#they're all so unique and cool and i wISH I COULD POST THEm but i dont want to spoil surprises :

[snekdood]

gonna be very annoyed if ppl insist on tryna turn all 5 of my dude characters into women when the majority of other characters in my comic already identify as women

[ultimateshixiongfuckertournament]

Noncanonicals Tournament FINAL

This final is between Han Ying from Word of Honor (shizun/mentor: Zhou Zishu) and Fang Duobing from Mysterious Lotus Casebook (shizun/mentor: Li Xiangyi / Li Lianhua)

Propaganda under the cut! (Warning: Propaganda may include spoilers about the characters and their media)

Han Ying:

He idolized and was mentored by Zhou Zishu to the point of recruiting other young martial artists to revive ZZS’s dying sect and willing to die live happily ever after for it.

#han ying wants to fuck zhou zishu SO BAD#han ying#shizunfucker tournament

#my sweet ying'er wants to fuck zzs so bad he's gagging for it

#HAN YING HANDS DOWN#would have licked his boots if he asked

#han ying wanted nothing more than to officially become zzs's student/part of his sect#it was literally his dying wish that his brothers in arms may get to do that#he says several times in the show to zzs's very face that he's 100% down for dying for him#he swears allegiance EXCLUSIVELY to zzs and not the prince they're all serving#he comes up with bangers like 'if there is anything you need I will lay down my life with no regret'#'if you were gone one day how could I live alone'#'a loyal servant wouldn't have two masters in his life'#he sneaks into zzs's abandoned residence and homoerotically-#-strokes the painting of a flower that symbolizes a) zzs himself b) zzs's grief for being the lone survivor of his sect#and he wanted to join siji so so badly#it was his life's dream and he died IN siji but before getting to have that 😭#listen he makes me insane#anyway they should have fucked sloppy style and zzs would have had an out of body experience if hy called him shizun#my final thesis goodbye

#it's HAN YING#you could power entire nations with the power of that yearning

#han ying saw zhou zishu and IMMEDIATELY dropped to his knees are you joking#wen kexing immediately clocked him

#ying'er my sweet prince#he wants the dick so badly

Fang Duobing:

Fang Duobing has most definitely had several fantasies of being dommed by his shifu Li Xiangyi! He is also equally invested in marrying Li Lianhua - travelling the jianghu, going on rooftop moonlit dates, incorporating looking after him forever and ever into his general future plans. This is even before he knows that Li Lianhua and Li Xiangyi are the same person. Oh there are Layers to the shizunfucking. Where's that post about being so devoted to someone that it breaks the pedestal they're put on and comes full circle to loving them for the person they are? (its here: https://www.tumblr.com/difeisheng/733133489565745152/the-core-of-fanghua-is-built-around-fang-duobings) When they finally do get to know each other 10 years later, after Li Xiangyi's identity is found out, Fang Duobing insists on being equals rather than master-and-disciple! Li lianhua is Fang Duobing’s guide in the Jianghu! He leaves his house, dog and the only records of his unique martial arts to Fang Duobing before running away!! Fang Duobing’s most important agenda is to save Li Lianhua from slow death by poison!!! He doesn't care if Li Lianhua keeps leaving him behind and lying to him and is 'at peace' with dying!! They live together. They'll never be equals. They've been equals all along. They're zhiji. They're master and disciple. they're married. They're everything.

#this man wanted to fuck his shizun under two whole ass different identities#this man was given one million choices between his shizun and his entire cushy rich boi life and did not sweat the decision even once#this man was engaged to a princess - who was COOL - and went “no thanks i’d rather follow shizun around in a fantasy china airstream’

#this cannot not be fang duobing let's be serious#polls#he's been drawing hearts around his shizun's name since age 8

#Fang Duobing going through it for what he thinks is two different people but is just one guy#so he gets my vote easy

#pls he is head employee at shizunfucker.co

[inchidentally]

Um, these 60 seconds of recent content between Lando and Oscar made me realize one thing, are these two really only knowing each other for a year or their whole lives?

the audience does not know !!!

like there's a very specific 'united front' thing I can see in a lot of partnerships and it's founded on different things but ultimately manifests in a feeling of cohesion between the drivers. (and I am so sorry bc I saw in passing someone else made a similar post to this but I cannot remember who so lmk bc I don't want to be ripping off their idea !! I have my own separate feelings about it so it's not a copy but still I wish I could have kept that on my dash long enough to rb)

like most teammates fall in the neutral category of professional politeness and friendliness but also the need to push for their own advantage wherever possible. totally fine and normal. also allows for a few fireworks occasionally which is just as good for fan engagement - sometimes more - than if the drivers were always cool w each other.

aberrations like Senna and Prost, brocedes, and sebmark are not to be included - way too unique. could even throw Esteban and Pierre in there.

you've got consummate professionals Lewis and George who are both careful about cultivating their own separate images and who hold a baseline of genuine respect for each other - but part of that respect being that they both know they'll look out for themselves first. so they're very much similar and equals even in operating very independently. ultimately they want the mess to get cleaned up and to shake hands and do business as usual. I could see them genuinely having to hash out something truly ugly and shake hands and move onto their own lives no problem. which like, they clearly have lol.

then there's a situation like Alex and Logan where the dynamic is so incredibly imbalanced BUT you have someone as humanly decent and warm as Alex (even if he maybe wishes he were less so for competitive reasons) and Logan has already become very skilled at dealing with being an outsider/almost unwanted :( and it's clear that they both see how hard-working they both are and what a massive thankless task they have in trying to just achieve points - undetermined if they're mostly friendly out of trauma bonding or will remain friends after being separated but there's absolute friendliness and respect.

then there's The Charisma Guys of Daniel and Carlos and now Lando (who mooched a lot of his F1 charisma off of Carlos and then Daniel). Daniel and Carlos replicate an almost identical dynamic with all of their teammates and it's predicated on what most drivers are already well versed in, which is: playing gay for fangirls, bromance hugging/camaraderie/ribbing for sports media and fans, and taking care of their own brand and career separately from their teammate. it's a powerful tool to have especially for leveraging the popularity of whatever bromance they're in towards their own image without having to lose power over their own image. individual sponsorships being a driver's second goal after winning races and WDCs also makes this an exceptionally good skill to have. it only starts to break down when the personal fortunes of one of the drivers start to hit hard times (current example being obvious).

the Carlos and Charles dynamic absolutely pulls a lot from the charisma/bromance stuff but the huge difference is that Ferrari would - like any F1 team - not give a shit if they didn't get along and just hitched on a bland smile for the cameras. Ferrari aren't remotely behind C2 being what it is, that's all Charles and Carlos. don't get me wrong Ferrari social media teams are MORE than happy to jump on! and sure, the challenges and content are a fun bonus thing to sponsors but three things here: one is that Ferrari IS the brand and they're a top 3 team like they're not grasping for sponsors asflgaslf. two is that as many partnerships have shown, you really don't need to do that much to satisfy the brief. and third, sponsors are like 99.999999% interested in the team's standings and the drivers' individual popularity with partnership popularity coming dead bottom - the bromances are only worth it if they're engagement darlings like carlando. and charlos doesn't do anywhere near those numbers or that widespread corporate social media appeal. you gotta do major impact with crazed fans for it to at all influence a brand's decision where to put their money. so all of the pop off the screen fun and genuine enjoyment we see Carlos and Charles have is fully legit. when they're being tongue-in-cheek levels of cutesy they literally say so. 2025 onward will see how much of a friendship there actually is, but as far as them being very happy with the partnership and collaborating exceptionally well within it, they're far more rock solid and natural at it than most. and the fact that they're if anything even tighter when there's zero incentive for it ?? and when their families and fanbases and their team principal and garages are constantly feuding ?? like it says everything about how much they respect each other and actually feel affection for each other to remain such a united front and so happy and affectionate. nobody else benefited from Carlos asking his team to tell Charles' team to come celebrate his win with him. nobody else in Ferrari or on the grid made bank off of about Charles rushing to congratulate Carlos while he was still in the car. (especially not when carlando did a quick hug and it got brands and official accounts posting tiktok ship edits to the predictable delight of thousands of fangirls. and for them all to cough cough conveniently ignore the embrace with his gf to push the image further.) there is no PR benefit behind C2 that would justify them hitching on such a dramatic facade - and if anything the people around them would prefer they kept separate so that they could celebrate one without the other. whatever their relationship is after this there will always be that massive respect IN SPITE of what the world around them wants.

but Lando and Oscar are such a major aberration not just in them both being so incredibly young and arriving into F1 so hot and already being so close in ability, but their specific 'history' and personalities. they were already such an easy fit together that it surpassed the professional need for a bromance buffer - and at the same time their bond being partly on how naturally private and shy they are made them poorly suited for a PR machine.

Oscar had already said - and a lot of fans already knew - that there were several friends in common and that the shifts in careers and being separated professionally by more years than their ages is the only thing that meant they'd never crossed paths before privately. as K said back when Oscar originally opened that TikTok acc it was so long ago that he followed Max F but that Lando didn't even have an one yet.

but also as many people close to Lando have said (good example that was posted recently) and that we can often still see in streamer Lando - Lando is very much like Oscar as a person at his core. pretty much all of the 'famous person' stuff we saw him become happened after 2019 and directly because of latching onto the social lives of guys like Carlos, Daniel and Martin. he's always referred to as extremely shy and he's said before he likes for others to lead. but his comfort place is still either hanging out in private with close friends only or to get on stream and laugh with his friends. Lando himself said that he considers Oscar to be very similar to him as a person outside of F1 and for all that in some ways that seems surprising, when you look at who Lando is when he's not in Professional Mode or Party Friends Mode he genuinely really fits in with someone quiet like Oscar who loves spending hours gaming w his friends and not being in public. I don't know enough about Martin Garrix as a person but I rly honestly see that with him as well. yes there's the Party Friend aspect but for them to travel solo for two entire winter breaks in a row ?? clearly Martin is a peaceful, quiet guy on Lando's level <3

and ofc I go onnnnn and fucking on about how while we all hate it bc it means we don't get as much content, the fact is that Lando and Oscar are the type of friendship/partnership where it's quiet and private and not something that translates to a bromance on camera. it's never going to be strategic.

so the fact that they have this "twinning" thing isn't that they are identical or that they even look all that similar, it's down to actually slotting in really well with each other as people! as always who knows how deep these friendships actually go but the whole mind-reading and synchronization and total lack of drama between them as drivers comes from genuinely being similar people and liking each other - that's what we're all picking up on when we watch them together.

the fact that they honestly find it awkward as hell when the media try to get them to "package" their friendship in bromancey soundbites or when they look at the camera a bit like an intruder that's making them dance their friendship around for media, like. that's so incredibly relatable for how any of us would feel with one of our actual friends having to do all that. having a camera aimed at us and some stranger being like "so you two get on really well huh?" and practically leaning in for an expected answer ???? it would be so stupid and weird and the whole way Lando and Oscar work together in unison to dispel how weird that is is so natural !!

idk it's like there's different things to take from different partnerships and literally all of us are suckers for a fun bromance and great professional chemistry. but I think this whole universal 'twins' thing that everyone sees in Lando and Oscar is genuinely two guys who are similar in all the fundamental ways and who actually slot together in ways where they naturally just agree on everything and therefore can predict a lot of what the other person is thinking if that makes sense ??? like yes Lando has Single Guy Party Times and professional motivations where Oscar does not but for a friendship and partnership to work, those are the two least relevant things to need to be similar about y'know ??

[ghosttrolls]

HI I Love your Posts about trollhunters and Danny Phantom.

they are things i gad trollhunters is different form Danny Phantom

Jim only date one girl and everyone agrees that she is the best Choice for him.

and the main creator isn't a Dick.

but my Question for is if Dash were to become Like Steve was Expose the Ghost world Just Like him how do you think would've involved and this Time his memory stays Like Jez did.

Hi, thank you! Before I say anything else I would like to clarify that while I spend a lot of time comparing themes between the two shows, I don't really feel like one could replace the other - they're both so unique in their execution! Honestly, all the characters in both shows have personalities that couldn't be copied over between the two without the status quo of each show drastically changing. I don't really think of Danny Phantom and Trollhunters in terms of "Danny and Jim are the same person," but more like "Danny and Jim experience things that are interesting parallels of each other and I like to explore those narrative parallels," which I can understand being a kind of complicated distinction.

There definitely is a thing with both of these shows where they pick sort of Traditional Character Roles to some extent, like The Bully, The Hero, The Best Friend, The Romantic Interest, etc. So thinking in terms like that, Dash and Steve do fill kind of similar roles in their shows. I am pretty sure that Dash knows ghosts exist by the end of the show, even if you're writing off Phantom Planet (the final episode that people like to ignore happened). There's an episode where all the adults in Amity Park are brainwashed to go on a "cruise" which ends up just being a way for some ghosts to use them as a power source - but because the adults are brainwashed, the kids are the ones that have to save them, and Danny uses his parents' ghost tech to work together with all the other kids to fight the ghosts. This includes Dash. They all fight ghosts on the deck of a pirate ship, and Dash and Danny stand back to back as Dash says, "When I wail on you tomorrow, I'll be wailing on a hero. But I will be wailing on you." At this point in the show, Dash and other people know about and are fans of Danny Phantom... I don't think his memory gets wiped of the incident, but Danny does get in trouble for using the tech without asking and that makes him "lame" again in the eyes of the other high schoolers. I think that's meant to be the show's explanation for why it doesn't get brought up again later.

I'd love to consider what would happen if Dash had actually been more active within the ghost fighting community - I'm pretty sure he's one of those people who thinks it's "weird," so he'd probably need some convincing. But it would be super interesting if he learned that Danny was Phantom and joined the team! I'm not the first person to say this, but still. It would be cool. I did really enjoy in Trollhunters when Steve and Eli had just formed Creepslayerz but they were trying to keep it on the down low, and acted comically to cover their tracks. I imagine Dash would have to do something similar to keep his jock friends in the dark about Danny's secret... In general, DP never really gave us that big of a look into what Dash's life is like outside of school, other than throwing a party when his parents aren't around. If he joined the team in some way we'd be able to see more of his backstory and he'd become a much more fleshed out character!

And I know you didn't ask for my opinion on this, but I do wish that Steve had more development after the end of Trollhunters and 3Below. Like, he stopped bullying Jim and Eli, he got a girlfriend - and now we learn he's really scared all the time! And they make him kind of like a knight in Wizards but he's still like, terrified of everything, and bad at very simple tasks to an almost annoying extent. It makes me wonder if the trio really explained very much to him, because we didn't see any explaining happen on screen... and then it felt like they were hinting that Steve would learn some cool stuff from Lancelot, but that never happened. And WHY didn't Aja WARN HIM that he could become pregnant like that! That was so out of the blue too. I really liked how they had Steve develop as a character over the course of Trollhunters, so when he kind of stopped changing for most of the other TOA content, I was a little sad.

I guess this is just an appreciation post for bully characters that decide to become nicer. They deserve more love, for sure.

[winx-trash]

I'm bored and I can't fall asleep so I'm going to do one of those best/worst things that people do. Remember that it's all just my personal taste and if you disagree that's absolutely fine. This is a long post.

The best and the worst out of each transformation

Magic Winx

Honestly this one is good on everyone but my fave will always be Tecna. Her Magic Winx design is so unique and her wings transform into a paper plane when she flies. Top notch.

There isn't a single bad design in here and I can't even say which one I like the least so I'm going to skip it.

2. Enchantix

This one is hard because I love all of Enchantix designs. I'm going to split this one between Aisha and Flora cuz they're dead gorgeous.

The Enchantix I like the least would probably be Tecna's. But considering how good Enchantix is in general it's not that bad.

3. Believix

Tecna slays. Just look at her. Her Believix form is just so cool. A massive upgrade from her Enchantix form. That bob cut just suits her so well...

I hate to say it but I really don't like Musa's Believix form. It's so out there. I know they have this whole thing about superheroes but did she really need to wear underpants on top of her leggings?

4. Harmonix

Musa's Harmonix is easily the best one. It looks good and I love it.

As for the worst... Bloom. I just don't like it.

5. Sirenix

I don't like Sirenix in general but Aisha's Sirenix is pretty good. Aisha doesn't really have bad transformations to begin with.

And the worst is Tecna. It's just bad.

6. Bloomix

Now this is my favorite! Bloomix is like the best transformation we've gotten since Enchantix in terms of looks.

I will split this one between Bloom and Musa because I can't choose. Bloom's Bloomix form is very good. That hair color on her looks fantastic and the outfit itself is so well put together that I wish we could have kept Bloomix for the rest of the series. Musa is another favorite of mine. Shame that this transformation had to be replaced by Butterflix.

Stella's Bloomix doesn't actually look that bad I just think her hairdo ruins the whole look.

7. Mythix

Mythix isn't so bad of a transformation. But it looks really bad in 3D so I'm judging its 2D version.

Bloom's Mythix looks really fun so yeah.

I don't like Flora's Mythix for the same reason I don't like S5 formal dresses. Too many flowers. It looks too busy.

8. Butterflix

Butterflix can go die in a fire yada yada but... Musa pretty... (Stella's Butterflix is very nice too actually)

And the worst out of the worst is... Tecna's! It doesn't look too bad in a vacuum but it signifies the problem I've had with Tecna's character writing past S4. That's not Tecna. Tecna past S4 is just Bloom but tech-savvy. And the way her Butterflix looks is a constant reminder of that.

9. Tynix

I like Musa's Tynix. It's cool. Other than that I don't have much to say about this transformation.

And I hate to do this to my girl Tecna, but I like her Tynix the least.

10. Dreamix

Tecna eats. Plain and simple. That haircut never lies. Also, I love how Tecna's transformations are either the best or the worst on my list.

And I very much dislike Bloom's Dreamix look. Dunno, I just don't like it.

11. Onyrix

About time Stella shows up on my list. From how underwhelming this transformation is Stella's look was a pleasant surprise. Love that blue on her.

And again. Bloom's Onyrix is the worst. Goodness gracious this shade of pink is abhorrent on her.

12. Cosmix

Cosmix is nice. I do like it a lot actually. There isn't a single Cosmix design that I hate. But I do love Stella's Cosmix form.

I don't hate Flora's Cosmix but I like it the least.

I will not cover S8's updated designs for previous transformations. Not a fan of them. I also didn't mention either Lovix or Sofix so I'll just drop my faves.

Congrats if you made it this far!

[beeboshmeebo]

!!! WELCOME HOME SPOILERS !!!

The Welcome Home site just opened up again, me and my friends have been tearing it apart. I'm sure people have already found most of what we have, but I'm going to document it anyway.

!! Here's a second warning for if you want to look through the site yourself, which I highly recommend if you haven't already !!

Still here? Ok then, let's do this!!

All the hidden sites will be linked, but there will also be instructions on where to find them if you wish to look for them yourself! If you don't want to read this long ass post, I've made a list of all the hidden sites at the bottom of the post.

New Content

Starting off on the home page, something new is already visible. After waiting a few seconds, a little doodle of Home will begin to be drawn. These doodles appear throughout the site, I'll have a list of all of the ones me and my friends have found at the end and where to find them, along with the links if you're too lazy to look for them yourself.

These doodles all send you to pages with audio recordings, and a floating disk. All of the disks seem to be of Wally talking. Other then the obvious "well duh, you can hear his voice!", You can also tell from the color. On the neighborhood page, when you click look at the descriptions of all the neighbors, they all have voice recordings now, next to them is a disk. Each disk has it's own color, depending on the character. Wally's disk is red, just like all the disks in these hidden recordings. Albeit they're more of a... dark red... but oh well!!

Also would like to point out something my friend noticed, if you look closely at the center of these disks, you you can see an eye! I think that's pretty cool.

Another cool new detail that might be a little hard to notice if you have a small screen, it's the fact that there's 2 eyes on each side of the site, beyond the border! If you can't see them normally, try zooming out to see them!

Moving onto the "Welcome Home" tab, you will also notice that, in addition to the doodles, there's also little bugs everywhere! The difference between the two is that, rather then taking you to an audio recording, the bugs send you to sites all called "answer", with all of them having a video attached. I will also have a list of all the bugs in order at the end of the post.

Something unique about the URLs of the bug pages is that they all end in "(number)-14-(initials of characters in video)", which leads me to believe that there's 14, me and my friends have found all 14.

~

Before continuing, I just want to say how grateful I am to Clown for add transcripts to ALL of these recordings, including the hidden messages (if you highlight beneath them, text of what is being said should appear.), I personally have a hard time following along with audios if there's no visuals or subtitles, so these transcripts are really helpful!!

~

Morse Code & Hidden Phrase

Carrying on, there is one disk in particular that I would like to point out, before the update, you could click on the little area beneath Home to find a hidden site called "so below", after the update, if you go to the site and wait a few seconds, a spiral underneath Wally will begin to appear. Clicking on it will take you to a site called "neighbor" with a very shaky disk. Playing the audio will get you nothing but noise from Home. It seems like a dead end, however, looking at the transcript of the disk, it reads "[There is no dialogue. Only the sounds of Home creaking, groaning, banging, or squeaking. …Morse code?]", implying that the noise Home is making is morse code. I can't understand morse code, but with the help of my friend @/gothonasunday on Instagram, he was able to decipher the words "help us" being said in this audio.

All of the disks having just a word seems to indicate that a sentence is to be made with them. My personal favorite version I've seen of this is by @/king.achilles on Tiktok, stating the phrase might be "You will understand soon neighbor. I will help you find a way. I will help you find a phone." (Tried to put the link for this video TWICE it just wont work I'm so sorry!!)

The Password

Something that interested me greatly is the password. If you go to the "Playfellow Exhibition" page, 3 (or 4 I suppose) paragraphs below the slideshow of images, clicking on the word "answer" on the third to last sentence will take you to a site with an image of frantic writing on a piece of paper talking about a password. Clicking it again will take you to an image of a safe. Clicking it once again will ask you for a password.

Now, on the piece of paper it says "CODE IS 5 CHARACTERS!! - WORKSHEET IS 5 QUESTIONS - KEY??" On the slideshow of images on the "Playfellow Exhibition" page, you can find a worksheet with 5 questions. The answers of these questions are characters. Taking the first letter of each of the characters names from the answers will give us the password. BSPJW.

Putting this in takes you to a "Staff Only" site. (I wont link it since you cant access it without the password anyway!) The site is full of writing and weird images. The page seems to be written by someone going insane, hearing a phone ringing. with the blacked out text repeating the sentence "Ring-ring. Ring. Hello? Can you hear me? Call back soon, please. Ring. Ring ring. Ring. Won't you please pick up?" Though I suspect that might not be the site maker writing that.

On one of the images in the slideshow on this page, it shows a notepad of doodles next to what seems to be a letter. unlike the other texts in the slideshow, there is no transcript. I don't know if this was on purpose, or a mistake. Either way I took a picture of the text, brightened it, and tried to make out what it read. This is what I got, with some help from my friend to decipher what I couldn't

"Hello.

My name doesn’t matter, I am here to catalogue something. I’m not sure is fully real. But it must be, I’m holding all the evidence in my hands. Pictures. Characters. Text. I can barely read. It’s called “Welcome Home” and it looks like it might’ve been a children’s [???]? Like I said I can’t tell.

It was sopping wet when I found it. When I first reached into one of the brightly colored envelopes, my hand was already covered in some gross [???] material. It feels like antiques are always covered in some kind of grime. I’m going to clean up what I have and do a little more digging.

There’s only one name I can make out [???] Wally. Probably important but, like I said, I’ll keep looking

XOXO"

Might not be 100% correct, but we tried our best to transcribe it!!

Some additional things I'd like to say

I think its interesting how all the videos of the bugs seem to be from Wally's perspective. It also seems that they could be happening all in one day, since some of them match up. I also find it interesting how the only hidden bug, #14, was the only one that featured Home. In that same video, Barnaby is recounting what happened to him in the other videos, mentioning things like Julie's joke from video #11, or Howdy's family from video #12. I'm not sure what that means, but I wanted to add it anyway.

List of all the disks and where to find them !!

(Note, there could be more, but me and my friends haven't found them!)

On the front page, next to Wally, a doodle of Home will appear, taking you to a page named "I"

At the end of the "Welcome Home" page, there's a doodle of a yellow flower that appears on the left of Eddie, clicking on it takes you to a page named "Help"

On the same page, but instead, to the right of Eddie, 2 doodles of a blue and red flower will appear, taking you to a page names "will"

On the "About Us" page, right below where it says "FAQ", you should see doodles of 3 hearts begin to appear, clicking on the blue heart will take you to a page named "a"

On the "Stickers" page, in the description, a doodle of a star will begin to be drawn. clicking it will take you to another page named "I"

On the "Guestbook" page, next to Barnaby and Wally, there should be a doodle of a speech bubble saying "HELLO", clicking it will take you to a page named "find"

At the very bottom of the "Playfellow Exhibition" page, next to Poppy, a doodle of Home will begin to be drawn, clicking it takes you to a page named "understand"

On the "Neighborhood" page, on Wally's introduction, waiting a second will cause a little drawing of a flower to appear, clicking it will take you to another page named "will"

Not a disk, but should be documented either way! Clicking on the red button on the phone on the "Merchandise" page, despite not having a play button, will take you to a page called "duet"

On the "Neighborhood", clicking the word "you" in the paragraph leads you to a character introduction for "You", below the writing, a little doodle will appear. Clicking it will take you to a page named "You"

On the "Neighborhood" page, clicking just below Home will take you to a page named "so below", after waiting a few seconds, a spiral will begin to be drawn, clicking on it will take you to a page named "Neighbor" (I wrote about this disk in the main post, if you missed it!!)

Typing "ywxoev" at the end of the URL will take you to a page with eyes flashing on an image of Home, with the words "open" written below. This is not new, however, waiting a little will cause a doodle of a phone to be drawn. Clicking it takes you to a page named "way"

Going to the wrong page will end up in an error message. You can get this by typing anything in the URL. Once on the error screen, 5 stars will be drawn. Clicking on them will take you to a page named "soon"

List of all the bugs and where to find them !!

(note, this list is in order according to the URL, not in the order I found them while looking.)

On the "Media" page, on the section labelled "Live Interview Audio Section", a little bug should appear near the bottom of that section. Clicking it takes you to a video featuring Poppy and Howdy (1)

On the "Playfellow Exhibition" page, at the top, near the edge, you can click on a bug. It's a little hard to see, but it's there! Clicking it takes you to a video featuring Sally and Poppy (2)

On the fourth page of the guestbook, if you wait a little, a snail should appear next to the title. Clicking it takes you to a video featuring Howdy and Sally (3)

On the "Welcome Home" page, next to the collection of images appear a bug, clicking on it takes you to a video featuring Barnaby and Frank (4)

On the "Transcripts" page, which can be accessed by clicking underneath most audio recordings, on the "Catchphrases" section, next to Eddie's, a butterfly should appear. Clicking it will take you to a video featuring Barnaby and Eddie (5)

On the "Merchandise" page, on the "Currently Unknown Records" page, waiting a few seconds will cause a butterfly to appear and perch itself on the "C". Clicking it will take you to a video featuring Julie and Frank (6)

On the first page of the guestbook, near the bottom, on a message sent by "zip". a little worm should appear. Clicking it sends you to a video featuring Eddie and Julie (7)

On Eddie's introduction page, after waiting a few seconds, a bug hiding behind the flag of the post office will appear. Clicking on it will take you to a video featuring Eddie and Frank (8)

At the bottom of the "Neighborhood" page, next to all the links to the other pages, after waiting a few seconds a bug will appear. Clicking on it will take you to a video featuring Frank and Poppy (9)

On the "About Us" page, at the very bottom right, a little bug will appear. Clicking it will take you to a video featuring Julie and Sally (10)

At the top of the "Stickers" page you will see a spider, clicking on with will take you to a video featuring Julie and Barnaby (11)

At the top of the "News" page you will see a caterpillar on a leaf, clicking it will take you to a video featuring Howdy and Barnaby (12)

At the top of the "Guestbook" page (not the actual guestbook, just where you would normally submit messages), there should be a bug! Clicking it takes you to a video featuring Howdy and Eddie (13)

Typing "woxyve" at the end of the URL will take you to a site with pieces of a lost Welcome Home script. This is not new. However, there is now a cockroach on the page. Unlike the other bugs, this one is much more realistic, and not cutely drawn with silly pattens and colors. Clicking it will take you to a video featuring Barnaby and Home (14)

Thank you so much for reading!! I am not a theorist, I SUCK at making theories, so I hope this "guide" of all the hidden things me and my friends were able to find on our own can help out!!

Sorry if this is written a little weird, This is my first Tumblr post!! Still, Hope you all enjoyed! I might add more if we end up finding anything else!!

[misc-obeyme]

First of all, I love your Mc's name, Ciaran, it's unique, appealing, and has a certain charm to it. It's sweet and pretty, fitting a playful and troublemaker personality. Its sound is cute and attractive, and I love the fact that Ciaran is rebellious and carefree, making schemes with Satan and Belphie and not getting well with Lucifer at first.

His discipline ass can not handle disobedience, and most importantly, he can't even handle his own brothers, now he has to take care of another troublemaker. But deep down I think he would find Ciaran adorable. Meanwhile, Mammon would find them cool and as alwaus he would be their bitch, hjssjaha!

Literally you're Mc sounds like mine, same personality same style and I love it!

Ah, thank you, anon!

I came across the name Ciaran a long time ago and it just really stuck with me. I know the more common English spelling is Kieran but I just like the spelling of Ciaran better. And while it's a traditionally male name, I think it can still be used for a gender neutral non binary character. Plus, it just fits them, like you say!

I'm a very quiet and shy person irl, but I've always wanted to be rebellious and carefree. That's why Ciaran ended up that way, I think. It was partly because I wanted to create a character who was all the things I wished I could be, but also partly because I wanted a character who would butt heads with some of the canon characters.

I feel like everybody, especially the brothers, really love MC. And I wanted an MC character who was more volatile, who didn't get along with everybody at first. I wanted them to work harder for their friendships and for some them, their romantic relationships.

Ciaran is not fond of authority and they really don't like being told what to do. They would find Lucifer annoying at best. He would constantly be irritating them and causing their anger to explode. But Ciaran also tends to feel bad about losing their temper. So while it takes some time, eventually Lucifer and Ciaran learn how to get along with each other. If I really wanted to, I could write their story in a way that would allow them to be in a romantic relationship, too. It'd be like a billion word slow burn though lol.

Mammon was kind of the one character that I felt actually would be friends with Ciaran almost instantly. They're a lot alike and I think they'd be thick as thieves (literally). Ciaran is totally the kind of person who would not only go along with Mammon's schemes, but have ideas for them, too.

The Anti Lucifer League is a little trickier because Ciaran has serious issues with Belphie for a while. But once they get past that, plus with Satan involved, I think they would be an important addition. Because Ciaran would love to prank Lucifer and probably has a lot of ridiculous ideas.

Anyway, I've been using writing about Ciaran as kind of a warm up for working on Arrie's story, so I've been writing a lot about Ciaran's relationship with the characters. I've thought about posting some of that writing, but I always chicken out lol.

I think it's great that our MCs are similar! I'm sure they'd be friends!

[animehouse-moe]

Undead Girl Murder Farce Episode 1: Oni Slayer

What do you get when you cross an incredibly weird manga with the director/creative visionary behind the Love Is War anime adaptation? Well, if the answer wasn't obvious, you get something incredibly creative, weird, and cool. Lapin Track might not be a studio people really know the name of, but between the creator of this story, and the director of this anime, they certainly want to leave a lasting impression on anybody that takes a chance with this story. And they've absolutely left me with a mountain of stuff to talk about.

The short of it though? Watch this show, right now if you haven't already.

Where to even begin? I think the introduction of the setting for the world is a little low effort, but I do really like the direction of the actual pieces between it. There's an incredible amount of creative and incredibly unique cuts right from the start that lets viewers know they're in for a ride. Just take a look at this blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.

But yeah, Undead Girl Murder Farce takes very little time to live up to its name, both in terms of visuals and story, as we follow around our hybrid Oni lead character Tsugaru. Right away, his character grabs you with his over the top but equally lax nature that's all about showing off and having some fun.

Of course, his character isn't purely fun and lazy, there's a deeper past to him as well, and they showcase that very early on through his vice of drinking. Very effective and simple, it doesn't try to claw anything out of viewers, but rather add just a bit of an explanation to his character. And of course, it does it in style, mirroring the focus on each limb in the present vs his past before bringing him back to reality.

If I were to choose a single theme for this episode, it would be parallel. A monster in a cage, a human on the streets, past and present blurring, harmless creature vs foul beast. An act, or a farce? The entirety of it is mimicry and dichotomies, like Tsugaru mimicking this cat that he protects from a random crowd. And it's incredibly well done.

Alright, I've got to speed this along or I'm going to be here all day. It's good, it's great, it's bold, so on and so forth. What's next? Well, this cool ass fight, of course. Yeah, Lapin Track providing not only good animation, but impressive, creative, and in character direction for a fight scene? I was really just sitting watching this episode with my jaw hanging loose (though this is now my third time through the episode).

There's really not much else to say. The fighting styles and approaches are perfectly in tune with the characters and their thoughts in the moment. They make full use of their surroundings and the tools at their disposal, and you can absolutely tell that Tsugaru is trying to show off while diffusing tension and peaceful disabling his assailant.

God, I wish I could share the whole episode. It's Just. That. Good.

Okay okay, last piece! This parallel during the fight that's meant to depict/explain the combat going on. I swear, this is the last bit from this fight (it's just so good I can't stop myself I'm sorry).

Sadly, I can't, so I have to try to continue trimming my thoughts down, further and further until I can reasonably leave them in a Tumblr post that doesn't go over each and every frame of the episode.

Okay, where to next? We get the reveal that the lady Tsugaru is fighting is just the maid of the only immortal person in the world, and that at this point they're only a head. We also see that this person wants Tsugaru to kill them, which sparks just more incredible scenery that I want to share every second of.

And then of course we start our wandering into town with Tsugaru and our bodiless Immortal Aya, and Lapin Track just refuses to pump the brakes and delivers the best scene from the episode.

Who is man, and who is monster? Who that exists within the confines of the cage is free to leave it with their own will? An absolutely incredible monologue from Tsugaru that exposes his character, morals, and motive, as the neither-man-nor-oni that he exists as. His desire to bring wrath upon the people that watch on and view him as a monster, that indulge in the depravity of his violence, to strike startling fear into their very beings and provide a worthy stage for him to exit on.

It's really incredible how well they weave this story into something that seems so disjointed. How they bring the idea of cages and confines in with things like Aya's birdcage or the chain link fence Tsugaru finds, how his pose and gesturing to the stage that he's created is mimicked atop the bodies that litter the ground as if he were crucified, or how the very notion of looking down on Tsugaru is made visible through this pose.

Anyways, Billy Mays here cause we're not done yet! This episode is the gift that keeps on giving, though this time it's in the form of environment art. So busy and color, but also empty and very selective, it varies wildly within the span of only a minute or two as our characters chatter on about the concept of death and dying, and their desire to live that hangs in the balance.

By some miracle I've made it towards the end of the episode in reasonable time. It's here that Aya finally accepts Tsugaru's proposal of going after Aya's body to return her to normal, and the pair seal this partnership with.... a kiss. Just puts the icing on the cake for how much of a borderline insane episode this is.

And there it is, the first episode of Undead Girl Murder Farce. Finally, an end to the insanity appears in the form of it's ending song. What a wild ride, the idea of two beings that hover between life and death, exist in a world separate of everyone else's, that find each other and embark on a journey of revenge and retribution. There's really a world to this story, and if I were forced to make a comparison? It plays a lot like an action oriented Nisioisin story might. Not quite the same oddities and idiosyncrasies, but through the many layers that characters communicate through with one another, and how they dance around ideas and ideals. Regardless of my poor attempts to explain the episode or to entice people with it though, I really hope you'll find the time to give it a change to grab you.

[prince-kallisto]

hey! so i saw the tags you left on that post about wish, and i was wondering, have you listened to any of the songs from it? if not, then i wanna provide some context for one of the things i mentioned: there's a song called "at all costs" and without context, it sounds a lot like it could be a romantic duet. i've seen that before the movie came out people theorized that magnifico was singing about his wife amaya for his part of it! but then, in the actual movie, it's a duet between asha and magnifico and they're both singing about... the wishes that magnifico keeps trapped in these little balls in his study. and how both of them want to always stay right beside the wishes, keep the wishes safe in their arms and fight for the wishes at all costs because nothing else ever made them feel so happy. it even turns out that in the original demo for the song, the lyric "i wanna promise as one does" was "i wanna love you as one does"! so people have been using this to back up the idea that star may have been meant as a love interest for asha at one point. and i believe it because the song feels so out of place with the way it's actually used lol. also i share your feeling of being absolutely obsessed with the original concepts for wish, i keep feeling tempted to buy the artbook so i can read all the production info for myself and admire the art, when i didn't even like the movie very much 😭 seeing the concept art people have shared on here just makes me feel like there was so much lost potential in it.

OH MY GOODNESS 😭😭😭 I listened to the song just now, and I’m??? I had to reread your ask to make sure, because the song sounded so romantic that I had no idea what the context was 😭😭😭 It’s honestly a very beautiful song, so like you said, it feels very out of place on how it was used. The reveal of that demo lyric definitely makes it sound like it had an entirely different context. It’s very strange that a potential romance song seems like it was repurposed in such an odd manner. It is funny to see the comments on this song though, as some people even want this song at their wedding haha! It shows just how misplaced this song is, if the villain of the movie and the protagonist (who have no romantic relationship or ties at all) have their duet interpreted this way. I suppose if you really think about it, the context is there, but musical storytelling tends to be a bit more clear with the motives and story, y’know? ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´ω`ﾟ)ﾟ｡

I haven’t really listened to the other songs, as some of them I immediately didn’t like haha. I DID listen to Magnifico’s “villain song” of “This is the Thanks I Get?!” And…yeah. I really wanted another Disney villain song again and I adore King Magnifico’s design, but that song is very strange, especially with how odd lyrics that don’t give Magnifico a villainous appeal or motive really. I think it would’ve been really cool if the song brought in leitmotifs from previous villain songs? I’m not sure how to describe it haha, but I can totally imagine a bit of Scar’s theme of “Be Prepared” get involved in the chorus of the song when Magnifico says “And this is the thanks I get?!” I don’t know the next thing about songwriting though haha, but as a 100th anniversary movie, they really should’ve gone all out with at least the villain song.

And right?? The peeks of the concept art is so stunning to me. It’s almost funny when they show us the concept art and how gorgeous and unique it is compared to the final product🧎 Clearly the concept artists and writers had beautiful visions in mind, and just the still pieces of concept art feel infinitely more lively than what I’ve heard about the movie. I’d love to see the full concept art book too, I’m just amazing at the skill and imagination of the artists! I’m still very surprised at the song you recommended me to listen to haha, the vibe was completely different than I expected. \(//∇//)\ Thanks for the ask, the topic of this movie is so interesting to me and what could’ve been haha 🥲💞💞💞

[ashersanity]

I'll be honest, I'm pretty interested to know more about your PCs. Could you list a few facts about each? Esme is super cute I don't even care if she's dangerous. I just wanna squish her and be tied up in her basement forever I might hold a bias when it comes to Johan because he's a foxboy from what I've seen and my PC is a foxgirl, and they're both defiant too so obviously I may or may not be interested in him the most 😭 I read that little thing you put about the PCs as yanderes and Asher seems so possessive I love it Please feed me I need - Degenerate anon :)

degenerate anon, you have no idea what you’re asking for, how much this means to me, for someone, other than myself (and a few) taking interest in my pc’s. you wanna know about MY PC’s?? REALLY?

SQUEEZING YOU, HUGGING YOU, CRUSHING YOU IN THE PALM OF MY HAND HHRRGGG. I FUCKING LOVE YOU, SO, SO, MUCH!!!

besides that awkward part, there’s a LOT of info on them, lore, backstory, their habits, behaviours, personalities, made them all yanderes just cuz why the fuck not, huh? so I’m unsure if I could fully answer all I truly want to say in one post unless I wanna bore you to death with my ramblings. so, I’m giving you the choice to ask for a specific post, wether headcanons sfw and nsfw, their reactions to certain things, opinions on LI’s and others, even their backstory and lore?? if you’re interested, of course.

take your pick on whichever PC you’d like for me to do first. johan, asher or esme. johan has the most fleshed out backstory and lore so far, it runs real deep. asher has a fuckton of nsfw shit going on and esme is that one :3 with blood on her face.

I’m going to put their current status for the time being and which character has affected, shaped their personalities the most.

Under cut for people who are actually interested. cw! INFO DUMP, LOADS OF RAMBLING!!! non-con, mentions of blood and violence

Johan, the disgraced. [FILE 1.]

Current status : [DETAINED] Stuck at the asylum after the [ACCIDENT] occurred. Harper just won’t fucking stop harassing him.

In a few words, how would you describe him?

“Sly, manipulative, two-faced, smug, psychotic, sadistic, selfish” The type of guy to a jab a knife in your stomach and get hard from the sight of you whimpering under him, sick grin on his pretty face

A stat unique to him : Sanity. Keep it high, please. If it drops below 30%. ..Better not to say.

3 main chars and their roles

Whitney. Wants him dead. Fuck, once he breaks out of this damn place, it’s utterly over. UTTERLY. FUCKING. OVER. Fantasizes about killing that motherfucker every night. The reason why he’s in this shithole in the first place.

Sydney. His beloved, his everything. Kept them pure, wishes to protect them from this sick town the same way he was unable to protect himself from it. Only person in the world who gets him soft and makes him drop the cold act.

Harper. Weird doctor that won’t stop asking him to come in. Knows something is up and can see through his tricks, the pen and hypnosis not working on the fallen angel. Harper may think that he has the boy in his grasp, but it’s the other way around really, has him in the palm of his hand like a lab rat. Oh, also, they fuck each other on a daily basis.

Asher, the disturbed [FILE 2.]

Current status : [DANGEROUS] Fresh out of prison from saving Kylar and now roaming around town, not what you’d expect from your typical teenage boy.

In a few words, how would you describe him?

“Hard to read, generally calm, repressed, obsessive, cold, a ticking time bomb” Type of guy to claim he doesn’t care about you before he’s trapping you over the desk, fucking you silly

A stat unique to him : Patience/Impatience. His cool demeanour will eventually crack if low enough. High impatience result in consequences.

3 main chars and their roles

Whitney. (again) Not the same way as Johan, may or may not have unexpectedly fallen for her despite having initially hated her guts. Rocky relationship that slowly developed into something more clear over time, that he’s unfortunately, utterly obsessed with her. Purposefully put a baby in her, fucker.

Robin. His childhood friend with weird tension going on there, loves them to death and has this obligation to protect them from this town. If anything bad were to happen to the poor orphan then Asher would only have himself to blame or so he claims. Lot of pent up guilt from when he found them at the dock, bruised and bloodied.

Bailey. Obviously so, the main antagonist, the one who’s responsible for all the shit in his life. Wishes to overthrow the sick bastard somehow, doesn’t exactly know how, but he’ll think of something for sure. Has a deep hatred for the man though he feels conflicted at times, whenever he and the caretaker are alone in his office, begging for an extra before payment.

Esme, the devoted [FILE 3.]

Current status : [STABLE] Going through her usual routine, school, spa and of course, hanging out at the park and arcade with her girlfriend.

In a few words, how would you describe her?

“Loyal, clingy, delusional, gets attached easily, naive, not entirely what it seems, loving.” Type of girl to always be there for you as long as you do the same! Or else. Wants load of cuddles too, please.

A stat unique to her : Devotion. This is entirely depending on how willing she is to do favors for you. Is proportional to her love. Keeping it high is recommended.

3 main chars and their roles.

Kylar. Her pretty, perfect girlfriend who’ll do anything for her and she’ll do the same too!! What? She’s crazy and psychotic? Nonsense, they can be insane together, giggling about this and that with the blood of their victims on their hands and faces. How silly.

Avery. Sugar mommy that she got herself attached to, sees her as a mother figure, the one she never had since.. she’s an orphan after all. Avery is more or less aware of this and doesn’t know how to feel about it, Esme getting sort of clingy at times though she may have a soft spot for her despite it all.

Great Hawk. That bird understands her more than anyone and you couldn’t possibly get it anyway. Probably because, just like Kylar, Esme is an outcast at her school and not entirely well-liked even with her soft, cheerful personality. The freak tanked that reputation down so now she cherishes every single person she meets, including the Great Hawk. Silly bird gifts her flower crowns and gems.

I’d do more, but fuck, there’s too much to talk about really.

[fratricideknight]

i'm sorry to rant about the angels in spn again (see original thread here - i'm tired of me, too, for the record) but i feel i made some concessions in that thread which i shouldn’t have, because people made some really good points and i kind of got side-tracked from my original point. once again, feel free to give me your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree. i finally learned how to add cuts, so click to read more :D

one of the reasons i love season 1 so much is because, in my opinion, it is the closest approximation to what spn was supposed to be. scrambled urban legends which our heroes have to untangle (e.g. Bloody Mary and the many myths around her) and uncertain folklore. take the episodes 'Phantom Traveler' and 'Skin', for example. in the former, demons are said to come in many different forms and this particular one to function like the initiator of a natural disaster which has adapted to the times. you're "wide open to demonic possession" if you're emotionally distressed, rather than just anyone being possessed. so cool!! the latter is a spin on the well-known idea of shapeshifters. the audience knows generally what to expect, but spn establishes its own unique, awesome lore. shapeshifters literally SHED THEIR SKIN, they don't just look like their target they become them, they need to keep their target alive for a psychic connection so they can download their thoughts and memories. so damn cool fr. even 'Bugs', a "bad" episode (spoiler alert: it's really not), had the super cool concept of curses tied to the land which the boys can't break, almost like the natural disasters of the supernatural world, which the two random guys we call our protagonists are not equipped to deal with. even by season 2, some of this has been lost. rather than establishing unique lore, the monster of the week episodes become more about using the same old lore in different and fun ways. e.g. sam and dean hunt a ghost while in prison, they investigate ghosts which are being controlled on a movie set. even when they introduce new monsters (djinn, zombies, the trickster, people infected with the croatoan virus, werewolves), they're used more for story purposes and we don't really learn all that much about them. the exception i guess would be the crossroads deals, which warranted explaining since john sold his soul for dean and dean would later do the same for sam. using lore in creative ways is very much a good thing, but these episodes rarely build much on the lore itself, just put the characters in unique situations; again, that's a good thing, but you can do both! more of season 2 goes towards plot episodes - and i'm not complaining, the plot is awesome! but i wish they kept the season 1 lore stuff up. it makes me think of that post which says "what is lore in supernatural if not just any book sam reads" and yeah. just yeah. bring back tulpas and friends!

now for how this ties into the angels: as per the original thread, they could have been super creepy! they were certainly not used to their full potential in the horror department. however, i will reiterate my opinion: they do not work with the original idea of spn. adding them turned it into a different show. even if they're made to be creepy and straight-up evil, there is baggage which will inevitably be dragged into the show with their inclusion. who in the world doesn't know at least a little about and have preconceived notions of angels? not many people, and most of those people would not be watching spn. the same could be said of ghosts and demons, but there is a religious baggage inherent to angels which cannot be avoided. even demons can be somewhat separated from their religious roots, especially if they turn out to not be demons at all (theory here). and, like i said, the show and its characters were not supposed to deal with religion beyond the spectre of it, sam having faith and dean not. their (lack of) faith informed their decisions, but neither of them were wrong or right in their beliefs, just at odds. the world should have felt claustrophobic while also being too intricate to fully understand and retaining a sense of mystery, and season 1 achieved this the best with some of the most complex and interesting lore in the show and the small stakes and small scale. get the cosmic beings out of my face, eric; no you cannot have angels if they just turn out to be dicks! i know better than you and i am gnawing on your bones.

[evilwickedme]

Reverse unpopular opinion on Stephanie?

I presume we're talking Stephanie Brown cause my mom generally doesn't have that many haters lmao

Anyway yeah I adore Stephanie. It actually frustrates me to no end to see how badly she's treated by the fandom - not that it's a phenomenon unique to her in any way, but my God, have y'all tried writing her as a person? It's like she's either flattened to waffle girl or she's not there at all. Steph has had a really hard life and has shown dedication to the cause and more than anything, hope. I love what I've seen of her Batgirl run - the fact that she came back from the dead and was actually better for it rather than worse off. Like she's just... A good person who won't take no shit from anybody, especially not little gremlins like Damian, who really needed that during her Batgirl run. I love their dynamic pre-52 and I wish we could see something like it in more recent comics. Also, I think canon should make Steph and Jason best friends and I mean this unironically. Like, okay, I love me some Tim&Steph post-breakup friendship moments and whatever's going on with Cass&Steph's friendship is the gayest thing ever, but she deserves someone who both understands her and has zero romantic tension with her - in canon, cause actually they have nice potential as a ship for the same reason they'd make such good friends in canon. Like they have so much in canon. I know every batkid has been the black sheep of the family at some point, but Steph was treated like crap because she reminded Bruce of Jason; they're from the same part of town, grew up with douchebags as parents, and I think probably share a lot of the same worldview. I'd read a team up comic for them for sure.

I just think Steph had immense growth in pre-52 and was this really cool character and then like everyone else n52 fucked that up and I've heard nothing but bad things about batgirls until the newest issue which apparently is extremely gay but that doesn't make up for the character assassination. At least Robins: Being Robin and Batman v Robin finally acknowledged that she was Robin, that retcon was one of the worst things DC has done to the batfam and that's saying something

Also, and this isn't an unpopular opinion in any way shape or form, but I read Those Panels from batgirls #14. She is straight up in love with Cass it's unreal

[schismusic]

THE DISCOGRAPHY PRINCIPLE, Episode 4: Coil, or: Better Git It in Your Soul

As I'm writing this piece, everyone who knows their shit is spasmodically waiting for the physical repress of Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) to hit store shelves, assuming they haven't bought it off the site. All the people who have been knowing their shit since before it was cool to do so already had the FLACs on their hard disk drives. Not to brag, but I'm part of that second group. I love gay people, I love Creative Commons licenses, I love what happens when you rub them together (in case you're wondering, you have a phenomenon called teenage lightning).

[As you're going to see throughout the piece, the remaster did come out, and it's glorious]

If you ask anyone they will probably tell you Horse Rotorvator is Coil's best, and it's not like they're wrong, but it may be a bit limiting. It goes about the same as Incunabula; refer back to the Autechre post for more clarification, but in short it's an incredibly good record that takes some extra work done in the present time because some of its sound palette choices end up making it sound a bit uncanny, if not dated. I'd rather not go with "dated" for this specific record simply because Scatology exists, and it doesn't get anymore '80s than that, not necessarily in a positive way. If we take out The Anal Staircase (by the way, great title, guys!) the rest of the tracks on Horse Rotorvator have some actually quite futureproof stuff going on, on average - sometimes bordering on prescient, like on Penetralia, just barely removed from 2010s brostep aggression, and sometimes I wish they had the hardware to process that stuff. But the big-ass reverb on the snare and percussion, the sheer nudity of the production, the way the orchestral bits and samples are integrated into the arrangements kind of make it sound like the record is striving really hard for a sound that simply could not be attained at the time of realization. The great part is that literally nothing I said in this paragraph is a negative at all. Compare Penetralia to, for instance, Restless Day from Scatology; or maybe even compare Ostia to Tenderness of Wolves. Both are great, sure, but while the Rotorvator just don't check out at times, the Scatology ones seem to have an expiration date written on them. Only one exception to this rule: At the Heart of It All. If I had to draw another comparison, this would probably link up to The First Five Minutes After Death, and this time it's the latter paling in comparison to the former. It sounds sickly and isolated in a special unique way, unable to fight back, devoid of any possible bite: it sounds like it saw the actual horse rotorvator, the Four Horsemen slitting the horses' throats and meshing the jawbones into a gigantic, earthshattering plough. Nothing exists beyond At the Heart of It All. Nothing survives.

Coil, after all, always flirted with a sense of profound despair, even at their funniest and most tongue-in-cheek. This is relevant: not many other bands of their era display, or even have, that same sense of humor about not just themselves but the whole world; consequently, not many have reached the same scope of intent, and the same successful realization of said intents, as Coil. Partially unrelated: one of my favourite stories about them is that one time in the early 2000s when the rest of the band couldn't find Jhonn Balance after a gig in Greece — I think at least, I'm going off the top of my head here — so on the following morning they were forced to board their plane to their next gig in mainland Europe without him. So as they're about to play the gig without him, seeing as he simply isn't there, magically he shows up, and nobody could even imagine how he'd managed to get there on time. At the time Jhonn was already having big trouble with alcohol, had already broken up with Peter Christopherson. Many of these things I came to know through some tried-and-true Coil obsessives, and there's apparently a lot of them around: people who exchanged correspondence, cassette tapes, memories with some of the collaborators in the band or even Balance and Christopherson themselves. There's basically an army of unauthorized Coil biographers out there. But staying more strictly on the point, it's impossible to separate Coil and the lives of those who made up Coil; therefore it is impossible to separate Coil and life itself.

Some of you may remember me mentioning the aborted Autechre/Coil collab back in episode one of this series. In that very same conversation, we had a really deep dive into how Coil's attraction to — mostly Western — esotericism, even the most downright evil and uncomfortable parts of it (how could we ever forget the iconic "the industrial use of semen will revolutionise the human race" shirt?), stemmed from a more general interest in the fullness of life; and the more I think about that, the more understandable Coil's visual fascination with nature is. Four EPs, one for each of the major sun-related astronomical events introducing the four seasons; the luscious woods on the covers of the two Musick to Play in the Dark records; the rocky cliffs and the goats being a perfect aesthetic fold to The Remote Viewer's abrasive/ascetic hurdy-gurdy drones. All of this accompanied to music that seems to strive for the most eldritch effect possible — in one way or another, Coil's sound design is like looking very, very, very deep into the bottom of an abyss of your choice simply for the fun of it, or rather for the curiosity, the doubt that something of incalculable value might lie down there. We as humans really enjoy getting to know stuff much more than we enjoy actually knowing stuff, the progress of process is much more enticing to us than the staticity of completion. Coil still sound, twenty years after Balance's death and almost fifteen years after after Christopherson's death, like they are disciples. They listen just as much as we do.

And this predisposition to listen is specifically what makes them particularly apt at speaking, too. Coil express depth because they feel deeply, ultimately, and they don't fear emotion — any emotion. Which means they are just at ease analysing the diffusion of gossip and its subsequent deformation and bloating as they are discussing alcoholism and the search for oblivion, and what's better: these topics are discussed in two sister tracks (namely Red Queen and Ether). Both tracks, alienated from the context of their respective records, sound like relatively soothing jazzy piano ballads with some lunatic saying the most out-of-pocket shit possible on top of them, and some pretty fucked up background noises going on, Red Queen being the easiest possible application of this concept. But the effect gets somehow creepier when Jhonn Balance actually introduces a recognizable melody into the mix. This is probably the best moment to talk about Jhonn Balance's voice.

If I'd talked to Dog about this piece, they probably would once again link me to Drew Schorno's piece about "vestigial shamans" (you can find it here). Balance's singing is not about technique, but at the same time it's not as simple as the boomer-like concept of mojo, either. Balance could barely carry a melody through most of the time, to a point where some Coil tracks sound like they'd benefit heavily from a guest vocalist; early on, I believe, Coil — perhaps Balance himself — must have been convinced that was the case too, and for proof just look at the plethora of external one-off collaborators brought in the fold (among many notable names, one stands tall: the legendary JG Thirlwell). Then you try to actually substitute Balance, or maybe even sing your own version of the track, and it doesn't work anymore*. It simply stops being compelling in a way that is very hard to quantify. Yet another name popping up from the Autechre piece, i.e. that of Tom Waits: it's that lived-life element mixed with the more strictly performance-related aspects of vocal interpretation that makes the difference, sure, but it's about how you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. Tom Waits achieves this by virtue of his life-long effort to turn into his own character, i.e. by way of sheer commitment to the bit if you're so inclined; Jhonn Balance — ironic that, of these two, he should be the one using an actual pseudonym — does that by simply being a vestigial shaman, a person so profoundly wired for jumping in and out of some other world that he seemed, for better or for worse, to be unable to stop doing that.

*There is, of course, only one exception to this rule, and that is Rose McDowall, i.e. most likely a vestigial shaman herself, at least judging by her Facebook. I am lucky enough to be her virtual friend on there, and she seems like an incredibly endearing person — speaking frankly, I'd love to buy her a drink and have a conversation at one point…

The shamanicity (is that even a word?) of Coil is stunningly matched by the sound design and production: so materic it's tangible, so abstract it forces you to wonder what's on the other side of the door. You don't always want to know. In the summer of 2016 I was listening to Batwings in a dark room, for some reason, and there was a crucifix in this room; I shone a flashlight on it and the crucifix projected its shadow on the wall and at that point I very distinctly felt something powerfully trying to make its way through my ribs, into my chest. I immediately left the room. To this day this remains the sole thing in my entire life that made me firmly and unequivocally grasp possibilities beyond what we see normally. And as much as I love waxing poetic over Balance's lyrics and vocals, in this case I believe it was mostly the repetitive, simple keyboard figure — it's almost as if they'd managed to shrink down a church organ and you could now play it, volume obviously adjusted for size, within your breast pocket. But the whole array of clicks and pops, or the insanely advanced vocal processing, displayed throughout the Musick to Play in the Dark/Moon's Milk era really elevates the composition and arrangements to new heights, making them a true spectacle to listen to even on the most low-specs sound systems.

The beautiful thing is that Coil doesn't necessarily need the extra bells and whistles and, more importantly, that they know when and where to use them. This is on display throughout most of their discography, but nowhere is it clearer than on The Ape of Naples, a posthumous record that is entirely built to represent Balance's aural eulogy. One of the most overlooked tracks on the record, I'd argue, is Tattooed Man, basically a simple pop song revolving around laid-back percussion and a simple accordion melody — until, of course, Balance himself intervenes almost shouting a tale of dead lookalikes, of love and hate, of self-image and acceptance (or lack thereof) of finality. It's hard to explain why this track would be more touching to me than the more openly emotional Fire of the Mind (link) (which has one of the best opening verses in the history of recorded music, if you ask me) or Going Up (my main issue with this one is that it comes after Teenage Lightning and Amber Rain, both incredible tracks that scarred me for life — in a positive way, but I do realize its necessity in the economy of the full record of course. It just is). I guess it's touching to find that at the end of the line, even resolute spiritworld straddlers get a bit scared of their own powers. But after all, the main requisite for being a shaman is feeling more than the others — being, maybe, more human than the others.

[powdermelonkeg]

Hello I would like to pick your brain about something. I like botw, but I kind of feel like the whole game being open world takes away from the feeling of getting to explore new places instead of adding to it? Because you can just go everywhere whenever you want to, things stop feeling very 'new'. Like in for instance twilight princess everything was really linear, but that did mean that every time you get access to a new part of the map it feels like you really get to fully explore it? And botw doesn't really have items either, but I remember loving how in many games you can go back to a previously visited area and then find more cool stuff because you now have the items needed to reach it. I wish botw had had more stuff like that too, because then it feels so much more like you get to explore? The world is really big and fun to look trough, but it also feels kind of empty? Except for koroks there don't seem to be any cool secrets to figure out and all puzzles are relegated to shrines. I want to get that feeling I had when I found out you could dig down in the goat barn when in wolf form again! Is this also something you've felt? Would you like more of these secret areas/unlockable areas?

YES. MORE THAN ANYTHING YES.

I think they did away with it because they couldn't figure out how to reconcile the traditional secret puzzles with an open world. Before, everything was linear; you go to a dungeon, you get a new item, the new item unlocks the next area, and so on.

While there are some really cool mechanics that BotW implemented to keep things interesting—like temperature and unique ingredients—after awhile, everything just feels like a retextured version of the last area. Climb cliff, run through grass, chop tree, empty out camp.

The thing is, I understand now why it is how it is. I still have suggestions to change it, but this isn't going to be a big complaint post like the last time this came up for me in 2021.

See, the big conflict is what the secrets WERE in previous games: they were collectables, heart pieces, rupees, and upgrades.

In an open world, you can't have key items in the dungeons; that brings back the linear format by forcing you to go in a specific boss order. But you still need incentive for people to DO your scattered dungeons. So you take the best weapon in the game, and lock it behind a heart cap—you have to have 13 hearts to draw the Master Sword.

But that means you can't have the heart pieces be the collectables. So you remove them from the overworld secret locations.

Without key items, you can't have upgrades; it's an either/or situation. You either have key items, or you have your varied, breakable weapons. If a key item beats a breakable weapon, then you'll never USE the breakable weapon, and it's pointless. And since you can't have key items in dungeons, you might as well go with the breakable items.

You can now sell gear instead of just buying. Rupees aren't as valuable anymore as a result, and your wallet is practically bottomless—Nintendo listened to the complaint of not fitting a gem in your wallet, but sacrificed the Rupeeconomy as a result. No longer a worthwhile secret, so it doesn't register as one when you find it; not like the red rupees up the OoT drawbridge chain or the silver rupee in the TP Kakariko bell.

Then collectables. Those they did keep, with the Korok seeds, but how do you make something like this easy enough to find that the reward is worth it? You put them EVERYWHERE. But because they're everywhere, they're not exciting, and because you don't need them all to get a worthwhile reward, you don't bother.

Water is another thing, but a minor one; I do love underwater segments, like being able to find a treasure chest at the bottom of a lake, or a shortcut between locations. But water's not a requirement—Minish Cap doesn't let you go underwater, but it still hits the secret itch perfectly. My guess is that they didn't want to model cool stuff in the entire ocean in BotW, or that 3D swimming was difficult to program to be fun.

As for the lack of caves, my theory is that they saw the shrines AS their caves, and therefore, caves are redundant to the devs. You have your loading zones with puzzles, don't you?

So, here's what I would add in to make BotW feel more unique, both by area and by revitalizing the "secret to everybody" aspect:

Add more collectables. Not more Korok seeds, more VARIETY. There are bugs all over Hyrule—you could easily bring back the golden bugs from Twilight Princess by giving them a low spawn chance wherever those bugs naturally live. Or Kinstones from MC; you find a shard, now you have to find who has its other piece to unlock a new secret. Some other things might be archaeological finds from Old Hyrule that tell you about the world before the Calamity, with a museum you can fill up, or strange plants to fill up a greenhouse with by your house in Hateno.

Make the higher tiered enemies require different strategies. In Twilight Princess, there were lizalfos, then lizalfos variants that you had to maneuver around differently to get past their defenses. Lynels would be SO much cooler if a red Lynel was "smack it until it's dead," but a silver Lynel required you to jump on its back to slash its protective armor off to do any damage.

Put secret ingredients in VERY specific locations around the world. Maybe you can make a hearty mushroom skewer, but if you do it with a golden truffle from the highest point of Hebra, you can give it to someone in Akkala to get treasure marked on your map.

Make secret grottos. This is the big one; it could be a hole hidden in a tree trunk in Lost Woods, or a sand dune that blows away in a sandstorm, etc. Small pocket locations no one has touched before, with some cool environmental effects that make it feel unique, and some enemies to present a challenge. If it's too big to find them, you can make little glitches in the map you download from the tower that indicate their locations. You'll know you've found them all when you get a notification from your slate saying "Area Map Restored." Or if that's too on the nose, the memories you recover can reveal a handful of them.

But the biggest question is, what would the reward be? I explained above how BotW undercut its own systems; hearts aren't a reward, key items are null and void, rupees don't make an impact. So what's left?

The coolest thing BotW EVER did was the runes. They're key items unto themselves, but not just to get places; they change the way you interact with the entire WORLD. They're AMAZING.

So what if we ran further?

Right now, the way to upgrade your runes is via giving generic guardian parts to Purah. But they already have another purpose with Robbie's weapons; let him keep them.

Instead, you find specific Slate parts around the world and bring them to her. Tiny cog, big screw, power crystal, etc. Some people collect them and need to be convinced to give them up, some are hidden in treasure chests, one is around a Hinox's neck...

Then with that as one aspect, the secret grottos could also hide a small selection of new runes. Finding those would be a THRILL; what can you do with a timeshift circle around you? What new things could you find with a gale at your command? I have a list of hypothetical runes here that I think would fit in well.

Things don't have to be linear to be interesting. Nothing is stopping you from finding the guardian pilot rune from the beginning and storming Ganon's castle. But it would be really fun to be able to get some unique memories, wherever you went.

[a-silver-dragoness]

"How long she dreamed to never wake

Not to die but forever sleep

To shed mortal coil and ascend

As dragon goddess

Winged and content"

I was browsing Tumblr a couple days ago when I was struck with this intense, forest fire of inspiration. I don't remember the exact post, but suddenly it was like "I NEED TO MAKE THIS ART RIGHT NOW", and that burning inspiration hasn't ceased following it's creation.

I really, really want to gush over my favorite, most influential dragons of my life, so be prepared for a long summary/explanation!

From (top) left to right:

Everlasting Dragon, Dark Souls: "Rumour it may be, but I have heard of a surviving ancient dragon who resides in this land. A coterie of Undead serves the dragon, as they train to become dragons themselves. Sounds unlikely, but you never know, do you?"

- Domhnall of Zena

Light Fury, HTTYD THW: My favorite species in HTTYD! A welcome change to the classical "big, scaly monster" category that 90% of dragons fall into. We need more sparkly, feminine dragon species IMO. I know a huge chunk of the fandom hates this species because of it's feminine traits, and the individual that represents the species is female (females aren't supposed to have sparkles, such a horrible design REEEEEEEEEE), but I feel like everyone forgets that the ENTIRE species is feminine and sparkly, not just the Nameless Light Fury. There are male Light Furies with these traits, which everyone conveniently forgets, and assumes the entire species is all female or something?

I've seen plenty of really good redesigns, but it makes me feel bad that so many people hate the species enough to change everything about them. They make the species more masculine, more bulky, more "big, scaly monster". They make the species look more like Night Furies, which makes me feel kinda weird. But regardless, I will always prefer the canon design over any redesign.

Blue, Wings of Fire: My first exposure to WoF was the Graphic Novel of The Dark Secret. I was like, "Woah! Dragons as the main POV characters! That's so cool! I've been waiting for this my whole life!" So, I eventually bought all five Graphic Novels, and checked out The Lost Continent from my local library, and I've been hooked ever since. I currently own the entire 3rd arc, the Winglets, and Darkstalker. I know the fandom probably hates the scavengers in the last book, but as long as dragons continue the be the main POV characters, I couldn't care less how involved they are. Plus, as long as you have two intelligent species in room together, they're eventually going to figure out how to communicate (it's inevitable).

SilkWings are my favorite WoF species. Flamesilk (or just spinning silk and weaving it into tapestries) is an awesome ability, and a very unique feature for a dragon species. I have this strange, prominent love for four winged dragons in general, but I do prefer SilkWings over HiveWings. The ability the cocoon oneself and emerge five days later with wings is a concept that.... interests me greatly. I wish I could grow wings too.

Red Dragon, OG Demon's Souls: I have very fond memories of watching my brother run through Boletaria 1-2, running from the red dragon on those bridges to get to the Tower Knight boss fight. Their roar is unforgettable, and it's makes me happy to hear it. I don't mind the Remake, but I very much prefer the OG Demon's Souls. It has a very wonderful, janky old game feel (DS2 also feels this way to me), and the OST can't be topped. Plus, it has the sexiest armor in any video game, the Fluted Knight Set.

Ryukotsusei, Inuyasha: The first time seeing an eastern dragon was at my cousin's place. She had a few seasons of Inuyasha, and a Sailor Moon movie (the one with the winged unicorn). Probably not the most appropriate thing for a little kid to be watching (I remember Kagome getting kidnapped by a demon and waking up naked in a bathtub), but for my first anime experience I had alot of fun. Definitely had a crush on Koga. I remember drawing a circle in my hand and pretending to suck up demons at school.

The One That Got Away: I read this dragon book in elementary school, and I've never been able to find it again. I've only read it once, and when I went back for it, I never found it again. It has been bothering me for YEARS that I've never been able to find this wonderful book again. So, if anyone has any idea what book I'm taking about, please, PLEASE, send me a message or send an ask with the title! Here's what I remember.

A dragon (maybe red) swooping down grabbing a sheep, with veins seen in its wings, a farmer watches as his sheep is taken away. A dragon hunting a herd of deer. A dragon in a cave, with words like "this dragon's wings are too tight/big for this cave, it'll have to find a new cave soon".

On the bottom are things that might represent or be connected with my godkin identity. I could explain each one, but I'm very tired, and I don't want to do that.

Thank you for making it to the bottom of this VERY long post! Enjoy your day!

[miqojak]

♛: If your muse had to die, how would they like to go? And if they could come back as a person or animal, what would it be?

♫: What is one thing that your muse thinks they are talented at, but actually aren’t?

Headcanon Meme ♛: If your muse had to die, how would they like to go? And if they could come back as a person or animal, what would it be? I know I've answered this sort of question before, but Tumblr's search is broken af, so here we go again - just not something boring! She chased death for a long time, and only stopped bc she essentially met someone just like her in a partner, and they both had a death wish - and gave up on it in part because of how it would affect the other person, and they wouldn't want to inflict that on each other; living is the hardest thing to do, after all. That said... she tends to avoid needless violence because it can get you fatally injured or killed, but I guess she'd still want to go out in some exciting, or violent fashion. Not at the hands of a Garlean, for sure - but IDK, really. She spends most of her time cleverly avoiding death and removing any unnecessary risks to her person, so she doesn't really think about how she'd 'like' to die. But dying in your sleep sounds boring! Maybe on a cool hunt, or something.

She's also never thought about coming back, and wouldn't really have an opinion on it - it's not like she has any control over what happens once she's dead, after all! She'd probably just say 'not as an animal' because... she's not terribly fond of animals. Animals are food, and she doesn't want to be 'food' in her next life.

♫: What is one thing that your muse thinks they are talented at, but actually aren’t?

I answered this one here - I actually just reblogged it yesterday! The answer hasn't changed since then. She's not stupid enough to lie to herself about her own strengths and weaknesses... that kind of behavior gets you dead. Plus, she believes in constant self-betterment... and you can't achieve that if you're lying to yourself about your own capabilities. Anyone who pretends to be something they're not, or to be good at something they're not... is the sort that's easy prey, to her, and would be viciously mocked and humiliated for her own amusement - so she's not doing that, herself.

As I wrote in this other post yesterday:

"At the end of the day, Jak is uniquely honest with everyone, but...especially with herself. She's cognizant of her strengths and weaknesses and admits most of them, because... only a fool denies the truth of a thing."