#media history lesson for you anon

[project-sekai-facts]

whats 4kids?

Anon you grew up with good dubs.

4kids was an american licensing company that used to own the rights to and dub lots of non-english shows, particularly a lot of anime. they're also very infamous for the ridiculous amounts of edits and such that they made to americanize the shows. like some of their most (in)famous dubs include: One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh, some early seasons of Pokemon, Sonic X, and one of the English dubs for Winx Club's early seasons.

People often joke about them for bad dialogue and how ridiculous the censors were. Like especially in One Piece from what I've heard, because they had to physical alter the animation to remove blood and change every single gun to be a popgun or water pistol. Like here's a 2hr 40 minute video covering all the changes they made to OP. It wasn't a good time.

Speaking from what I know in the Sonic X and Winx Club side of things, the Winx dub is fairly disliked within the fandom for not being very faithful to the original. They changed a lot of scenes within the episode around and cut lots of stuff that honestly wasn't even that bad (as far as I'm aware this is something they did with their other dubs too). Also they changed some of the characters' personalities and loads of lore for absolutely no reason (okay one of the changes was probably to avoid the MC having a dead sister so they made the ghost of the sister be no relation but other than that).

Same in Sonic X particularly in the final season there was a pretty strict no death or sad things rule. While there was an instance of major character death in the finale that was entirely unavoidable, they still toned it down massively and removed a lot of the heavy grieving scenes connected to it. Also they removed two (very plot important) instances of children dying, one of which ironically ended up with Shadow being killed off in the finale due to the scene revealing he's still alive showing the grave of one of these characters being cut (it's a long story please don't ask me to explain Shadow the Hedgehog lore or it'll end up being longer than any of my project sekai essays).

Yeah so basically 4kids is like the epitome of bad dubbing and is a treated as a joke by. most people who grew up with it.

Oh also they changed all the music in the shows they dubbed which was also bad but gave us some really iconic songs like the original english pokemon theme.

And one last thing

See ensekai localisation isn't amazing but it could be worse. Especially if it was an anime and was dubbed 20 years ago.

[polyamorouspunk]

For the anon that sent me an ask looking for queer media for their upcoming semester:

[princessbrunette]

my angel you absolute batshit crazy I saw the storm that took over moony's page I love you for doing the same

also gang bang slaps ily anon

no like they can leave her tf alone. people really cannot distinguish the difference between a writer thinking something is okay/ wanting something versus an exploration of character / exploring controversial topics in a safe environment and i’ll tell you why. the people that get all up in arms about it do not consume any other media that isn’t fan fiction. they don’t read books. and if that’s your jam — that’s absolutely fine. you won’t see me judging you. but what u need to realise is not every piece of literacy is crafted for the audience to get off on / feel comfortable with. a writer can want to write dark topics for so many reasons and they don’t owe you a history lesson on why! end scene

[darklinaforever]

I don't know if you know or even care judging by your heartless attitude and those of the anons baiting, but Grace has been discharged from the hospital. She just needed a few stitches. Her brother has said Grace is actually not meant to be on social media as it's hugely triggering for her, plus she has a history of making posts that spark harassment etc because her takes are seen as discriminatory etc. He thought it was the same old situation again and doesn't get the whole plagarism thing. I messaged him the screencaps Grace took of her post and yours and he thought she had written both posts which says it all. He's not really interested in that tbh. However he has contacted law enforcement for advice regarding the harassment claims - they have seen the screencaps of everything but the fact Grace deleted her blog has caused hassle. Without an actual account to trace the IPs then it gets complicated. They recommend getting legal representation in the meantime and to contact Tumblr directly. Grace's injuries have been photographed and filed, so has the whole plagarism thing as background but they're not really interested in that either. It's more about the threats. I don't know if you were involved but apparently the officer said they have to have actual evidence in terms of the original situation motivating a backlash from your followers. But it's sketchy and we can't make unproven allegations. He said so far there's no actual proof online of you goading people to go after Grace. Your responses are not enough to indicate this. If the case goes ahead and they uncover evidence, then yes, they will then act. Tbh, they're not really being helpful with this as they are implying it's a waste of their time and resources. The officer admitted that your post was probably plagarised but that's it.

I'm going to cut it off there as I've wasted enough time on this. I hope Grace learns her lesson and stays off this hellsite. The only good thing about this is all my mutuals and theirs have now blocked you if they hadn't already. I've heard a lot about you over the past 24 hours and none of it is good.i had no idea who you were before or I'd have moved to act sooner to protect Grace from you. God knows how many vulnerable people you fucked up ready. I'm hearing crazy things about you defend paedophelia, you pretend to be bi to express Anti LGBTQ opinions and get away with it etc. I don't know if this is true but who knows. I just think you are a really dangerous individual and people are taking your opinions at face value as fact. Anyone who challenges you is immediately called crazy and deluded and then subjected to abuse. Grace could have killed herself over this and for what? Some idiot copying her post? I feel you have a lot of unhealthy thoughts and feelings and post them here because in real life you'll get trouble for it. I don't really care. I just think you're absolutely vile and people should block you for their own safety.

1. I don't pretend to be Bi. I am bisexual woman. And I have never declared anything anti-LBGT. I'm just not comfortable with changing the on-screen gender of a male character who has been exist for years. It's still crazy to be called queerphobic for that.

(If you look at my tumblr account, I'm currently obsessed with the ship Catwin and Dead Boy Detectives in general ! 😂)

2. I am not defending pedophilia. Not even incest, because I'm also accused of that. Shipping fictional characters has nothing to do with real life. You need to get treatment.

3. The same people who say I'm anti LGBT also accuse "Grace" of also being anti-LGBT, by the way. Just to show you the level of stupidity these people have.

4. There is no evidence that my subscribers have harassed anyone ! And if they did, I NEVER in any way encouraged that to happen. As for this girl (apparently named Grace), I literally said that if it was true, it was sad, but I had nothing to do with it, and that I hoped she would get better. (How does that make me heartless?) But once again, I DIDN'T PLAGIARIZE HER, I didn't harass her, and I didn't encourage anyone to harass her (or other people) either.

I am a person who stays in my tags on tumblr. I almost never go to other people's blogs and even less to harass them with anonymous messages. At this point, I am the one who has been the victim of harassment by antis who are spreading bullshit about me and it continues now.

If this whole story is true, I wish Grace well, but I didn't plagiarize her, nor did I send anyone to harass her. And that's just the truth. Whether you believe me or not I don't care, I have a clear conscience and that's all that matters.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

Might I offer the Gen Z perspective on the 9/11 thing?

9/11 was horrible. Full stop. I would never joke about that. The people who make jokes are just trying to be edgy.

That said, 9/11 also doesn't hold the same weight to us for a few reasons.

First, none of us remember it. It's told to us by parents, teachers, and media material, but to us, it's just another historical event that we have no emotional investment in. My history textbook personally lumped 9/11, the Obama election, and the 2008 recession all under a single lesson on the 2000s—9/11 got 2 paragraphs and a picture of the towers before the attack. Now, in 2024, we have a new generation of adults who do not remember 9/11, and that's pretty jarring to the ones who do.

Second, we're exposed to violence in the media constantly. I'm not talking movies or video games. We have uncensored war zone pictures, livestreams of school shootings, police bodycam footage, etc. in the palm of our hands. A lot of us have been desensitized, usually unintentionally. The way my parents reacted to the Columbine shooting is not the same way I reacted to Parkland or Uvalde. Their reaction was one of horror—mine was just being tired. So after seeing all this up close and personal violence, it's hard to stir up a different emotional reaction for 9/11.

Third, we just lived through a pandemic where a 9/11 amount of people died every day and the government did nothing (as opposed to the wars started immediately after 9/11, killing 4.5 million Iraqis and Afghans). It's harder to sympathize with 9/11 when the government lets that happen. Also, while 9/11 happened in a few distinct locations, COVID impacted *everyone*. We all know someone who died, or got sick ourselves, or were quarantined at home. Even kids who are too young to understand what the virus is will remember their first years of school being on Zoom.

20 years from now, I know the new generation will see COVID the same way Gen Z sees 9/11. It sucks, but that's just how time moves on.

Dear anon,

thank you for your essay,

yeah it seems Covid was your first terrible global event

It's intersting that the right will downplay covid but use 9/11 to justify islamophobia while the left is honest (or kinda weird and hyperbolic about covid) but downplays 9/11 to do a noble savage trope.

"while 9/11 happened in a few distinct locations, COVID impacted *everyone*"

OH you sweet summer child, America was so in control of the world back them that EVERYONE was affected by 9/11.

I might agree with everything BUT the last paragraph where you imply that forgetting 9/11 is just the way it is. When it's not remembering and learning about history is a choice and so is forgetting being ignorant. And the latter is a bad choice.

Yours,

Cecil

[merakiui]

👀 bad endings for the idol au you say? I am intrigued~

-🦩anon

👀 allow me to share with you the bad endings.

(cw: yandere, nsfw, implied dub/non-con, somnophilia, captivity/kidnapping, mention of baby-trapping/pregnancy, unhealthy behaviors/relationship, murder, drugging, mention of torture, implied female reader for some of the scenarios)

For all seven, I think they would find a way to get Rollo out of the way, whether that's by killing him, threatening him, or making you look like a cheater. Rollo is essentially powerless against seven rich and famous idols, who could easily bribe any authoritative figure to keep quiet if he tries to go to the police about any of them.

As for individual endings:

Riddle

✧ he invites you to his hometown under the guise of gathering inspiration for a new song. as his manager, you decide it wouldn't hurt to accompany him. riddle is always pleasant company. he's polite and respectful and quite knowledgeable. he goes into detail about the history of his hometown throughout the flight (which is on a private plane). he tells you of this bakery that you absolutely must visit with him. he tells you how the roses look prettiest in the spring. he tells you of an annual summer festival (something he was never allowed to take part in) that he hopes to enjoy with you. there is no mention of songwriting or inspiration. it truly feels like a date, and when you awkwardly bring this up to riddle he insists this is his creative process. apparently, his creative process also involves you getting kidnapped by a strange man with purple hair and yellow eyes, who relocates you to a house riddle has prepared specifically for the life he'll share with you.

Leona

✧ he'll send his secretary (ruggie) to keep tabs on you as his interest in you continues to grow. it will be ruggie who breaks into your home to kidnap you, and it's ruggie you see when you wake in a nicely furnished home. leona comes home from an interview later that evening, pleased to find you (unwillingly) waiting for him. you'll be kept safe in leona's home. he won't do anything to hurt you, but he does get irritated when you cry and struggle. when ruggie comes to visit babysit, he'll keep you company and cook delicious meals for you while also informing you of how good you have it here. how lucky you ought to feel. it's also ruggie who pays rollo a visit with not-so-kind intentions...

Azul

✧ azul will send his two confidants (dangerous men who have taken over their father's business) to collect rollo. azul's offer is simple: be his for all of eternity and rollo can live. he's even willing to let him leave wound-free. isn't he so generous? depending on your answer, rollo is free to live another day or he's disposed of before your very eyes (a gruesome lesson that burns itself into your retinas forever). if the manager is female, azul definitely baby-traps you. the twins are the ones who punish you when you act out of line or attempt defiance. azul hides his ties to the mafia well. to think he's been a dangerous individual all this time and you never suspected a thing... you get better at begging each time you find yourself at the mercy of the twins. they know just how to mold you to azul's vision.

Kalim

✧ without meaning to, kalim sinks both his and your careers when he publicly announces he's in love with you. his secretary (jamil) had adamantly advised against this very outcome, so now he's left to pick up the pieces and assure the public that kalim is just joking and this was all one big social experiment. when things manage to quiet down (you've been bombarded by media and fans, all threatening you to come forward with the truth, to stop seducing the idols you manage, that you're only after kalim's fortune... these accusations are enough to wear you down, so much so that not even rollo can cheer you up). when jamil approaches you and claims that you should lie low for the time being (it's what kalim's doing), you think it's a good idea. for this reason, you don't think twice when you accept the all-expenses paid tropical vacation kalim gifts you. the island is small, but isolated and owned by his father. you think nothing of the dangers until you find that the only ones who exist on this island are you and kalim, and his secretary doesn't intend to help you no matter how much you cry and beg.

Vil

✧ he ruins your life. new years is an important time. the housewardens were invited to perform for a new years eve celebration and with any party there are bound to be plenty of snacks and drinks. you think nothing of it when vil offers you your beverage of choice, and throughout the evening you drink, and vil offers another glass, and you drink some more. it isn't until your every nerve is alight with hot, sticky desire that you begin to suspect something's wrong. but you're so far-gone that when vil hands you off to his secretary (rook) who brings you back to the hotel you're staying at you can only think of the discomforting heat that overwhelms you. vil has the key to your room and he pays you a visit once the new year has arrived. you've fallen asleep, twisting and turning in bed, and vil slowly peels back the covers. when you find out you're pregnant, you think it's rollo's child. you go the entire pregnancy thinking this. it isn't until you're holding your child and they open their brilliant purple eyes that dread chews through you. maternity leave is the perfect time for a certain mr. hunt to collect his dear vil's beloved.

Idia

✧ he's been cyberstalking you this entire time. there are cameras and microphones scattered throughout your house. he's been privy to every conversation, every late-night tryst, every morning spent wrapped up in rollo's arms. he sees and hears it all, and his envy consumes him. idia will find a way to fake your death so that, while everyone's mourning the untimely loss of their manager, they won't suspect that manager is actually being held captive in idia's house, shackled to his bed. idia's so pleased to have his manager all to himself. there's a lot he's been wanting to tell you and do to you. he seems almost shy when he speaks to you, but he's quick to become giddy the more he talks. rollo is a variable he's considered, but it's best if rollo suffers alone in his grief, never truly knowing what happened to his precious lover. if the manager is female, idia probably gets you pregnant without intending to because he never wears a condom. he thinks doing it raw is so much better. you learn all about idia's gross fantasies the longer you spend in captivity.

Malleus

✧ he'll leave everything behind for you: his career, his companions, his fame. and he'll start anew. malleus will move you into his childhood home, a gothic mansion that sits deep in a desolate part of the forest. you'll be kidnapped by lilia (malleus's secretary and father figure) and when you come to you're lying in a king-sized bed and malleus's bodyguards are standing just outside the door, preventing you from leaving. they keep telling you malleus will be back soon and that's when you'll be free to roam the house at your leisure. you're completely lost. who are these people malleus knows and why is he confining you to this room? you'll later learn malleus is just doing it to protect you and because he's found that fame is meaningless if it excludes you from the picture. from now on, you and him will live happily in isolation. no one knows what became of the idol who mysteriously vanished overnight, but fans and media are fraught with grief. another one who baby-traps manager; lilia is pleased to know he'll get to help raise another young one!

[m3dieval]

hi!! i hope you're doing well. do you have any tips for someone looking to get into reenactment who has no experience at all?

Hello Anon :) I have accidently written quite a lot...

Step 1: Find a group.

Depending on what exactly you're looking to reenact (Viking living history, Civil War combat, jousting, etc.), Google or Facebook might be able to help you. Reenactment groups usually have at least a Facebook page if not a website or other social media. Try adding what you want to reenact and some sort of location near you. For example: "viking reenactment alberta" gets you to The Ravens and Vikings Vinland.

This varies depending on location, but where I live museums and medieval faires usually host reenactment groups for certain events. Often the groups attending these events are listed (like at the Strathmore Medieval Faire or the Military Museum's Summer Skirmish). Even if the groups aren't listed online, you can go to an event and talk to any groups that interest you. Ask about: what era they are, what they do, how to join.

Step 2: Reenacting

You will most likely get some sort of mentorship through whatever group you've just joined.

Everyone starts somewhere. I recommend starting with research. That's the advice I was given when I started. In a thick French accent behind a horse stable a fabulous reenactor who had lent me some garb for my first event said: "You start with research, or you end up buying twice."

Most likely, you'll be able to borrow some items in the meantime.

Once you've done adequate research, you'll know what to acquire (either by buying or making). What to research? Footwear, what layers of clothing were worn in [era reenacting], how those layers are supposed to fit, what were they made out of, etc.

When you start shopping for reenactment goods you will most like go "wow that is expensive!" And you will be right. This is an expensive hobby. Cheap alternatives might be acceptable in your group (like a cotton tunic instead of linen or wool), but that depends entirely on the group. I ran around in a set of jersey knit hose for a couple years before making my wool ones.

Tips

The best garb guides for the 15th century are by The Company of St. George and they're available for free online.

If you're interested in jousting, start riding lessons ASAP. The horse is the hard part and nothing else matters if you don't ride well enough.

The more people you meet in reenactment, the more likely you will find opportunities to buy secondhand armour, tents, garb, etc.

Do not buy any garb or armour on Amazon (I met a guy in a fighting group who bought gauntlets on Amazon and broke the same finger 3 times before getting a proper pair of gauntlets)

If you sew: Please, PLEASE, make a mock up before cutting into your nice fabric

Pack more socks than you think you'll need

Bring water

100% linen is absolutely worth it. It's so worth it, I started adding linen to my modern wardrobe

Googling/Pinterest is not research. Learn about using primary sources and vetting secondary sources.

Armour is like garb in that there is lots of places to buy garbage, except the mistakes are even more expensive. Research, research, research. If you think you want to get into armoured reenactment, start saving for it ASAP.

A wool/poly blend does not act like 100% wool and I made that mistake repeatedly. The 100% wool is worth the crazy price per meter.

[tastesoftamriel]

I'm sure you're entirely sick of talking about this bc that initial anon was... dumb as hell and I too would like to forget about it if I were you lol, so feel free to ignore this ask!! but I just wanted to throw in my two cents as a fellow non-white non-American fantasy writer. cause fantasy as a genre is so insanely whitewashed, and even in settings like TES that have multiple different fantasy-cultures that are meant to draw inspiration from lots of different real-world-cultures, they tend to be shallow and lacking and let's be real, TES isn't getting any awards for being politically correct. I for one always get insanely hyped when I see more diverse takes on fantasy, whether thats in original fiction or fanfiction, cause 1) it just vastly improves the quality of the world building and 2) it creates more welcoming spaces for other bipoc to create more cool stuff. and also, it's just fun as hell to project your own culture into dope fantasy settings. I do it all the time and I fuckin love when other people do it.

I feel like that anon was just looking for a fight and intentionally trying to interpret your comment in the most bad faith way possible (classic tesblr behavior ngl). and like I get it, orientalism sucks ass, but I've followed you for a couple years now and I've only ever known you to be a super chill, super respectful person who (like I said before) creates a welcoming space for other bipoc in the fandom.

tldr: anon is a clown, representation is fun, your blog slaps

❤ from @reachfolk

Yes yes YES I could hug you! Inclusivity and breaking away from whitewashed fantasy is one of my main goals with this blog! My recipes and worldbuilding have me neck deep in exploring global cuisine and culture, but as soon as it's a picture then people go off about cultural insensitivity. Because reading comprehension is low here so most people barely glance at the worldbuilding posts.

Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, as far as Asian actors in Hollywood went, you had Lucy Liu and Jackie Chan. There was that show about Imperial Chinese cats called Sagwa (傻瓜 shagua literally means "dumb melon" which is what you call a certified idiot). Mulan (forever my favourite). Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? But that's it. Seeing Michelle Yeoh winning everything recently makes me feel proud to be Asian. I cried when I saw Over the Moon.

If just ONE person looks at this blog and goes "cool, I learned something" or "cool, my culture is being recognised and represented as a form of inspiration", then I have done something right. Other Chinese/East Asian people in the past have applauded me for bucking the western "Asian" stereotype, simply because I express my love for my culture differently.

I'm no less Chinese for being fluent in English (which is actually my mother tongue btw thanks colonialism), or being a goth, or an author who happens to be atrocious at math. I just am. And I want everyone to just be too. To embrace their otherness, to rejoice in the diversity of the human experience, and to learn to live together. And most of all, I wanna see more awareness in writing (especially fantasy) about non-Global North cultures and the people who represent them. I'm sick of being a media cliché.

If you're a POC and you're looking for your sign to delve into fantasy worldbuilding, this is it. Go write. Create. Destroy. Build the world you've always wanted to see through the lens of your heritage, use your history as a lesson, use your language as a weapon. ~Tal

[as-i-watch]

I have not been too deep in the one piece fandom yet, but i have been thinking.

Is 'Wano kuni' or 'the land of Wano' or 'the Wano land' literally mean 'the land of Japan'???

I learn bit and pieces of japan word when i watched anime,

As far as i remember, 'Kuni' mean 'land' or i guess it can also be translated as 'country' and 'no' is some kind of a connecting word for something. Also if i remember correctly, Japan used to be called 'Wa'. I kinda learn this from Inuyasha fanfic, the japan called wa thing. I think its called Japan after Oda Nobunaga conquest. If i remember this fact correctly. And yes, i got this from manga too. But i think that pieces of history lesson from anime and manga is a real life history. Since i found it kinda reoccuring facts in the media.

So if we split the word up and 'wa' is 'japan'

'Wano Kuni' = 'Land of Wano' ==》 'Wa no Kuni' = 'Land of Wa" or 'Land of Japan'

Is this a known fact or what? I mean its obvious that wano is a representation of japan. But i have not dive too deep in the fandom yet.

You are correct my dear anon!

I had no idea myself but a while back i got this ask where this person explained it very nicely

[olderthannetfic]

Hi! I sent the anon ask about fandom members telling people officially involved in the media we consume in about fanfics and so on.

And yeah, that's what I meant: risk of the official people getting in trouble because fans may accuse them of uh stealing their ideas etc.

That was a very fruitful thread of discussions+explanations+history lesson.

I just wanna thank you and all who contributed their opinions and perspectives!

--

:)

[officialromaniantranslatiuni]

What you wrote in that post about the course for teachers meant to prevent antisemitism in schools is proof that it is much needed and something like that should have been implemented yesterday. You could have done some research about the massive misinformation campaign started by the both sides of the I/P conflict (including allies, especially) since 7 October and the blatant antisemitism that is corroding the pro Palestine side, because many of their supporters have decided to show their solidarity through antisemitic biases and actions that most of them don't even understand are deeply problematic and are in no way helping Palestine, but your first reaction was to assume the Jews Israel is controlling the narrative and weaponizing antisemitism - at a time when antisemitism is skyrocketing everywhere around the world.

Also, there's a reason why the Jewish community of Timișoara is so small, isn't it? Actually, there's a reason why the Jewish community in Romania is so small now compared to how it used to be before WW2, isn't it? You're a teacher and you oftenly complain about how closed minded and ignorant your fellow teachers and your students' parents are, you should have known better than this.

Ok, anon who invented mineral water and is extra educated. I have no idea if you have no reading comprehension or if you were just looking for an excuse to insult me and whine.

But I shall approach you like one of my students:

In what context would the Palestine vs Israel conflict be approached by History teachers?

There is no present day history being taught as far as I know. I am not using contemporary because it leads up to the 21st century but not in detail and it only mentions a couple of events.

So the context would be... non existent.

I do not follow the news and the few I have been following are plainly stating facts. X is doing atrocities to Z. You can place either team. I do not deny your claim that some outlets are probably using discriminatory tactics just for kicks.

The thing is that Romanian pupils are not watching news on foreign politics. If anything, they would care about the war a few km away from us.

Let's address antisemitism and when it's discussed during History lessons:

- WW2 (I am no longer aware when exactly it's taught but I learnt about it in years 7, 8, 11 and 12)

- The new school subject added this year for 11th graders: The History of the Jewish People/Holocaust (it's a thing since like uwu yesterday uwu and the information is the same as in history lessons except with the emphasis on the Jewish community obvi)

- maybe other subject which tackle communities, tolerance and maybe even Religion (I remember learning a lot in primary school about their history)

So, please enlighten me why should this contemporary political/military issue be suddenly discussed in class?

Can we trace a timeline that would lead to understanding the reasons behind this war? Yes.

Does a teacher going to class and shouting "hey, kids, stop watching dances on tiktok and let's discuss the news which are very antisemitic" sound like a plausible thing? Definitely, but not really in a country that already supports Israel in this war and which is already the reason why Israel has a significant community number of citizens from here. Because things have been going on before and after WW2, but you call me ignorant and compare my intelligence to the one of a 6 year old, darling.

So to sum up... If you want to call out antisemitism in mass media, you approach zealots, uneducated adults and the media outlets themselves, not freaking children who don't even know where fucking Palestine and Israel are and don't know shit about politics to begin with!

[loosesodamarble]

Hi soda I'm the Nacht HC requesting anon. How did you discover black clover?.

Hello there fellow Nacht loving Anon! And boy is that a question. I probably have already answered this kind of thing in the past. But I’m not gonna make you look for that post or find whatever post it is myself just to lazily link it as my answer.

So! Soda History Lesson!

I kinda discovered Black Clover twice, if that makes sense.

I first discovered it back in high school, when the anime had just begun airing. There was an “anime club” at my high school (and I use the term very loosely since there were 5 socially awkward people at most and we mostly just talked about anime over lunch in a classroom). Anyways, one day someone brought up newly airing animes and even suggested we try watching an episode during lunch. The new anime that we watched was Black Clover.

All I remember from watching BC that day was that Asta was really yell-y. Didn’t give it much thought after that.

I discovered BC a second time in college. My IRL buddy Steph (@cringeyvanillamilk) unknowingly got me into the series. I was scrolling through one of her art accounts and saw art of two of her BC ocs. Their designs were cool and Steph had already introduced me to another series I love (Demon Slayer) so I thought “to better appreciate my friend’s ocs and because she already recommended a good series, I will give BC a shot.”

And I ended up eating the manga within a week. Legit. I was looking back at some DMs between me and Steph… One day I’m talking about only being on chapter 7, and the literal next week I’m going “devils are super op and Clover’s judicial system sucks.”

So yeah, I really got into the series!

I’m really glad I met Steph. That she introduced me to KnY leading me to trust her taste in media. And that she posted her ocs online for me to see and want to know more about (the ocs directly and the series they were made for). All that brought me to where I am today.

[iamacolor]

Is there a reason no one talks about swing kids (2018)? I feel like it should almost be required viewing for foreigners (especially American) to recontextualize koreas recent history like yes both koreas are so much more than what the Americans did there but when the extent of media about the Korean War is quirky American medical sitcoms from the 70s and everyone and their mom is watching kdramas these days, it was very eye opening to see. A lot of dramas talk about the effect of Japanese occupation but the American occupation is very much still going on and rarely do we get commentary on it in mainstream Korean media

omg anon I love swing kids!!! truth be told I've only watched it once because it made me cry soooo much but yes it was very eye opening as I had no idea at the time I watched it that the us had had such presence and authority in korea (and I also found it interesting that it depicted a solidarity between korean prisoners in their own country and a black soldier living in a segregated society). btw the camp that the movie is set in was a real camp which saw many uprisings from prisoners happening (led by communists prisoners) that were violently repressed by the us military and it was really turned into memorial camp (as you see in the last scene of the movie when the us soldier comes back as an all man and puts his hand on the stage where they old danced together and he's the only survivor - I was bawling my eyes out at this point).

it's mainly by following @commajade that I was introduced to the reality of the us presence in Korea (historically and today) because as you said it's just never discussed wether it's western medias or kdramas. I really recommend going through their korean politics tag as you'll find many ressources on the us role in the peninsula (from the violence during the height of the korean war, to the support of the dictatorship regime, to blocking the peace negotiations between the two koreas and even their role before the japanese occupation), the massacres committed by the us army (and how they tried to erase them from history) and on the reality of the us having military bases on korean soil. as they explain, it informed the various wars that the us took part in afterwards. I was pretty shocked to learn how strong the US authority still is over the korean army (for example the singer Youngk from the band Day6 did his mandatory military service in a unit working for the US army to fill in various positions)

Discussing the reality of what the us did in korea would mean recognising that they are not indeed, and have never been, a great exemple of democracy and defendor of freedom, it goes against the core of their national storytelling concept (which was disproved, not just in korea, over the decades and is very much disproved by their current support of Israel in its destruction of the palestinian people - but they still get to present a narrative in which their violence is justified against savagery and only they know the truth of what the world needs bla bla bla) may the us regime rot. I don't know what Americans are taught about the war and their role in korea (probably something about how they saved the country and brought democracy) but in France, we barely talked about the korean war at school (I think it was mentioned as part of the lessons in the cold war? like the various ongoing conflicts between the west and the east although we did talk a little bit about the japanese occupation linked to the end of ww2 but it was a long time ago so my memory is definitely fuzzy) and it was actually through a korean friends that I learned that french soldiers had been involved and their actions were still commemorateed today in korea

[not-so-rosyyy]

The known facts are that Feb 2020 was 8 months after Tom was papped holding hands with Olivia and letting her grab his ass. Z and those close to her didn't unfollow Tom or anyone in his circle after those events. She even posted herself playing the Spidey game while wearing the MJ sweater. In contrast, Tom immediately unfollows Deja and Darnell (who he was going to work with in a few months when NWH was going to be shot) after those pap pics of JE & Z are posted. Tom refollowed Darnell 6 days later after he lands in LA for Onward press (Z and Darnell are in NYC). Darnell likes Tom's next ig post. Z stops interacting with Tom's social media for 6 months. Tom still likes 1 Z post and tags her in a HOCO post that doesn't feature her. He also likes a Law post featuring her captioned "I'll do anything for this girl. I love you @/zendaya".

So I think it's fair to conclude that Tom & Z had a falling out after those pap pics and Z was extremely hurt by his behavior. Tom has also mentioned that he can be extremely impulsive and quick to anger and that his superpower is apologizing. Many of us following the events on Feb 2020 thought that Tom was going to drop Law as his stylist given the close bond between Law and Z. We were surprised when Law revealed that Tom was calling him weekly during quarantine

Anon giving y’all a history lesson/ refresher 🫡

[zeus-japonicus]

Nemo you are the coolest please tell me more about trice forgotten linguistics

i've never felt more like 3 penguins stacked on top of one another and wearing a trenchcoat until right now - you're very sweet for indulging me, anon, here is a linguistics essay just for you.

For context, I approach linguistics from the perspective of someone who is, and has always been, tragically in love with languages and yet incapable of understanding grammar. As an example, I consider myself bilingual English with Japanese, and yet I still struggle with particles (I had to google the term for them to write this post). I know innately and strongly how to use most of them, but sometimes I'm left floundering. If I'm speaking Japanese, I think in Japanese, until I don't know the word for 'racism' and then I'm reduced to explaining what I mean like a 5 year old. Hell, I barely understand English grammar, and that's the language I have (nearly) 3 degrees in.

I was born and raised in London. I lived with my very white, very middle-class-aspiring grandma for many years. Her friends used to say to me, "your English is so good!" As an attention-seeking child, I very much took that to mean they understood I was a gifted and intelligent human - looking back, I know it's because they saw an Asian, and they were surprised I didn't speak like the Asians they'd seen parodied by white actors in film or on the radio.

Alestes desperately hunts for people who will understand her broken, child's Hokkien while, at the same time, existing as someone both Black and Asian. Fluent English is not expected of her by the society she lives in. Neither is fluent Hokkien.

I don't speak Hokkien at all, and I realise that maybe a few of you probably don't know what it is - so let's start there. I'll say here that all translation was done by my dear friend Yen Ooi, whose English-language Sci-Fi are poetic and beautiful and radical.

"Hokkien originated in the southern area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration, and has since become one of the most common Chinese varieties overseas. [...] Hokkien historically served as the lingua franca amongst overseas Chinese communities of all dialects and subgroups, and it remains today as the most spoken variety of Chinese [in Southeast Asia]."

I will admit, when I first started writing Trice, I defaulted to assuming Alestes and her family would speak Mandarin or Cantonese, the two more well-known Chinese languages - Cantonese especially because it's a trade-language used in many interactions with the British.

Tangentially, I was reading about the indentured Chinese people brought from Batavia (Indonesia) to Cape Colony in South Africa because I was doing research on Cape Coloured people. I'd just interviewed someone for my PhD who talked to me about their family history, which made me really think about ancestries I'd never considered before - and about trade routes beyond the Atlantic.

Then I thought about who had been ejected from China. I remembered an article written about Sek Yeong / Ching Shih - about how she lived through a combined population boom & lack of food & space and so she and people like her took to piracy on the sea. I essentially did a combo of google maps & wikipedia to look around the coast of China for places and languages that might fit who Zhu Anran was in my head.

I settled on Fujian and Hokkien because they're big - and yet absolutely obliterated in the western brain. I don't personally know of any Western media where a character speaks Hokkien - any dialect of it - it's the official language of Taiwan (side note: i did just have to google "was Taiwan ever a British colony" and was genuinely surprised it wasn't - Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese) - and as mentioned, is still a lingua franca in SEAsia - my friends who speak it are mostly Malaysian and Singaporean British people.

I think many people might assume (given our abhorrent history lessons) that a character being Fujian and Xhosa is... a rare or strange mix - but people like Alestes did exist - must have - even if there are no real records - because of how linked Cape Town and Southeast Asia were - even before British/Dutch colonisation.

I first attemped to use online Hokkien dictionaries to translate the work but kept coming across the issue of not knowing what meaning words really had - especially swears - so when I asked Yen for translation help I had a caveat: I didn't want the swears to have ableist or racist meaning. Yen told me she and her dad had an excellent conversation when they were discussing swears - [content note for the list below, there is ableist and graphic language] - from Yen:

'bo jeng sin' or 'tao hong' - these are ableists... they refer to people who are crazy or have mental conditions, so probably not.

'iau siu' - this refers to a baby that'll be born dead - so very extremely aggressive cuss word.

'han ji' - potato. My preference because I grew with this phrase around me - means a useless person.

'jiak liau bi' - a waste of rice. I love the phrase... haha. It means someone who's not worth the rice they're given - useless person. 

han ji and jiak liau bi are the ones that made it into the show. As I mentioned in my previous post, Alestes swears in Hokkien because Baker didn't know what they meant when she was a kid and so couldn't tell her off for it...

And to close us out, here's a nice translation note from Yen about Alestes' attempt to speak Hokkien to the pottery seller: "carp is one of those words that isn't commonly known. It's 'le hu' in Hokkien, but if Alestes's Hokkien isn't fluent, she probably won't know the word. She could say... 'ha mi hu', which translates to 'what fish'. When we can't remember the word for something... like a type of fish/animal, we tend to just add 'ha mi' to the front... like what cat is this? what bag is this?"

The carp story is the one thing that connects Alestes to her past - her last memory of her father - and she can't even remember the word for it in Hokkien.

(Please do go an check out Yen's novels, she also writes games, and is on twitter @ yenooi)

[solitarelee]

Hi! I'm the anon from Shirecorn's ask- I feel like my specific situation is very different. I'm not saying teachers Need to help (sorry if it sounded like that- bad with words. I wish you were allowed to, though) but in my district, for some reason, they refuse to at least stand by and let us work on student safety if that makes any sense? EX. we blocked some sites (like Kongregate and Newgrounds type sites, plus Instagram, Pinterest etc, exclusively non-school appropriate games and social media) and a bunch of teachers at multiple locations got extremely mad at us for some reason. We have a librarian who gets really. REALLY weird about us blocking anything explicit too. She's worse than the parents for some reason.

I know all districts are different, but also thank you for putting up the good fight at yours. 🙏godspeed soldier. May administration be conveniently looking the other direction

LOL they got mad because it also blocks it for teachers, which meant they couldn't go on instagram at work. They SHOULDN'T be going on instagram at work, mind you, but I'd be willing to bet that's why they got pissy (at work we also connect to the school wi-fi. yes it's a nightmare. yes it's slow. I worked at a school that had separate wi-fi for the teachers once, and that was heaven lmao). It's also possible you blocked some sites teachers were using as rewards. In order to motivate students, I've seen a lot of teachers basically say "if you finish early, you can play games on your laptop" in order to allow slower workers a chance to finish within the plan while not boring the faster students to absolute tears every class period. I've also personally run into the problem where students would go to increasingly sketchy, virus-ridden gaming sites because all the safe, popular ones were blocked by the school. Not saying they're right to get pissy at you (you're just doing your job, they should get pissy at the school board if they're gonna lol), just a few reasons, good and bad, they might be getting irritated.

A lot of teachers also get... I would say morally opposed to censorship. You have to remember that the association with censorship that teachers will have is very bad, books that aren't allowed in the library and an idea of "children's safety" that involves keeping them from learning anything about history, their own bodies, the memory of hired mobs screaming and calling them pedophiles at school board meetings (I work in English so I have a significant number of colleagues this exact thing has happened to. One of my closest work friends got called a faggot at one of those.)

A lot of teachers (honestly myself included sometimes) have a kneejerk reaction to a censorship-based concept of children's safety, because their primary experience with it is one that's built not around children's safety but around control of children. Most educators (and librarians) are inherently morally opposed to this kind of thing and will react negatively to any hint of it. When kids are coming from homes with "child protection" monitoring systems to schools with anything problematic blocked, it becomes an issue of control. This is potentially where some of the teachers and the librarians are coming from and why they're reacting that way.

The problem is at the same time, admin is often blocking us from teaching internet safety in a helpful way that isn't just revolved around blocking Instagram and Pornhub. In almost every school I've worked or was placed in for observation, lesson plans had to be approved by admin the week before, and they had to have a core curriculum connection, and internet safety ain't in there. That's supposed to be the job of comp classes that don't exist at any school anymore (comp class was where we learned internet safety when I was in school in the 90s/00s). Best I could ever do was internet literacy, because I'm an English teacher and there's a core curriculum about research that I could connect it to.

Needless to say, I wish we could help too, since just blocking sites (while necessary imo just for like... keeping students on task? a lot of ppl don't seem to realize children in schools from middle up have literal constant access to a laptop and are on it all day every day in all classes) doesn't really do anything to teach kids internet safety. Parents aren't doing it (parents are often the source of the problem too) and if teachers aren't allowed to... it just doesn't get done, full stop, as those are the only two kinds of adults we tolerate around kids.