#so i start shitposting about those ideas and it makes NO sense

[tainted-esau]

Shitpost based on an idea but I take it too seriously

[catboybiologist]

Okay maybe it's time to make an actual designated pinned post

Edit: hiya! A new pinned post will come, but quick note that I am starting my transition MtF now. This pinned post, and all the pictures in it, predate that, however. General guide is that I'm referring to pre transition me as a femboy, and will be referring to myself as a trans woman to moment I start HRT. But I'm leaving this old pinned post up for now.

Hi! I'm CatboyBiologist. I'm a grad student in Molecular Biology with a passion for the ocean, nature, Fromsoft games, national parks, and weird tech stuff. I tastefully hornypost about men, women, and all others (so be warned), post spicy hot memes (fuck you I'm the funniest mfer alive), type out long rambles about science and nature, and play Fromsoft games. PLEASE send me cute pictures of your pets.

Oh yeah, I'm also a cis man who does this sometimes:

I also make shitposts out of myself sometimes

I've also made a couple guides on how to replicate these kinds of looks.

General overview of femboy stuff:

How I create cleavage looks from a relatively flat chest:

If you want a somewhat more realistic idea of what my figure looks like:

The best way to specifically see those posts and filter out everything else is probably to use the femboy tag on my profile.

Pronouns? Uuuuuhhhhhhhhh, idk dude just use whatever. It's far more gratifying to me to throw a look out there and see what people wanna use for it than to declare my pronouns. If that doesn't make sense to you, they/them or he/him is cool.

Asks and DMs are always open for science talk, cute animal pictures, casual non creepy flirting, or whatever else... With the SOLE exception of these two questions that I get WAY too often and will give final answers to here:

"Are you a biologist who studies catboys or a biologist that just happens to be a Catboy?"

Both. Do humans not study human biology?

(also I'm actually studying bio irl)

"why is it not catboyologist, hmmm? I am very clever"

To give a serious answer to a joking question I get way too much: This online persona (or whatever you want to call it) is about balancing and integrating two large parts of my personality: my career in and passion for biology, and my queerness and gender nonconformity. I wanted both of those parts to be clear, in a cute and fun username. Basically, "catboyologist" only has the same effect as my actual username if you already know my actual username- you can't interpret the "biologist" part from "catboyologist".

Plus, "catboyologist" has too many consecutive wide vowels. CatboyBiologist breaks it up so it sounds punchier.

Oh yeah and apparently I was a 196 microcelebrity? I never to thought I was popular enough for that but apparently some people do 🤷‍♀️. So uh, hi 196 tag, I'm abusing you for my pinned post LOL

I'll also abuse other tags I use somewhat frequently, so hi y'all

[hellsite-hall-of-fame]

I think you should actually start a blog along with this heritage one where you'd just post what's on your mind or maybe one where you'd post about what you think while reblogging posts as heritage posts like what actually goes on in your mind while you're deciding on it. Idk.. Again ik it sounds dumb but wouldn't it be better to know what's the person behind this huge blog thinks about the reblogs on this blog. I hope what I'm writing isn't unintelligible because idk it's a bit difficult for me to put it in words but I hope you get I mean.

And.. I really didn't think you'd answer that 'someone from tumblr management' ask but I'm glad you did. And I think you rarely put your own opinions and thoughts attached with those heritage posts. So I just thought..idk.

oooh I know exactly what you mean, and that’d be such a cool idea! logistically tho idk how it’d work out, because I think you highly overestimate how many people would follow a blog where I just talk and share opinions lol

and I feel like the reason why this blog gets so much interaction is because I have 3 audiences - people here for hall of fame posts, people here for shitpost asks, and people here for both. and a blog that’s just about my opinions might cut out that first audience, and then also make this blog have less content for the second audience…. if that makes sense??

huh but idk, actual question- would anyone follow a blog where I post about my thoughts on hall of fame posts, about Tumblr in general, and (hopefully even more so than here) deranged and cursed asks?? like it’d be fun but idk if anyone would follow it lol

[cryptvokeeper]

So Lauren, what’s that tag you keep filling with shitposts and cow videos?

So a short forever ago @reverseblackholeofwords said they wanted more info about godherd, my current original story idea that has completely taken over my life, and i figured i really should try to explain it cuz like, if i cant that probably means I should rework the story to make a bit more sense to someone outside my orbit of brainrot.

So for the elevator pitch: Godherd follows the journey of Peck, the newest caretaker of a gigantic, colossus-sized Bull known as the Aurochs, revered in a bronze age-inspired world as a god, but that is slowly weakening as civilization establishes itself.

If that sounds interesting and you wanna see the full explanation, or some very very good art I commissioned from the incredible soggedupfrog and comfymoth, see below!

What is Godherd?

The easiest way to start is that the name Godherd is very literal. There are Gods, theyre being herded. The Gods are all roughly based off of animals that early humans formed relationships with, whether they be domesticated, hunted, or otherwise used for resources. And theyre all big. Like, really big. Like more mega than megafauna big. Like shadow of the colossus big. They're animals not only big enough to ride on, but to live on.

One such god is The Aurochs, a giant bull. And living on it is the Oxpecker, the Aurochs' priest of a sort; one part caretaker, one part herdsman, one part human representative of the God to mankind. Each of the different god has their own 'priest' that lives nomadically with it, guiding and protecting it as it travels the world. The story begins when the previous Oxpecker dies, and the Aurochs chooses a new Oxpecker, who goes by Peck for short.

Peck

This is Peck! She has no idea what she's doing!

Peck is the newest Oxpecker, and she is really feeling how big the shoes she's filling are. The Aurochs chose her? Not a wise sage or a priest who's trained at a temple for years, but her, some common kid just barely into adulthood? And sure, she was a cowherd with her family, but those were normal, non-diefic cows, not giant god cows that dont even listen to her half the time! Needless to say she was already gonna be stressed, and that's all without the plot nipping at her heels.

^tfw God is real and right in front of you but is as inscrutable as ever and you’re just trying to keep it alive but it seems determined to just walk into the most stressful situations possible and you are barely an adult (teens, but the life expectancy is like 30 here).

The Plot Shrike

This is Shrike! However bad Peck is doing, she’s doing worse, emotionally speaking.

Practically speaking she’s not doing too bad actually. As the self proclaimed priest for a pack of dieties called the Direwolves, she leads this group of giant wolfdogs into towns and settlements, taking food and killing livestock, and generally just draining the area of resources through overhunting before moving onto the next one. Which like, sucks for them, but she’s doing just fine! Really. It’s fine. She is totally fine and normal and not deeply afraid of her Gods waning in power as they become more domesticated and less wild and lashing out in an effort to grow belief through fear, of course not. Look, she just hunted down and killed a God for hers to devour that’s how normal she is. AND they’re actively hunting down another one, would a not fine person do that???

Wren

Picture to come eventually but… Wren! The most sacrificial lamb of them all.

Yeah so uh, that god Shrike and the Direwolves killed and devoured? That was hers. A mega Megaloceros aka Irish Elk. Very early on Peck comes across her and the Megaloceros’ corpse and it rattles her pretty bad. Really sets the tone for the incoming ‘twilight of the Gods’ that is happening. Wren doesn’t actually do much in the story past that point but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a deep love for her as the one metaphorically haunting the narrative. I mean, she’s been a priestess of the Megaloceros longer than Peck’s even known what one is, she’d trained and studied for it her whole life, and now it’s dead. She did everything right and her god still died. And if it can happen to her, what chance has Peck got?

Finch Fisher

Kingfisher! (Do not listen to Peck his names not Finch. It’s the language barrier.)

Caretaker for the Sailfish and another priest for a God Peck and Aurochs come across in their journey. Like Wren, he’s been doing this much longer than Peck has. Unlike Wren, who probably would’ve been very happy to meet a less experienced priest and give some friendly advice, Fisher is generally annoyed by Peck. Not in a mean way, just in a kinda unimpressed by her way. He does respect her at the end of the day though, and helps her out a bit when they cross paths.

Lark

Lark my beloved. If Fisher and Wren act as foils for Peck, Lark is a foil for Shrike, and they never even meet until the act 2 I havent fully developed yet. Another caretaker for a group of deities rather than an individual, this time a herd of Giant Bison, or Bison latifrons, and another caretaker by choice rather than by duty. But where Shrike is...Shrike, about all that, Lark is very carefree about it. He loves his fuckin job, dude. He is so thrilled to be doing what hes doing and is having a great time doing it. Peck will meet him later in the story and, without spoiling too much, he will give a much-needed perspective about the relationships between the Gods and their civilizations. If this story didn't depend on Peck being mostly solo and never staying in one place very long, she and Lark would probably be best friends.

G█████ E████

Don't worry about it! I'm still figuring out this part!

The World

The world of Godherd takes inspiration from various prehistoric and bronze age cultures. Mainly ancient Mesopotamia and Sumer, but also alot more, which you can probably already see in Shrike. It's a world still in its infancy, with civilization still developing, and that's a big part of the themes of the story.

The Themes

Again, trying not to spoil too much on a project I am still outlining, but major themes I want to focus on include religion/faith, the relationship between humans and nature, and the way cultures develop and change. As I mentioned, the Gods of Godherd are all representations of animals humans have some sort of relationship with. Cattle and Dogs, Fish, Deer and Bison. These animals have been culturally significant, or we have depended on them in some way to provide food, shelter, protection, etc. This reliance on them gave them a sort of sacred status in the world of Godherd, and they never lose that reliance, but through the process of civilization forming that aspect becomes controlled. Animals get penned in, hunted down, domesticated. What happens when you domesticate your deity?

And I cannot stress enough that none of it is out of malice or cruelty on the part of humans, this is not a story about 'humans and industrialization bad domesticating animals is slavery'. This is done out of love. Shrike's fear of the Direwolves weakening isn't because people stopped believing in/worshipping them. The worship itself is what's weakening them. Their love and care sands down those sharp edges and turns something wild and uncontrollable into something tame and known.

And the Direwolves aren't the only ones feeling the effects, they're just the ones who have been affected the longest. We've had domesticated dogs for 30,000 years after all, compared to that domestic cattle are practically new.

There's only one Aurochs. Where's the rest of the herd?

The Vibes/Inspo

Here are some things that i've been drawing inspiration from in terms of storytelling/themes;

Shadow of the Colossus (kinda obvious)

Ghibli films, specifically princess mononoke and Kiki's delivery service, and a teensy bit spirited away

This one specific moringmark comic which kinda kicked off the entire concept tbh

Legend of Zelda BOTW

and WOWIE that got very long and somehow I could STILL talk more abt it thats how passionate I am about this. I want to write a book or a comic script for this eventually but again, im still outlining right now. Hey, maybe i'll finish in time for NaNoWriMo, who knows! Either way I'll update this with any more art I commission (cuz i do plan on commissioning more) and ya know if you ever have questions or wanna know more about my bird blorbos and their giant animal friends i would love to talk about them so... 👉👈

[rnanqo]

how do you keep the momentum going on your original story? i'm impressed and amazed at how often i see a post about something the characters did or about the act you're on now

this is a great question and honestly, treasured online pals who will like my silly posts are so so so important so i am delighted you asked!! but I do wanna break down the motivation/how I keep myself going parts because it took me literal decades to figure out how I work best and take advantage of that

- knowing where the book is going, both storywise and careerwise. the initial idea had a hook and an ending i’m dead set on, so I am constantly writing toward that. I have written so many books where I didn’t have an ending in mind and frankly, ick, blegh, that’s the least successful way for me to write anything. careerwise I’d love for this to be a tradpub debut novel, which means I have to query literary agents, which I have done before, so I know how I need to shape the project and have been tinkering with the query & synopsis on the side, both because doing that helps tighten the story as I go and because I know I hate writing those things after the book is done. basically…plans! I know what work I need to do and i know that I can do it

- also, deadlines! external deadlines are basically the only way I do anything. for the past year and a half I’ve been in a monthly critique group I have to send 5k of writing into every month, and I’m joining a summer novel swap for which I have to have a beta-readable draft by the end of this month. self-imposed deadlines do nothing for me I need to join groups and classes and things

- making tumblr posts about the book and seeing little hearts appear is VERY motivating and I am shaking everyone who’s ever cheered me on in that way gratefully by the hand. yes, you, the person reading this! you help keep me going!! im like tinkerbell if nobody claps i’ll DIE

- momentum does wax and wane though. from mid-March to the end of April I did barely anything on the book because BG3 consumed my brain. but that’s ok!! I felt mildly guilty about it but I find the distractions pass sooner if I just throw myself bodily into them. I’ll always get back to a project eventually

- and the love-of-the-project part. i just love the world and characters I’ve created so much and I like watching them make each other suffer! I’m having fun!!! and I know that that’ll eventually turn into the “I feel nothing for these people and cannot think about them for another second” stage, which is when I will need to take a break and play bg3 for another solid month

- unexpectedly, hozier? the project playlist is like 75% hozier punctuated by a single 3OH!3 song. I do a lot of brainstorming by listening to music on walks/drives and this project imprinted on hozier i guess. thanks hozier!

overall all these things sort of combine into a sense that the book is compelling me to write it, instead of the reverse, which feels like me pulling words out painfully by my fingernails. when I start feeling like I’m dragging the words into existence kicking and screaming, I take a break. obviously nobody’s wholly inspired ALL the time, but I understand how I work and have set things up so there’s always something that spurs me onward. never underestimate the motivational power of being able to shitpost about it

[sburbian-sage]

So the Flesh aspect... Does it like, have a different name if another species gets it? Like, for trolls is it Chitin, cherubs it's Bone, something like that?

Not that I've studied their anatomy much, maybe they both do have flesh I dunno. My point still stands though, what does the game do if it has to deal with a species where it's iconography is incomprehensible to them?

Would a species with no sense of sight still have the light aspect? A species with no hearts still have the Heart aspect?

And don't even get me started on the classes, there's no way that concepts like "Mage" and "Clown" and "Bard" are universal constants or whatever.

Trolls have flesh, it only turns chitinous when they become adults, from what I understand.

Speaking of Trolls, they've provided the answer for this. No, the game doesn't adapt at all. Take Hope for example. It's associated with the Angels. Angels suck ass, because SBURB's Angels are screechy flying worms that turn you into a superpowered fundamentalist whackjob and are part of the game's most annoying quest, but the association between Hope and Angels makes a sort of sense from a human perspective. Or at least, a human-that-has-certainly-heard-of-Christianity perspective. Hope is thematically about rejecting all outcomes you don't desire, so holding out for the best possible outcome, which tracks with the idea of weathering the sinful material world and achieving a state of heaven, which has Angelic connotations. It's also why Hope's symbol is those angelic wings.

Most Trolls however, and I've seen/been told this very consistently, culturally hold Angels to be avatars of death and destruction, not hope and salvation. Now Trolls do have a religious mythos rife with symbolism, of course. Or at least the purple ones do. But it's Clown-based, and all the other Trolls tell me it's mostly a shitpost gone out of hand, and I think even the purplebloods do it out of habit. Lo and behold, Clowns do not replace Angels, or in fact have any significant presence in the game whatsoever, outside of "sometimes someone prototypes something clownish and the entire Session suffers from it because the Underlings get speed-buffed and Jack Noir goes Sovereign Slayer ASAP". So no, the game does personalize and tailor itself to the players in many different ways, but they don't conform to cultural iconography all that much. Outside of that which it appropriates seemingly randomly (the Denizens seem to consistently be named after Greek figures but also the Gnostic Yaldabaoth is here, for some reason, also the Underlings seem drawn from mythology but then there's Liches from D&D, make it all make sense).

Bards are a universal constant though.

[scrufflesksunnide]

I don't know what I'm doing at this hour asking stupid questions (In my country it's very late but it doesn't matter xD).

But it crossed my mind, how did ArtiMonk infect your mind? What is the story for that ship to emerge and be so important to you? I would apply for reversal but today it goes to artimonk.

Last question: Why is artimonk contagious :3?

Have a nice day or night :3!

Boy this is gonna be a long one:

I think it had to do with a request i did a LOOOOOONG while ago. Like my early early phases of Tumblr

At first I just thought the dynamic was cute sounding

Then months later I started thinking about saintmonk and artisaint

And honestly, both are just okay ships to me, will admit divorce in the shipping community kinda just leaves a bad taste in my mouth due to how people handle it. People can handle it actually really good and in a sense to where it doesn't feel like they added it in cuz it's quirky or cute. Point is I thought of those two ships because i really REALLY wanted a ship for Monk since it ain't fair that the other brother gets a babe/man

That was my mindset at the time anyway.

So in the old old relationship chart I had, I made monk have a crush on saint but saint doesn't have the same feelings, and in a scrapped idea I had Arti also have a crush but was actually rejected. Then I had a joke in my head about Arti and Monk dating each other after both got dumped by saint, not due to being petty over it but because they don't have anyone else to love

Artimonk in echos of time was a shitpost... But just like how Survnot was ALSO a shitpost, you can kinda see I grew fond of the idea overtime and it became less of a joke.

Although they are very platonic in the au

I still have a soft spot for Artimonk due to me liking more out there ships but also there's so much more you can find in those two and not just pass off as "just another artisaint"

That and how I characterize Monk being a young adult being belittled and passed off as "just a kid" is really inspired by both how the fandom tends to shove down your throat that "monk is a kid in canon" (correction: USED to shove down your throat. I don't see it as much anymore which honestly, good lmao. This is not to say Kid Monk is BAD, people can have their own ways of viewing the scugs that's perfectly fine! My mine issue was people forcing their beliefs onto others.)

And also how I got belittled sometimes just by my age and people passing off my opinion and how I felt because of it.

Then there's Arti who is more mature, been through a lot, and sees Monk as not a kid but as someone with potential and respects. I like that dynamic of Monk being a guy who wants people to show him respect and have people be proud of him, and Arti be the guy who shows a lot of respect even if not vocal about it and sees a lot of potential in them.

In short, Artimonk is pretty cool like that.

I like how Survnot, Artimonk, Rivsaint, and Spearhunter were inspired by either spite, personal struggle, or something we have in our life. I think that's what I love about ships in this community, they can mean something personal to the people making content for it, of course they don't HAVE to, but you get to see a bit of a person through the ships they make content for and i think that's cool.

That's also why people can get infected by the ship virus due to how people write and make their dynamic between the parties involved in the ship, sometimes it's relatable, sometimes it reaches a desire, etc.

But overall that's enough of that for now, hope this answers the questions!

[torithehoshi]

CCCC Digital Doodle Dump - Oct 2023

Right - bear with me. Due to the sheer amount of digital doodles I have (and yes, I am emphasizing digital for a reason) and the amount of thoughts I have didn't make posting them separately feel right so I'm trying a different format for this.

The TLDR is, I had a lot of fun drawing CCCC related things last month. And y'all may as well be prepared for the long-run with me. My main goal was to get used to drawing HMS in my style (mostly hair and little design things based on my interpretations) and it's still something that'll be changing? But it's cool to see how things have changed and I'd like to share them.

Right - with that out of the way. Everything's under the Read More due to the sheer amount of text.

Second First attempt at drawing the trio in my style - and you can especially tell with the little notes I have (trust me - there's a version with even more notes).

A lot of my references were from the videos, especially Light & Night as well as the instrumental album cover, and fan interpretations I've seen that I liked and wanted to give a shot at (primarily Mind's mechanical hands/arms were from seeing @/maybedr3am's design) and some of my own interpretations or thoughts (but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those mixes with fan interpretations. Most of them I can't recall for the life of me except Heart having sharp teeth. I know others have done it - I just hadn't at the time seen a lot). But for the most part, there is a lot of me getting used to drawing hair specifically since I wanted them all to look somewhat different and it was good to practice that.

Some of these notes do not make sense to me right now - and I doubt they made sense at the time tbh (looking at that one near Soul)

While I much preferred starting primarily going off of the videos, Mind was an exception. ...Accidentally. I struggled really hard with him and still do so that note is funny in hindsight. I liked the robot/android-esque (?) angle/reference to 'mechanical hands' folks went with but forgot I don't draw robots much. It was frustrating me and in that time, I gave him snake bites to, as I say in the notes, mirror screws. ... And now they're just part of my Mind design because I like them too much.

Also!! I mentioned that I have a version with a lot more notes (and a different attempt at Mind I hated). I didn't really want a bunch of doodles of my sona around, so this version is for somewhat easier reading. It also left me with extra space for one more thing and I was listening to Dream so, a doodle based off the last verse it was! (I love that song, it's so good)

Second one which is a compilation of a bunch of different doodle sheets I did!! These are ones I really liked and also were mostly finished. But also each of the sheets (which is an amalgamation of three) were done at different times which you can see in my indecisiveness in what I liked in making Mind look more robotic bar just the arms and the one doodle where the hair sticking a top of Heart's head changes.

Soul, surprisingly, changes very little bar me not being able to decide if he'll have that accessory or not. Also me being stupid inconsistent with remembering to color in his hands (his whole body has that split color).

Anyways - like three of these are meme/shitpost adjacent. You'll also see me trying to think about how to incorporate the crown to Mind's design since I hadn't really tried - but I've since moved it to post-Cacophony or post-Light design ideas/headcanons. I like the hairpin idea a lot. (Note: In this headcanon, Heart also has something but it's a bracelet and... there's a lack of hands in this so... yeah. Mind made it) Also me doing a thing I like to just give random new outfits when drawing a character and... Heart's the one I had the most fun drawing.

The only completely separate one! Mostly 'cause I already had it set to be separate.

It's a height headcanon thing I drew to visualize things for myself since I'm not the best with height. All it is, is that I think they're all the same height based off of what CJ said in the Medium Q&A. But then you have little details like Mind wearing platform shoes that basically make him 6'0" and Soul slouching a lot making him "the shortest". (Also hi completely human Mind design)

This was also originally done on the same doodle sheet where the "Fuck it we ball" one was on btw. Time wise, that was before I started changing how I drew the little hair sticking out on Heart's head which - speaking of...

Despite still drawing them interacting, I started to make clip files to practice drawing them on their own. I was already kind of doing that traditionally and I thought this would be a good way to get me to focus on one of the members. Especially since drawing with my tablet pen and pencil feels different but especially with these three.

Also - focusing on them individually felt like a good way to get used to how I draw them overall. I have one for Soul and Mind now, but not at the time. Idk if I'll share more of those later unless I can format them like actual reference sheets.

Fundamentally, this serves the same purpose as the first sheet. Trying out a bunch of things, just letting my hand... draw and seeing what I like and don't. Maybe even noting some little actions that I see myself drawing them doing (like the hands balled up in fists a lot). Also! It explains why I changed the shape of the hair at the top! I think the heart shape is cute - but as I did it more, I found with me trying to make his bangs look like a heart... just for me and my style specifically, it started to feel much. But then I had another idea in making it a bit more cartoon-y, which was the kind of circle/halo shape to create an angel motif and it fit well with how I see Heart. So that's how it is now!

It's actually fascinating seeing that I suddenly started changing how I drew his hair? I started this after making this for the record (which now I remember - I referenced these), and something just... changed. I don't like it considering I was actively trying to draw curls. I have a better grasp on it now though - I think.

-----

Anyways - that's everything! Uh - thanks for reading all my ramblings if you did. I have no idea if I'll format any future art dumps/doodle dumps like this again but we'll see. Doing this made me notice both advantages and disadvantages to this so... It'll really depend if I have the same amount to say, haha.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 30/01/2024

Trial of the Heart

Season 3 Featured on: Now That's What I Call Quality!

Ripped by ShonicTH

In a few posts on here, such as on Medley Rush #7 and Sidelined Symphony, I've brought up and discussed the idea that certain rippers on SiIvaGunner feel immensely recognizable even without knowing the credits of who made what. A big part of SiIvaGunner's appeal from the start was that this mass output of rips of varying quality was pretty secretive about who was behind what, and only the fans who care enough to download the team's album releases (or check the Wiki) would be made aware of the rippers' identities. I'll wholly admit that, despite being a self-proclaimed SiIvaGunner loremaster, it took me until around the middle of Season 4 Episode 1 to actually begin paying proper attention to all of the behind-the-scenes workings. Even whilst I was in the dark in a lot of ways, though, there were a few names I was still keenly aware of through their notoriety and frequent mentions in the YouTube comments. There was channel founder Chaze the Chat, there were the shitpost legends like BotanicSage, Triple-Q and toonlink - and then, there was ShonicTH.

Out of the two dozen or so rippers that have stayed actively participant in SiIvaGunner since the very early days of Season 1, ShonicTH has always stuck out as particularly memorable to me for a lot of ways. While I comment on l4ureleye's stylistic traits as a ripper, or the various ways that Chaze the Chat would sneak his affection for Maroon 5 into half the projects he worked on, ShonicTH's legacy on the channel is comparatively pretty simple. The dude just loves Kingdom Hearts.

From an absolute onslaught of rips in Season 1 that adds The Flintstones or Snow Halation to music all across the Kingdom Hearts franchise, to his literal sole contribution to the channel in Season 7 being a rip of the exact same nature aptly titled Quickly meeting my yearly quota, ShonicTH's presence on the channel has since way back in Season 1 been immensely identifiable as just "the Kingdom Hearts guy". It reminds me of the rippers like Uncle Fill that I discussed in Violet Sky Memories - the ones where you get the feeling that, they enjoyed contributing to SiIvaGunner just to share their love of the game. And at this point, whenever I see anything Kingdom Hearts related on SiIvaGunner, be it individual rips, the Yoko Shimomura tribute album "Il settimo grande padre", seeing videos in SiIvaGunner's "Liked" playlist relating to the games, or whatever else it may be - it feels like its become a community-known truth that it can all be traced back to Kingdom Hearts.

And for a lot of these rips, particularly ones from Season 1, I don't really have much to say, other than that I'm really glad that ShonicTH is still having a great time doing what he loves for the channel. But in his vast resume of contributions, Trial of the Heart really stands out as a symbol of love above the rest - after two years of making edits to Kingdom Hearts music, it's a fully original composition by ShonicTH himself meant to emulate that very sound. And yeah, it definitely succeeds in its mission statement! Trial of the Heart sounds like an authentic battle theme from the series, althewhile sneaking in small, repeating chord progressions that sound suspiciously like the beginning to The Flintstones theme. Its reminiscent to A Battle of Grand Proportions in that sense, I suppose, as an original composition aiming to feel like a sort of battle theme for the SiIvaGunner channel itself - yet Trial of the Heart makes its one reference to the channel somewhat more subtle, and does mainly feel more like ShonicTH just testing himself on if he's able to make a song in the same style as the games he so loves.

For all the years I've followed SiIva, and for having been very much outside the core community for most of those, its always been sort of...reassuring, I suppose, to know that ShonicTH is still part of the team no matter what. Rain or shine, if there's rips to be made, ShonicTH still wants to contribute to show his love for Kingdom Hearts, and its clear to me that he's a dear friend to many on the team.

It is on the other side of your heart that the memory of this place exists. It is your heart that remembers.

[coridallasmultipass]

Has Dirk ever actually eaten steak?

(TW casual animal death I guess, sorry)

Okay, so this is a total shitpost idea I had last night on Tweeter and I said I'd make it a post here, so I'm following through. Bear with me, because if I jump past my thought process, I'll probably sound like a total maniac for even imagining this.

Let me back up.

I was thinking about Dirk (a normal occurrence). Then I start thinking about Nepeta, since they have the same Aspect. And then I start thinking about Tavros' cat allergies. So then I circle back to Dirk, since Dirk has obviously never seen a cat in person before, and therefore has no built-up immunity to cat dander, and would definitely be hella allergic. (Also, it's been my headcanon since, like, the dawn of time, that Dirk would have a shit immune system when it comes to humans, on account of never being around another person in his life, and he probably gets super sick upon meeting up with people in person for the first time.)

Back to the steak quote. Dirk has obviously never eaten like, actual steak from a cow before. Cows probably don't even exist anymore, outside of maybe a scant few super high elevation places on the other side of the globe. He probably wouldn't be able to digest it well regardless, since he's never had red meat. Dirk says he fishes, and he's obviously got seagulls around, so that's probably also on the menu (besides the super expired canned and dry ration shit left behind), and it's as natural as eating chicken is for everyone else (cough chicken of the sea joke cough), and he assumes that's what chicken is supposed to taste like, which leads to a hilarious spit-take for his first time trying actual chicken.

Moving forward to post-game. We're gonna set this scenario inside a neat little anime beach episode setting where everyone is happy and alive, because that makes it hilarious. Everyone's having a chill day at the beach. The seagulls presumably pester everyone who has a shiny bag of chips in their hands. People are playing volleyball. It's lunch time.

Dirk is looking at the seagulls eyeballing his bag of chips like, "Man, these guys are so dumb, watch this." And he calls a seagull over because he knows how to call them in a way they immediately trust him, and just... kills it quickly, and goes, "Alright, that was easy, let's start the barbecue, guys."

But there's a pall that's fallen over everyone. The beach ball blows past like a tumbleweed. Everyone's* mouth is agape in pure horror.

Dirk looks at the seagull in his hands. And back at the group. And he's like, "This is another one of those things I needed to deprogram, isn't it."

Everyone is whispering like, "What the fuck..." But to make things worse, Jade declares that there needs to be a funeral for the seagull, because literally no one else there is okay with eating it (and no one told Dirk beforehand, but someone already brought store-bought and pre-seasoned chicken for the barbecue, which doesn't make sense to him because it's not even fresh, aren't you supposed to have like a 'catch of the day' type of thing? Someone has to tell him that that only applies to fish, however arbitrary that seems). And Dirk has to stand there, living the most embarrassing moment of his life, keeping his cool, while perfectly good seagull meat is being lowered into the ground. People build a fucking sand castle memorial.

Jade like, gives him a hug like, "It's okay, Dirk, you didn't mean to do it." And Dirk has to bite back a 'Yeah, I kinda did mean it. This is stupid, and if anything, even worse to waste its life for nothing.' But he has enough self-awareness to know when to at least keep his mouth shut to prevent further damage.

He never could get over how weird chicken actually tastes, it's like fluffy and weird and doesn't even fit the theme of a beach party.

*everyone, except Jake and Nepeta/Davepeta, is completely scandalized at the image of Dirk just snapping a seagull's neck like it's nothing. They still wouldn't eat it, but they at least don't think he's a murderer for doing it.

[sapphire-weapon]

Going back and watching the walk-through of re4 OG, I noticed that when they came to the castle right after the village scene, Luis comes by and says he dropped the medicine to stop the process from going further, but he's going back to get it in which Ashley offers to go with him like??? And didn't Leon just said that you were cool not too long ago in the cabin, Ashley??? Leon in the background looking offended.

I'm wondering if Luis on re4r had come instead of being on the cam, would Ashley still had offered to go? But since everyone was basically put on cam instead of being with the group, made me think how'd the relationship between Leon and Ashley would have turned out, would it had been relatively been like the og? Or different? But if that was the case, it seems like Leon and Ashley did get (a-LOT) of time together (unless your speed running the game) and lot of romantic times (platonic my @ss).

The only times you'd rarely see the other cast is whenever Leon is in a bind or wandering, but it's never a lot either. It's like the developer's are saying "Ok, now SWITCH".

Bonus ask: I bet Leon had some ptsd from seeing a overgrown Salamander like in Raccoon City to having seen an alligator. "Oh great not another one" good thing Ashley didn't have to experience that.

THAT ENTIRE SCENE IN OG RE4 IS RE4'S "I know I'm not capable of caring about anyone, but..." MOMENT FOR ME

IT MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE

IT MAKES NO FUCKING GODDAMN SENSE AT ALL AND I CAN'T MAKE IT MAKE SENSE NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY LMAO

I don't think Remake Ashley would've offered to go with Luis, though, because the turning point for her character is the pep talk scene; prior to that, she mostly thinks of herself as dead weight. Like, she's continuously surprised or uncertain when Leon asks her to help him with anything or to do anything on her own, and that doesn't change until after the talk. So, I don't think she'd have the thought in her head that she would've/could've been useful to Luis if that scene took place where that initial comm happens, since that's right after they get inside the castle to begin with.

And even if it happened during the comm that's right after the pep talk, I still don't think Ashley would've felt empowered enough to go without Leon. She still needs moments like throwing the lanterns for him and her entire playable section.

OG Ashley was hotheaded as fuck and didn't take shit from the start LMAO I actually have no idea how Krauser managed to pull off kidnapping her in the first place, because OG Ashley would've maced his ass and kicked him in the balls. I am CONVINCED that the only reason why OG Ashley ever got grabbed by ganados during gameplay is because of how focused she was on not accidentally getting shot by Leon and literally no other reason.

OG Ashley can kill up to three ganados during her gameplay section. Remake Ashley cannot. OG Ashley will fuck you up.

Remake Ashley and Remake Leon needed to be isolated from the rest of the cast because development between them needed to actually happen, because they both started off as very low-key, somber, solitary people who needed to be forced to grow together.

OG Ashley and OG Leon were at 11 all the time and needed to be split up for their own good.

Shipping OG Ashley and OG Leon specifically is actually tons of fun, because those two are the most obnoxious people on the fucking planet who absolutely 100% would prioritize fun in their relationship over everything else.

Like, all of the emotions that run through Leon and Ashley's shared arc in Remake are still present in OG, but the reason why (almost) no one picked up on them back in OG is because both characters were so determined to shitpost through it back and forth because facing their real feelings was too scary.

So, like. While Remake Leon and Ashley are spending an intimate night in together and watching movies and making out on the couch, OG Ashley has climbed through the sunroof on OG Leon's car and is sitting on the actual roof, and Leon's attempts to talk her into coming down have resulted in his hand going right up her skirt, and now she's giving him road head while he desperately tries to think of somewhere he can park the car and not get seen and subsequently arrested.

Like, they're those people. They're that couple.

Fandom back in the day really missed out on a fun fucking dynamic between those two.

I feel like this post really got off track at some point. What were we talking about again?

[hot-take-tournament]

Goncharov shouldn't have been as big a meme as it was. The Goncharov meme is bad, especially for anyone with any unreality issues. Dead serious.

Yeah, you do make a valid point. Unreality memes are fun, but there are people with genuine unreality issues that were affected by the Goncharov trend.

That being said, I do think that a lot of the fan works - art, writing, shitposts, etc. - inspired by that meme were really fun, and clearly took a lot of effort - and the results were super impressive. So I think the fact that it served as a creative outlet for so many people shouldn't be discounted either.

But you're right, it wasn't a great experience for people with those issues with unreality - but my takeaway from that was the importance of content warnings and tagging things properly, not that the meme itself - or just unreality content as a whole - was bad.

I followed the Goncharov tag when it was at its peak, and I constantly saw people begging other users to tag their posts as #unreality - and while plenty of people were doing that, it felt like just as many weren't.

I don't believe for a second that people were seeing those posts and just choosing to ignore them, because one thing I have learned over the past 3-4 years is that the vast majority of people on this website do genuinely care about the wellbeing of others; and I know that for a fact because a) all you guys have been so supportive of me up until now (<3), and b) because I spent so much time in my shithead teen years sending fucking horrific abuse to those same kind, genuine people, and the way everyone rallied around each other against my scumbag ass is a testament to that kindness.

So I think it's far more likely that they simply weren't seeing those posts, and just didn't know that unreality content can be a trigger for some people - because I genuinely didn't either until the Goncharov meme came around and people started talking about it. It's the same way I didn't know until I started this blog that the things I originally wrote in the master post were triggering people's OCD to the point where they had to blacklist the URL.

At the time Goncharov was a thing, a lot of people were saying that people making content for it should've just 'educated themselves' and then they would've known to tag stuff '#unreality', so it was their fault their work was affecting people with unreality issues - but personally I think that just wasn't fair, because honestly you can't know to educate yourself on an issue that you don't even know exists in the first place. You first need to know what it is you don't know before you can actually learn about it and fill that gap.

I have no idea if any of that answered your question because I'm drunk out of my fucking mind, so I don't know if any of this made sense, and I probably won't remember it in the morning - so:

tl;dr - I don't agree that the Goncharov meme was bad, but I think it did highlight the importance of content warnings and tags.

...unless you thought the meme was just unfunny, which is a different issue - that's an entirely subjective opinion, but I can totally respect it. And that's coming from someone who learnt last week that they apparently Goncharov'd themselves on at least three separate occasions, and has yet to fully recover from that revelation.

Anyway, I hope that all made some kind of sense...

...you guys want a poll?

[robo-cryptid]

Do you consider yourself a Yeehan shipper? And if so, why? I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, I’m a relatively new shipper (started playing this year, and other Yeehan shippers directed me to your work), but I’ve seen some of your tweets and in many of them you seem to have more negative things to say about how they make you feel than positive. So I was curious to know your stance on them, and why you keep writing for them. (If this is too invasive, you don’t have to reply)

Also, I really enjoyed Ricochet. It sold the ship to me, basically (but now I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing)..

First off, I'm really glad you liked Ricochet! It's one of the fics I'm still really proud of, and I'm currently in a project with fanartist @showerwhoops and a friend who makes fandom light novels to make it printable with lots of gorgeous art. I mean, mostly I just love collabs and wanna support G's light novel-making hobby, but hopefully other people will find that exciting to know.

With regard to Yeehan, lol, I'm struggling to figure out how to answer this, especially without context for which tweets in particular. The simple answer is yeah, I'm a Yeehan shipper. I love them. I've said it before, but I basically trauma-bonded to them and can't let go. But also I love the themes of redemption and the various forms that can take, and people finding love not when they're young and fresh-faced but when they're jaded and have been through some shit, and seeing two people fight not only to make the world better but to make themselves better people together. I love all of that. It's delicious. I also love writing them as dumb himbos because why the heck not.

I've been in this fandom since 2018. I've written 70+ fics just for Yeehan (plus a few dozen others for the rest of Overwatch), and I'm still writing it. Of my last three art commissions, one was Hanzo and one was Yeehan. I started Yeehan Fic Rec Friday (@yeehanfrf) to help new people find good Yeehan recs sourced from the community, not just one person, and to lift up my fellow writers. All of this is on my twitter, and that's not even getting into all the fan events I've participated in, etc., before this year. So yeah, I'd say I'm a fan, lol.

Unless you're mistaking my shitposting and lovingly mocking the characters for meanness, maybe the negativity you're seeing is when I'm being critical of the fandom itself? In which case... you know, I'm going to take this as an opportunity. And it's gonna get kind of long, so let's go behind a cut.

I can only reiterate that I've been here since 2018. I've seen so much shit, and while some of it has come from "outsiders" (other shippers, people who are sick of Overwatch, etc.), plenty of it has come from my fellow Yeehans too. And while most of my frustration with the Yeehan fandom is on the level of, you know, family that you love but would like to shake some sense into, that doesn't change that it can be frustrating.

Here, an assuredly incomplete list of all the things I've experienced from other Yeehan fans:

I've seen people harassed outright for drawing/writing the "wrong" character bottoming. I've seen literally dozens of nonbinary and transmasc people misgendered and harassed for being "fujoshi" "fetishizinig mlm," because nothing says great justice like blending transphobia and misogyny to attack real people over fictional characters. I've been here for at least 10 different rounds of witch hunts for various fandom "crimes" like people shipping characters with a bad-idea-in-real-life age gap or power imbalance, or even just shipping the same character with multiple people.

I was here when Cassidy's animated short dropped and it took less than an hour to see hate posts about Ashe. And I was also here when fandom retconned the tale of those events to claim Yeehan fans only hate her because some of her fans are shitty, and it can't possibly under any circumstances be misogyny ever. (Which is not saying that some of her fans aren't shitty. It's just that some Yeehan fans are also shitty and in denial about it.)

I've been outright harassed for talking about fandom misogyny, no matter how kitten gentle and "Let's Have a Teaching Moment" I've been about it. I've been harassed for pointing out fandom racism. I've seen a friend get ostracized and harassed much worse for pointing out the same fandom racism and misogyny. And this is, of course, on top of actually seeing and reading racist portrayals of Hanzo and occasionally Cassidy, and seeing and reading constant misogyny (mostly over Ashe, but not exclusive to her) to remind me that men get to have greater interiority and receive more sympathy and get their flaws smoothed over in ways women never do, in fiction and in reality. But hey, don't point any of that out, because fandom is supposed to be a place for escapism, even if those things are making it difficult to escape, yourself! (And then of course I've seen people attacked really harshly over the kind of "they probably genuinely did not know better and it would have been an easy fix if someone just very kindly explained it to them instead of needing to publicly punish them" racism or misogyny.)

I've had someone hold a sustained, months-long campaign of just constantly shit-talking me and low-grade harassing me across multiple Discord servers, and recruiting their friends to do the same, all because I said, "Hey, you've been consistently rude and also triggered me this one time."

I've had anons in my inbox doing everything from demanding I write more to accusing me of pedophilia (or supporting it) for... I don't even know at this point, lol. Because that's a thing people do in fandoms, I guess.

Maybe because I'm prolific or maybe because I actually talk to anons or maybe because I have a follower count above the triple digits, a lot of people have treated me like I'm nothing but a content machine, not a person, which is something I've seen plenty of people do to other artists and writers across fandom. It's crummy. It makes me feel like I don't belong here if I'm not "producing," and even then I'm only tolerated for that, not for, like, my basic humanity (or being funny as hell imho). I've had people attack me over dumb jokes or act like I'm not a "real fan" for them (despite the aforementioned 70+ fics, like I guess those don't count if I make a joke about Cassidy being kind of a douche one time in his animated short).

And anything that's happened to me, I've seen happen to other people. Often worse, actually, because I get far fewer rude comments on my fanfic than several of my friends do, and nobody's misgendering me when they imply I'm a woman, even if they do sometimes erase my queerness.

On the scale of things that are mostly just annoying/stressful and not so much acts of aggression, fandom does this thing where it just freaks out (positive or negative) about something instantly, so I get spoiled on stuff if I don't see it within 15 minutes after it dropped? That's frustrating, especially if the reaction is largely negative, so I'm just, like, absorbing all these bad vibes before I ever get to see the thing for myself.

And then, you know, shipwars. Shipwars are obnoxious. They are exhausting. I do not have time for them. They are also unavoidable these days. Any time I go searching for content, there's someone shitting on Yeehan and someone else stirring the pot by replying to them, and frankly it's just tiresome from all sides. (Besides, I think if you're a fan of the juggernaut ship in a fandom, you've gotta chill and recognize people will find you annoying, then go comfort yourself with your near-daily fanarts and over 6,000 fics. This doesn't mean they're allowed to be absolutely garbage monsters and harass people. Like I'm not pretending Yeehan fans are the only people capable of sucking, lol. They aren't! Online harassment is shitty at all times! But if all they're saying is, "Why does Yeehan get so much attention? I hate it," you can just ignore them, mute them, block them, whatever you gotta do.)

In general, I'm often critical of fandom, especially my corner of it, mostly because I'm a social scientist by training so observing groups of people is what I do. Like genuinely, I enjoy holding the world around me under a microscope. But also in terms of reach and efficacy, I'm more interested in "cleaning up my own backyard," so to speak, than arguing with people who wouldn't listen to me anyway (Yeehan antis in this case, I guess). So when I turn the "negative" lens on, it's of course going to be aimed at the community I'm most embedded in. It doesn't mean people outside of Yeehan are better or worse people; they're just not the ones I'm exposed to constantly, lol.

But also, as many bad things as this sounds like, I've actually mostly enjoyed my time in this fandom. I've made a ton of friends here, people I adore and respect and am so, so grateful to have in my life. I've gotten to be part of some really cool projects. I've been lucky enough to experience the absolute joy of knowing people like something that I've made, of getting to make stuff for people, of people telling me I inspired them to make things. All of those are really special, wonderful things that places like fandom cultivate, and I love that part so much that it makes me feel gooey and self-conscious about trying to articulate it.

Anyway. I'm sure the actual question you asked got answered in the paragraphs above the cut, but just in case it didn't, it was nice to be able to just say all the things anyway. You're new here. I hope you enjoy all the fun parts and don't get bogged down by the crummy ones. Also you should definitely check out the @yeehanfrf rec lists if you haven't.

[m0llystars]

Hey Molly! I wanted to ask, what’s been your creative process on THE_DEVICE.THEORY videos?

Did you find yourself writing portions of the later parts as you write an early one?

Do you “choreograph” the visually components primarily during the scriptwriting or editing side of things? (Especially the “jumpscares” and other spooky bits”

Is there anything else fun or notable about the way you’ve made the series thus far that’d you’re able to share at the time?

Also have a good day thanks :3

thank you smm!!!!

the process for TDT so far has been pretty much just carrying the entire project across each phase and only moving on to the next one once the current one was done. so, i first started with getting as many of the essential assets as i needed (playthrough footage, necessary screenshots, other videos, etc), and then i spent time doing Just the script writing as i was getting those assets, and once the script was done, i spent roughly a month (most of march) doing the audio for parts 1-3, and now i'm more or less in the editing phase of all of those parts.

some of the visual components were definitely planned in the script, like the transition to the SWEEPSTAKES portion, for instance, while not *fully* figured out, i knew the general idea for that transition, and other stuff definitely was written with a sense of "i know how i want this to look in the video". some of it isn't even written as much as it's just like, vivid ideas of how i think it should look. although, there's moments like the intermission segment, where, that was completely spur of the moment and i didn't even think to do until i pretty much got to that point in editing the video and it suddenly just clicked for me JKLJKLDGH

i've definitely learned an awful lot from working on TDT so far. modeling it to be intended as both just one Very Big Video and also as a multi-parter, and the super large-scope nature of it, has taught me a lot of fun stuff about what kind of style i want to actually go for in my videos, and i feel like as i finish each part especially, it only becomes more set in stone what kind of vibe i really wanna go for.

admittedly, though, my initial plan to just do all of the audio and never worry about it again before editing has kinda gone through some changes for part 3 specifically ^^;; a reason why i know it'll take a good bit before i really get to being anywhere close to "finishing" that one is just that there's so much stuff in the picture now that wasn't there when i had written the initial script and done the initial audio all of those months ago. i'd definitely like to redo or add stuff to it first before i edit it so that it's completely and utterly up to date with how i actually feel about some of the game's bigger mysteries. but, that's for near future me to worry about ...

aside from that, this series has definitely also solidified a sort of "model" i'd like to follow for when i do bigger videos. it feels like i have much more of a format for how i want to roll out videos of this kind, and i think the main thing has honestly just been that i feel like i've found much more of my own place in the "video essay" space so to speak JKLDHJKL i get a lot of fun out of the things i realize and wanna add to the video as i go along, and the moments where i have some kind of Fit and just lose it with the shitposting and unhinged graphics i end up making to visualize my temporary descent into madness. a lot of the fun for me is in the stuff that happens in the heat of it, i suppose KLDGHGHJ

[seeingteacupsindragons]

In your opinion, what are the most basics of basics to look for when analysing a piece of media (be it visual or written)? In other words, what's your framework for analysis, and how do you flesh out your interpretation of a work? (By the way, your blog posts are wonderful and informative and I for one am happy to read them, regardless of the length.)

Thanks, Anon! I'm hoping this one will be worth the read to...anyone. And it's taking way longer than expected, so hopefully in that regard, too.

Now this question.

This is interesting, because I don’t think what I do to start is necessarily the best way for a beginner to start, for a lot of reasons, some related to my own personality and some related to the fact that I have just been doing this for a long time now. That is, I’m not sure the way I start framing things to myself is really dedicated to the basics—I think a lot of people with experience in something are kind of that way. At some point, the basics become second nature.

Analyzing a piece of media really starts with critical thinking and critical close reading. And while these are important skills, they’re not skills everyone has or everyone is taught. I don’t know if I would even know how to teach these properly, but I do hope that my blog posts giving advice, analyzing things, laying out my thought processes and evidence as it were, is helpful in that regard. Especially when we’re talking about something maybe a little sillier and more accessible than things you might read in school. Enjoyment is an important part of getting good at anything.

So first, you start with what’s actually in the text (“text” here referring to the actual material contained in the piece of media). It will be easy to connect it to other things in other media you’ve seen or your own ideas because humans are pattern-seekers, but it’s really important to try to discard a lot of that, especially when you’re getting started.

The text is the text, and while it’s definitely going to get connected to other media and culture because no text can stand on its own, beginners especially and people who aren’t being careful will draw lines that aren’t necessarily strong, good, or accurate, just because It Seemed Right at the time. And then they might get attached to something pretty wrong.

This is a thing that happens. Finding good connections and comparisons, finding meaning in things, takes a lot of practice and experience and exposure to different kinds of things. But it’s very important that those connections are rooted in something in the text, that there’s a real reason for something. That it makes sense in context of the work itself.

…Kind of. This obviously doesn’t apply to the kind of fun reinterpretive fan work that isn’t actually trying to say what a piece of media says. Like. It just does not matter if fanfiction or fanart or shitposts or whatever are rooted in canon. Some people (me) prefer that, some people don’t, and it doesn’t really matter. But if you’re trying to read and analyze something, it’s important that the text is the focus. All of those connections that get drawn? Those are interpretations. Those are analysis.

And some interpretations and analyses are just. Stronger than others. Some are simpler. If I say William is blond, that’s an interpretation based on what the word “Blond” means (to most English speakers, blond would be something like “having hair with a yellowish tone”, but even just slightly adjusting that definition can include or exclude a lot of things). It depends on my determination of what color William’s hair is (not all cultures or people will draw the lines between colors the same way, as they all actually blend together in a spectrum and lines between the definitions are arbitrary). But me saying William is blond is an interpretation that…well…I think…just about everyone who speaks English would agree with.

This wouldn’t be an interpretation if, say, a character explicitly said, “William, the blond man—” because then it would be a thing in the text. But because William’s hair is a visual cue, turning it into words is an adaptive, interpretive action. So it’s important also to remember some interpretation is happening just because humans need it to communicate anything.

And remember, too, that sometimes multiple interpretations are valid. Me saying, “William is a redhead,” is…uh, not a valid interpretation. But if William happened to be strawberry blond (he is not), that probably would be.

There are multiple lenses to view things through, and there’s often multiple things a piece in canon could mean. You know how some people have told me they really like how I try to cover multiple angles of a topic? That’s because a lot of them are valid, even if I have specific ones I’m more attached to and believe in more. My preferring one interpretation doesn’t make another wrong. The interpretation not being rooted in the text makes it wrong. The interpretation being connected to something else that’s misinterpreted makes it wrong.

So. Start with what’s in the text. Try to look at it as clear-eyed and clear-headed as you can before trying to figure out what it means.

And that brings me to how I start my framework for meta: I actually really need a thesis statement. I need a point. I need something I am trying to say. Mentioning a list of things that happen, or a list of symbols connected to a thing just…doesn’t do it for me. I don’t see the point.

This is hilariously not at all how I write fiction, but shh. This is why I have notes and notes for meta, and why I go off the cuff with so many long meta posts based on asks that give me something to focus on.

But my analysis posts tend to be about, “This is how this piece of media uses this trope, compared to how it’s used in other media,” or, “Here is an interesting way that this media decided to convey this specific thing!” or, “Here is a really interesting theme in this media and all the ways it comes up.” I need to know what I’m saying before I can really do anything. I need to know what my topic statement is. I need a thesis.

Now, this works for me because I am very good and realizing these theses at least sort of accurately from the start. But it also works because I have a number  of posts saved on my computer that will never be posted because as I wrote them, I realized I was just plain wrong, or couldn’t really back up what I was saying, or the argument seemed weak to me, or I didn’t really end up having a point.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t want to embarrass myself by posting that, nor do I want to really share a bunch of bad and weak argumentation with people who might buy into it. I am good at setting things aside and I try to be good at realizing I’m wrong. I have practice doing this and analyzing my own writing to be able to do this. I appreciate corrections most of the time, and I try to edit posts when I fuck up.

A lot of beginners might get caught up in the “I did a thing! I wrote it! Let’s share and convince myself it’s great!” because that’s what excited beginners do. Which is fine. You have to be bad at things to get better at things. But it’s also good to learn how to filter your own wheat and chaff.

As for how I flesh out my analysis ideas: well, I think about the thing I’m analyzing as a creator and a writer myself. I prefer a genetic approach to literary criticism (note: this is apparently harder to google than I anticipated, having learned it in university, so: a genetic literary criticism angle is one focused on the author and their intent and process), and I really like to consider what the author was trying to do and how well it worked and why they might have done a thing. What their cultural context is and who they are. What they probably didn’t consider. Those are angles that really fascinate me, and I find them most useful, because it’s helpful for me to grow as my own writer.

And, I really like character stuff and thematic stuff because it’s my favorite things to write. I’m trying to get better about writing things about pacing, structure, etc. because I’d like to focus on it more myself.

Annnnd now I have written over 1k words about how to approach this, but it’s something I’ve been doing for a long time! It’s something I studied how to do in college! It’s something I think about a lot!

I have a lot of thoughts!

[vanillahub]

2, 3 & 17

@commandsir

Munday Asks: Salt Edition [Accepting]

2. What are your unpopular opinion(s) of the fandom you’re rping in?

// SW fans learn the difference between forcing something onto you, and someone just stating an opinion. You're not a bigger fan for preferring one version of the canon over another, and same thing goes to the lesser of a fan argument. And don't even get me started on the whole crusade about "morality in fiction". Nobody is more morally righteous for watching the latest shows, or not.

The holy grail that we call source material is nothing more than a, collection of answers to the questions you may have. Disney's SW and Legends' come with their own different sets of answers. Trying to intimidate someone from enjoying one thing, is such a low move. And to me it tells me that many people, likely feel SO insecure about their beliefs/HCs/takes. That they feel like they have to act this way, in an attempt to "protect" themselves.

As an adult that's approaching her 30s, I've been far more drawn towards the more mature version of SW. I haven't been getting the most satisfactory answers from the new canon, and as such, I'll keep turning to Legends. At the same time, I don't treat the old Legends stuff as the holy bible, it isn't. I don't like everything about it, in the same way I also enjoy some changes brought by the new canon.

3. What rp trends are you so over and can’t wait for it to die?

// Can we just go back to calling ourselves RP blogs? The whole shtick of 'This blog is a study of: X, Y, Z subjects that the RPer thinks it makes them look big brained for knowing uwu' doesn't look good, and imo it looks 1000x worse when the blog has little to no IC/character building done, and it is nothing but shitposts or generic aesthetics/musings.

It just makes the people behind those blogs come off as unnecessarily pompous. Especially when it is blatantly obvious, they don't know what they are talking about, because they are applying concepts/ideas wrongly in their fundamentals.

And I'm going to say it: anyone trying to pass that off as 'a joke' or how 'it wasn't meant to be taken seriously uwu' are just coping, because they likely realised how silly it all looks and sounds, but they convinced themselves this is better.

17. What are your opinions when someone makes negative posts constantly on their rp blog?

// I've had to deal with people like that many times in the past, and I've learned that it is best to just avoid those people. They are draining in every sense of the word, and my experience/time in communities has largerly improved, since I started filtering those people out.

To me, negativity can come in various forms.

There are obviously the people who are heavily tied to discourse, who are simply unable to drop a subject and move on, and they made hating a character/subject/part of a franchise's source material part of their personality. There are also people who overshare, every little bad thing that happened to them, and dump onto their mutuals/followers super personal shit that was never meant to be publicized. And they do that not out of malice in most cases, but because they are seeking out coddling and comfort in social media engagement (If anyone hits this point, they NEED to seek professional help.). And there are also people who are just unable to keep shit to themselves, or lack a circle of friends, to comment on every little thing others are doing. You know, the people who go 'oh ew. Imagine shipping/liking X Y stuff' or 'Oh what did I do? Why did I lose a follower? >:('. Now this is just vagueposting, which is targeting someone.

And before anyone tries to point fingers at me because, I support people doing whatever they want in their blogs. I also equally support people improving their online experience, and leave if they feel like they've had enough of something.