeared on the horizon. No older than 25, she wore a short dress that barely covered her bottom. She stared at her phone, typing something on it. She didn't care about the slightly cool wind or the completely empty road on which she stood. He was looking for her.

He leaned a little, gaining speed, and squeezed the hammer in his hand while whistling a simple classic tune.

"Hey, Oli-dolly! You're not a man? Why are you refusing meat? Should I knock the crap out of you? Frigging princess, all polite, quiet, well-mannered. You fight like a girl too." Words ringed in his head. If he was provoked, he had no brakes; he was ready to fight to the death. That moment in the past was no exception either. The long refusal of food made him more sullen, any bullying addressed to him angered him more easily than usual; when he grappled with the leader of their gang, he couldn't restrain himself and, out of hatred, bit off part of his opponent's cheek. In that instance, he realized how to live, everything seemed to fall into place for him, as if with the snap of fingers. Undoubtedly, all people are corrupt, but there are those who do not even try to pretend to be correct and give themselves over to their pleasures and sadistic inclinations. What if there was a way to erase them from existence completely? After all, their soul cannot exist outside their flesh, just burying the corpse won't be enough.

A dull sound echoed down the street. The girl fell to the ground. There was a pause as Oli slowly lowered his arm after the blow. He thought he would behave like the killers from the films, laugh loudly, shake with happiness, and burst into loud speeches. Yet he stood quietly, watching his victim, a slight shiver of adrenaline running through his body. Blood dripped down her silky blonde hair. She raised her head, looking in disbelief and horror at the teenager in front of her.

"O-oli?! Why... why did you do that?"

Tears poured out of her eyes. Not waiting for an answer, she got up, wobbling, and rushed in the opposite direction from him. He skated smoothly behind her, wondering how long she could run with a smashed head. She could not scream out words from the stupor of fear. However, when she gained strength, seeing the light in the windows of a house in the distance, Oli took out his hockey stick and knocked the girl down with it. She fell, face on the ground.

He hit the girl on the back with his weapon, so she couldn't make any more loud sounds. The man moved in front of her face, waiting for her to lift her bloody head up.

Sofia didn't do anything bad to him. She was very close to him, playing the role of an older sister to him and other street children in their area. Occasionally, she made snarky, playful remarks to them when they engaged in various hooliganism. However, Oli always considered her useless. She was from a dysfunctional family, of no use to anyone, bringing nothing to society. Only a rich family man wanted her body. No one will remember her or miss her. Therefore, he chose her as his first project, a kind of realization of his philosophy; it became his passion and meaning, without which he could not live.  --

"Did you guys hear? That maniac, Hitblade, killed someone again. Like, the quiet one from sociology, Rebecca or Raven was it." An anxious brown-haired girl sat down at the table where four of her classmates were having lunch.

"They haven't caught him yet? How hard is it to catch a cannibal on roller skates? Our police are completely slacking." Her red-haired classmate sitting opposite her answered displeasedly.

"I recently heard from a youtuber he ended up beating and eating his mother when he was a teen, even lived with her corpse for months, but these are just speculations, and these crimes are stated to not be related. Eh, don't worry, you look too young to be his next target." the third talkative classmate whispered, sneering awkwardly.

"Ahem, guys, I'm scared you know, I work the evening shift, what if he kills me?" The brunette muttered anxiously.

"Yes, I'm worried about you, Miriam. Oh, I have an idea! What if I accompany you after work to your home? I will be passing by there anyway, need to return a book to a friend." The black-haired guy said with notes of concern in his voice, moving his laptop away.

"You know, it's a good idea. He never attacks girls who're with someone. I finish at 22:00 you know the place." she said calming down.

"Of course." He answered with a gentle smile.

"Thank you, Oli!"

[btxt1223]

My Journey with BTS

tw// mentions of suicide

So, I have created this account to post random thoughts and a way to express my emotions better. I want to write my 1st post about BTS cause the only people to whom I have genuinely expressed my emotions is BTS. 

So, I have known about BTS since 2015 and started stanning them in 2017. When DNA came out, I wasn't particularly obsessed with it then, but Yoongi caught my eye because of his stage name, Suga. I was intrigued. The man had a very chill vibe to him, which I was drawn to; soon enough, I was binge-watching their interviews and music videos, listening to their songs, looking up their song translations, and, of course, Run BTS. I was obsessed with them, and I still am. The seven guys became my rock during high school. Would I be here trying to write this blog if not for them? I can't imagine even going a day without listening to their music, like just one song, a group or a solo. BTS has played a massive role in making me the person I am, the way I think, and my ideas. They made me a more curious person. From their music videos to the theme of the music that they made, it made learning things about society and art amusing for me, which I couldn't think would have happened in an education system that tries to kill our thinking. I decided to take up humanities as my stream because Map of Persona made me curious about psychology. The Blood, Sweat and Tears music video interested me in Greek mythology. I learned South Korea's history and socio-economics to understand their music better. I learned how the music industry in the West and South Korea works so that I could see them succeed in something they put so much passion and love into. I learned to care, be kind and humble, and love myself.  

So, let me try to talk about my emotions, which is a tough thing for me to do, and I have been trying my best to avoid that part for a long time. Not talking about it wouldn't do justice to this blog, where I am talking about my journey with BTS. I wasn't particularly a kid who got along with everyone and had many friends growing up. I remember feeling lonely constantly as a kid. I had social anxiety growing up, which made talking to people extremely hard for me. I wasn’t great in academics, and I still am not. I try my best, but something keeps lacking, making me incredibly insecure. Things like these have left me feeling insanely depressed that I have lost the meaning of life. I had so many times considered ending my life, never made any attempts or such, but just wished a truck would come and hit me. Soon, those thoughts came to my mind less when I started listening to BTS because they talked about these feelings in their lives and music.

I felt I wasn't alone for the first time, that somebody truly got me. I started trying to live because of them. I looked forward to their new music, the surprise live shows after every award function, the concerts they did or just randomly at night because they couldn't sleep, those Weverse posts, and the Run BTS new episode. Those little things motivated me to get out of bed and finish my day to peacefully enjoy whatever content they put out. I was reading one of my diary entries filled with BTS back during the lockdown. I didn't realise before reading that diary entry how much of a significant role they played in helping me stay alive when I got a considerable side effect of depression from my ADHD medications, and for that, I am thankful. I wouldn't be attending a nice enough college without them keeping me motivated, and I can't thank them enough.

I am ending this post on a somewhat incomplete note because it is tough for me to talk about something so close to my heart, and my journey with BTS here hasn't ended yet. I'll come soon enough to talk more about this.

[myonmukyuu]

Art Summary: 2022

It's that time of year again! This makes my 9th year of art summaries... Kind of insane to think about.

It's been a very eventful year and I have a lot to say. Extended art performance review under the cut 👌 (3k words lmao)

Previous: 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021

ABOUT THE COMIC:

So! What happened this year? Well, my book happened. I'm not sure if anything else happened ahfhasjkdkasf

See, I actually cheated this art summary a tiny bit. Usually I use the upload date of the art to place it in the summary. But if I did that for this year, there would be at least 4 blank spots. That's why February, April and May all feature different pages of the same comic (CH 9).

I really did spend the first half of the year finishing my comic. I only released 2 chapters too (the finale and the epilogue). In March I took a week and a half off to work on a short for Ayumu's birthday, but otherwise slaved all the way until June for the webcomic.

Then I spent July and August doing all of the redrawing and edits required for a physical release. Those who have a copy of my book might already know but the first two chapters have been redrawn. I also had to go through the entire comic, fixing it so that it could actually be printed (because the webcomic version definitely can't be printed as it is.) It was super time-consuming. Like, I can't even begin to describe. Moving forward I'll try to draw every comic so that it's printable from the beginning so I don't have to deal with reformatting ever again...

I'm pretty sure it was in August that I had the first copy of the book done. Then the preordering period opened in Septemeber... and now we're here! People are just now starting to receive their books. Sorry it took so long guys ;w;

I'm very happy though... Depending on who you ask, 100 sales might not be a lot, but it's a lot to me. To think that so many people would spend the money to buy this kind of product is just so surprising to me... It's expensive and all of the content is already available to read for free!!! So it's really surprising and I'm so incredibly grateful. That's why I went through the trouble of creating that golden special print for everyone! It was quite a bit of money out of my pocket, but I really wanted to show my appreciation.

As a side note, the 100 sales were really exhausting to pack. My body was sore in November because of it LMAO

So I'd say this year was great for my comic! Both its webcomic finale and its physical release. But this summary isn't meant to be about my comic, it's supposed to be about my art and me as an artist.

ABOUT MY ART:

So how did my art go this year?

Looking back I feel nothing but exhaustion. I know I'm happy to have my comic released but, my body and mind is still very very tired. I feel like I took at least 2-3 weeks off or more from work throughout the year to keep the comic on track. It's just a huge undertaking.

What I'm getting at is I feel a tired and... a little disappointed. But don't get me wrong, I don't feel regret! It's just that... well every artist draws for their own reasons. For me, I love getting my ideas and stories out there. So I guess I felt creatively-starved spending about half a year polishing and releasing an already-complete product. Also technically starved - you don't really see much improvement if all you're doing is cleaning up art. I didn't really have a lot of time to draw because of the physical release so I often felt like I wasn't doing enough.

And honestly that's my main sentiment. While I feel happy and satisfied with releasing the book, another part of me feels like she didn't do enough.

In terms of technical skill, I definitely saw improvement this year. It's like something clicked in me and I had a better understanding of atmospheric lighting. CH 9 and the epilogue are probably some of my favourite bits of colouring I've ever done. I just love how it turned out. In CH 9, the gradual setting of the sun to create this orange/pink/purple colour palette was so fun to implement. And in the Epilogue, this blue/green/yellow rainy day came out perfectly. It was a rainy day, but unlike CH 7, it wasn't a dreary downpour but something more hopeful instead. I have a love for creating atmosphere and especially through colour. And I think I did well there.

In the realm of black/white, I also feel lots of improvement! I'm becoming more confident with monochrome and am starting to push it further. I'm not satisfied with my skill level, but I think it's promising. I may be more confident with creating tone through colour, but I'm sure I can do the same without it!

This year I also did quite a bit of painting. I really love how the October and November artworks came out. Honestly it was around this point in the year, I had the most time to output works as the only comic work I had to do was purely admin (until I started packaging things in November). I could go into technical depth, but this post is long enough. Just know that I'm happy with the little leaps my colouring skills made.

GOALS FOR 2022:

For my art summaries, I've been doing a performance review styled thing where I create goals for the upcoming year. Let's take a look at what goals I wrote for 2022 and how I went with them.

“I want to finish my comic series”

Passed with flying colours! I think the comic release was a success. This goal is a little cheap of a goal though, since I don't think I'd let myself live it down if I gave up.

“I also want to continue to try things that are outside of my comfort zone. I want to see myself try things like different angles/perspectives and more complex backgrounds.”

Now this goal... I think I made progress here. I'm not sure if people noticed but I did definitely try to slip in different angles here and there. I'm particularly good at them... but I'm trying! And I think that's the least I can do. You won't get good at something if you don't try after all. That being said, I should push backgrounds more... I rarely do them 😅

"I want to do more illustrations/quick drawings on top of my comic work."

My comic work was suffocating a lot of the time. But I did try to draw on top of it. I haven't really talked about it, nor shown anyone, but I started learning copic markers this year (borrowed my friend's set!). So in the background I've been doing 30-60 minute traditional art exercises. I'm not terribly diligent, but diligent enough that I already think it's made an impact on my art. See, I'm only doing monochrome copic markers (I'm not confident enough to do colour just yet). I'm pretty sure doing monochrome markers has helped me with my manga skills 😂. I have a better understanding of tones and values because of it! Isn't that kind of amazing? Come to think of it, it's linked to the next goals.

"I want to learn to paint."

"I want to learn to draw faster."

While I still have a long way to go, somehow my marker exercises have helped me with these too. The understanding of tones/values has made an impact on coloured work and painting as well. And because I'm doing shorter pieces, my speed has increased a tiny bit. I'm sure if I keep at it, I can continue to develop better habits!

"I want to draft more quickly and be smarter about it."

Now this goal is something I have just been trying to mentally direct myself to. It's working... a little bit. I still need to try harder.

See, I think my drafting process is really slow and inefficient. This results in me spending too much time drawing a comic because I've drafted like 5 extraneous pages. If I wanna increase my output and lower my workload, I have to learn to be more clever with how I compose each page. I think I got a tiny bit better. Need to work harder on that for sure (it's quite hard to just "learn" though...)

MOVING FORWARD:

With the past year in mind, how do I want 2023 to go? To be honest, I still feel so exhausted because of 2022, I definitely need some time to recover, so let's not go too crazy next year.

But before I create my next goals, I wanted to talk about where I want to go in general - the grand scheme of things. Like I mentioned, I feel a lot of disappointment, like I wasn't doing enough. Which is contradictory because I also feel like I did too much with how exhausted I am... But the source of that disappointment is really tied in with how I feel about my art skill on a technical level.

I'm nearing a whole decade of hobby artist experience. And I don't feel like my art shows it. While there are things that I am better at, there's so much that I struggle with.

I want to become better. I want to improve.

It's hard to explain but I feel like I'm not doing the best I can for the stories I want to tell if I don't keep pushing and learning. And I love what I make, so I want to do those stories justice.

So it's really important to me that I keep trying to improve.

In the long term, I think my dream is to be like a pro-manga artist. Please don't make fun of me LMFAO. But there's more to it. See, I don't actually want to be a pro artist. I never want to compromise my creative vision for the sake of pandering to an audience. I sincerely think I wouldn't be able to succeed without doing that so I'm content with drawing as a hobby. A programmer as my day job and a manga artist by night...

I want to be as skilled as a pro some day though.

To be honest, I think the distance is so great that it's basically impossible. So my true goal is a little lower than that.

My true long-term goal is to be... a little comparable to a pro.

And I don't think I'm at that point. And I don't want to use "being a hobbyist" as an excuse to allow myself to remain like this.

I think it's terrifying actually. Where I'm at with my art.

I'm really happy people enjoy it, and don't get me wrong - I love my own work. I love drawing. But I think it's important to be critical of it - if I want to be able to reach my goals.

I think if people read this far, they might be thinking something like "but you're already so good!" or something to that effect. But I don't think it's true.

I think it's terrifying because there's so much I'm not good at. Comics are scary because they're an amalgamation of so many different skillsets. I possess some of these skills but there's just so many different ways that I feel that I'm lacking.

For instance, my art itself has such stiff lines. I'm not great at perspective. My art isn't dynamic. And this is just a few examples of stuff related to my illustration skills.

But comics are more than that.

There's the individual panel compositions that come together to create a unifying page composition. The visual flow - controlling how the reader scans the page. The storytelling skills - pacing, dialogue, story beats. The dialogue writing skills. The typesetting.

I think there's so many places I'm weak with and it's scary because it's difficult to just pick something to improve at when it feels like everything is wrong at once. It's so easy for me to pick up some manga from a shelf, flick through and think "this artist does x better than me, how can I learn from them?" but learning is hard and I'm not good at it so I'm just stuck with this awareness that I could be better.

But at the end of the day, I just have to pick a direction and go, right? I think that's all I can do and that's okay. It's just hard to shake the feeling of drowning in my own mediocrity.

Sorry I didn't mean to bring down the mood of this art summary.

I promise that at the end of the day that I love drawing. This is just my overly-critical side shining through. I don't have too much natural talent, just a very stubborn mind. I kind of need to be critical so I can push myself in the right direction. And I'm fairly happy with the way I've been pushing myself through these past years.

I'm not particularly fussed if my works receive a lot of traction or not because what's most important to me is the way I see my own work. My personal satisfaction.

And that's just tied with doing the best I can!

So with that in mind...

GOALS FOR 2023:

"Improve at atmospheric lighting"

This isn't particularly ambitious because it's something I'm already working on, but I know I can push lighting even further. So expect to see me experimenting more and more!

"Participate in a paid online course"

Now this is linked to my wall of text just now. I feel very overwhelmed so I think having an unbiased and experienced teacher's guidance could be valuable. I'm eyeing ones that include personalised feedback. The only concern is that it's hard to find the time for things like this when I work full-time.

Also it's a bit scary having a professional roast me, but I think it'd be good for me.

"Continue to practise traditionally"

This is linked to all of my technical art gripes. I think continuing to do traditional art exercises will help me with a lot of my weak points.

"Continue to be ambitious with art"

I don't mean ambition on a work-load level, but I want to continue to push out of my comfort-zone. Keep trying those weird angles and backgrounds, be more experimental!

"Start planning that next story"

I always have a billion different story ideas in my back pocket that I am itching to tell. I also don't wanna die of overwork though. So lets keep the bar low.

I have many great ideas, so I want to start outlining the next one! This is just a vague goal to remind myself to keep thinking ahead.

"Rest up."

I think this is the most important goal. Like I said I feel completely and utterly exhausted this year.

So I want Myon in 2023 to have more time for herself. Improve her health, catch up with her relationships, spend more time watching movies and playing video games.

Don't work too hard next year.

EXTRA REFLECTION:

I seriously don't know if anyone actually reads these reflections. I wonder what kind of person I come off across... (probably a try-hard 😂)

I wanted to talk about one more thing. It's not really linked to goals, just the future in general.

So I've been drawing for Nijigasaki for 2 years now. I think a lot of people are moving on from it though.

To be honest, I think that's okay. I'm kind of used to the people around me shifting into new interests. I think I'll still be with Niji for a long time to come. I just have a lot of large scale ideas and will probably stick with them unless something sweeps me off my feet.

I mean, even if my ideas take too long to actualise while I'm interested in Niji, I'm also open to converting things into original content. There are just so many stories to tell...

It makes me wonder why my readers enjoy my work and how they interact with it? Are people a fan of me? The ship/characters/fandom? Or the stories?

Probably some mix of the above. It's not terribly important why though.

I'm sorry that I'm not very good at keeping up with everyone's interests. I think the world moves too quickly and I draw too slow and I can barely keep up. But I'm a bit too stubborn with my own desires so I keep working on my own things without another thought. So maybe that apology is a bit empty eheh

But I hope people will continue to enjoy the stories that I make.

I should be less harsh on myself though. 9 years of art isn't something to just shrug off.

Anyways, before I keep rambling. Happy new year everyone. Let's keep working hard in 2023!

[stillblues]

hi all! i'm shin (he/him, 21+) and i'm excited to be bringing adagio actor/model jung yohan to this group! i haven't written in a hot minute and have really had to dust off my brain the past few weeks, but i'm looking forward to getting back into things with you all. :-) anyway, more about yohan under the cut! and as always, drop a like or message if you'd like to plot~ (discord can be given if you prefer to plot there).

quick nav: private profile, career page.

( * background

born in daejeon, south korea (nov 24 1995) but was basically raised in the countryside by his grandmother while mom worked in the city.

his grandmother was the one to kickstart his dreams to be onscreen, always watching tv dramas and reality shows with him every evening.

the family moved up to seoul together when he was done with high school, which is where he was scouted into a midtier company as an idol trainee.

didn't know anything about performing and it showed. but for the lack of talent, he made up for with a crazy work ethic, and he showed major improvements during his training period.

in 2015, he debuted in a 7-member boy group that flopped hard. after just one comeback, the group disbanded may 2017.

the rest of the year was spent in one massive slump, taking part time jobs and some small modeling gigs as a site model to make ends meet while wondering wtf he was going to do with his life.

got a casting call for an "idol revival" show (similar to "the unit") and ended up joining the show with 2 of his former group members. the show helped push him back into the spotlight as a charismatic leader figure who was great at catching screen time and votes. he made it to the final episode, but didn't quite make the cut for the final lineup of the group.

following another heartbreak, he really didn't know what to expect his life to throw at him next, so a contract with adagio was a happy surprise.

a couple shoot with a senior model under adagio catapulted him back into the spotlight, and he's been garnering opportunities and attention since.

his slow crawl to success has honestly only just started, even though it's been 8 years since his first official debut. he's trying not to let the lost time get to him in case he falls back into another slump, but as soon as work slows down a little, he can't help but feel like he's fading again. (we'll see what evil ways i have planned to get him the attention he wants so bad...)

( * personality

yohan is the picturesque "adagio actor/model standard 3000 max." he's likable, focused on his work, doesn't create any issues, and keeps his distance from the public in a way that shelters his image (think cha eunwoo but way less popular).

has intense focus when he has something to do, but it's mostly because he gets easily distracted if he's not putting his all into the task at hand.

hates to feel stuck, so he's always finding ways to seek out something new to experience. new food, new feelings, new friends, new lovers; he'll try anything once.

he doesn't exactly feel very approachable when he's off the clock, but once you get him started, he'll talk your ear off.

a people pleaser. he hates to assume so he'll ask a lot of questions or just seem clueless in personal situations until he knows exactly what the other party wants. (has accidentally rejected many advances in this manner...)

just kind of a work-obsessed idiot who feels like time is running out fast for him and knows he'll have a breakdown the moment he has a second to think. :-\

( * connections

just some general ideas for plots i'm interested in exploring for yohan!

bonding over failure; people who have also been in past groups/occupations/paths and things didn't work out for whatever reason, which became the common ground for your friendship to build off of.

drinking buddy; he's been indulging a little more often these days.

adventurers; he's always trying to experience something new and exciting, and you're the person he tends to rope into his plans.

good old pr friends; maybe you actually are friends, but it definitely started as a way to build reputations and post nice instagram pics.

actor/model friends!

a musician friend; he doesn't miss his idol days much, but he can still appreciate a good song or a long karaoke session. will probably think you're the coolest person in the world if you play instruments.

past relationships, flings, crushes; he probably let you down too nicely, whether that came as a relief or something to be pissed about for you.

someone who pulled away; whether you wanted to be friends or something more, the way he's just so nice to everyone had you cutting ties before anything could happen. it just rubbed you the wrong way.

a lingering crush; he's way too old to be blushing but you just know exactly what to say and do to stir up new feelings.

an enemy or that one ex; for the angst. maybe you disappeared when he needed you most.

[eureka-its-zico]

Hiiiiiii, it's me, Gouda 🧀 anon, but I am not on anon! lol I sorted out my Trumblr from all the cringy shit from years ago finally so I don't have to be embarrassed what I have on here haha (I saw you said you've been on Tumblr since 2015, well I've been on here since probably 2009 and yeah... Had to go down the memory lane and it was a bit cringe 😂)

I saw your message that Chapter 4 will be posted tonight and the giddy feelings that I felt, boy oh boy... Could barely contain myself in my chair!

This has been such a lovely update! It was amazing to see more interactions between Doc and Zoro. And his POV is just *chef's kiss*. It really helps to see that there's more to each of them than the other sees. And honestly, Zoro is being stupid because he can fulfil his promise and still get Doc so... *side eye* lol

I am honestly so curious to see what you have planned going forward: with Doc and Straw Hats AND Doc and Zoro. And if you grace us with even more Zoro POV to see his inner battle - I will devour it 😂

Also, I have to say - him bringing the beer and him bringing back the flower as an apology were one of my favourite parts in this chapter. Especially this one:

What he wouldn’t tell you, is because they only grew at certain times and usually in the snow, it made them one of the most resilient flowers because they could grow under any conditions. 

ALSO, oh my God, this interaction in particular too:

“What do I gotta do to hear one of these world-famous Doc jokes?” He waited until his face was neutral to look back at you. Both hands rested on his swords as he watched you fill the bottle to the brim and place it securely inside your satchel.  “For that kind of service? You have to be dying.”

We know what happens later and now I will wait with baited breath for doesn't matter how many chapters to see whether Doc actually says that joke 😂

I also love the ending, the fact that Nami is considerate enough to offer for Doc something to wear. It's a small interaction though I would think that it gives them a small part to bond to some extent ❤

As always, an amazing update and I am so happy to see these two continue to bond, even if they are both acting silly now. Really curious and excited for the next part to see how Doc reacts to Sanji and maybe even how Zoro reacts if Sanji flirts with Doc?! 😂

I have so many feelings to this story, I have to admit, I read Chapter 3 five times. Then I went to read Chapter 2. And then I read all chapters from the first one before this update because I have an insane amount of brain rot for OPLA Zoro and it's been consuming me this week 😂🙃 Also, because it's been bringing me joy and making me smile at a time in my life where I'm feeling a bit lost.

Sending you so much love and thank you for the update. I had a shit week so this has been such a mood booster that it is hard to put it into words how much I appreciate you and how happy I am that I discovered you and Chaos in Their Bones.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend, Jenn ❤

Osiyo my Gouda 🧀 Nonnie turned to my cheesy!! I am so happy to hear from you! The fact you did an intense cleansing of your tumblr makes me feel like I should probably do the same BUT 2009, you say?!? My bestie started a tumblr around that time too, I believe. What was it like? Was it wild? Lol

It makes me so happy to know you enjoyed the updated chapter! I was honestly very nervous about it cause I wrote it starting yesterday around 5 pm and finished by roughly 9:30 am. I just knew that once Sanji was introduced the story was going to be a bit more hefty, per say. There is the drinking scene, and I wanted Doc and Nami to have some time together, because she deserves a good wholesome friendship, okay?!

I’m so glad you love Zoro’s POV! It always makes me nervous because he is such a moody baby, but also extremely devoted to keeping his word/promises. I thought it was important to show his side and struggle, because he is so devoted to fulfilling his promise that I can envision him being completely blinded by that determination. I mean, look how he responds to poor Nami 😩😩

Oh man, we know Sanji flirts with EVERY woman lol so flirting is definitely implied and I may or may not have already pre-written the dialogue for most of that scene 🤣

I cannot believe you’ve reread Chaos in Their Bones so many times! But also, I completely understand why you would after reading the rest of your message. It is an absolute honor and a privilege to be a part of something that is bringing you joy in a time when you feel like it is most needed. I always look forward to your reviews and to see how you liked chapters. It means a lot to me to see your 🧀 in my ask box. I am incredibly sorry this week wasn’t any good, but just know I am sending you lots of love and good vibes that hopefully next week is better than this one. Sending you virtual hugs and Much Love 🖤

[convexicalcrow]

Snowflake Challenge #6 In your own space, post the results of your fandom scavenger hunt. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This one looked super fun, and I'm doing both physical stuff as well as a few digital things, bc for some of these I had more than one thing I wanted to share so. :D

Search in your current space, whether brick-and-mortar or digital. Post a picture or description of something that is or represents:

A favorite character

Sausage and Santa Perla oml <3

I can't list one without the other ofc. Sausage's lore captivated me in Empires s1, and hasn't let go yet. The lore he's running in Empires s2 is just incredible. It's made me cry far too many times, and I'm just so invested in whatever the hell he's got going on. Also I love a good excuse for religious world-building, and having Santa Perla to work with has been so fun. <3 I'm really looking forward to what Pearl decides to do with her side of the lore now that she remembers as well.

2. Something that makes you laugh

It's Mark Watson, Alex Horne, and Tim Key! This is collectively representing them as a group of friends and just doing stupid shit together, but also No More Jockeys, Mark's long shows, Key's works, and the non-Taskmaster stuff Alex does, though there's not much outside of the Horne Section these days lol, he's a busy boy.

For digital things, may I offer the following: - Longform: Big Fat Quiz 2015. It starts off fairly sensible then gets derailed by bad dong, and only gets more off-track from there. A classic. - Shortform: Carrot In A Box. Need I say more. rip Sean Lock, you bastard genius. </3 - TV series: 15 Storeys High, Sean Lock's sitcom from way back when. It was rec'd to me by a friend, and I don't regret finding a copy to download bc it's so good. <3 - TV series: This Is Jinsy, weird, full of songs, nonsense and whimsy, def worth tracking down a copy of this show. It's so good. Makes me laugh so much. <3 Greg Davies in drag is also a lovely touch lol.

3. A bookshelf

These are the Taskmaster books that still exist. I tore up an awful lot of them to make 1000 paper cranes a few years ago. XD Also have some Key and Horne and Watson. <3 The three books on the far left are my current reading material.

4. A game or hobby you enjoy

iykyk >_>

(and yes at some point I will be making a Dinnerbone nametag for that blue sheep :D)

5. Something you find comforting

Cub omg. <3 I just find his voice so soothing and comforting, and bingeing through his episodes or watching his streams is very comforting for me. I'm really enjoying all the daily speedrunning streams atm bc they're on when I'm awake during the mornings for me, so I can have breakfast and chill with Cub and it's so so nice. <3

6. A TV show or movie you hope more people will watch

Double The Fist is an old Aussie TV comedy that I maintain is actually a metanarrative about the intersections of queerness, homophobia, and toxic masculinity (ESPECIALLY in the second series) that I am woefully inadequately skilled enough to actually write on, but trust me bro, everyone in the main cast is some flavour of queer and I'm here for it. It's very good.

bonus shout out for Set The Thames On Fire, bc it's such a good movie and more of you need to see it frfr. <3 There were some really, really interesting headcanons going around linking Noel's character in this movie back to his character in The Mighty Boosh as a bonus if you like that kind of thing.

7. A piece of clothing you love

look I won't be able to wear these for like another four months but they are super comfy and I adore them so much. <3

also yeah I didn't take these out of my chest of drawers bc lazy and also I live in a dark cave of a room, the lighting is terrible everywhere. XD

8. A thing from an old fandom

The Prisoner! Dhani Harrison got me onto this bc he named his band thenewno2, I adored their music, and when I looked them up, discovered what it was named after, and then I dived right in and fell in love with it. I can't remember which specific episode order I prefer out of the five or so that exist, but yeah!

I've written crossovers with The Prisoner for my last 2/3 fandoms, so maybe I'll get there for Hermitcraft one day. :D?

9. A thing from a new fandom

ConVex my beloveds <3

If you want to know why they took over my brain, I would like to point you at this 3min edit of ConVex lore and let you take it all in. :D They're insane, I love them so much. XD

[ainefu]

High&Low The Worst X - Yoshino Hokuto (Interview Translation)

English Translation (click on keep reading) 吉野北人さん　

Q: This time Tsukasa is a key person in “HiGH & LOW THE WORST X”. Facing this challenge, how did you come up with an acting plan?

Hokuto: There are a lot of key points in “HiGH & LOW THE WORST X”, and Tsukasa was one of them this time. Until now Tsukasa has been a calm character, taking one step back and observing his surroundings. I kept this feeling in mind for the first part of the movie. In the second half of the movie, Tsukasa’s situation changes drastically, so I had to consider how to portray his emotions. Until now, Tsukasa has been a character that can’t show… doesn’t show his feelings.

Q: Being the brain of Oya High School, his calmness and cool composure were his characteristics.

Hokuto: That’s right. Since he was the type of person that doesn’t show emotions. This time, having him show them made me think that two different sides of him are being depicted. So I kept in mind showing his emotions, but in a way that’s not too much, expressing them properly through his eyes. Although he gets beaten up to a pulp, his eyes at least should never die. I acted having those small details in mind.

Q: Did you come up with this plan yourself? Was there any direction by director Hiranuma?

Hokuto: I came up with it myself. Nori-san (the director) gave me some basic instructions like “Try saying it like this”, but the emotions were something I did myself. Tsukasa gets beaten up a lot, but by making sure his eyes at least never die, I wanted to show him holding on to this thought like it was his last resort “I am going to crush that guy no matter what”.

Q: Being able to see Tsukasa’s glaring aura was a highlight, it was a new side of him that would surely surprise anyone.

Hokuto: Yes, that’s right. It’s not like Tsukasa is weak, so I wanted to show off that strength of his. Tsukasa himself is a fighter and strong-willed, isn’t he? In the scene where he seemed to be losing the fight with Suzaki, he maintains a manly side; “It’s not over yet”, something like that. I kept in mind this dual nature of his while acting in “HiGH＆LOW THE WORST X”.

映画『HiGH＆LOW THE WORST X』より

Notes: I tried roughly translating a few of the parts of this interview where Hokuto mentioned Tsukasa and how thought of acting him this time. I was looking forward to Tsukasa's character a lot this time and I am very glad he got to show so many different sides of him. I was charmed right away about his description of the portrayal of his eyes, so I wanted to share that part with everyone. This is only a part of the interview. Please keep in mind the translation is not literal and that there might be mistakes, let me know if you have any suggestions!

[charlotte-of-wales]

H&M Documentary Review: Episode 1

(my commentary in italics)

- all interviews were finished by August 2022. Members of the Royal Family declined to comment (no shit)

- starting off strong with phone footage at the “Windsor Suite” at Heathrow, seemed to be taken when they are about to leave for Canada after their farewell tour. They show what I believe is another photo taken at the private quarters at BP (also this proves they want to do this all along). 

- very raw and totally genuine footage (not) of Meghan in Vancouver taken at the Russian oligarch’s house 

- 2 minutes in and I wish I could speed this up. Bored already.

- Harry: “this is about duty and service and I feel as though being part of this family it is my duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens within our media”. 

- “This isn’t just about our story, this is bigger than us” oh what would us mere mortals do without having big H here to protect us from the big bad media thank u king

- Netflix exposing Meghan by showing an interview where they ask her Prince William or Prince Harry in October 2015.....back when girly claimed she did not know who Harry was. Spoke too soon lmfao Harry goes “goes to show how little you knew” (because she couldn’t give a straight answer and the interviewer answered Harry for her)

- private footage of Archie and Lili

- ALSO private photos of the wedding showing George and Charlotte and all the other children who were in the ceremony (wonder if they got approval from ALL the parents before showing their faces like that)

- Harry talking about them sacrificing everything like they were going off to war or something

- ‘why are you making this documentary” short answer: money

- They are talking about consent when it comes to showing their kids...again did William and Catherine consent to have their kids’ faces on your doc?

- not the pics of Jessica Mulroney in a doc TALKING ABOUT RACISM

- they met over Instagram bc a friend in common shared a video of Meghan doing the puppy dog filter on snapchat. You cannot make this shit up. 

- Meghan said she didn’t google him because she looked him up on Instagram as she didn’t want to see what other people were saying about him but rather what he chose to put out....babes social media is fake did no one tell you that? googling people is how you find out they are on the record for sex offenders or idk have pictures of them in a n*zi costume

- Meghan texting her friends and being like “you are not going to believe this” before saying she was going on a date with H (literally everyone in this doc calls him H idk why but it drives me insane)

- REALLY bored now

- not them showing text messages between the two gosh

- they are cracking jokes but I’m not laughing

- Meghan saying Harry thought she was straight forward and American for inviting him to dinner herself? Hey girly come join us in the 21st century where women can actually ask men out????like????

- Meghan saying she doesn’t like to be all dolled up and prefers looking like herself while having a 100 coats of mascara on

- okay had to turn up the speed a bit I’m so bored

- Harry: ‘I think for so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit in the mold as opposed to someone perhaps you are destined to be with” probably the worst quote in this doc so far for me, but I’d love for you to elaborate on that H and tell me which men you were talking about

- talking about Diana making all of her decisions with her heart and I have a LOT of opinions on that but I will not be sharing xxxxx

- LOTS of footage of Diana being chased by the press

- bringing people to question the need for a royal family....quick someone tell Harry without the monarchy he wouldn’t have a thing

- they are using footage from a holiday photo call of William, Harry, Eugenie and Bea to talk about the media being invasive but like.....photo calls are arranged by the family??

- they are talking about the press like they are today what they were like back when H was young and I don’t think that’s fair. Yes, they still suck but there’s more protection especially for the children and they obviously refuse to admit that. 

- not him bringing up the Panorama interview...Harry I’m begging you to develop some common sense. 

- H: “I think we all know now she was deceived into giving that interview, but at the same time she spoke the truth of her experience” NO SHE DIDNT!!! THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT!!! That’s why the BBC got in trouble, she was manipulated so NO it wasn’t the truth babes

- interesting....Harry talked about the pain of the women who marry into the institution and it cuts from a picture of Diana and Fergie to Camila, Kate and Sophie

- very interesting that Harry acknowledges how hard it is for women who marry in and the amount of baggage he brings and yet he clearly did not prep Meghan for the role in anyway. 

- not the footage of Cressida and Chelsy....again did they consent to this?

- VERY awkward picture of Meghan posing while receiving a facetime call from “HAZ”

- Harry comparing Meghan to Diana; the mommy issues jumped out

- interesting that they used a lot of footage of Archie but only one of Lili so far

- Harry saying he had to put on the “royal hat” when Diana died and go out there and shake hands when Queen Elizabeth II did not want that and wanted to protect him and William as much as possible but the public wasn’t having it....

- Harry admits a lot of the stories about him back when he was in Eton are true but also exaggerated.....interesting because they were talking about him doing hard drugs here. 

- lots of footage of Harry in Lesotho and people gushing about how awesome he is. Don’t care. 

- “Harry is a warrior in spirit and he is a warrior in character” sure jane

- Also for all this talk about him and Lesotho I feel like he hasn’t been back in years?? or at least not publicly. They brought a friend from Eton and the Prince of Lesotho who again Harry probably hasn’t seen in ages. Maybe because any recent friends Harry had are gone. 

- Harry said the woman he met twice is coming to Botswana to sleep in a tent* luxury camp site

- the name dropping of restaurants gosh we get it, you go to nice places MOVE ON

- they are now talking about all the issues that come with being a member of the Royal Family like needing the monarch’s permission to marry, not getting to pick your own religion, living in a gilded cage; babes let’s talk about all the privileges

- pictures of Eugenie, Jack, Harry and Meghan at a Halloween party.....oh Eugenie..... 

That’s it for episode 1 guys! This post is longer than I expected and probably very messy (sorry) but overall....not impressed. Very boring doc, not a lot of new information and the only interesting thing so far have been the private photos.

I was hoping to make this post going through the events of the doc chronologically but I feel like nothing really happened and it was all over the place? Main things they talked about tho were the beggining of their relationship and a little introduction to the RF’S relationship with the media.

Kinda don’t want to sit through two more hours of this but onto episode 2!

[km-kindredspirits]

How my adventures with BTS began.

Some time in 2015, I saw the Dope MV. I actually ended the MV mid way through because the song was not my cup of tea. Even now, Dope is one of my least favorite BTS songs. Please note that I don’t dislike many of BTS songs. In fact, I like majority of BTS’ songs. This includes the solo projects, especially Mono by RM. I actually have a Moonchild tattoo on my wrist, because of his song. Dope just so happens to be my BTS introductory song. After Dope, I did not pay much attention to them; but still, I saw so many comments about BTS in YT videos unrelated to BTS. I looked them up and was super confused on why this KPOP group has so many names (BTS, Bangtan Boys, Bangtan Sonyeondan, Bulletproof Boy Scouts). Aside from Dope, this ended up being the second reason why I turned away from them. I did not think much of BTS... until June 2016.

Fast forward to June of 2016, I was watching the k variety show, “We Got Married.” One of the couples during that time consisted of comedian Jo Se-ho & kpop gg Fiestar's Cao Lu. While watching one of their episodes, I saw a bunch of comments under the videos talking about how ARMYs were gonna destroy him (I am paraphrasing here, but you know how ARMYs get when BTS are mistreated). I was super confused about why the Korean Army would care about Se Ho enough to do him harm. After reading too many comments, I realized that ARMYs were BTS’ fans. Of course, all the comments were related to the infamous burger incident. I then went to watch the clip of the burger incident and was appalled by the actions of Se Ho and some of the other cast members. On the flip side, this made me interested in Jungkook. I wanted to know more about him and what made him so beloved by so many fans. 

This lead me to look up BTS MVs. One of the first MVs that popped up was actually a violin cover of Save Me by Youtuber JuNCurryAhn. After watching the cover and loving it, I knew I needed to listen to the original song. I watched the Save Me MV and was blown away by the song AND the MV. At that time, I knew NOTHING about BTS and was actually unsure which member was Jungkook. I guessed correctly but had to do a lot of comparing his visual from Save Me to the variety clip haha. Because I loved Save Me, I looked up their other MVs and the next song I listened to was I NEED U. I also really liked that song, so I moved on the RUN. After RUN, I was sold and the rest is history. I never knew that KPOP songs can be this palatable, easy on the ears, and lovely! Since that fateful day, I have never looked back.  

I actually grew up on 1st generation KPOP (H.O.T.; Shinhwa; S.E.S.; Baby VOX; Finkl; etc...), so KPOP is not new to me. In fact, as a preteen, I would watch my sister practice KPOP choreographies. After 1st gen, I stopped listening to KPOP for a long while. I knew about Big Bang and DBSK but did not care about KPOP during that time. I liked Run Devil Run by SNSD, but that was the extent of my interest in KPOP. I consumed mostly American music, although I thoroughly enjoyed Asian dramas (Taiwanese, Thai, and Korean) and listened to lots of OSTs from my favorite dramas. I still love watching dramas including American shows. 

A little more about me, I have a bit of an addictive personality. Once I like something, I tend to devote a lot of my time to it. If I like a song, I listen to it until I am tired of it. I prefer to binge watch shows versus watching new episodes each week. For example, I LOVED Vic Zhou due to Boys Before Flowers and Mars dramas, so I would look up his pictures online. At that time, Youtube was new so there was no videos of him that I can watch. To this day, Mars is still one of my favorite dramas ever. Because of my tendencies, I knew that once I go down the rabbit hole of BTS, I was never coming back out.

After watching the three BTS MVs mentioned above, I spent the next two days looking up everything I can about this group. I literally pulled allnighters because I was so intrigued by them. Side note: I am a night owl (hence the tattoo Moonchild), so this was not something difficult to do. When I learned that they use Twitter, I decided to follow them on there as well. I originally created my Twitter account in June of 2012 (June seems to be a lucky month for me), but abandoned it until my BTS era. Since then, I have not stopped loving and following BTS. They are so special and precious to me. 

Summer of ‘16 was actually the summer before I started the Masters program, so finding BTS during that summer was both a blessing and a curse. I was frequently distracted in school; however, BTS also motivated me to get through the 2 year program, so that I can get a decent paying job and buy all the merch I want! That was my driving force to get through the program LOL. This is a joke, but also not a joke :’). I did end up graduating from the program and getting a decent paying job, so I am doing okay in the merch buying department haha. 

Fast forward now to present day, I have been an ARMY for 6.5 years. If I tell people that becoming a fan of BTS is one of the best decisions of my life, some may say that that is strange or ridiculous or stupid or whatever, but it is the simple truth. BTS are not only artists, they are mentors, friends, family, leaders, trailblazers, teachers, and champions. BTS impact lives in ways that I think even they cannot fully comprehend. BTS make the impossible possible for themselves, which shows their fans that they are the makers of their own destiny.  Like RM once said, ARMY is not pushing BTS from behind, but instead, are walking with them side by side as they climb the mountain. If I can say one thing to BTS, it would be this, “I recognize that the love and trust between us is delicate and rare. I treasure this gift with tenderness and care. Your vulnerability and sincerity are fully felt by us. I have loved the adventures that we have experienced together thus far, and am so excited for all that is yet to come. I will wait patiently for the day that I meet the seven of you together again. Forever, I thank you.”

P.S. I don’t know if anyone will read this post, but if you did, thank you. I hope to learn about your journey with BTS as well.

[lovemesomesurveys]

Do you want the last dream you had to come true? I don’t recall my last dream, but I’m gonna say no cause my dreams tend to be really weird and random. 

When did you last talk to the person you'd most wanna talk to right now? There isn’t anyone I really want to talk to right now. 

What kind of pill did you last take? My sleeping pill. 

Do you like wearing glasses? I actually do. I feel super weird without them. I think I kinda hide behind my glasses so there’s that, but yeah I have no desire to get contacts or like laser surgery. 

Does your mom know the last person you hung out with? Yes, she knows herself. 

What were you doing 4 hours ago? I was watching Yellowjackets with my mom and bro. I know, I know I’m super late to that show but naturally and no to surprise to no one I’m obsessed already and I’m only on the 4th episode. I was in episode 1. 

What would you most like to eat right now? I’m looking forward to the Taco Bell I’ll be eating pretty soon.

How long were you last in the car for? Uhh like 5 minutes, if even that. 

What is something good that happened last weekend? My aunt came to visit me for a few days and we had fun as always.

Do you like holding hands or do you think it's stupid? I think it’s cute. It’s also not so black and white, like there’s other options you could throw in there. 

The last song you heard, what does it make you think of? I forget what song I last listened to.

How'd you get your last injury? Health related issues. 

What do you like about your birthday? I don’t get as into it like I used to, like I used to get so excited when I was younger. My birthday is just whatever. It’s nice if I’m able to go somewhere, like a little vacay getaway, though. 

Do you like being home alone at night? No.

What first comes to mind when thinking of 10th grade? That was the year I started my emo phase. 

What's the scariest thing that's happened to you? Uhhh.

Has an ambulance ever came to your house? Yes.

The person you're thinking about- what are you thinking about them? I’m not really thinking about anybody.

When did you last skip class? *shrug* I’ve been outta school since 2015. 

Do you like the shape of your fingernails? Ha, what nails?

Did you look at your fingernails for the question above? No. I already knew I barely had any nails to check. 

Whose pool did you last swim in? It was my friend’s boyfriend’s (at the time) community pool. That was a decade ago. 

What's something you like about your 3rd hour? --

Is formspring a good idea? I had one back in the day and it was interesting, but no one ever sent me questions, ha. I just answered the ones you could choose from that were asked by like a bot or something. There was some celebrity tea being spilled on some formsprings, which at the time I ate right up. 

What's your biggest problem at the moment? Meh.

What's the cutest thing someone's ever done for you? Hmm. I’m not sure what I’d say was “the” cutest. 

When did you last see a police car? *shrug*

Why aren't you doing something more productive than this? I have nothing else I need to be doing, let me be.

How many people know about the last person you kissed? A few.

How many different cars have you driven? I’ve never driven a car. 

What did you do on Thursday? I had a doctor appointment in the morning and then just chilled and napped. 

What color was the last thing you drank? Light brown coffee with some cream color. 

What do you do on Fridays? Same shit I do everyday. 

Have you ever had to take desperate measures in a desperate situation? Mhm. 

What door did you last open besides any on your house or car? I haven’t opened any doors in awhile. Kinda hard when you’re bedridden and even if I’m up in my chair I’d still need help. I don’t need to open any doors in my house, so that’a helpful. I don’t go anywhere, except for a doctor appointment, and in those cases I’m being pushed around in a gurney so I can’t open any doors. 

What is the meaning of life? To figure out what that meaning is for you.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Well, I got here. Listened to the entire John Oliver-era run of The Bugle between late March and June 2022, had a small breakdown and decided that clearly the end of this means nothing gold can stay and there’s no future to look forward to (to be fair to me, the way John Oliver left the podcast was really drawn out to be as painful an ending as possible, also I had some difficult stuff going on in my actual life and being upset about a podcast was just a projection of that, but even considering those mitigating factors, I still got more upset than a podcast hiatus warranted). I then spent a few weeks unable to bring myself to listen to any other episodes because I thought I’d just spend the whole time refusing to like the new thing and being upset that it wasn’t the old thing, until the coup against Johnson occurred in early July and not enough topical comedy shows were running so I turned to The Bugle to get some takes on it, and I realized that I actually can get through a non-Oliver-based Bugle episode without it being the end of the world. So then I went back and started listening to the post-Oliver episodes from the beginning of them, with a bit of a rocky start as my brain does object to change, but as it went along I got used to them and began to accept that sometimes some things can be good even if they’re not exactly like the things I liked before. Maybe.

That was 177 episodes ago. Here I am at episode 177, the last episode of 2020, the famed reunion episode, featuring John Oliver back on the podcast for the first time since he unceremoniously (and seriously, very slowly and painfully) fucked off in 2016. And really in 2015, since he was gone for the last seven months of 2015 even though they kept putting out filler episodes saying he’d be back imminently, but he didn’t come back until one episode in March 2016 and then almost one more 2016 episode but that one didn’t really happen, and then they kept saying they’d get it going again until suddenly he showed up in June said actually he’s done, and seriously, John, you’re a wonderful person but that was not your best handled situation, professionalism-wise.

Anyway. That said, here we are in December 2020, and here they are, and I’m feeling a completely normal and healthy number of emotions about it. Like three or four emotions - five tops, I swear. They started putting out videos of some Bugle recordings earlier in 2020 and I have not watched those because this is meant to be an audio newspaper, but obviously I’m watching the video version of this one. This video has come up in my YouTube recommendations many times before, of course. I’ve seen clips of it shared and referenced on this site a couple of times. I have always resisted the temptation to watch any of it, thinking I’d appreciate it more if I save it for when I actually get there in my chronological Bugle listening. And here I am.

So far, I’ve just started watching it and I have one comment: at 5:17, John Oliver says the words “fucking disgrace”, but it gets bleeped out, as swear words almost always do on The Bugle. Just after that, you can see Producer Chris look down and clearly make a note. I’m pretty sure he’s marking the timestamp so it’ll be easier when he goes back later to censor the swearing. That is somewhat like something I do when I listen to The Bugle, or for that matter any other podcast or TV show episode, and I hear something of sufficient interest for me to think I should write about it on this blog. I mark the timestamp in the notes app on my phone, so I can easily go back there to cut out a video or audio clip and upload it here, and/or type out a transcript of what was said, and/or just re-watch/re-listen to it so I can remember what I wanted to write about it. To often since starting this blog, I have spent too much time searching through episodes of something to try to find the little snippet I wanted to write about, and I save myself a lot of time when I note timestamps as I go along. It makes me inordinately happy to see Producer Chris do something similar to that, except with swear words he has to bleep out.

[beautifully-lumpy]

the beautiful person's journal - #11: evolution of sponsors

you're sitting there, watching the brand-new caddicarus episode. you're about 20 minutes into the 70-minute epic, you've already finished your bowl of popcorn, and you're racking up reaction images and clips like it's the lottery...

when suddenly, out of the blue-

it's december, the most consumerist month of the year. christmas shoppers clog every store imaginable, buying everything in sight. so what better time of the year than now to discuss sponsor segments?

sponsor segments are sort of the way of life for just about every youtuber these days. whether they're formally placed before or after the show proper, or placed in the middle with awkward segues, it's hard to find a youtuber who hasn't talked about raid shadow legends or nord VPN in any of their vids. with the adpocolypse back in 2017, youtubers began incorporating sponsors more than ever in their videos, as well as patreon plugs. since then, it's become a necessity.

the caddicarus show and its channel's side shows are no strangers to sponsors. in fact, the channel has had sponsored segments and videos ever since the old kingdom! (which is my placeholder name for 2012-late 2015 until i come up with an original name. i took an egyptology class this semester okay.)

in this entry, we'll take a look into this channel's history with sponsors, and how the segments have evolved over the years.

pre-2019

if you were around pre-2019, you may remember that sponsors didn't use to be as entertaining as they are now! in 2015 we slowly began to see sponsored segments and videos make their way onto the channel. at first, we had mentions of appman during the end slate of the videos, then we had sponsored tinker time videos for the PS store, and then we had the announcement of caddy partnering with the pixel empire in july 2015! he didn't have any of his merch on the site until 2016, though - this was back during the days of rodeo arcade and the yetee. do those sites even exist anymore...?

...okay, looks like the yetee's still around...first thing i saw when i looked up rodeo arcade was a reddit thread about how bad it was. lmao.

with the pixel empire partnership, we began seeing dedicated sponsor segments at the beginning and/or end of videos. not EVERY video, but a whole lot. and with the introduction of outtakes in mid-late 2015, the endings of videos could get up to 3 minutes! it was a much different world back then compared to today's straightforward "okay here's the subscribe jingle and here's the patreon credits with no voiceover and here's stanley's segment".

as 2015 continued, we started seeing ads for crunchyroll and audible. i believe there were also ads for dollar shave club - i actually found about about these companies through caddicarus, and they would go on to become household names when it came to youtube sponsorships! i think i also found out about amino through caddy - it was either him or rebeltaxi. my memory is cloudy when it comes to the specifics of this stuff.

in 2016, gamesgrabr promos really ramped up, and chrono.gg - later nexus.gg - was introduced into the mix. the address "chrono dot gg forward slash caddy" was ingrained into the skull of many a beautiful person. there was also a sponsored current quickies about an AR game called kazooloo - and i never realized it was unlisted. it COMPLETELY slipped my mind when i was compiling privated/unlisted videos. what's strange is that this and the 2017-19 sponsored videos were unlisted but not the 2015 sponsored tinker times.

caddy returned to patreon in 2016, so in a bunch of videos after that, that was like a sponsored segment.

2017 was a hotspot for separate sponsored videos - i touched on these briefly in my entry on the caddy show. you can find most of them in this playlist!

i remember the dreadnought video stuck out to me because there was this bit that 15-year-old me thought was really funny for some reason... it went something like "bada bing bada boom...! i was a bada man when i used my computer that doesn't use the default web searcher as bing to make the bada ships go boom!"

that was the original screenshot i took of it in 2017...the file was titled "cursed image"

another sponsored vid i have fond memories of was the one on the acer predator laptop. i was on vacation in branson, missouri when it dropped, and i remember watching it while riding back to the hotel late at night as i looked at the view of the city from the mountains.

there was more of the same through the rest of the pre-2020 era. there were two more shady voucher app things which i think were the same people - "appbounty" and "apphunter". there was this especially shady-sounding one literally called swagbucks. there were some videos sponsored by forhims, and let me tell you, opening a caddicarus episode and being greeted by caddy talking about men's pubic hair and sexual wellness and it not being a bit was like a digital punch in the face

he was also one of the many youtubers who sponsored betterhelp in 2018, and if you know the drama behind that company...yeaaaahhhh. but he took the sponsor in good faith and pulled out when shit hit the fan.

none of these sponsors were particularly controversial. there were the usual "sellout" comments, and many eyebrows were raised at sponsors like swagbucks and forhims, but most fans didn't mind these segments. the only genuinely controversial one was the PUBG video from 2019, which had a nearly 50/50 like/dislike ratio and a divided comment section. and...it really was such a weird video. like, it felt like an AI watched some caddicarus videos and was made to produce a sponsored caddicarus video about PUBG mobile. it felt very dishonest, very uncanny, and it's just...you know those mobile game ads that show some kind of influencer playing the game? like the ones seen on the vinesauce android games segments? yeah the caddicarus PUBG video was one step away from being classified as that. we just needed a video of him in the corner playing the game.

season 13 onwards

with the premiere of season 13 in august 2019, sponsor segments at the beginning/end of the show were taken away entirely in favor of awkward segues in the middle of the video, a tactic that was starting to become popular in the youtube sphere. if viewers know for sure the beginning/end of the video will be sponsored, then they'll know to skip! so how about we just put it in the middle of the video?? that'll surprise them!

and...viewers still skip them! as this tactic increased in popularity, we as viewers have been conditioned to start tapping that screen or spamming the right arrow key when we hear a youtuber start to emphasize online security or website building in the middle of their 4-hour essay about an obscure cartoon that ended years ago.

so how does jim combat this? well, he simply makes his sponsored segments entertaining to watch. much like emplemon and internet historian, caddicarus sponsored segments from the final season of the original series and beyond are known for their entertainment value.

the spons character we know and love today is a combination of two characters. one is the unnamed kite demon who first appeared in the pixar games video. the other is the actual named character spons who was first introduced in the lego games video, and he wasn't a kite - it was literally just jim. the lovable shill kite as we know him appeared in the kinect games video, and it's been that way ever since. and he's now legally bound to the channel!

also i have to show y'all this tweet that's an absolute gem.

i hope you enjoyed this look into how sponsors were done on the caddicarus channel!