#nd the reviews were like that

[prettyallfriends]

venba came out today... wait for a sale honestly 😔😔 all the buzz has made it seem like a cool cooking game where u learn about indian cooking and culture, and yeah theres a teensy bit of that but... its VERY short, like under an hour and it costs €12 rn, will cost €15 full price. idk... the story itself is nice but its basically a visual novel thats badly written in places and the cooking segments are just "drag this thing to the pot" or "rotate the joystick a bunch of times". VERY shallow, and the storys nothing special either. the only thing going for it is the art and some of the music but again, not worth the price at all imo

[mikanotes]

out of reach ft. baek harin x gn!reader 2.1k words warnings: nervous breakdown, implied manipulation and bullying, reader nd harin are Slightly toxic, smoking, not really proofread Sorry!

author’s note: finally watched pyramid game! harin is so dear to me i love her. anyways here’s this

Clouds of smoke and overpriced cigarettes. The faint smell of perfume, struggling to cover the overwhelming, biting scent of tobacco. The sound of a lighter clicking shut, and a disdainful laugh. Condescending. The very image of a typical rich, high-school bully.

Then she sighs, softly, and it all changes.

The smoke dissipates to reveal a gentler expression (though the void in her eyes cannot be hidden), and the cigarette smell seems to leave with the passing breeze. She smiles softly and relaxes her shoulders. “I’m expecting great things from you.” she says, hiding a don’t you dare disappoint in between her words. She chuckles quietly to herself and turns on her heel. The school princess.

“Let’s go.” she says, her tone on the edge of something hurried. Like her facade, though perfectly constructed and practiced, might threaten to break if she stays any longer. You don’t reply but push yourself off of the wall to walk at her side when she strolls past where you were waiting.

The moment you’re far away enough from that hidden corner by the school entrance, Harin tenses again. You look down and see her thumb pressing its nail into her palm’s skin. Into flesh, at this rate. “Harin.” you call. She blinks out of her thoughts and turns her gaze to you. “What is it?”

“I’m thinking.” she replies honestly, bits of that kind demeanor slowly crumbling to reveal a more honest, yet possibly less furious side to her. One you’re more acquainted with.

“You do that too much.” you heave a deep sigh, “Seriously. Have you had a moment to breathe at all this week?”

Baek Harin is calculating. Always calculating each of her moves— Every interaction with all of her classmates, her family, her past present and future, the adults at her school. She carefully reviews the way she presents herself down to the detail. And now, she calculates everything Seong Suji does, everyone she interacts with, everyone around her, everything she does truthfully and all she does that seems fake— add more to the list. 

That’s just a recipe for disaster. But you’ve also known her for long enough to know that having a calm mind free of worries and overthinking is a privilege Harin hasn’t had since her early childhood years. The way she functions now is her own idea of normal, and it has been for much too long to even consider the idea of changing. So you don’t try to change it. But you try to calm her down, when she allows you to attempt it.

“I’m breathing fine.” she scoffs slightly, “I can’t afford not to think. Especially not…” she trails off like she’s remembered something, and you frown.

She reaches for her pillbox but it escapes her grasp, falling on the concrete. You reach over to grab it but she’s quicker than you. The moment the thing is in her hand, she opens it and shakes three vitamin tabs into her palm, before freezing in place.

You slow down and stop in your tracks, barely a meter back, then slowly approach her. Her eyes are flitting between the box and the pills themselves, her lip trembling as if struggling to get a word out. You start reaching out towards her but she suddenly throws all of the vitamins back into their little chamber. She clicks the pillbox close and puts it back into her pocket, then fumbles to get something else.

“Harin.”

She finally manages to find what she was seemingly so desperate to find, and opens the pack of cigarettes. She grabs one and shakily sets it between her lips, before repeating the whole searching process for her lighter.

“Harin.”

Once the golden thing’s in her hand, she clicks to light up a flame, once, twice, three times, to no avail. You swear her hand is beginning to shake.

“Baek Harin!”

“Fuck.”

She spits the cigarette to the ground and nearly crushes the rest of the pack in her hand. Her teeth bite into her lip to stifle a scream of frustration, you guess, and she goes back to digging her nails into the flesh of her hand.

You slowly set a hand on her shoulder and she lets you, though she does look much too lost in her own head to register anything other than the ground she’s been blankly staring at. “…Let’s go home.” you say, tone softer.

She nods in agreement.

Baek Harin’s definition of a home has changed several times over the years. Haneul Orphanage, the house of the family she was adopted into, and yet neither ever truly gave her the feeling that it was what home was supposed to feel like. She isn’t relieved when she steps foot into her house, she just feels more at ease to continue preparing her so-called schemes. Still, it is a house, her family lives there, and she never lacked anything. It’s a fine place to be.

But when she’s here, in comparison…

“I’m home.” you sigh as you take off your shoes. Harin sees your cat walk past the entrance hallway and stop to look at you, clearly waiting for something. And when you look at it, you smile and go pet it. It’s just that easy for them to get what they want in life, huh? She feels your gaze on her and looks at you.

“What?”

“Are you planning to stay at the door?”

She blinks. Right. She unclasps her shoes and slides them off her feet before she steps inside. She barely notices she’s breathing out a sigh of relief before a wave of exhaustion hits her. It makes her wonder for a moment if she was right to take the pillbox earlier. Maybe she forgot to take them during the day? She had so much to do. Did she? If she’s forgetful about this, she could be about much more important things….

She’s reminded of her near-breakdown just earlier and holds back from picking at her nails. She rarely reaches the brink of losing it this badly. She really needs to do something about the direction the game is going towards, or else she fears she might break at the wrong time.

“Harin.” you call, bringing her out of her thoughts, and she realizes you already walked to your kitchen, and you’re peeking at the corner of the wall to see her. “Do you want something?”

She stares at you a bit coldly, almost frowning. It’s clear she’s not entirely out of her own head, yet.

“Cola.” she says, “Do you have any?”

You scoff. “When do I not?”

She takes off her small backpack and walks further inside. This small place…  She would dislike it. She’s not one to be picky, but growing up in a luxury house for nearly ten years makes you dislike cramped spaces. At least she does. But she’s used to this apartment having you in it, and many times in the past, her, whenever she needed a place to go to that wasn’t her own house.

Sometimes she thinks maybe she isn’t grateful enough to have you. Sometimes.

“My game feels like it’s falling apart.” she sighs, walking into the living room. She plops down on the couch, tossing her bag aside and taking out her phone. “This girl is actively trying to ruin all of it.”

“Seong Suji?” you ask from the kitchen. There’s a hint of something in your voice that she hasn’t heard before. It’s sour and new.

She wants to hear it again.

“Yes. Seong Suji…” she trails off, “I swear even having 24/7 cameras on her wouldn’t help me stop her from doing all this.” she scoffs.

You hum in response, then it grows quiet. Harin feels a smile pull at her lips. She can practically see how much thoughts this small conversation provoked in your mind. Seong Suji? Is she the problem? She is. But is she in this case, too?

She’s curious.

“Still, I guess she’s a bit cute. Interesting, too. I’ve never had anyone stand up to me this much before.”

“Yeah?” you answer blankly, joining her. You set down the two glasses of cola on the coffee table just harshly enough for it to cause an audible clang. “Maybe because you're so used to having everyone bow to you and your every requests?”

“You don’t.”

“Don’t I?”

“You sound bitter.” Harin laughs, setting down her phone on her lap and propping up her elbow on the armrest. She sets her index under her chin and looks at you as you rummage through your backpack. The glimpse she gets of your face confirms you indeed seem unnerved about something. Cute… No, this is more than cute.

“I’m not.” you sigh, visibly straightening up. Your face relaxes and you glance towards her. “What’s with the staring?”

“Nothing. You’re nice to look at.”

You roll your eyes and grab your laptop from your bag and set it down on the table. Her eyes move to focus on it and she furrows her eyebrows. She didn’t know you still carried it around. She had to buy you one when it fell and the screen cracked, before. Irresponsible… Not that she minds buying for you. Not that you ask, either.

“Info on her friends. From other schools, I mean.”

Harin blinks, registering what you mean. “On Suji?” she mutters, eyes narrowing at the laptop. She tilts her head towards you with a small pout. “I never asked you that, did I?” she chuckles a little, leaning over to grab her glass.

This could be useful, but this doesn’t work.

You shake your head slightly. “Didn't.”

“So you’re just playing assistant, are you?” she huffs, “Thanks… But don’t do it again.”

You frown. “Why?”

“I don’t want you to get involved. You don’t even attend my school. It’ll only be trouble.”

— Besides, she doesn’t want you to be associated with this game and place as a whole more than needed. Just having you near the school is enough to make her stomach hurt. She has to have you be away from it all, at least. If not, she’ll feel like she’s still in it even when she’s with you. Then she won’t be able to sigh in relief once she steps inside your place anymore.

“Wouldn’t be the first time I get in trouble for you.”

“Mhm.” she laughs as she drinks, then turns to look at you once she’s done. The emotion leaves her face. “Don’t do it again.” she repeats, tone laced with hints of a threat. She means it.

“That doesn’t work on me, Harin.”

You stare at her and she doesn’t feel like looking away, either. You’re stubborn. She’s worse. This isn’t gonna end, and if it does, you might argue. She doesn’t feel like arguing.

“Do you like me?“ she decides to ask, just to throw you off a little.

“Are you insane?” you bite back, not missing a beat. Her smile deepens. She blinks away and leans back into the couch, sipping on her drink more.

“Not really.”

“False.”

“That’s rude?” she laughs, looking at you again. You raise your eyebrows and smile slightly, leaning to grab your glass.

“Too bad.” you say, before sipping on the cola. It’s a bit nostalgic. Drinking cola under dim lights when it feels like the world is only you two. This happened before, when she felt like her family’s very presence was suffocating, and locking herself in her room wasn’t enough— Or much earlier, when you were just kids, and you’d buy each other cola flavored popsicles. This kind of comfort makes her want more. She almost forgets about the game, for a moment.

The sour air in your voice and on your features seems to be gone now, so she figures the atmosphere is just as calming for you. Though she did enjoy seeing that look on your face… Your genuine, soft smile is one she enjoys a little bit more.

Now that she’s getting comfortable here, she doesn’t want to leave. She’ll take all the time she can get. She knows you don’t mind her staying. You may be above the rest when it comes to telling her off and not doing everything she asks, but you’re not above allowing nearly anything that helps her. And if letting her stay here, at the cost of possibly getting a death glare from her family members and irritating questions about any trouble she could’ve possibly caused for you, can help her? 

Then she knows you wouldn’t refuse. Even if you pretend you could. She knows how important she is to you.

“I’m staying the night.”

“When did I say you could?”

“You didn’t have to.” she hums, reaching over to move strands of your hair away from your face. She smiles. “I know I can.”

[illyria-and-her-pet]

I was waiting for the NBC Primetime angles to confirm whether Sabrina went OOB or not and she was clearly in bounds omg. FIG actually robbed her. She would have been 13.8 and won bronze without the 0.1 ND.

AA final: Suni goes OOB on vault, but line judge misses it & she avoids 0.1 ND

FX final: Sabrina stays in bounds on floor, but line judge incorrectly calls it OOB

Missing out of bounds is one thing, but inventing one is way worse. Giving gymnasts the benefit of doubt or missing deductions in real time is one thing. Inventing deductions that don't exist is completely worse.

Even if FIG never changes the results, they need to give an explanation for what the ND is and change things so there is robots, sensors, video review, you're able to inquire NDs, etc. so this doesn't happen again.

This is like the most blatant error FIG has ever made because e score and even d scores or incorrect start values can be subjective. OOB is completely objective, you're either in or out and Sabrina was in.

Also I feel like this is worst even then what happened to Yang Tae-young since they didn't file an inquiry until the competition was over. Sabrina's coaches immediately filed an inquiry and even tho d scores are for inquiry only that has to change. Also Nadia isn't a coach or part of the federation but she allegedly complained about the score immediately too and chief judge told her Sabrina went OOB but they were literally lying.

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: Buck is looking for answers!

Before 6x15 aired, I wrote a speculation post about Buck's "Therapy Uniform vs. his date clothes" (linked here) but everyone knows how the season ended with the showrunner pulling that BS by having Eddie revert back to being a giggly high school student who acted like an 18-year-old that didn't know how to ask a woman out on a date. And Buck literally made the same mistake by sleeping with a woman he just met who only wanted one thing from him but I digress. It still pisses me off, so I won't revisit it.

Also, I did a post after 6x13 aired (linked here) about Buck finding the answers (Eddie and Chris) because when he said he was the guy with the answers, he looked at Eddie.

Anyway, after TM (showrunner, GLAD HE'S BACK so KR can kick rocks and go write an episode) released more cryptic Buck, Eddie and Chris pictures at dark o'clock Saturday night or Sunday morning (depending on your time zone), I revisited my theory about Buck's therapy uniform but now I've revised it. He does wear one but the reason he does is a lot narrower in scope. Even though I still believe he wears specific colors or a "uniform" per say for certain things, I realized after doing some analysis that whenever he wears a Gold/Bronze/Burnt Orange/Dark Orange or a Brown shirt with navy-blue or dark colored pants, he's LOOKING FOR ANSWERS!

That's the difference between my original post and this one and I have photos from each episode to prove my updated theory. Before I delve into this, I need to mention there are two pictures from season 6 that contain the colors but BE WARNED, the pictures included deal specifically with the COUCH METAPHOR 🙄🙃. I know, I know... the season ended with Buck asking ND to help him find a couch but full disclosure, after I started working through my frustration with the way the season ended by writing a huge fanfic, I took a closer look at their whatever the hell they were doing (it wasn't a relationship) and I don't think it was meant to be interpreted that way. I won't go into it here in my CANON posts but if you want to know my thoughts on it, I've included them in my love for FANON writing in my multi-chapter fanfic titled "I'm still in love with you but... I needed to learn how to love myself too!".

Now, let's get into this topic and review Buck's looking for answers uniform.

In 4x2, Buck was looking for ANSWERS from Dr. Copeland and he said, "I think you were right when you said I hide my true feelings from others".

In 4x3 Buck told Maddie and Chimney he was seeing a therapist to help him find the ANSWERS and he started to find them but then everything went to $hit when the Buckley parents showed up.

In 4x4, Buck showed up at Maddie's and Chimney's apartment looking for ANSWERS about his parents and that's when he found out about Daniel.

In 4x8, Buck was lost and trying to find ANSWERS because guess who started dating again? EDDIE! And he was getting ready to introduce AF to Chris but Chris got upset and ran away and took an Uber to Buck's loft.

In 4x11, Buck and TK were FRIENEMIES (not friends even though he believed they were) so he contacted her and asked her for help because he wanted to find the ANSWERS regarding who hit Sue Blevins and ran.

In 4x14, Buck wore his "looking for ANSWERS" uniform twice and BOTH TIMES his quest involved Eddie! The first time was when he was packing more clothes to go to Eddie's house so he could keep taking care of Chris. That's when he got the call from AF after TK kissed him and ran so I've included two pictures so his shirt can be seen better while he's sitting at Eddie's beside. He was looking for answers about Eddie being shot in front of him and his heart being ripped out of his chest when it happened.

The second time he was looking for ANSWERS, he was in the hospital talking to Eddie during THE WILL REVEAL! 🤪😜

In 5x3, Buck was once again looking for ANSWERS about his relationship but reminder, he went home to an empty loft after he told Eddie during the blackout to break up with AF🤪.

In 5x4, he was looking for ANSWERS about Maddie and why she left him again even though she promised him she wouldn't in 3x16. Did she tell him she was leaving, YES! But reminder, she didn't tell him where she was going and all he told Chimney was "It's what she does, leave".

In 6x1, at the end of the episode, Buck was looking for ANSWERS again but this time it was about his couch or the lack thereof. At the beginning of the episode, he cooked dinner for him and his Diaz boys and they made fun of him for not having one even though THEY WERE SITTING RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF HIM. He missed the fact that they were waiting for him and had been since he broke up with TK and he still didn't get it. The picture shows Buck carrying his armchair (which is the same color of the shirt he wears when he's looking for answers) and he moved it to where his couch once sat.

In 6x4, Buck was looking for ANSWERS again when he was trying to decide if he should be Connor's sperm donor.

In 6x12, Buck was lying on the couch looking for ANSWERS about his death but reminder, the color of the couch is close to the color of his armchair but it's hard to see. He's wearing a navy-blue t-shirt while lying on that uncomfortable orange couch his mother bought even though he told her HE'D FIND ONE ON HIS OWN.

In 6x15, Buck was looking for ANSWERS about the fact that he died but ND was fangirling over him so hard that he LIKED the attention she was giving him then he said that Bull$hit to Eddie about her seeing him and Buck and Eddie went back to making the same mistakes. Eddie let people (**cough** Pepa and **cough** Bobby) tell him he should date instead of finding his own way. And Buck tried to make another woman like him when in fact all she wanted was his "Firehose".

In 6x17, he was still looking for ANSWERS but this time it was answers regarding how to calculate the tip at the bar he took ND to and that's when LD showed up and insinuated, they hooked up when she knows they didn't. Reminder, Buck could only do math when he was with Eddie and Chris and the firefam but he couldn't calculate $hit when he was on a date with ND🤪🙃😁😉.

Finally, in Season 7 (TM didn't specify which episode the scene below will appear in his cryptic post), Buck's wearing his LOOKING FOR ANSWERS colored shirt again. The color pants he's wearing while he sits on Chris' bed can't be seen but based on 6x13 when Chris wanted Buck to give him the answers to his math homework and since Chris is clearly doing homework in the picture, it's possible he's asking Buck to help him but he doesn't have the answers anymore because his special skills wore off after 6x13 which just so happened to be the episode the Buckley-Diaz family was together 90% of the time.

What, if anything, does all this mean? I'm not speculating but will Buck finally find the answers in Season 7 or will it be more of the same, him looking for answers while Eddie tries to make another relationship work with someone he doesn't want to be with or will Buck and Eddie finally TALK about all their traumas and confess how much they love each other? Only TM, the producers and the actors know the answers to that question.

[arafergirl-artdump]

(ENG) Queer and Neurodivergent community around Nintendo (an Essay)

(Was peer reviewed by native English speaker!)

Let me start with a little backstory. I talked with someone when I learned they were neurodivergent. I was surprised because of my own reasons, but they said their friends who were interested in Miis/Nintendo were queer and/or neurodivergent. This became a kickstarter for this.

First of all, hey, I'm queer and neurodivergent! My identity in details doesn't matter right now.

This was interesting because my hyperfixation for nintendo was the fastest hyperfixation i ever diveloped, now it’s DJ Yellow and Student, who is from Nintendo game. I got my switch in 2020-2021 with Animal Crossing and Just Dance, my first ever Nintendo console and first games respectively, so I have little to no personal history with it, even watching gameplay didn't make me interested in it. Yet, I still got into it. So I want to understand why it happened.

Before I'll start: It’s heavily based on me and my experience. Of course, I DON'T speak for every queer and ND person who is interested in Nintendo with my limited sources and knowledge. Also, it’s NOT a sientific research, i will use things from psychology, but it doesn't make me a specialist in it, which i don’t.

Neurodiversity

I think it’s easier for me to explain. I planned to talk about console design first, but I think most people know that Nintendo isn’t really competing with Xbox or Playstation, so of course it's consoles will be different. Well, most people aren't interested in consoles themselves! It’s games! And here’s the kicker.

Of course, big companies like this will be hiring good character designers, any company would. But there is something interesting I found in only nintendo games.

For me, it’s how much they use vivid colors. Well, Nintendo consoles are targeted to Family auditory, so of course it should appeal for kids and adults. But Nintendo games use those 

colors in every game they create, no matter of style or targeted audience.

Well, of course just having vivid characters doesn’t automatically make it appeal for neurodivergent people. But how they’re using it.

I’ll be using examples from Rhythm Heaven not only because of my hyperfixation/special interest/whatever this is on it, but also because it's a pretty good game to show my point.

There's an interesting thing about those covers. They are vivid, have a lot of details and colors, but it’s not overwhelming. Of course it’s not, there’s professionals who work on those games. Still, pretty rare to see that much details (i’ll return to it later)

Games themselves have much less details, of course, if there was the same amount of details as covers, it was impossible to play, but colors are still vivid and… Hey. The picture is moving.

In short: I think that Rhythm Heaven (and other Nintendo games) are pretty good visual stim. Well, of course everything that moves can be used as a visual stim, but let me try to prove things about covers.

I have 4 physical copies of Nintendo Switch games, two of them are by Nintendo.

There's proof. Let’s compare it.

Both covers are definitely detailed, Just Dance has levitating things, patterns on the floor (?) and list or songs, Layton has minigames, characters and this big diamond. But it’s not enough. There’s nothing really to pop up, no visual path. Those details not feels like they’re connected with each other.

Animal Crossing and WarioWare, on the other hand, have this. ACNH has a visual path made out of characters, Warioware has sort of barriers. Also there’s a lot of items on the ACNH cover like woods, lamp, flowers, fish, ect. WarioWare has filters and action lines over it (also can be a visual barrier). All elements have some sort of connection: Tom Nook goes to players, villager is close to Tommy, from villager to C.J., and from C.J. to Issablelle and villager talking. Wario is close to the character, so some sort of connection is here. Also, they are still vivid.

(Of course, it doesn’t mean that every non-Nintendo game doesn’t have the same rules or use them! One of my favorite game is Katamari, that is originally was playstation game)

Even in the Wii period with gray shaders, it didn't made vividness more dull.

(About Miis later)

Queerness

There’s a bit of a complicated thing. Now, there’s a bit of representation that may bring some queers here, but it happened very recently, with DLC for Splatoon 3 “Side Order”, Where appears character Acht, that goes by they/them pronouns and uses “Boku”, written in katakana, “Boku” being masculine version of “I”, that’s also being using by tomboys and gender nonconforming people. (I can’t say if this is specifically katakana or just used like that, but i started using it before this DLC so i guess it might be a katakana thing). Also, nothing beside their pronouns is explicitly queer, so it can't be this reason (at least until recently). Also I think they wouldn’t risk being banned entirely in some countries just to have one character (Hello from Russia!), but there’s coding.

If you don’t know - Coding is when you hint that a character has some trait, usually with design, personality and manners, but don’t show it explicitly. There’s some queer-coded characters in the history of Nintendo, but if i’ll list them all, it’ll be too long. Let’s just say - There’s a lot of Fire Emblem accusations, Birdo, C.J. and Flick, DJ Yellow and Student (of course i should put them everywhere!) and Pearl and Marina, who seems to be canonized and at the same time not.

There’s also stereotypes, of course, like Gracie, who in the Japanese version was presented as a crossdresser man or trans woman. I can understand why it was changed in American and European releases, but really, I wouldn't mind sassy character in new AC game, especially with the rising popularity of such.

Also, I can assume that one of the reasons is character’s that you create become more androgynous, like the difference between inkling boy and inkling girl is almost non existent, especially in splatoon 3. Octolings got the same privilege in Side Order. By the way, about creations…

Mii

Mii’s have no visible differences between genders. Of course, it would be strange and cost-y, but still. Also, there’s no gender lock features. Also, in both versions, you can change anything about your Mii, even gender! Eh? Eh? See what I did here? Uh, nevermind. I thought it was funny.

I can also add neurodivergent and visual stim part, colors are vivid and, well, it gives a lot of creative creation, so you can do faces of neurodivergent people with different face structure (it’s probably have no sense in brouder meaning, i talked about down syndrome, as i know it’s considered neurodivergent. Maybe there’s something else, but i don’t know)

There’s nothing I can say about games. Occasional crossdressing in japanese version of tomodachi life and randomized dialogues isn’t really do anything, maybe one dream where two same-sex Miis can be in the end of a red string and that relationship meter in Miitopia may have some points about queerness, but there’s nothing more about ND thing.

Conclusion of this chapter: Miis are more fruity than got that tism.

Conclusion

There’ll be a lot of my experience.

I still think I haven't come to my main reason yet. I think that the main reason why queer and neurodivergent people are in Nintendo games is because they are safe. What I mean by this is in mainline games, there’s no oppression towards the player. Like Animal Crossing, a game literally about making friends.

When I got this game, I was yet to see social isolation and bullying. Even when it started happening, I was into this game, well, I was addicted. I can be pretty easily attached to someone, so when I had no friends, I was just thinking of villagers as my friends. I just was… comfortable in its world, welcomed even. It was a world where people cared and weren’t judgemental to me. I had this feeling even with games without a player as the main character. Maybe I just got insane, who knows.

Of course I can't speak for everyone, but let’s be real, some of you may have experienced this feeling too. Positive world with absurd problems, where nobody is gonna be mad about if your features would’ve changed or you act differently. In the process of writing this I had a thought that this may be why Animal Crossing’s mean characters were less mean in NH. Just a thought.

It’s funny in some way, if you think about it.

I don’t know how to end it, so let’s end here. I hope I wasn't too much of a mad theorist.

[professoruber]

Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi Reading List

Last Updated: 24/4/2024

A list I have decided to make for the purpose of compiling the various appearances so far of Maps Mizoguchi; since she is a character I like whom has also been receiving some focus as of late. I will also provide some brief description/thoughts for each one.

Gotham Academy (2014-2016) - All Issues

Maps of course first made her original appearance in the first run of Gotham Academy.

Gotham Academy: Endgame (2015) - #1

A one-shot comic which was one of several tie-ins made for the Endgame event which was going on at the time. Basically just shows what Maps and the GA crew were up to while Gotham was being overrun by Joker zombies.

Gotham Academy: Second Semester (2016-2017) - All Issues

The continuation of the Gotham Academy storyline, with of course has Maps in a major role.

Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy (2016-2017)

A crossover between Gotham Academy and the Lumberjanes, which I'm pretty sure is non-canon but still probably worth checking out. I have not read it, nor the Lumberjanes comics yet, although I do intend to do both as some point (due in part to ND Stevenson being one of the authors of Lumberjanes, and me really liking the She-Ra reboot and Nimona)

Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death (2016) - #1

Maps, alongside other Gotham Academy students (including Olive, Kyle, Colton and Pom) have a brief cameo in this first issue of this run. Maps and Olive each get one line each.

Batgirl (2011—2016) - #51, #52, & Annual 4

Maps (along with Olive) also showed up briefly during the Batgirl of Burnside run. My assumption is this is due to them sharing an artist and being published concurrently. I do know what Burnside!Babs isn't everyone's cup of tea so keep that in mind, I suppose.

My Video Game Ate my Homework (2020) - #1

Maps and Olive show up behind the main characters in the first page as a cameo... and that's about it. The comic seems fun though, for the record. Mostly including this because I'm just going through the list of Maps' appearances on the DC wiki.

Batman: Black and White (2021) - #4

One of the stories in this issue has Maps appear as Robin. Non-canon but still a very neat and fun appearance by her.

Batman (2016-) - #119, #120, #121

Probably Maps' first major appearance since the end of the Gotham Academy: Second Semester. These give some additional exploration of her home life and relationship with her parents. Has her dressing up as Robin to investigation the disappearance of another student.

Batgirls (2022-2023) - #11

Maps shows up here and has an adventure with Cass. This also means that Maps knows Babs, Cass and Steph. Which is neat. I do know that the portrayal of the Batgirls in Batgirls isn't everyone's cup of tea (namely portraying them as younger / less mature than they have been in the past) so that that's worth keeping in mind. Interestly, Maps' big brother Kyle has a larger role; appearing in #10, #11, #17, #18, #19 and the Annual as a possible love interest for Steph.

DC's Saved by the Belle Reve (2022) - #1 

A one-shot with several stories, including one which returns to the Gotham Academy crew and gives some information on what's happened since the end of Gotham Academy: Second Semester, along with a fun adventure.

Gotham Academy: Maps of Mystery (2023) - #1

A one-shot which acts a compilation of Batman (2016-) - #119, #120, #121, as well as Maps appearances in Batman: Black and White, and DC's Saved by the Belle Reve.

Birds of Prey (2023-) - All Issues

The newest Birds of Prey run has a surprise appearance by Maps. Which I think is a neat sign of her receiving some increased focus as of late. To get into some mild-ish spoilers... the Maps who appears is a Maps from the future. I have made a few posts/reviews of this run, which you can find on this blog, and I guess personally I am not the biggest fan of her portrayal in this comic. Still is neat to see her receive more focus. Do kinda also think it could've been neat if Present!Maps had shown up instead of Future!Maps.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2023-) - #10, #11, #12

Gotham Academy returns! As does Present!Maps. A fun ongoing story of Maps getting to team up with Batman once more.

[ominaterthegreat]

My sister, who spent four years at Mailchimp, just got laid off yesterday. She called me sobbing to let me know she got the email. No amount of a fat severance package can fix the damage to her psyche this job did imo. Her birthday is coming up soon. So i made her this cake.

(i only decorate a cake like once every few years lol don't come for me)

She started in customer support, and sure enough was skilled and talented enough in apprenticeships with a higher up team in a different department that she was happily brought onto the team.

She ran events, improved entire workflows that saved the company thousands of dollars, delivered tasks on time and of high quality, and was highly praised by leaders of other teams and from those above her boss. She kicked ass and took names.

On that team, she spent two years experiencing bullying and discrimination for having ADHD. Yes, arguably the most common ND condition out there just about. She had to take 2 months off for mental health leave to get her ADHD diagnosis to defend herself from all the corporate bullying. She documented her boss literally making things up and her coworker refusing to communicate with her and then blaming her for things not being done how she wanted. They actively ignored all the times she went above and beyond expectations and all the times she did receive praise from other teams. I watched two corporate goons crush the confidence my sister had finally closed together for herself.

The CEO of Intuit called her and 1800 other employees that were laid off "low performers" in a public statement. A convenient 10% of Mailchimp was completely laid off. We knew this was coming because over the past year or so, Intuit has been forcing managers to label a specific percentage of people as "Does Not Meet Expectations" on year end reviews to justify letting people go, no matter how much they actually did meet expectations.

I look in the Intuit Mailchimp tags and only see one post about them Union busting. The only posts are just geared towards companies comparing and contrasting products and marketing strategies. Reddit isn't much better because the only sub on there is the official one modded by MC themselves. This isn't the biggest fire rn by any means but it's once again proof that the people behind these corporations are as soulless and evil as the corporations themselves. No matter how much good you do they will never appreciate you.

I hope the company eats shit and dies. Intuit is ruining everything people liked about MC, from the product to the culture. Fuck you.

[niobiumao3]

S3 premiere etc etc

So it's all great but like

I am going to struggle to like a show where the autistic guy was killed off to Raise the Stakes and Make it Scary and omg they need to lose one

literally every single one of those things can be accomplished WITHOUT Tech dying so either he comes back in a later episode so they can marinade in it a while and I am Mega Fucking Annoyed by Tech is Dead Discourse for another fucking month

or, he really is gone and I am really fucking done with the show. Like turbo done. Because I am SO exhausted with this shit happening ALL the time. Oh it just HAPPENS TO BE the woman, the disabled person, the black character, the ND character. Sorry! Not anyone else!!!

I knew chances were low we'd see hide nor hair of him until episode 5 or so but. Man. I'm just not into this whole LET'S MAKE IT DEEPLY UPSETTING BECAUSE HE IS GONE U C and just.

it's going to be hard for me to enjoy the show. is mostly my point.

It's not even that I think he's dead--there is ALMOST NO MENTION OF HIM BEING DEAD in fact. We get two moments, blink and you miss them: the goggles, and a comment from Wrecker. That's it. Which just IMO makes it EVEN more suspicious, why is there TECH DIED!!!!!!!!!! footage all over and then in the show like, nothing??

So. Yeah. 'We need to show them processing' youuuuu have shown me none of that lol??

So I suspect he's not dead, is my point. But I resent being made to sit around for 12 months about it, that's just fucking dumb as hell and I get it, it's marketing, whatever fine 'oh no Cross is all in on the Empire' was a complete fucking lie too but

I want this conversation to end, one way or another. I'm so tired.

Oh another thing. One of the reviewers said they liked the last 3 of the 8 eps less than the first 3. What makes me think that's where Tech shows up is, that would track with someone who wanted him to stay dead no getting what they wanted. So.

And one more thing: AT SOME POINT CROSS LEARNED HAND TO HAND I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh right more about Tech's supposed death:

so, we don't get to see

Cross finding out

Phee finding out

Rex finding out

I mean, that alone makes me think he's coming back. if you're killing someone off you get the angsty payoff. if you're bringing them back that's wasted time narratively.

[bibliophile-in-training]

A Plebian's Review of the Last Voyage of the Demeter

I don't do reviews normally but I have many thoughts I wanted to share after recently watching this movie. In general, I did enjoy this movie and I thought it was a fun watch. As someone who read Dracula and enjoys most modern Dracula stories I would watch it again if it came on. (6/10)

Non-spoilers:

It took some liberties with the source material. Combine the recent Poirot movies with modern vampire lore and that's what you should expect, not something strictly adhering to the novel. Not necessarily a bad thing, but if you're enjoying dracula daily just know this isn't really that.

On that note, Dracula bibliophiles aside, it's a pretty good movie on its own. It's suited for modern audiences and won't confuse them with Stoker's vampire lore (ex. what can and can't kill a vampire, what powers Dracula has).

It had pretty gory moments that you may not be prepared for if slasher movies aren't something you watch. Also, check out doesthedogdie bc there are a lot of potential triggers.

The lighting for this movie was really good imo. There was a strong contrast between day and night which awesome, but you could also still actually see what was going on in the dark. There were a couple times when Dracula was in a shadow and you couldn't really see him but it was for effect as opposed to trying to be "realistic" (looking at you, GOT).

The design for Dracula was cool and they do play into him getting stronger and scarier as he continuously feeds.

The Captain is not the main character (in contrast to the source material's Captain's log). Here, it's Dr Clemens we follow and we get an occasional Caltain's narration from the log.

If you like Until Dawn and other titles from Supermassive Games, you'd probably enjoy it. Dracula's design, the kills, and character choices feel like you're watching a playthrough. Not to mention there are a lot of close-up shots of characters in the same way Supermassive Games does.

Spoilers under the cut:

The Good:

The cinematography was pretty good. I particularly liked shots that followed through the ship to the cargo hold where count bat boi was sleeping.

They also filmed the gory scenes really well, and one scene that stood out was when one person who's become a thrall bashes his head through a door and then slides his nose along the splintered panels as he looks up. Impactful to say the least. They didn't pan away and leave it up to our imaginations but went all in and I applaud it.

Things were recognizable from the novel (names, events, some vampire mythos). I was genuinely surprised that they marked Dracula's coffins with dragons and kept that he slept in dirt, since modern audiences probably wouldn't have known about these things. When we (modern audiences) hear "Dracula" we think it means "vampire" as opposed to "dragon", and we would likely expect Dracula's cargo to be velvet-lined coffins.

The opening scene (finding the ship at Whitby & the wagon train of the coffins) had me immediately invested and excited, and I was already looking forward to this movie (I chose it over Barbie lol).

The Captain's actor was phenomenal. He went all out when he was grieving Toby's death and he really didn't have to but I'm so glad he did. While the character itself wasn't consistent, the actor made it believable. He was strict and kind when he was sane, he was frantic and distraught when he was insane, and his moments of grief and hope were all palpable. Good choice.

"Oh my God it has wings" When I say I LAUGHED SO HARD

Honestly there were a lot of funny moments. Some were genuine to cut the tension and help build characters but being ND and desensitized to horror I don't know if I was supposed to laugh at some of them, like when the cook's dingy knocked against the side of the hull. And when vampire Toby jumped up.

The use of knocking was a cool addition. I enjoyed when they used it like when Toby was in trouble and when Dracula was messing with the two dudes on deck.

One of the key things of Dracula's personality is that yes - he can kill you in 10s - but he won't because he's a sadistic bastard that enjoys drawing it out and playing the wager to see if you'll die of fear before he can bite you. They absolutely captured it. Homie is purposeful in how he terrifies his victims before giving them a gruesome death.

I think the model ship they showed at the end was the original model ship for the Demeter in the 90's Dracula movie (or at least a nod to it), which is how this movie was started apparently. Nice touch.

The Grievances:

Dr Clemens was a mary sue. I'm sorry, there's no way around this. Man has bad main character syndrome. I can accept a black man fighting tooth and nail to graduate Cambridge top of his class and struggle in a world that won't see his abilities because they won't look past his skin color, but on top of that he's an astronomer, a sailer, a strategist, a detective, and everyone immediately falls in love with him? Hell, he cured Toby's [1] grief over losing his lifelong friend (Huck, the dog, who was MUTILATED) and [2] guilt for all the animals dying because it was his responsibility to take care of him, and [3] fear for whatever unknown thing did this, with a headpat and "sometimes shit happens and you can't do anything about it".

He took one look at Anna, Dracula's beef jerky ration, and immediately went "she has an infection, she needs a blood transfusion", then proceeded to give her repeated transfusions over several days and he was totally fine. Up running around and fighting vampires meanwhile in reality he would have been bedridden from lack of blood and possible complications from the procedures.

Also, why is he the only clean person? Everyone's covered in grime and blood and dude looks like he just walked out of a proactive commercial. Even when he's floating in the middle of the ocean for days with an open neck wound he looks like he was just in the shower. Compare it with the Captain's burns and the first thrall's face after banging the through a door and the dissonance just pulls me out of the movie.

Keeping him alive just to sequel bait. Just. Why. Hollywood, it's okay to kill your protagonist. 1912 did it really well. Plus, I personally wasn't invested enough in this character to want to see a sequel following his vendetta with Dracula. We already know about Jonathan and Van Helsing. You can make movies that stand alone. It's okay.

If you want to sequel bait why don't you have him delirious from being lost at sea for several days and end up at the asylum with Dr Seward and Renfield? That would actually be cool and you could still have Dracula show up to taunt him.

Also, in regards to Anna, while I think it was a cool idea to use her for lore dumping and as a surprise for the audience, I was disappointed with her. She had the potential to provide a lot of info and help fight Dracula but instead she had to be the "strong independent woman". I don't hate this trope (think about Ripley in Alien, or any of the women in the original novel) but it wasn't done well here. While it's cool to see her gain confidence and wield a gun against count bat boi I was really hoping she would provide more info like his weaknesses. She says "he ran out of food in my country" but we know this isn't *literally* true because we see people at the beginning. It's the fact her people knew how to keep Dracula away that he ran out of food and he decided to try greener pastures. You could bring up HOW they did that (religious tokens, garlic, silver, etc.).

Also when she does try to give info about Dracula it's still vague and meant to be mysterious. Bruh, you are locked on a boat with this monster and you know your only hope for survival is to flee or work together to get rid of him. Why are you not giving as much info and details as possible? Because that's what the script said bc the writers wanted to make dracula look cool by relying on the characters to say it? Okay.

This movie relies on a lot of telling instead of showing. It's like they don't trust their audience to pay attention or understand what's going on. The only time I legit felt they showed and not told (lol) was when the Captain asked if what happened to the animals could be transmitted to humans and Dr Clemens lied and said no. You could see in the actor's face the inner monologue of telling the truth vs preventing chaos. It was nice and gave more info about the character than him actually yelling his life history at the first mate.

It also suffers from the writers trying to make every scene be memorable. There are too many times characters say things because it sounds cool or would be good in the trailer rather than because it makes sense for the character to say that.

Honestly all the characters fall flat for me (besides the captain who's character is treated like a pinball). They're all archetypes rather than people. The protagonist. The independent woman. The racist drunkard. The child. The religious guy. The guy that makes obscene jokes. The only names I know are Toby, Dr Clemens, and Anna. Bc they get said a lot as opposed to me actually caring about them.

On that note, I am definitely biased because I loved the Captain's log from the novel, but I wish that this was from the Captain's pov, culminating in him tying himself to the wheel and dying from shock or exposure like in the book. Then Whitby.

On that note, I am still upset that they used modern vampire mythos yet again for Dracula. In the book the Captain dies after being taunted for days by Dracula after tying himself to the wheel, only possible because the rosary in his hand protects him. It's a noble but horrific sacrifice made of fear and a duty to not let the evil on the ship reach land. In this movie, however, he reaches the wheel and dies because the rosary has no power over Dracula (it's also how Toby dies).

Oh, also the sun kills vampires. How do we know? Because occasionally some people turn into vampires, but only when it's convenient for the plot (looking at you, Anna). Why don't they use this against Dracula and dump the dirt box they know he's sleeping in during the day? Who knows. But they wasted a lot of potential to play on the audience's expectations (rather than giving into them) by using Dracula during the day. Y'know what's scarier than a vampire picking off your crew at night? A vampire picking off your crew at ANY time when you only expect it at night because SURPRISE sunlight just doesn't let him crawl in lizard fashion.

Are you seriously telling me Dracula sustained himself off of Anna for several weeks, and then decided to slaughter the crew mere days before the boat docked? Yes, he was weak bc of it but I don't think the director knows how blood works (see Dr Clemens's transfusion issue). Also, if that's the case, how did Anna not suffocate in her dirt box for hours on end for weeks? Just fill the other 48 crates with dead people and say Anna was the last caprisun in the box and it would make more sense.

Also, why have their last hurrah be the day before they reach Whitby? It made the movie seem too fast; it felt like it only took a week to get from Transylvania to England. Why not find Anna early on, then disperse the crew member deaths across a couple weeks like in the novel? It would help with the suspense and you could have the Captain tie himself to the wheel then let us experience the time passing after he dies so the audience has a moment to sit with the deaths and feel hopeless. Bc that's what the role of the Demeter is, story-wise. It's supposed to make us afraid of Dracula and feel hopeless in his presence. Not give us hope and make him into our rival we have the possibility to get revenge on. That's what our dear friend Jonathan is for.

Dracula never takes human form. Why do all adaptations refuse to give him his bushy mustache? COWARDS.

Okay, he *sort of* takes human form. But they really just put him in a waistcoat and top hat then expected us to believe that showed he was cunning. You literally said he's both man and beast then only show the beast. One of Dracula's main appeal is that he's clever and his sadistically human traits are the only thing preventing him from immediately ripping you to shreds. And he can pass as human, so he could be anyone. Yet we only see the beast part.

While this movie was fun to watch, it comes off more as a gruesome drama or action movie than a horror. I never really feel any suspense or dread. Compare it to Alien which had the same situation. Alien did such a good job of making you feel scared and claustrophobic when you're surrounded by the vastness of space (in this case, the ocean) and being hunted down by an intelligent monster. I was watching this to see how Dracula killed people rather than seeing how they struggled to survive.

I can believe this movie was in production hell not just because of the writing but some errors. In one scene, the Captain's burn is on the right side of his face but there's a close-up cut and suddenly it's on the left side like someone flipped the screen. And this is just one error out of a couple. No Starbucks cups tho.

It sounds like I don't like this movie because of all of my nit-picking grievances, but I really did like it. I think my issues are just because my expectations were too high going in. I was expecting a loyal expansion of an underappreciated segment of a classic novel, which is really rare these days. And a *suspenseful* horror.

I see why Guillermo del Toro and Stephen King suggested it. It's pretty similar to their stuff, just more fast-paced. So if you like that stuff and Until Dawn I think you'll really enjoy it.

[femmephantasm]

WIZARD REVIEW: THE ICE KING

Welcome to Morgana's Wizard Review, where I analyze fictional characters of the wizardly, sorcerous, witchy and magic nature and see how hard they fuck. Today our canidate will be that frost moanrch of the Ooo, Simon Petrivok AKA the Ice King,evil thwarter of finna nd jake, pricness stealer and a lainpilled babygirl.

WISDOM

The Ice King is often shown as scatter-brained and his plans are often not well-thought out, he captures princesses that do not even like him to sate his loneliness. Despite this he does have rare insightful moments and later in the series begins to understand his role in things.

2/5

INTELLIGENCE

The Ice King is somewhat of a "man-child" at a glance, despite his mild helplessness in some situations, he has been shown to be talented on the drums with implications he knows how to play multiple instruments. Despite his sick ass golden hat causing him to lose many memories, he has still acquired some magical artifacts such as the demonic wishing eye and ghost pouch. In addition to this he is a scholar of fridjitzu, branching out from his seemingly innate magical prowess.

3/5

ZENITH

We see the ice king at the height of his power very early on in the series, his arc is not about an ascension in power but one of vulnerability. The crown is shown to keep his body from deteriorating in old age and could even be considered strong physically as well as magically in certain scenarios. He only seems to get weaker in the form of being metaphorically de-fanged, the only true strike to his power being digestion from a literal god.

5/5

ARCANA

Ice King is what we call a Specialist, a tried and true cryomancer, and he is very potent in this art, having the ability to extend his senses throughout his realm and even influencing the animals that dwell in ice and snow. It seems this icy expertise extends to other frozen arts that he has picked up as well such as the aforementioned fridjitzu. Though he has a focus on ice magic, he is no one-trick pony, and seems to have a knack for charms and illusions as well as the ability to detect spirits using his "Wizard Eyes". It is also shown that he has immunity to extreme heat conditions and hypnosis. So in spite of his hard lean toward ice and snow, his tertiary spells and abilities are quite powerful rather than being a typical mage's sidearm or obscure tool.

4/5

RECLUSIVENESS

Ice King is a classic wizardly recluse, he has such trouble in romance he needs to kidnap girls to even talk to them, and his closest friends he met because they were beating him up for said kidnapping. He is often surrounded only by minions that do not speak the same language as him and he lives in a tall, far-away mountain, a natural wizard's tower. Despite this start he does begin to warm up to people, only to return to his reclusive ways once he is completely free of the crown's magic. In spite of his isolation and reputation, he is not sagely or hermetic, he is not this way by choice but simply an evil fucking loser, and we respect him for that. It seems not only his magic is innate.

3.5/5

Dignity

This is one quality Ice King lacks, he is not airbrushed-on-the-side-of-a-van material. His coolest and most confident is in the opening of the show. Despite how cool and powerful his crown is it sometimes looks like a paper crown a child might make from construction paper, and his baggy tunic and garish and plain. His plots often require him to stoop to schoolyard trickery and forced marriage not for political reasons, but out of simple loneliness, the ice king lacks grandeur, he wears bandaids on his penis wenis. He is only cool because hes an epic wizard that plays the drums.

1.5/5

And the total score for the Ice King this wizard review is...

3.16/5

The Ice King is an alright wizard, his magic is strong and he is a potent and authoritative figure, but he is the pure definition of "it gets lonely at the top", this man's conquests are unsuccessful if they do not involve prostrating himself, reconciling, atoning. Being a powerful mage is somehow at odds with him being a fulfilled individual. He is at the limits of his power when we first see him, his only room to grow is to embrace being a lame ass old man, the antithesis of the lich (as in the occupation, I do not know what comparison I can make to the titular necromantic archmage of Ooo who usurps Simon as the baddest mana-slinging motherfucker in all the realm) who seeks to become sick as fuck and avoid being old at all costs. I honor this pursuit and am glad to see him happy eating oatmeal in his shitty house, but alas in wizarddom he allows himself to be easily outclassed to gain this inner peace.

Did you enjoy this episode of MORGANA'S WIZARD REVIEW?? Give it a nice comment or like, and maybe send me an ask for a request to review one of your favorite wizards (or witches or mages or sorcerers or warlocks or spellblades or whathaveyou) other characters I plan on covering in future episodes include;

Patchouli Knowledge from the Touhou Project series

Jafar from Kingdom Hearts and the Disney TV Programme "Aladin"

Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White

Gerald of Rivia from the Witcher VideoGame-Book-Netflixs

Flemmeth that milf from the dragon ages

[sailorblossoms-snowbaz]

Not surprised by what Rainbow is sharing about feedback right now – I’ve seen the tweets and reviews tearing these books apart (the shit I’ve seen on twitter dot com made me decide I was just gonna vomit my thoughts here and not talk to anybody haha). Some things I get, but I can’t understand reading these books and caring more about action than about Simon and Baz talking about their feelings. I don’t get the Wayward Son hate (i’m built different because I can’t imagine seeing “fast pacing” as a negative thing in a book where there’s fucking chaos in every aspect of our characters’ lives). “You can tell these books were not meant to be a trilogy or thought through very well.” Nah fuck that. Counterpoint: I can’t imagine CO staying as a standalone. Once you look at the whole picture, it feels unsatisfying and incomplete. 

I’ve seen these books been thorn to shreds, with people talking as if they could rewrite something better. Sure, these books have faults, but I feel very protective of them because never once I’ve seen such a situation without thinking “that’s not at all better and totally misses the point” “that’s not what these books were trying to do” “you’re playing into the very assumptions these books challenge” or “respectfully: you’re not even understanding the words you’re reading so let’s not get nasty.” Those things made me appreciate how special the series is, and how the things they accomplish are not often seen. They subvert expectations in ways that feel very real, that are appliable to so many of us, and that also highlight experiences we don’t see very often. These books are acespec friendly, they lend themselves to nd readings, they have at least four characters that readers don’t exaggerate or use hyperbole when they go “yep that’s me, my head works like that.” (I’ve lost count of the times someone replied to a post breaking down Simon’s behavior and thoughts and relationship with comphet and general struggle with understanding himself with “that’s literally me” or “thanks for putting it into words.” It’s why I keep talking here: these books mean a lot, and I want to put that into words)  

[ourpickwickclub]

Of course, still uncool and mean spirited. Just wanted to give background on what the issues were for the non-ND fans. And I genuinely do think they would like Blake if they met him. The issue going forward is that to have any relationship with Gwen, the ND guys will need to do something they have never been able to do before and that’s to let go of their anger about Gwen getting more attention than them. Even now, with the great performance reviews, there is far more attention on her. If they want to do more shows, they need to treat her first as a human, co-worker, and a friend with feelings and not as the person they are jealous of for holding the keys to their success. Embrace her life, including B, or she will put ND right back on the shelf.

Agree with all of this!

- B

[artnerd1123]

iiiiit's that time of year again folks! sliding in sorta late with mine, but its before new years, so it counts.

artwise the year was rather dry. another one of those "creating or being 5000% dead" years. plenty of fic writing! and i sure am breathing! but... eheheh. if it weren't for my commissioners, i wouldn't have anything a lot of these months X] ah well, the personal pieces i did do were either big and experimental or just character silly times to help me fall back in love with art. i'll call it a win since i had at least one thing every month!

as always, sentimental rambles are reserved for under the cut <3

oh, and a compilation of all the previous years too! as a treat!

tadaaa many old arts and progress <333

nyway. dudes. bros. friends and foes alike. what the FUCK was this year lskdjfldksf this year dragged me thru dirt. it was 100% MY dirt and 100% MY adulting life struggles!!! but it was still dirty struggles lskdfj

i got covid the last week of january, first of all. that was awful and i wouldn't recommend it at any point. honestly? kinda set the tone for the rest of the year. i went through 3 different jobs lmao. that's gotta be the thing that shaped most of my mood and time. first job was overworking me, second job literally ground me into the dust, and the third job (which i'm still working at) has helped gently get me back on my feet. i actually LIKE going to work most of the time again. really relieving when u gotta work to live X] tho i'll be honest i don't remember a lot of the year aside from work ahaha :,) leaning on my daylio mood tracker/diary app for a lot of this review ;_; money's been tight and circumstances have been up and down and all around... plenty of mental health bullshittery to compliment getting worked to death. got to meet and vibe with friends new and old on a few scattered vacations tho! nd i took the time to tend to friendships in general as i was able. when i wasn't... y'know. just Trying To Exist tm. sometimes i feel like i wasn't there enough this year. like it kept slipping through my fingers. time was slow and too fast all at once. energy was very hit or miss. but... hey, there's gonna be those times when u just survive. i'm ok that the year was spent just getting by. next year should even out a bit- or at least present new problems rather than dragging out the old ones LKDJFS oh! and there were some good things in there for sure! went to an owl city concert, started hanging out with my new work friends, saw the mOTHERFUCKIN FN/AF MOVIE HELLO???? and renewed the lease at my apartment! so, hey! another thing i'll call a win.

time plods on and so do i! into the new year i go, armed with headstrong plans of hope, new roommates (yet longtime friends) on the horizon, and blorbos ready to spin faster than any twister.

here's to another one around the sun. may we get a little more rest and a little more creative in '24 🖤

[coffee-counts-as-a-meal]

warning for tlou ep 4 spoilers (and TLOU Part 2) but:

not to be horribly meta on main but I'm mainly screaming over how this episode exemplified how well this story was adapted to a television format, ESPECIALLY regarding the themes that ND has repeatedly stated he wanted to explore in the TLOU Part 2 that maybe didn't quite land the way he meant them to

(Benioff and Weiss and their hatred for eighth grade book reports should be taking copious notes rn lol)

I remember when the second game came out and there was this big to-do about how the perspective towards "villains" had changed - not just in the fact that you spend half the game playing as Abby (Joel's killer), but that the developers had actually given names to all the NPCs that end up as cannon fodder for the player. The AI was supposed to be so advanced that for every enemy you killed as either Abby or Ellie, the NPC would beg for their life or curse you as you make the final blow or whatever, and then when their NPC friends found them you would hear their wailing and crying out for "Beck" or "Miranda" or whomever the fuck and the whole idea was that it was supposed to make you the player really think about the implications of taking a human life and the cycle of revenge yadda yadda yadda.

Which is a GREAT CONCEPT, but I just remember how...tedious it became, after a while. TLOU Part 2 got a lot of flak for a lot of reasons (some more valid than others imo) but I personally think its impossibly difficult to instill the lesson of "taking a life is something that carries real emotional weight" through the medium of a video game where you are mowing down LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE. That's just par for the course - you end up killing so many people that after a while their names mean nothing, BECAUSE THERE'S NO WAY TO CONTINUE THE GAME WITHOUT DOING SO. (I remember one reviewer talking about how fatigued they were with it - they didn't want to be killing all these people and stabbing dogs and they as a player were screaming through their fingers at the decisions Ellie was making to continue down this cycle of violence but there was no way to continue the game without going through it, even though the point had already been hammered home over and over again to the point where it was exhausting, we get it, killing should not be this easy but this is a video game for fuck's sake).

And maybe that was also the point was to make the player wonder how some characters (like Joel, maybe) eventually become so numb to the concept of taking life, but I just remember it being a point in Part 2 that ultimately just...kind of missed the mark.

And BOY OH BOY did the show hit it in this episode.

Literally, TLOU Part 2 wanted to make its point by naming hundreds upon hundreds of NPCs and TLOU Episode 4 managed to hit it with a single character named Bryan.

I think it also helps that when Joel is shooting back at the "hunters" (idk what they're calling them in the show canon but that's what they were at the game) we don't really see them die onscreen, so it makes Bryan's eventual demise even starker. But holy fuck hearing him plead with Ellie and Joel for his life hit so much harder than it ever did in the game. Hearing him try to bargain with a little girl, screaming for his mom only to go silent...I freaking love Joel and even then in that moment I felt that horror and slight...idek what to call it, not even disgust but just the moral grayness of it all made my stomach churn.

Ellie's tears felt so deserved in that moment. Even Joel's moment of hesitation (fuck you Pedro Pascal I hate how good you are at EVERYTHING) even as you know this must have been a thing he's done thousands of times before and even as necessary you might consider Bryan's death to be. Even as justified it may have been to kill an enemy in that moment, "It doesn't get any easier" is something that rings true. I believe it.

tldr; another banger episode from a team that knows what the fuck a theme is and how to tie that into your story with subtlety and nuance and FUCK EVERYONE AT NAUGHTY DOG AND HBO I CAN'T KEEP GETTING MY HEART BROKEN FOR ANOTHER MONTH AND A HALF

[firespirited]

Quick primer on the business side of the Barbie movie as part of Mattel films. Specifically that it's not so much a toy commercial but a brand opportunity.

Not that the film itself is wrong or bad - no doubt real creative love was poured into all the aspects of creating it - however once it got Mattel approved and blitz marketed, it's different. Even a wonderful piece of art can have its meaning changed. What you experience in the cinema and your personal relationship to your childhood toys is a separate phenomenon from Barbie and Toy Story being turned into merch and theme parks, and more importantly, trust in the Mattel or Pixar brands.

What he doesn't mention is the Mattel films have been in production (and getting investor hype) since 2013. The reason there are bits of the He Man ad is because Master of the Universe was due to be the next Mattel film to be released.

So it's important to remember that reviews of the Barbie movie and articles about it will not specify which aspect they're commenting on. We will have to sift through what has been deliberately blurred marketing and art: for many of us, watching the film will have been a 'multiple lens' viewing: it's aware it's both personal, a message about a type of womanhood, a story and a product. Many picked up on queer/ND subtext which is another lens. The racial lens was there and also not there which was another thing people picked up on.

And then there's the capitalist lenses: some people are just seeing the doll characters and tie-in doll toys/merch and saying that's a commercial; that's legit but also applies to Star Wars and Top Gun while also just scratching the surface of something much bigger.

Videos like the one above are not about whether you enjoyed the Barbie movie or whether it was good, it's about larger patterns of brand monopolies: No-one is here to tell you that the birthday cake you made is bad, just that it's disturbing that all the ingredients available to you were owned by Nestlé and Kraft-Heinz.

So the folks saying I hate the birthday cake and I loved the birthday cake can be both right so long as we figure out the lens they're using (or utterly wrong in the case of the 'ew girly' idiots and hardcore Barbie stans LOL). I will be reblogging* both love and vitriol because there are layers to the film, to the hobby and to people.

*I'm waiting for it to hit pirate streaming in decent quality for all the folks who can't do 2 hours of bright lights, loud noises, crowded room.

[jiminsass-istant]

https://www.tumblr.com/jiminsass-istant/738939466569416704/this-reactor-creating-a-nice-little-space-in-his

Few days back i was watching reaction video's for jm (i do that once in a while when i miss him nd want to coo over him with other ppl so i watch reaction videos) and this person popped up and it was a taekook reaction video so out of curiosity (I'm stupid) i went to check the comments section and there were comments as how this man has reacted on many kpop ships but think that taekook is far different than others and blah blah (idt i need to tell u what kind of cmnts tkkrs do on these videos) and i said the same thing that nice way to bring views.

You know I'm Indian so i see tens of reaction videos of ppl reacting to Indian stuff like songs, movies, food, culture etc and i know for a fact that those ppl are nowhere genuine or curious about my country but rather use ppl for views (as India has highest population). You can tell the difference who's being genuine and who's just clickbaiting.

If this man had watched other ships in k-pop then there's no way he gonna think tk is different cause those kpop ships has some another level of skinship (which tk don't even have much) and these reactors only gag over skinship. There's hardly anything tae and jk had said about e/o that will make one to think they're dating (like i know this gonna sound mean but there's literally nothing tk had done for e/o or with e/o that could be ship worthy or to think there's something between them). BTS has done not even half the shit those other k-pop ships do so this man saying tk is different tells u that he's just taking views. Like ask him some 2-3 things about jk and tae and I'm sure he won't be able to tell shit about them cause if someone sits on a chair to do just shipping reaction videos then you're just there for views and not beacuse you're curious about knowing them beyond that.

One of the reasons i also don't watch any shipping reaction videos (including jkk) even if they say jkk is different is because i know most of them are just saying it for views.

I hate it when these people bring jm into their ship cause we all know 99% of them hates his guts.

Thank you for putting this here maybe other jkkrs will see it and tell the man to be in his limit. He's giving Tkkrs space to degrade jm same thing one of the youtubers did. His name is something like dj dino or just dino but something like that so this guy once said that jm's promise song is pretty simple nd there's nothing in there blah blah or shit and since then his comment section is filled with jjks (i think he loves jk or praises him alot) which gave space to those jjks to hate on jm (other members too ig) and when he gave review on like crazy nd gave it some 97/100 score all his followers started hating on him to the point he had to acknowledge it and talk about the hate. This is what happens when these ppl give space to hating on memebrs and then it comes back to bite them in the ass. I pray this bites this shipper in the ass too.

A request to jkkrs who sees it to go and tell the guy about the shit his followers be doing. and ask him to stop involving jm in any ships especially tkk cause he ain't anyone's captain nor a baby sitter.

For context, this anon is referencing my deleted post about Ben Kim, the YTube reactor. Reacts to Taekook and gives space for Tkkers to hate on Jimin.

Just putting this ask here so people can go and report his @ss.

Also, this reactor even reacted to Jungkook smoking video and even used it as a thumbnail for that video. The title was something like "jk doesn't give a fu¢k". Idk.

Frankly, reactors like this should be bullied into deleting their videos. Where are the army bullies when we need them? Too busy looking at humanlouvre art maybe, lol.

Seriously though, how does that art account have 350k + followers? The art is so bad. So cringe. The fetishization is off the charts. The military related art? Yikes.