#so i had to develop a sense of patterning not just to have competition but to just play the game at all

[jrueships]

something invokes the carnal rage in me when a grown man rages like a two-year old over a video game

[mr-bas00nist]

I’m not sure wether or not your requests are open, I couldn't find a post containing much information, but I have a good idea! Or, at least what i think is a good idea... Okay so hear me out, slashers x blind s/o, and like the slashers get upset if people dump palets or stuff on you during a chase. (Silent hill)

Taking a leap here, assuming you want pyramid head in this with the Silent Hill in parenthesis and I’m gonna assume your requesting killer reader. I’ve gotchu 😏

Contains: Pyramid Head, Danny Johnson, Micheal Myers, Amanda Young and Carmina Mora because she’s my main. Usual dbd and blood stuff.

The Artist (Carmina Mora)

-Carmina is a sweetheart to you, always has been

-She makes artwork for you with chunky paint so you can feel and imagine the patterns

-At first she was skeptical and a bit angry at the entity for bringing in a blind killer

-I mean for gods sake, you can’t see blood pools or scratch marks!

-But as she watches you, she realizes just how lethal you are

-you have incredible hearing and over senses that you don’t even need to see

-When you came out of a match one day you rubbed your head with a groan

-That new survivor Ripley slammed the hell out of you with a pallet

-Carmina walked over to you concerned as she observed your state

-You reassured her you were fine but she was furious

-How dare she! You didn’t deserve that!

-next match she made sure to mori the hell out of Ripley

-The crows needed to eat after all

The Ghostface (Danny Johnson)

-Danny at first couldn’t decide whether to make fun of you or not

-he also was angry at the entity for bringing in a blind killer but he didn’t care in the way Carmina did

-He always kept a close eye on every killer just to see if he had any competition

-he was a bit aggravated that he began watching you expecting nothing much

-oh was he surprised when he saw how you functioned

-all your senses were heightened and in tune with everything around you

-you were a great listener and that intrigued him

-one day he began listening to you and talking with you

-he actually liked you

-you listened to him ramble for hours and could recite anything he could say

-one day after a particularly rough trial you were snarling in anger

-Danny notices this and quickly came over to check on you

-Fucking David and his stupid insults all match

-he pissed you off so bad you lost sight of the gene and everything else

-but don’t worry, Danny will make sure to gut him just for you and describe every photo of his corpse in grave detail

The Executioner (Pyramid Head)

-Pyramid could sense your power so he never underestimated you

-He always watched you outside of trials

-you guys grew closer just relishing in each other comfort

-when you’d talk he’d listen and when you weren’t talking you two would just sit in silence

-When you came out of a match with shakier breathing than usual he could sense immediately what happened

-entitled survivors annoying you, he’ll take care of it, he is the executioner after all

The Pig (Amanda Young)

-Amanda’s intrigued by you

-she’s actually the first to address you

-you two hit it off immediately

-unlike Danny though your the one who talks more and she listens

-She’ll listen to you ramble while she tweaks her bear traps for each match letting out soft hums and nods to make sure you knew she was listening

-Amanda actually developed the habit of helping you out with little things

-she knew you were perfectly capable of doing everything but she wanted to just feel like she was helping

-When you came back from a trial with a lot more blood then usual she didn’t say anything

-she took your coat and outerwear and just simply cleaned it for you

-it’s the least she could do for you since you helped her with her loneliness

A/N: Sorry I’ve been gone for so long! Life’s been busy!

[sasaranurude]

Okay. I've been playing Tokyo Debunker today, since the release happened to catch me on a day when all I'd planned to do was write fanfiction. I just finished reading the game story prologue (it was longer than expected!), so here's a review type post. If you're reading this post not having seen a single thing about this game: it's a story-based joseimuke gacha mobile game that just released globally today. It's about a girl who suddenly finds herself attending a magic school and mingling with elite, superhuman students known as ghouls. If you look in the tumblr tag for the game you'll see what appears to be a completely different game from 2019 or so: they retooled it completely midway through development, changing just about everything about it due to "escalating competition within the gaming industry."

I'll talk about how this looks like a blatant twst clone at the end.

Starting with the positive: The story is charming. I enjoyed it thoroughly the entire time and am excited to read more. The mix between visual novel segments and motion comics was really nice--it broke things up and added a lot of oomph to the action or atmospheric scenes that visual novels generally lack. I like the art in the comic parts a lot. the live2d in the visual novel parts is... passable. Tone-wise, I think the story was a little bit all over the place and would like to see more of the horror that it opened on, but I didn't mind the comedic direction it went in either. The translation is completely seamless. The characters so far all have unique voices and are just super fun and cute. Of the ones who've had larger roles in the story so far, there's not a single one I dislike. It's all fully voiced in Japanese and the acting is solid. (I don't recognize any voices, and can't seem to find any seiyuu credits, so it seems they're not big names, but they deliver nonetheless.) Kaito in particular I found I was laughing at his lines a ton, both the voicing and the writing.

He's looking for a girlfriend btw. Spreading the word.

The problem is like. The gameplay is the worst dark-pattern microtransaction-riddled bullshit I've ever seen. Hundred passive timers going at all times. Fifty different item-currencies. Trying to get you to spend absurd amounts of real world money at every turn. There's like five different indicators that take you to various real-money shop items that I don't know how to dismiss the indicator, I guess you just have to spend money, wtaf. Bajillion different interlocking systems mean you have zero sense of relative value of all the different item-currencies. I did over the course of the day get enough diamonds for one ten-pull, which I haven't used yet. Buying enough diamonds for a ten-pull costs a bit under $60 (presumably USD, but there's a chance the interface is automatically making that CAD for me--not gonna spend the money to check lmfao), with an SSR rate of 1%. BULLSHIIIIIT.

There's like a goddamn thousand-word essay explaining the dozen different types of character upgrades and equippables and equippables for the equippables!! Bad! Bad game design! That's just overcomplicating bullshit to trick people into thinking they're doing something other than clicking button to make number go up! That is not gameplay!

In terms of the actual gameplay, there is none. The battle system is full auto. There might be teambuilding, but from what I've seen so far, most of that consists of hoping you pull good cards from gacha and then clicking button to make number go up. There's occasional rhythm segments but there's no original music, it's just remixes of public domain classical music lmao. I'd describe the rhythm gameplay as "at least more engaging than twisted wonderland's," which is not a high bar

At least there's a cat in the rhythm bit.

And like, ok, I gotta remark on how derivative it is. Like I mentioned in my post earlier, this game is unabashedly aping twisted wonderland's setting and aesthetic. (That said, most of the stuff it steals from twst is magic school stuff that twst also basically stole from Harry Potter, so...?) However, it isn't exactly like twst: in this one, the characters say fuck a lot and bleed all over the place and do violence. Basically, the tone is a fair bit more adult than twst's kid-friendly vibe. (Not, like, adult adult, and I probably wouldn't even call it dark--it's still rated Teen lol. Just more adult than twst.)

Rather than just being students at magic school, the ghouls also go out into the mundane world to go on missions where they fight and investigate monsters and cryptids. Honestly, the magic school setting feels pretty tacked-on. The things that are enjoyable about this would've been just as enjoyable in about any other setting--you can tell this whole aspect was a late trend-chasing addition, lmao. So, yeah, it's blatantly copying twst to try to steal some players, but... Eh, I found myself not caring that much. Someone more (or less) into twst than me may find it grating.

Character-wise, eh, sure, yeah, they're a bit derivative in that aspect too, but it's a joseimuke game, the characters are always derivative. Thus far the writing & execution has been solid enough that I didn't care if they were tropey. If I were to compare it to something else, I'd say the relationship between the protagonist and the ghouls feels more like that of the sage and wizards in mahoyaku than anything from twst. There's some mystery in exactly what "ghouls" are and their place in this world that has me intrigued and wanting to know more about this setting and how each of the characters feels about it. I have a bad habit of getting my hopes up for stories that put big ideas on the table and then being disappointed when they don't follow through in a way that lives up to my expectations, though.

So, my final verdict: I kind of just hope someone uploads all the story segments right onto youtube so nobody has to deal with the dogshit predatory game to get the genuinely decent story lol. Give it a play just for the story if you have faith in your ability to resist dark patterns. Avoid at all costs if you know you're vulnerable to gacha, microtransactions, or timesinks.

[lsunstreakerl]

hi! i must say i really love your fics and i’m currently re-reading the first chapters of Search History (because i can’t get enough) and i came across this bit:

   "I am so afraid of losing people I love, Max. That is why I did not approach you sooner, because I thought if I got close, if I loved you, something bad would happen to you too." He sniffs, and suddenly he really does have the waterworks going, worse than Max has ever seen from him before.

   "But then Silverstone happened and you got hurt anyways. And I realized it does not matter if I love you from close or afar, and if I am going to love you then I want to do it right. "

and i know SH deals a lot with the consequences of Silverstone ‘21 on Max’s health but i was wondering if you have any insight on Charles’ immediate or short term reaction to the event, specially given that they were not together at the time.

again, love your work! it scratched an itch i didn’t know i had regarding RB garage dynamics

The way I literally disappeared off the face of the earth sorry guys 😭 it's been a rough winter and I've been working lots of unexpected hours but I should have some stuff uploaded soon!

Silverstone '21 is kind of the tipping point for Charles in Search History. I don't write a whole lot of Charles' viewpoint or dive too deep into his character a whole lot, because I don't write him very well (thanks, anon) and I'd rather keep him somewhat as a side character than completely butcher his development. There's a bit more of him in the next chapter of Famiglia, but as far as Search History you probably still won't see a whole lot for the fic itself, but I might try to expand a bit in the rest of the series.

Charles and Max have known each other their whole lives, and Charles has been paying attention to Max for several years at this point, but kind of what I'm alluding to in the chunk you've pointed out is that Charles feels like he's cursed or bad luck to the people he loves. He's seen so much death in the sport, and in his family, and it's always people he loves, people he really cares about, so obviously he's the problem, instead of just having terrible luck, because that totally makes sense, good job Charles.

So Charles is realizing that he cares about Max, really cares, and that scares the hell out of him, so he's trying not to get too close, or get too attached, because then bad things will happen.

And then Max gets his shit rocked at Silverstone, and Charles realizes that he was doing all of this, putting in all this effort to stay away, and Max got hurt anyways, which actually helps break a little bit of that toxic thought pattern for him.

He doesn't immediately do anything dramatic or declare undying love of any of that lol, he just starts letting himself get closer. When Max wants to talk to him after a race, Charles yaps back to his hearts content. They start texting more. Charles seeks out Max to debrief sometimes, instead of Max always coming to him. They meet up in Monaco for lunch, they go on runs together, they spend more time with each other.

Charles still has a lot of anxiety surrounding Max and his eyes after he finds out, and it also creates a bit of a weird dynamic with Lewis going into them being teammates- Lewis doesn't know why Charles is sometimes nice and sometimes not, and Charles is trying to be a good friend and teammate but sometimes when he looks at Lewis all he's thinking of is Max. (This also leads into a really competitive year with Lewis and Charles. Charles is absolutely dead set on refusing Lewis his 8th, and Lewis is like "I understand competitiveness but this seems personal" and Charles is standing there lying through his teeth when he reassures Lewis it's not personal.)

Search History will have a Max and Lewis conversation about the accident. I want to make it clear that I'm not painting Lewis as a villain in this story, because sometimes shit happens, and sometimes that shit can fuck you up long term. It's exactly what it was called- an accident.

Sorry that got a bit rambling. Search History has been fighting me a bit in these last few chapters, so I keep rewriting things because I'd rather take longer and put out something I like than rush it and be unhappy about it later. I promise I'm working on it 🤍

[doberbutts]

Hi! Very sorry about the vague bitesports ask - I wasn’t actually aware that there were multiple types!

Could you start by explaining a bit more about what you and Fenris do for mondioring?

Oh, sure, but I think first you should acquaint yourself with the rulebook: https://www.fci.be/medias/UTI-REG-MON-en-4624.pdf

(This is a PDF file, it will download, that is intentional and not a virus I promise, I have literally this exact file from this exact link saved on both my phone and my laptop)

Your original questions were:

What is the overall goal of the sport/what is the dog specifically being trained to do? Are there competitions, and if so, how are they judged?

In regards to mondioring, mondioring is a competitive protection dog sport based off of french ring, which was based off of belgian ring, which was based off of the belgian border patrol program. However mondioring itself was always intended to be a sport, not a military or police program or something to determine breed-worthiness. It was developed as a fun handler's challenge instead of anything else.

As a side note, I think this is why mondio tends to have the most relaxed atmosphere as well as tends to draw the least amount of really intensely bigoted people of all the bitesports. I'm not saying they don't exist in mondio, in fact I can name a few names right now that are rather notorious for it. But it's very unlike IGP (the most popular bitesport within the US) where you can't go a week without tripping over a nazi, a sexual predator, or a domestic abuser... occasionally all of them in the same person... being outed and then immediately defended by the wider sport-going population. I also find it tends to be more friendly to women, racial minorities, disability, and marginalized genders and sexualities- which was reflected in a recent poll done by the USMRA that stated that while it's mostly half and half, it's technically women-led in the US with 51.6% of competitors identifying as women and the rest identifying as men.

(Which either means there was no nonbinary option on the poll or what nonbinary people took the poll were not comfortable identifying as such, which tbh is fair, bc as said bitesports tend to be a hellscape for anyone who's not cishet white and abled- I know I have two nb ppl in my club but they also id as nb women so that may also skew results if not polled correctly)

The goal of mondio is, put simply, good and correct work in increasingly challenging and ever-changing environments. Mondio differs from other sports because each trial is different. They are themed and each theme can completely change the picture. Unlike in sports like agility, or even sports like IGP and french ring, where the jumps always look roughly the same and the retrieves are always dumbbells and there's always a pause table and it's a specific pattern that maybe the individual method of going about the pattern changes from field to field, the total picture always looks roughly the same to the dog... in mondio, the exercises are always the same in the vaguest sense but the means of going about them are different.

For instance, we just had USMRA nationals, which was a pirates theme. That means that the jumps looked like pieces of ships sticking out of "water" (grass), the distractions to see if the dog would break its stay included the decoys having a sword fight, cannons and splashes of water went off constantly, the retrieves were things like toy treasure chests, glass bottles with paper inside, swords, and gold coins... The work that the dog has to do remains the same- you must stay, you must retrieve, you must jump, you must bite- but this becomes more a test of how well your dog has generalized these behaviors and how strong your dog's nerve are environmentally than of precision or perfection.

That is also why you can still place on the winner's podium even if you don't qualify on a passing score. This is recognized to be difficult, so those who don't DQ are still praised for trying. Failure has the attitude of "you gave it your best! now you know what to work on for your next try!"

It also means the judge is looking more for overall correctness rather than dinging you for every possible infraction (usually)

Finally, having done both IGP (with Creed) and mondio (with Creed and with Fenris), I'd say that mondio is less mentally stressful on the dog when it comes to protection itself. There is less focus on defense and aggression and more focus on prey and play. While some exists (face attack, defense of handler), the best way I've ever heard it put is that mondio is much more of a conversation between the decoy and the dog where they are sparring partners instead of mortal enemies.

Creed genuinely wanted to hurt the decoys who worked him, and got angry at the thought of being held back from doing so, and technically that is very correct for a doberman to displace such defensiveness and anger in their protection. Fenris does want to keep biting the decoy, but it is more because he finds this to be a very fun and deeply pleasurable thing to do rather than any feelings of actually wanting to cause harm. I also have been very careful not to work him on decoys that will bring this out of him, even though I do think it is correct for the breed to be like that, because his breeder assures me that when the time is right he will with the defense he needs. I have no need for a civil dog, and what little protection in my day-to-day I've required he's more than satisfied, so to me as long as he passes his temperament tests as an adult and is competitive in sport, I don't really need him to be another Creed.

[thesweetnessofspring]

Hi there lovely person. Happy Sunday 💜

I was re-reading THG and I had a question about sponsors: how do you think they work exactly? We have Effie tell Katniss and Peeta about Haymitch: “You know your mentor is your lifeline to the world in these Games. The one who advises you, lines up your sponsors, and dictates the presentation of any gifts”. So does this mean that Haymitch gets to decide what is bought with the money they get from sponsors or that he decides who gets the gifts? I’m always confused by this. We know that prior to the rule change, Katniss was getting sponsors and that Peeta got nothing. So was Katniss really the only one getting sponsors or perhaps they were both getting money for gifts but Haymitch used all of it for Katniss? This makes sense to me because he had chosen her. But why would Haymitch have to choose someone if sponsors determined who got the gifts? He could just tell them: “I will coach you both, but sponsors pick whoever gets the gift, so don’t take it personally if you don’t get anything, it’s just how these things work”. Also, I remember Katniss said that the best looking tributes always got the most sponsors, and it’s only logical that if you are going to invest money on a competition, you get to decide who gets it. But what confuses me is that Effie said that Haymitch would dictate the presentation of any gift and that he confirmed he had indeed chosen Katniss in CF.

Moreover, I think that it is more complicated for District 12 since Haymitch was the only mentor. In other districts, probably each tribute has their own mentor which makes things less complicated as far as sponsors go.

Or did it mean that he would only try to line up sponsors for the person that he chose? So in this case, he chose Katniss so he lined up and/or worked hard to get sponsors for her only. I know that we don’t get much information about this in the books, but I would love to read your thoughts about this topic. Thank you 🫶

Hi nonny! You've brought up some interesting questions and something I've wondered about myself.

In TBOSAS, sponsors gave money alone and the mentor decided when and what to send their tributes. However, that was the 10th Games and while a lot was developed in those Games, they're clearly still the Games in embryo form.

My guess is that by the time the Games are settled in their patterns, sponsors are somewhat similar to giving to charity. Some people will donate specific items or pledge money for a specific purpose. Others give an amount and leave their money to the charity to do what they need with it. So I imagine that Finnick had a sponsor (or a few) who gave enough money to get him a trident specifically, but Katniss had sponsors give cash and Haymitch decided who got it.

As for Katniss and Peeta, they were a special circumstance. From the start with the opening ceremonies, they were presented as a team. That builds and builds until Peeta shares that he likes Katniss and they become the star-crossed lovers. I think that Haymitch from the get-go sold them as a team. Donating to one was donating to both.

Also, the reason Haymitch in particular seems to have "chosen" Katniss by getting her gifts while he didn't get any to Peeta was because he was selling up Katniss more. He could have gotten Peeta sponsors, but focused on Katniss instead. I think you're right that most other districts had at least two other victors (we know from CF that each district had a male and female tribute each at least). Haymitch was on his own, though, and that might have led him to be stretched out and also have to make decisions about who he chose to focus on each year.

Thanks for the ask!

[footballworldcuptickets]

FIFA World Cup 2026 one year away, fans and politicians what to expect

Think of the World Cup as a big dinner party. Only instead of asking over family, neighbors and some folks from the office, the whole planet has been invited. Many of those people will be coming to Southern California, and with Wednesday pattern the one-year countdown to the contest’s start, Larry Freedman, co-chair of the Los Angeles World Cup host group, admits there’s still a lot of onslaught up that has to be As by any happening of this magnitude.

As with any event of this magnitude, there are a tremendous number of moving pieces, he said. Nobody is ready, 100%, a year out. When we employed up for this, we distinguished we would be occupied to the finish to get ready. The 2026 World Cup will be the main and most multifaceted sporting event in past, by 48 national teams playing 104 competitions in 16 cities feast across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada over 39 days. Eight games will be frolicked at Sof in Inglewood.

With additional than 6 zillion fans predictable to attend matches then another 6 billion attractive internationally, FIFA, the World Cup’s manager, says the financial impression to the three countries could top $40 billion. But the number of obstacles swarm cities will have to transfer are nearly as large and compound as the competition itself. Transportation, infrastructures, ticketing, safety, the fan fest, Freedman said. You name it.

Visa Uncertainty and Civil Unrest Cast Shadow Over U.S. World Cup 2026 Preparations

I want to make a positive impact on people and their memories, she continued. That, to I, is the biggest responsibility here since we’re not going to have this occasion here again in my era. So this is the one chance of the world’s main event to actually do some decent in Lathes is already the additional World Cup played in the U.S. in Schloessman’s era. The primary, in 1994, remained the most fruitful in history,

A year out from that tournament, Rothenberg had far different concerns. The U.S. didn’t consume a first-division soccer association then and its nationwide team had occupy yourself in just one World Cup since 1950. As a consequence, soccer was so foreign to greatest Americans, numerous of the nine arenas selected to host competitions didn’t have fields wide sufficient to meet FIFA standards.

We had a keen sense of confidence and yet, at the same time, total apprehension. Since nobody had ever done it before, Rothenberg said. We were reasonably self-assured about how permit sales were successful to go. A lot was riding on the success of the [U.S.] team. If the side was an embarrassment it would be a real sad over the entire process. Instead, the U.S. 

From Trailblazing ’94 to FIFA 2026 Takeover How the U.S. World Cup Changed Forever

That World Cup also introduced a number of topographies that have since develop common, such as fan fests and group-play triumphs counting for three opinions instead of two. It remained also the first World Cup in which a provisional grass carpet was placed over an artificial-turf field; next straw-hat eight of the 16 stadiums will do that. Rothenberg smooth planned a halftime show for the last at the Rosette Bowl, signing Whitney Houston to perform.

I reason it really appropriated ‘94 to let the break of the soccer world receive the fact that ‘OK, the U.S. can be part of our club.’ We were doing some unusual things. We remained using superstars and doing all kinds of entertaining events to build community interest. We needed our bequest tour where we were successful, to city after city, essentially traveling the nation to get people interested. And Rothenberg could do that because, as president of U.S. Soccer and chairman of the World Cup organizing committee,

he was in charge of the entire tournament. That has changed. FIFA now innings the display, supervision each of the 16 World Cup cities, who remain acting independently of one another. The monetary agreements between FIFA and the World Cup hosts consume also changed, which is why it’s extremely doubtful any future competition will be as profitable for the host nation as Rothenberg’s remained for the U.S. In 1994, FIFA communal some of its pays with local managers.

Mounting Costs and Visa Hurdles Cloud U.S. Hopes for a Seamless Football World Cup

This time around FIFA is taking virtually all tournament-related revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships and broadcasting, even at the local level, while leaving host cities on the hook for public services, security and stadium operations. The association is so one-sided that Chicago, anywhere the World Cup unlocked in 1994, backed out of the 2026 contest citing the costs to the public.

 Here has been a substantial upsurge in the denial rate for this visa category. We believe this is a result of the ongoing policies and changes in immigration matters being implemented by the Donald Trump administration. Those kinds of stories worry Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), whose district borders Sof Stadium. In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which Kamlager-Dove is a member, Rubio promised he would. But the congresswoman has yet to see proof.

Experience the passion, drama, and glory of the Football World Cup 2026 live! With gettickets365, it’s easier than ever to buy FIFA World Cup Tickets, including premium access to FIFA World Cup Final Tickets and Football World Cup Final Tickets. Don’t wait, secure your World Cup Tickets now and cheer for your team on the biggest stage in football.

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Match (2025)

Generally, sports movies – particularly those based on true events - are only unpredictable to a point. No one would consider a season in which the team does ok and is then eliminated in the first round of playoffs worthy of the big screen. The Match does not go where you think it’s going and the unexpected direction makes it appealing even to those who are not fans of Go. Thank goodness, because the film assumes you know all of the rules already so if you can't play, you at least have the drama to keep you invested.

No one considered Koreans favorites in the world of Go until Cho Hun-hyun (Lee Byung-hun) won the 1st Ing Cup. His string of victories led to many considering him the best player in the world – if not of all time. After Hun-hyun meets the young Lee Chang-ho (Kim Kang-hoon), he sees something in the boy and begins training him. The initial skills he displayed seem to have born little fruit until he develops his own play style and a rivalry between pupil and master forms.

I don’t know anything about Go, and I still don’t after seeing The Match. It’s not necessarily a failure on the movie’s part – I think most movies featuring poker or chess only explain extremely niche, expert-level rules, and even then, only when they become plot points – but it is something to keep in mind. The game of Go, terms surrounding it like “9 dan” and the various cups/competitions Cho Hun-hyun competes in are barely introduced. Maybe he's that big a celebrity that Koreans would watch this movie based on his name alone.

We get a sense of how big Go is when a young Lee Chang-ho leaves his family to go live with Cho Hun-hyun and his wife, Jung Mi-hwa (Moon Jeong-hee) and train under his new teacher full-time. After he arrives, the film flashes forward to years later. The boy is now an adult, played by Yoo Ah-in and he’s essentially a different person. No longer cocky and excited, he’s quiet, unsure and seemingly struggles to grasp the lessons he’s been taught day in and day out. What happened? Did Cho Hun-hyun treat him badly? No. It’s that the game can be played so many different ways that the strategy Lee Chang-ho was taught just doesn’t fit him. After a string of losses, he develops his own play pattern and techniques. The way he plays is highly successful and it’s essentially the opposite of his teacher’s.

This is where your interest is peaked. We’re used to seeing teachers as older, wiser and ultimately, selfless mentors. They want their students to surpass them. That’s not the case here. No matter how respectful Lee Chang-ho behaves, to Cho Hun-hyun, a loss is a loss. He’s not used to defeat, much less at the hands of someone who’s just entered the professional Go scene and who was struggling to win any games not long ago. That is what Go is, isn’t it? Just a game? Well, not really. Not when you play professionally and you’re known for your historical wins. The pupil-teacher relationship shown here is one I hadn’t seen explored before but it must happen in real life often. Being a good player doesn’t necessarily make you a good loser or a good coach and those catapulted to stardom by their wins will not be eager to pass the torch.

Even if you're reading the subtitles (some of which pass by very quickly) you'll recognize the strength of the performances. From the leads, but also from Moon Jeong-hee, who has a smaller, but important part. She’s the wife of the world’s greatest player. What does she think of her husband? How does she react when he wins a match? Is it a great achievement, or just another day at the office? What does she think when he loses? I would’ve gotten more out of the film had I been able to understand the shots of the board, how the scoring works, what the titles meant, etc. but there’s much more to The Match than the game of Go. The drama in this sports movie makes it stand out. (original Korean with English subtitles, May 22, 2025)

[alexgarnn]

Asteroid Postmortem

Chapter 3 of Fullertons book Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, discusses the importance of crafting clear and engaging objectives when developing games, as this serves as the driving force for player engagement and enjoyment (Fullerton, 2018)

With my current design for my asteroid, i hope to be able to include more unqiue gameplay mechanics in the future. This being more power ups, boss battles, enemies with varying health and ranging difficulty.

In addition, including potential game modes for players to choose from

Mayhem!:

A gamemode for competitive gamers, just pure destruction! Players have limited health bars and the only goal is to kill as many enemies as possible! there is no time restriction, only the increase in difficulty as time progresses. The game only ends when the player loses all their health.

"Objectives give your players something to strive for. They define what players are trying to accomplish within the rules of the game."

When reviewing my final prototype and having 2 people playtest, i came to the realisation that other than surviving, i didnt have any other clear objectives inside my game. Feedback i received was that yes the overall aesthetic is there, and the fundamentals of an asteroid game is present; shooting asteroids to survive. However my game lacked substance, with no other game mechanics setting it apart from already exisiting asteroid games.

Questions that were discussed regarding improvement were:

"Could the be implementation of new objectives, such as destroying a certain amount of asteroids? that being varying coloured asteroids?" (Fullerton, 2018)

My thoughts for future iterations was having the task for players to have a certain target of enemies defeated per round.

"Sense of predictability would affect not only strategy but also player engagement." (Fullerton, 2018)

I have mentioned this quote in a previous post, but essentially Fullerton discusses how predictability can influence player engagement and satisfaction. In addition, balancing predictability and unpredictability is crucial for maintaining player interest over time.

With my prototype, my playtesters mentioned how the game had no real increased difficulty or any form of surprise. After further discussion what they mean is that it was easy to predict the progression of the game as i programmed the asteroids to spawn in quite slowly and consistently, with no other addition of enemies, powerups ect. They found after playing the game for a longer period of time it become uninteresting.

If i were to revisit this prototype in the future, i would implement more features that have the player gaining powerups, movement enhancements, additional projectiles with different affects. In addition making the asteroids spawn in more randomised patterns with altering speed.

After reading chapter 7 Protoyping, i had some reflctions regarding my asteroid prototype.

Fullerton mentioned the importance of structure and priorities that i felt as though i should have taken into consideration when visualising and creating my prototype (Fullerton, 2018).

Structure and Prioritisation:Although it may seem like common sense, Fullerton emphasised at the beginning of the text, to prioritze essential elements of the gameplay first before continuing with the prototype.

I realised afterwards i prioritised the overall aesthetics more so then the essential mechanics and elements of the gameplay, leading to a lot of flaws during the playtesting.

..........

Playtesting:

As i wasnt able to attend the workshop, i had my roommate test out my prototype!

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Fourth Edition (4th ed.). A K Peters/CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b22309

[sylvies-chen]

let’s also talk about how good it is that nate now has a support system that he doesn’t need to “share” exactly. like I think where what went wrong in nate’s journey to confidence in the first two seasons was that it was in an environment where ted was the coach basically doing emotional triage. he worked on the people who needed it the most first, and tried to build something with an entire team from the ground up based on that, meaning nate had to share ted in a sense. there was no room for one on one attention so when nate developed his sense of self worth on a guy who couldn’t (and shouldn’t have to?) focus on him all the time, it became doomed to self-implode, especially since he didn’t feel as though he had a supportive family.

but now he’s growing! we got to see moments where his mother and sister were supporting him, he’s slowly realizing the kind of person he actually wants to be, he’s trying to let go of his self-destructive patterns. and, importantly, he’s got jade! who is so so so good for him in so many ways, but mainly because she’s a support system where he doesn’t have to feel like he’s in competition with others for his affection. she shows clear interest in him, wants to be his girlfriend, and they have a surprisingly stable and healthy relationship which is especially highlighted in the scene of this episode where he goes to her place and just hugs her (SO cute btw). like yes she has a life and family and friends and a job I’m not saying he’ll be able to have her 24/7 I just mean it’s not a dynamic where he’ll feel like she’s slipping through his fingers all the time. it’s just exactly the kind of support system he needs in order to break free from rupert and become truly confident in himself.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Have you seen the latest shitshow of the CBX SM drama bpp? When you said you expect the drama to drag on till May/June I was surprised, but it seems you were right --- again. Baekhyun just revealed SM hurried him to renew his contract despite some time left, because of the Kakao deal. He also said SM kept all the artists in the dark and they had to find out about HYBE's offers from the news. Bang PD was apologizing to the SM idols, while Chris Lee treated them like they were invisible, but Exols, Mys, Shawols, NCTzens, Reveluvs, and the whole kpop, claimed no company was more evil than HYBE. Armys were called every name under the sun for pointing out how many things from SM didn't make sense and now less than 1 month later, CBX are exposing their slave contracts and fighting for transparency. I feel so bad for the idols but SM stans don't even care? I was in a space yesterday and all they were saying is HYBE is worse, HYBE is a slave company, HYBE is this and that. And I'm just like ---- when do they fandom feuds end? IF THE WELLBEING OF THEIR IDOLS ISN'T ENOUGH TO MAKE THEM STOP HATING BTS ARMY AND HYBE, WHEN DOES IT END?

***

Hi Anon,

Before getting into it, I want to be clear about one thing: HYBE has its own problems.

BigHit was an efficiently run company that balanced artist wellfare and development alongside commercial targets, very well, and Bang PD has managed to bring over many of those best practices to HYBE. Also, HYBE’s acquisition of American music labels early on the company’s lifetime, necessitated it being in-line with international corporate governance best practices under SEC guidelines - something no other k-pop agency has had to do. So at the most basic level, HYBE is easily the best run k-pop agency in Korea and this has been true for a long time.

But even then, the expansion of BigHit to HYBE meant pulling manpower and staff from other k-pop agencies especially Big 3, and there was a huge hiring of ex-SM staff that happened in 2020 - staff who brought over their own bias, work practices and culture. They’d have to adjust to how things were done at HYBE, but culture flows both ways so I suspect it also affected many things in HYBE, and it’s no secret there’s been an uptick in issues for BTS since HYBE’s creation that weren’t there under BigHit. But again, overall, HYBE is still one of the best run companies in Korea.

Here’s an excerpt from a proprietary research done on idol contracts in Korea basically showing as much (though HYBE isn’t explicitly named, also note the share of revenue SM takes from their artists relative to other companies):

*

A lot of this information is old news, but as I keep saying, nothing in k-pop can be understood outside of the context of this being an ultra-, hyper-competitive space. That alone should explain the crux of k-pop stans’ behaviours to any issues that arise if something connected to BTS is involved. For as long as I can remember, BTS / BigHit and ARMYs have run counter-cultural to the norms here (until recently), and that has earned them being enemy numero uno. Nothing is more important in this space to k-pop stans, than hating the scapegoat - BTS and anything related to them by proxy and no that’s not an exaggeration.

ARMYs don’t make it any easier for them though (lol) when too many people are using this situation as a gotcha, but it’s also true there wouldn’t be a gotcha to be had now if k-pop stans had put aside their fear-mongering over ‘monopoly’ and whatnot in HYBE in the first place, to just think for a bit when Chris Lee was peddling tales of Pink Bloods in alliance, while Bang PD was drawing attention to the abysmal corporate governance in SM.

Everything SM is doing now, they’ve done before, many times, successfully, because the stans would rather excuse it and redirect blame on every other company, than on SM. The only exception to this pattern was in 1st and 2nd gen where fans supported the idols without compromise so SM had to change a bit. But lol, that was also before BTS - once BTS was introduced into the mix and it was clear they were an anomaly, the priorities of many stan communities in k-pop changed, and this has only gotten worse over the years. Everybody who has been here long enough knows it, including SM, and these behaviours have only been reinforced by most companies in this space because they know it takes the heat off them.

I mean, you all witnessed that this is exactly what SM did during the takeover drama.

If you go on YouTube right now, you’d see 10s of videos made about...

how HYBE is a monopolistic hydra of an evil company intent on ruining k-pop;

about HYBE having a girl group curse (not the companies that blacklisted female idols who have written books about abuse under SM, not the companies that female idols took to court over pimping, drug use and coercion, not the K-pop companies working with R Kelly to groom female minors, later having agency executives marry former female trainees, and so on that happens in Big3);

production and audio mixing problems (that none of these critics can actually explain);

about rumours of enslavement in BigHit for BTS;

...from 10s of accounts by k-pop stans, not just one source, based on barely cohesive fan theories, common vanilla business practices, and vibes. You won’t find anything nearly as close to this on SM, JYPE, or YG - even at the height of the Burning Sun scandal.

Selective amnesia is a coping mechanism for many k-pop stans, and a part of me is sympathetic towards some fans since many of them just want to support their fave idols and may feel like they have no choice when SM is involved. And like I've said before, all corporations have their own issues, but again, there's levels to this madness, and it has been clear to anyone with half a brain that SM is the worst of the bunch. And so it's also true SM stans have enabled a lot of this insanity.

CBX seem to be in good hands, so I hope it really works out for them. Their stans will find ways to cope by latching onto any mildly negative news out of HYBE for the next 12-ish months (again, we saw SM encourage this sort of thinking during the takeover drama), and things will chug on as they do here.

[kingkatsuki]

kiri seems like the type of friend you can be completely comfortable with. he is so sweet and gives you all of his attention. imagine going to a party with him and not really knowing anyone, holding onto him so you don’t get lost in the crowd. you two’d get snacks and find little spots to hang out away from the noise. just talking to each other all night. it’s to the point where he blindly follows you into the bathroom to keep the conversation going (i’d definitely pee in front of that man) but 👀 then asking if he has to use the toilet? he would turn as red as his hair and sputter any kind of excuse as to not. t h e n him popping a boner at the thought of you seeing his manhood??? i can easily see a competition of comfortability developing. first peeing ( him bashfully angling so you can’t see and telling u to turn around) then heavy touching, sharing a bath, sharing a bed and so on.

then you come out of the bathroom with a very irritated bakugo yelling “I WAITED FIFTEEN MINUTES AND ALL I HEARD WAS TALKING, Y’MIGHT AS WELL HAVE FUCKED” pushing past you two

I’m about to turn this so filthy I’m sorry, Anon.

But imagine you ask Kiri if he needs to pee after you’ve gone and he does. He’s had just as much to drink as you, and those shots he did with Denki are making him feel warm, his cheeks tinged a dark pink as he thinks about the implications of peeing in front of you. But you do it all the time, so it’ll be okay right?

Except the thought of pulling his cock out in front of you has him hard, impossibly so as he already feels his length pressing against the unforgiving jeans he’s wearing, rubbing against the denim as he tries desperately to calm himself down. Breathing through his nose as you take a seat on top of the counter, still talking to him. Your voice doing nothing to tame the throb between his thighs, there’s no way he can go like this.

“I thought you needed to go, Eiji?” Why did you have to sound so cute when you said his name? Biting back a groan as he unbuttons his jeans, tugging them down as he hisses as the constraint around his stiff cock was removed. Trying to angle his body so his backs facing you so you wouldn’t be able to see how hard he was right now. Teeth latching onto his lower lip as he wraps a hand round his cock and tries to will himself to pee, but he knows he won’t be able to. Not when he’s so fucking horny.

That’s when he feels you right up against his back, “is everything oka- oh,” the cutest sound leaves your lips as you peer around him, looking down at his hard, fat cock. No wonder you couldn’t hear him go—

“I thought you said you needed to pee?”

Kiri is instantly ready to splutter out excuses, embarrassment already running rampant through his veins as he expects his cock to soften in shame, but it doesn’t— Still standing to attention hard as ever.

“No wonder you can’t pee, Eiji.” You shake your head as you look up at him, “Let me help you with this.”

Kirishima doesn’t even have a second to protest as he feels you wrap your hand around his cock, stroking him softly as he tries to bite back a grunt of pleasure. The sound vibrating low in his chest as you continue your movements against his length, your scent captivating his senses as he feels himself bucking into your touch. Trying to get you to move faster as he feels his balls tightening, the telltale sign of his impending climax as he watches you fist his cock. He’s lost count of the number of times he’s stroked himself dumb to the thought of you and yet here you are in the flesh actually doing it. Pre oozing from his thick tip and coating your palm whenever you circle it around his head, smearing the silvery moisture along him.

Kirishima feels like he could implode at any second, his bladder aches with how badly he needs to go, it’s almost painful as his cock throbs. Wishing he could subdue the feeling as he tries to focus on the pattern against the bathroom tiles instead of the painful pleasure in his lower half.

“You’re so hard, Eiji.” Your words do nothing to satiate his desire, his lashes fluttering as you work him towards his release, “You shoulda just told me I would’ve helped.”

He can’t hold back any longer as he feels himself coming undone, creamy spurts of cum flying from his cock and hitting porcelain, dropping into the toilet and against the seat. His palm immediately reaching out to brace himself against the wall as he pants harshly. Chest heaving as he blinks back the white spots that coat his vision. Your hand still firmly around his softening cock as he feels the familiar desire to go brewing inside him. Watching as a warm stream of piss leaves his cock and trickles into the toilet, “That’s it baby, see it wasn’t that hard?” Your words do nothing but make him whine, the relief finally flowing through him as he relieves himself in front of you is quickly replaced by shame— except you don’t seem to mind.

[donuts4evry1]

Okay, tell us about your fave jellies specifically! I'd love to learn more!

:D!!

If I'm going to be honest, most of my jellyfish knowledge sorta floats around aimlessly unless I'm looking for something specific, but I am all for telling a few of my favourite jellyfish facts! (For the record, my favourite jellyfish is the Upside-down jellyfish- specifically the Cassiopea andromeda :>)

Anyway I'm done with the beginning ramble now, I'll just get started :)

Scientists have only begun to tag jellyfish rather recently, beginning near the start of the century (if memory serves me right). Lots have been discovered through this, such as their daily migration patterns and whatnot

Though, what does interest me the most is the fact that scientists have discovered that the box jellyfish (likely the C. fleckeri, or the poster child of venemous jellyfish) "sleep" (or at least, lie motionless on the sea floor at nighttime). It's very funny, and a behaviour I believe to be shared with all box jellies of the Chironex genus (though... who knows? Maybe it might be typical box jellyfish behaviour)

What is proven is that Upside Down jellyfish do, in fact, sleep! This particular study also showed that melatonin works on Upside Down jellyfish as well... which is pretty neat I think.

If you'd like to preserve a jellyfish in liquid, a 5-10% formalin solution will do (or a 70% alcohol solution). The first reply in this thread is very helpful, actually! (though I doubt anyone here is interested in liquid preservation)

Another thread suggested using Magnesium Chloride to kill (oof) and fix jellyfish for pictures and then transfer(?) to a solution of alcohol or formalin.

The Compass Jellyfish is a sequential hermaphrodite, being born functionally male and then developing into a female upon maturity!

The Black Sea Nettle (C. achylos) and Purple Striped Sea Nettle (C. colorata) happen to be very close genetically :D! I suppose they are found roaming similar areas (around the mid to southern coast of California and Upper Mexico), so it makes sense.

They are also my favourite sea nettles and after realizing that the Monterey Bay Aquarium had wallpapers of them, they have swiftly replaced the subway bosses as my lockscreen :)

Jellyfish in the wild have slow metabolisms, so they can actually tolerate the numerous "dead zones" in the ocean for quite a while (dead zones being areas that algae and the like have completely sucked the oxygen out of).

One of these jellies is the Egg Yolk jelly, which often frequents these areas during the day (when competition is high)

The black sea nettle has "internal anchoring structures" that make it suited to swim through high currents without damage, though when I tried to look for that "internal anchoring structure" online I found nothing. Consequently, the author of my first jellyfish book, Lisa-Ann Gershwin, happened to be one of the biologists that described the species in 1996(?), so good for her :)

Ok, last bullet point before I run everyone ragged with jellyfish facts... Moon jellyfish are generally difficult to differentiate between species but here are a few distinguishing characteristics:

The A. labiata, sometimes referred to the Pacific Moon Jellyfish, may have 16 scallops (curves at the edge of their bell), while the A. aurita (or the posterchild of all moon jellies) tend to have 8. (This method may be imperfect, though. Or I might just be bad at counting).

The A. limbata has beautiful distinguishing brown bands at the edge of its bell, and generally resides in Arctic waters. Some of its polyps attached to pieces of trash were believed to be found at the coast of Northern Japan in the Spring and Summer of 2014, which is really interesting....

Anyway! That ramble ran for a while, ehehe... It's almost been an hour since I sat down and wrote all of this, hopefully you've learned something!

┏ (゜ω゜)=☞(:◎)≡

Ah! As for the candy... Here's some caramels made with some ground Jellyfish Powder, courtesy of the students at Obama Fisheries High School :)

[greenlikethesea]

Ahh you mention that in the fair ithilin(??) verse that Steve has head trauma and I was wondering if you had any additional thoughts you wanted share about how that plays out? Also it’s hinted that Megan and Steve not having kids was a source of gossip/concern to the rest of the party and I’m curious if the Megan POV or future stories will touch in that?? Bc his tattoo and s4 speech makes it clear that so much of Steve’s sense of self is built around wanting to take care of people and being there for kids in a way he didn’t experience growing up, so I wonder how those conversations went!! Also I love it and the newest excerpt of the pool was!!!!!!

okay, since this is a two-fer, i'm gonna answer in two parts! @sparklyslug definitely gonna need your help with this one.

this got long, under the cut:

steve's head trauma/disability: i think it's really, really important to establish from the get-go that steve is not stupid. like, not by any means. he's not the most book smart, but it's for reasons listed below -- he's remarkably emotionally intelligent and is one of the very few genre savvy characters of the bunch. a lot of this is pattern recognition and logic, which steve's got in spades, and which seems to survive his frankly alarming head trauma. first of all, since we're built different (better) than the suffer brothers, we actually take into account the throwaway "joke" that steve fell down the stairs as a baby and hit his head, which probably set him up for frequent migraines. i absolutely think he's dyslexic or some other form of learning disabled. though this has not impaired his ability to make connections -- on a recent rewatch, ms. sparkly and i were reminded that he was the person who made the connection that the russians were under the mall due to the song in the background of the recording -- that takes actual deduction skills. would good parents have gotten steve help when he hit his head as a child? when he started performing poorly at school because of his dyslexia? yes, but chip and diane were embarrassed about having a son they actually had to parent, so it was...his fault, largely. he got yelled at for falling down the stairs, and was not taken to the doctor, just kept awake until the worst of it passed. he was just told to try harder. it's part of why he becomes a guidance counselor -- to give kids what they might not be getting at home. now, steve takes a lot of fucking beatings during the canon of the show, and while he's an adult, he's 19 during the events of season 4, which makes his pre-frontal cortex and other parts of his brain not fully developed. the migraines get worse, and his brain fog increases tenfold, with his short term memory permanently damaged. he also develops a bit of a drinking problem in the latter part of his marriage, so that does not help things. (he's sober by the time he and megan get divorced tho!) later, much, much later on, steve stops driving at night and is pretty much always wearing glasses, because the contacts hurt his eyes. eddie, forever a nocturnal creature and the happiest husband there ever was, is more than happy to assist, and thinks steve looks extremely sexy with glasses.

hooooooo boy okay the kids thing is so delicious and complicated, because this was really such a joint effort. we're beyond thrilled with how well megan has been received, because we love her so much. so steve wants a family, right? i think that because of his upbringing, he thinks that has to mean a spouse who is a woman and literal children that they have together, and marrying megan at first is the guarantee of that. and megan's super gung ho about that too, but she also has something to prove -- when steve and megan get married, cheryl's a little girl, and amy has just been born. her sister erin, mother of those children, has a happy marriage to her college sweetheart and two adorable rugrats. there's competition there. and they're SO young, everyone's telling them to enjoy being married for a little while first, enjoy their careers, enjoy their house! but things...shift. megan really likes working, loves her job and loves the lifestyle it provides. and steve's queer identity tilts what family means to him on its axis. makes him see a more community based sense of the word. he already has kids, they call him all the fucking time at all hours of the day and night. he works with kids. he doesn't need to come home to children of his own, necessarily.

[jjheejz]

This is an ongoing update about the case from start to development. List of all related posts can be found on this blog's pinned post (link provided at bottom of each post as well).

Updates: Minor details

Originally posted on 17 August 2021

Debunking the Hand

Details everything so it's lengthy. TLDR, skip to starting paragraph first word that's in blue. Still, reading everything gives a broader picture.

Background

In 2019, ZZH went on an acting competition show called: Stand By Me《演员请就位》(link)The competition involves having actors to play certain roles in a short movie (about 30mins) directed by the panel judges cum esteemed Directors.

ZZH was chosen by Director Zhao Wei and he starred in the short movie: Brother《哥》(link) The genre (as provided in link) is tagged: Sibling, relationship, mental illness, brothers

1. [Left image] Look at the timeline the variety show was aired, and then the date the short movie was released, 7 December 2019, is the aired date of the Movie.

2. [Right image] The other main role of the movie: Wilson Wang/王森

The Original Gesture’s Meaning 

(Direct links to watch the movie at end of post)

1. Hand raise meaning

Timestamp (from top to bottom, left to right) - 2:11, 01:37

2. “我等你呢” (I waited/wait for you)

Timestamp - 24:31

Original post of the image

The image originally used to refer the pose gesture was this, the part boxed in orange is Zhe Jiang Memorial Hall of Revolutionary Martyrs:

The original post where the image was from on weibo, both left and right are same pictures, different focus points:

Left image focus: Date of post, caption of post, comment on post, and each post picture given a number

Right image focus: The collage pattern

[Left image] Firstly, the date the movie aired was on 7 December 2019, ZZH posted the image 5 days later, on 15 December 2019.

[Left image] Secondly, the caption says "I waited/wait for you". (There is technically no past tense/present tense in Chinese) For international fans, you may compare the movie screenshot above, with the caption boxed in red, and the Chinese words ZZH posted + bottom part of the image: Wilson (王森), the actor who played the older brother in this movie. "我等你呢"

[Left image] Thirdly, the hand raise itself, is in reference to the movie, his older brother. Referencing from above, his older brother (in the movie), raises almost a straight vertical 180 - pic 9, while ZZH's circulated image is lower. Because he was, and could be metaphorically reaching for his brother's hand (see picture above).

[Left image - reference below] I just realised this myself. Lastly, Pattern A: look at the spread of the image in the post. There's a distinct pattern: 3 selfies in the middle (pics 4-6), pics 1 & 3 with his buddy + corresponding inverted triangle pic 8 (no duplicated background or pattern), pics 2, 7, 9 are half body shots, of which 2 out 3 was where the Memorial Hall was.

(duplicated image below for easier reference)

[Right image] Pattern B: The whole image itself looks like ZZH is sitting on the stairs, under a shelter. The center image is like the close up version of the 8th picture.

5-6 different locations, with the right lineage, to create a post with a bigger picture, no coincidence works this way.

Remember that ZZH is a very detailed actor, there is a reason why Ah-Xu was so well liked. That's why from this, it can further amplify he's very detail-oriented, see below for his line of thought in curation:

In that case, if it's planned, why the location then? (Please open up and zoom in to both right and left to see clearly)

Look at pic 2 again, the railings is horizontal, a perfect sense of link for 1 and 3, through his hand. Look at pic 7, there's also the railings, but he stands in the middle, creating a leeway for a 90°, look at pic 9, the angle is taken from a left to right perspective = he needs railings because it is flexible to take straight lines, with a person.

Being on weibo long, and having followed his account over the past 5 months, his curation of photo pattern is prevalent, it usually always has a message (which is why LLD have sweets each time they posted sth, both GJ and ZZH's spreads can create meanings).

What he needed was just the railings, but it happened to coincide with the Memorial Hall, so this could just be an unlucky coincidence that the photo was taken with resemblance of the Nazi hand, and with the Memorial Hall in the background.

Remember, also his Brother reference.

If there are still some, not convinced, allowing room for doubt of purpose, then let the Immoral Media/ Internet Water Army(link) prove to you:

Immoral Media/Internet Water Army's circulation

What the Immoral Media was spreading (just a collage of 6 top few posts that came out from the search results):

Note that none of it had the full spread like the above, no proper context at all.

This was what was in circulation, it was straight up just that one picture compared side by side to the Nazi gesture (ignore the Chinese). See how they conveniently narrowed the scope of issue and cause a fuss?

Conlusion

We have the Internet Water Army/immoral Media (link above) to thank for, for increasing the debunk percentage.

Bonus (not really, just the movie link)

(A warning/PG18: The opening of the scene is on a bed, ZZH is a part of it. But nevertheless it is a very heart-warming short movie, if you need to cry more - it can actually ironically help alleviate, give this a try, it also shows the spectrum of character ZZH can do and his acting skills)

For those who understands Chinese, Youku still has it here.

For those who do not understand Chinese, I’ve english subbed it here. (Please inform me if you have problems accessing it).

*Cultural language note: In English, Sis/Bro is a reference to both older and younger (depending the person), In Chinese, Ge Ge (Guh-Guh) is older brother, Di Di (younger brother), Jie Jie (older sister), Mei Mei (younger sister). 

This addressing can be used for non-blood related but close people eg. an older but same position colleague, buddies. Sometimes surname is added, eg. surname of Zhou, “Zhou-Ge” (Older brother Zhou)

Usual usage is usually a single word eg. “Ge!” (older brother), “Di!” (younger brother), when saying in double eg. “Ge Ge”, it usually has a cute annotation

Related posts 🛏️:

[burningdarkfire]

you play league, right? how do I, uh. get good at it? I keep getting yelled at. I'm pretty good against the bots I think, but nobody really follows the whole 'lane roles' thing so I'm never sure what I should be doing in an actual game. And when I play ARAM to try new champs I get yelled at for making us lose there too lmao

hey anon! i do play league - for eight years and counting!

so first: do you actually want to get good at the game, or do you just want people to stop yelling at you?

because people are never, ever going to stop yelling at you. i played an aram today and someone was typing angrily at me 🤷‍♂️

honestly, the culture of the game sucks. it's gotten better, but it still sucks. i did my masters thesis on this: league is a team game that promotes solo play and that in turn promotes a cesspool of toxicity and blame. the problem is never actually you or your level of play, and you shouldn’t let it get to you.

i heavily recommend muting - i mute people literally every day, all the time. if i'm already in a bad mood, i mute all at the very start so no one even gets that first crack at tilting me further. the ping system is so good now that typing doesn’t feel necessary

play with friends if you can - i would never, ever have played the game for this long if i didn’t have friends who played too. i’m sure there are discord servers for people looking to learn the game or who don’t mind playing with new players, especially after arcane came out (disclaimer: i spend exactly zero time in discord servers, but surely this is the kind of thing that they’re for??)

and to actually answer your question - read guides, watch streams, practice by playing.

i haven’t tried to get good in uhh years so i don’t know what sites are trustworthy nowadays. /r/summonerschool exists. i use probuilds to look up builds quickly. i find reading/watching guides good to learn macro strategy around the map or the specific play patterns of champions that you’re interested in.

watching streams is helpful to practice parsing the enormous amount of information in the game. learning what champions do and what skillshots look like etc is easier when you’re not playing. i don’t watch league streamers anymore but i do still watch the esport and would definitely recommend it, since that’s guaranteed educational at the highest level. it’s only a few games per week but you can also follow the competitive scenes of other regions if you’re interested (i used to watch all the major regions .. god i had so much time in university)

and yeah, at the end of the day you just have to play. you develop a sense for the game over time that’s more instinctual than anything you can study. personally i’ve always been a one-trick because it’s easier to learn if you’re playing the same or very similar characters over and over, so i would play my main on summoner’s rift and then just roll the dice on learning new champs on aram. try and find specific things to work on so you’re not overwhelmed all at once, like learning to cs first. accept that you’re going to suck sometimes, mute everyone, and keep going

and not to immediately get back on my soapbox but try to play only if you’re actually having fun playing and/or enjoying the grind of improving. don’t play if you’re already tilted, don’t play just to chase a win. i’m telling you this as someone who had a very unhealthy relationship with the game for years: it's not a meme that league of legends can bring out the worst in people, and you don’t want to lose yourself to the game. just like any other hobby: have fun! enjoy yourself!

i hope that was helpful in even the smallest sense, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have further questions. welcome!! :)