#some of these require context and some are funnier without it

[icedhockey]

hockey players + quotes i think about daily [1/?]

[kindan-no-kanojo]

𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐌 / 𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒

Thanks for the tag @bluebird-dolly-bride ! I'll tag @lilies-and-forget-me-nots @mino-diabolik @mukami-kuron-mrsadisticcat @ariadnasdiary & @starry-nocturne!

Did they believe in Santa?

Scarlett does believe in Santa, in present tense lmao. It was something she grew up believing (though maybe under another name instead of 'Santa'), it got enforced during her time with Rhiannon and she never got to know the truth. Nowadays, though, if you were to tell her she wouldn't believe you, and if you tell her that it's the parents' doing she'd probably snap in orphan 😭

Were they a dinosaur or rock kid?

If I had to guess, maybe a rock kid (?), for the collector aspect. She collects tiny things in the present, so it'd make sense that she started with interesting rocks.

Bugs or slimy critters?

Bugs, especially if tiny. You can find her admiring butterflies or ladybugs, maybe also bees or caterpillars. It gets funnier when she has a spider walking across her hand and the other person freaks out because she's insane (and they'd be right 😭).

Do they fidget? How?

Not much. Scarlett might fidget with the fabric of her clothes or with her gloves when she's nervous or awkward, and play with her hair if she's thoughtful or interested (on someone or something).

What were they frequently in trouble for as a child?

Fighting other kids lmao. Especially when they'd borrow something of hers without asking, or didn't let her play the piano of the house. She was raised amongst other orphan kids in a very chaotic environment with few limits, so she was a very explosive child that would yell or throw tantrums if something didn't sit right with her, which, of course, brought her isolation punishments and hostility from everyone around her. Habits like these got milder as she grew up, but never completely left, as you may notice 💀

What underwear do they like?

Scarlett simply wears some comfortable cotton underwear of a solid color, like black, with some details in another color. She likes wearing lingerie but only in special occasions that would require her to show it. She likes to wear thigh-high socks or stockings almost daily though, so she uses garters daily too cuz Thighs™.

Designs on clothing or no?

Most her clothing is monochromatic, aside from her corsets. So, no.

Birthmarks?

No, only a mole/beauty mark on her right shoulder.

Do they have good self-control?

Sort of. You will know when she's angry, she will speak up if something made her upset. But only in specific situations she'd let the situation escalate; like some things she strongly believes in go beyond her need to keep composure and some others hit her so hard or catch her so off-guard that she'd throw everything out the window to express herself, either with anger... or excitement! She feels violently, but context matters.

Applied to her Ghoulism, she learned self-control for her sake (and others'), but it can't be pushed too far. She can be chill around blood or drink it under circumstances, but if nothing stops her once she got a taste or if she did it out of anger, she will keep going. And going. And going. And going. And before you notice she ate you. LOL

Do they re-enact scenarios in the shower?

If anything, it'd be reflection what she'd do in her alone times if something feels off, lots of thinking and finding solutions to existential problems. But also, if something good happened to her she'd think about it a lot, and her thoughts would make plans to make it happen again, driven by the nice time she had. And she'd most likely daydream a lot more if she's in love/in a relationship 🤭

Do they tell the waiter that their order is wrong?

Yes, and would do it for her date if they are too shy do do it themselves (she just wouldn't go out alone, lol). If they cooperate it won't be that terrible, if they don't... well. Unless it's meat, she would eat it anyway and make sure they will listen to her afterwards and regret not have listened earlier 😭

Stairs or elevator?

Stairs. She wouldn't purposefully take an elevator. Not out of fear, rather distrust because technological box of teleportation?!?!?!

Are they an exaggerator when telling stories?

No, but she can be uncannily detailed. Due to her hyperthymesia, she recalls all events perfectly, and that's how she can tell them. Because of that, she'd try to reduce it to the important basics to save time, no one needs to know what the weather was like in 1845 or how her breakfast tasted 36 years ago. It can be funny though, but ultimately she'd cut it short, overlooking whatever the situation made her feel but maybe adding her thoughts on the event afterwards?

She'd be a great witness in trials though.

[ante--meridiem]

......Reviews are in I guess?

[heterophobiclanwangji]

Stupid Sexy Shizun

(an unnecessarily long post about Shen QIngqiu, romantic storylines, and dangerous fanon)

I see a lot of varying characterizations for Shen Qingqiu, especially vis a vis his allure to the other (typically male) members of the cast. Frankly, I do think the entire thing is funnier if a lot of people are in love with Shen Qingqiu, who only really recognizes Luo Binghe (and even then only after nearly apocalyptic levels of drama), and I’m willing to believe that he is unwittingly attractive for the following reasons:

he unintentionally falls into suggestive situations (the Skinner incident with the immortal binding cables, the Huan Hua Palace Water Dungeon, also with immortal binding cables For Some Reason, the succubus incident with Liu Qingge, etc.)

he may fall into improper/informal forms of address (for example, calling Binghe by name the first time they meet, rather than Luo Binghe or any of the previous Shen Qingqiu’s, er, nicknames)

he doesn’t always understand physical boundaries the same way as other characters (yikes @ the scene in one of the extras where he gives Binghe spiritual energy via skin-to-skin contact and fails to understand how/why that would be inappropriate, and potentially the situation with Liu Qingge cleansing his meridians, although I have reservations about that)

he tends to objectify people, which makes more sense when you realize he’s evaluating them based on his understanding of their characters and function in the original plot and cataloging differences, but reads differently to people who don’t have that context (which is almost everyone) (he makes internal comments about how hot a lot of the characters are, and I feel like he stares at people, but I can’t remember a specific incident for this; in conversations, it comes up in lines like “even if something bad happens, it won’t happen to you,” or “I knew you would definitely win,” both spoken to Binghe--at this point Shen Qingqiu doesn’t know Binghe very well and still sees him as The Protagonist, but to Binghe they just seem like heartwarming moments of security and belief)

he has trouble enforcing platonic guidelines to his relationships due to his fundamental belief that no one would find him attractive, be it romantically or sexually, and therefore sees no reason to draw that distinction (not going to cite specific incidences for this, it’s more of a recurring combination of his low self-esteem and lack of self-awareness, which I may talk about later in another post).

however, some reasons I have seen in fandom that do not seem likely based on my understanding of the plot and characters (although I will be the first to admit that I do not remember every single detail of the novel or extras, and that Shen Qingqiu is not the most reliable narrator to start with) are as follows:

fan language (technically possible, no indications given in canon, and you cannot convince me that Mr. I-Named-This-Poison-With-No-Cure-Without-A-Cure, Great God Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had the patience and wherewithal to research or create a comprehensive fan language)

owning and using slutty, slutty inner robes (this would require the cutthroat, inscrutable original Shen Qingqiu to own such robes in the first place, I don’t remember any canonical references to improper dress aside from instances where he has been disrobed--the Skinner incident, Huan Hua Palace Water Dungeon, and his QingSi treatment--, and Shen Qingqiu has a healthy paranoia about governing his appearances so people won’t realize he isn’t the original goods; yes, the Peak Lords suspect him of being possessed anyway, but to my knowledge their reasons centered around his personability and investment in his students rather than robes or hair ornamentation)

eating suggestive foods (this one is slightly debatable. again, he doesn’t see himself as someone people would find attractive, so I can’t discount the idea that he would inadvertently eat something in a suggestive manner. however, I saw someone have him request dishes involving aphrodisiacs, and I was like, WACK. He probably had a cataloged index of the different weird plants and monsters of PIDW before his transmigration and ranted excessively in the comments about all of the pointless precursors to papapa, up to and including creating different plants/animal organs that have the same or better effects and then yelled at Airplane for not keeping better track of his own inventions. This is the guy who saw Liu Qingge under the effects of succubus poison or whatever and immediately knocked him into a cold bath. you won’t catch him slipping that easily)

enabling Binghe to get away with suggestive/improper and sexualized behavior while he was still a teenaged disciple. I think this one really gets to me because that narrative of the virginal innocent Shizun and his perverted disciple is the exact view that the outside world has of their dynamic, as represented by the fragments of The Resentment of Chunshan that we see in the extras. People see Binghe as a depraved monster (he is a demon, after all) and make insinuations about his treatment of Shen Qingqiu’s corpse during the five years between his death and resurrection. For contrast, the crux of the novel is Shen Qingqiu realizing that Binghe is hurt and insecure and desperately begging to be loved. In the extras he even goes through some of Binghe’s memories and remarks about how, contrary to rumor, all Binghe did was keep his body from rotting while he searched for ways to revive him. I won’t say that Binghe wasn’t a teenage boy and never did what teenage boys do, but the extras showed us that Binghe would rather throw himself into a cold lake than act inappropriately towards his Shizun, and I can’t remember him making any sexual advances until after Shen Qingqiu came back to life. In canon, Binghe is ill-informed and generally bad at sex, which doesn’t speak to me like someone who was just waiting for the right moment to strike.

I will read a hundred fics about Shen Qingqiu inadvertently causing people to fall in love with him, but a lot of fanworks try to make it about a physical allure rather than his personality and the ways in which he feels comfortable interacting with other people. People respond to his kindness and his feelings of duty and honor, and it makes me feel cheated to see interpretations downplay characteristics of his actual personality, especially when it degrades the characters around him, too. Yue Qingyuan feels protective of him but generally listens when Shen Qingqiu tells him not to draw his sword, and in canon he gave Shen Qingqiu enough space that he was surprised by the extent of his grief when Binghe was in the Endless Abyss. Liu Qingge is also protective of Shen Qingqiu and is involved in getting Shen Qingqiu’s promise to remain with Cang Qiong Mountain Sect before the Maigu Ridge incident, but doesn’t stop him from leaving when he decides to go. Binghe makes some questionable choices, but his anger and insecurity are understandable even without the rampant communication failures and the influence of Xin Mo, and the end of the novel shows that Luo Binghe is willing to leave if that’s what Shen Qingqiu wants.

Sometimes fan interpretations get really intense about this, as if Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge, and Luo Binghe would catfight over Shen Qingqiu. Granted, Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe are willing to throw down at any given time, but the main romantic development comes from Shen Qingqiu treating other people with respect and receiving respect in return. While people do try to influence Shen QIngqiu’s decisions, the ultimate choice is his own.

One of the points of the novel is that people matter and their choices affect not only themselves but the people around them. I don’t care if Shen Qingqiu is some kind of accidental sex god, because his choices and especially his decision to care about other people give Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge, and Luo Binghe each something they didn’t have in the original storyline: Yue Qingyuan gets a chance to explain himself and his failures, and is relieved of his burden of caring for Shen Qingqiu; Liu Qingge gets to live and see his little sister grow up; and Luo Binghe gets to be loved and cared for.

As for Shen Qingqiu, he got to choose his own happy ending.

[oldmanatom]

wrote a whole long post about how i “did” “NaNo,” thought i saved it to my drafts, came to post it tonight and it’s not there. that’s genuinely a bummer since i had other Thoughts™ baked into it, but i’ll take it as an opportunity to write a second draft version instead, now that i have my thoughts more together:

my version of NaNo, much like my version last year, was just to hit a word count goal with whatever writing i could scrape together. this year i set the goal lower than last year, and actually more or less hit it, which was cool and tbh surprising.

i’ve been resistant to writing to hit a word count in the past—seemed like an easy way to psych myself out, plus how i write (jumping all around the story/page/doc) makes keeping track of word counts annoying at best, challenging at worst—but succeeding last month made it far more appealing. i’m going to try and hit it again this month, to see if it might be a good way to keep myself on the writing...treadmill? hike? grind? [insert relevant metaphor here].

for the first time in literally (literally!) years, i’ve completed a first draft of something. it’s objectively not very good, and will need a lot of work—i didn’t know what the hell i was doing for 50% of it, and once i figured out what i was trying to do i didn’t know how to do it for the other 50%, and it took me basically the entire month to put it together brick by brick, so what i have now is about as scattered as you’d expect from that process—but it’s done, which means i can actually do that work and make those edits with a holistic view on what i’m working with, instead of, like, trying to fix the foundation as i’m also trying to build the frame and hang the drywall, so to speak.

thinking also about this post, and about that Terry Pratchett quote about how the first draft is just you telling yourself the story, and about how impossible it is to know and see everything there is to know and see about my story on the very first pass. this idea—that something being done is better than it being good when it comes to first drafts—is something that’s both obvious and easy to understand, and yet has taken me years to realize and more years to actually implement.

why? lots of reasons. one of them: i get stuck in write-edit cycles—write something, go back and edit it, write more, edit that and edit the other part to fit in with the new part, write more, etc etc. it’s a momentum killer. if i do that, i finish nothing, as i’ve proven over and over again over the years as i’ve started a million things and followed through on exactly none of them. trying to break myself of this habit has been a struggle, and mostly i lose, but i’m losing less often and less extensively than i was at the beginning, which i’ll take.

why care about this? lots of reasons. one of them: i am extraordinarily tired of looking at my folders full of bits and pieces stuck in Google docs that get forgotten about and left to collect virtual dust. they might be “good,” but i’m not satisfied with just writing them and letting them sit and do nothing, like some sort of dragon’s hoard of words. i am, regardless of how i feel moment to moment, a decent writer; if nothing else, i’m writing things that i like to read, and that i’d like others to read; i should find a way to bridge the gap and finish these off into something i can share.

(feeling like nothing’s ever done enough to share is its own point which i’m still trying to figure out, and which might be the next meta “thing” i tackle on the first edit/second draft of this piece. how much can one oneshot teach me? is it wise to make this into The Little Story That Could? i guess we’ll find out.)

one thing i’ve been learning as i’ve been trying to put this idea into practice, which will absolutely sound sappy but keeps proving itself true: my story’s going to teach me as i go. it’s going to tell me what needs to happen with the plot and characters and everything else, and it’s going to do that regardless of whether or not i have a 19 page scene-by-scene outline or a conversation i like, an image in my head of the scene, and a vague idea of what i want to happen next. and, whatever i miss on the first round i can pick up and work on in the next rounds. but it only teaches me if i keep writing it, unfortunately.

basically: it doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be done. that’s it. that’s the only requirement of a first draft: that it be complete. just keep writing until the damn thing’s finished. polish comes second. i keep repeating this like a fucking mantra, like something you’d chant to yourself to get through a root canal or the last hour of a truly terrible shift, and honestly that’s what it feels like half the time, but it worked once, so who’s to say it won’t work again.

i think there was a third point in my original post, but i can’t remember it so i guess it can’t be that important. i’ll end with a few quotes from this past month of NaNo, entirely from that draft, which is partly because that was 80-90% of my writing this past month and partly because the other 10-20% is stuff that i’m likely going to be posting soon (yes, i do have plans to post something soon, sorry @ my poor neglected writing sideblog). without context, because i think that’s funnier—

1.

To your eternal shame, you can't actually manage to look up at the woman you know is standing in the doorway, one sandaled foot through the threshold and leaning heavily on the Death First to Solicitors and Thieves doormat. Instead, you glance partway over and see weak, yellowish light spill out from inside, cascade over the porch steps, and reach with dim and blunted fingers out towards her soaked half yard. You trace the watery edges of it with your eyes instead of looking at her, and it's a coward's move but that relief is back again, so.

"Harrow?" she says, barely audible over the pounding water around you.

You remember, then, when you told her ages ago that her vintage standing lamp needed its bulb replaced and the two of you had gotten into a nice little row over well, it's not dead yet, now is it, and where the hell am I supposed to find another weird filament bulb like that, and who exactly decided to get the damn antique showpiece thing anyways. It's entirely unsurprising that after all these years it's still the same almost-flickering bulb stuck in it, that it's somehow still alive and managing to bleed light out onto this miserable scene.

2.

Being shorn down to your shirts and jeans and socks makes you wrap your arms around yourself again. No longer having five pounds of wet denim on your shoulders lets your body remember what warmth is, and more importantly reminds you that you have none, and so what had been a vague shaking for the last hour turns into full-on shivering, teeth clacking and everything. You ask, not for the first time, for some reasonable God to show you mercy and cut you down.

Instead, Ianthe covers her smile half with her hand and says, "Oh, look at you, Harry, you poor thing. Soaking wet and I didn't even have a hand in it."

"Shut up," you try to say, but your chattering teeth and jaw make it come out more like "s-s-s-hhhht 'p," and Ianthe doesn't react regardless, just shakes her head and throws you another towel.

3.

"Harrow, please. It's late and I've never been fond of your insistence on bullshitting when I have your back against a wall. Besides, ending up huddled on my porch in the worst storm of the year is a little much, even for—"

"Even for me," you interrupt, "as though I was the one who slept in front of our front door for three nights so that I wouldn't 'run out on you with the rent' after you lost an argument."

The corner of Ianthe's mouth twitches, but it's the only slip of her otherwise curious, focused expression. "To be fair, it was an argument about the rent."

[dontcallmecarrie]

Meme anon here, so I am stuck in being a perfectionist and trying to find the right meme/pic to use (with proper credit where it is due) or to make for myself so i am right now just going to send overall descriptions in 4 different asks if that is okay. Just to get the overall idea/theme of the memes (since they deal with Phase 3 and such. Here goes nothing... (1/5)

(2/5) HAL and Skynet memes. I'm actually working on MAKING them, OMG! It's kinda fun actually.

(3/5) The picture where Tony announces at the Press Conference (tm) that he was Iron Man. Then Text Post/meme. Or various pictures of Tony in the suit. THEN meme. (Sorry if any of these were not what you were/are expecting.)

(4/5) Use stuff inside your TWIFFON au, such as using the S.W.O.R.D. Logo that you have and make memes using that. (Just a thought.) Or pretend/fake images for the Fashion Week Fiasco or the Relay Race (if that was hypothetically photographed in your au.)

(5/5) And for the last meme ideas/descriptions: Pictures of the world/Earth with the initials of SI or the SWORD Logo ghostly photoshopped on top/behind it, with then the meme idea. Or just the planet with the meme (something ominous but funny). I got some HAL memes already made. They're not perfect but they're done. Still working on some of the others (not the SWORD logo, that I'm leaving alone) Please let me know your thoughts. Too far? Not quite what you're looking for? This has been fun!

.

...oh boy. Friend, some of these memes are actually edging into spoiler territory, because of Reasons. 

Under the bolded part for those who don't want spoilers, because the more I think about it the more likely I am to ramble and the memes are actually a very important plot point in TWiFFON, no matter how ridiculous that sounds without context.

Also: in regards the memes you’ve mentioned, I get the feeling some of them would probably be SI-only. For instance, while the Fashion Week Fiasco made headlines, other incidents [cough cough, the Relay Race] are the sort of thing that stays in-house. Kinda like Legal’s jokes about world domination, now that I think about it. 

The spoilery territory comes with the memes that might involve the world, though, for multiple reasons.

See, after the Civil War arc, there’s going to be a few others to go: the fallout of Civil War, the Final Battle, and the Realization.

Specifically, after the Civil War arc, there’s going to be another timeskip as Tony acutely feels the crunch of ‘oh shit the Avengers aren’t an option to protect the planet anymore, it’s literally just me, oh fuck’.

When he feels this crunch, he’s not going to pull his punches intellectually— by which I mean he’s going to delve into morally dubious stuff, and the other side of the Merchant of Death takes center stage as he brainstorms potential defense after defense for Earth. Here’s the thing: when I say ‘morally dubious’, I mean ‘he’s going to wish he could afford to drink something stronger than coffee’ because he’s going to go over SHIELD’s shadier research, notes of the tech found after New York, everything JARVIS found via scouring the dark web, you name it. 

Even more specifically, remember that energy shield that protected the portal device in the first Avengers movie? Remember how it was borderline impossible for anyone to get past it? 

Yeah, Tony’s going to do something like that. But for the entire planet. 

An immense network of satellites and what-have-you, spanning the entire globe. 

[it’s not exactly original since I got the idea from both Star Wars and Doctor Who, but bear with me]

There’s more to it than that, but the energy shield is meant to be one of the last lines of defense. 

Here’s the thing: it’s not subtle. Kinda hard to be, with its size and the breathtaking amounts of energy it requires [good thing SI’s invested so heavily into green energy], and its name is what makes it prime meme fodder.

Because what everyone’s seeing is this bigass energy shield network in the sky, keeping out the vast armies that stretch as far as the eye can see. And Tony’s naming skills are only marginally better than a biologist’s, and the rest of humanity’s isn’t much better.

The energy shield’s official name is the Iron Dome [also because it’s got the same idea as the thing in real life], but the moment it went online, the internet renamed it Skynet, which, awkward. 

It only gets funnier after the Reveal, too.

...on another note, the main role the memes play ties in with Tony’s obliviousness. 

See, after the Civil War arc, Tony’s [understandably] hyperfocused on the whole ‘protecting the Earth’ schtick and doesn’t really have time for much else. He’s tangentially aware of other stuff going on, but he has so much to do he doesn’t really pay attention to it. 

When the first memes about world domination start to float around, he blinks but goes back to work, because again, turns out that when it comes to protecting the planet, if you want something done right you have do it yourself. Normally he’d have fun with the memes, would be over the moon and be laughing at them with everyone else— but he has Things To Do. 

The single meme I have in mind for the matter is Star Trek-based, and also later on serves as the basis for why the rest of the galaxy refers to them as the Terran Empire, btw.

The first meme desensitized him to the idea; by the time Pepper approaches him about it, he thinks she’s joking. When the Sorcerer Supreme shows up shooting him significant looks and talking about being responsible to take care of threats to the Earth, the implied threat flies right over Tony’s head and he just goes “great, welcome to the club! I haven’t accounted for magic yet, is there anything we could tweak in this project to bolster our defenses?”

This is why it takes a honest-to-goodness Destroyer of Worlds to break it to him that no, it’s not a joke, he genuinely did take over the world. Yeah, oops.

.

...long story short, I really like the idea, but again, not sure how much screentime I’d be able to give the memes in the main fic. The sidefic would allow for more screen time, of course, but I’m not sure if that’s something you’d want to see?

edit: I’d put in a read-more, only apparently I can’t? Apologies to anyone who didn’t want spoilers or long posts.

[comicteaparty]

April 1st-April 7th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from April 1st, 2020 to April 7th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

How do you feel about creators spoiling their own stories, and how does it effect how you read the comic?

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

As someone who's both reader & a creator, it can be really hard to restrain giving spoilers. But it could also be that they are excited to make this story and they wanna 'get to the spoilers' really soon. But if you are such creator, an idea is to find friends whom you can trust, don't mind giving critique/give spoilers to. As a reader it can be slight disappointment to learn about spoilers in a comic you were invested in and still reading. At this point, I might think, I'm going to get out of the conversation on the spoilers and wait until more content is made(edited)

DanitheCarutor

Being someone who was raised by a parent who wanted me to spoiler movies for them if I saw it first, I don't care about stories being spoiled for me. Experiencing the scene is usually very different than being told what it is, also once I get to that spoiled scene I've already forgotten about it thanks to my Quality short-term memory. Honestly, I would totally go all out spoiling my own comic, but I know most people hate that stuff so I don't out of respect. There have been a few times when I've talked about spoilery stuff not really knowing if it would be considered a spoiler, or because I'm talking about something else that is related and I have to spoil a bit for the topic.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Personally it depends on how plot heavy the spoiler is. If it's something like what food/clothing/interests the characters have, I don't mind so much. But if it's something like who is going to die, who falls in love with who....I think the experience would be slightly more diminished.

Like @Joichi [Hybrid Dolls] said, I usually share the spoilers only with close friends, particularly those who know how to give their input. It's important to get feedback, but choosing who you tell is very important.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I’m very protective of story details. I don’t want people to know any of what’s going to happen in my story. I like having secrets

I don’t really mind hearing spoilers myself much of the time because I mostly enjoy stories by looking at all the events in the story together. If I know all the events sooner that often lets me enjoy it sooner

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I usually don't care that much about spoilers, unless it's about character death or something. Usually, I try to avoid them like the plague, just in case, but I don't really care that much.(edited)

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Personally, on other people's comics, I usually only refer to what's in the comic proper. Not too fond of having to read supplemental material, like creator QA's.

I know they can be nice for some readers, but I genuinely don't like it when the knowledge established in a QA or so is assumed to be known in the comic proper without ever being mentioned there.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'm having difficulty articulating my reasons, but for me, the creator spoiling things is different from a reader spoiling the same things. And reader-supplied spoilers can also be VERY different based on context and tone. I hate it when people spoil things for others out of malice (like when people were buying ad spaces, just after that one Harry Potter book came out, to broadcast [THIS IMPORTANT CHARACTER] DIES!!!!), even if I don't care about the work being spoiled.

Going back to creator-supplied spoilers........ it's something I can't relate to, as a creator myself? (Sharing spoilers in private is one thing, but if they're posting it in public...) This is going to sound negative and I apologize in advance. When I see a creator laying out the big spoilers in public, it makes me worry that maybe they prefer to talk instead of actually making the comic -- that maybe they won't make it to the ending. I'm happy to be proven wrong, of course. And there is no shame in dropping a comic before you get to the end (I've done that myself!). But yeah, public spoilers is one of those things that makes me worry.(edited)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

^My thoughts exactly. It worries me in exactly the same way.

Deo101 [Millennium]

when it comes to reading spoilers, Ive never really minded. Granted, I'd rather have spoilers more towards "what to expect" because I otherwise will get a lot of anxiety. A bit of the way in, I want to know if something is going to be worth my time to get invested into, or if I should ignore the stress and just be along for the ride. Being told things like "this is a tragedy and you shouldnt expect to have a happy ending" and "everything will work out in the end" really calms me down when I'm reading. Getting small spoilers about character things, inconsequential plot stuff, etc. don't really bother me at all, but yeah I'm with keiiii where if someone is sharing the ending of their story halfway through I worry theyre not interested in actually working to get there.

I'll personally share in small private settings whatever people want to know, but I refuse to in a public setting share what I'd consider to be a big spoiler. I'll share small character things or vague plans and some worldbuilding stuff, but I don't see those as spoilers really.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The "what to expect" thing is a really great topic though. I would love to discuss it in depth in shop talk when the caffeine kicks in

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Ooh me too. I drop some future story features in my About page - very broadly. But it's more of a pitch than an outright spoiler. It requires some vagueness to be effective.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

@Deo101 [Millennium] Setting expectations correctly is very different from spoilers, I think, and more in direction of "what genre does that story fall under". Like a romance means happy (for now) ending for the main couple - even if you might end up disagreeing if an ending is happy.

It ain't a spoiler that a space opera has some kind of space travel, that kind of thing.

For me spoilers tend to cover plot specifics, not genre and general tone. That's setting expectations.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah, but a lot of people really don't like to say that their story is gonna be a tragedy because they dont want to spoil that people are gonna die or whatever

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

That's... bad marketing.

Deo101 [Millennium]

it happens constantly

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I agree that a lot of times what creators share is basically bonus plot info, or extra details, or even warnings. I actually haven't really ever gotten a major spoiler from a creator.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Mind you, you can have people die without being a tradgedy, see the majority of epic fantasy.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

(On a side note, I have spoiled 100% of the plot of my comic to very specific close people in my life, but I don't know if that counts.)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't think there is a single person to whom I've spoiled 100% and I'm jelly of those of you who have Story Confidantes!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Honestly SOs and close siblings are a GODSEND

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'm close with my bro, but he's not into the kind of stuff I write. (might be getting off topic?)

RebelVampire

Yeah I do want to remind again here this should be about experiences as a reader, not as a creator. And I know there can be a bit of bleed over, but there's a point where the focus changes too much.

RebelVampire

I think this depends on who it's being spoiled to. If creators want to spoil their stories to close personal friends in private convos, I think that's A-okay. Even as a writer I do that, because it's good to have people to bounce ideas off of. And I think for more creators it's the same. Also, sometimes you just want to have a fun chat to de-stress and it's easier with people who you can tell all your secrets too. If it's being spoiled to people who asked for spoilers, that's also another matter where I think it's mostly fine. In fact, depending on what's spoiled, it can really help drive engagement. For example, if a comic is "spoiling" lore that has a significant bearing on the plot without revealing the exact how of it all. However, then we come to the matter of major public spoilers, which there are tons and tons of creators who do this. On the one hand, that's the creator's right to do so, so a part of me feels like embracing the can't be helped mindset. But, if I'm being brutally honest, as a reader 90% of the time it just kills all engagement with the story for me. I mean, what's the point of reading the story if I can just find out everything in a fraction of the time? Plus, for me personally, I enjoy theorizing and trying to guess events, mysteries, etc. And if I'm being told the answers, that basically ruins like 80% of how I engage with content. I'm also confident I'm not the only reader who feels this way, so personally speaking I don't think it's a wise decision no matter how juicy or agonizing it is to hold in the spoiler.

Feather J. Fern

For me, spoilers don't mean much. I'm still going to read the comic regardless. Now I spoiling something is funnier, because it takes me forever to get to the section which I spoiled, so something I spoiled would take a year to get to, and then everyone forgot the spoiler anyways. XD

I have already spoiled endings to my friends about one of my comic projects, and three months in they are already like "I forgot about that." So maybe it's just my readers haha.

DanitheCarutor

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) About the talking vs. finishing the comic thing. If I decided to spoil it would be because I was impatient to discuss. Like, right now I have the worst itch just to talk about the climax and ending to discuss all the little details, what I could do better next time, if I should put trigger warnings on specific chapters, and/or how my readers feel. Would it keep me from making it to the end? Nah, executing and seeing the results are not the same as describing them. The emotions a reader has can change vastly when they experience an event vs. read a description, it's not as fulfilling... or as painful. At least that is my perspective, neither I nor my readers would get the full experience from me describing a major event/ending. I don't know how it would be for other creators though. Lol

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, it's definitely a case by case thing.

DanitheCarutor

Pff yeah, I imagine some people are less anal about execution than I am.

eli [a winged tale]

Great discussions here! If I’m the reader, I’d prefer not to be spoiled and enjoy the story as is. It helps me as both a consumer and a creator to see how the plot twists are planted and revealed. As a beta reader, though, I would need to know the story to give suggestions on how to execute said spoilers but this is more of a creator-to-creator basis. I totally get the itch to share and I think having betareaders/comic confidantes are great for satisfying that need while getting constructive ways to evaluate them.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Agreed. I think having at least one person within your reader circle who is privy to deeper details can be very helpful, both for editing and for motivation Especially if there are story details that won't be shared for years. It's a good way to prevent 'leakage'

DanitheCarutor

I need to get myself a confidant, not only would it help the itch but talking about it would probably help me better fill in the small details. There was a rl friend I had who got too busy and lost interested, and someone online who I talked to about smaller stuff, but I don't like bothering people. Especially since my comic is sooo... my comic. Lmao!

Gosh, I would be the perfect person for someone to confide in about their comic, I would totally forget about the spoilers after waking up the next day.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

Tbh I don't mind if a story is spoiled to me. I'm the type of person who is like "okay so that's how it ends? How does it get there?" and I would be more upset if the creator spills those important parts that reach the end result. Though, when explaining my comic plots and details to my irl friends and beta readers, it's more of a planning session than things said in stone. Basically if it's something that I've not written down and could be a spoiler, yet I talk about it and those spoiler squeals aren't in the final scripts though. If it's an important detail and is a spoiler, I will withhold that information till the time comes.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I don't know what I'd think because I've never seen a webcomic I liked share spoilers before. I get the feeling that a "serious" writer would keep their twists private because they know they can show their plot better than they can tell it, if that makes sense. Even Sfeer Theory, a comic I really like that iirc did much of its brainstorming online, shut down their old worldbuilding posts once they got their actual comic started.

varethane

Personally, I'm not hugely opposed to spoilers, though it depends on the context. A lot of new webcomics when they're just started out will often only be able to market themselves with illustrations of scenes or dynamics that haven't quite happened yet, just by virtue of being so early on, and that's fine-- though increasingly less necessary the more Comic is released. The only kind of spoiler I might be actively mad about is if a comic whose appeal hingest largely on a central mystery or suspense spoiled The Answer, but I feel like most of the writers creating stories like that are conscious of this and keep that sort of thing under lock. There's also a big reason why I personally try not to share spoilers (and why I try not to put much stock by any spoilers I see posted by other webcomic creators, in case their process is like mine)-- which is that, basically anything that is more than a month ahead of the pages I've already drawn, is very likely to change substantially. I rewrite future plot points all the dang time. So if I shared something as a 'spoiler', there's only a 50/50 chance of that plot point actually coming to pass (unless it's one of the 4/5 big central plot linchpins); any readers waiting for it may come away disappointed, lol.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Def agree with Vare on this one. However, sometimes when a writer tells details to the point of no surprise in the comic whatsoever, that usually breaks immersion and interest for me. I've had a couple stories stagnate from having their plots revealed by the writer, and when the story hinges on that being a selling point, it tends to be very dissapointing to have done. Unless the story is character driven/ has characters charming enough to capture readers, i would def avoid spoiling the main plot points of the story if they can

eli [a winged tale]

I feel like anything in act 1 is technically not a spoiler since in books, the blurb encompasses act 1 even the beginning of act 2.

RebelVampire

Once again I'm popping in here to remind people this chat is primarily to talk about experiences as a reader, not as a creator. So let's not go too far into creator territory here.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

It's hard to say how I'd feel because I don't really see writers post, like "X dies in the end" or whatever. Like it's not that common an occurrence, at least for comics I follow. What is common in my experience is creators posting ship art for characters that haven't shown up yet (thus spoiling that these are characters who will show up at some point, and at least have some interaction with each other). And with regards to that... I dunno. Like, my mentality as a reader/watcher of things is that a character doesn't "exist" until I see them in the story. Like, if I see a character in an anime OP, I'll be like "oh that character looks cool, I can't wait until I meet them". That is, I don't consider myself as having "met" them yet - I need the story as context. (for the record, that's true for me as a creator too - i know plenty of creators figure out their OCs' personality & backstory first before figuring out what sort of story they work in, and that's valid, but I can't imagine working like that) So anyway, to me creators posting OC art before they appear in the story is less "oh, i've been spoiled on what these OCs will do" and more "oh, i can't wait to read the story that these characters are involved in"

[caemthe-a]

     hello, I just need to share this info: Cú Chulainn was blessed with many gifts. In the wooing of Emer some of the gifts mentioned are: “his gift of prudence until his warrior's flame appeared, the gift of feats, the gift of buanfach, the gift of draught-playing, the gift of calculating, the gift of sooth-saying, the gift of sense, the gift of beauty.” This means that Cú is canonically good at maths, had a soft voice and a ‘gentle and beautiful form’ (the last two are also mentioned in other texts of the ulster cycle, a rare thing since those tales tend to have continuity issues).

     he also accomplished many feats (there’s this funny chapter in táin in which some warrior’s trying to kill cú while our boy was practicing his feats and then cú killed the warrior without even noticing (it’s funnier when you consider that the same warrior was shit-talking cú moments ago)).  But anyway, some of his feats are the thunder-feat, the salmon feat, the heroes’ fury, the gáe bolga, the champion’s roar, etc. etc. etc. which all sound pretty badass and there are some feats that require some context to explain them and then there are feats like... ‘the cat feat’ that has me going ??? because I honestly don’t know what it represents, what it means, why there’s no actual explanation given for it and honestly no one knows what it means either or if I’m supposed to just accept it the way it is and not question it. 

     liri’s theory: cú chulainn can canonically do a nyah

[maryannemoseby]

This week we talked a lot about how the audience must understand the joke completely to find it funny. I saw this picture on Instagram and this fit perfectly. I found it funny because I know about the Trump family and I am also a fan of The Office. If someone had never heard of the Trump family, or didn't know who Ivanka is, the joke wouldn't be very funny. Same goes for The Office, if someone had never seen or heard of The Office, the joke wouldn't make sense. Context is very important for humor or comedy to occur. I would say this joke does not easily fit into any of the theories of comedy. I think that the theories make sense, but do not cover every type of comedy, which makes them less effective and less reliable to go by. There is no aspect of surprise or stress in this joke. There is also no sense of superiority. I don't think that this falls into the Benign Violation theory either because I don’t think anything is being violated, it is just benign- which according to the creator of the theory, should make this joke not funny. I think that because memes have become popular in American Society it leads to things that usually aren't funny, to become funny. Looking at this joke, I don't laugh out loud, I just think to myself about how clever it is or think about Dwight Shrute on the office- who is very funny to watch. The photo itself is not funny, but the background knowledge is what creates the humor. In the “yee” video we watched in class, background knowledge is not required at all. In fact, it is funnier without context. I think this goes to show that while context is important in some cases, it is not required in all cases. Comedy occurs through so many different ways, which makes it difficult to classify into one theory. I think comedy fits into so many categories, and people have so many different senses of humor. One person may laugh at slapstick humor, while another may not find it funny at all. Comedy is a very personal taste and everyone’s taste is unique. 

[secretgamergirl]

Let’s Talk a Little About “Rule 63″

As you may recall from back when I had that thing about “TG” manga, or that other thing about Forced Feminization porn, any attempt at trying to find anything relevant to trans people is going to lead you to some sort of fetish or other, and actual trans people tend to end up having complicated relationships with those. Today, let’s talk a little about Rule 63.

If the term doesn’t ring a bell, one of the oldest jokes in internet culture is the concept of this list of rules governing what can be found on the internet. Most famous of course being Rule 34- “If it exists, there’s porn of it.” Next most famous though is Rule 63, defined either as “If it exists, someone has drawn it as a cute girl,” or “every character has been drawn as the opposite gender.” Honestly I don’t know of any other rules even existing, they’re just arbitrarily chosen numbers by ancient internet jokesmiths who thought it’d be funnier to suggest a super long list. For these purposes I’m looking more at that second definition.

Not too long ago, there was an incident where someone had drawn the all-male cast of a new game as women, which lead to the artist getting rather savagely attacked. Another trans woman wrote an article about this that I found upsetting on a number of levels. I didn’t want to call public attention to it at the time, since the artist in question was still heavily under fire, and the author of the article was taking a fair amount of heat for handling things rather irresponsibly. It’s been long enough now though that I’m fairly certain I can address the harmful impact of that article in the abstract without causing anyone any problems.

The implication was made, and elaborated upon at length, that the very notion of any artist ever drawing any Rule 63 art was deeply offensive to trans people, and I’ve since seen a whole lot of cis people, trying to be good trans allies, repeating this and admonishing artists accordingly.

I have a huge problem with that, because the reality is that Rule 63 art is pretty deeply meaningful and developmentally important to a not at all insignificant number of trans people.

If you talk to enough trans people, you’ll often see us referring to our past selves and/or clearly closeted trans people as “eggs.” See, when you’re a trans woman, you don’t suddenly decide “I’m a woman now!” You always were, and after you accept that and embrace it, looking back on your life up to that point it’s painfully obvious you always were, and you generally feel like a total idiot for not making the connection sooner (and obviously this also applies to trans men, and to non-binary people but I’m sticking with women for the moment for expediency’s sake).

That period before you accept and embrace your actual gender is what we call “being an egg,” or “egg mode,” both because it’s a nice metaphor for the effects of dysphoria (socially isolated/living in this dark emotional void/unable to really start living your life), and because “hatching” out of “egg mode” tends to start with a little crack forming in how you look at yourself, and it doesn’t take a lot of poking at that crack before the realization sets in that you aren’t just “really in touch with your feminine side” or “curious” or whatever, but you’re trans, and once you allow yourself to seriously hold the thought “I’m actually a woman” the whole shell of self-denial breaks apart and there’s no going back.

All of this though is contingent on that first crack forming. Something needs to come along and give you a reason to start envisioning yourself, at least in some limited hypothetical context, as a woman, and realizing how much more comfortable you feel. And generally, that requires some kind of outside catalyst.

(Quick aside, transphobes love hearing things like that and extrapolating that if egg-mode trans people can be sheltered from any such catalysts, it will prevent them from “becoming trans” and spare them a tortured existence. This ignores the fact that it’s being in egg-mode that leaves us incapable of real happiness or meaningful connections in life, and incredibly prone to suicide, while after coming out and transitioning the only issues we have to contend with are bigots like them doing everything they can to hurt us, and it’s STILL worth it.)

Rule 63 art is, of course, one of the more common catalysts for this sort of revelation. Others of course include things like Ranma 1/2, the obligatory gender flip/body swap episode of any given sci-fi or fantasy show, talking to an actual trans person for any length of time, creating a character for an RPG/short story/etc. So for instance, let’s say you’re really into Harry Potter, and you come across some nicely drawn piece of fan art where Harry’s a girl (or where Hermione’s a guy). You look at that, you reconsider how the story would differ in that case. If you’re the sort to project yourself into the role of one of these characters you’re now thinking of how that would be different for you, and there’s your crack. Even better if it’s the protagonist of a videogame you’re playing, where you think of that character as “you.” I mean, a big part of why the original Metroid is near and dear to a lot of trans women’s hearts is that your big reward for finishing it is playing through again with the knowledge that that’s a woman you’ve been projecting yourself onto the whole time. So you can see how it’s helpful to have a variety of art like this floating around.

On the other side of the coin, let’s say you’re an eggy eggy trans girl who hasn’t started to hatch yet. Somewhere on your computer you have a folder with about a gig of paintings you’ve come across of Link and Ramza and and Vash the Stampede rendered as women, that really speak to you in some powerful way, but you haven’t figured out why that is. Now you see a bunch of people talking about how art like that is super exploitative and harmful to trans women, a demographic whose feelings you really care about, again, for reasons you can’t quite articulate yet. Well, this is scandalous and shameful isn’t it! That big pile of art you’ve been hoarding is apparently sick and wrong and some kind of fetish porn! Now you hate yourself even more, so it’s time to repress some feelings and delay some revelations and be more miserable than ever.

(And yes, I do realize that a significant amount of Rule 63 art floating around absolutely is created as fetish porn, and there absolutely are some trans people who really aren’t fans, but connecting with a piece of art and learning about yourself is way more important than what motivated an artist or what makes a random stranger roll their eyes due to their own personal issues.)

Plus very often, Rule 63 art is drawn by trans people, struggling to make a living by selling art in the sort of alt-culture communities other trans people, particularly those still in egg mode, frequent. It’s a healthy way to expand people’s perceptions so they don’t get it into their heads that, say, The Doctor must always be a man, and sometimes makes younger trans kids realize things about themselves. I have several friends who make a living like that, honestly.

Keep that in mind if I add some visual aids to this later.

[marcianek]

Karl: 2, 16; Renka: 3, 17, 24; Aben: 3, 19, 27!

First, I am SO SORRY for now replying for so long %D And now, let’s get to it~

(warning, long post, not putting under the cut, cause it makes it inaccessible on mobile, sorry ‘ ^ ‘)

Karl

2: If your OC wants to buy a firearm, what it might be for?After becoming a political leader he owns a concealed firearm as a self-defence means in case his bodyguards would fail during a potential dangerous situation.

16:  Is your OC good at giving others validation of their feelings and making them feel understood?(Since it changes as he gets older, I’ll describe him how he’s like in the beginning, aka as a teen/tween, and as a private person dealing with his peers and friends.)Frankly, it depends who we ask.From his perspective, being judgemental, casually snarky or “consctructively” critical comes far more natural than being positively supportive. He becomes extremely self-aware about that fact after he realises his words make more negative impact on his friends than it would on him, if he were the one listening to that sort of remarks (He himself was brought up in such a way his threshold of what’s harsh and what’s not is kinda warped). His approach to deal with is becoming a complete opposite, and act almost sickeningly reassuring and understanding. But in his opinion it doesn’t seem to work at all, since there’s no substance in this. Trying to find a middle ground on how to provide insinght without it sounding too harsh, proves to be difficult.In short, he feels he’s terrible at it, and this convinction is a forefront of his mind even when he eventually gets better.As for hir peers, some would say he’s good at validating their feelings, some wouldn’t. I’d say he’s least able to appeal to those who think with their emotions, or aren’t as retrospective/prone to secondguessing.By my standards, if he were a real person I could speak to: yes, he’d be pretty good, even though I would have some minor issues with his logic.

Renka

3: Does your OC behave differently around different people, if so with whom and how?She does! She is a the type of a cameleon-person, who seemingly plays by the rules and tries to blend in to sustain peace and comfort in her life, but shows her true colors around those she deems as trustworthy. She doesn’t go 180 personality-wise, of course, and she’s not the lying person - it’s about to what extend she’s comfortable with expressing her mind. She’s the type of introvert who will seek a compromise in situations that demand it, but will act more spontanious/extreme if she can. Whatever’s more appropriate, and the priority is safety over self-expression. Obviously we’re speaking about the Reneall and the beginning of her journey.

17: Does your OC suffer from any mental health issues?She’s paranoid, but I don’t think to the extend that would constitute for a mental illness.

24: How would your OC react if they got humiliated by someone in a group of people?Depends on a reason, kind & skope of humiliation, and who would be watching, depends on the overall context of the situation that lead to such incident, and why these people are gathered in her proximity. Some scenarios, like, for example, a presentation of an exhibition, public debate among people she’s either a patron of or shares similar career with (culturologist, museum worker/teacher) - usually involve attacks based on differences in ideology. And those cases require professionalism. So her reaction would be most likely a very polite, posibly tad lenghty response where she deconstructs her attacker’s arguments, most likely glossing over any personal insults (mind you, she’d be pissed, and propably in need to vent afterwards, but in such circles it’s better not to give in to the provocations. That would only hurt her reputation, so again - politeness and cleverness if usually a better strategy).However, there were situations, like one time during her first year of studying - her friends possession was purposefully destroyed by upperclassmen, and then she herself got insulted, all in front of other students on the corridor - she simply took her friend’s broken thingy and started hitting the bully with it.All in all - it depends on how much she thinks she can get away with.

Aben

3: Does your OC behave differently around different people, if so with whom and how?In business, he tries to balance a well-mannered behaviour with assertiveness. He has a very specific philosophy, to which I will dig into in comic, but it can be boiled down to “be charming but also dominant via appearing self-assured”.

In relationships, he seems like a romantic and gentle type overall, but turns out to be a complete troll in bed. Because, apparently, nothing’s funnier than pranking or grossing out a lover in the middle of sex. In his opinion, this stuff isn’t supposed to be dead-serious anyway.

Then there are situations, or certain people, which can bring the worst out of him. It’s a bit of a spoiler territory, so I’ll say, for all his confidence in business or public situations (which is frankly half-trained behaviour, half-instinct), and overall outgoing persona, he can act way too docile or passive-agressive in personal-life department.

19: What boosts your OC’s confidence the most?When people show him how they appreciate his gifts or acts of kindness, especially if they didn’t ask for it. He likes to guess and suprise.The second thing would be the opposite - if someone correctly guesses his need, without him expressing this directly. He places a great value in people paying attention to each other, so being cared about is a great source of building up his self-esteem.

27: Does your OC practise any kind of escapism? If yes, what kind?Actually, this is a topic for one of his little arcs, so again, can’t talk too much about it, but he doesn’t do that - which his future wife deems as extremely unhealthy, and tries to find him some hobby that doesn’t require the involvement of other people.

[marvelandponder]

Wow, So Supportive!

So, you might be able to tell, but I’ve been kind of figuring out this series as it’s gone along. The first had more behind the scenes info, the second more comparative analysis, and now this topic comes along which requires something entirely new.

Well, not all that new, but enough that it’s an honest to goodness challenge to tackle a topic so terrifically tremendous in size: the entire population of the planet that we’ve been introduced to so far.

I could just spend this time geeking out about my favourites, and I will warn you now, it will probably come to that, but what I want to know is what this pretty pony populous does for the show.

And, I mean, with such an expansive cast that will no doubt only grow in the coming season, there’s quite a lot of characters to cover! But, as sure as I’ve overdone it on the alliteration already for no particular reason (I’m in a mood), there’s certainly something to be gained by examining what the background cast has to offer!

World-Building

Aside from giving our main characters other personalities to play off of, supporting characters give a greater depth to the world they live in. To the audience, the variety of viewpoints and personalities isn’t just fun, but indicative of a living, breathing environment.

It’s part of the illusion. If there’s characters out there besides the protagonists that are fully fleshed out or even just feel like they could be, it adds to the believability that this is a whole world. In fact, with a good supporting cast, not only can other characters with conflicting viewpoints to the main characters be in the right, but they can have their own lives that don’t feel like they’re in service of a plot of the main character(s)’ story at all!

It tells you more about the world the main characters grew up and currently reside in. Seeing what characters outside the main six value and how they conduct their lives gives us context for how they act, what makes them so special (or in some ways, not special).

And in a world this big, you can even get perspectives from outside the country. We might’ve assumed everyone was as friendly and kind as the ponies, but in fact they’re known for being soft and weak among the dragons and having a “typical pony hero complex” and a weird tendency towards singing and hugging among the griffons (who via contrast show us what the rest of the world is like, more on this soon).

So, yeah, finding characters who’ve had their own experiences apart from our favs helps the world feel more real, and certainly more interesting.

The season 6 finale is the perfect example of that fact in action. Watching these side characters approach something that’s usually only handled by personalities we’re all very familiar with was refreshing---plus, there were character dynamics we never dreamed we’d get to see (Trixie and Discord being the big example)!

To use a pretty specific example of how cool this is, check out how terrified Trixie is again:

Throughout the entirety of this two parter, Trixie’s constantly showing the audience how terrifying this situation actually is to a normal citizen of Equestria.

And that’s so cool! We get to see by contrast how brave and well-worn our favourite heroines have become---even Fluttershy can mostly handle herself these days (at least, with her friends by her side) without too much panic.

At one point Trixie even refers to a possible changeling invasion as “princess level stuff.” Even better, the second Starlight tells her about it, she immediately says they need to tell Twilight---which both shows the character development from No Second Prances (as the two of them grew to respect one and other), but also shows the audience this is serious to her: in a crisis Trixie’s first instinct was to get help from her rival.

This kind of perspective on things can only come from a source outside the main cast: contrast.

Parallel Characters

Here’s something you’ve no doubt noticed MLP loves to do: base entire characters around the antithesis of one of our main character’s traits.

This is pretty obvious when it comes to Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer, and how they operate as warped versions of Twilight (you can’t spell it out better than following the same naming scheme). In various ways, both of them demonstrate by contrast how well Twilight understands friendship and Harmony, among other things.

Discord is the same way.

It’s kinda like how Lex Luthor is the perfect counter to Superman: the mild-mannered boy-scout that will always try to do the right thing meets the embodiment of greed and capitalistic folly. Lex is the self-made man lead astray by his own desire for power, and yet Superman seems to prove that despite being alien, his down-to-earth morality is what ends up representing the best of humanity.

You can compare quite a number of iconic villains to their heroes that way, by seeing what each of them represent. Hans Gruber and John McClain from Die Hard. Ganondorf and Link from the Legend of Zelda. Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. That’s one part of what makes them so memorable---a perfectly fitting contrast to the forces of good their meant to fight.

In the same way, Discord’s very obviously the counterpoint to our Element of Harmony wielding heroes. Not just the whole chaos and harmony thing, but because of how their values clash. Discord only ever cared about getting a laugh and shaping the world in his own nonsensical image, whereas the girls only care about each other and the ponies of Equestria. The conflict is natural from that point on because Discord’s character was constructed to make it so. More than that, though, his defeat isn’t just good triumphing evil, but instead the things the Mane six value triumphing over the view that directly opposes them.

Tells you they’re in the right by showing you how awesome it feels for them to win, essentially.

Lightning Dust is yet another easy example of a character that exists just for contrast. She’s been likened to season one Rainbow Dash many times, and it just goes to show you how far season 3 Rainbow Dash had come in comparison.

So, side characters won’t just give you different perspectives about the main characters verbally, but through their actions. Even when they only get a wee bit of screen time, relatively speaking.

Minimalism and Imagination: A Writer’s Greatest Tools

That’s sort of how an episode like Slice of Life happens.

Filler background characters with interesting enough superficial attributes (like designs, occupations, or implied character traits) give us just enough personality to work with that our imaginations can fill in the rest. To an extent, all side characters function in this way.

It’s the same way a non-main character can go through an arc off-screen. I know, off-screen development sounds terrible---for important characters, who get a lot of precious screen time.

What happens, essentially, is we’re presented with the bookends to an arc: the beginning and the end, and in between is mostly filled with our imaginations.

The example that pops to mind first is Trixie, between her first appearance her second.

Last we see her, she’s leaving Ponyville with her ego bruised.

Next we see her, she’s acquired an evil amulet and is ready to not only humiliate Twilight in kind, but take over the entire town and turn it into Trixieville.

So... a step up from embarrassed.

The reason we buy that elevation has to do with both the story Trixie tells about hitting rock bottom (at a rock farm, no less), and the amount of time in between.

We’re not given very many details other than her career being impacted and her perception that she was humiliated everywhere she went, but it’s been two seasons since we’ve seen her---there’s enough of those little details and time in between for us to imagine a gradual change that made her decide to seek out straight up revenge, no matter the cost.

In a similar vein, I also find it interesting to see how characters differentiate themselves, with such little screen time.

For some, it’s definitely a matter of great design and/or voice acting that really makes them pop out at you. In addition, there’s usually either some adherence to an easily digestible archetype, like the (...*grunts*) tsundre Dragon Lord Ember or the timid Coco Pommel (which sounds bad, like I’m saying they’re cliched, but archetypes can be pretty useful for side characters yet-to-be-developed because it tells us a lot about their personality instantly). Or, a twist on archetype.

For an example, let’s get fancy: Fancy Pants and Filthy Rich both should be greedy and/or power hungry, or just generally thoughtless based on the rich, money-focused business character stereotype. Instead, seeing how Fancy Pants will make conversation easily with anyone and warmly accept those of a lower class than he is, and how Filthy Rich will be a tough but loving father to his daughter (as opposed to spoiling her) and will go out of his way to be nice to the Apples makes them feel like more complex characters.

Playing to our expectations and then twisting them even just slightly makes them feel less like cardboard cut-outs there to fill the insert snooty rich character here role, and more like well developed characters---all just with a few small actions.

Don’t even get me started on characters who say one thing one time, and we fixate on it to the point that it’s central to their identity. Sometimes, it’s because we treat it like a meme; like, Sonata kinda liking Tacos is a thing the same way Derpy like muffins is a thing. And let’s be clear, Sonata also talks about punch at some point in the movie, concerned with the fact that she added too much of one flavour. But the juice thing isn’t a big thing tied to her character in the fandom like tacos are, and why? Tacos are funnier, I guess.

And let me clear: it’s not some failing of the writers that they haven’t developed these characters, or the fandom getting too obsessive over small details. It’s intentional. Of course, there’s quite a few side characters that do get on-screen development (Big Mac, Thorax, the Wonderbolts, etc.), and still others that remain a mystery intentionally.

Zecora remains a character I’d LOVE to see explored, for instance, because there’s still a number of questions surrounding her. Did she have a family once? How much magic does she really know? How did she learn all of it?

Sometimes the answers aren’t as fascinating as a lack of answers. The MLP staff knows this full well apparently, since they’ve always had a policy about leaving things open-ended just in case they want to develop them later, thereby letting us fill in the blanks.

Which reminds me of another great example: Applejack’s noticeable lack of parents. From literally nothing, we created entire personalities, stories, and character motivations---to the point that when it’s explored in canon now, they have HUGE expectations to live up to.

The role of imagination in developing this world is intentional. That’s what good writers do---give you just enough to let you fill in the blanks.

But that’s what’s so wildly inventive about all these characters. So many of them are so memorable---either through what they tell us about the world, the main characters, or even just as characters in and of themselves (whether that be developed through a bit of trickery with our imaginations or actually developed in the show). There’s so many I’d love to see again, and so many more I’d love to meet in the future!

And, because of them all, like the Mane 6 at the end of Slice of Life, I feel quite lucky to know who I do.

Editorials? What are those? I don’t know, but I’ve written a bunch over here for you. Maybe the three most recent ones will jog my memory (check out the other Elements of MLP posts with the Year of the Pony link):

Derpy Editorial, Top 10 Redeemed Villains, and Starlight Editorial

Year of the Pony

Header Image Wouldn’t Be Possible Without:

Trixie Vector by Comeha Elements of Harmony by SpiritoftheWolf Elements of Harmony by TechRainbow

Chiggity-check out those hard-working artists, yo!

They’re All Main Characters in My Heart, Dammit

[sleepymarmot]

I still have about 200 queued posts (bear with me... and sorry followers on mobile), but I want to quickly publish some of my post-binging thoughts before the new episode comes out. (Because I get overwhelmed by other people’s opinions and can’t remember what my own were unless I write them down. It’s easy to recall which parts I simply loved for what they are because other people did too and I can reblog their posts; it’s harder to not forget my own perspective outside of that.)

I didn’t actually expect to post these opinions because I don’t feel comfortable criticizing TAZ the way I tear apart big franchises like ME. But I did write it down, so what the hell. Let’s start with the biggest piece of negativity then. I can't name a favourite arc but I think the last place is Petals to the Metal. The racing sequence was spectacular enough that I didn't mind the pacing that much, but the final episode was really disappointing. A combination of not actually explicitly confirming the pairing in canon (I seriously expected that would be the culmination of the arc) AND Bury Your Gays (yes, I know Griffin dealt with the feedback gracefully, that doesn't fix the actual story though) AND some extreme railroading AND deus ex machina/Power of Love (at least the latter was retconnet as in not retroactive continuity but retroactive context). That actually put me off the show for some time. I think this moment encapsulates my problems with Hurley's writing pretty well. She really comes off as a Mary Sue written by a self-aware male writer who feels the need to put female characters on a pedestal -- certainly not the most objectionable phenomenon, but still makes my eyes roll. I feel the same about Carey and Killian in The Crystal Kingdom and the recurring remarks about "competent women". (I mean, I understand the gameplay reason for that, it's not that I'm asking for super detailed fights between NPCs, but I didn't like the way it sounded in the story.) Thankfully Carey got some development with Magnus, Killian had a good introduction before that glorification thing started cropping up, and their relationship's good obviously; plus, thankfully, Lucretia is completely free from this (she actually might be my fave NPC in terms of writing).

I think my least favourite part of The Suffering Game is the final past bosses battle? It's not just repetitive -- this repetition, needless in this case, devalues the other instances of our heroes facing the past. The first big one was Noelle (great: surprising, touching, important for the overall plot as we now know), then we had the three robots (I was pretty delighted to see Jenkins and Magic Brian again) even it was more about combat than meaningful facing of past mistakes, then the destruction of Phandolin was seen again in The Eleventh Hour, and only a bit later the setting of the first arc will be revisited once more. So even not counting this scene, it was starting to get a bit navel-gazey, and the complete lack of story relevance of that battle diluted things even more. It kind of sounded like running out of ideas -- I'd prefer any other challenge or just a repeat of the random monster generation. (Btw I totally expected to see the crab from Rockport Limited in that lineup. It's kind of special to me because back I went "Ah a floating crab, yeah feel you boys, I hate fighting Praetorians too, at least this thing doesn't shoot lase--" and then it started shooting fire, lol.)

Back to what I wanted to talk about: I have lots of thoughts/feelings about consequences re: the last episodes. The spoilers I've seen gave me so much anxiety! Like I've read that Magnus loses memory so I completely expected him to lose everything. So I spent a lot of time in complete dread, and when I read "Magnus forgets" in the summary my heart dropped, and then it wasn't that bad at all so I thought "that's it?" and felt relieved until the fucking clone tank. At which point I thought "No, this is it" especially because all of the players interpreted it that way. So I was very surprised and relieved that he kept everything, and that Griffin was so kind to him. But that kinda brought me to another problem -- that the new body undid Magnus's sacrifices. He didn't lose a finger or 10 years of life; the only loss was the identity of his nemesis which a) is a sad thing and he might be happier without it -- I would; and b) the boys promised to take care of that. Meanwhile, Taako and especially Merle have to live with their sacrifices. That's unfair. I was pretty thrilled when I realized the sacrifices were For Real, and was feeling real dread and anxiety about them (can't say if in a wholly good way) and I don't like devaluing that. Though of course I'm pretty jazzed that the character who is at the moment my favourite got treated so well. That scene was cathartic as hell! But back to the sacrifices: I'm intrigued by the problem of balance of hurting the character in a way that's good for narrative and/or game balance (yeah the intent of "let's nerf them a bit" was easy to see) but not compromising them as a piece of writing. I didn't give a shit about max health or dexterity penalties, but the story significant things about losing body parts and especially memories sounded brutal and cruel to me. I actually laughed when during one of the commercial breaks Griffin said something like "I hope this isn't causing you too much anxiety" because I was rushing through this arc because of that anxiety! But in the end, as it often happens, the half-misinterpreted spoilers made everything sound worse than it actually was. And I was very glad and relieved to hear Griffin specifically clarify that he's not going to take away important parts of a character.

But despite what I just said, when I started The Suffering Game arc I was actually amazed because it was second arc in a row built around my personal favorite tropes! I really appreciate Doctor Who-ish journey through genres (that doesn't take itself seriously but also has an epic underlying plot. All my fandoms are the same...) Murder on the Rockport Limited also counts in that category. So if I had to pick a favorite, they'd probably be among the candidates? Well I don't know how to count Reunion Tour for that. I really liked The Eleventh Hour, time travel/time loop stories are like my #1 fave. And it's a closed room mystery too (like Rockport Limited). That was the point where I started listening much faster because I needed to learn the truth. (Also, the Lunar Interlude before that arc, with the three separate stories, was freaking revolutionary and started a new level of character development for the show in general.) But I was kind of disappointed by the lack of a Holmes speech-type explanation of everything in the end. Because a big part of enjoyment was the expectation that it'll all click together beautifully in the end -- and some pieces still didn't fit. I'm still not sure if I missed something or that wasn't explained. Why was Isaak, like our heroes and unlike everyone else in the town, aware of the temporal loops and free to act? What was the interaction between Taako's spell and the code word -- did the spell have any effect other than almost drowning everyone, would "Junebug" have worked by itself? I had some more questions I thing, but right when I was going to pause/think/rest, everything was swept away by the freaking Red Robe Magnus cliffhanger, so I continued to run forward internally screaming "Explain! Explain!" like a Dalek, and then that was joined by the aforementioned Suffering Game anxiety. And that's the story how I marathoned the last part of the show three or more times faster than I planned to.

I really loved listening to TTAZZ, both of them, it was really good meta! I think I started to appreciate the show more after the first one. I can see where the fan criticism re: representation is coming from, but I myself also belong to the category of people who can never visualise their own (or anyone's, really) characters and therefore really love the freedom of interpretation. I'm also a bit sad about the commentary on racism in the new one, which, in addition to the comments about the Taco Quest in the first one, made me pretty sure that storyline/running joke is not coming back. I found it really funny back then in the beginning of the show -- more so because I, myself, have no freaking idea what tacos are actually like. I mean, we might have some mexican food places over here, but I've never been to one. And I intentionally didn't look it up after starting the show because it was funnier and kind of immersive this way lol. But they sound pretty committed to non-committance about the enthnicities, and raising the topic in canon again would force the issue, so I think they're just quietly abandoning it. Story-wise, I'd love to hear something like "Taako had invented a dish and named it after himself, but the voidfish baby ate the recipe so he couldn't recreate it until now" because I'm a sucker for justifying jokes and tying them into the main plot/emotional storyline. But in general I'd prefer any option that offends people the least. I was kind of surprised when Justin talked about abandoning Taako's early "dumb" characterisation, because I hadn't actually thought it was "officially" thrown away. I assumed Taako was just really bad at paying attention, and got better at managing that as a part of organic character development. I actually found that kind of relatable, plus "absent-minded professor/wizard" is a classic trope. Also TTAZZ made me wish even harder for the lost awesome adventure of Magnus and Kravitz in the astral plane. And it was already slightly souring my excitement about the totally awesome & touching scene we got instead.

I didn't really get the exposition about the planes in The Crystal Kingdom, and the long explanation in the latest two episodes require more attention than I gave them. Hope today's episode will make things clearer. Some things I hope to hear explained soon:

Why has Merle died more times than Magnus or Taako?

Also, looking forward to the promised explanation of how Gundren can be Merle's blood relative lol

Why was the Chalice so much more self-aware and civil than the other Relics? Is it related to the fact that its creator has some special connection to the (a?) voidfish?

Was Magnus a wizard before? Being a lich, creating a Grand Relic... If so, why doesn't he have magic now?

If Magnus is a lich, can he one day die and stay in the astral plane with Julia like an ordinary human, like he wanted? If not, that's a pretty big and tragic turn of events for him. (Granted, this might be more of a D&D mechanics question...)

(I actually just found a Reddit thread starting with the same question, discussing whether all 7 are really liches or not, so these two points might not be even valid haha)

(I also saw someone theorize that Lup invented the taco recipe -- and damn I really do want to see that now. Imagine trying to figure out something and later realize that it was created by your dead sister who named that thing after you.)

(I was confused about LichBarry’s reveal because I thought at the end of PTTM he was mind-controlling Captain Captain Bane to poison THB. Someone had the same question and another person answered that Barry’s spell was only to make Captain drink the poison, and the murder attempt was on him. I totally didn’t get that. Between this and my question about “Junebug”, either mind-control spells are not very clearly explained in this show, I suck at understanding them, or both.)

(Shit, this list has transformed from future episodes wishlist into reactions to Reddit lol)

Since I was talking about Taako and Lup, here’s another passing thought: remember how Taako immediately wanted to be Like Them when he saw the lich duo? You know, the elven brother and sister?!

Not related to anything, but I just realized I can wear jeans as a stealth fandom reference and it's delightful :D

[leonawriter]

Earlier I reblogged a post by @haruspis which linked to other posts, which all talked about how things had gone so badly wrong - and why - in The Lie of the Land. OP suggested having had the Doctor only pretending to work for the Monks, and anyone send to ‘labour camps’ were actually being sent to be deprogrammed of the Monks’ brainwashing. The Memory Police could have been UNIT.

That would have been good - it’s certainly something I’d have preferred to what we did get.

Funny thing is, when I’d first started seeing the trailers for Extremis and TPatEotW, I saw Missy outside of the Vault. We’d already been starting to figure that it was her in there for a while, so that wasn’t a major spoiler, but... I kept, for some reason, mixing up how it would happen. 

Even after watching Lie of the Land, I had a general impression of disappointment that she hadn’t needed to come out of the Vault for the adventure - and looking back, I started thinking about how interesting that would have been, narratively, and how it would have fitted in with the rest of her story arc.

For one thing, to lead into this, we could have had a Doctor who truly had been brainwashed just like everyone else had been, who had somehow been made to believe everything. Perhaps, the consent that the Monks required gave them the ability to create an entirely new timeline somehow, meaning that they’ve had all that time to mess with humanity, and the Doctor has only been on the sidelines. He’s hardly even the same person. He might feel flashes of feeling ‘something is wrong’, but the Monks might be able to push his thoughts back to ‘safer’ territory.  Remember - they healed his sight, why not make them this capable, now that they’ve got consent to do whatever they want? Not to mention, being the person that the entire consent was aimed at, they could have been able to do things to him more than anyone else!

Because of this, Nardole would have been far more front and centre of the plotting, since he wouldn't have been spending six months plotting with the Doctor, but trying to figure out his own way of saving the Doctor from the Monks, and himself. 

Bill’s six months spent fighting to keep her memories intact could have been the result of her having travelled through time so much - which would mean that others who’ve done so would have similar resistance. Her fight wouldn’t be for nothing, since there is a real threat, and the despair weighing down on her and everyone seeing the Doctor saying those things is real. She won’t look back on this and think ‘why was I going through that, what was the point?’, because the point was that she survived, in order to save people.

Which... if we’re going by how things went in the canon episode, here would be about where Nardole came in and said ‘we’re busting the Doctor out of jail’, except here Nardole knows that’s not going to work. So, what does he do? What’s anyone to do?

Well, there is one person who’s also not affected, and that’s Missy, safe in her Vault. And she’s go every reason to not want the Doctor dead (remembering her original characterisation in previous incarnations where he did actively save the Doctor’s life, and did sometimes find himself in over his head and helping to reverse the damage he’d done). 

So, we could have had an episode which had been lead into with the Doctor saying through the Vault doors to Missy that he was afraid, that this was the worst threat humanity had faced so far, and he might end up asking for her help - and then it concludes with him unable to ask for her help, but someone else (Nardole, not liking it but for the sake of the Doctor, going through with it) asking instead.

Missy, here, could have shown herself as toeing the line between ‘her past self’ and ‘wanting to be good’, by actively leading the effort to save the Doctor and undo all the Monks’ work, but also having the episode end with her having a human death count. Here, we’d see her making massive mistakes, and the Doctor being rightfully angry when he realises what’s happened - angry with Bill for consenting, angry with Nardole for letting Missy out and run havoc, angry with Missy for ‘breaking’ the promise and coming out of the Vault but also for killing people when she’d said she’d ‘be good’ (even though they needed to be dealt with somehow, it was unnecessarily cruel) - but mainly angry with himself, for what he has done, and forced others to endure.

Which, I have to say, would make a certain scene of a certain scene from late on in the episode, where Missy is seen crying, and when asked what’s wrong, she says that she’s realising that she ‘knows the names of the people she’s killed’. If you think about it, do you expect Delgado!Master, Ainley!Master, or literally any of the others to even learn the names of the people they’d killed? I certainly don’t. The others never saw the people they killed as worth the effort. They were disposable. So why imply she remembers every death that’s been at her hands? It would make so much more sense if there’s been something more recent, fresh in her mind, at a time when empathy is beginning to be a thing for her. 

It would also be a point of understanding between the Doctor and Missy, as they have a common ground. Both of them would have been responsible for the deaths of many people, but how do they deal with that information? Do they feel guilt? The Doctor only says he cares because - as either he or someone else has said he’d think like - ‘no one ever gets anything done by caring’. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. And then there’s Missy, who’s only just starting to figure herself out, who doesn’t understand much about how the Doctor’s sense of right and wrong works yet. Here, they’d be able to have a more or less frank discussion of ‘what I did was wrong, and for these reasons, do you understand why what you did was wrong?’ on both sides.

In relation to the above, there could also be narrative mirroring of ‘the Doctor doesn't and couldn’t know the names of the people he had killed by encouraging people to send their friends/family to labour camps’ versus ‘Missy does know the names of the people she killed’, and see how that affects them both in different ways.

With this in mind, our ending moment, of Bill talking to the Doctor, could have elements of ‘how much of what you were saying comes from you, and how much came from the Monks?’, which, again, could lead to a greater understanding of the Doctor by Bill, even if he’s hedging his answers. 

Missy pretending to be the Doctor here could even have led into the idea of the Doctor suggesting she make a second, more successful attempt, later on in World Enough and Time, tying in the continuity of the episodes, and truly showing her character development - as well as causing a fair few brick jokes! If Missy had killed people the last time she was out of the Vault, then it would have been even funnier when she says ‘Please stay a few feet away, I’m really trying not to kill someone today’, because there’s context to her failing before.

I guess what I’m saying is that there are so many ways that this episode could have gone right, where it could have understood the weight of what it was trying to convey, but instead it seemed far more like it was trying to emulate episodes such as Last of the Time Lords and Turn Left in showing a dystopian world without the Doctor, and all of the responsibility and repercussions of the episode’s events ended up disappearing like water off a duck’s back, and Missy’s line of growth instead seems sudden, having come out of literally nowhere.

[funface2]

Big Bang Theory: 10 Hilarious Howard Memes That Are Too Funny – Screen Rant

It’s strange now to think of Howard as the weird one of the friend group in The Big Bang Theory since he was a one-woman man for about a decade until the show’s end, but Howard had started out like a hound who could not get around without being inappropriate. 

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RELATED: Big Bang Theory: 10 Hilarious Sheldon Memes That Are Too Funny

Due to this, most of Howard’s memes are relatively old, as he was at his funniest when he was incessantly trying to get a girlfriend. Also, because of his one-note personality back in the day, the majority of Howard memes you’ll find are puns that are extremely cheesy pick-up lines that only desperate guys will use. Still, these 10 memes are guaranteed to make you laugh. 

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10 Who Needs Quora?

This is actually a testimony to how long The Big Bang Theory was on-air because this meme was made way back around 2008-09. At that time, Yahoo Answers was all the rage for people with queries, and the younger internet user will be unsure what the joke here is.

RELATED: Big Bang Theory: 10 Most Underrated Supporting Characters

Basically, just replace Yahoo Answers with Quora and you’ll get the joke. Back then, you could find just about every answer you wanted on Yahoo Answers, which makes this a very appropriate pick-up line on Howard’s part. Too bad there’s no girl who would have asked him a question to begin with.

9 Do You Even Watch The Show?

You can find cheap imitations of just about everything in the world, and The Big Bang Theory is a popular enough show that lame products are made by those who’ve never watched the show. Case in point is this USB line, the makers of whom have no idea what they’re doing.

For one, that’s Leonard Hofstader they’ve got as a figurine for a USB, but the bozos who’ve made the packaging had no clue who Leonard was because it’s titled as Howard Wolowitz. To top it off, the creator of this meme has poked more fun at the incorrectness by claiming that’s actually Sheldon Cooper’s figurine.

8 Puns Galore

You don’t need to be a genius to get what Howard means here, because the context makes you understand what kind of reaction he’s getting. Still, it’s not a bad line to use if you want to impress a girl who’s into science.

RELATED: Big Bang Theory: 10 Jokes That Have Already Aged Poorly

People who are interested in particular things don’t mind wordplay concerning their area of interest, so maybe Howard missed a chance to pick up some girl at a genius bar. Then again, with a line that focuses so hard on the pun, odds are Howard would’ve gotten someone with the same personality as him. Now that would just have been weird.

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7 Smooth Mr. Wolowitz

Okay, call us lame, but we actually think this a pretty good line. After all, this is the kind of wordplay that is sure to break the ice. And it’s not even something that should be restricted just as a pick-up line, because it can double very well as a joke.

Another funny thing about this is that you can also picture Howard using this very clearly. We can also imagine the person receiving this compliment to be Penny, who would have no doubt rolled her eyes and probably walked away in exasperation.

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6 Harry Potter’s Howard

There will be a lot of contention over whether this meme is right or wrong, but you can probably discern some of Howard’s features in Professor Remus Lupin. Even funnier is that there were four friends in James Potter’s crew, which is exactly how it was for the boy gang on The Big Bang Theory.

RELATED: Young Sheldon: 10 The Big Bang Theory Easter Eggs You Missed

Since Remus Lupin’s hair wasn’t exactly known to be fashionable, perhaps Howard Wolowitz might be his group’s Lupin. People might be inclined to think of him as Peter Pettigrew, but Sheldon’s cowardice makes him a bigger candidate for that role.

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5 Perfect Product Placement

The Big Bang Theory and Axe body spray would have made millions through promotion had they had this collaboration. After all, the Axe Chocolate Man was a character who was all about the ladies, the same as a certain Mr. Wolowitz.

RELATED: The Big Bang Theory: 10 Best Penny Quotes

Not only that, but you can see just how much the two looked alike. How awesome would it have been had we seen Howard Wolowitz appear in an Axe commercial; at least here he would have had seen girls actually be interested in him. Or maybe Bernadette was interested in him because Howard was using Axe?

4 What’s Your Secret, Howard?

From the little glimpses we got of Howard’s mom, the woman certainly looked like all she ate was briskets, but Howard himself looked kind of like a toothpick with bushy hair. While Mrs. Wolowitz was alive, all Howard ever mentioned of her cooking was brisket, but it doesn’t seem as if that’s all he ate.

RELATED: The Big Bang Theory: The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Episodes

If that is indeed true, then you’ve got to hand it to Howard for keeping his weight. Howard was known to go extra lengths to impress girls, so staying thin might be his most underrated piece of dedication.

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3 Break It Down!

You might never have considered this before, but Howard’s room had a large assortment of Easter Eggs. Since whenever we saw Howard he was being an absolute weirdo, so the eye didn’t fall straight onto the interesting things around him.

The person behind this meme has shrewdly pointed out that Howard must be a WWE fan, as his lightsabers are reminiscent of D-Generation X’s logo. The wrestling faction was famous for having glowsticks that met in the middle to form an ‘X’, and Howard’s wall reflects just that, complete with DX’s trademark green color.

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2 Hats Off For Creativity

If you really do find Howard’s puns here charming, then be sure to keep this one as part of your arsenal. Out of all the memes we’ve seen so far, you’ll have the best shot of this one working because it requires a certain amount of knowledge to be understandable.

RELATED: Big Bang Theory: The 10 Worst Things Penny Has Ever Done, Ranked

The pun here is that all the words in “Beautiful” are formed through abbreviations of elements in a scientific context. This means that if you have a girl you like in your chemistry class, or if you like someone who’s got a job in research, then this should be your go-to line.

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1 We Need A Wolowitz Repellent

Seeing as Howard has been married for a long time now and his days of being a freak are over, we don’t feel guilty in likening his Season 1-3 self as a fly. It makes sense too because Howard was always buzzing around any woman he saw to land in the zone and try to hit on her.

We only saw this happen in short bursts, but in-universe it must have been very exasperating to be hanging out with Howard, considering he would divert all his attention away immediately when he saw a girl and would ditch anyone he was with just to get swatted away as any fly would. Oh well, at least now his fly days are long gone.

NEXT: Big Bang Theory: 10 Times Amy And Penny Were Friendship Goals

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Bài viết Big Bang Theory: 10 Hilarious Howard Memes That Are Too Funny – Screen Rant đã xuất hiện đầu tiên vào ngày Funface.

from Funface https://funface.net/funny-memes/big-bang-theory-10-hilarious-howard-memes-that-are-too-funny-screen-rant/

[stressedandhighlyfavored]

Anzaldua, Lahiri, and Diaz

A/N: I wrote these opinions for an assignment. These are my interpretations of these specific pieces of American Literature. If you are easily offended, be cautious when reading these reading responses. Honestly, most of these responses are just me trying to meet a word requirement and they should and are meant to be taken lightheartedly. Also, I am editing some of these responses as I post them because my opinions changed, or I wanted to say something better than what was originally written. I will be happy to discuss these responses further, just please be nice :)

Warnings: My uneducated butt is talking about different cultures in one of these responses. I strongly urge you to read both the piece and my response to the piece for full context - although, I’m not sure why you would read my response without reading the piece in the first place. Also, unrelated to the culture thing, I discuss my opinions on adultery. So … that ought to be fun!

 Gloria Anzaldua – “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”

           This piece, for me, is a kind of eye opener. When you are white, or at least look it, you hear people say things like, “If you want to be American, speak ‘American,’” and this is usually said by another white person. However, these things are never directed at you, and you do not know how often they are said. It wasn’t until recently that people started pointing out these things as often as they happen, and it wasn’t until then that we really understood what white privilege is. Nobody says to me that I am less American because my skin is pale as the pure-driven snow, and nobody should be considered less American because they are not.

           I did not know some Spanish speakers of a certain dialect are prejudiced against other Spanish speakers of another specific dialect. I guess English speaking people do the same thing, if you think about it. People from the south are considered less educated than people from the north because we say words like “y’all” and “ain’t.”

Jhumpa Lahiri

           I was really rooting for Miranda and Dev and then he said he was married. However, Miranda must be new to this whole girl thing. Every girl on the planet checks for a ring before she does anything else when she finds a guy as little as not ugly. Honestly, Miranda, what are you thinking? I tend to lose all respect for women who continue to date men they know are married. I feel like they do not have any respect for themselves or the men or their wives, so they do not deserve the respect of other people. That may be a little harsh. Oh well.

Junto Diaz – “Drown”

           This was wild. I thought the rules at the pool were funny because there has to be a story behind every one of those. “No Horseplay, No Running, No Defecating, No Urinating, No Expectorating.” What I found even funnier is when the narrator explained to Beto what “No Expectorating” meant by spitting.

           As a cop’s kid, I can attest to the statement, “You don’t go to jail for shoplifting.” That’s true, they really do hand you over to your parents. The problem with that is, if your parent is a cop, they let you rot at the station for a while before they come and get you. I am not speaking from experience, but I know from every other “CK” whom ever did anything bad.