#there are only 16 books and they finished the first book in two episodes how does this work

[dykrophone]

pll was my entire adolescence i swear to god. like i grew up on that franchise it also was the original catalyst for turning my entire friend group gay

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

What you say to this

Let's debunk all the lies:

1 - "Kataang is one-sided" We literally hear Katara talk about how he gives her hope in the begining of EVERY SINGLE EPISODE, she canonically starts thinking of him as potential boyfriend instead of just a friend right in the middle of the first season (and after it we never see her having a crush on another boy like say Jet), the kiss on the cave at the start of season two is HER idea and she clearly enjoyed it, she is visibly upset when he's pulling away from her after Appa's kidnaping, her rage at his death is a clear parallel both to Tui and La as well as Oma and Shu, she is jealous when he's paying attention to other girls and flirting with him, she clearly liked the kiss during the Invasion even if she didn't see it coming, she threated to murder Zuko if he ever hurt Aang again, and even in the Ember Island fiasco she full on says to Aang that what her actress said about her only seeing him as a little brother is not true.

2 - "The age/maturity gap makes it weird" It's literally the same age gap as Zutara. It's TWO years, not twenty. Katara likes having fun and goofing around just as much as Aang does. Aang steps up and embraces his responsibilities just as much as she does when he discovers what the Fire Nation did to the world, and his people. Honestly, despite being older, Zuko is the least mature of all three - hell, 16-year-old Zuko is less mature than 13-year-old Zuko, which makes perfect sense because his abuse and banishment made him double down on all of his flaws, mainly his stubborness and tendency to lash out in rage.

3 - "They spent the second half of book 3 always fighting and disagreeing" They literally were only in conflict during The Southern Raiders, Ember Island Players, and then on the first episode of a four-part saga. Three episodes out TEN. Katara and Zuko meanwhile spent 5/6 of the entire series being enemies, AND she only forgave him when there was only ONE more episode left until the finale.

4 - "Zutara doesn't have any real red flags" Ya know, besides the fact that Zuko's nation and family commited genocide against Katara's people, and that he believed that was 100% okay, and that he chased her and her friends all over the world being openly hostile and violent, and he once hit her so hard it knocked her out cold, and he constantly calls her a peasant because he's very classist AND racist to the point of not recognizing her father's authority/status, and he attacked her when she offered to heal his uncle and then again in Ba Sing Se after she thought they had bonded, him helping Azula in battle was why she got to murder Katara's best friend and then he also sent an assasin after the Gaang to finish/repeat the job, and after all that he still felt entitled to her forgiveness after he was accepted into the group. Once again: this is why no one takes zutarians seriously. They love bragging about their ship being "complex and intriguing" then try to completely negate canon because for all their talk about "calling out abuse in Kataang/Maiko", they are, at their core, enablers.

5 - "Zutara was part of Ehasz's vision for book 4" No, it wasn't, and the man said so himself. He liked Mai and Maiko, and wrote lots of Kataang episodes. He has repeatedly let everyone know that the supposed interview in which he talks about how Bryke forced Kataang to happen at the last minute is FAKE.

6 - "We didn't get book 4 because Bryke wanted a movie" Bryke didn't really WANT the Shyamalan movie, but Nickelodeon, their bosses, wanted money. They literally walked out on the production because they were unhappy with it. They were OFFERED to make season four, but didn't feel it was necessary and stuck to three - and while I don't think that was the best choice, it still worked and it was a decision fully divorced from any movie deal or ship war.

7 - "People get angry at mention of zutara despite there being nothing wrong with the ship itself (besides not being canon)" Literally no one is obligated to like a ship just because YOU think it's perfect, and that kind of entitlement, the "I'm better/smarter than everyone else" complex, combined with all the lies, is exactly why people tend to hate the SHIPPERS and by extension the ship itself.

Admiting that zutara has always been pure fanon and that it isn't for everyone doesn't mean you have to stop liking it. Quit acting like a spoiled child, go enjoy your ship in peace, and respect other people's right to be indifferent to it or actively disliking it. Their personal preference is not a personal attack against you, stop treating it as such.

[starboysbrainrot]

hey,

i know that you don’t talk interact with character metas a lot in the atla fandom, but i’ve seen lately that you’re very defensive of characters like Zuko & Jet, which is unusual in this fandom because Zuko/Jet stans tend to demonise eachothers all the time, so it’s a bit surprising to see your blog

so if i may ask, what’s you honest thought on these two characters ?

read under cut cuz it’s pretty damn long

hey anon

first, thank you for your ask ! it’s always a pleasure to discuss things about atla :)

as you rightfully pointed out, I tend to avoid interacting with most atla metas. but I don’t mind responding to some of them.

now to answer your question, I wouldn’t say that it’s particularly a rare thing to be fond of both Jet & Zuko as characters… and I sure as hell wouldn’t call me a stan. I like them, yes, but I like them as characters who are both traumatised war teenagers stuck in their violent & toxic behaviour and who try to be better at the end of their character arc. I certainly don’t like them because I think they did nothing wrong or idk what else.

and tbh, some Zuko stans have a way of demonising Jet that I absolutely hate, while Jet stans rarely openly hate him, they can be critical of Zuko’s character, yes, but they’re often way more nuanced and levelheaded. although I’ve seen some big ass bullshit coming from both stans but what’s new, we’re in the atla fandom after all…

now if I had to be honest : they’ve both terribly written in the second half of their character arcs. and don’t shoot me down before I finish talking, I swear I don’t completely hate the way they’re written, only a part of it.

like Jet ? BSS redemption arc ? him helping the gaang ? working actively on his traumas after his brainwash ? great idea, love it, but terrible execution. his death is tragic but the aftermath is a fucking joke. the gaang only mentions him again two times, first in the TSR, to point out that he was a lunatic that killed innocent people (….ok) and in EIP (probably the one episode I hate the most in the whole show) to mock his death with the most apathetic “you know, it was really unclear” from Sokka ?? fucking hated every second of it. but on paper ? love the character, he’s literally my comfort character alongside with Zuko and I cherish him deeply. I really wished that his character arc would have been written differently but now what’s done is done. and don’t get me started on how mf imperialist warlord Iroh is painted in a golden light in opposition to the 16 yo orphan boy from the mf oppressed side of the war that died under a mf lake. how so many people are painted in a better light than Jet. Jet being canonically demonised in show pisses me off. what’s the point of concluding his redemption arc in season 2 only to compare him to a killer lunatic in season 3. make it make sense please.

now if I had to be honest about Zuko… I’m a book 1 & 2 Zuko enjoyer. he was at his peak at that time and although there are some episode I genuinely like in book 3 that handle Zuko’s character, I genuinely hate a handful of them. (like The Firelord & The Avatar) his redemption arc was working until book 3. it was meaningful, logical, COHERENT, until book 3. and I think his arc’s weakest point is mf Iroh. cuz I may not be a Iroh anti but boy do I have beef with him. yes Iroh, maybe not only giving tea but actively deconstructing your nephew propagandist ideas about the world imprinted in him by years of living under the roof of the mf firelord COULD BE A GOOD IDEA. yk, being on sea with a 13 yo and not trying to work on his imperialistic mindset baffles me. ignoring his internal turmoil in BSS instead of confronting him about it baffles me. it’s not only that Iroh is a shitty uncle, it’s also bad writing. because the show praises the hell out of Iroh for something he didn’t really do (helping Zuko’s redemption arc). book 3 Zuko has such a shitty way of portraying his redemption because of Iroh’s omnipresence. like no, Iroh is not part of the redemption. also, the show painting Zuko as a character having to repair the damage of his forefathers, the show painting azula as an unredeemable monster, while mf Iroh is adored by the gaang and lives his best life in Ba Sing Se after the war is absolutely stupid and downright ridiculous.

now that being said… I love both characters, like I said. I also love to imagine possible scenarios about how the arc could have been handled differently. (Jet joining the gaang, Jet never being left by the Freedom Fighters, Zuko joining the gang in season 2, Zuko trying to bond with his sister, etc)

I’ll always hate the missed opportunity of finalising Zuko’s redemption arc after meeting Jet, cuz that would have been a possibility. that after meeting Song, Lee, Jin, Jet, after seeing all the pain in the EK, all the pain in the world, he finally turns his back on his father. Jet would have been kind of the last part to push Zuko to choose the right path. instead we got “I betrayed uncle” and okay I’m just going to forget Zuko Alone, and Zuko’s whole ass BSS arc, where apparently I was suppose to understand that IROH… had been such a prominent part of the redemption arc.

anyways, both Jet & Zuko deserve better from the show & the writers.

(side note but also I hate the fandom depiction of both characters !!! y’all can’t actually be serious cuz if you can’t choose between either demonising/babying mf 16 yo (as if… a middle ground didn’t exist, yk, as if… characters had… layers…) then idk what I can do for y’all.)

[study-with-aura]

Thursday, March 21, 2024

I should be able to finish my current book tomorrow, but pictured is the book I will read next. It's a graphic novel, so it should only take me a couple of days at most.

It was interesting however comparing what I had planned to read next with something I read today as part of my studies. Hungry Ghost apparently dives into the topic of eating disorders according to the description I saw before adding it to my list. In the article I had to read today about self-control, I felt frustrated with how the writer of the article described self-control or lack thereof.

TW (eating disorders, disordered eating, religion):

The writer attributed gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins, to a lack of self-control. The writer is also a pastor at a church and went into how he could not even control his "idolatry worship" of food (gluttony) and he was called to lead the people at his church. It was very focused on how eating too much is a sin and it's a lack of self-control, when I know that for many, it is because of emotions or even physiological needs due to something being out of holistic alignment. It also made me worry that others who use this curriculum and take this course who may have issues with their weight whether that be because they are considered clinically overweight or obese or because they have an eating disorder could potentially make things worse for them mentally. I don't have an eating disorder, but I know someone in my dance class who went inpatient for one at the children's hospital a couple of years ago. Something about the article did not sit right with me, and whether it was the whole lack of self-control being a sin thing (which I personally do not believe in the case of many people who are considered above their "ideal" weight) or the whole good food bad food nonsense that was littered throughout the article, I'm not sure. Perhaps it was both, especially since eating disorders are often about control in some manner and can deal with the labeling of food as good or bad.

Article link

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Learned to construct equilateral triangles, squares, and special angles + practice + honors work

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed Unit 21 vocabulary + read the first part of chapter 42 of Emma by Jane Austen

Spanish 2 - Copied new vocabulary

Bible I - Read Judges 16

World History - Read about Sigmund Freud + answered questions + completed the Nationalism in China, Turkey, and India assignment

Biology with Lab - Read and watched videos on how biological clocks indicate recent creation (creationist perspective)

Foundations - Read more on self-control + read another article displaying media bias + read a short scholarly paper about errors in history textbooks

Piano - Practiced for two hours in one hour split sessions

Khan Academy - None today

CLEP - None today

Streaming - Watched episode 3 of Life on Our Planet (evolutionist perspective)

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Reading - Read pages 282-330 of House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

Chores - Put away the dishes + took the trash out

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (Proverbs 16)

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

-

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful for being able to see how beautiful nature is.

Quote of the Day:

The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.

-Sigmund Freud

🎧Prelude in G sharp minor, Op. 11 No. 12 - Alexander Scriabin

[sirtadcooper]

I was tagged by: @matbaynton - thank you! <3

Tag someone you want to know AND/OR some of your besties.

This turned into a monster of a thing so I'm sticking it under a cut!

Favourite colour: I am rubbish at this question. I love various colours in various contexts, but at the moment I am really gravitating towards greens. Green is a colour I haven't paid much attention to before, but for some reason over the last few months I have taken an interest in it. I even bought a solid green jumper!

Last song: When Things Explode by Unkle. It's a song I first heard on an episode of Person of Interest and it's now on one of my YouTube music playlists. Takes me right back!

Last movie: I had to check my Letterboxd for this - that's how often I'm watching films at the moment! It was the 1995 version of Persuasion that I rewatched at the end of August. A film I only discovered recently but has become one of those instant comforting favourites.

Currently watching: Oh heck - I'm struggling to keep track, there are so many! I'm watching The English at the moment. Also Outsiders series 2, Taskmaster series 16, New Girl (on season 2), This Farming Life series 6 with my dad on a Sunday morning, All Creatures Great and Small series 4, Fletchers' Family Farm series 2, Schitt's Creek with @phantomviola (on season 5), The Musketeers (series 2) and Black Books (series 3) with @userdjarin and who could forget Our Flag Means Death season 2 which has taken over my brain! Along with all that I squeezed in a Primeval series 2 rewatch which I finished the other night. [slaps roof of my brain] this bad boy can fit so many narratives in it.

Other stuff I watched this year: HAH! I have an IMDb list of TV shows I've watched this year! It's long as heck! Silk, The IT Crowd, Black Sails, The Last of Us, Lost in Space, Endeavour, The Terror, Arrested Development, Community, Vicious, Prehistoric Planet, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, Ted Lasso, Miranda, The North Water, His Dark Materials, And Then There Were None, Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell, The Great British Sewing Bee, The Bear, Blackadder, 30 Rock, Chernobyl and The Expanse. And those are just the ones worth mentioning! And some of these I watched four times! Okay, one thing. Okay, it was The Terror.

As for films, it's a poor show this year - I haven't watched as many (see above for reason why). I have seen the latest Spiderverse film and I've love to see Barbie!

Shows I dropped this year/didn’t finish: The Mandalorian (sob!), Vikings (I think I was maybe an episode or two shy of finishing the first season but... man... I just wasn't having fun), My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (to be fair this might have been last year, I can't remember, but I know I stopped a few episodes into season 2), Fleabag (I watched one or two episodes... wasn't quite for me).

Currently reading: Darwin by Adrian J. Desmond and James R. Moore (about 100 pages in but I'm taking this one slow because I'm not hyperfixating on him) and Dead Famous by Greg Jenner which I am taking even slower. I've read quite a few books related to the Franklin Expedition this year (thanks, The Terror) and for a while I was reading pretty solidly but I guess that's what hyperfixation does to you!

Currently listening to: I'm not really listening to music much these days thanks to YouTube's annoying ad blocker pop-up so I'm typing this in silence, haha! But podcast-wise I'm doing great. Three Bean Salad is probably my favourite podcast at the moment. The humour is just too good, and I look forward to hearing the lads every week. I'm also binging The Rest is History which is a bit more serious but still has its fun moments. I'm also listening to Off Menu, No Such Thing as a Fish, The Bones Booth, Taskmaster: The Podcast, The Mariner's Mirror Podcast, and odd episodes of RHLSTP if I know the guest. I save podcasts for when I'm doing something like washing the dishes, walking or driving.

Currently working on: Now that the puppy I found at the end of August is vaccinated, she can go out and about, and that has led to me abandon the polymer clay for a while to return to a hobby that I haven't spent much time on since early 2020 at the latest. I wanted to make her some nice collars and leads so she looks smart for our walks which I will inevitably be photographing. I know it's kind of hard to see but I made this collar and lead for her.

I was a bit worried that I'd forgotten how to sew the leather but thankfully not. I have a few more straps of leather lying around that I'd like to make into collars and leads as well. And several rope leads that need whipping (you wrap thinner twine around the thicker rope to finish it and protect the end from fraying) but I'm having to take my time with those because the twine is murder on my soft, delicate, feminine hands. I can whip maybe four leads before my fingers are red. It's worth the pain!

Current obsession: Our Flag Means Death has taken over my life once again. Whatever happens in the finale next week, I know I will be a mess. Heck, I'm already a mess.

I'm tagging: some recent mutuals so we can get to know each other, but no pressure! @tigerballoons, @woofety, @jackharkness, @jddryder, @ajcrowleys and @skatingthinandice! <3

[tobeflyhaikyuu]

The K-Dramas I've watched

Playful Kiss

Possibly the first kdramas i've ever watched, it was either this one or The Miracle. I enjoyed it at first but i found it was an adaptation of Itazura na Kiss and went to watch the other adaptations and hated the story as a whole. Also when I found the Thai version it was game over cus that version is so much better than the source material.

Weighlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo

It was cute!! And very funny, I don't have much to say about it tho.

Goblin

Ignoring the fact he is idk how many years old and she was 18-19 when they properly meet... it's kinda cute. And heartbreaking. The Goblin and Reaper duo is also just iconically hilarious.

Doom At Your Service

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE EVER!! The writing is so good and the story is so beautiful and I mean, Park Bo-Young is one of my favorite actresses for a reason. I just cannot properly put into words how much i adore this show, honestly.

While You Were Sleeping

How I meet both Suzy and Lee Jong-Suk and i loved them and their characters both so much. The story was very engaging too.

Strong Woman Bong-Soon

Park Bo-Young and Park Hyung-sik <3 Do Bong-Soon and Ahn Min-Hyuk <3 They were too good in this man, I'd love to see them in another drama together. One thing that felt uncessary to me was the gangsters and their whole screentime, it just wasnt entertaining or important to the story afjsahfkdagj

True Beauty

Very funny, very entertaining. Also how I feel in love with Cha Eun-woo. Also yes I loved Seo-jun but it made a lot more sense for Joo-kyung to be with Su-ho, me thinks.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Entertaining but the depiction of mental disabilities is really just... atrocious. It's a little hard to rewatch tbh.

Business Proposal

Kim Se-jeong is a treasure. And this show was very funny and cute.

Alchemy Of Souls

Amazing, showstopping, spectacular, no wonder it was so popular.

My Only Love Song

Also one of the first ones i've watched, hilarious too. But i dont remember thinking much about the romance tbh. At least it's on the shorter end so if you dont feel like committing to 16+ 1-hour long episodes, this is a good one

W: Two Worlds

I. LOVE. THE. CONCEPT. OF. COMIC CHARACTERS. BEING SELF AWARE!!!! It's so interesting and I think W explored it so well, I'd love more kdramas like it.

The Miracle

I remember very little about this one lol but i do remember the over fatphobia, like yes its what the show criticizes but i remember feeling so uncomfortable watching it. it's been like 7 years tho so i cant properly talk about it

Extraordinary You

comic book characters being self aware <3 also think this was did a fantastic job with that concept. it also made me cry so badly, my heart still aches for Haru and Dan-Oh

Pinocchio

This is the one last one I finished, and I binged it. Was not expecting to be so enthralled by a drama that's essencially about news reporting but I was.

Why Her

Reccommend to me by a close friend who adores pain... I was also not expecting to be so engaged with this one but I was and it was so painful, omg but so so good!

+ unfinished ones

Hotel Del Luna

Mr. Queen

Rookie Historian Goo Rae-Hyeong

Destined with You

Magic of the Abyss

Uncanny Counter

King: The Eternal Monarch

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

Run On

Crash Landing on You

Hospital Playlist

Celebrity

Crash Course In Romance

Romance Is A Bonus Book

A Love So Beautiful

King The Land

See You in My 19th Life

The King's Affection

Judge vs Judge

Happiness

Tale of The Nine Tailed

Law School

Dr. Romantic

++ dropped

Shooting Stars

The Glory

Love Alarm

My ID is a Gangnam Beauty

Legend of the Blue Sea

Boys Over Flowers

The Heirs

[asterdust]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers!

tagged by @extraordinarilyextreme thank youuu!!! missed these things

1. How many works do you have on AO3? - 23 ???!#?$!#!#!#!

2. What's your total AO3 word count? — 92,124 (a whole fucking high fantasy novel already... i know)

3. What fandoms do you write for? — it depends where my brain rot is... right now it's lianhualou and weak hero class 1

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

a family portrait (weak hero class 1, suhosieun)

because it takes two to whisper quietly (bad buddy series, kornwai)

and i've been meaning to tell you, i think your house is haunted (stranger things, ronance)

we were there, first love (bad buddy series, patpran)

we could be immortals, just not for long (stranger things, steddie)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? — i do!! i think it's lovely and i'm really happy getting reactions or feedback from other people in the fandom!!

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? — angsty... hmm... i don't advocate it in my system unless im consuming it or it ends in a happy ending lol on that bleak moonlit night is probably my saddest but that isn't angsty i guess???

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? — as you can see, i am very much fond of writing happy endings. when my ships don't end up in canon or one of the pairings ends up dead or half-dead....... i will write a thousand ways to keep them alive

8. Do you get hate on fics? — hopefully not. there was one time wherein this reader accused me of spoiling them the last episode of bad buddy (when it hadn't aired yet) because i wrote a fic out of the fucking preview lolololol my bad i guess

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? — only one time! it's for a 骷髅幻戏图 (phantom skeleton painting) fic called meet me in that memory. it's just one scene but it was really difficult to execute.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? — if you count that one story i wrote in high school wherein all my favorite dystopian and fantasy book series characters were trapped in a totalitarian institution... I didn't even know they're called fanfic back then ^_^

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? — hopefully not! but if someone ever did, i hope u get a really bad stomachache for a month

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? — no

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? — not yet

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? — there is just too many to mention

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? — two of my whc1 fics... and there's 1 lhl that's been dusting on my gdocs like... where is the motivation to live i'll just pretend to d word and change my name

16. What are your writing strengths? — people say it's dialogues? i do love a good script.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? — describing? emotions? i don't know. can writing also be a weakness of itself?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? — hmm I've tried it for my original works (in my native language) but it's not working for me... maybe this isn't bad if executed well

19. First fandom you wrote for? — the grip hyyh yoonkook had on me

20. Favorite fic you've written? — my favorite fic is all's well that ends well to end up with you, a patpran fic. there's just tenderness and cleverness and patpran-ness in it that i cannot explain.

tagging: @tunnelofdusk @returning-spring @redemption-revenge @difeisheng

[casyawn]

4, 7, 11, 13, 16, 22, 31, 36, 40 ⚰️

oh my god that's so many. i am sorry for what i am about to unleash.

4. Say you’re recommending the show right now, how would you pitch it?

it REALLY depends who i'm recommending it to but the main points i would hit is that it's good, it's short and it's about vampires in the worst relationship ever. i do make sure to specifically say the relationship is abusive especially if i'm talking to someone i think would be into it for the romance, and i usually also say that it's pretty trigger-heavy. for some people it's a deterrent but for others it's a plus, so. i also sometimes describe the vampire element as 'what if you lived forever but also had a mental illness' which i think is fun.

7. If you read the book, what are your favorite changes from page to screen? 

Ohh i have many. the obvious ones like louis and claudia (but louis especially) being black, the time period change, making the domestic abuse textual, daniel being old and the original interview having taken part in the past, etc. but in terms of smaller changes, i think it has to be the baby-trapping switch; giving claudia and louis the ability to speak telepathically was a stroke of absolute genius it's so so good and interesting and creepy

11. Has your favorite episode remained the same since you first finished the season? 

yup, it's the pilot! tho eps 4 and 5 were strong contenders.

13. What was your favorite piece of music from the first season’s OST?

it's vicious. so fucking good inject those violins right into my veins

16. Do you have a favorite piece of art (book, movie, painting) that’s referenced or featured in the show?

very interesting question. i think it's probably the francis bacon triptych (three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion)

22. Who's your favorite character? Why?

it's louis!!!!!!!! ldpdl forever and ever <3 i'll keep it simple and say i love a character full of nothing but contradictions, i love a delusional man, i love a man who suffers, and i think jacob anderson might be the epitome of human beauty

31. What’s your most anticipated season two storyline?

the storyline i'm most excited about is the souring of claudia and louis' relationship because i think it's such an interesting part of the book and i love it when characters act horribly. and i want claudia specifically to be so so horrible <3 and other than that, not a storyline exactly but i'm so so psyched to see the vampire theatre like. i'm a big theatre enjoyer. throw in any sort of puppetry and you'll win me forever

36. What’s an unpopular opinion you have?

oh man. i'll be honest i don't really know what's considered unpopular these days, i only follow a handful of people from the fandom and they tend to be the ones i share opinions with, but that doesn't mean those opinions are popular. i guess a truly unpopular opinion of mine is that i don't care about lestat/armand as a ship and i don't want the vampires to be poly or anything like that. insane drama jealousy and divorce forever <3 i guess another opinion that might be unpopular with hardcore book fans is that i don't care if lestat is redeemed or not, i have faith in the writers and i think either way could be interesting and that's ultimately what i care about. in general i guess i just don't care about book accuracy at all.

40. If you made any fanworks of your own, what are your personal favorites? Throw yourself some flowers! 

well uhh i have made fanworks but i have a separate account for them. if we are mutuals and you are interested you are welcome to send me a dm and i'll link you tho <3

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 46 Review

Originally posted May 20th, 2016

Back to action-comedy at last.

“Percussive Maintenance” is a fairly straightforward episode of Dragonball Z: Abridged; it focuses on a single battle while cutting between various “B-stories” happening simultaneously, and it’s a prime example of just how entertaining Team Four Star’s work is when they’re in their comfort zone. There’s never a dull moment in this episode, and that’s because even the cutaway gags play to the strengths of the creators, as each involves some form of bickering, which Team Four Star has been excellent at since the beginning.

Their ability to balance all four stories in “Percussive Maintenance” shows how much they’ve grown as creators too; when compared to the fifth episode, “Vegeta: Kills Bugs Dead,” which I described as “too disjointed to clearly follow” and having “no real thematic or tonal connection” between its stories, “Percussive Maintenance” manages to keep a consistent tone throughout the entire episode and connect each story to a singular goal.

The consistent tone is achieved through the constant presence of bickering,1 and the stories each are all connected by a desire to stop the Androids and Cell: Bulma develops the remote detonator to destroy the Androids, Krillin and Yamcha argue against Tien, who wants to join Piccolo in the fight against Android 17, and Goku chooses to wait at the Hyperbolic Time Chamber so he can jump in and train as soon as Vegeta and Trunks are finished (to be able to defeat the Androids).

This episode also engages in a bit of meta-criticism as well, subtle though it may be, during Piccolo’s fight with Android 17. As he and the Android lock arms and scream into each other’s faces we cut back to Android 18, who complains about how useless their posturing is, and later, when the two of them are trading blows to the chest, she laments how much stupider their battle has become as we see them making anatomically impossible indentations in each other’s chests.

18’s comments are pretty clearly a criticism of the original series, which is notorious for including way too much screaming, posturing, and ridiculous/pointless violence, but it also serves the actual story too, as Cell shortly shows up and proves that Piccolo and 17 have done nothing more than waste their stamina on each other.

Rating: 4/5

If you liked this review, consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

1Fun fact: a lot of screenwriting books and teachers would tell you that leaving your characters to bicker is a terrible decision that isn’t going to help your story at all, but it works incredibly here because the bickering is not only entertaining dialogue on its own, but also rooted in character. Team Four Star also proved, way back in the eighth episode, that bickering can be an effective way to establish character too; we learned a hell of a lot more about our cast as Vegeta and Nappa argued with our heroes than we did from most anything in the seven preceding episodes. Take note, aspiring screenwriters.

This episode contains a number of clever cuts where one character will say something in one scene and have their thought continued by a different character in another scene, and I have to wonder if Team Four Star was drawing on Archer for inspiration here, as that’s a technique that that show has basically perfected.

Android 16: “I have spotted a pelican. So maje-*squawk* So majes-*squawk* Majesti-*squawk* That is a big bird.”

Goku: “We have to wait for Trunks and Vegeta to come out of the Hypertonic Lion Tamer.” Mr. Popo: “That one was on purpose.”

Dr. Briefs: “You can’t kidnap an orphan; they weren’t wanted in the first place.”

Dr. Briefs: “Gero puts explosives in strangers and that’s fine, but I want to do it to my children and your mother gets all uppity!”

Yamcha: “I’ve been stabbed and blown up, and left by the only girlfriend I ever had!” Krillin: “Same, but when my girlfriend left me, she took all of my money. When yours left, she took all her money.” Roshi: “Gonna need a Senzu for that one.”

Nail: “Why are you back-flipping?” Piccolo: “To gain some distance.” Kami: “You can fly!”

Yajirobe: “Why are you mad, the eggs weren’t even that good!” Dr. Briefs: “Most of those weren’t meant to be eaten that way!” Okay, so if those eggs are clones of his wife, how did he mean for them to be eaten? I am rather disturbed by the implications here (in a good way).

[backjustforberena]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you to @joycieillustrations for tagging me. And whomever reads this, if you want to consider this me tagging you then go for it! But here we go, here are my answers. Dear Lordy, I'd forgotten about some of these fics until I had to tot up the word count.

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

I have 25. Some completed, some... not so much.

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

Total word count is: 174,231 words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I'm only actively writing "House of the Dragon". And actively is a strong word. Sometimes I look fondly on my "Holby City" (specifically the ship 'Berena') unfinished fics and the notes I still have and half-finished chapters, but I leave them be for now. Unless someone decides to bug me (by which I mean, offer a hand and lend an ear).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

- Me Before You AU - a Berena retelling of the book/film. - Run And Hit - a Berena AU. - Home Now - a Berena AU. - Losing Her Would Be Infinitely More Terrifying Than Loving Her - a Berena AU. - A Fresh Page - a Berena AU.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Generally, I don't, unless it's been a mean comment or they've asked me something specifically. Otherwise, I know I won't reply to all and so I get anxious about responding to any! And I'm British - you try giving a British person a compliment, you see how they find it!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

From my completed works? Shoot. I'm not sure if I'm the best judge of that. Most of them do include angst. But if they're angsty multi-chapters, then they're going to end on a happier note. And if they're an angsty one-shot, then the angst isn't just contained to the ending, it starts from the first word!

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Looking at finished works... I have written some fluff.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have done on one of my fics. That was "Deep Waters". That was not fun at all, but equally, I had some really lovely comments on that fic as well. Moral of the story - don't write Daemon Targaryen in anything but a good light and certainly don't have Rhaenys act independently and with emotion. Woe betide you if you do! ;)

9. Do you write smut?

Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven't yet.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I bounce ideas off of people and get input but I've never strictly "co-written" a fic. I'd welcome it though. It might get something finished!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I enjoy many a ship but it's Corlys and Rhaenys that occupy my brain presently. I'm pretty sure though, if you pricked my interest again, that Berena would not be far away. They were a very, very good ship.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

How long do you have? In more seriousness, any and all of my Holby ones. But the most recent of those was "My Tears Richocet", which I did plan out quite a bit, but got derailed by the end of Holby City and the resolution of the plotline that I was re-writing. But I still love the idea; Bernie Wolfe was rescued three months after being declared dead, and returning to Holby, confronting everything she left behind and trying to not love the woman who rejected her and yet mourned for her. But the one most easily finished is probably another Holby fic; "Someone You Love" as it was a remix between two episodes, so it has a set ending, I know where the plot is going, it's outlined somewhere on my laptop and would only be a chapter more. Two at the most.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I have writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing things! Describing things! Overthinking things!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have used some High Valyrian. Very, very minimal High Valryian. I also have a very clever, wonderful friend, to whom I can go to for advice on High Valyrian. But that's it. No other languages. It's not something I seek out.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Doctor Who. Wayy back when, on fanfiction.net.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Oh, gosh! I really love some of the "House of the Dragon" stuff I've written, simply because I've adored looking at the political aspect of it all and just generally trying to think out the consequences of various changes. Others, from "Holby", I love but they are rarely finished so I will have to say "losing her would be infinitely more terrifying than loving her" - only because it's complete (woo hoo) but also because it was quite a turning point for me. I'd never written something so action-packed, that needed to have a specific tone and pace. I was rather chuffed I could pull it off and it was well received.

[aimportantdragoncollector]

(It took me two hours to answer the questionnaire. Hope it isn’t too off-putting that I addressed it directly to AfO)

1. My eyes are mostly greenish-blue with yellow in the center.

2. Sure, he can experiment on me, as long as he can give me T during or after he’s done.

3. It’s not like children choose how they look anyway. What does it matter to me if you have more control?

4. Obviously you need to be able to track the little ones. How else will you keep them safe? Cameras are the logical next step—you can’t be with them all the time, and if something does happen, you need to know the details of the situation to keep them safe. It is a bit stifling, though, so if they’re old enough and can protect themselves (like the eldest sibling) they can earn the privilege of not being watched.

5. Of course! I hardly have reason to leave the house anyway, as long as I have a suitable level of entertainment. Watching the kid(s) will be so much fun!

6. Well, we can’t have just one kid—the dynamic of Younger Brother Yoichi must be preserved. The only question is if we should have more. They could be helpful in your business, yes, but they could also be on Yoichi’s side. But if Yoichi is less isolated and we meet his social needs in the vault, he may be less inclined to leave. I believe more children is better. Doesn’t matter to me if they’re biological or adopted.

7. I can’t cook either way but I would be willing to learn, especially with my husband providing for me.

8. I hardly ever realize I’ve finished a book until there’s no more pages left to turn or episodes to watch, but I do feel a need to stop a story from ending.

9. Of course not 😔 they either make one look too serious if the tie is solid or too silly if the tie is patterned.

10. At least the Demon King acknowledges that everyone has darkness in them, unlike Captain Hero, which has overly restrictive and unforgiving morals. Like, he won’t even let a little theft go unpunished.

11. Only if it’s the wrong sort of love, but your brotherly love for Yoichi is obviously not the wrong sort of love.

12. That sounds like great parenting practice to make sure I provide Yoichi the best care. I’d like to be allowed to keep the ones I like.

13. There’s no need for someone like him. If someone needs protecting, they can look to their older sibling or husband or leader that they’ve sworn loyalty to.

14. All that spiky hair does is make the wearer look like a thug or a slob depending on if it looks artificial or natural.

15. C. Multiple vaults are obviously necessary if you need to vault two people at the same time that shouldn’t interact, as long as you have rooms that aren’t vaults. I need to be able to get midnight snacks.

16. I’m not sure how to answer this question. Both of your extremes are true, and bad.

17. Obviously not A. An age difference by itself isn’t bad. Not C either—surely you agree that some people (cough All Might cough) wouldn’t get wiser with age if they were a centenarian. Therefore, B.

18. My first instinct is obviously C, but wouldn’t it make it so much easier to stop the other kids, like Yoichi, from wanting to be a hero if they had a sibling who could personally tell them how unsafe it is?

19. C. Physically hurting them is counterintuitive to keeping them safe, and I’m not raising a spoiled kid. Vaulting is the best solution

20. A, B, and C are the best name, but having multiple children with the same name may be a bit confusing, so it should be saved for the youngest one, the one most worthy of the name.

21. I am incapable of coitus, but if you do that while we’re cuddling, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. You can do all the trash-talking yourself—as the one who’s interacted with him, you would obviously be much better at it than me.

22. (See answer to previous question) Not opposed to it in general. Something like more limbs means better cuddles, or if you could put me to sleep with no fuss, well, that would be ideal.

23. Depends on the supervillain. Overhaul, if one stretched the definition of supervillain, would get A and B, but for you? C.

24. I always wear black, all black, and only black.

25. B, obviously. Who wouldn’t want a lover who would resurrect them? Gigantic green flag.

26. Your love for your brother is heart-warming, you’re so handsome, you can protect me and provide for me, the majority of your opinions are correct (one can’t be right all the time), you’re intelligent and you have a lot of power.

All for One appreciates being addressed directly, as he is always the most important person in the room.

Your opinions on childcare are very sensible, especially older sibling superiority. You seem like you’d be a good influence on dear undead Yoichi.

All for One would be happy to provide you with cooking classes. Naturally you can keep any orphans you want. There will always be more children to kidnap to turn into Nomu.

Yes, people with spikey hair are thugs, All for One is nodding his head. Not the useful type of thug he employs, just brother thieves.

The surprise trashing of Overhaul is even more welcome. It’s true, some villains are just embarrassing.

The majority of your simping was correct (except for the part where you dared to say that sometimes All for One is wrong). That one sentence alone put you solidly on the B-list, but now the field is open to more All for Ones across my AUs, the others will pass your number to someone in less good standing with the club. You might get one of those semi-redeemed All for Ones who are more open to constructive criticism.

[lesbiangallagher]

Fandom tag!! thank u for tagging me @suchagallabitch 🥰

Your First Fandom(s): i wasn’t going to do this but fuck it, here’s all the fandoms i remember being in: south park, left 4 dead, pokemon, homestuck, the book of mormon, les mis, the lorax, camp lazlo, one direction, shameless us (there’s more but i do not remember currently)

How did you first get into fandom? i liked writing self insert fic and i used to spend hours on youtube watching AMVs to like, bullet for my valentine in 2007 lol i found ffnet and deviantart soon after and the rest is history!

How long have you been engaging with fandom spaces? 2007 so officially 16 years. i was 11 reading south park yaoi

How often do you read fanfics? i open ao3 every single morning to see if any of my favorite wips have been updated. i love wips, i used to not read them bc i was always afraid the writer would abandon it but now i’ll read absolutely anything. i love the journey of reading wips now. it’s like my morning newspaper

Top 3 characters from your current fandom(s): mickey milkovich, ian gallagher, and now retsuko from aggretsuko…i feel like i am in no fandom rn, just passin by. i’m like the old man that lives on the edge of town who still comes to the street events

Have you ever written a fic for a fandom? yeah i’ve written a bunch of drabbles on my blog and uploaded two finished works, both one shots for the spicy gallavich collab 2021 and 2022…i am particularly proud of this year’s spicy fic. somehow reached 11k words and it’s about lesbians mickey and ian 💃 search lesbiangallagher on ao3. but in the past i feel like i’ve written at least one fic for every fandom i’ve been in…and i’ve been in a LOT of fandoms lol but they’re all on my old blog that only og rocco fans know about

Have you ever drawn fanart for a fandom? if so, shout it out! nah i’ve never been a fanart type of creator. i’m sure i’ve drawn characters jokingly or something

Share a personal headcanon that you feel very strongly about: since 2014, i have a HARD and STRONG headcanon that mickey is a trans dude

You're trying to convince a friend to get into your current fandom(s) with you. what episode, clip, or scene are you showing them? i don’t want anyone to get on the shameless US train because it was a whole lot of suffering but if i had to: the episode where they steal the meat from the meat truck. for aggretsuko: the episode where ton and retsuko go at it at karaoke

And finally, what does fandom mean to you? it’s always been an ~escape~ for me, where all my unhinged thoughts are welcome. i’ve seen just about everything at this point, but i still love the idea of community who bond over One niche thing

SECOND TAG ok slay!!!

name: rocco

age: i’ll be 27 in may 😵‍💫

Where in the world are you? georgia, us of a

The meaning behind your URL: i’m lesbian ian gallagher

Your second favourite color: i guess it’s orangey yellow

any pets? my cat, minky and two birds merlin and mulder

favourite season? fall

Last thing you read: new update of dead meet🫣

Last song you listened to: lavender haze by miss swift

What are you wearing right now? black skeleton dress and cooking apron

A hobby of yours: i read a LOT, i’ll read practically anything lol. now that i have a new glasses prescription, i feel invincible

and finally, what are you up to today? currently making breakfast and getting ready for vacation this week 😗

i don’t know who’s all been tagged but feel free to do this!! i am always reminded of myspace with these lol

[songoftrillium]

Dead Mountain Development Update #2 03/08/2023

Hello kinfolks! I'm happy to say the team has already grown! We are now working with a friend named Sif (they/xe) that's agreed to take on copy editing and chronicle layout, and my partner Chee (they/she) has come aboard as the dedicated proof-reader! Additionally, one of my players, ExcelGarou (she/her), has granted us permission to use her data in this project, and her contributions along with everyone else's will be fairly paid a share of the profits from sales. And now, on to the project updates:

First Up: Our Discord Server is now live!

Come say hi, check out some of what we already have to share, get early access to chronicle content, follow announcements, ask questions, and get involved!

Podcast Updates, and a poll!

As for the chronicle itself, we've hit some major marks on the audio production front. We're now about 8 sessions in on this chronicle with my players, and that's a total of 16 podcast episodes. I am working on editing episode 6, and I gotta say it's really coming together. I'd say we're about at that point where we have enough of a buffer of episodes that we could technically start releasing them now. The first 4 episodes have a bit of mud in their mixing, but by episode 5 I've started dialing in the ACX audio standards, and I think by episode 7 we'll have pretty much nailed getting it about as close to radio drama as we can hit it with our extremely limited budget. For a series recorded with all voices on a single track on consumer mics, I'm really tickled with how well this has all come together. Our plan is to release this series to the public for free, with each session released in two parts, and episodes published on Wednesdays on Podbean. And that leads me to wonder if there's any interest out there for me to start releasing episodes in the near future, or wait until August for the series to completely wrap recording sessions and officially conclude our playthrough of Act 1. My players and I think we really have something special, and would love to share our story with you.

If you like what you see, please give this post a share for visibility!

Production Progress: 60% complete

33,667 words written

Great news is we are WAY ahead of schedule in terms of how long I thought this would take to produce, but also we're getting into the more drawn out parts: the actual chronicle. There will be multiple speedups and slowdowns over the course of chronicle development. Below is a breakdown of development and progress.

Content Guidelines and Chronicle Framework: 100% complete

We've settled on Storyteller's Vault as our primary release platform, and are adopting their content guidelines for publishing. The book will be presented as a softcover sourcebook laid out in a style consistent with Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, but it will be limited to a softcover print with black and white text and monochrome artwork on the interior, keeping aligned with prior edition chronicle sourcebook aesthetics. All statted NPCs are being put together using ExcelGarou's Build-a-Veteran standards, keeping their stats around the same power and ability curve as similarly build antagonists and protagonists. Prior to releasing the full edition, I hope to release a text-only screenreader-friendly edition if I can find someone to assist when we get closer to Fall. This chronicle is systems agnostic, but utilizes terminology from 5th edition.

Chronicle Outline: 100% complete

I have all my chapters and stories sorted in my own notes, and just this last week I finished the concept of the core villains that will close this act, as well as how to get there. To that end, I have the entire 'big picture' of this chronicle all complete and ready to deliver to my players. The real work here involves transcribing my notes into legible sections that someone other than myself can parse out lol and on that front a ton of progress has been made. To that end we can kind of go over the different stages of this rollout

Outline

Rough Draft

Proof-Read

Revision

Approve Final Text

Assess Readiness - Establish art quotes and licensing agreements valid for the duration of the crowdfunding period - All writing completed and committed to publishing - All copy editing completed and committed - All content reviewed with a lawyer to ensure compliance with STV Content Guidelines - All images sourced from Werewolf print stock placeholders or produced in-house - Minimal advertising in appropriate circles: self-funded - Set up a subscription system based on early access, playtesting, - Generate interest by growing out the server through word of mouth, forums, reddit et al and using that as the first-point of contact for news and information. - Set up a sync with the tumblr to send content to a news stream in Discord Server - Commissioned flat color graphic of Dume'fa for back cover and screenprinting licensing

LEGENDS OF THE GAROU: 12% complete

This section is happening in 9 parts told as an epic set 3,000 years before the Ipergium, when Sept of the Trillium Glade was first founded. It is a 9-part epic, in sections meant to be recited at moots in-game. To create locations, names, and spirits that align with this primordial time, I've taken the time to develop a root language for garou tongue that I call First Tongue. I have enough of an infrastructure on this language complete enough that I am able to go about assigning names to the various nouns in this act. In addition to this groundwork, I have pt 1 of the epic completed, mostly exposition, but that's the nature of epics. Now that the language part is done, the rest should fall into place. I am intending to use geological events to sorta dictate a lot of these stories, to help ground players in the setting. I anticipate work on this will be progressive and it's completion will mark the beginning of layout.

Geography: 57.5% complete

This section was generally where I started my world build and is far-and-away the most complete, both in terms of the world of mortals and the protectorates of the garou that live there.

Trillium: 100% The town is completely finished. I have maps complete and ready to publish, and all points-of-interest have concise summaries and story seeds.

Macredie Station: 95% The community west of Trillium is nearly finished. I need to complete a write-up of H&H Mining, but am holding off committing it to paper until my players have to visit the site in-game.

Protectorate of Ephemeral Mist: 50% This is the region that lies in between Eugene and Waldo Lake. I have a few sites committed here, but I haven't completed fall creek, a description of Highway 712, or done a write-up for the ephemeral pools that can be found here or Spirit Falls.

Protectorate of Hammer Butte: 30% This region has recently been introduced to my players, where they visited Hammer Butte and the Newberry Caldera, andy hunted Thunderwyrm. There are a number of important stories that take place in this protectorate, but are more likely to come to fruition when this Chronicle enters it's endgame.

Antagonist Territories: 0% Unfortunately, none of this is to be revealed until after this chronicle's climax. I wont spoil it for my players!

Spiritual Topography: 60% The umbra has mostly been handled. I addressed this early on while establishing the factions and conflicts early in development. I do however need to flesh out this section and create stats for it's denizens. One thing that will hold back completion is the Warm Springs protectorate, which covers this region from the umbra; this protectorate will likely be encountered in the chronicle's endgame

History: 62.5% complete

This section has been the most difficult, both in the difficulty in learning first-nations history in this specific locale, and in creating spiritual representations that are respectful of the very real cultures around this region. This has simultaneously been one of the most fun parts.

Natural History: 100% This one was really straightforward. I have lived here quite a long time and have grown familiar with the many species of animals from here, plants, rocks, and soil life, all of which are things that fall within my band of interests. Following historical records and data on this region, as well as trips to various locations in the time I've lived here has granted me a very clear picture of how this region was formed. The completeness of this picture is what has most heavily informed the design of it's current regions and spiritual topography, along with things like selections of common existing spirits encountered here and various biomes that would make for suitable sites for various story chapters.

Garou History: 60% Rooting this setting's history in a primordial era before the impergium has presented me with an unprecedented opportunity to build a mythology grounded in an ecology that predates civilization. To that end I've been able to establish good snapshots of this region's history, with a large portion in that pre-impergium period. That said, most periods from the Concords through to WWI are still hazy and need to be fleshed out.

Human History: 30% Mainstream history references only really tell half of the story. While Dead Mountain itself isn't citable in online-accessible media about any cultural significance. However, the Willamette Valley has a dark history with the first-nation tribes that lived here during colonization, and with the garou so deeply tied to both the spirits and the human societies that eventually developed here, that it would be imperative to provide an honest representation of that history to better inform it's spiritual topography beyond ambiguity, which will in turn inform it's garou history. A contributing factor is that the Kalapuyans have not a single entity but are a union of subdivisions, further adding to the complexity of the culture here beyond what basic science papers can cover. I am currently trying to find a consultant from the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde that can provide insights on history prior to colonization in the pacific northwest.

Spiritual History: 60% This closely aligns with garou history. I have a pretty good picture of this history up-to the Missoula Flood, but a lot of it gets hazy after that point. I expect solving the missing parts of Human history will complete this picture.

Rules: 87% complete

This section has been really fun and challenging to work on, and I think this provides a lot of the meat of this chronicle. Werewolf: the Apocalypse, for all that's good with it, is deeply flawed and exclusionary to marginalized groups. In the interest of opening up this chronicle to as many players as possible, some fundamental changes are needed to take a first step in remedying those problems. At the top of it all comes the announcement that this game introduces an alternative to The Litany as an alternative draft:

Combat The Wyrm Wherever It Dwells and Wherever it Breeds

Respect The Territory of Another

Accept an Honorable Surrender

The Sanctity of Gallain Must be Respected

Respect Those of Lower Station, for all are of Gaia.

The First Share of the Kill for the Benefit of All

Ye Shall Not Eat the Flesh of Humans

The Veil Shall Not Be Lifted

The Leader Shall Not Be Challenged During Battle

Ye Shall Take No Action That Causes a Caern to Be Violated

The progress made thus far is not quite there yet, but we're definitely nearly there.

Ableism and Cultural Appropriation: 40% I have eliminated Metis as an available breed. Rather than the impergium ending in-part due to inbreeding, it instead resulted in inviability. Garou can no longer produce viable offspring by mating with eachother and must be supported by their network of kin. I need to finish writing a narrative history that follows this change while keeping a good chunk of the old history intact. Removing metis entirely still leaves disabling conditions intact in merits and flaws. M**** gifts are going to be redistributed between Ghost Council and Galestalkers to make up for the elimination of their problematic gifts. It doesn't fix it all though, and I hope I can get feedback on issues that I haven't covered.

Codified Abuse: 100% Losing inter-viability between garou caused the nation to carefully reexamine the role kinfolk play in the lives of garou. In the Concords, the litany was drafted to protect and honor this network of support, as well as allow accomplished kinfolk to hold sept ranks.

Combat: 100% Some rules around combat are weirdly broken or unusually punitive towards players that don't have advantages to their initiative rolls. A few rules are being implemented to fix these things, as well as streamline game combat.

Genetic Favoritism and Systemic Exclusion: 75% Pure Breed and Ancestors is now a new background called Animism, which acts as a channel through which one allows spirits to work through them as a conduit. This introduces several Animist aspects that provide all of the benefits one gained from pure breed and ancestors, as well as several additional aspects through which spirits may be used throughout gameplay. This means that any garou from any background has the potential to channel the great garou of legend without having to follow any kind of blood lineage. It doesn't fix everything, but it fixes a LOT of it while filling an important void in the garou's relationship with spirits.

Attribute Specializations: 100% There is nothing individually wrong with Attribute specializations, but the changes I aim to make are to enable attribute specializations to be as ambiguous as the attributes themselves with expanded specialization rules.

The Nazi Problem: 100% No Get in my chronicle. Get of Out. If the garou have a history that casts various tribes in a bad light, that bad light still hangs over them in this game. What they did wasn't ok then, and it's not ok now. As far as I'm concerned, Stargazers Leaving is what pushed that tribe over the edge to Hauglosk, and that's the canon in this setting. And while the get have a cool history outside of the ACTUAL NAZIS, the fact of the matter is Nazis like them way too much, so I can't let them come play with the cool kids. They brought room temperature beer anyways. And since some of my own family are themselves jewish, I can't in good conscience stomach having them at my table, or in my stories, with any representation.

Transphobia: 100% This is a retcon of whoever it was that overrided already approved writing to hamfist their agenda into into someone else's careful writing in Changing Ways. For that, I'm putting your genders on the fridge until you learn to play nice. In this game, the spirit world does not comprehend sex; only the self. Being half-spirit, this manifests with the garou as a truer representation of the self, including gender in all forms other than the one they were born with.

Chapters: 10%

The actual stories of this chronicle! This part gets hazy, as I have the least written here that's that's committed to publishing. This is a section that will see constant progress made up-to release and will be expanding on a weekly basis. For this reason I am holding my chapter progress at 10% until we get closer to release. The biggest holdup is fiction to tie it all together, and I need to write a lot more to get it there in terms of immersive fiction and monologues to accompany chapters.

Appendix 1: Systems: 60% complete

This section has been pretty straightforward, but also complicated, as it includes a lot of the 'meat' of these new mechanics and features. Thus far, this chronicle has two separate appendices.

Allies and Enemies: 70% This section is nearly complete. I have good who/what/where/when/why descriptions of each NPC and faction broken down and ready for your perusal on Discord! Stats and enemies will be published when the game publishes.

New Backgrounds: 90% This introduces the new Animism background that serves to supplant Pure Breed and Ancestors with a better alternative. This new mechanic needs to be tested at a few tables by other storytellers.

New Fetishes: 60% This chronicle introduces 5 unique fetishes, including 1 stationary legendary fetish.

New Creatures: 13% There's a dearth of certain critters indigenous to this location, and so I am having to introduce a fair number of them, including corrupt counterparts. Currently this section includes stats for two new varieties of Thunderwyrm, four new types of Meat Puppet, and stats for banes that afflict wasting disease! That's right, ZOMBIE DEER STATS! This section has been a treat to work on

New Rites: 66% With new patrons and an expansion on wolf society come a series of new rites! I have 2 of 3 completed thus far!

Appendix 2: First Tongue: 59% complete

I'm developing a functional language for garou that predates Garou Tongue. It creates culturally unambiguous pronunciations for legendary garou, items, spirits, objects, and places that are ancient to garou culture. It will provide a tool for storytellers to generate names or unique words that hold historical significance in their chronicles without having to rely on taking from any one culture in order to accomplish it.

Case System: 85% Coming up with this part was easy and it's mostly complete. I'm leaving some wiggle room for additional phonetic combinations and suffixes.

Syntax and Grammar: 30% This is the most exciting part for me. This language is built on a triatic gendering of pronunciations that represent different aspects of the triat to create, reinforce, and corrupt concepts of communication. Remaining work needing to be done is creating a series of corresponding howls, growls, and snarls and what the engendering of these expressions mean in terms of conjunction.

Dictionary: 90% The dictionary of idioms relies on object association to convey adjectives through both how the word is gendered, and how it's conveyed, giving each word 4 different expressions, and any combination of 20 suffixes and howls to form adjectives and verbs. Most of the work here is formatting the data correctly.

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (720): Thu 8th Mar 2024

I thought about how I always try to combine two or more ideas whenever I get a tattoo in order to get more original and unique imagery and I have decided apply this logic to a new business enterprise as I set up my own mobile museum. Instead of getting people to come to my museum I will take it to them as I will be driving the bus Rosa Parks would be arrested on and inside rather than spreading out all of the exhibits I will have them collected into one piece. It will be The Elephant Man’s skeleton wearing Jackie Kennedy’s blood stained dress, holding one of the violins the musicians on the Titanic was playing, in the other hand he'll be carrying the headless bat that Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off and on his feet will be the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Tell me you wouldn't pay money to hop on the mobile museum to check it out if it drove into your town. After four very long years I have finally finished my gruelling but also incredibly pleasurable challenge to read every book to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel. I don’t know how I found out about these awards (though I suspect it was just through randomly trawling through Wikipedia) or why I decided to read every winning book but when I sat down to read the first winner “Beat Not The Bones” by Charlotte Jay I couldn’t imagine I wouldn’t finish the challenge until four years later. After nearly half a decade of this on again off again mission, at approximately 16:00 today I finished the final book in the challenge, Notes on an Execution. The final pages of the book depict the last moments of a murderer on death row as he sees the world slip away much like I was watching the final moments of my beautiful four year long task disintegrate before my eyes like a swan in a barrel of acid. I immediately took out my bucket list and struck a line through “Edgar Awards” and breathed a huge sigh of relief before stepping outside to do several interviews with the big news networks and watching all the video messages of congratulations from celebrities such as Lee Ryan from Blue, Justin Lee Collins and The Pope. I’m so glad that this thing is over but at the same time I’m thankful that I’ve been introduced to a lot of amazing writers whose work I never would have gotten to sample if it weren’t for this insane challenge. Starting tomorrow I will begin my new insane challenge of attempting to read every book by the great Philip K Dick.

I watched an episode of The One Show that covered a book award ceremony for children who had written stories made up of 500 words or less. I don't know why but I hate seeing children display talent at an incredibly young age. It's probably because when I was a child I submitted a story for this competition about a nymphomaniac bank manager who constantly takes customers into the bank's giant vault to bang them which I titled "Safe Sex" and not only did it not win but I was forced to undergo counseling and electroshock treatment. One of the winners was this eleven year old kid and he was a right smug little cunt. When the host asked him if he could believe he won he replied in a deadpan fashion “Well yeah because you just said it” and when Alex Jones asked if he would continue writing he said “Well I’m currently writing three stories”. This self-congratulatory bitch is going to end up being the Prime Minister one day isn't he? In twenty years time when I get my well earned OBE for all the great sitcoms I write it's going to be this smarmy gobshite who ruins my day by giving me my medal and commenting "I've never seen your stuff personally but I'm told it's very funny".Tom Hiddleston presented an award but he didn’t do his Robert De Niro impression. I actually want to write a Philip K Dick-style book where Hiddleston runs for president and his only act is to make it punishable by death to watch, share or discuss his De Niro impression ever happened.

[fenimores-book-nook]

Focusing on Myself ~ Day 16

December 30th, 2023 ~ New Years Eve Eve Saturday, 9:09 pm On my couch, in my pjs :)

Merry late Christmas and happy early New Year!! It has been a hot minute since I've written one of these. The reason being is that I've been in Canada since December 22nd until yesterday afternoon. My mom is from there so we have family there that we go and see every other Christmas! It was definitely a trip filled with all sorts of emotions but in the end, it was good to see those family members again and we had fun. :) Here are some photos I want to share from the trip:

Gotta start out with a Christmassy one; we had brunch at one of my cousins' and his wife's place and I loved their Christmas tree. :)

There was quite a bit of fog while we were there but it made for some cool vibey photos. ;)

Another vibey photo with the rain, through the town my cousin lives in where we also went to a thrift store! I saw this progress flag in the window of one of the houses and I loved it so much. Canada is a more accepting place than where I live, so seeing these types of things always gives me a lot of joy. <3

This also goes along with my last photo! I love the Canadian pride flag, this one was in The Alley Cat; a cat cafe in the town my relatives live in. It's a literal cat cafe. They have a room with a bunch of cats that are up for adoption and for a low price you can spend some time with them inside! They also have a normal cafe area that is very cute. :)

Obviously I have to include a small town book store photo! ;)

Continuing with books, of course...this is...yep. Yep. This is how many books I left Canada with. The top row are the books I brought with me, yes, I brought six books. (how was I supposed to know which books I would feel like reading??) I got two books at Fanfare Books: The Baby-Sitters Club: Claudia and the Bad Joke and Lightlark. I got three books at Coles, another bookstore in the mall we went to: Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse, and Percy Jackson: The Chalice of the Gods.** Then, lastly, the thrift store finds. ;) Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief and Looking for Alaska from the thrift store by my cousins' house I mentioned earlier! Then: Crossed, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Variant, Shadow House, and Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian from Value Village, similar to Goodwill but bigger and better, in my opinion. Gotta love great thrift store book finds. ;)

** If you couldn't tell, I'm getting really into the Percy Jackson series. I've always been meaning to read them, but I just never built up the motivation to start a longer series like that. But once I heard the show was coming out and that Rick Riordan himself was helping direct it, that really made me want to start them. I'm only currently on the first one but I am loving it and hoping to finish it before all the episodes for the first season of the show come out! :)

Things I've done lately to better focus on myself ~

While I was in Canada, I took time away when I needed to have a breather and didn't feel guilty about it.

I enjoyed being in the moment and focusing on the people in my life that show their care for me instead of focusing on the people I have to work to get their attention.

I made illustrations that I love (I'll possibly post some later) and gifted myself some as well as a book I'd been wanting! <3

I've been spending a decent amount of my time creating things: illustrations, writing, making bracelets, and reading stories that I love!

With all that said, I hope your Christmas was merry and your New Year will be happy!

Until next time,

Thalia <3

[rohitgurumith]

SOURCES AND SIGNIFICANCE - CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Weaver, T. (2013). Comics for Film, Games, and Animation: Using Comics to Construct your Transmedia Storyworld. [online] CRC Press LLC, Oxford, pp.15–16. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=1092832 [Accessed 3 Jan. 2023].

Tyler W. Weaver is the author of only a few volumes In addition to a large number of short stories and articles. He is presently working on his next novel while also living in the Midwest's wilds with his wife and their canine offspring. In one of his books "Comics for film, games and animation : Using Comics to Construct your Transmedia Storyworld", he pitched a very interesting take specifically in the chapter "Elements of story: character," which immediately caught my eye and made me want to pick this for my critical analysis. I immediately felt like this would be the most helpful for my researches compared to all the other readers since im the type of peron to focus on well developing polished characters as my first priority. Getting back to the book, he challenges the readers by posing a general question regarding why viewers enjoy movies and television programmes. After stating the obvious response, "Entertainment," he goes further by posing the question, "What makes it entertaining?" He responds to this question by stating that we watch these movies and television series more for the characters than for the storytelling, plot twists, etc. because seeing these characters gives us the same feeling as having friends or family over. He then expands on this comparison with some logic that I find both interesting and very valid, namely the idea that watching these characters on a weekly basis fosters our natural propensity for empathy and causes us to care about and relate to them. As a result, we support and cheer for these characters when they face challenges in the series, just like we would do for any of our friends and loved ones.

He then continues by discussing one of his current personal favourites, the American science fiction drama television show "Lost." He admitted that it took him more than two months to finish the entire show, which I would say is fairly outstanding and dedicated for a show with more than a hundred episodes, each of which is close to an hour long. He also acknowledged that he didn't realise he was going to write this book at the time, but the notion that characters are the heart and soul of a show propelled him to spend a year conducting extensive research and analysing well-known television programmes that extol the value of characters. Just to name a few, these shows included Leverage, Human Target, Fringe, and House.

Returning to the topic of the "Lost" series, he said that it exhibited plot density with branching narratives, perceived interactivity, and plot twists that couldn't be captured by a single medium. He called it a unique product of 21st century media consumption. But the author said that none of these factors were important to him because the characters were the only thing that kept him reading and were important to him.

His argument is that the characters, not the mysteries and plot twists, were what made "Lost" so enduring and brilliant. He also discusses how series like the event, flash forward, and V tried so hard to emulate and mimic the "Lost" formula but failed because they did so in the wrong way. He noted that the loss of specific show characters, such as Jin and Sun, left a void in his life that he is still trying to recover from, and he asks if any readers share his sentiments.

The author admitted that because he believed in and cared about his characters, he created them first and built the story around them. The end aim or the ending of the story would be for the character to fulfil an inciting incident caused by their defects, which initially sparked the story. He also asserts that "fully developed and engaging" does not always equate to "likeable," and he used Greggory House from the television drama "House" and Louie de Palma from the comedy "Taxi" as two of the few instances he provided to support this argument. He refers to these tales as "Midwest stories" because they include passive, one-dimensional people who agree on everything. The chapter is then concluded with a humorous note before moving on to the next.

In this specific chapter, I found myself being astonished by the author’s views on several instances, which gives me more confidence and makes me happy that I chose this one for critical analysis. I also find his viewpoint reasonable though it could be controversial to a big group of people that think otherwise. I also strongly believe that a well contructed character/ characters are one of the most vital elements in media and will keep the audience engaged even if the plot isn’t the best and there are so many examples I can give to back that point. I have seen movies with little or no plot, yet very enjoyable mainly because of the characters and the characters alone. Some great examples would be Iron Man 2, Spiderman 3 etc. these movies were hated by the critics so much yet holds such a special place in fans hearts. I would argue that the biggest reason behind that would be the well developed and lovable characters such as tony stark, peter parker etc, the emotions they express and the solidification of their legacies. To me that does justice to an enjoyable film rather than a film with a great plot but boring characters.

I would like to summarise and conclude this analysis by saying that the author has dedicated a chapter to how characters play the biggest role when it comes to movies and tv shows. He first tells us that we watch films and tv shows to entertain ourselves. He then follows up by saying that the characters are what makes the media object entertaining. He asks us to contrast between the characters in the tv shows, to the characters in real life ,and tells us how we get more attached to these characters the more we see them and their behaviours and start rooting for them and caring about them, just like we would for our loved ones in our lives. To back his points up, he gives out a few examples of some of his favorite tv shows and explains to us why his points are actually reasonable and after which he also explains how the other shows failed despite trying to replicate the same formula and pointed out that they replicated the wrong “formula”, referring to the characters and making his whole argument reasonable and almost flawless.