styledbyvirginiedarbon

[namira]

Why do horror normies like the Conjuring so much. My friend and I had to fold after getting through the first two movies of that series, and we managed to get through all 11 Children of the Corns

[patricia-taxxon]

it's so cool that puritan and/or conservative teenagers always grow out of it and that there's no such thing as conservative grown adults!

genuinely incomprehensible ask, thanks. I have the context, so I'm gonna answer it sincerely, but I want you to know that we both look like fountains spouting nonsense right now.

yes, some people carry the puritan fleas they picked up from their american conservative upbringings into adulthood, but my post was about making random popular teenagers into the face of the enemy, making dunking on them a proxy for fighting against harassment. I don't think you should harass random teenagers over conservative or bigoted beliefs either, they might not grow out of it but at present they legitimately have not yet had the *opportunity* to grow out of it. and if they do, it'll be because they sought out challenging points of view, not because they were dogpiled in their formative years by traumatized twitter users lashing out at them

I am a visibly kinky transfem personality, I currently, as we speak, have a long standing 19 year old agent of mass harassment rearing up to try and smear me a third time. She has many other transfem victims who were hurt more than me, because they're not well off or not white. I still believe that if the whisper network turned around and gave her a counter-callout, that would make everything so much worse. Everything I say, I say from experience.

[kiisaes]

tell us about vld 👁️

(only if u want to)

i'll spare you a truly unhinged ranting for perhaps another time (even though this is gonna be long anyway) but tldr: vld is a show that could have been really good if it just stuck to its direction from the first two seasons!!! and also if its crew didn't accidentally breed the worst possible fandom ever!!!

it had a really good identity at the start— its characters were entertaining, its art and animation were charming if anything, the VAs were genuinely excellent picks and in terms of story it was simple (considering it's a kids show) but effective. the first two seasons focused on one-off, character-driven episodes that gave room for a lot of character writing, team bonding, and tone establishment. i believe that the reason why vld shipping was already so aggressive since s1 — without crew interference — was because the character writing was like, actually good. good enough where people could take their starting characterizations + team dynamic and run wild with it

vld was never going to be an enlightening, mature, groundbreaking show about anything super deep; it's a Y7 show about robot lions in space. but i'm sure most ppl going into vld didn't expect a piece of art, they just wanted to have fun with an atla-adjacent show, or they watched previous voltron iterations. and for what it was, it was very successful at the start! and one of the more popular netflix originals at its time!

but then vld tried taking itself more seriously in s3, and changed its primary storytelling method. now the episodes weren't usually problem-of-the-week, but each episode's plot had to feed into the next episode in line. which would've been fine, if the crew planned ahead and kept track of its characters and plot

but since the lion switch was also conveniently during this season (which inevitably implied switches in character arcs), keeping track of everything suddenly got way harder. also, the lion switch was ass. breaking my silence: that shit made no sense. why didn't they make allura the black paladin??? why do all those mental gymnastics with moving keith from red to black and lance from blue to red just to give allura blue, which was a lion that didn't even really fit her??? (i know the reason was cuz dotf did this lion placement, but is vld dotf? are the characters archetypes the same? no? i didn't think so!!!)

anyway because of the new serialized storytelling format, vld had to follow this really serious, high-stakes, even occasionally dark narrative to keep viewers engaged, and it just .. wasn't the same? like not only are characters' arcs dropping like flies, we're introducing new characters with barely any development or even personality, and it's not even that fun to watch anymore. what happened to my silly guys. what happened to goofin off in the castle. what happened to episode-long missions. this is not avatar. if i wanted to watch avatar i would just watch avatar.

and! in later seasons i think the crew caught on to how fans loveddd the episodic narratives in s1 and 2, so they tried bringing back one-off lighthearted episodes (dnd episode, game show episode, clear day episode, etc.) in an attempt to relive the old glory— and they were fun to watch on their own, sure, but were completely detached from the rest of the story atp. literally the only reason why i even remember these episodes is because they weren't a part of the narrative's incomprehensible sludge

don't even get me started on how the crew hated its audience. don't get me started on the ship bait, the weird canon queerbait situation(s), the irresponsible encouragement of parasocial fan relationships with VAs, artists, creators, you name it. it's how we got one of The worst fandoms in recent history. it's how vld was one of the newer fandoms that started an whole new era of fandom etiquette — namely, disregarding all previous fandom norms in favor of the most childish, pearl-clutching, moral-panicky discourse you'd find daily, and consequently you wouldn't EVER dare bring up to a normal person who exists in the real world.

the crew hated its audience so much, it essentially punished its fans by shutting down all fan theories, purposefully writing AROUND plot twists THEY SET UP, leaving a really messy and plot-hole-filled final script. they especially hated the shippers so much that they shut down BOTH main camps — klance and sheith — for canon allurance, a truly horrible way to end both their character arcs since neither character gets all that satisfying of a conclusion (lance becomes a farmer, allura fucking dies)

this is already long enough but i hope this gives you a general idea :') i have so many emotions about vld. someday i'll make the retrospective video essay of my dreams. this was my nonstop fixation for two straight years. i wasted two years on this shit.

also this show's 8 seasons were released all in a span of 2 and a half years.

[deathbydarkelves]

I went to the bookstore yesterday and spent some time picking out semi-random fantasy books to read their first few lines or pages. And I was baffled by how few attempted to describe a place. Any specific place. So many started with characters talking in a blank white room, or characters musing about their own backstories in a similarly blank white room.

These weren’t your dime-a-dozen “romantasy” books, I was actually looking for something to seriously read. It’s been sad ages since I found a fantasy book that really truly sucked me in and teleported me someplace else.

No, these were books describing themselves as adventure stories. Or just a story which heavily involved its world. And yet maybe two of the dozen or more books I looked at actually tried to describe a place.

I described this experience to a friend and he said it may be a side effect of fantasy becoming a more popular genre recently. More books means there’ll be more shitty books. Fine, that makes sense. But I just… I can’t fathom approaching a fantasy story with the mindset that the world and place is secondary. Fantasy is about being someplace else. And these are pieces of original fiction. The authors had to come up with names and borders and landmarks. And then they don’t want to explore any of it? They don’t want to describe in loving prose how the river just paces from the town's stockade flows from the western mountains and glints gold under the rising autumn sun? I guess not, because they just open with dialogue and two characters existing… somewhere, in a blank room, and halfway through the first conversation the narrator gets distracted and starts explaining the last hundred years of history. Which have no direct relation to whatever is supposed to be happening.

The books I read and loved as a kid — Deltora Quest, The Inheritance Cycle, How to Train Your Dragon — those all took time to describe their worlds and place me and the characters within them. That’s what fantasy is. Hell that’s what WRITING is.

You don’t need a degree in geography and meteorology and archaeology and linguistics to build your world. You don’t even necessarily need to write the past hundred years of history. I respect the desire to write a character-centric story. But for fuck’s sake, put us somewhere.

Genuinely I cannot imagine caring so little about your characters and your readers that you can’t be bothered to put soft, rain-damp soil under their feet. Or hard-packed dirt in the market square marked with hoof prints. Or snow crusted over from yesterday’s warmth.

The Lord of the Rings wasn’t and isn’t such a big deal just because it was set in a fantasy land with elves and dwarves. It’s because there were incomprehensible amounts of love and care put into the world, and then into describing it. It's a story not just about its characters but about its world. Even just watching the movies you can see how much love was put into the world and how badly the creators wanted to show it to us. Earthsea and, stepping away from books, Critical Role are so good because there was love put into their worlds, and then the creators did everything in their power to show us those worlds. Have you listened to some of Mercer's environmental descriptions?

It’s not enough to come up with place names and list them off when relevant (or when they’re not). It’s the difference between reading about another country in a tourism book and actually going there.

Why bother writing someplace else if you don’t at least attempt to take us there?

It’s a goddamn shame. All this time I've been book-less, I thought my standards were just unnecessarily high and that I was misremembering how good the books of my childhood were. But no. No I think there actually is an issue where people think fantasy is just the presence of elves and wizards and maybe dwarves or dragons. From the fucking start fantasy has been about other worlds. You don’t have to try and write the next Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire but put some damn love into your work. Show your characters and your readers some damn love and put them somewhere.

Put us in a low-ceilinged tavern where shadows cling to the corners as thick as cobwebs. Describe the bounty hunter not just by her outfit, but by the way the fog is still clinging to her fur mantle as dew as she walks inside.

If you want to get better at writing it’s best to read, but at LEAST watch The Fellowship of the Ring or play Skyrim or something. Take a walk in your closest nature reserve/park. Put yourself somewhere else. Take in the sunlight filtering dappled through the whispering leaves, feel the earth under your feet and the air in your throat and lungs. Look up and watch wispy clouds float across the sky through a gap in the trees, birds darting from branch to branch below them. Stay there until that sweetens into an ache in your chest as you realize you will never bring anyone else into this exact place and moment. And then go home, open your manuscript, and try your absolute damnedest to do it anyway.

[curry-and-gunpowder]

Okay so I have some stuff to get off my chest, might get a bit heated, but I mean no disrespect to anyone, just expressing my genuine confusion and frustration and trying to make my stance on some matters clear.

Clearly I ship Odazai. But that does not mean I reject other interpretations of their relationship. Be it platonic, queerplatonic, brotherly, it's all lovely to me - I genuinely just enjoy their unique dynamic.

However, I am constantly on the brink of losing it over hearing them referred to as a father/son pair by so many people in the fandom. And I'm gonna attempt to break down why this interpretation bothers me so much.

Firstly, it just flies in the face of my personal experience of intergenerational friendships - I'm a young-ish Millennial with many Gen Z friends. And I find it completely incomprehensible to try and force people who are relatively close in age into such a dynamic. I'm aware that a lot of bsd fans are teens or young adults who maybe don't have much social contact with people outside their age range. But as a 30+ person on the Internet, let me tell you, five years? That's nothing. The plain truth is, the older you get, the less age starts to matter. Once you get out of school, you will interact with people of all ages regularly and you will have friends who are older or younger than you and nobody fucking cares. The thought of seeing any of my younger friends as my children is, pardon my french, fucking ridiculous.

Secondly, and I've spoken about this before, the fandom's tendency to parentify Odasaku way beyond what the text ever implies. It's easy to put him into the role, considering the way he cares for his orphans. In that way, he has some parental traits - but it's only a facet of his personality, and, i would argue, one that the fandom puts way too much emphasis on, imho. I'll gladly write some more meta on that at a later time, but doing that here would make the post even longer than it already is. Just to quickly reiterate, for anyone who hasn't read the dark era lightnovel - Oda does explicitly NOT treat the kids like his children. Why then would he treat Dazai like one? Dazai, whom he explicitly invites to go drinking with him in TDIPUD? How does that track? Is he supposed to be just a shitty parent? Or could it maybe indicate that he sees Dazai as his equal more than anything?

(Tangentially, I would argue that Oda's perception of what constitutes a child/an adult is horrendously skewed, considering his own past.)

Thirdly, and this is probably gonna be the one that might get me into hot water with some people, the thing I like to call the Cope. The tendency in fandom to manifest a hard line between groups of characters that somehow should never be crossed when shipping, otherwise that makes the ship badwrongtoxic. This is a phenomenon I've observed developing more and more in recent years, and it's ngl pretty worrying, because it's generally used to present one's own ship as "superior", and all "rival ships" as less than/bad. Ships with "significant" age gaps tend to fall into that category relatively often, but I suspect very few people actually genuinely care about the characters' ages, but rather use it as a shield to justify why these relationships are To Be Avoided. Odazai is an absolute stellar example of such a ship - by all means it should be way more popular than it is, considering the themes that surround it and the way its absolutely center to the nareative of bsd. But without fail, when I look up media for the ship, be it YouTube videos or simply browsing the tag on tumblr or pinterest, I see the same mantra repeated over and over - "how can you ship them, they're like father and son!"

(I'm concerned about the relationship you have with your parents, I say to myself in response.)

And its, quite frankly, just not the case. I cannot for the life of me find any indication of this so-called parental relationship anywhere in the text. All I can see is two people who are friends who have a deep and sincere love for each other.

In conclusion, not every relationship has to fall into the category of familial or romantic. Sometimes... people are just friends. Sometimes friends are some years apart in age. It's not shocking or special or anything, it literally happens all the time.

Just let them be friends. It's fine, really, it's allowed.

[eneiryu]

do you have any tips for people who want to start writing/posting works, but don't know where to start?

I’ve been mulling it over since I got your ask, and I think I have come up with a few things:

- Start small, not just in length but in concept. Plotting out fics in such a way that all the threads get satisfactorily tied up at the end, and things don’t feel rushed or dragged out or forgotten about, is a skill. I find it much, much easier to pick one single core concept, and build a whole, detailed story around that, than to successfully keep several metaphorical plates in the air. For example, with my last fic: I wanted Theo to convince himself he had to leave BH after the series finale, and then for him and Liam to run into each other years later, and end up having that explosive resolution. I could have felt like I needed to write all the in-between, or even the after, but really I didn’t. To steal a piece of writing advice I heard from someone else, ask yourself if you’re writing the most interesting parts of your character’s life/story, and if the answer is no, try stopping and writing that. Conveniently enough, that also usually ends up being the more fun parts to write. And, eventually—you’ll get to the point where writing out the epics is much, much easier.

- OUTLINE. Seriously, outline everything. If you have an idea, even if you don’t have any idea where it goes or anything other than the first sentence or summary? Write it down. Write it down immediately. You will forget things if you try to save it for later. My phone is full of incomprehensible chunks of stories, but that is how I get to comprehensible stories. And outlining honestly makes things so much easier. If I have an outline, I very rarely get “stuck.” I know what happens next, and it’s so much easier to thread the different moments together, than to sit there staring at an intimidatingly blank page, and feel like I need to come up with everything.

- Don’t worry about titles and summaries and tags until the story is actually done, and don’t stress yourself out trying to come up with the perfect one. I come up with my titles on the fly. One of the most talented fic writers I’ve ever come across has one-word titles, usually just some kind of noun (does the fic take place in an arena? The fic is tilted “Arena.”).

And, honestly, most importantly?

- Write for yourself, and for the fans that you have, not the fans that you wish you have. It’s so tempting to judge how “successful” you were at a story by how many comments or reblogs or likes you get, but my experience has been that there are so many stories, and so many posts, and so many different tastes and styles and whatever, that being “popular” in fandom is a mythical and almost impossible thing to achieve. Some of my favorite stories I’ve written are the ones that received the least notice, comparatively. I have made so many friends and have come to have a group of readers who names and pseuds and comments I genuinely remember and appreciate, because they show up again and again and take the time to leave the comments, or the reblogs, or the likes. They engage, with me and with the work that I do genuinely spend hours or my time and energy on, and having a handful of those readers show up in one of my stories, even if it doesn’t hit the same “mark” as some of my others? That’s a damn good day, right there.

Okay just kidding, one more:

- Have fun. Writing is seriously so much work, and it’s hard, and a lot of the time, it may feel like you’re shouting into the void. So you’ve got to write the things that you enjoy, that you want to see in the world, and then you’ve got to go put it into the world. If you’re having fun, your readers will know it and respond to it. And if you’re having fun, well, then—you’re having fun, aren’t you? 😊

[snellyfish]

Angie is so interesting from a morality perspective because while her ideas (that the need to escape is fueling the murders and that having some sort of order will help prevent murders) were largely good, she went about them in the most fucked up way. and I love that about her! it's such a cool character type where you're like "yeah I see what you're going for there's definitely logic in— aaand your morals are fucked"

plus she makes such an excellent foil to so many characters that exploring her through a relationship (platonic or romantic or anything else) lens is super fun

*holds Angie* I just think she's neat

100%!!!! ABSOLUTELY!!!!! I WANT YOU SO BAD!!!!!!!!

I just braindead watched 2 movies in the most overstimulated autistic way so I'm really bad at wording right now forgive me if I'm incomprehensible--

Her motives and reasonings (or as I perceive them) are soooo interesting to me and it sucks that people ignore her and brush her off because she's just Annoying, like yeah she wasn't meant to be outwardly likable and was absolutely batshit, but I understand her thought process and it's just not the kind of character I see very often. Like, yeah, she is annoying, this however does absolutely zero to distract from how unique but believable her characterization is!!!!

People just want cookie cutters of their favorite popular tropes of relatably flawed characters who are wholly good and easy to read, which is fine, obviously! They're popular characters for a reason! But I find that they're the easiest to enjoy and because of this characters with genuine out of the box creative ideas and concepts get SO stomped over. Angie is fucking weird! That's the point!

No interaction with her will ever be normal and that's what's FUN!!!!

And STILL, at the end of the day, she's still a relatable human being underneath it all if you dig deep enough with your little puzzle pieces; she's soooooo mmgngngngn SHAKING HER VIOLENTLY

[phoenixfurred]

hi, i genuinely hate people who diss shippers. first off, this is going to be basically incomprehensible so be prepared.

so i ship sunflower (OMORI). pretty popular ship, between sunny and basil. i'm sure we can at least acknowledge that tropes in which childhood friends become romantic. (YES I KNOW THERE'S MORE BUT THIS ISN'T AN OMORI POST AND I DON'T WANT TO GO ON FOR ANOTHER 2 HOURS). the point is it's a pretty popular and reasonable ship, avoiding spoilers as best as possible they go through some shit together so of course they're close. i don't even know if i ship them romantically or just like very close pals. not close pals (tm) but close pals (regular).

alright, thats just a little context.

i come across a lovely post (/s) on pinterest even, shocker the safe haven is here to make me angry, that says something along the lines of "the omori fandom would be better without sunflower shippers" with the caption "sorry (not really)"

so i click on the post to see dozens of people agreeing, and i think one said that it didn't match the vibe of the fandom?? one person said they shipped sunflower and had about 83 replies to their comment which i didn't look through because i really am trying to be an optimist and its so h a r d. aanyway.

first of all, i'm sure you tumblr users (yes you) are at least aware of the jelsa (jack frost x elsa) phenomena (?) that was happening at some point even if you didnt participate yourself. obviously those people posting this type stuff either a. weren't around then (more likely) or b. got sent to ship conversion therapy (funnier?). because like how can one be so against such a normal ship. obviously theyve had their ups and down but that brings me to point 2.

so many people think that just because a ship could never work out, it means you can never ship it (cancel culture my enemy). THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND IT'S A NEED. a ship that has no angst between characters (controversial), is a dull one. what it's saying is "these characters have never had any obstacles to work around or to strengthen their relationship". in my humble opinion that makes it uninteresting. it's nice to see a relationship going well of course but its also nicER to see characters put in emotional effort.

part of the reason why fandom exists is so that you can make content that's not canon and that INCLUDES ships that'd be toxic in the actual media. genuinely if you think fanon has to follow canon silence your trap. if anything shipper who do this are more likely to mischaracterize characters for their own ship to work which goes against this mindset.

(side note please dont do that thing where you dumb down a character to one trait it's so genuinely irritating i want to ARGH)

people this immersed in what ships can work and which are acceptable and "fanon vs canon" (and then the "canon" is also not) and all that need to, not joking, please go outside and interact with more literature and real people.

it's the whole thing about modern media today being very self-indulgent, so many characters nowadays are written to basically be self-inserts, and when people see a main character acting problematically (ex. Lolita) they immediately assume it's the author projecting which it isn't. can confirm as an author, i would not eat people. that's what writing books is for, at least for me.

ALSO literally no shippers are "ruining" a fandom unless it's like. they genuinely want a kid and an adult to get into a romantic relationship. (things like that). in which case, seek help. DO NOT SEND ANYBODY DEATH THREATS EVER, EITHER. OH MY GOODNESS IT SHOULD BE SELF EXPLANATORY. but literally if anything its people who try to police (ick) what ships or characters are acceptable to like that ruin the fandom. if you do this i hope this reaches you so you can stop because oh my god.

it doesn't hurt you and it doesn't hurt the fandom nor should it concern you, because as we all know it's not a human handpicking things to show up on your fyp, so literally just scroll. just scroll! so easy, so simple!

anyway TL:DR don't harass people or hate on people because of a ship they like even if it's toxic.

[sorceresssundries]

Fanfic meme questions - U, V, Y!

Hello, love! Thank you for the ask.

U: Is there a pairing you would like to write, but haven’t tried yet?

Yes!

Rolan x Gale Gale x m tav Rolan x tav Halsin x Gale Halsin x tav Lae'zel x Shadowheart

A lot, basically!

V: Are there certain comments you’ve received on your stories that have stuck with you?

So so so many. I keep all of them in a folder on my phone. Once there was a long gap between updating my fic, and I let my readers know I was struggling. Someone commented a long paragraph to say they may not always comment, but they're always reading and checking my work out and they will always offer a comment if I need it.

But any comment, even if it's just an emoji or a string of incomprehensible letters brings me such joy. I keep and re-read every single one and they light me up when I need it.

Y: What are your thoughts on your personal satisfaction with something you’ve written vs. the popularity of your stories?

It's very difficult to not fall into the trap of equating the quality of your work with the amount of hits/likes/comments it gets.

My favourite little fic has nowhere near the same amount as some of the others, but I love it so much.

Neil Gaiman said something about you can't listen to the negative, but you should also not get too caught up with the positive.

Sometimes I have to focus and think - 'If this fic received no positive comments, would I still like it?' and that kind of helps ground me and make sure i'm creating something i'm satisfied with.

It sounds cliché, but I genuinely believe people's best work is what they have found the most joy in. It shines through, you can see it, and as a reader you get to feel that glow and pass it on. It's pretty magical.

[icharchivist]

I follow an obscure character tournament and the other day fucking LAVI from d gray man showed up and somehow made it to round 2 and I was just like "now I know I'm biased bc Icha loves him but how the fuck did someone think Lavi was obscure??"

MY SWEET BOY

and you didn't even send me the post??? my boy :( the original liar boy

honestly dgm is Schrödinger-type obscure and popular depending purely if you've been online in the late 00s. because it was the peak of dgm's popularity and it was inescapable, however the popularity completely died down back to being extremely obscure these days. (i mean. Allen wasn't even CONSIDERED for the "tragic white hair boys tornament" as if he WASN4T THE MOST TRAGIC WHITE HAIR BOY EVER. he didn't go through the horrors to be ignored like this.)

also huh. from my experience in the 00s. Dgm was popular in European fandoms for sure, and of course Asian fandoms as well (can't talk about more) but i can say that, in the way back, i didn't know many American fans. And for cause, the manga has been extremely censored in the US to the point of becoming incomprehensible, due to its religious themes.

DGM was always one of the major best seller in France, but it was always an underground manga in the US for instance.

So dgm is in a bit of a difficult position when you want to discuss its popularity and the popularity of its characters.

Lavi is easy in the top three of the most popular character in the story as well, but the fact he disappeared from the plot 12 years ago (and even more tbh since he was already absent from the two arcs that preceeded him officially disappearing) has put him on the backseat of conversations in the fandom, usually replacing him with Link who, in the same timestamp, ended up basically replacing him in term of screentime. So it's kinda complicated because we all love him and all talk about him and we all want him back but those 12 years genuinely put a backseat to any worthwhile conversation about him and as a result other characters are much more on the foreground.

(also not to mention the amount of people who misinterpret him, but considering i wrote about 50k only about Lavi on this blog before i'm not exactly unbiased there)

But yeah i'm. i'm absolutely not a reference point here, i like a lot of obscure things, and dgm is just. really in a weird position there.

But tbh i think, as to put dgm on a poll, might as well going with actual obscure dgm characters. Like Johnny, who went from background character to main character in the past ten years. Or the Jasdebi twins, just for me, personally. OR KRORY (shout out to my Krory loving friend who always remind me why it's important to love Krory). Or Miranda. Or legit just. anyone other than the main four characters lmao.

.... but then again i'm a Lavi slut through and through so Lavi sweep.

[moonlitcomet]

What’s your process for world building? It’s so intricate and detailed, I’m very curious :>

I love this sort of question because I don't have a typical process. I genuinely just have random thoughts come into my head while talking to people or browsing the internet or reading books- much of the information I give when people ask me about it is made up on the spot and expanded upon later.

I think, however, the reason why my worldbuilding is so in-depth for what it is is because I utterly refuse to change old info unless it's absolutely needed [such as in the case of accidental stereotypes or resemblance to bigotry I wasn't aware of, or just plain weird and incomprehensible writing]. Many people struggle with perfectionism and the need to constantly change old info based on their current skill level, which can and will lead to stagnation.

I guess with that in mind, I worldbuild on a "yes, and?" basis. I always write new lore that is intended to work with old lore, not against it. If there's a little bit of weird writing that doesn't make sense, I try my best to make it make sense with new context.

A good example of this is how I've developed SRC stickmen over time. I've said for a while that they are human-adjacent but not human, but haven't really gone into detail on that until recently when I looked over their biology again and thought about it- they're generalist mammal omnivores that can eat almost anything, stocky and plantigrade, give live birth, and are known to be very strong and durable with extremely dense muscle.

What does this resemble? Bears!

So what did I do with that thought?

I decided they're related to bears, and not apes. And as such, I recently did some art showing related stickfigure races, the Unknownians- specifically Borelians and Olsdingans[dwarves], who you might notice look quite a bit like bears.

Now this info doesn't change anything about old stickfigure lore, because it just didn't exist back then. Yes-and-ing your lore certainly isn't the most popular approach, but it works, and I think it can help lead to a fun sort of "evolving world" that changes and grows in a way that your readers can keep up with.

[paeonie-s]

 csm first half op + eds ranking hehe

op 1: KICK BACK tbh wasnt a massive fan of the song when i came out but its grown on me w the full context & lyrics it slayed idc NOW THE VISUALS ... filled me w euphoria when i first saw it have (re)watched half the fucking movies referenced ONLY BC MIDTERMS WAS BEATING MY ASS .. so creative and fun and dynamic and hectic as fuck the timing and directing on this is like incomprehensibly good. its funny asf and has such beautiful lively enviornments and lighting and such a cohesive feel despite how batshit everything is NO ONE HAS TALKED ABT THE SHOT W THE MOUNTAINS AND SKY AND THE BULLETS. AM I THE ONLY OEN WHOSE INSANE ABT THAT ONE. so so beautiful literally a look into the minds of fujimoto and the ani staff and a gift upon this earth. 10/10

ed 1: SUCH A GOOD SONG !!!!!!! fit super well w the end of the first ep & is just genuinely such a banger. credits roll was smart for the airing of the actual ep, helped me take in the whole ep and appreciate the best parts of it. the mv released on mappas channel is rly solid considering it just recycled scenes from the actual ep !! love first half of the vid + the zoom in on pochitas tail the most ofc !! 6/10 bc the song is a banger but its just no as obsessable bc of the lack of og visuals :(

ed 2: GORGEOUSSS VISUALS tho it doesn’t feel v well aligned w the tone of csm BUT STILL !!!! song aligns super well w the visuals atleast & i love love the look of the animation, the environments especially are so beautiful 😭 i think the denji falling into the sky scene were especially well timed w the music and made me v emo about his character. esp love the hayakawa fam focus and how power is literally the one who PULLS HIM BACK DOWN .. beloveds 7.5/10 ok i like it picasso

ed 3: FAVE SONG its so good. so much to say abt this one rapid change of scene linework shading color sfx is fucking insane each unique aes makes me physically ill its so good. so gripping the TRANSITION from makima goddess to hayakawa fam W THE DOOR. AND THE TRAUMA. fave part is the hayakawa family shots towards the end that combined w the lyrics perfectly encapsulates what csm is thematically to me. goretastic insanity used as a means of making the intensely human obviously doomed connections at the heart of the story that much more impactful. fully embraces the best parts of csm and rips my heart out all in the course of 90 seconds 10/10 idc idc

ed 4: POWAAA !!!! song is such a fucking banger i mean it this shit has had me dancing for weeks BUT THE VISUALS .... so dynamic and insane love how they played dress up w her and also made sure the audience knew she was a lil freak. theres so much to love and appreciate about the visuals and how fucking sick the movements are and the colors but truly this ones just vibes. 9/10

ed 5: fs my FAVE of all the ones currently out (i think this is the most popular opinion lmao) but the combination of the frantic, very dense visuals and a rly cool fast paced song scratched smth in my brain. so much inspiration to dig through and BEAUTIFUL use of colors, lighting, and effects animation omg. Those shots of himeno are stapled on the inside of my eyelids i love them. so many art references w/ a great selection to specifically represent the chaos of the eternity devil love the use of optical illusions (ONCE AGAIN W THE LIGHTING !!!) and use of timing to create a jarring effect (horses running in slo mo (same w some shots of the chs) immediately being contrasted w rapid movement/blinking of eyes, fireworks, shots of the sky w the clouds racing across) as well as the rapid changing of one shot to another is so insane. another detail i love is that it has a almost collage like look bc each background/piece of ch or effects animation has dif linework, uses dif brushes, as well very unique lighting and shading. also so so much to dissect w how it foreshadows later events (if u start looking there are like. 4 dif instances of guns in this bitch holy fuck) and the themes of the work as a whole but i have classes a life etc that will have to wait til winter break. so genuinely obsessed w this one it was literally the one that convinced me (most obnoxious csm fan) that mappa knows exactly what theyre doing and are likely making the actual anime the way they are as a deliberate commitment to make it even more insane later down the line. i am a drastic rapid tonal shifts enjoyer i love this ed 10/10 its my gf

ed 6: not a massive fan of the visuals or the song for this one :( the instrumental of the song felt kinda jarring after the sequence of denji jumping into the eternity devils mouth, i was def expecting a dif kind of vibe. the visuals were cool, but i don't feel like the static characters were used particularly well. some of the transitions and “camera” movements also rly didn't feel very well suited to the cuts they were in. my fave part was the settings and backgrounds, especially the textures and the way the movement “through” the bgs were done, tho the 5th ed had a very similar concept and i think executed it better. kind of disappointing with how much i enjoyed the prev eds, but it was still enjoyable to watch and analyze how they constructed the visuals. 4/10 bc i respect what they were trying to do i just dont think they had the time to develop a unique vision

[bredforloyalty]

i watch rnm 06x07 (late, as always) and wow the show just keeps getting worse! my issue isn't even the meta jokes (and the jokes ABOUT meta jokes), it's that it's so boring! it's completely lost it's charm imo. like some episodes this season have been fantastic but overall she is flopping </3

ohh it's interesting that you think that, thank you for indulging me angel :] <33

i wanted to answer this later (contrary to popular belief i have ""obligations"" mainly bc of something called """university""") (🤢) but it wouldn't let me rest so let me just say this: you're right but i don't agree gydnfy but also i agree.

i didn't like the latest episode, this is nothing that others haven't said but pointing out that a concept is forced, that it sucks, doesn't make it suck less haha.. "not a likable premise" is right, i don't know if we were supposed to disagree with rick but i mean, i couldn't, it's like the joke is just on the audience now. and it felt like the writers needed to vent. i still enjoyed some moments a lot and actually when i watched it with my sister i forgave some jokes i groaned at the first time, like it grew on me just a tiny bit on a second watch but it's a no from me, specifically because of the meta bullcrap

i also happen to have a problem with what morty (as in the writers through morty) said about creativity, i'm no big shot tv show writer (lmaoo) but i think if that's how they view art/creating, we've got some ,, issues mayhaps! but it's whatever that's just one detail, my real complaint is that the episode wasn't really fun, creative or funny, and it felt like it hated itself. sorry for being harsh it's out of genuine love. and i think when a show's actually clever, there should be no need to remind us and poke fun at trite concepts and at shitty jokes. it's not like i know better but umm 🧐 get off the high horse and Do the clever stuff, Balance sci-fi with drama and comedy, Be earnest. or perish, you know. but that's just my opinion

anyway sorry i went on a bit of a tangent there, the season as a whole isn't a flop in my opinion, it's just all in the process of evolving. there are things that changed that i'm happy about and things that i'm not happy about.. the pacing felt smoother, apart from maybe full meta jackrick they didn't do that thing where they take on too much in a single episode (and then it's a fast-paced mess full of incomprehensible sci-fi jargon gydgxy), i think the storytelling was a bit better... i like what they're doing with canon, i like that they chose to take away portal travel and make the first half family-oriented and more sitcom-y, i think that was needed. bethcest was daring. i think there's a lot to like about this season

whether the show's truly funny at this point is arguable (but if you don't think it is funny at all, why watch lol) - i think there were a decent number of laughs, it's not the best r&m can do, it's not a Great season, but i'd argue this show has never been consistently great. unless you count the first season! kind of. being a season one elitist is one way to live but it seems a bit limiting and i really do enjoy each of the five seasons before this to varying degrees and for slightly different reasons. shows that aren't sure what they're doing from the get-go or shows that aren't sure how to keep up interest and keep the story going and have it be consistent are always highly divisive because like,, they give you a lot to play around with.... a lot to consider, many different things you can like about it. so of course we have different ideas of what it should be

i don't even know what the point i wanted to make is, but i will say that i don't see season 6 as worse or boring, i see it as different. fundamentally different, maybe that's why it can't be as funny or funny in the same way or satisfy me personally. with the many people who seem to love the new developments, rick being gentler and whatnot, i'm inclined to say "the ideas i have about the best direction for rick and morty and the ideas the writers have (+ the wishes of long-time fans) are growing farther apart" instead of "the show's deteriorating"

we could've had more morty this season. the show is its best imo when the rick-morty dynamic is front and center and that's where my personal dissatisfaction and my ideas and wishes come in: i think season 6 does many things right, but the aspect of this show that's the most integral to my enjoyment and that made it particularly special to me is barely there anymore. i am not interested in rick being careful, apologetic or considerate, especially with his grandson, that's not what i signed up for and they couldn't make me believe the shift in the dynamic or appreciate it, really. i just think rick and morty are less compelling this way, in that regard it's boring to me too!! and i never opposed rick becoming a better person/less controlling! lol i just don't buy it if it happens this way. i saw someone say the show lost its teeth, i referred to it as having been castrated gyshy and i do feel that. i miss the teeth.

[explainslowly]

Dark side of the moon is definitely one of the season 5 episodes where I enjoy the Salmondean conflict, it's so juicy.

I have to say, Sam's reaction to trauma of his fucked up family is honestly kind of healthy and uncomplicated. He just wants the fuck out. On the opposite end, Dean is like, fully bonsai-kittened by his upbringing. Not that he has zero idea that their family is fucked up (IMO) but also his family was the only way for him to fulfill his emotional needs and this has ultimately created a coctail of positive and negative feelings about his past that he is utterly incapable of untangling or making sense of. That is: I think he is vaguelly aware that the way John parentified him was fucked, but also I think that the feelings he got from trying to be a caretaker for Sam are some of the only positive feelings he got from their family unit. And like, idk, what the fuck are you supposed to do with that?

It's classic 'trauma making past incomprehensible' to me. I don't know why Sam's brain is not fucked the same way, but it's just not. (I know a popular reading is that Dean being a stable influence in his life is the difference here - which I am 50/50 on - I am not opossed to the reading, but it's also not implaussible to say that he was not that reliable and stable, after all, he was also a really young kid)

Anyway, it's fucking dark watch them be incapable of having a conversation with each other because of something someone else did to both of them (to be clear - I think the person incapable of having the conversation here is mainly Dean - but also I genuinely don't know what the solution is, when God is slowly turning up the heat in the pot, which is why Supernatural is a tragedy, ultimately, igs)

[areus-in-a-little-cave]

Genuinely what the fuvk is that one person on your post saying its Genuinely incomprehensible agsvhdhdh

help me ember please I finally understand why people don't like having popular posts

[paragonrobits]

also people genuinely not realizing that metaphors about war and its impact being essential to Transformers because they think of the series as nothing but toy commercials is honestly kind of hysterical to me because actually maintaining the illusion that Transformers doesn't have strong characters or fairly obvious narratives requires being so unaware of any of the actual shows that it would be less surprising if they had never heard of Transformers at all, its not very subtle about it

and basing it purely on toy commercials you saw as a kid isn't really an excuse either. This is a very popular franchise with a really good wiki and tons of fandom input, if you're going to deny how obvious it is so you can be a smug asshole on line, you really have no one to blame but yourself when people start hating you for being a dick about it

its even more annoying with its huge MLP fans from the Friendship Is Magic days that have that attitude because MLP isn't any different, it was also originally created as a toy commercial and grew past that into something distinctive, and it shouldn't be hard to grasp the fact that just maybe a nearly 40 years old franchise that has been continously reinvented over the decades and is most well known from animated series, comic books and films but not from its toyline alone

and how its had a massive emotional impact to the point that just simply mentioning relevant lines that sound incomprehensible out of context get a MASSIVE emotional reaction from people

well maybe there's more to it than just toy commercials! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT????