#they're the highlight of my online existence

[canisalbus]

Your anons are always so different. You either get funny anon (like the 'pantaloons' one, I'm still thinking about that) or existential dread and misery anon.

.

[heartfullofleeches]

Incel, femcel, or themcel. We just need a greasy, chronically online mean person to be a yandere. Any ideas on how that would work?

(The best idea I could come up with is streamer reader)

Livestream began twelve minutes ago.

"Oh? Shit, is that V? What's up, buddy- welcome back."

You're so perfect. Near a quarter of an hour late, and you still grace them with a greeting. They knew you weren't like the others they wasted their time on. No, you're kind. Inviting. God they loved you so much.

V stumbled across your channel on night during a drunken relapse into pouring their hours into viewing the lives of random strangers online. It was all they had to do after work with none of the potential partners they messaged ever responding to their texts or calls. Their lost.

You were in the beginning period of streaming with only ten followers to your name; majority likely close friends and family. V planned on giving "light" critic of your performance, but something about the brightness in your eyes as they joined the stream sobered them up and glued them to their seat completely.

"Hi, welcome. Your name is actually too long to fix on the screen. Is it cool if I just call you V?"

And they were hooked on you ever since.

Little by little, your fanbase grew to the comfortable size it was today; your first real viewer front and center for each recording. Despite the boost in popularity, you never forgot those who gave it to you in the first place. V likes to think they're the most valued member with their donations and the equipment they sent once they had convinced you to open a p.o box. Shame they never pin pointed the location before you announced your move and had it closed.

"Since you're here. I can try on that jacket you sent me before I finish packing. It's so cute."

V wipes specks of drool off their screen as you sort through a cardboard box and slip the coat on. You were wearing something they touched. Fuck, you're so cute they could just devour you alive. With no roomates, they could get away with licking their phone unlike last time, but they refrained from said temptation for now. Cat ears sprout atop your head as you pull the hoodie on. You rub your shoulders as the jacket's interior snuggles your frame.

"Whoa, much warmer than I expected. I might wear it during my flight."

You better. Since you forced the thought into their head, if they see you with anything else in your photos they might blow a gasket. Just imagining random commentors wondering where you got the coat and you answering with a nod at their existence gave V the ego boost of a lifetime.

"It's getting kinda late. We'll do some more chatting then I gotta bounce for the night."

V watches the rest of your stream with the loudest voice of the crowd. They wait until it ends to begin their nightly routine of screenshotting their favorite moments of the stream. The highlight was a frame of you posing like a cat following another's chatters request. Having so many pests ruined some of their enjoyment, but times like this they'd let slide. For now.

-

V sits alone at the bus stop the following day. The prized picture taken previously was now their lockscreen photo. The fifth change in the last two days. A creature like you was bound to have unworthy trash throwing themselves at your feet daily, but they knew that with your history it would only take one hello for you to fall as madly in love with them as they were you. You're different like that. If only they could meet you.

V is pulled from their moment of bliss by a tap on their shoulder; scowl ready for whoever dragged them from heaven - until they see whose standing in front of them.

"Hi, I hope I'm not bothering you, but do you know if this bus goes to this street? My taxi didn't drive out that far apparently...."

The stranger blinks, cat ears shifting.

"Sorry- have we met before? You seem familiar. "

[ultfreakme]

idk of it's just me but i don't understand, the atla fandom, from all ships existing would just slander zukka out of nowhere. like mf i just want to see my boys being silly and in love in fanwork, why they need to be so mean lmao

I think it's because for close to 20 years, Kataang and Zutara were reining supreme in ship wars and fandom space. Jetko was the main mlm ship before but it didn't have nearly the same popularity. No other ship could even touch those two and those two continued arguing about what's best for canon.

Now though? Zukka's the second most popular ship on ao3- all of those fics and content showed up in 3 years. And suddenly the Netflix actors are pushing for Zukka practically every interview while actively dissuading Zutara(and hinting strongly at Kataang- thanks Gordon & Kiawentiio going "he/she's my.....family, yeah let's say family *wink* *wink*"). They're getting extremely popular and now fucking Netflix, Entertainment Weekly and Deadline are tagging #zukka in the year of our lord 2024(thank you for your service Dallas Liu, braver than the marines). Popular ships unfortunately get hate, especially queer ships, like just as a baseline regardless of if it's a canonically supported or unsupported ship, if it's "morally correct or incorrect".

This 'crackship' that no one took seriously suddenly feels...like a threat to these people??? Like we can joke about hahaha zukka gayyyy but we all know that's just silly gobbledygook right? (Not saying Zukka should or could be canon, but just the fact that people are seriously considering it as a ship option in fandom makes people act weird)

A lot of the the points made for "why Zukka is bad actually" are so funny though, that my initial irritation is fading and I'm just laughing at it. Some highlights that made me actually lose it:

Zukka is misogynist to Katara because, and I shit you not, they think that we think Katara is homophobic sdjfhbbgvh. I was shook when I discovered this was a thing.

Zukka bad because Klance bad (war flashbacks to Voltron)

"Everyone just wants a gay ship smh the chronically ONLINE FANDOM BRAIN HAS ROTTED THE SANCTITY OF HETEROSEXUAL-[EXPLODES]"

Zuko is a colonizer who's oppressing Sokka by dating him (i have no stats but this sounds like a white person trying very hard to sound like they're super inclusive and understand the plights of the colonized and oppressed. and the best way to do it is shit on a fake ship about lines on a page)

Zukka bad because it makes no canon sense

I think people who are Big Mad don't get that we're genuinely just chilling and making silly stuff without thinking too much about what SHOULD happen in canon. Everyone in ATLA fandom takes the show and the fandom far too seriously, like losing a fan discussion is somehow a slight upon their personal morals.

We coasted along without much hate for a good while but the increasing popularity means Zukka as a ship is going to get bashed ;_; I think the best we can do is block and ignore instead of engaging(very hypocritcal of me rn tbh, I'll try to stop).

I don't think you expected this....giant wall of text but thanks for sending me the ask and I totally get your frustration" Just let us enjoy our silly hcs and content!!!

[balkanradfem]

I’m jealous of your lifestyle, how you talk about gardening and swimming in lakes and all that stuff. How are you able to do it? Do you own land? Are you rich? Do you have a job? I know that’s personal, but I ask because I want to make my life more like yours.

Gardening and swimming in lakes is not my life. It's only moments, and I choose to highlight those moments on this blog because I want to share my happy moments with someone, and hopefully inspire people to garden and to be less dependent on grocery stores for food.

It seems you only read few recent posts on my blog, but didn't find my posts where I write about health issues that are so bad that I cannot walk for more than 20 minutes, where I can't keep a full-time job because of my chronic illness, mostly can't afford to buy food and that is why I grow it in the community garden with no budget, posts where I'm heartbroken that the city where I live, with roommates, is taking down trees that are my only source of comfort.

I'm picking and choosing what to write about, and sometimes I only pick good moments because I don't want to spend my time here complaining and making people feel bad for me. And you now picked over those, to create this fictional lifestyle that nobody is having. I'm too sick to have a regular job, so I made peace with poverty and working less. So I have time for gardening, but I have to share a room, and eat just what I grow. And sometimes I can go and dunk myself into the river, which is something anyone can do who lives close to the river.

The thing is, this is what happens with anyone who showcases their light and happy moments online, it creates the illusion of a lifestyle that doesn't exist, you could pick and choose moments from anyone's life and make it seem like they're living a fictional life that feels too good to be true. People will even exaggerate to create that illusion on purpose, to create admiration or jealousy. But I purposely don't do that, I write about ruining my washing machine with moss, fixing my own toilet, despairing because my bike broke and I have no way to get to work because I can't walk, having a neck injury that doctors can't seem to help me with. It is heartbreaking to me that someone would say 'I want this lifestyle', nobody wants this.

If you have few hours of free time a week, and know of a place in a community garden, you can try to get a parcel and grow food there. If you have a body of water near you, you can try swimming in it, provided it's not polluted. If you live in an area where growing space is not accessible, and bodies of water are far away or polluted, then this is made difficult or impossible. My only luck is that the city I live in is not yet so badly polluted that air and water would be poisonous to me, so I can have my little moments enjoying the nature before the climate change gets to it.

[obscuritory]

VGHF Holiday Fundraiser Day 3: Retrogaming in 1997

The Video Game History Foundation is raising money for our annual fundraiser this month by sharing cool things from our collection. Today, we're sharing an article from an ultra-obscure magazine in our collection, Digital Diner!

Digital Diner was, in the words of one of the editors who donated his copies to us, trying to be Rolling Stone for internet culture. There were only two issues, but they're surprisingly good. The article we want to highlight today was in issue #2, and it's about the retrogaming scene... circa 1997.

I think it's easy to assume retrogaming is a more recent phenomenon, or even as "recent" as the early 2000s, but this article dives into the growing retro community that existed as far back as the PS1 era! There's some familiar names in this article, including Jamie Fenton and legendary FPGA designer Kevtris. Truly, everyone was yearning for the Good Old Days before they were even that old.

But here's the really cool part: we have this scan because we have already scanned 1200 video game magazines.

You heard me!

VGHF is building a library of video game magazines, and we want to make sure as many of them are scanned as possible. When we receive a duplicate copy of a magazine, we check if it’s already available online. If not, we send it off to a local vendor to scan. This is an actual photo of our first order with them! And with the exception of magazines where publishers specifically forbid it, all of them are browsable online, right now, on the Internet Archive, including this issue of Digital Diner.

We want these scans to be widely accessible, so we’ve donated digital copies of these magazines to community scanning groups like Retromags and Gaming Alexandria to help build their own collections. If you’re the kind of person who reads game magazines online, there’s a chance you’ve already read some of our scans!

So far, we’ve scanned enough magazines that you could read one issue every day for the next three years and not get to the bottom of the pile. And there's another 300–400 unscanned magazines in my office that we're waiting to send off.

None of this would be possible without the support of our community! If you appreciate the work we're doing, please donate to our winter fundraiser! And if you sign up for our Patreon, you can see tomorrow's surprise a day early. For Nintendo fans, it's a REAL good one.

[qqueenofhades]

I keep thinking about the ask you answered a little while ago about people wanting a leftist version of Trump is so scarily true it's unsettling. People keep demanding he "do something" about abortion and gun violence but when anyone is like.... he can't, he doesn't have the votes to, they're like "he's the President he said he would do something why hasn't he done something" and it's like ???? what part of this are you not understanding if he doesn't have the votes he doesn't have the votes. Do they want like an EO or something? I'm just not sure what they expect him to do.

And it's also so fucking annoying to see them go after the Dems at every turn while letting the Republicans off the hook completely and not expecting shit from them. You may just want Biden to write them all off and govern like the GOP doesn't exist but he can't.....exactly do that. That's not how our system works. I wonder if they're just sorely misinformed from how rife Twitter is with complete bullshit or if they understand reality but are just saying this stuff for the outrage clicks.

Honestly, as I've said before, I'm not sure? I think it's a combination of willful ignorance and a desire not to learn anything, ever, that might challenge their deeply felt moral superiority. Just the other day, I had someone in my notes who, while otherwise agreeing with most of what I was saying, also insisted that Biden was "anti-trans." And like. The president who, while VP, famously came out for LGBTQ marriage before his boss, who specifically highlighted the violence suffered by trans women of color in his campaign platform, got the Violence Against Women Act reauthorized and passed with strong new protections especially for trans and gnc/queer victims, has issued statements on Transgender Day of Remembrance, made sure to repeatedly insist to trans Americans that they belong and their lives are valid, etc. etc., is definitely anti-trans, dontcha know?

However, I happen to know that recently, the Washington Post wrote a bad and misleading article about the Biden administration supposedly joining Republican state AGs to prevent trans girls from playing in women's sports. It was picked up by a big liberal account on Twitter and amplified as "a betrayal of everything the Biden administration has stood for since day 1" (which, you'll notice, implicitly agrees that the Biden administration HAS strongly supported trans rights). Then a few days later, the account holder actually read the policy, agreed that it wasn't what was being proposed and the WaPo had done a hatchet job on reporting it, and admitted that no, the Biden administration actually hadn't done a 180 on supporting trans rights. But if all you have is one Twitter account incorrectly reporting on a bad and misleading WaPo article, which is like... layers on layers of deliberately distorted and extremely out-of-context information, and you use that to decide that BIDEN IS ANTI-TRANS, it just. Doesn't make sense. And even if in the extremely likely event that Biden and/or his administration have missed some of the ideological benchmarks arbitrarily assigned to Demonstrate Absolute Purity On This Issue, like. HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN WHAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING??! HAVE YOU?!?!??!?!?!

I don't know if that is where that particular person got the idea or not, but it demonstrates how the left-wing online misinformation ecosystem works, and which is in some ways is extremely similar to the right-wing online misinformation ecosystem. It doesn't matter if the only piece of "evidence" supporting your belief is a single Tweet written by someone who hasn't read the actual policy based on a bad piece of reporting, that evidence is now to be preferred against every single empirical example to the contrary because it's "the real truth" (translation: it confirms what you already want to believe). That is the example that you will whip out every time someone tries to argue with you to the contrary, and you will never accept anything that contradicts and/or disproves it, because that's what you want to believe and now you will. You technically know that there is information out there which doesn't agree with your position, but it is the "wrong information" and therefore cannot be incorporated into your belief system. You likewise refuse to acknowledge any complexities, any other branches of government (once again, I am begging people to acknowledge both SCOTUS and how catastrophically it was fucked by allowing Trump to fill three seats), or anything other than insisting on the impossible and getting mad when it doesn't get done. Which doesn't sound very productive and/or useful to me, but hey. OUTRAGE. OUTRAAAAAAGE.

[dmitrigivesgoodblood]

Nalini Chat w/ Ali Hazelwood

Some highlights from her chat today with Ali hosted by East City Bookshop.

she's currently writing the next Guild Hunter novel

Q: what is special about this book in the series for you? A: This book is really about family and I think it's been a big thing throughout the series from the beginning. it felt like the right time in the timeline for this book to happen. Prepare to be emotionally destroyed. She cried writing it. It's a book about family and who we are and those who make us and influence our lives. There is joy! Really important book int he series because it closes a lot of loops which is important to move forward.

Q: what is it like to go back to raphael and elena after writing books about other characters? A: It doesn't feel weird going back because they're always part of the books regardless of who we're focusing on. It's this massive world and we just went and visited someone else. -they're the heart of the series. No matter where else we go they exist and are part of it in some way.

Q: When you weren't writing them did you miss them? A: She does. The newsletter shorts are because she does miss them and writes for them when it's not their book. "I write my own fan fiction"

Q: Shorts in a collection? A: yeah, if there was enough desire for it. She would go ahead and do that. She'll add it to the to do list and poll people if there is a want.

Q: What does she feel about werewolves lore in general since they're closest to changelings. A: Would have been writing werewolf fan fiction had she known about it online. The only thing she didn't like was that they don't want to be werewolves.

Q: What you have written has influenced a generation of writters, how does that feel knowing you have been so impactful on the lives of so many people? A: It's weird. It's a continuous timeline and you just go book to book without realizing the passage of time. Didn't set in until she got her 20 years in the publishing industry anniversary. It's startling. Her hero is Anne Mcarthy and for someone to think of her in the same way is wild.

Q: is it difficult to write a highly anticipated character/pairing? A: She's obsessed with them already for a while before introducing them. You really have to go into your own head and block out what people are expecting. That's the only way it'll be her own.

Q: Does it ever happen that you annoy yourself with your slowburn? A: "I do and then i write it and release it 10 years later."

Q: Is Raphael's father going to come back? A: "Well, he's dead."

Q: who is your favorite young character? A: Really like writing all the kids. They're hilarious and fun to write. Really loves Izzy and wants to protect him the little baby angel. Curious to see who he'll be when he gets older with all these influences around him.

-Thought she would write a book about Elena's sisters but they appear a lot in Lineage and it closes up their stories enough that there is resolution and she won't be writing their own story.

-The series is slowly (slowly) wrapping up. It was always based around elena and raphael and it should end where it makes sense. not drag it out

-Possible she might do some novellas because there are things that can't be wrapped up in the books. Will absolutely keep writing shorts and adding them to the newsletter.

Q: Is there another series in the works for when GH is over? A: Has an idea for a book she'd like to write but won't know if it's a series until it's written.

Q: Are we getting more of Illium and Aodhan? A: It's the next book. it's a different book than Light. There's still some emotional stuff to take care of. There are also major changes in the world. get to see more of the other characters with them. The cover should match the Light one, complimentary.

[butchesanddykesandqueersohmy]

hey <3 I saw you shared some butch book recommendations on a post a while back and I just wondered if you know of any essays or memoirs by/about butch bottoms? bonus points if they're stone bottoms? I've been trying to hunt some down on my own but haven't had any luck so far :( - @bashfulbottombutch

Thank you so much for this question honestly it's been a joy to do a wee bit of research on, and also it's spurred me to reach out to a local queer archive to get involved because it's yet again highlighted to me the need to preserve our histories

I once upon a time would have directed you to a website that existed and I'm told there's some remnants of on the way back machine (though I don't quite understand how that all works)

This website was called thebutcharchive and it was a digital collection of hundreds of butch focused narratives essays poems and other types of writings, and on that site I found some of the most affirming stone butch and butch bottom perspectives including several that stand out in memory enough that I still remember the tears I cried but I am cursing the fragility of human memory because I don't for the life of my remember the authors or what the works were called.

I used to sit and scroll that archive for hours just feeling the love poured into that collection the tenderness and the expansiveness of the butch experience

And now it's gone.

With only a few remnants to show it ever existed.

This all being said however

I've been doing some digging and found that there's an online archive and blog called the lavender menace based in Edinburgh who has a digital record of their collection

Having a cursory look there seems to be at some butch focused things although I'm sorry that I can't yet vouch for a lot of them in terms of sub/bottom butches though there does seem to be stone butch perspectives

I'm going to have a think about what's in my personal library and see if there's a short story or something in one of the anthologies I have

I'm sorry that right now I couldn't be more help but if you're happy with me sending you anything I find along my travels then I'd be happy to.

[hopeymchope]

True confessions from an RE:Zero convert

This might be more of a ramble than my better-organized reviews, but I have a lot to get off my chest.

Personal Backstory: The stuff you skip when reading a recipe

For a long time, I avoided isekai stories. They were so pervasive in anime/manga that I found them quite annoying.

When I first caved, it was only for comedies. I figured that, hey, they're taking the piss out of the genre; that sounds up my alley. So I felt it was safe to enjoy Konosuba. After that, I fell in love with Trapped in a Dating Sim... and to my surprise, it wasn't solely engaging for its overarching comedy. There was more characterization and interpersonal relationship stuff that grabbed me in that one.

That's probably what made me feel more receptive when I saw a couple of people call out Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion as an underappreciated anime highlight of 2023. I gave it a shot one afternoon with only mild expectations for it, and guess what? I adored it.

Yet despite ALL THAT? My expectations for RE:Zero were close to the floor. Raeliana had opened the floodgates, leading me to try some other isekai stories... yet I repeatedly found the ones I tried quite lacking. Furthermore, almost everything I'd read about RE:Zero over the years had been resoundingly negative in spite of its seeming popularity — a real "Sword Art Online" situation, basically.

But eventually, I was curious enough about why some people are invested in these characters that I started giving it a watch. These low expectations left me perfectly disarmed when it began to weave its spell over me.

Storytelling and Worldbuilding: Returning by death

You can neatly divide the show into story arcs, each representing a unique event/hurdle that the protagonist has to get past using his unique power.

The first arc of the story is mostly just setup for some of the important characters and the basic conceit. Our freshly isekai'd Japanese protagonist, Subaru, meets and bonds with a half-elf girl named Emilia, only to soon get tragically murdered. However, he just restarts his life from roughly one day earlier. He can go back in time by dying, giving him a new chance to take new approaches to situations and to accumulate knowledge via loops. Eventually, his "save point" advances to a new point in time... but what causes that to happen is left unknown for now. Making matters even worse is that if he tries to tell anyone about this superpower/curse, he feels intense chest pain as though he's about to be killed... so he has to keep this under wraps. (Though I still wish he'd try to tell people that he can't tell them. We never see if that'd work.)

With Subaru and Emilia established, the second arc introduces the most important supporting characters — Beatrice, Roswaal, Rem and Ram — and also puts one of them through a significant stretch of development. And finally, the third arc takes up the bulk of the series' first season, dealing with... frankly, a LOT. There's a lot crammed into it. You could even argue that it's got multiple smaller arcs stacked inside of it, and that would make complete sense. The third arc definitely does the bulk of the world-building/stage-setting for the future of the series, but there are details and background provided all throughout to get you up to speed on how people think here, how the government works, some of the existing races, etc.

I was initially taken aback by now blasé Subaru is about being transported to another world. This isn't a "death and reincarnation" thing like I've seen in most isekai stories; Subaru just blinks, rubs his eyes, and suddenly he's in a fantasy world just like that. And he... is completely unconcerned and unimpressed by that? It's a weird choice. Combine that with a point late in the first arc where he literally talks to the camera, and I thought maybe we were getting some kind of Deadpool-esque comedic commentary on isekai conventions.

It's the severity of the violence and related agony that makes me take it more seriously than that. I still find animated blood and gore extremely affecting — moreso than fake blood in live-action. That's probably because I was raised on Western animation that contained little to no sign of such violence, whereas Western movies and TV are full of corn syrup and other blood stand-ins. I'm just saying that when the deaths/kills come around in RE:Zero, they hit hard and often quite intensely. They're not showing entrails hanging out (even if they talk about it), but you can expect to see snapping bones and arterial spray. It's still a minority of the time, though; this is NOT a gorefest, and it's better off for that fact. When you suddenly get two minutes of ultraviolence after four episodes of relative peace, that makes it feel all the more effective.

It's not lookin' good there, chief.

I'm an easy mark for this stuff. Some of my primary entry points into anime were horror anime, so playing up this kind of horror gets me to sit up and take notice. It's not going to be anywhere near enough to keep my attention, though. I've certainly watched AWFUL horror anime that had nothing to boast about beyond their gore levels. That's where the quality of RE:Zero's character writing really saves the day.

What's really important to understand is that, through the strength of its gradual buildup of intensity helped along by showing the repeated consequences of failure Re:Zero manages to make some of the big anime shōnen  battles EXTREMELY hype! And yet, thanks to the great characterization? One of my favorite episodes in the whole show is an ep where two characters are just talking the entire time from a single location. THAT is the mark of something I love: If two characters holding a discussion for nearly half an hour has me COMPLETELY GLUED to it.

I've glossed over season two here because, although it still has some excellent moments, it's just not as good as the first. A big part of that is because it's just one giant-huge arc that covers all 26 episodes... and that's a LOT of time to spend on a single ongoing challenge/hurdle. It not only becomes exhausting and kind of boring to be confined to this problem/situation for so goddamn long, but it also makes it extremely obvious when Subaru is going to reach his final time loop and succeed. So once you piece together that the entire season is going to be stuck on this one arc, you realize you're stuck just waiting for him to get close enough to the season's end to finally achieve real progress. Once he does, though? It weirdly manages to feel like it's too soon -- like he didn't do enough to prepare all the problems at hand and somehow just won this time around because he tried super duper hard. There's also the fact that my favorite character from the first season is entirely sidelined (and apparently won't be in season 3 EITHER) — and nobody new manages to step into any similar shoes to pick up the slack.

Sounds like a good time to talk about that that character... as well as the rest.

Characters: The value of growth and change

One of the reasons I got into this so much is because the characters have flaws, go through changes, grow and develop. Rem is an early standout of this. As is apparently a common opinion, she quickly became my favorite character. Her shift from being suspicious and disdainful of Subaru to being 1000% supportive of him is EXTREMELY well-handled, and her sympathetic backstory is also one that we get before most other characters share their own. But when you get down to brass tacks, the main reason I think she's great is because she flips out and goes into violent combat mode whenever anyone she cares about is threatened. :D That's always a favorite archetype of mine. I love me a bloodstained hero or heroine who will march through hell and take any measure of punishment to save someone. Honestly, it makes it hard to understand why he'd so hooked on Emilia when Rem is so peak. And as I mentioned above, a big downside of season 2 is that Rem is completely absent past the first episode. In fact, she won't even be in the upcoming season 3!!! Alas, there is no "person who absolutely tears shit up and covers themselves in the enemy's blood to protect the ones they care about" character who steps in and picks up the slack, so I'm missing my favorite archetype after the first season. TSK.

She's not a princess (a lot of anger in it). Not your cutie girlfriend, oh no, don't you know?

I find it literally depressing that, to date, Rem is STILL not truly back in the cast of the source light novels - not in any way that matters. She makes her cameos via illusions or flashbacks or what-have-you, but she's not really there until she's physically AND mentally present once again. So until she returns to the team with all her memories (and therefore, her all-important character development) intact, I must legitimately ask: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, NAGATSUKI?!

Enough about Rem: We need to talk about the lead protagonist. Subaru is pretty brave throughout all this but really has to grow over the course of the first season and learn to be less self-serving and invest a lot harder into self-improvement. It's nice to see someone who clearly has blatant personal flaws but also is never a detestable person. I actually first saw him when I watched a few episodes of Isekai Quartet a couple years back, and frankly? I found him pretty loathesome over there. I was fully prepared for him to be a shitheel that I was inexplicably expected to like. I'm so glad that this isn't the case. In fact, I love having a character who wears his heart on his sleeve. He's not too manly to weep openly, and he's not afraid to act like a total doofus... or maybe he’s not smart enough sometimes to realize when he does. And although he may be frequently selfish and kind of stupid on multiple occasions, he never becomes one of those perverted male characters or too egotistical. Well... he gets a bit egotistical at times. Too much for someone like me, but... still not overmuch compared to many, many anime protags.

Panic! After Repeated Trauma

And yet... he does get a bit exasperating by the end of season two, imo. Partly because he doesn't grow too much in season two. At least he gets to confront his bottled-up feelings over leaving his homeworld behind, so that's nice. But otherwise, he's pretty much treated as this perfect man whose only major remaining flaw is a lack of combat skill. By the time you've got him convincing yet ANOTHER long-lived character to never give up and put all their faith into him personally just like he's done multiple times before, and it yet AGAIN works? The swelling music and the emotional reaction of the characters to him speechifying about how he'll always be there for them and needs them... that lands well maybe two times, but by this point — when he's talking to a character who has mostly treated him with disdain/avoidance and whom he's only hung out with maybe five or six times — it's pretty hard to swallow, honestly. But I'll try not to hold that against Subaru... I just want him to show some more flaws in future stories that go beyond just "He's not good at fighting." I want him to lose more arguments again. Besides, one of the best things in season two is when his mind starts to crack under the stress and pain of all the deaths he's endured. I think we should dig deeper into that.

I honestly love seeing a hero begin to crack under the pressure.

I kinda cheated by talking about Rem before Emilia. Emilia's the main female lead, after all, whereas Rem is a supporting player. The thing about Emilia, though, is that she's good and noble and pure-hearted from the start. She doesn't grow at all during season one, though at least she does show us a different side of herself when she questions Subaru's behavior during their argument. Season two sees her face her past and gain new inner strength, but she still undergoes far less change than Subaru or Rem in even just the first season. I'm glad they took the time to show her failing and then needing to learn in order to move forward, but Emilia's maybe just a little too perfect, y'know? One thing that garners her a lot of sympathy is that most everyone who meets her dislikes her just for being born a silver-haired half-elf. So many people associate that with one of the gravest threats to ever exist in this world that Emilia has to endure a lot of racism, and honestly? Confronting that racism is when the character is most engaging. So while Emilia is clearly likable and not totally uninteresting, she's not as interesting as a lot of the other players in the story. Most of the characters run deeper than her or have more mysterious goals. Compared to them, Emilia is an open book who rarely changes. The author of the books has said that Emilia is his favorite character, and maybe that's why he never sees much need to develop her. I think it does her a disservice.

On top of being beautiful and kind and intelligent, Emilia is also a powerful combatant. Because of course she is.

Her relationship with Subaru is a major focus, but it seems sort of hollow at first. Subaru admires her kindness/helpfulness and thinks she's beautiful, so he follows her around and dotes on her as much as he can. It's easy to see why he'd admire someone so good-hearted, but it starts to become a little cringe just how obsessively he dotes on her... and that cringiness peaks right around the moment when the two have a big argument and a falling out. It's an important scene that helps both characters, because it shows us Subaru's flaws on full display and also makes him confront just how cringey his devotion to Emilia can come off. Emilia, meanwhile, walks away to spend time without him for a while... though she never really rejects him, either. She really struggles with being independent. She keeps thinking about him and wishing he'd come back and make up with her. Clearly, she's gotten addicted to having a Hype Man around... and goddamn, I can't even blame her. Subaru looks at Emilia the way Stilgar looks at Paul Atreides. Who doesn't want that level of positive reinforcement available 24/7? By the end of season two, although both of them have grown, Subaru's still relentlessly hyping her up. He did criticize her (softly) in one major season two moment, but despite his claims otherwise, he still acts like she's an angel on Earth. And so, although he pool of their romance has grown deeper, it still feels like we've stepped out of the kiddie pool and into the shallow end. It means a lot more to see a character and their feelings grow and change over time, y'know? I suppose part of why we don't see that happening much is because Emilia is treated as so flawless to begin with.

Something I love in a long-running story is when a minor background character slowly starts to appear more frequently until - surprise! - they become a major cast member and full-time supporting player. Season two does this very successfully, and I love the character they expanded and brought into the cast. I feel like I shouldn't say too much about them for anyone who's a newcomer, because the gradual increase in their presence is so enjoyable. But it's a character who first appears in season one and has to wait numerous episodes of season two before they become important enough to get a front-row seat. It's very satisfying to watch them shift slowly from "fifth-tier supporting character who shows up for two scenes" into "major player."

Other characters? Ram is Rem's sister, and she's... not exactly a wealth of depth. Not yet, at least. She's mostly there to act tsundere. Her exact relationship with Roswaal remains hazy by the end of season 2, but she's clearly devoted to him and he's clearly doing... something for her? Roswaal and Beatrice both get by on acting mysterious. We learn a lot more about them in season two, and what we learn makes it hard to tear your eyes off Roswaal especially — he's a fascinating and weird bastard. Puck is a cat-like spirit with a lot of power and a very mischievious attitude. There's a surprising darkness lurking within him that keeps him from being some cute mascot-type. Season 2 also brings us some new characters whose long-term presence among the cast is still in question, but Echidna (not an Australian monotreme) is a standout. She really made me question everything I thought I understood about the moral good-and-evil situation in this reality.

Get those eyebrows under control. We ARE on television, y'know.

Serial Killin'

The series a whole is SO serialized and SO intense that it's really hard to watch it with gaps in-between episodes. Even taking one day off from the show mid-viewing proved too agonizing for me, so I was really grateful I could tear through seasons 1 and 2 in a rapid binge. I say this because... yeah, I don't see myself watching season 3 as it airs. Maybe I'll do a binge for each story arc it contains when they wrap up, or maybe I'll just wait for the whole season to conclude. But either way? This is something that demands to be binged in rapid succession.

I guess you get my point by now. I'm pretty hype about this series in spite of it holding some noteworthy flaws. I'm surprised I can still get so invested in something that dates back as far as 2016 that I haven't seen yet... and that gives me hope for what else I might discover going forward with my anime viewing.

[twstunes]

I am OBSESSED with your colored in manga pages!!! They’re beautiful I can’t stop thinking about them, how do you do your TWST page edits??? I’m really wanting to color the chapters too! It looks so fun!

I downloaded the pages (of chp1) straight from where I read them, and edited over (im using krita! Maybe photoshop would be better??) but I can’t seem to make them look the way I want them to. The line quality is nowhere near yours, yours looks so professional! I hope I’m not stepping on your toes by asking but I feel like I’m missing something 😭 would you mind explaining where/how you download the pages with such high quality? Do you turn them transparent like coloring books or edit overtop of them? I hope this ask isn’t too much!!

XOXOXOXO I hope you’re doing well!! You’re easily one of my fav twst blogs!

kicking my feet and giggling,,,,,, I hope you're doing well too!! you're not stepping on my toes at all, don't worry!

The pages I've been using for color edits are from turtlesoupscans' uploads – they're a scanlation group focused on TWST, and currently have stuff up for the manga (both the main story + anthology comic) as well as translations for the official novel. To my understanding, their scans ARE okay to use for color edits, but not for re-translations or mass-reuploads.

I do all my edits in photoshop using a lot of multiply & lighten layers! The coloring book method u mentioned is so enticing yet so traitorous…in photoshop, the selection + erasing method tends to damage the lineart, and the inverted channel method for removing white backgrounds quickly will keep a 'film' if the background isn't pure #ffffff. (Maybe krita has a more effective solution? 👀)

(Also bc I brought up using photoshop I'm ethically obligated to mention that photopea, an online equivalent to photoshop, exists and is free to use)

I've never used krita before, but from what I'm seeing of its layout/capabilities, the process I use should translate over fairly well–

(Added a black bg to the "fill" portion to make it easier to see)

First come the "fill" layers, which are for covering up halftones & similar shading techniques. This step isn't super necessary (and sometimes involves a lot more editing to replicate halftone gradients/patterns), but I heavily recommend it for scenes that involve a lot of dark colors. Leaving halftones in can cause colors to look darker & grayer than they should, the latter of which you specifically want to avoid when making color edits of darker-skinned characters. (They can also be really good for conveying texture tho, which is why I left the statues' shading alone in this example.)

Next are the color layers, where the bulk of the editing happens. As I mentioned above, I use a ton of multiply layers for this so I can just draw over the image. Darken layers also work, but I've found they tend to affect line density & smoothness. The shading and highlighting here is done using masking layers for individual objects/structures – I think quick group + choosing inherit alpha for the mask layer is the krita equivalent? Layers for darkening the overall lighting (like for nighttime scenes) would also go in this section.

Finally, the lighten layers are solely for the lineart. This is to help "soften" the the lineart, so to speak, making the scene feel a little more 3D/fleshed-out. This step is especially important when dealing with hard shadows, like on the Dark Mirror's frame, Pomefiore's windows, and Ignihyde's central pillar-thing. What I do is put down a bunch of lighten layers, typically at 50% or 75% opacity, and color-pick the darkest part of whatever feature I'm editing the lineart for. Because I'm using a darker color, the surrounding multiply layers will usually go unaffected by the lighten layers – if not, I just gotta zoom in and be careful about it. These layers need to be on top of/closer to the 'front' than the color layers, or else the multiply effect of the color layers will apply to the lighten layers as well.

Thanks for bearing with my kinda long-winded explanation! I've been learning as I go, so there might be easier/better ways of doing things that I haven't stumbled across yet.

I hope this helps & that you have fun doing color edits!!

[freeuselandonorris]

Here to ask for anything on just found me a brand new box of matches. ANYTHING. Lando's request for Oscar to ignore him. Their whole dynamic. I opened it to send you something specific, and just re read it three times over.

oh it's actually so perfect that this ask came in immediately after the previous one on playboy in the grotto because my thoughts on these two fics are very linked and they do actually exist strongly within the same universe for me, if it's not insanely wanky to refer to my own RPF porn one-shots as having a shared universe.

anyway! as i mentioned in the notes to the fic, i don't actually have a foot kink irl, so this was very much me accidentally awakening something in myself with the throwaway line in playboy in the grotto and just not being able to drop it. i find feet pretty icky, however the general psychology behind foot fetishes is often (though not always) related to body worship and mild degradation/humiliation (especially related to trampling and human furniture, which are lightly played with here too). feet are, in most cultures, seen as prosaic and dirty, and worshipping them (especially with one's mouth) signifies that you are symbolically lower than your partner, while simultaneously elevating the partner in status: even the lowest and dirtiest part of their body is worthy of worship! (which i highlighted by having lando notice that oscar's feet aren't even very nice feet, they're all battered because of course an elite athlete is not going to have lovely soft clean feet!)

now, i don't think lando would consciously understand any of this. but he'd know it intrinsically, and he'd be attracted to it. for someone who is pretty obsessed with mentioning how small and weak and fragile and uwu he is at all opportunities*, PLUS how much of a self-flagellating streak he has, this is all pretty potent stuff for him to be playing with.

and so, unconsciously, he leans into this desire for degradation and wanting oscar to objectify him. and oscar, also probably unconsciously, picks up on it too, which is why he introduces the light trampling elements, why he understands that lando will get off on him laughing while he's 'ignoring' lando jerking off, and why he won't let lando swallow straight away.

weirdly enough shortly after i wrote this, i came across an old post on r/FauxMoi from an influencer claiming that actual irl lando sent her horny foot DMs a few years ago. very uncool to dox someone's preferences like that, might not even be true at all, but god it made me laugh. my kink radar is on point!

* god this post is already far too long BUT here's some bonus lunacy from my gutter brain for you: shortly after writing this i had a sudden, lightning-bolt realisation that lando is exactly the right combination of chronically online, obsessed with being tiny and manhandled, and extreme sensation/adrenaline seeking to have a vore kink. so uhhh i guess i'm going to write that insanity at some point?

thank you so much!!

fic writers: director's cut

[sequoiareachesforthesky]

After seeing all of the not so cool stuff happening in the Japanese side of the MILGRAM audience, I wanted to share some positivity about the international MILGRAM community.

I'm French, so I specifically wanted to highlight the honestly fantastic work put up by the MILGRAM FR YouTube channel. They are releasing french covers of all of the prisoners songs, with the help of various French utaite (some of which are pretty big names in the french community. Like I wouldn't expect non-French people to know who Sumashu is but goddam. I was quite impressed to see him as mikoto).

I find the dedication of this MILGRAM FR group truly amazing. Although they're not trying to translate the entirety of MILGRAM material that exist, they make high quality covers with beautifully translated lyrics. (My favourites are the Bring it On lyrics but sadly, Futa's songs have been removed from the channel for now, as the team has parted ways with his former cover artist. The covers should be back soon with a new singer tho!) It makes me proud of being french (which is not something I'm usually proud of ngl 💀) to see this part of the community making MILGRAM accessible to a french audience.

Of course I'm writing this post in English so it's likely that whoever reading this doesn't speak French, but that's the point! Getting people who wouldn't usually come across this channel to check it out!

There's so many people contributing to making MILGRAM more accessible to non-japanese speaking audience, and I'm forever grateful to them. Of course there's everyone translating the VD (especially @/onigiriico, thank you so so much for your translations), the unofficial MILGRAM Eng twitter account, the MILGRAM fancult (although they've deleted their twitter account, they've done a lot of translating timelines from the app and such), and all of the contributors on the MILGRAM wiki.

And that's only the sources I have personally come across while getting into MILGRAM. There's probably a lot more I didn't mention. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy MILGRAM as much as I currently do, so I'm thankful to all of them. Really.

And that's not even mentioning the various users on social media who share their theories, thoughts, headcanons, fanarts, fanfictions, memes and more about MILGRAM.

I was feeling a bit down about the MILGRAM community today, so I just wanted to make a post where I'm happy about it instead, where I can remember why I love it. Not to sound too sappy but fandoms as extension of works of fiction are truly amazing. Telling stories is amazing. Talking about them is amazing. And as someone who struggles to openly talk about my personal interests offline (and even online honestly), just seeing that other people are just as invested as I am in a story, if it's not more, truly makes my day.

Anyway, that was a bit unnecessarily long, I hope you guys check out MILGRAM FR and are having fun in your lives. Have a nice day!

[sanaserena]

Okay, schedule aside, here are the screenshots from Episode 5 of the One Piece Live Action. One of my favourite episodes. Actually, by now I've watched the series a fewwww too many times, and a handful of my favourite scenes on top of that. This episode had several of my favourite scenes. Some of these have made the rounds as gifs online, which is awesome, but I love being able to catch that split second of the expressions each character wears.

Seriously, I think I need to do posts that focus on individual characters, because I loveeee how expressive they all are. Like Helmeppo has a thousand expressions. Zoro too despite being stoic most of the time. And the list goes on.

So my highlights for Ep 5:

Music, of course.

Zeff and Sanji in all their interactions. Perfect casting there.

Sanji's entrance is wonderful.

We get to see Mihawk and Steven Ward is perfect at him!

Remember how I keep going on about the chemistry between the Strawhats? It's because every episodes gives me new scenes that really build these individuals into a cohesive unit in a way suitable for live action. In manga, the process of writing is different. I love the talk between Luffy and Zoro because it shows who these characters are and how they approach things and what they're comfortable with talking about or not/if they don't want to or not. It's even more impactful when we see the parallel scene in Episode 7, and it gives us a sense of progress in their trust for each other.

The battle is great too, it's so chaotic. Zoro losing his way...on the ship. Usopp's lies contrasting his abilities. And Garp throwing cannonballs. Or ball actually. Since he only threw one.

At first I thought Garp was too serious, but when he laughs - I just couldn't say that wasn't Garp. And when we see the flashback, again, I couldn't say it wasn't Garp, because those are things he would say and do. And the more I thought about it, the more this live action version still makes sense. Garp is a vice admiral, and he does have serious duties associated with it. It's just in the manga and anime, we're not focussed on his story, and as such we don't see every part of his character there.

This is another thing I love about live action, it's that we're being shown scenes we haven't seen in canon. Things that fill out the world further, gives us different insights to some of our beloved characters. For example, Garp. Yes. But also pirates knowing each other. The world is big...but not that big. Pirates would cross paths with each other at some point, and the manga and anime don't always have the space to show us these little details (if so, this manga will never be finished...). Oda also is focussed on telling a story, and therefore will only ever show us the details most relevant to the main story, with his answers in SBS and extra materials supporting it. So I love that the live action shows us Kaya's mansion (confirming electricity does exist!), shows us what some of our favourite villains and side characters in canon are doing outside of the main plot, shows us that the marines aren't just a decorated institution that is often villanised in canon, and so on.

And as usual, I can't fit all the screenshots here 😅. See Part 2 here: Link; and Part 3: Link

[striving-artist]

okay, its This Post if you want to go look, but I'm not going to reply on the thread cause I have writing to do tonight and, like I said, yelling at a brick wall does no good. But I WILL take the opportunity to point out a couple things that are common mistakes online during discourse and how you can manipulate a response.

Under a cut because most people don't find examining fallacy and post analysis interesting.

To start, here's all responses of the thread in a simplified form:

Post about voting against Trump

Post from Ohsalome supporting OP with a reference to a commonly heard complaint about Biden (that he is supporting Israel)

Post supporting OP, with a reference to a statement from Trump about creating a dictatorship.

Post supporting OP, talking about the dangers of Trump globally.

Post about the use of Russian misinfo in 2016, discouraging voting and dividing progressives from more moderate dems. Also that it is visible today about Gaza.

Me, supporting OP, and #5, acknowledging the existence of nuance, and adding reminders of Trump being awful.

Quote of someone's tags in support of people voting

Arabian Knight shifts tone and topic, sounding more like Trump, and throws out a lot of directionless insults at the rest of the thread.

Arabian Knight again, misquoting #2, turning a statement into a scare quote that they use to expand on their insults.

Anathema comes in, loudly outraged by the quote Arabian Knight presented in #9, claiming it came from Ohsalome in #2

Wet Paint arguing for people to vote in a primary against Biden (there is no primary btw, this is not an option) and then tagging me and my quote, to claim that I think American lives are worth more than Palestinian lives.

So. That's an excellent example of how fast online conversation can be derailed by one person, and how misquotes and misrepresentations can invent a new conversation and scandal.

Fast analysis version: Arabian Knights changed the quote - maliciously or not - Anathema only reacted to the last post, with the false quote. Now in an emotionally charged setting, Wet Paint responded emotionally, colored by the anger of Anathema and Arabian Knight's posts.

Slower version:

High in the thread is Ohsalome who (Im not tagging folks in, do not do so for me) references a hypothetical argument against Biden. They don't say a specific source, bc its a simplified version of the hyperbolic complaint that shows up on a lot of posts lately. "he is murdering palestinian babies" Many progressives are rightly horrified by Biden supporting Israel, and don't know how to square that with voting for him. To me, that's a fairly clear and obvious generalization by Ohsalome, ymmv. Highlighted below.

In response to Ohsalome, Arabian Knight abbreviates the hypothetical quote, reducing it to just the phrase Palestinian Babies, and places quotes around only those two words. Yes, those are words that Ohsalome said, but you should basically never trust a tiny quote if someone is hinging an argument on it. That change turns it from a hypothetical quote from someone talking about why you wouldn't vote for Biden, and implies that Ohsalome themself was using scare quotes and doubting the existence of Palestinian Babies killed in the attacks on Gaza. That is not what it says or implies. It is a manipulation by Arabian Knight (statistically, this wasn't intentional manipulation, just tumblr's reading comprehension fails) But by putting that cherry picked phrase in quotes, it shifted the meaning and tone of the entire thread.

Then they bring in the accusations - and to be fair if Ohsalome DID claim that the dead in Palestine were fake, that would be super fucked up - and Anathema jumps in to back them up, responding exclusively to a misrepresented quote, not the original, and not the context of the original. They're specifically mad about quotation marks implying that there are no dead Palestinian babies, which - Again - were placed as scare quotes by Arabian Knight, not Ohsalome.

Anathema then takes another step to move the argument into emotions and morals by citing their own reaction to images they have seen.

See how fast it's turned into emotions? You already know that pivoting into emotions is a super effective way to manipulate someone. In this case, it took a post about hey, we really gotta prevent Trump winning, and made it into whether those people therefore, personally support murdering babies. You make that jump with emotion. Anything else, and people notice it.

Now.

I got tagged into this despite getting skipped by the misquote kefuffle. Here's what the new contender, Wet Paint, said, and the grab of what I'd said in my response.

This time, its not a misquote or a modification of a quote. Props for that. Yeah, it skips the context of the rest of the comment, but that's the nature of pulling quotes. Which is why you have to get in the habit of going back to the source to check context. I know its obnoxious, especially in the age of paywalls, but. do it anyway.

What Wet Paint does instead is create a false dichotomy. If I thought it was done intentionally, I'd almost be proud, because my post IS talking about a dichotomy... but not the one they are. I was talking about how its going to be Trump or Biden. A dichotomy.

They remade it into a zero sum scenario where it is Biden or Palestine. They've added the assumption that by saving American lives, you are killing Palestinians. There are times when that situation exists, so, this can easily sound like something you should stop and consider. And honestly? Do that. Pause, consider, and when you do, go chase down the source and see if you're missing something.

If a situation is as clean cut as 1 for 1 exchange of life, holy fuck, grab a pitchfork and give me a call so I can grab mine.

I'm not repeating my statements from that post. That's not the point right now. I just wanted to talk about how arguments get shaped and twisted online.

If I was a russian actor, and I wanted to manipulate this conversation to divide voters and increase Trump's odds of winning, the above is a really good starting point for how to do it.

[skyderman]

Tag game!!

Tagged by @this-was-a-terrible-idea. thanks! :D

name: Skye (i also go by astro online sometimes)

pronouns: they/them but if you wanna get silly with he/him or neopronouns i'm into it

where do you call home: california ♥

favorite animal: crows/ravens ofc, my cat, and crocodiles lately tbh. i love most animals tho!

cereal of choice: i used to eat cereal a lot when i was younger but now that i can't drink milk normally i don't do it so much anymore. my mom raised me on hippie cereals so i go for those kinds of things. raisin bran is good if you get some that doesn't get soggy instantly btw

visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner: depends on what i'm trying to learn. i learn well by doing. sometimes charts etc. can help. auditory is also nice but i also have trouble processing sometimes? i'm gonna lean towards auditory mostly

first pet: silly fat lab with a blue tongue, aptly named Blue. that doggy loved my brother and i

favorite scent: home-cooked pasta sauce, pine trees. roses. probably other things too

do you believe in astrology: i think it's fun because i really like systems and mystical stuff like that, but i don't think it has any real bearing on anything. but it's fun, and i it can be useful for introspection and stuff!

how many playlists on spotify/apple music: 25 original playlists, excluding a couple that are only like 2 songs long

sharpies or highlighters: uhh sharpies because they're black like my soul (self-aware)

songs that make you cry: fuckin. the song i just wrote for a dnd game. stuff on my character playlists. i've also been listening to hozier lately and you know how he is also lots of different queen songs rn because good omens has a chokehold on me again.

songs that make you happy: lots and lots! i listen to sonic music to get hype often. anything that i can belt when i'm alone. i love singing loud

do you write/draw/create: oh, yes. you could say that. it's kind of the whole point of my existence. i'm a digital artist (emphasis on fantasy character design) and i want to make comics/graphic novels. and regular novels. i'm working on one of each right now (check my pinned 👀). i dabble in piano too. i love art and making and being.

no pressure tagging: @joannofsnark @othercaliforniasaga @corvidcujo , you if you wanna :)

[fluffypichu876]

Mutual, congratulate me - I've finally freakin read that Gaming Ask List you reblogged... uhhhhh... 6th jan. ANYWAY

Gaming ask game!

I'm gonna send a few of these together, feel free to answer as many or as few as you wish to)

3. Favourite childhood game?

7. Most disappointing game you’ve played?

8. The game with the best atmosphere/scenery?

12. Most bizarre game you’ve ever played?

14. Do you watch playthroughs online?

15. Favourite animal in a video game?

21. If you had to play one game for the rest of your life, what would it be?

26. How often do you play online? Co-op?

30. On average, how long does it take you in the character creation screen?

43. Favourite sidekick or companion?

54. A sequel you really want?

62. Would you want to work with video games when you are older?

65. Any favourite screenshots of games?

72. Have any guilty pleasure games?

74. Which game has the best lore?

(links don't work with asks so I'll link the original post the ancient way) tumblr dot com /corvoblinks/136954217573/75-gaming-asks

That's a new record, mutual! xDDDDD Old ask games are still valid in my blog, so thank you for sending one!

Oh hoh boy, let's talk video games!

3. Yoshi's Island for the SNES, no doubt! This game might be the first I have ever played! (at least, it's the first game I have played with the most vivid memories) Started it when I was little, picking up a joystick controller to play on the good old ZSNES emulator (that pixelated menu is so nostalgic for me), which my dad set up for me to play.

It was my first contact with a video game and a emulator, and one could say it was all downhill from there xDD

Childhood memories aside, the game itself is pretty good! A very fun platformer with very charming graphics. It's also pretty satisfying to 100%.

8. Ummm, there's some containders for that! As I have said in a post before, Castlevania SOTN has some of my favorite vibes and atmospheres in gaming, and it accomplishes that with a great blend of graphics and sound design.

The first Metal Gear Solid on the PSX also has an amazing atmosphere to it, despite the old-dated low polygon graphics.

Super Castlevania IV on the SNES is of the most atmospheric games on that system, and in true CV fashion, a good part of that is achieved through the soundtrack. The waterfalls and dracula's battle theme are highlights to me:

Dark Souls 1, which I'm currently playing, captures the feel of adventuring into a mysterious, dying world extremely well. The level design is intricate and the areas are interconnected in many ways, each with a unique vibe and story attached. Playing this game blind is highly recommended, as it enhances the experience a lot!

12. I haven't played it, but Top Banana for the Amiga does not look like something that should exist xD It looks cursed, sounds cursed, and it probably plays like a curse too.

As for something that I have played, I gotta say Ecco the Dolphin (and it's sequel). A beloved childhood game of mine, it's strange in a beautiful way, and even as a kid I was mystified by it (I still am).

14. Only snippets and ocasionally a live stream (I don't usually stay for long, though).

15. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME CHOOSE JUST ONE xDDDDD here's a comprehensive list of some of my most memorable favs:

   - Too many Pokemon to count, so here are a few that immediately come to mind: Flygon, Luxray, Reshiram, Elektross, Hydreigon, Skarmory, Breloom.

   - My BOTW horses <333

   - Chocobos

    - The Guardian Ape from Sekiro (awesome boss)

    - D-Dog from MGSV (most precious boi) 21. That's a really hard one xDD Certainly something highly replayable and endlessly fun. Perhaps DMC or Ultrakill?

26. Not very often. I have been engaging with DS1's multiplayer systems, and they're pretty fun!

30. Depends both on the game and my current creativity.

43. My boy D-Dog (mentioned above) is so helpful. So helpful in fact that it makes infiltrating too easy sometimes xD His ability to map out all nearby enemies by their scent makes it super fun to plan strategies ahead, and also you can pet him! :D

54. Sekiro 2 please??? (puppy eyes at Miyazaki)

62. y e s

65. Quite a few! (these are completely out of order, btw)