#like they're literally not as big an audience as you think they are idk why OUR PRELIMINARY POLLS

[rotisseries]

you guys do know that we don't have to vote with the reddit whims right? like, that's the point of us having 360k people in this tag and all trying to use collective voting power. and it's one thing if on those "who do we vote out next" polls the majority vote is genuinely the one you most want to see go, but I keep seeing it be like "oh we all need to vote out this one because the redditors will vote for that one next" and then you run a poll like "who are we taking out next" and everyone picks the option you just said the redditors will want out. like then literally what's the point of running that poll. you all already know what the redditors want gone and apparently we suddenly care what they think🙄

idk just. I do get the point in running these polls to make sure everyone knows what everybody else will be voting for so that we can team up, but I think on our preliminary polls you should pick who you genuinely want out maybe and it just doesn't seem like we're even trying to give the other ships we like a chance at this point because if it isn't byler then we have to follow the whims of a website we're not even on apparently!!

[aimasup]

Spoilers for The March 2024 Welcome Home Update, LONG post warning:

The Eddie Scene

Let's establish two realities: The Neighbourhood (theirs) and The Show (the humans').

(The third is ours, here, actually real, no black gunk and Welcome Home is just a really cool fictional horror project. Irrelevant, just wanted to bring us down to earth)

I like to believe it's an unaware Wreck-It-Ralph situation: The Neighbourhood exists as The Show because that's how they live and what they were created for.

They have a happy home in the commercials and episodes, interviews with humans and playfully leaning on the fourth wall (via Narrator). And when Playfellow Workshop had a really good influential show, they quite literally brought these puppets to life, perhaps too much.

That's where the trouble comes in; we don't know if the puppets being sentient was ever revealed to the public, or what the black rot even is yet. Personally I can't really even guess how much the other puppets know at the moment, not even Home. All we know is that Wally was the first to 'wake up', likely.

So I'm just gonna say what I think about the Eddie segment at the end of the commercial compilation from his perspective alone (bravo to the voice actors and artists my god).

The Neighbourhood...

The Show.

Here's what I assume: both in the Neighbourhood and The Show, Eddie is being given a break from working so hard. Because I believe the script/special was supposed to end here:

Eddie Dear was happy.

[calm jazz music as the title card fades in] And a Happy Homewarming to one and all! Ho Ho Ho!!

End.

Because it makes no sense why The Show staff would spend extra resources to give the puppet Not Quirky Anxiety and end their Christmas special on a worrying note for general audiences.

I think The Show staff wrapped up that scene and left to go check on the rest of the set or something, and the Eddie puppet was left there, alone in Wally's room set because its job is done. Except it isn't, and Eddie became aware somehow.

He sees Home, his friend, and something isn't right

I don't know what this is: my first thought was that it was Home's hand crank, and Eddie was seeing but not understanding the puppets behind the scenes

"Sources say, however, that this puppet’s (Home's) eyes could move through a hand crank on the other side of the prop facing away from the camera."

-(welcomehomerestorationproject.net)

His friend's eyes look dead but they're moving, I thought. But looking at it again, it looks more like a microphone stand a Show staff is holding? Some sort of set equipment. Speaking of the set

Wally's room is too big and leads to nowhere. Is this a visual representation for Eddie's mental state? Did they literally turn the lights off on set? Or can he not see everything right now because his poor fictional brain can't handle our reality just yet?

His hands are fuzzy but there's something in them. Something was under his skin just now. They don't feel like his hands.

"Eddie was a live-hand puppet who required two puppeteers to operate."

-(welcomehomerestorationproject.net)

I imagine he's in a limbo of awareness, he's seeing so many things and not quite understanding what they are, and he's getting more lost and panicked

Can you imagine how overstimulating it must be to go from a clean, happy children's fantasy reality to a world with the laws of physics?

The clock's ticking doesn't quiet down and it's constant. He's sweating when nothing is wrong (?). Gravy was poured on the tree ornament, he's always helped do that, but now it's dripping onto the floor and it's making a gross mess. Little things like that don't have consequences unless the script calls for it. Eddie doesn't know that, and especially he's freaked out by the breathing and the heartbeat.

Maybe it's Home's, or his own, or both, idk.

What's curious is that Frank and Sally are fine and talking about the day's events. This means that Eddie should've been fine after the episode too, relaxed like normal, but he didn't get to. He probably didn't even know when they got there or when Sally left.

This image right here? I think it symbolises the scary clash between both realities by now.

2 (Eddie and Wally) or 4 (counting Sally and Home) out of 9 neighbours being aware is too many. Frank wasn't supposed to have to comfort Eddie. The episode was supposed to end and Eddie can see all of it.

(and yeah maybe romance is an additional factor here)

We don't know if people remember seeing this scene on their televisions. Maybe the episode ended as normal for them. The cameras weren't rolling, so currently, we only get to witness the puppets' descent into decay because someone behind the television is Letting The Neighbourhood In, bit by bit.

Maybe we'll get to see all the other puppets go through the same awareness crisis as the website keeps updating. Personally, I don't think there's an ulterior motive for Home, nor do I think any of the puppets are under strict supervision to behave a certain way for filming episodes, like celebrities.

What freaks me out is that they banter with the narrator and do commercials for real products. They're aware of the fourth wall but only because the fourth wall let them be aware. And it even got me thinking about the nature of existing as a concept (they're fictional characters. they don't really exist? Not in the same way individual humans do anyway. They aren't really supposed to belong to themselves.)

Sorry this turned into ramble rubbish, these are just my thoughts, could be entirely wrong about everything. Welcome Home is just super neat and the amount of effort gone into it shows. Lemme know what yall think, kudos if you read this far

For your troubles 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍯🥛🍵☕🍶

Extra note: I don't think they require the puppeteers to function outside of episodes either. They just live their lives chilling, don't even know there's a Show. Maybe there's an explanation but for now I'm content with 'it's magic'.

That being said I've seen other theories about the peas and the isolation of Eddie specifically those are real neat

[aangarchy]

Alright. I've rewatched the trailer like 20 times by now and i've been processing it.

First things first: anyone that's gonna talk shit about Gordon Cormier is gonna have to go through me first. I've only had Gordon!Aang for a day and a half and if anything happens to him i'll kill everyone here and then myself got it?

Just look at him! This is the exact big eared cute little kid i wanted them to cast for Aang. He looks adorable and honestly his outfit is growing on me.

The glowing arrow looked cool as hell. I like that the light spread through his tattoo almost like veins. I'm still curious on how the full avatar state is gonna look, how they're gonna get the glowing eye effect. Please don't let it look goofy.

Y'know what does look goofy?

Is it better than the m night shyamalan appa? I guess. Does that mean it looks good? Well.... at least momo sort of looks cute instead of some folklore nightmare like in shyamalan's version. But also you can tell in this shot in particular that it's very green screen-y

Then we go over to the bending, the limited shots we have of it. Mainly firebending was shown (a little airbending too but kinda hard to get a stillframe for that one)

Idk how to feel about it. In screenshots it looks alright but the shots while they were moving looked a bit off, especially the one where zuko's kicking. We only got very limited shots and that's intentional. I feel like the bigger cgi fails are gonna show up once we get the full show. If the bending looked good all the time i feel like they'd be showing it off by now.

What i don't like, is how apparently they're gonna SHOW Zuko getting burned. Like sure in atla they didn't bc kids show and Nickelodeon wouldn't allow it, and netflix can take darker turns if they so please. But i personally always felt that scene made so much impact because we didn't see it. Iroh is telling it from his memory and he didn't look when it happened, so we don't see it either. It's like a courtesy the show extends to both Zuko and the audience. We just hear the harrowing scream, and that's enough to know how devastating it is. I don't need a dramatic overlook so we can see the whole thing in detail, netflix.

Another thing is the hair in some scenes.

Daniel dae kim looked better in that promo photo, bc here you can just see how the bulky goatie was glued on. And then Sokka's hair..... where's the ponytail? It's laying completely flat against his head... why? Is it bc that's Ian's hair and they didn't know what to do with it? Literally get a comb and tease that bitch. This is like the complete opposite of Jackson Rathbone's hair in the shyamalan version, and somehow that full maybelline ponytail makes more sense than this sad excuse of a tail. Either way at least Suki looked dope.

Another thing i found weird about the trailer is the narration. I think it's either Iroh's voice or maybe Gyatso's? (I haven't heard Iroh's actor talk yet so idk, but it felt like it was being said TO either Aang or Zuko) but the lines they gave him... it felt like some weird mumbo jumbo tbh. Something something about the past and present being the same and it's up to us to know the difference and be the difference? It's saying everything and nothing at the same time and it felt kind of out of place. They're probably saving the iconic opening narration done by Katara for the full trailer (i hope???) but still they could have just gone with music, or maybe just a few iconic existing lines?

The music? Fire. Nothing needs to be added there. Was i kind of hoping for a different soundtrack? Maybe a bit. But am i mad? Not at all. They clearly took the nostalgia route with the more epic version of the avatar theme, and i can only respect them for that.

So far, very mixed reviews for me. I'm morbidly curious and very nosy by nature though, so i'm absolutely watching.

[simplydnp]

idk why this matters to me but in the last few months they've been acknowledging so many things I never ever thought they would. pinof and the touching. the phude multiple times. dapc slime (ok they had merch to sell for that one but still)

no but actually. phil literally said 'i thought we weren't acknowledging it' about the phude and now they just bring it up all the time.

pinof reacts... i still can't believe we're in a post pinof-reacts universe. how did that happen. i was changed permanently--like something shuffled in my dna when i got the notif for pinof reacts 1. this is not a physical reaction but a chemical one that cannot be undone. for something that was so... sacred. and integral. to their existence and history. pinof wasn't generally talked about unless it was pinof time. and even then it was 'it'll be up soon' or 'we just posted it' and then Never talked about outside of that. especially not the first one! we freak out about the We Know You Know in the newsletter but it's Always been like that with pinof 1. so to see them--new (& natural 🥺) hair for them both, in a house they bought and built together, in the first few months of giving the gaming channel a second chance--reflect on how it all began? absolutely devastating. and to lean into moments and discuss them in new ways. in territory previously not breached! the 'they're toUching'?!?!? the '11 hour fuck session'!?!? the '£9000 champagne'?!?!? like hey we're not supposed to talk about that, dan and phil might see!! shhh!! but they're the ones saying it!! absolutely wild.

in a way, it had to happen. especially with where we're at now (them literally selling merch of them holding hands). in order for them to move beyond that... mindset? i guess? that a lot of fans had, they had to defang it. i really see it as one of the biggest walls they've broken down in the way they communicate with us. the 'hey. it's okay. we've seen it. it's not a big deal. we will absolutely make fun of you for it though. but we're good.'

i'm just really curious whose idea it was. (lbr it was probably phil given dans not a react kinda guy. but i'd be lying if i said i didn't want to be in the room where it happened when they talked about actually doing it or not, and what it would mean) (big ad revenue thats for sure 🤣 get it kings)

i will never be able to get phil's 'they touched' out of my head and at this point i wouldn't want to. it's absolutely earned. and i guess it makes me a masochist to enjoy the psychic damage it inflicts on me, but such is life i suppose.

the crafts mention really surprised me! i had contemplated a few different scenarios in how they'd go about it, and i'll be honest i feel like they could've committed to the bit a little more but they're forgiven. like what about glitchy interstitials! cuts to the merch website. found footage inserted between sections! i recognize they don't want to 'scare' their usual audience wirh sudden cuts to intense/graphic content but my immersionnn. absolutely shattered by 'oh we have new merch now btw'. cmon boys you love to lie to us. say theres merch up but you dont know where it came from. just that we should buy it 👀 or idk, something clever. and i recognize i may sound like a spoilt brat bc i just got a 14 minute long masterpiece of an unexpected dapc revival, but my immersion. i mean i already bought the merch before they shilled it anyways so it didn't influence me regardless 🤣

ultimately we really are in a new era. even beyond just the revival. i think they're really finding their stride--not only in their content (evidenced by a semi-regular schedule) but also creatively, in doing what they want to do, how they want to do it, and truly not giving that much of a fuck anymore. and i'm really happy for them. phil talked a bit about this in his 'rating my icons' video, where he's kind of decided he doesn't care what people on twitter think, and how it's been good for him, and i think we're seeing that reflected in not only his content, but also the gaming channel. they play what they want. they say what they want. and it's just fun. dan going on the record to say he's really enjoying it makes me so happy to hear, because literally december 2022 he believed he'd disappear after WAD. and now, instead, he gets to play games and make stupid jokes and smile and laugh multiple times a week, and he's really happy about it. he gets to be silly and goofy and crude without having to Stress about it. i keep saying it but they're so settled now. and as someone who's followed them through big changes and turbulent times, getting to see them happy after everything... it brings a lot of hope. and i know theyre millionaires. but there's something to looking at someone you fell in love with 15 years ago the same then as you do now. but instead of it being something scary, something you have to hide, something that feels like it can consume you and everything you have--it gets to be something beautiful. and regular. and embraced. you've read this far you get to listen to me wax poetic about them.

we've been thoroughly boiled and maybe, just maybe, it's warming our hearts too.

[poryphoria]

see madcom has genuinely got to be one of my favorite ways a story, or fictional world, has ever been told. krinkels has fucking MASTERED the art of environmental storytelling- i think my favorite example is Mag Agent Torture, a character who could easily just be a big baddie for Hank to fight, but bears some pretty grim implications about their own past & existence if you're really paying attention. it goes like

•they have weird spikes stuck in their head and a cool name

•oh, wait. those spikes kind of look like the ones auditor uses to punish dissenters, seen in the background of several episodes, don't they?

•then the torture focused Incident reveals in their internal monologue that "their disharmony is my pain", implying in some way that torture carries the burden of suffering for the entire agency

•oh. dissenter spikes and that knowledge in mind, and the name Torture. did something happen to this guy. Were they always like that? is auditor punishing them in some way?

like, idk. krinkels is just very good at knowing exactly what to elaborate on and what to leave nebulous- giving hofnarr & jeb proper backstories & explanations for how they got that way in mpn doesn't really end up removing any character agency or weight of the mystery behind their actions, it just characterizes them more thoroughly & makes them more compelling overall. meanwhile refusing to elaborate in a clear cut way on whatever the fuck is going on with Hank keeps them a nebulously terrifying force, just as they're perceived in-universe- i think if we ever did get a straight answer for why Hank is the way they are without it being vital info for the conclusion of the series, it'd just kind of fall flat and kill the wiggle room your mind has for working with them

some things in worldbuilding are more fun and interesting when they have more thorough explanations, and some of them aren't. it very heavily relies on the context and level of plot relevance of the information itself- you can't just spoonfeed everything to the audience, they have to be able to make their own takeaways of course! but you can drip-feed them in small enough increments about inconsequential enough things that it still ultimately gives them a rich and fascinating array of information to work with.

idk. madcom the animated series is primarily very good at this bc of it's lack of dialogue, but mpn dodged a HUGE bullet in destroying this method with the way the story is framed- ultimately it ends up being exactly like a very long, playable version of one of the animated "incidents", because of how inconsequential it ends up being to the main story. it gives us MASSIVE insight into how the world works and what goes on in the background of it, but is far enough removed from the main plot that we don't end up sitting through the characters literally just grabbing us by the shoulders and spoiling the entire mystery of the series through soliloquy.

i think it's cool!!! i think it's really fucking cool and really masterfully done!!! and its one of the many many reasons i adore this series as much as i do. Muah

[nerd4music]

I think overall there’s one of two „big“ problems happening for people who have a problem with TOWL (racists and the likes aside… 🙄).

1- The misunderstanding that this was truly much more a Rick and Michonne story than a TWD one. This was not TWD S12. It was about telling the story of these 2 characters and being able to put a dot at the end (or a dot dot dot). And you’ve laid all of that out perfectly. Like yes, in TWD, Beale (& the CRM) would have been draaaaagged out. But this was much more of a Terminus approach than a Saviors one if we will…

2- TWD was never the most ..subtle show. They tended to hit the audience over the head with stuff. And I’m not sure I would go as far as calling TOWL subtle outright either (idk, didn’t think about this until right this moment lol -obviously elements of it are, sure -just as elements on TWD could be on the subtler side) but compared to TWD, it certainly is lol. And there has been a very big „media literacy“ and „basic comprehension skills“ problem happening for a minute now. And I really don’t say this to be mean or make fun of people or anything but these are just facts. Some people really struggle with getting the information when they are not being hit over the head with it, over and over and over again. After the finale I saw several posts on my tl of people wondering why this, that or the other was not addressed or how/why this, that or the other did happen… and I was utterly confused because those things they claimed were missing were very much shown? I was like, there was literally a scene dealing with all of this? And it didn’t require any reading between the lines to be honest, no subtext, it was very much the text of the scene?! So it seems like some people just didn’t get a lot of things that were happening 🫤

(BTW I don’t mean that even if someone didn’t have these specific problems with the show, they MUST love it then. Likes and dislikes etc etc. As much as I really loved the show as a whole, if I decided to put down the Richonne-colored glasses I wanted to and did watch to the show with.. I’d definitely have a few complaints lol, though still very much enjoyed the show even then)

That's definitely what happened. And to some extent, I get why, considering Rick and Michonne are 2/3 of the main show's Big Three. But when the press and promos started, and people were still talking about some Marvel-style meet-up, I was like...oh they're definitely not listening to what's being said, because it's six damn episodes, and also The Richonne story, not the Team Family jamboree. And then acting as if it's somehow 'insulting' to the rest of the characters if Rick and Michonne didn't talk about them. The man had PTSD so bad, he couldn't remember his own son's face. Why would you think it would be good time for him to pause in the middle of his wife telling him about a traumatic moment during her pregnancy to ask about anyone else? Please be fr.

I feel you on the comprehension thing, which is nothing new for this fandom. The fact that so many people legit thought Rick didn't know how to drive stick and questioned the 'realism' of it but never stopped to think that it was because he only has one damn hand. Y'all were fine with every silly ass moment that happened in the main show, that was either sheer dumb luck or handwaved away, but now we need a complete breakdown from experts on how Rick managed to fight off walkers one-handed. Now y'all want the realism, when you've been so giddy for weeks because you need one of them to die for the show to be 'interesting'.

I'm really not listening to people who need the narrative to hold their hand through everything, or need to see every piece of the plot onscreen for it to be considered 'legitimate'. (I'm officially banning the phrase 'plot armor' for the foreseeable future).

People didn't get things, because they don't take a minute to sit with the damn material anymore. From live reactions videos to live tweeting/blogging, people are just watching TV to make content and have an online moment, not for what's actually being shown. And yeah, TOWL isn't perfect, but the minor criticisms I have for it doesn't take away from the fact that it is very enjoyable and easily the best material from the TWD landscape in a long time.

(sidenote: I will say one of my favorite things from these past six weeks is everyone struggling to figure out the overall TWD timeline, lmao.)

[pseudophan]

idk if this is confirmed or if im insane but i feel like dan in his why i quit youtube video was talking about how he felt like there was Dan content and Dan And Phil content and how he felt like he was split between them....i wonder if hes trying both to see what he still likes to do. he had his internet show and now danandphilgamws is back like. i have a feeling he's trying to figure things out rn

i think dan ultimately wants to do his own thing and has a lot of ideas and aspirations, specifically he wants to be a stage comedian like his passion is clearly for live performances and while the comedy bit is still being fine tuned (i'm not saying he's bad, in fact he's kinda good ngl, but he definitely has a way to go if he wants to be Great) the performance part he's got DOWN like say what you want about that man but he ooowwwnnnsss a stage. also he's weirdly great at audience interaction lmao? that was my main takeaway from we're all doomed, both the pre show and the show itself, he deals with heckling like.. AMAZINGLY well. he's genuinely hilarious responding to an audience like i never thought i'd say this a few years ago but i think he might actually have a future in live comedy lmao????

but i also think he.. needs money LOL like he's said many a time he doesn't really love being a full time youtuber, but also he does enjoy making youtube videos! just, you know.. not full time. but while on his own channel making Daniel Howell(tm) videos he puts a lot of pressure on himself, and then if he does a slightly less high pressure series or whatever (dystopia daily) it's relatively well received and the videos are good enough but like.. it's not the traction he wants, nor the traction he needs

ultimately dan knows that if he wants to keep and potentially build an audience online that lies in Dan And Phil. it always has and it always will. and i think for a long time he struggled with that, and as much as people gave him shit for it i completely get it. like, lmao, of COURSE he wants to be recognised for his own abilities and not just the dynamic and chemistry he's got going with... his literal partner. honestly it would be one thing if dnp were just comedy partners because there are a lot of comedy duos on the world who've made it big, but i think there's something about it being him and his full time actual real life boyfriend/life partner that kinda makes it weird. and as much as i love the dnp dynamic i still do get that feeling so much like honestly who can blame him ?? if your entire professional life is just.. your personal life but on camera ? that's weird. it's gotta feel weird and it's definitely unfulfilling for someone as aspirational as dan and i can't blame him at all for it

that being said, dan clearly does really enjoy making videos with phil. which yeah of course he does, he gets to just turn on a camera and talk shit with the guy he talks shit with all day long anyway. and i think what he's now realised is 1. if he wants to keep/build an audience, the dan and phil branding is where it's at and 2. he needs an income while he works on whatever solo projects he's got going on, and dnp makes a loooot of money

basically my point is - dan seems to really enjoy making videos with phil but he knows that's not really a life long career choice. as much as i'd love them to, it's not really an option for them to be playing sims when they're like, sixty. and while phil is relatively chill and seems to just take things as they come, which tbh is probably the healthiest way of doing things, dan is very overthinking and wants to get ahead of everything and also in general just like.. he wants to build a career! he wants to build something on his own and i can't fault him for that at all. dan knows that one day he's gonna need something more than just Dan And Phil if he wants to keep working, and he's laying the groundwork right now to be able to do that

again, though, i don't want anyone to take this as like 'dan is only doing dapg to make money and rebuild a fanbase' because as much as that is definitely a big part of it... just look at the man. in these videos. he's having a great time. and also, as annoying as we are, he does kinda love us. sometimes. maybe. <3

[statementlou]

alright so instagram followers do not equal to fans. gotcha. but then what about spotify listeners. I think that would directly correspond to his music fanbase unlike Instagram which is, well, social media. (and I'm not trying to hate here unlike some but genuinely trying to understand. maybe the noise has gotten to me idk) on one hand, yeah, I do see his growth in the live spaces but then on the other hand, his monthly listeners on Spotify are going down. i remember it being over 4M at a point but now it is down to 2.5M.

and then the other thing, yeah his album did hit the charts but it did not sustain. it hit no. 5 one week and then it was straight out of the charts the next, not even in the bottom end of it but just straight out of it. and same in the uk, no. 1 one week then out of the charts the next. tho it did return twice again to some position but again did not sustain. I think the charting was down to the dedicated part of the fanbase who bought multiple copies to put him there but I think you need the casual part too in order to sustain.

idk, the live thing is still a paradox to all of this. can it be down to just the dedicated portion of the fanbase filling up his special venues like the O2 arena or the big mexico show? i don't think so but i don't know. can it be that dedicated or are there casual fans mixed in there too?

thanks for the thoughtful ask! Spotify listener numbers show the number of individual people who listened to more than 30 seconds of one song by an artist in that month, NOT a follower count. So being on playlists drives those numbers up when you get a lot of people who let a song play through without skipping, whether or not they care enough to click through and check out the artist more, and collabs with bigger artists boost this because when someone just plays that artist's main feed and the song plays through a number gets added to the collab person's total even though, again, the listener probably never went to their page or followed them (this is why Liam's spotify numbers are consistently higher than Louis' for example even though Louis has a bigger fanbase). New music pushes those numbers up; between release times they will go down. Festival appearances may see them go back up as the summer goes on! But probably not significantly is my guess. I suspect individuals looking into an artist and even following them honestly has very little impact on this compared to playlist placement, which is something management/ label pay for and do around release times- and yes, LTHQ do this at those times- which is why his numbers were up, which is why there's a drop off to be seen. But lots of those listeners that have dropped off the monthly counts may still be followers of his account! So they will get notifs for his new music (and his shows) and push those numbers back up when the time comes. As for the charting thing, I... don't find that odd or problematic? That seems consistent to me with his model and not really an issue? When Louis said "I'm not here to compete with the likes of Drake and Ariana Grande. I'm here to make music I love and make my fans proud to say they're a fan," he was saying that he was not going to worry about chasing casual fans. I get that you and a big part of the fanbase disagrees with that decision on his part, that's the whole discourse, but IDK what to tell you: Louis disagrees with you and has literally said so! Louis has been clear in both words and actions that his priority is the dedicated fanbase that makes it possible for him to tour, and that while he is also doing things to see if they work to pull in casual fans and enjoys when he gets the benefits of both, it's not his priority or focus and isn't going to be. The live thing isn't a paradox- it's the point! It's what he has TOLD US REPEATEDLY that he most wants to sustain and he is not only doing that but also growing those audiences- and yes, getting casual fans mixed in as well. Like you point out, in LATAM in particular he gets a lot and he clearly loves that, and we saw him feeding it with the press junket he did in advance of the tour there; when it doesn't require him to change his core project he's clearly happy to see how far he can take it and ride the wave. And he's playing these fests as part of that- so be happy, he's doing what people want! But I think waiting for him to make that the primary priority when he has explicitly said he isn't going to do that is setting yourself up for disappointment. I don't think we will at any point see a shift from his number one priority being the dedicated fans, and I think it would be a HUGE mistake if they did shift that focus to prioritize chasing less sustaining fans.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

Is hilarious to me how the fandom talks about how sexualized Og She-Ra was as if they don't spam comments about how hot Catra and Adora are.

Like, yeah a 20 something woman can't wear a mini skirt because...idk legs are offensive ig, but two teenagers can have weird sexual tension in a kids show (cause sexualize woman for lesbians instead of men is okay i guess)

For real, this reminds me of that dumb controversy about Lara Croft boobs being unrealistic, even tho i have the same cup size as her (don't ask me why, i just wanted to mention how ridiculous these types of controversies are and im sleep deprived, i need to talk to someone about that)

(Side Note: i saw a twitter post once about how Nate have a bondage fetish because Adora gets tied up very often in the show, and... honestly, i don't even know what to say, like...why the hell would you put your kinks into a kids show?)

apparently their issue with the 80s she-ra is the “male gaze”. which btw as far as i can see, it was not made for the male gaze. the show was literally made for little girls who wanted to see a strong heroine growing up.

secondly, male gaze isn't about the outfits or body type. it's about how these characters are framed. a character can have big boobs or wear something revealing, and still be portrayed in a respectful way. however, this doesn't happen when the character is made for the male audience. anime is probably the most notorious example of male gaze, since 90% of it is catered to male viewers. (yes, there are exceptions but they are exceptions.)

and yeah, like you said, spop fans think that catra's design isn't sexualized because it's not male gaze-y. that's their reasoning, as far as i can tell. catra was designed for the female audience, as were other characters like scorpia and huntara, so i guess it's okay to sexualize minors as long as they're gay? smh.

idk if the whole bondage thing was true or just a joke within the fandom. either way, it's a really distasteful joke considering how they're trivializing abuse and sexualizing minors at the same time.

[chaifootsteps]

feels like in a lot of Viv's responses that she's treating people criticizing the portrayal of SA in Hazbin = people criticizing Raph for the art made on a personal acc.

but it's not the same thing. some will take issue with Raph's art, sure, (and so what if they do?) but ultimately the bigger problem is how it is portrayed in the show. calling it a 'preference' or 'not illegal' or 'none of anyone's business' or w/e is not the point - the point is, did Viv approve a sequence that blatantly objectifies Angel Dust when he's being assaulted?

it's so odd to see people defend this like they would fanfiction - 'it's OK to explore dark themes!', 'don't censor art!' etc. Fanfiction is made for a niche audience and sometimes as an expression of the creator working through a thing. Creators obviously should still have the ability to express themselves through art -sometimes the best art is partly autobiographical - but at the mainstream level you have to take more care with what you're doing because more people will see it! There's a world of difference between someone's clumsily written fic on A03 working through their trauma with a couple hundred kudos and a show on Amazon's streaming platform. not to mention there is a tagging system on a03 so the buyer can beware - if there's truly no CW on Hazbin then it means they're taking less care with triggering material than a literal not for profit fanfiction website

It's not like mainstream media that had indie roots should be exempt from this - all kinds of media are subject to thinkpieces about how they portray SA and survivors of SA, because how you represent it matters. there are so many pernicious myths around SA and survivors, creators who have the power of a platform also have the responsibility to think about what they're doing (same with any sufficiently big indie project, tbh, look at the sheer number of bad takes surrounding why Blitzo and not Stolas is totally in the wrong in the whole Stol/tz mess HB has become)

and at the very least, showrunners need the ability to understand criticism will come if people feel like they fumbled it. anyone should understand there will be a diversity of opinions on this; if a showrunner's only objective is 'be praised at all times' or 'never be criticized' then they should probably stay away from contentious topics all together?

the only fair thing I think Viv has said here is that the whole scene hasn't come out yet and to reserve judgement for then - but I think it's totally understandable why people think early indications are Not Good. the second thing is I think she mentioned no one should have to disclose whether they've been SA'd or not before working on a scene like Poision. Which is fair - but Raph did disclose that info, and voluntarily (and instead of saying it was no one's business, Viv either lied on their behalf or outed them to score a point. Is it bad to force people to disclose whether they've been SA'd or not, Viv, given you're apparently OK doing it to your staff?).

idk, I just think there should maybe be some oversight through due diligence on a sensitive subject, even for survivors of SA when working on scenes like this? or at least there should be if you're going to claim you care about the topic and are trying to push boundaries with your art. if you don't care, say as much.

It wouldn't be much better to see Viv admit she just wanted edgy dark stuff in her show, but man, it would at least be honest

It's all a mess, on Viv's side and the fandom's. Viv keeps saying that the scene will make everything clear and speak for itself, but if that were true, why couldn't she just let it do that?

The answer, of course, is because she's Viv. The slightest bit of criticism and she loses it.

[forcebookish]

a lot of intimate details of topmew's relationship were strangely out of frame. like, when top touches mew's thigh in episode one:

and you can hear mew touch top's thigh here:

i do think it lends to the realism of their relationship, because it doesn't have a lot of those "om G they did something GAY" moments that you see in a lot of BLs. they just act like a couple (or flirting, in the case for episode one), and we're all just witness to that. and maybe that's why they don't sit well with a lot of BL veterans and BNFs, because so little of their relationship is played up for the camera.

like a lot of the show, their love scenes are mostly shot hand-held (both steady and shaky cam), and this scene

is shot from behind a wall, at a distance, and it has this voyeuristic quality to it - but not in a sinister way, because they're at a party. in this scene, it's as if we're partygoers who happen to come across this quiet moment of raw intimacy.

it all tells us that these are stolen moments of something real.

(side-note: i'm not comparing this with the other couples in the series. i don't care enough about them to double check if their scenes are shot similarly lmao i only remember how different the choreography was)

that being said, even in moments where the POINT was that they were holding hands, where the emphasis of the shot should have been on their hands, it's not.

which idk maybe it was something with the dp, limited time/shots, or editing. i think the above video was presented how it was intended (since it's so natural, who even knows if book was directed to do that or if it was his own choice), but in the first episode, you'd think it'd be kind of a big deal? since so much of the scene is about top hitting on mew? like, top does it when he says that he'll go to get more drinks and mew nods kinda shyly. you'd think that there would be some emphasis on the fact that he came on that strong - BEFORE he found out that mew was a virgin. maybe they never shot another angle where it was obvious what he was doing, but whether it didn't exist or was edited out, it still feels like a way that production sabotaged them as a ship lol

there was a lot of talk about only friends changing the bl industry and unfortunately i think the main takeaway is going to be that subtlety is lost on its audience 🙃

(that's not me saying that the subtle approach to the aforementioned ep1 scene was the right approach, since MOST viewers didn't notice it and the ones who did it probably took multiple watches or someone in the fandom literally pointing it out - i think i needed to have it pointed out iirc. showing top coming on to mew isn't spelling it out for the audience, it's enriching the story...)

ANYWAY, this was inspired by me wanting to make a gifset of topmew holding hands but it was really annoying because most of the shots their hands are out of frame >:(

[lunar-years]

Ngl when I see ppl shipping Jamie and Dr. O'Sullivan I think they're at least a little homophobic and very straight.

well, i disagree with a blanket accusation of homophobia, but I do think it's an opinion that holds a very ~straight appeal~, definitely, lol.

there are honestly a boat load of reasons i hate it but they boil down to:

i kind of get why people (esp. a segment of the general audience) might be attracted to it because it's soooo something (bad) shows/sitcoms would do. Like, my god is it TRITE. Predictable, formulaic...boring as all hell! Of course he's going to get with the nameless sister who has less than five minutes total of screen time, just for a little added spice and drama, sure. That's what happens in (bad) shows. But luckily for the rest of us, Ted Lasso even at its worst is not that brand of bad, lol.

it's completely baseless? Nothing wrong with a baseless ship i guess, but at the same time...literally why this one? lol. Like, Jamie and Roy's sister share one scene together in which I don't believe they even say anything to one another directly? There is no chemistry, no...anything? The entire premise for the ship seems to be Jamie telling Roy his sister is hot. Which was very clearly intended as a way for Jamie to get under Roy's skin. Nothing about the scene makes me want to see those two dating.

the big proponents of it i've seen (often, definitely not always) seem to fit into one of two categories 1) people who don't really like Jamie and/or are upset Jamie "got in the way" of their ship, and thus want him to be written into a corner that pulls him away from their preferred couple/inherently shuffles up their dynamic. they don't actually care to watch a plot between Jamie & Roy's sister, they just want Jamie firmly categorized as Taken and thus Not Interested in Roy and/or Keeley, and this is a convenient and predictable(y stupid) way to do it. lol.

OR 2) people who DO really like Jamie and in fact really like Roy & Jamie, but in a very "no homo" way, who want to see more of their dynamic and have a way to define/further explore their closeness, whilst also justifying their own enjoyment of it, that's well set apart from "they have homoerotic tension." Jamie & Roy's sister dating holds an appeal because it more explicitly puts their relationship into firm "brotherly" territory. And I unabashedly loathe that for the same reason i loathe "Roy is Jamie's father figure!" ...foremost because no really, they can just be best friends!! Even if you do not want to ship roy-jamie romantically, you do not need to slap different familial labels on them (or put them into random other pairings) to make their relationship "more." Their relationship is already "more"...they are canonically best friends!! idk if I'm explaining this in the best way but the mindset behind it often feels very rooted in ~the nuclear family is the most important relationship a person can achieve~ and thus a need to fit everyone into traditional family roles (and in some cases that PLUS blatant homophobia) and it gives me a personal ick. Ew.

If you want to see quirky jamie & phoebe antics or roy and jamie bickering, Jamie x Roy's sister getting it on is in fact not actually necessary for any of that? (and imo doesn't add anything to anyone's arc) Going back to point one...using that pairing to get there feels TO ME very boring and sitcom cartoony.

(i also obviously dislike it for my personal shippy reasons and must acknowledge my bias. 🫡 Jamie dating his best friend's sister when he clearly has a crush on said best friend is a relationship-based mental low point/cry for help i do not actually want him to go through as my fav character, LOL.)

(disclaimer: people can of course feel differently and are entitled to ship whoever they want without even needing a clear reason or explanation! that's totally valid! i want to reiterate I don't think it's inherently problematic as a ship. I just personally think it's a rotten tomato of a plot point and i'm so beyond glad the show didn't waste time entertaining it.)

[girlbossblackbeard]

Okay in honor of the high likelihood that we're getting the s2 trailer today I wanted to post this draft that I've been sitting on for like a month so it wouldn't be tainted by any juicy new tidbits we might get today:

I can't wait to look back on this post and either celebrate my future-seeing psychic abilities or laugh/cry at how naïve i was so here goes-

These are my predictions for the basic narrative structure of s2 (based off of a 10 ep season):

-I think it's gonna be your typical 3 act story arc: act 1 is resolving the conflict that was set up at the end of last season, act 2 is exploring the consequences of that resolution (the good and the bad) and setting up/discovering a new, bigger conflict to worry about, and act 3 is the drama of either confronting that bigger conflict for the first time but not fighting it yet, or starting to fight the bigger conflict but ending the season on a "holy shit we're fucked" note (that gets resolved in act 1 of the next season)

-similar to s1, episodes 1-3 are act 1: they're going to be spent resolving the Ed/Stede/Crew being separated issue with Ed and Stede finally reuniting (or about to reunite) at the end of ep 3. Narratively this makes sense to me since the big immediate issue is the physical separation of the two love interests, so the writers might want to "resolve" that issue sooner rather than later bc audiences don't want to see their faves separated for too long even if it makes for good character development and conflict. Ed is gonna be sad but try to seem aloof, Stede is probably gonna be told all about Ed's transgressions with the crew which will create more opportunity for complex emotions on Stede's side. Also he and the crew are gonna steal a ship or something and Stede is gonna start showing signs of *gasp * semi-competency when it comes to captaining. Also I don't know which ep exactly but I think we'll get Lucius back in this act (I hope)

-episodes 4-7 are act two: they're gonna be a mixture of funny awkward exes era for Ed and Stede with a healthy dash of some angst and miscommunication thrown in there for good measure. Ed is gonna slowly have the ice around his heart get melted from being in close proximity to the sun (Stede's unintentional charm combined with his newfound competence will be literally impossible for anyone to ignore, let alone Ed) and Stede is going to FINALLY start to realize how deeply he hurt Ed by leaving and HOPEFULLY understand that the core reason Ed was hurt was bc he actively wanted Stede by his side (cue more confidence-building for Stede)

-episode 8 is when they Do It

-on a less jokey note (even tho I'm kinda dead serious about the statement above) episode 8 is in a weird limbo where it's the transitional ep between acts 2 and 3. I think this is when we'll finally get the love confession from Stede. since act 2 finally put them both on equal footing and they're no longer actively mad at each other, I'm predicting ep 8 is when they finally sit down and hash it all out - why stede left, why Ed went kraken mode, how they hurt each other and the crew, and how they want to move forward. idk if this will be a big dramatic yelling conversation where stede blurts out something like "because I love you, you nut!!!" or if it'll be a quiet conversation where stede gently says "because I love you, you nut 🥺" but either way I think stede confesses this ep. Does Ed reveal he loves stede in return? Idk man!!! But once stede raises the emotional atmosphere to dizzying heights with his confession they'll be overcome with passion and flap their jacks or whatever. either the ep will end on a sweet note with no ominous signs of the next Big Bad brewing, or the very sweet and intimate afterglow will get interrupted by big scary news about some threat on the horizon. which brings us to act 3:

-episode 9 will fully introduce the Big Bad of the season (maybe whatever/whomever it is had already been talked about in previous eps, hell maybe they've been seen on-screen in previous eps like chauncy, but this will be when the main villain/issue reveals the full extent of how much of a threat they are). Ed and Stede will kick into co-captain mode which will either have a bit of a rocky start as they're still working through fully trusting one another again or it'll be so seamless and in-synch it actually visibly shocks the crew. this ep will be when plans are made on how to defeat the Big Bad

-and finally, ep 10 will be the showdown with the Big Bad where the crew implements whatever plan they made. oh fuck I just remembered the revenge is probably not gonna make it through this season. this might be the ep where she gets blown tf up for strategy purposes idk. someone (probs buttons, but maybe the Swede) will make a Viking funeral comment. anyway the crew will likely pull off the plan, but right at the end of the ep they'll discover that the threat is actually way bigger than they thought and THAT will be the cliffhanger/set up for s3

[tommyssupercoolblog]

IM SORRY THIS ISNT MEANT TO BE AGGRESSIVE i have not been on this part of the internet in a long time so things might have changed but.... last i heard the proship label encompassed things (in fiction) like inc/st, abusive relationships, p/do shit, etc... is that still correct? idk if thats what you were talking about in your tags because i do not know Anything about minecraft youtubers but usually when people put proship in their dni theyre denouncing that stuff. just wanted to clarify im understanding your complaints, no harm intended!

No problem!! it can be confusing lol, nothing wrong with being unsure. All-in-all, you're kinda close with that idea, but still not on target. explanations of proship vs anti, the d/mp fandom's take on it, and my thoughts on it all under the cut:

So proship as a philosophy is about wether or not things like that (in fiction) translate to real life, which is why it's connected to censorship like i mentioned in the post- if you believe that watching or reading something problematic will make more problematic things happen, that someone reading a book with a child/adult relationship makes them more likely to (or is on it's own already the same as) a person pursuing that in real life, that makes you an anti; and it also gives you a big reason to push for works like that being taken down or removed, and for people who make or read that stuff to be put in real prisons or face other real life consequences for fictional acts- because the idea is that, to an anti, these things bleed into each other.

being proship isn't equivalent to enjoying dark fiction like that, but it IS equivalent to believing that, similar to fictional violence, fictional crimes or acts of any kind can be created and consumed by artists and audiences without people actually condoning it IRL. a proshipper would say that if someone plays a video game where they murder someone, and then does it IRL, thats on the PERSON, not the media- and they hold the same position for fictional portrayals of incest, abusive relationships, and pedophilic relationships. the name comes from being pro- as in for- ships, and other content, as a whole; without it having to meet IRL moral criteria.

dark fiction freaks me out personally; the biggest ick (and actually a trigger for me) being incest; It bothers me and i stay away from it. but I don't think that people who read or make it are going to condone it IRL directly because of that media, and I believe that if they WERE to do something bad like abusing someone, it'd be an unrelated/seperate issue: an independent choice that only they are responsible for, not anything they made or watched or read.

That makes me fall under proship, even though I don't like any problematic (as in incest, abuse, adult/minor) ships. Personally, I literally follow people who like things that bother me in that way: i just block the tags so when they post something i really don't wanna see, tumblr tells me, hey, this post has this thing in it so we've spoilered it. If someone likes shipping their silly little blorbos and those silly little blorbos are kinda fucked up in a way that makes their brain go brrr, that's totally chill with me as long as they aren't hurting anyone- which, because i don't think fiction equates to reality, I believe they aren't when they're playing with their blorbos. (and since i'm pro-rpf, it's worth mentioning i feel the same about that. rpf is still FICTION, at the end of the day. you don't actually expect those people to do the things you write or draw. it's still removed from reality. that's personal preference though, many proshippers would disagree.)

So basically proship or Anti is a label that represents your philosophy on how human thoughts and behavior link to fiction. anti means you believe that consuming something fictional is equivalent to doing it in real life, or at least will make you do it IRL later, while proship means you believe that consuming something fictional is unrelated to doing it IRL, and you can enjoy something fictionally without actually enjoying it or condoning it when it's real people.

you will, of course, see more people who enjoy dark fiction under proship, and that's because they themselves consume it- so of course they're going to say it's not the same as doing it IRL. You will also, of course, see more people who don't like dark fiction at all under anti, because when you're disgusted by something like that then that reaction can be taken as "evidence" that it's morally bad. (personally, disgust-based morality doesn't hold up as a concept for me- it's a big reason why bigots believe the things they do, so using the same logic path makes me uncomfortable, but it is still common for people to use it as a way to measure wether something is okay or not.)

so, the part about silly block game.

there's lots of censoring in this part to avoid harassment, so bear with me.

In the early days of the d/mp, people decided that creating romantic content around the b-nchtr-o (Tmmy, tvbb0, and rnb00, who were all around 16 at the time) was inherently problematic. I'm not sure why, exactly, but the idea became that a fan crushing on one of them (at the exact same age!!!) or shipping them with each other, even as characters, was equivalent to being a real life child predator. again, even if the person doing it was ALSO a minor.

because it was seen as inherently problematic, behaviors like those were lumped in with other things problematic- shipping characters on the smp who had fought or killed each other, shipping characters who were related or were minor/adult, etc. there was no distinction; i was there!! it was all problematic, and all of it was seen as evidence that you were a real life predator of some kind regardless of age or disclaimers put under your content.

the label that developed for this group of "problematic content" enjoyers within the fandom became "poppytwt" or "ppytwt". (twt being there because it was mainly localized around twitter). as i explained above, because it could be because of dark fiction OR be//htr/o content, poppytwt content and ships doesn't even require it being dark fiction necessarily, nor does it require it being b//chtr/o; just one or the other, although usually the assumption is that it's both, since that combines the two reasons for being under that label. some people also call any proshippers in the fandom poppy even if they don't engage in anything problematic in-fandom, but that's generally the antis and not people themselves. if someone self describes as poppy, it's for the two main reasons above.

Additionally, the d/mp fandom has this concept of "maintagging". what this means is that if you make problematic content, you are NOT ALLOWED to tag it under the fandoms or characters it's about, because people don't want to see it in their results. ao3 has a tag filtering feature for this exact purpose, but people generally disregaurd that; you're still not supposed to tag it on the "main" tags, and doing so is seen almost like "asking for" harassment, like how some people talk about wearing crop tops alone at night.

Tntd/o managed to cross over, actually, from poppy to main/normalized in the fandom as the creators leaned into it with their characters. but for awhile even that was considered poppy.

different members of ppytwt have different opinions on RPF, but RPF was also considered poppy on it's own sometimes depending on who you were talking to and how militant they were on what got a pass and what didn't.

as be/chtr/o aged....it didn't stop?? all of them hit 18, but still, to this day, you can be cancelled for shipping them with each other or ANYONE else. it's why i'm so damn scared of the d/mp fandom, if i tagged a fic about my source with his character tag, with ANYTHING other than platonic relationships for him/me, I run the risk of being sent threats or doxxed- don't get me wrong, many antis keep to themselves, but there are also those who try to play vigilante- remember, if something fictional is equivalent to IRL, then attacking someone for enjoying a "bad" fictional thing becomes a charitable, heroic act; so sometimes antis might pursue proshippers with the goal of keeping people "safe". Many people in related fandoms or under the same creators also adopted the same ideals handed down from the d/mp fandom, so i'm wary of people who just watch my source too, or of people who like the q/mp.

people joke about the old fandom going crazy if they say tvbb0 and tmmy today, and that's because they would. they'd be furious at tmmy for doing this bit and putting himself in danger, they'd be cancelling anyone who ran with the bit in chat or had a photo of them hugging or kissing like in the music video as a profile picture, it'd be a whole mess. even today though it's still...scary.

((paused there to take a strawberry milk break, im back now))

the somewhat exception to this rule is Rnb00- people literally thirst for them and make nsfw comments openly, so while im not sure about the shipping aspect, i do know simping is widely okay- you couldn't even say you wanted to kiss them before, but now people are saying wayyy more than that...

inversely, i feel like my source has it the worst, because people won't even talk about him- or anything related to him- as an adult. it's always child this and child that, "who let him drink" and "get the alcohol away from the baby!", and of couse "don't ship him or his character with anyone that makes you a pedophile!!!" while the grown ass man they're talking about outright says he's alright with sfw fanfiction in a video where he reacts to someone's x-reader and then makes flirty nsfw jokes with every other adult man in the vicinity. every fanfic is platonic and almost all of them both irl and in game write him as sixteen. they take place in the past or, more commonly, they just straight up age him down. hell, sometimes they even age him down to like eight. even in fics where he IS an adult, he gets called a child or a teenager but never an adult.

poppytwt, like the stigma against writing for the creators or their characters, lives on. and even outside of benchtrio, again, ships between other characters that are problematic are poppytwt, so that also is still clinging on for dear life in some corners of the web. most poppytwt posts that are tagged as such usually include b//chtr/o, but not all of them; and it's worth noting many creators avoid tagging at all even if it's just the poppytwt tag, because they don't want to get swarmed.

because I ship myself with my husband of course, and also make fictional content with our sources as an extension of that (think dungeons and dragons but the character is just you...or, actually, SMPs are a great example of this since the appearance/name is generally the same, so think like an SMP!!!!!) I am poppytwt. I will always be poppytwt to most people who don't like poppytwt. and I have friends who are poppytwt and I like art made by people under poppytwt. I don't need to ship incest to be a part of that, i just need to not think the people who do aren't doing anything harmful when they ship that, and to write/draw....well, anything about septicinnit, which i do all the time.

if someone has poppytwt dni in their bio, i can't interact. if someone has proship dni in their bio, i can't interact. it doesn't matter if what they really mean is "people who like abusive ships because that triggers me", I still can't interact.

Because i think we SHOULD be tagging our content exactly so that we can filter it and find what we personally enjoy (and avoid what we dont), the concept of a DNI is technically something i'm kinda for- it is a way of monitoring and controlling your experience- but it also can be used as an excuse to harass people who forgot to read it, and i have no way of knowing if that's the case in advance.

ADITTIONALLY, because I know and care about people who consume dark fiction, I also don't want to be around people who think that makes them a bad person, regaurdless of wether or not they think i can stay. and "proship dni" is about proship, that fiction isn't reality philosophy- they are saying right out of the gate that they think it DOES make them a bad person. and I don't agree with that. it frustrates me and it makes me upset. those DNIs are based in a place of disgust and hatred for the people I care about, because of content that isn't real, and i'm never going to feel super okay with that...

there's people who don't understand what it means and use it anyway when it's really just about the content; but again, how am i supposed to know which is which?? ESPECIALLY on twitter, the anti philosophy is extremely popular and relevant and yes, trendy. people believe it, HARD, and so i can't assume they don't when they say they do. I've met real flesh and blood people in person who think that way, so if you are using these words, i'm assuming you know what they mean- that way I don't run the risk of making an actual anti upset and violating their boundaries.

you don't have to agree with me on this- if you're anti, then that's your worldview and i'm not going to change that. but that's what those words mean, the history of the block game side of things, and how they're correlated to censorship.

To Summarize:

Anti : Fiction Equals Reality so Fictional Crimes are Real Crimes (ergo we should censor them to stop the crimes)

Proship: Fiction does NOT Equal Reality so Fictional Crimes are Harmless (on their own)

Anti-Anti: Not sure if Fictional Crimes are Harmless, but Don't Like that Antis think Proshippers are The Exact Same Level as IRL Criminals

Poppytwt/ppytwt: Problematic silly block game stuff, OR things that have to do with these three specific block people being hot/dating someone. Sometimes both.

[whetstonefires]

Why do you think Kamala Khan, Miles Morales and Sam Alexander were given their own Teen Titans-equivalent team (the Champions) rather than simply having them join the Young Avengers, who were already popular in their own right?

Bunch of reasons!

Age bracket. Miles and Kamala were introduced in their early teens and had reached their mid teens when the Champions were formed; Young Avengers were by this point college aged.

Tone. The Young Avengers had a long sprawling soap-opera type team history that encouraged relatively meandering interpersonal drama focused storylines, where the team was often its own biggest problem to a higher degree than is usually true of superhero teams. Champions ran to a much faster, punchier narrative that could be fit around the fact that some members had other books they were mains in. And their concept was to do cleaner heroing less tied down by baggage than the Avengers, who'd just shat themselves spectacularly with Civil War II, while the Young Avengers are literally a team about baggage despite none of them initially being real legacy heroes or even having met the Avengers they were riffing on.

Geography. Miles is from Brooklyn and Kamala is from Jersey City and afaik the Champions operated primarily around the greater metro area. It would be weird to write the Young Avengers like that, but disruptive to find a way to keep involving those two when the story didn't stay put. Sam didn't have this limitation, and neither did Viv or afaik Amadeus, but they weren't the big draws.

Marketing. The point of putting Miles and Kamala in the same book, with other heroes their age, is they're the hot new thing people are into, in particular people who were not already part of the Comic Book Purchasing demographic. Young Avengers content is catered foremost to nerds who have been engaged with comics for 20 years; Champions was meant to work as an entry-level title.

Related to all of the above, writing logistics would have been such a pain, trying to satisfy multiple audiences with different stakes in the title and allow Miles and Kamala to headline while also being the babies of a group where they didn't really fit in. Awful idea. Editorial was so correct.

In summary: Did you ever see that short Titans run I believe just after Flashpoint, where DC put Damian on a team mainly staffed with characters from the NTT era for nostalgia cred, so you know people around Dick's age cohort, and had Damian lead it and made characters like Beast Boy happy about being micromanaged by this rude little twerp? Unreadable.

My question was how Marvel had the balls to launch the Champions into a market where they also had a teen-team-style West Coast Avengers book out, the new Wasp running an all-girl team, and a new Runaways book. Actually idk which came first but that's not the point. Like four very different narratives being done but it was still four youth team titles at once, way to splinter your base. Was Disney just running tests on market saturation?

[kosi-annec]

[HAIKYUU!!] Season 3 episode 8

Fuck 8-4 that's too big of a gap, they need to score the next points or else they're not gonna catch up..

Suga idk if it's smart to tell the enemy team your next plan, but it seems to piss tendo off lol

AAA NO ITS USHI AGAIN- OH nvm thx you for messing that up hskshk

No. 10 on field, let's go hinata! Get us them points back. Oh hey this background character (idk wat his name is) is doing pretty good.

AH OOF that's gotta hurt sheesh.. BUT KEEP GOING HINATA DON'T STOP- oh wow even TENDO was fooled by that. I gotta appreciate the fact that hinata was actually thinking before he spiked cuz he's not working w kage

wait hinata let himself get hit in the face ON PURPOSE?? I mean, if it keeps the ball up ig

"he shows no sign of the talent or intelligence of those other players" ouch, but true lmao

Ok you two (ushi & hinata) stop trying to assert dominance HSKSHS

Ngl kage just jumping up and down in the corner looked so silly

HINATA GET AN ICE PACK IF YOU CAN TASTE BLOOD, wat is with the karasuno boys getting hurt these past few matches, 2 have been sent to the nurse and now lil tangerine is technically bleeding just not externally

Nice Suga forcing him into a receive. Oh shit they're gonna do it again, oH THEY GOT THE POINT! Tendo was so caught up in trying to read em he didn't act

KAGEYAMA BACK ON FIELD LEZGO!! Pft- "better watch the back of your head, squirt" god i love the eng dub

All of this build up for kage's serve is either gonna end really cool or really bad. OK it went well- holy cRAP KAGE?? He was all the way from the back tf??? HOLY SHIT and we're back let's go!!!

hhh come on crows, they can't let shiratorizawa get any further ahead of them

Ok eita up on field. Wait he's also a setter? Ngl I don't remember. Yknow that's fair from eita ig, cuz everyone has eyes on ushi and ig tendo if only for his amazing blocking style, so it's nice to get that attention on you, if for a lil bit

FUCK- NOOO 12-9 they're getting too close to 15 for comfort..

YES BEST OLDER SISTER! These kinds of situations is exactly why there's cheer squads n shit. When the team is starting to feel down it's the audience's job to lift their spirits up, to let them know that someone believes in them

?? Is that a fucking anthem shiratorizawa's audience singing???

OK good save there tanaka, NOW JUST KEEP IT UP- omg OMG HINATA?? BLOCKED!? USHI!! holy crap LETZ GO THAT'S OUR TINY MIDDLE BLOCKER

Goshiki I thought you'd realize by now that no.10 ain't your average 1st year player, that tangerine is a monster

Aw kage basically telling kazuhito (finally learnt bg char's name) not to worry too much on how he plays

TADASHI GIVE US A GOOD SERVE! Yesss he's so confident in his abilities now, he's grown so much

CRAP nooo the crow's pinch server is out now- wait what?? OH goshiki touched the net. NVM THEN KEEP GOING TADASHI!!

Tbf kazuhito's the one that got hit and he's not used to the power behind ushi's spikes. aaAAA OK THAT'S OK BG GUY, you got a point that's all that matters right now

HSKHSJS OMG KAGE'S GROWN SO MUCH, he's literally adjusting himself to suit the spiker

YESSS the stress is getting to them, shiratorizawa's making mistakes, and by shiratorizawa i mean goshiki

Damn, that.. actually really sweet of ushi, cuz that man only says shit if he believes it, and goshiki needed that

GIVE US ANOTHER TADASHI- Ah fuck, and there goes the streak

FUCK, aaagh i thought he was gonna do a strong hit, ok so goshiki's not as reckless as i thought

14-13 COME ON KARASUNO!! YES OMG 14-14 JUST ONE MORE POINT, YOU GOT THIS CROWS

Ooh, old man flashback? Oof yeah that's the worse, where ppl deny you becuz you lack on something you don't have control over

Now back to present stress, JUST KEEP THE BALL UP CROWS! STOP HIS SPIKE- omg GOOD RECEIVE NOYA

I do find it interesting that the choice of music for this final point is not like hype or something loud, but more emotional and hopeful sounding. Idk im not a musician

FUCK NO! AHH they can't do another deuce again they HAVE to get the next 2 points..

Oh shit, coach?? Well, he's a man of few words, but those words are enough to light their fire again

Yachi?? wait- WAIT OMG IS HE BACK?? OMG TSUKI'S BACK!! THE CAVALRY IS HERE LEZGO