#this also felt too nuanced to talk about on twitter LOL

[honnojis]

Random thought maybe, but I will always think and advocate for that culture and life should be celebrated no matter what. There's so many awful things happening all the time and so many reports about people being terrible that it's easy to lose sight of the positives and how beautiful our world and its people can be, and most importantly; how it's worth trying to preserve it.

"But this terrible thing is happening over there! Why would you be throwing a party now?!" Of course it's terrible that these things are happening, and I never said we should be dismissing those things! But world news can get overwhelming very quickly, and if we keep submerging ourselves in a constant stream of negativity, in the end everyone will just be utterly miserable. I genuinely do think it's good to turn to your direct environment instead of an internet bubble from time to time and simply focus on the environment and people you have in front of you. Or seek it out elsewhere if your environment can't provide it in some way; it's never truly far away.

Not only does celebrating culture help with bringing people together, it also helps bringing other people joy and sometimes a much-needed break from the aforementioned stream of negativity. With almost every news outlet and social media it's discourse and negative happenings that garner engagement; and that's what they'll almost always be reporting on. Drowning yourself in that stuff all the time just straight up isn't healthy! Sometimes you just need to have a day where you can forget about all of that and find a moment or reason to celebrate what we love to continue powering through everything life may throw at us otherwise.

And no, I don't wanna hear anything about "oh but this culture is bad for [THING] :/", that's not what this post is about. This is a post for the appreciation of the cultures that make the world so wonderfully diverse and happy in their own way. Culture in so many ways is a celebration of life and the world around us, and we need to have something that's worth keeping around, right?

[raytorosaurus]

maybe this is a 'hot take' for which i apologize but. i feel like fanart is a big aspect of this too- how different even is it to make 'rpf' of gerards stage characters as opposed to fanart of it. it's essentially only a different medium. keeping it separate from gerard (Person In Reality Who Has A Life) outside of (character he made up to have fun with) can also easily be an invitation for fans to have fun with it too. which is why a healthy relationship with it can and does bring good things. in theory i mean. ive never seen an mcr fanfic i really liked but :p

yeah i see what you mean, it's one of the reasons that the step from tumblr (or twitter) fandom to the ao3 tag feels like. quite an arbitrary place to draw the line? as if the same thoughts and behaviours are fine right up into they're intentionally put to prose - but images or even comics are okay, textposts discussing their emotions and states of mind as extrapolated from live shows or song lyrics, putting research into constructing timelines of their lives or compiling facts about them as people - even writing (sometimes quite detailed) sexually explicit posts/tags about them is common around here. i do a lot of these things too - i'm not saying they're inherently wrong or bad - but i genuinely don't see how they're any less prone to being disrespectful or invasive or comically removed from reality than a writer putting them in a situation lol. they all involve some level of assumption, scrutiny, and interpretation.

there are definitely valid arguments to make against engaging with rpf in a fandom sense! i totally respect that, and it's something i felt kind of ashamed/guilty about when i first got into mcr, so i understand the reservations. it's just that...the way i see it, i truly think those arguments just as reasonably apply to so much of what happens in any fandom involving real people. behaviours that are extremely common and far from unique to the online fan spaces of today, to the point where avoiding them is a more conscious decision than engaging in them. i respect if people do make that choice, but...that isn't any of us who are running mcr fanblogs yk? haha.

anyway yeah. i agree with you anon, i reckon most people's definition of what does and doesn't entail rpf is just a lot narrower than the reality. there's a lot of extremely beautiful, highly-skilled emotive fanart out there, for which i'm so appreciative! i 100% don't mean it as an insult when i say those often a different kind of rpf. so are the emotive posts about how much this tour means to all the guys, how happy they are, how much they love each other and how they're all friends. i'm not saying these things are untrue, i'm just saying they absolutely don't paint an unbiased holistic picture of real human beings and their genuine emotional states hahaha. neither does fanfiction. and i just think it's impossible to not realise that if you're engaging with fanfic in any kind of thoughtful way, as opposed to reblogging textposts about them on tumblr that also project a lot onto them, yk?

and okay. i also think "the bible/succession/velvet goldmine etc etc is rpf too! shakespeare wrote rpf!" is equally as reductive as "rpf is when fangirls write about band members boning each other." as always, there's just so much more nuance there. what does and doesn't make rpf is a lot more about intent, and if you're parasocially attached to these people as deeply as we all are, most of us just share that same intent. and from what i've seen (though in fairness this is the first real person fandom i've been in, and i only really talk to other adults) it tends to be the people actively engaging with fanfic who are a better at accepting how much of fandom is pure projection and assumption based on very limited information. and that acceptance is a huge part of having a healthier relationship with celebrities/bands/bandom (along with the conscious acknowledgement that these people don't owe us anything at all besides the shows we bought tickets for - least of all insight into their personal lives or private thoughts.)

like genuinely? free your minds. we're all making shit up based on the little parts we see, i think it's healthier and more fun to openly accept that. who cares what's real when we can talk about things in terms of narratives and arcs and metaphors - none of which truly exist in real life, which is infinitely complex and individual and messy. or, more precisely, who cares what's real as long as you know what isn't! and keep that stuff far far away from the real human people involved in the band.

[homemade-ghosts]

I know this is a kind of weird question, but why do you think you never got into EJ and Gina?

I saw a comment saying was season 3 was backtracking, "how their relationship was so genuine and supportive in the first two seasons then suddenly all the development was gone in s3 with EJ back to being inconciderate and Gina is back to having feelings for Ricky'

Not a weird question at all! 

I’ll start with things I think I’ve mentioned in previous PW-related asks (just to get the repetition out of the way lol). They share no common ground beyond both initially being seen as the scheming antagonists when the series began. They don’t understand each other — nor does EJ ever make a concerted effort to understand Gina, beyond asking her (literally one time) what it feels like to be constantly moving. They don’t communicate well; EJ put no effort into maintaining their relationship. + EJ essentially refuses to support Gina the second it becomes inconvenient for him (sure, he’ll pick her flowers to congratulate her on landing the lead, but then he’ll negate that by immediately talking about himself and his failings without giving Gina a moment to celebrate her own success). 

& on top of EJ & Gina being, on paper, not compatible — regardless of who they are being played by — there’s also the fact that I have never once felt an ounce of romantic chemistry watching Sofia & Matt on screen together. Chemistry is, in part, something that just is. You either have it with your scene partner(s) or you don’t. They don’t. (IMO) That’s problem #1. & even actors who establish that natural onscreen chemistry can’t coast on that alone, to really get the audience (in this case, me lol) invested, they both have to have the emotional range to back it up. 

Which brings me to problem #2: I don’t think Matt has the kind of depth, as an actor, that it takes to be a good scene partner to someone as incredible an actor as Sofia. I don’t want it to sound like I’m just trying to dunk on Matt, he seems like a nice guy and I by no means think he’s a bad actor (I don’t think anyone on the show is a bad actor) but, in my opinion, he doesn’t bring much, if any, nuance to his performance. It’s always very…shallow — meaning that Sofia, too often, has to carry (most? all?) the emotional weight in their scenes together. Josh, in contrast, is a much stronger actor who can hold his own in a scene with Sofia because he’s capable of giving a layered performance. Like Sofia, there’s so much going on behind his eyes, so much in the slight change of a facial expression. She doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting in their scenes together, it’s more of an equal partnership.

I should probably also mention that I have never exactly loved EJ as a character, for reasons completely unrelated to Matt’s portrayal of him. Even when s1 was airing and he was in everyone’s “Big Three” edits on Twitter, I didn’t really get the appeal. I thought he was funny sometimes and a necessary part of the show’s narrative, but I had a hard time rooting for him because his problems were often so trivial compared to other characters’. Like, Ricky’s parents were in the midst of a divorce and his mom was miles away, seemingly starting a new life with a new relationship, without him. Gina had finally found a home and friends and somewhere to belong, only to have all of that ripped away from her, out of nowhere, the instant her mom gets a call from work. Meanwhile, EJ…lied and lost Instagram followers because of it ?? & I’m expected to sympathize with him? Then, in s2, Gina is heartbroken, without her mom to comfort her, Ricky is forced to move out of his childhood home & Nini is finally embracing her independence and learning not to see herself through the eyes of others and EJ just…doesn’t get into one Ivy League school until his dad effectively buys his way in and again, I’m supposed to feel for him because he's sad he couldn't earn that spot on his own? The only thing I feel is that he’s incredibly privileged. & when he was desperate to please his dad in s3, I tried to care (because it's the closest he's ever come to genuine struggle on the series) but I couldn’t because he was doing it at the expense of Gina & her feelings — something he never took responsibility or apologized for, by the way. Ricky makes a mistake, learns from it and does his best to make up for it. EJ makes a mistake and…well, that’s it. He keeps making it, but it’s supposed to be okay because he’s a good guy who’s always trying to do the right thing, even if he doesn’t succeed. & I’m tired of it, honestly.

TLDR: In order for me to root for a couple, they need to have chemistry, the actors need to have comparable acting abilities & I need to sympathize with both characters, to like both of them &/or to find them both interesting (I specified the “&/or” for that last part because I do have a couple ships where I don’t necessarily like one of the characters, but I do feel for them at times & find them interesting/compelling). PW has none of that.

As for the second part of your ask, the old “EJ & Gina’s relationship was great in s2, but the writers ruined everything in s3 by having EJ go back to being selfish and Gina go back to being in love with Ricky.” Ugh. Here’s the issue with that: neither of these factors ever changed. EJ has always been an inconsiderate & insecure boyfriend and Gina has been in love with Ricky this whole time. Neither of them went “back” to being anything, they just never left. EJ had all the same negative qualities in his relationship with Gina that he displayed in his relationship with Nini in s1 — jealous, insecure & secretive, with an inability to own up to his own actions & a tendency to blame Ricky for something that was entirely his own doing. That isn’t a sign of character regression. You can't regress if you never learned, never changed, in the first place. PWs only convinced themselves that EJ had changed because he was single for nearly all of s2 and that allowed them to completely forget what he was like in a relationship. Out of sight, out of mind.

 & I don’t know where PWs get the idea that Gina was completely over Ricky once her & EJ got together. She only accepted EJ’s offer of a date after making it clear (at the sleepover) that she thought Ricky was no longer an option, not that she didn’t still harbor feelings for him. There was no closure between them, they never talked about Opening Night and, in order for EJ & Gina to get together, she had to literally not be on speaking terms with Ricky.

Also, about the whole “EJ was so supportive in s2” thing: I’m guessing their idea of “support” is 1. EJ asking how she was one time — even though he didn’t ask because he noticed she was emotional and wanted to check in, he asked as in, “how do you feel about everything you’ve pulled off tonight?” because she had helped plan the entire party and performed that musical number for Carlos in front of everyone. Gina, feeling alone & dejected, took it for more than it was. & 2. EJ bringing Gina that ass granola bar from his back pocket at the airport. Both of these aren’t so much expressions of support as they are the absolute bare minimum, which required little effort on EJ’s part. Like, wow, in the entire time they’ve know each other, he’s asked her about herself twice and picked her up from the airport once — boyfriend goals, am I right?

[skania]

(not the same anon who sent the ask about twitter but using it as a starting point) what you said about the oshi no ko fanbase on twitter is why I don’t really like searching up akane and even less so, anything related to akane and aqua because it would basically be the same takes over and over

On a previous tag on a different post you mentioned how akane and aqua are presented and set up discouraged actually thinking too deeply about it the first time, and I really felt that. I read through the manga a few weeks back, saw everyone’s takes on (mostly) twitter and reddit and kind of just nodded along, but there was also a part of me that felt that aqua and akane’s relationship was *genuine* (but tbh I’ve sucked at analyzing this manga LOL)

I think your analyses on Akane’s and Aqua’s relationship have really explained why I had that feeling after finishing off at what at the time was chapter 115. And all of your OnK analyses have made up for the time I’ve spent looking at twitter

You're absolutely right anon. The worst part is that I'd usually avoid the Twitter search, but seeing anime-onlys react to Akane is so much fun 😭

Right?? When I binged the manga, I didn't even care. I wasn't particularly interested in Aqua as a character, so it didn't really bother me that Aka's intended engame seemed like such a forgone conclusion. But the more I look at his scenes with Akane, and the more I think that it's a shame that people are so quick to dismiss them, because they've got a whole lot of parallels and nuance and good stuff that's worth talking about.

Sometimes it's about the road and not the destination, and I very much feel like this is one of those times.

And all of your OnK analyses have made up for the time I’ve spent looking at twitter

I'm honored 😭 Thank you so much anon!

[halforcdad]

Totally agree with you about Lucy! Tbh it’s been here since s1 but this fandom (especially on Twitter) have a Kate bias and treat Lucy awfully when they get the chance. And they were simply waiting for the shoe to drop so they could finally say oh she’s SO wrong for this since none of them seem to treat her like her own person with her own feelings. ESP with that scene from s1 that you said they’re comparing this too. So many people hated her for that and thought kacy was dead in a ditch afterward. I really don’t get it. But it’s also obvious with the way they advocate for more things about Kate (like back story, relationship/scenes with Jane, etc) but hardly ever say oh I wanna know about Lucy (when arguably lucy is more of a main since she’s the one on NCIS) . We all know why this is too even if people don’t wanna say it. Kate is the white one and Lucy is brown they will always villainize her actions first even when Kate was the one in the wrong (in s1). Anyways this ep is definitely ending with better communication for them so I am not sweating it. Twitter overanalyzes in the worst way like they always do

I do get the sense that some people were waiting with bated breath for the chance to point at Lucy and call her a hypocrite like some sort of gotcha! moment the minute she slipped up and didn't tell Kate something. Which is weird because you're a fan of this ship shouldn't you be rooting for both of the characters? 💀

The Kate bias is a very real thing. I feel like when 1x11 happened I mostly saw people blaming bad writing and giving Kate a pass for being a dumbass and saying it was out of character for her (when we'd only seen her...briefly for 7 ep at most so what's ooc and what's not at that point). But when Lucy isn't perfect, she doesn't get the same excuses or defense, the mistakes are all on Lucy and not on 'bad writing'. There doesn't seem to be a lot of 'putting yourself in her shoes' type sympathy for a lot of what Lucy was dealing with in S1 (like if I had to see my ex who hurt me badly everyday at work I would be in a state lol).

And God I felt like I was in the trenches after 1x20, both on twitter and on here because the reactions were wild Gonna try to be brief because I feel like I've spent a lifetime talking about it (because it's the best episode of s1 lolol), but that entire episode was about Lucy and her trying to move on, but being unable to because Kate still had such a huge effect on her (bc she loved her!) and still all the fandom focus was on Kate and how sympathetic she was! I think even if Kate showed up with a clean bill of health, she still would've been babied immensely because Lucy made her cry (even though they were both crying). The treatment Lucy got after that was truly disheartening. Like there was no room for nuance. As a poc, seeing everyone baby the white woman (and getting to ready to fight for her because she cried) even though she's the one who fucked up is very, hm, realistic lol. Lucy deserves way better.

You bring up a good point. The fandom goes crazy over Kate and Noah, but Lucy's family doesn't get the same level of speculation and fanfare. And we only got like 2 mentions of Noah in S1 vs. all the tidbits Lucy's dropped about her family. And of course I want to see Kate interact more with Pearl Team and develop friendships, but like we don't even know anything substantial about Lucy and Jesse's relationship or with her and Tennant for that matter. Those should probably take priority. The shows called NCIS: Hawai`i not FBI: Hawai`i lol.

If there really was a season to sweat over Kacy's relationship, it wouldn't be the season where they've been actively showing them working on themselves and being better with each other. It's like we didn't get an entire Whistler/Kacy love fest episode in 2x03 or something. Some people are quick to think the worst and go, 'ugh miscommunication is such a kacy thing'. We probably haven't been watching the same show this season then because they're clearly taking steps to fix that in just the first 5 episodes.

[astralartefact]

Featuring the return of Nophica with a gun I did this thing on twitter, but I want to talk about it

(warning, I'm really mad about 6.3's Myths of the Realm segment in this so if you liked it maybe just skip Nophica lol)

Gaia (Krile would be in favorite Character, but Gaia would be higher than the next Scion so I did it this way around)

I just think Gaia is heavily underused... She's like the most interesting character we have in the entire game and she's stuck in Side Quest Purgatory where she will never leave - despite being the only person we know that actually shares this connection to the ancient world with us. And I know they're trying to "But she doesn't even care" her out of being relevant, but even just giving us a dialogue option askng her about Elpis and all of the stuff we learned about the ancients in EW (similar to the void stuff with Unukalhai) is extremely overdue in my opinion.

Krile Best Character. I have no notes, not even positive ones, I just vibe with her character the most. As pessimistic as I am about Myths of the Realm not ending in a trash fire, I do hope they at least give us some Krile action as some sort of pre-heating for her likely heavy involvement with Dawntrail.

Nophy (The off-brand Nophica we could have had before 6.3 ruined her) (hyperbolic) (unless) I just think "Mother Nature but she has a grudge" is such a fun concept and they decided to throw it all out by being like "But maybe everything you ever heard is wrong - but maybe it isn't we would never tell :)))" for some unfathomable reason, killing any amount of nuance the gods had to begin with to instead present us with bland paper cut-outs that say "We love you :)" when you touch them.

Like the only reason I can think of why they chose to not only not tell us anything about the individual gods but also actively push back against the stuff we did know from lore is that they were so scared that people would be mad about any controversial character intepretation and would then complain that you need to buy Fantasia to change your god - but like?? That's such a stupid reason?

Like "I love every living being equally... except for that stupid cow over there and I will get revenge for what she has done to me that one time a millenia ago" is just such a gold mine of character interactions that they just decided to abandon and ugh even just thinking about it makes me mad about 6.3 all over again.

Nanamo & Kan-E-Senna I couldn't decide lol Nanamo was one of the first characters I really cared for in this game, so I had to draw her. (I didn't really follow the story that much until like... Stormblood. Just did not interest me that much for some reason despite liking the rest of the game) I have really fond memories of doing the salt quests with her for some reason.

But I also love every time we run into Kane as part of the msq - and I also liked her EW role quest (I know people hate that one for some reason, but it makes perfect sense to be there? I think the only problem with it is that the model for that specific tree that it's centered around isn't particularly noteworthy and doesn't really get across just how important that tree is to the city - which is why it is in so many quests - especially since it's right in between gigantic world tree sized trees all around it and this one is just... a squart tree)

Also they should have left her hair ginger, I don't get why they changed it even if they have some lore reason for it

Raya-O-Senna Honestly, I think it's mostly that I like where she's placed in the overworld. It's just fun to jump over to her and that makes me like her more I guess (also helps that her brother is annoying, so she's immediately 5 times more likeable)

Also, after posting this on twt I immediately saw that someone had posted theirs with Fufucha from the botanist guild and felt so dumb for forgetting the gathering jobs, I would have chosen her too lol

Crym and Punishment Will not explain.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Hi! Since someone brought up Yoonmin/shipping on your blog, I thought now would be an appropriate time to share that I too ship Yoonmin…but all for fun, only fun, purely fun lol. I agree that they have a nice chemistry and are fun to watch interact. I don’t see anything romantic but I still gravitate to their ship the most. But I also ship Jikook for fun as well. There were times that I thought that their could be something more than just friendship between Jikook when I first found BTS but now I don’t see them as a romantic pair and they are my 2nd fave ship dynamic after Yoonmin. However if someone forced me to choose which pair could be real, I would still say Jikook over Yoonmin. I know shipping for fun isn’t the norm for Jikookers and being a supporter is the term they like to use which is cool too. I don’t find very many people who think Jikook are the most realistic ship but actually ship a different pair like me. When you mentioned that you would ship Yoonmin if you had to pick a pair while being a primarily Jimin and JK focused blog, I felt like I could relate. I found your blog through someone recommending Jikook blogs to follow on Twitter and I was pleasantly surprised to find that you had a different vibe than the other shipping blogs I follow, probably because you’re not even a shipper haha but I guess someone saw you post about Jimin and JK and assumed you were a Jikook shipper. Anyways I love that you don’t shy away from covering topics that might get you whipped in the Twitter town square lol. Keep on keeping on!

You found my blog through what?????

Why am on the rec list of Jikook blogs? I don't make analysis, I don't make daily posts about moments, I don't do any basic thing that a shipping blog does. As if I don't primarily talk about BTS. Wow, there is no place for nuance anymore.

Anyway, leaving the theatrics aside because I like to act dramatic over a bunch of stuff, at least I'm glad you found my blog and you think it's different.

As to shipping for fun, I totally get it. People do tend to get way too serious about it, which is only going to have a negative effect in the future. I mean, liking and thinking about people possibly being together is not on some world class importance level. It's just engaging with entertainment content. No need to lose sleep over it or have fights whether one is a shipper and other a supporter. It's just way too silly.

[ninjago-bingo]

final month recap

wow, everyone.  we’re here.  we’ve made it.  we’re reached the end of our bingo time, and i’m absolutely floored by the sheer creative output that i’ve seen over these last four months.  everyone, take a moment to give yourself a pat on the back!!!  no matter if you made 1 piece or 10, there’s now a work of art out there in the world that wasn’t there before.  and truly, that’s super heccing rad no matter how you look at it.

so let’s celebrate!  for this recap, we have a total of 20 new pieces, bringing the total amount of ninbingo pieces up to 50.  in the span of four months, this little event has created 50 individual works (five of them in the last day!)  holy cow ya’ll.

i’m putting out this recap now, but don’t worry, it’s not the end yet!  any submissions made to the end of the 30th still count and this post will be updated accordingly :D

fic:

all the things i’ve never done by @sa-you-na-ra. tumblr || prompts: competition and teasing

It’s always a funny thing when the ninja realize new things about each other. Even though living with each other meant they had to see each other all day, there were still small habits or actions that amused the others.

(mod comments: all these little interactions made me smile so much :D looking forward to the rest!)

error 404: answer not found by @m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: memories

Akita and Zane talk after the battle in ‘Awakenings’. The conversation… doesn’t go as either of them expect.

(mod comments: the nuances in this fic are fantastic!  also Akita is always a win :D)

Five times kai was a good brother by @/master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: nightmare and brother

I'm writing kai centric stuff again.

(mod comments: kai IS the big bro of the team!!! i support him all the way!!)

How Garmadon became a chauffeur by @master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompt: driving

"um...Kai? Don't you think we should go Slower?" Garmadon asked nervously trying not to panick as they raced down the road at what had to be over the speed limit.

(mod comments: who let Kai drive?  no but honestly this is canon alskdfj)

little things by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: hugs and crying.

"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things." -Kurt Vonnegut

Lloyd’s tired of being left behind. How is he meant to be the green ninja when he always has to work harder, train better, and wait longer to go on missions with his team? He wants nothing more than to be their equal.

At least, that’s what he thought he wanted.

(mod comments: a post-ep-18 resolution scene?  SIGN ME UP!)

Neither Snow Nor Rain by @fangirltakesall. tumblr || ffn.net || prompt: post-fight

After their return from the Never Realm and all its troubles, Zane is quiet and Nya is incredibly worried. A call to action to a peculiar sort of battle might be enough to change both of those things.

(mod comments: the concept of these two on their own mission together is just so good! excited to see how their dynamic plays out!!)

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: video games and chores

…what can be done today, yada, yada, yada, we all know the saying. So do the ninja- when Master Wu is drilling it into their heads every minute of every day, it’s kind of hard to forget.

Naturally, it only takes them a week (and the biggest new video game in Ninjago) to do so.

(mod comments: this is so in character that it’s frustrating lol.  also Pixal ftw!!)

oh take me back to the start by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: comfort and 3 am

The past should be left in the past. Or, at least, that’s what Jay keeps telling himself. Nadakhan is gone. It’s not logical to still be afraid. But he is, and now everything that he left behind suddenly feels like it’s never going to be the same again.

Cole isn’t so convinced.

(mod comments: Cole is truly the man we all deserve in our lives.)

On Our Own by @redefine-your-identity. tumblr || prompt: home

It’s been a few weeks since Kai and Nya’s parents disappeared without a trace. Needless to say, they’re struggling.

(mod comments: OU C H no poor babies 😭 the relationship dynamic here is great!)

orange and gold by @/m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: cooking

...I just need more Cole and Vania content, they seem like they'd be great friends.

Basically it's just 'Cole goes to visit her there, they almost burn down the kitchen, and make way too many puns', lol.

(mod comments: I also always need more Vania content!! the puns in this were breadful!)

permafrost by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: loss of control and promise

It’s not like this is the first time this has happened. It’s not like none of his teammates have ever suffered this kind of guilt and pain. It’s not like Zane himself hasn’t walked through hell before and come out the other side (mostly) in once piece.

Except, this time, it is. It shouldn’t be different, but it is.

(mod comments: super sweet moment between two ninja who deserve more interaction like seriously!!)

Precautionary Tale by @/fangirltakesall. tumblr || ffn.net || prompt: protective

Fighting is different now, and Zane doesn't know why. Yes, he is titanium now, but why should that change anything? It seems to be changing everything, although is all really as it seems?

(mod comments: a great start to a zane-centric fic!  interested to see where it goes next :D)

Star-Ninja! by @rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: siblings and competition 

What happens when the loveable gremlin the ninja adopted off of the streets introduces them to Starfarer comics?

Chaos ensues, of course.

stuck with you (through bright and blue) by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompt: protective

Kai only wants two things: to protect Lloyd, and to give him the best birthday ever. Unfortunately, Lloyd seems hell-bent on making that as difficult as possible. Kai’s always prided himself on achieving the impossible, but dealing with human emotions is much more complicated than beating up Garmadon’s generals or shooting enemies with fire, as he quickly learns. Movie!verse

(mod comments: happy birthday lloyd!! look at him getting the love he deserves uwu)

Take a walk in the rain. by @/master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompt: rain

Cole had always loved the rain, the way it smelled, the way it felt on his skin, and especially the mud! Whenever it rained his Mother would put on his rain coat and boots And they'd both go out and splash around in the puddles and make mud cakes and do all sorts of things.

(mod comments: this fic made me smile a lot :D loved the way it was arranged!) 

the hues of an empty sky by @/m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: crying

Missing memories, or having two of them for one moment - not quite the same, but if there’s one thing Jay’s leant over the last few weeks, it’s that literally nothing makes sense anymore.

Or, some Skybound aftermath, Zane actually expressing emotions about his memory switch being turned off for all those years, and what was supposed to be a ‘they tell everyone about the erased timeline’ fic, but it turned into a 'two characters who barely interact on screen talk at like one am in the morning, and don’t actually tell the other what exactly they’re alluding to the whole time’ fic that I wrote at like one am-

(mod comments: Skybound resolution? SIGN ME THE HECK UP YES)

The Make-Cole-Realize-How-Much-We-Love-Him Competition by @21st-century-ninja. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: bets and competition

Jay and Kai share a horrified look.  “He really doesn’t get it,” Jay says.

Kai shakes his head.  “We need to show him somehow.”

“Show me what?” Cole asks, exasperated again.  

“How much we love you!” Kai exclaims.  “Somehow, it’s not getting through your thick skull that we want to sit next to you because you’re you, so I’m gonna have to just prove it to you.”

(mod comments: a silly little movie fic!)

twitter was a mistake by @/21st-century-ninja. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: teasing and birthday

Kai 🔥 @flaminhotninja ☑

so who was gonna tell me that Jay used to be a game show host huh

🌺✨ the Gift of Jay ✨🌺 @zaptrap ☑

Replying to @flaminhotninja

NO WHO SHOWED YOU

(mod comments: twitter was a mistake)

two halves of a broken whole by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: scars and post-fight

The Sons of Garmadon have been defeated. Garmadon is in prison. The city has been saved.

In the aftermath of the battle, Nya is more than ready to take a much-needed break. But the life of a ninja is messy. Recovery is never that simple. Although the wounds may have healed, the scars still remain.

Zane’s scars seem to match up, though. And maybe together, they can begin to heal.

(mod comments: aggressive care is my jam, and this is it!)

wait by @rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: home and memories

Lloyd’s not so great at being patient. It’s not his fault though- maybe he would be better at it if waiting didn’t always end up being so disappointing- if people actually kept their promises. But this time’s going to be different, he knows it. His father will come back for him. And Lloyd’s going to wait.

As long as it takes.

(mod comments: baby.  baby boy.  baby.  protecc him plz.)

[tamhrayis]

I see people interpret that bird in the end of chapter 139 differently. Birds of the same species were shown in manga in several chapters before chapter 139. They always seemed to be related to Eren. From what I saw on reddit and twitter I think we have 5 options of what people think:

1. Eren got reincarnated as a bird.

2. Eren is somehow related to these birds and he could control them while still alive. I don't know if I understand the concept of time (influencing past, future) in AoT right, but basically it is either Eren influencing the birds from the past or he just "programmed" them in the past so they would look over people close to him in the future after his death (sending a feather to Armin, wraping the scarf around Mikasa...).

3. Eren is somehow related to these birds and this power comes from the Paths and he is there. We know that titans are gone, but it was never specifically stated that Paths are gone too. So he stayed there (it would also explain why his spirit wasn't shown in chapter 139 when all other spirits were released from the Paths) and controls the birds from there.

4. Eren is dead and in afterlife and he controls the birds from there.

5. Birds don't have any relation to Eren and are just symbolic.

I don't believe in option number 1 (I am actually surprised by how many people interpret it this way, but that reincarnation just doesn't go well with me, it seems really weird and also doesn't make much sense to me because we saw those birds before chapter 139 when Eren was still alive and plus one bird can only live for several years and after the death what? he gets reincarnated into a bird again? it is just weird to me), but regarding options 2 - 4 I think any of them could be true. Option number 5 doesn't go well with me because for birds being just symbolic I think Isayama drew them way too often. Which one do you think is the most realistic? Or do you have your own theory to explain the relation between Eren and the bird(s)?

Hello! Wow, what a good brain food after days of trying not to think about anything. Thank you for your question!

Let me start according to the options you’ve provided. 

1) Reincarnation. 

Overall, this is an interesting concept, however, in terms of AoT, it is quite questionable as there’s not enough evidence to claim that Eren was reborn as a bird. On top of that, if reincarnation actually existed, why the previous titan shiters and Eldians didn’t become some type of animals or something? Why would only Eren be reincarnated as a bird. Again, I think there aren’t that many proofs that reincarnation is actually possible within AoT’s universe. 

2) Eren controlling the birds from the future. 

Not a while ago I’ve made my own small research to understand how times works in AoT and I came across a concept called eternalism or block universe theory, which basically implies that past, present and future are equally real and are happing at the same time block. Also, according to this theory, time doesn’t necessarily flow as we perceive it and past and future are relative. 

Aside from that, it also implies that time travel is possible. I think this concept gives some insights into how paths can actually work, because in Paths:

1. Time is relative and there’s no actual flow of time. 

2. Eren and Zeke travelled to Grisha’s memories and he could see Zeke, which is still similar to time travel. 

3. Eren could visit his friends via paths and show them the different outcome (for Mikasa) and tell them about future events like Connie meeting his mother again. 

When Eren said that he felt like the past and future exist at the same time, it was also related to the concept of eternalism. 

Also, according to this theory, the present is the product of a real point of the past and a real point of the future, which means that the changes in these two will mean the change in the present. 

So what does it mean? It means that since these three time blocks simply exist. I’m not quite sure about the programming, because it also doesn't have enough evidence, however, nevertheless, it is still plausible to say since there’s also the concept of block universe involved. 

One moment that makes this option possible is that Eren had Falco from ch.91 in his memory shards. 

It is still unclear how Eren managed to see the world with bird’s eyes, but if it is related to future Eren somehow “programming” and sending these birds at a certain time, eternalism it is. 

3) Eren controlling birds from the paths. 

I think it is possible, because, as you said, we don’t know if paths actually disappeared or not. However, if we take paths as something that created because of Ymir’s wish to die, but yet stay loyal to Karl Fritz and hallucigenia being a part of her that certainly didn’t want to die, paths technically have disappeared with her. But again, I still think that it was pretty much an open question that can be interpreted in different ways. 

But again, in the context of AoT’s universe, it is still possible that Eren’s spirit might be alive, because Zeke and Armin could summon previous titan shifters even if their physical bodies didn’t exist (same for Zeke too, because he technically died after Eren transformation). 

Ymir in the past did send a titan to Zeke, which helped him heal after his fight with Levi, but the nuance is that the titan was her subject, while birds are simply animals. But the possibility still exists. 

4) Eren is in the afterlife and controls birds from there. 

To be honest, it depends on how you interpret the afterlife, because it is still your soul that goes there (not the body). But same as with the paths thing, I think these two are equal because from how I understood it, paths is where titan shifters’ spirits go after death. 

5) Birds have no relation to Eren and are just symbolic. 

I agree that birds being simply symbolic is quite random. They occurred a lot during the last arc (ch.91, ch.130, ch.131 (exactly when Eren talked with Armin in paths), ch.138 (again, Mikasa and Eren were in paths) and ch.139). I would take them as symbolism only if the bird from ch.139 didn’t come at the moment when Mikasa was crying and saying that she misses Eren. The bird literally wrapped the scarf around her and I don’t that any random bird outside would do the same lol. 

So in conclusion, I would say there isn’t a concrete explanation as to whether is actually Eren or it’s him controlling it from the paths/afterlife, however, I still think that no matter what it was, it really shows how strong Eren’s wish was to keep the promise he gave to Mikasa in ch.50 and how he really didn’t want to die, but yet had to due to his conscience. 

All in all, thank you, again, anon for your question and I hope you will have a good day/night! 

[stomp-that-ho-regard]

(same anon) ur totally right abt those two I thought I was the only one who couldn't stand either of them (and their entire posse of FOLLOWERS who. truly followed them w cult-like vigor) bc of the power they wielded by touting themselves as 'true rational' when anybody who dare said "hey c/r ain't all that and what they're doing... this ain't right" would get thrown under the bus as they'd make 'rational' posts abt how these ppl who questioned c/r were clearly of inferior intellect and didn't Get the Superior Intellect of C/R.

another one of them is c/ranesbyibycus and these three had a fuckall trinity of touting themselves as "ships everything and ships nothing! so we have true neutrality as a council™ to have rational CR opinions!"

like... yall think this most mediocre (calling him mediocre feels generous) white man who constantly puts whitewashed art on the reel, says racist and orientalist bullshit repeatedly and makes non-apologies when held accountable; makes lesbophobic comments ON AIR in the show and gets away with it— you put this absolutely detestable fucker on a pedestal and tut yourselves the self-proclaimed Leaders™ of this "thirst cult" dedicated to him.

You're some kind of hypocrite to think you're very "Logical" and "Take No Sides" when you talk down to the people (especially marginalized communities and fans of colour) who react emotionally and point out C/R's slew of fuckups... if THIS dude is the hill you're ready to die on lmao.

Not sure "rational" is a word I'd use for any of you clowns.

They’re always condescending to critics and treat them like morons. If it’s about the company, “they don’t understand business.” If it’s about the narrative, “they don’t understand storytelling.” If it’s about the characters, “they don’t understand nuance.” (Nuance was and still is their favorite word.) It’s self-aggrandizement.

And the LTC thing. The exaltation was always SO off-putting, and the farthest from normal or rational you could get. Then you add in all the problematic things about him that they would so quickly explain away or downplay, and vehemently say his critics were ‘reaching’. Also, if you noticed, none of these people EVER defended anyone else in the cast with even close to the same amount of vigor.

But, they have no biases, right? 

c/ranesofibycus! That’s the one. Every time I’ve tried to remember her URL, I kept calling it cranes of hibiscus lol

Anyway, yes, her too. She was the person I referenced in one of my old posts. After Matt reprimanded people on twitter over the ‘Jester ageing up’ drama, she posted this...

That was the first post that made me wary.

But, I was actually okay with her for a while. Because even after everyone else started turning shitty, she wasn’t calling people crazy or delusional, or making passive aggressive posts in the discourse tag or in OUR tag, like some assholes loved to do. She actually did keep a cool head even through all the chaos. One example, after the backlash that Liam got over his playlist pick, “She” by Dodie. She didn’t like that some people were sending nasty things to him, but she understood why it was upsetting to some people, and even admitted that she was confused when she saw the song on there. And that IS a completely rational reaction. 

That was the difference. I never felt any underlying nastiness coming from her posts, unlike the other two. b/eetlemancy became openly nasty to everybody, and l/uck had the passive aggressive vagueposting (but not so vague) down pat.

The post that finally soured me on c/ranes, was this one...

And it was in the Beaujester tag! When I first caught it while scrolling, I thought for sure it had to have come from either b/eetlemancy or t/hebeaubar, or r/edjennies, or any of those extra shady, holier-than-thou (mainly BY) blogs. But when I scrolled up and saw her URL, I was shocked.

And look who was in the notes...

[mariaiscrafting]

idk abt tumblr but if u need reassurance, I, and a lot of other people, do not believe dream lol. it's Worrying how many people are completely attached to him so much so that they'll believe anything that comes out of his mouth.

That’s not my only problem, really. My issue is far from “I don’t believe Dream, and I think this was him and I don’t trust or like him anymore because of the things that were posted, and if everyone doesn’t agree with me, then I’ll dislike them, too.” I follow and love many people who think very differently than me, especially about the cheating scandal in particular. My problem is with the insane bandwagon and shaming campaign, very much akin to mcyttwt, that’s going on right now. It’s so different than December. In December, the people on here who were either for or against Dream in the cheating scandal weren’t shaming anyone for believing either way. I had real conversations with people who disagreed with me, and I left them all on good terms. None of this, “people who do or believe x are assholes/bad people” kinda bullshit. That shit was for Twitter, and I thought this space, on Tumblr, was meant for something beyond simple tactics. People who were obsessed with or hyperfixated on specific CCs were always still willing to listen to criticisms of them, and the “these two statements can coexist” posts actually had nuance, and actually acknowledged that sometimes people do bad things, but we should also respect and forgive when necessary/able. There was also much more respect for minorities’ experiences than on  Twitter. While on Twitter, people love to talk over each other, I always felt like there was space on Tumblr for minorities’ voices to be uplifted and for them to be taken as more of an authority on things than others. Remember that Mexican person who talked about the Quackity skin darkening phenomena? That kinda shit was what I loved about this place, the fact that that was the kinda thing blowing up to 3k+ notes, not white, cishet people who now want to talk over people who have genuine discomfort with watching or supporting ex-Trump supporters, even if they changed. When it came to anyone else, the rhetoric on mcytblr was always, “I’m glad they apologized/changed, but I understand if some people can’t forgive and forget,” but when it comes to Dream, there will always be a double standard. I am so exhausted of the hypocrisy, yk?

[adorpheus]

on fujoshi and fetishization

Lately, more and more, both here on tumblr and on other sites, I keep seeing people spew unfiltered hatred at fujoshi - that is, women who like mlm content such as gay fanfic and fanart featuring men with other men. And I don’t mean like a specific type of fujoshi, like the ones who are genuinely being weird about it, but just like a general hatred for girls (but especially straight identifying girls) who express love for gay romance.

I hate to break this to you all, but women (including straight women!) actually are allowed to like mlm fanfiction and fanart, even enthusiastically so. A woman simply expressing her love of gay fanfic, even if it is in kind of a cringey way or a way that you personally don’t like, is NOT automatically fetishization.

I’ve been on the receiving end of fetishization for my entire life, from a very young age, as many black and brown folx have, so I consider myself pretty well acquainted with how it works. Fetishization isn’t just like, being really into drawings of boys kissing, or whatever the fuck y’all are trying to imply on this god forsaken site. 

Fetishization is complicated imo, and can encompass a lot of things, such as (but not limited to):

1 - dehumanization, e.g. viewing a group of people as sexual objects who exist purely for entertainment purposes, rather than acknowledging them as actual people who deserve respect and rights

and

2 - projecting certain assumptions onto said people based on their race/sexuality/whatever is being fetishized. These assumptions are often, but not always, sexual in nature (like the idea that black people in general are more sexual than other races, etc etc etc).

I’m going to use myself as an example to illustrate my point. Please note this isn’t the best or most nuanced example, but it is the most simplistic. A white person finding me attractive and respectfully appreciating my black features as part of what makes me beautiful is not, on its own, fetishization. A white person finding me attractive solely or mostly because I’m a PoC is now in fetishization territory. Similarly, assuming I’m dominant because of my blackness (like saying “step on me mommy” and shit like that) is hella fetishistic. 

That being said, theres definitely a difference between how fetishization works in real life with real people, and how it shows up in fandom. 

Fetishization manifests in many different ways in fandom, but most commonly on the mlm side of things, I personally see it appear as conservative (or centrist) women who love the idea of two men together, but don’t actually like gay people, and don’t necessarily think LGBT+ people deserve rights (or “special treatment” as its sometimes dog whistled). These women view queer men as sexual objects for entertainment rather than an actual group of people who deserve to be protected from systemic oppression. I’ve noticed that they often don’t even think of the men they “ship” together as actually being gay, and may even express disgust at the idea of a character in an mlm ship being headcanon’d gay. In case its not obvious, this is pretty much exactly the same way a lot of cishet men fetishize lesbians (they see “lesbian” as a porn category, rather than like, what actual LGBT people think of when we read the word lesbian). There’s a pretty popular viral tweet thread going around where someone explains seeing this trend of conservative women who like mlm stuff, and I have also personally witnessed this phenomenon myself in more than one fandom. 

The funny thing is, maybe its just me buuuut.... The place I see this particular kind of fetishization happen most is not in the anime/BL fandom, from which the term fujoshi originates - I actually see these type of women way way more in western fandom spaces like Supernatural, Harry Potter, and Hannibal. I can’t stress this enough, there’s a shocking amount of people who are like, straight up trump supporters in these fandoms. If you want to experience it, try joining a Hannigram or Destiel group on facebook and you will probably encounter one eventually especially if you happen to be living through a major historical event. Like these women probably wouldn’t even be considered “fujoshi”, because that term doesn’t really apply to them given they aren’t in the BL/anime fandom, yet they’re the ones I personally see actually doing the most harm.

Of course this isn’t the ONLY kind of fetishizing woman in the mlm/BL world, there are other ways fetishization shows up, but this is the most toxic kind that I see.

A girl just being really into BL or whatever may be “cringe” to you, or she may be expressing her love for BL in a “cringey” way, but a straight woman really enjoying BL is not, on its own, somehow inherently fetishization. Yes, sometimes teenage girls act kind of cringe about how much they like BL and that might be annoying to you, but its not necessarily ~problematic~. 

That being said, IT NEEDS BE REMARKED that a lot of the “fujoshi” that you all hate so deeply, are actually closeted trans men or nonbinary people who haven’t yet come to terms with their gender identity, or are otherwise just NOT cishet. I know because I was one of these closeted people for years, and I honestly think tumblr and the cultural obsession around purity is one of the many reasons I was closeted so deeply for so long. STORYTIME LOL!!! In my early adolescence, I was a sort of proto “fujoshi”. I identified as a bi girl who was mostly attracted to men, or as most (biphobic) people called it, “practically straight”. I wrote and read “slash” fanfic and looked at as well as drew my own fanart. We didn’t use the term fujoshi back then, but that’s definitely how I could have been described. I was obsessed with yaoi, BL, whatever you want to call it, to a cringe-inducing degree. I really struggled to relate to most het romances, so when I first discovered yaoi fanfics (as we called them at the time), I fell in love and felt like I finally found the type of romance content that was made for me. I didn’t know exactly why, I just knew it hit different. LGBT+ fanart and fanfiction brought me an immense amount of joy, and I didn’t really think too hard about why.

At some point, in my early 20s, after reading lots of discourse™ here on tumblr and other places like twitter, I started to get the sinking feeling that my passion for gay fanfiction was ~problematic~. I had always felt a sense of guilt for being into mlm content, because literally anyone who found out I liked BL (especially the men I dated) shamed me for liking it all the fucking time (which btw is literally just homophobic, like can we talk about that?). In addition to THAT bullshit, now I’m seeing posts telling me that girls who like BL are cringey gross fetishists who inspire rage and should go die? 

Let me tell you, I internalized the fuck out of messages like this. I desperately wanted to avoid being ~problematic~. At the time, I thought being problematic was like the worst thing you could be. I was terrified of being “cancelled”, before canceling was even really a thing. I thought to myself, “oh my god, I’m gross for liking this stuff? I should stop.” I beat myself up over this. I wanted so badly to be accepted, and to be deemed a Good Person by the internet and society at large.

I tried to shape up and become a good ally (lmfao). I stopped writing fanfic and deleted all the ones I was working on at the time. I made a concerted effort to assimilate into cishet culture, including trying to indulge myself more deeply in the few fandoms I could find that had het content I did enjoy (Buffy, True Blood, Pretty Little Liars, etc). I would occasionally look at BL/fanfic/etc in private, but then I would repress my interest in it and not look for a while. Instead I would look at women in straight relationships, and create extremely heterosexual Couple Goals pinterest boards, and try to figure out how I could become more like these women, so I, too, could be loved someday. 

This cycle of repression lasted like eight years. Throughout it all, I was performing womanhood to the best of my ability and trying to become a woman that was worthy of being in a relationship. I went in and out of several “straight” relationships, wondering why they didn’t make me feel the way reading fanfic did. Most of all, I couldn’t figure out why straight intimacy didn’t work for me. I just didn’t enjoy it. I always preferred looking at or making gay fanfiction/fanart over actual intimacy with men in real life. 

Eventually, I stumbled upon a trans coming out video that someone I was following posted online, my egg started to crack, and to make an extremely long story short, after like 3 years of introspection and many gender panic attacks that I still experience to this day, I realized that I’m uh... MAYBE... NOT CIS..!? :|

I truly believe if I had just been ALLOWED TO LIKE GAY STUFF WITHOUT BEING SHAMED FOR IT, I probably would have realized I was trans way way sooner. Because for me, indulging in my love of gay romance and writing gay fanfic wasn’t me being a weirdo fetishist, it was actually me exploring my own gender identity. It is what helped me come to terms with being a nonbinary trans boy.

Not everyone realizes they are trans at age 2 or whatever the fuck. Sometimes you have to go through a cringey fujoshi phase and multiple existential crises to realize how fucking gay you are AND THATS FINE.

And one more thing - can we just be real here? 

A lot of anti-fujoshi sentiment is literally just misogyny. omg please realize this. Its “women aren’t allowed to enjoy things” but, like... with gay fanfics. Some of the anti-fujoshi posts I see come across my dash are clearly ppl projecting a caricature they invented in their head of a demonic fujoshi fetishist onto any woman who expresses what they consider to be a little too much enthusiasm for gay content and then using their perception of that individual as an excuse to justify their disdain for any women, especially straight women, ‘invading’ their ~oh so exclusive~ queer fandom spaces.

 god get over yrselfs this is gatekeeping by another name

idk why i spent so long writing this no one is even going to read it, does anyone even still use this site

*EDIT: HOLY SHIT WHEN DOING RESEARCH FOR THIS POST I FOUND OUT THAT Y-GALLERY IS BACK OMG!!! 

[breadclubrising]

Why do you believe another gl reunion would make Ibushi fulfilled? Bc last time he seemed pretty annoyed by the end of it, saying he was just being tossed aside as "Kenny's replacement" and "I have nothing else to do in this tournament" and ofc the "I've always been alone". Why would it be different now?

wellllllllllll because the GL story has a surprising amount of nuance for a wrestling storyline, and has kind of deliberately mixed kayfabe with real life in such a way that you can’t talk about them separately a lot of the time.

i DEFINITELY didn’t say he ‘needs’ it to be ‘fulfilled’, because that is a thing that would give me hives to say. i have many times said he doesn’t need Kenny and that’s been the point, is that they both totally can be great without each other, but they keep choosing each other and even if they’re successful in their careers, they are unhappy when they’re apart. if you find that disagreeable, please email kota (i know for a fact he does not check his email because of course he doesn’t). What I said was: it is how their careers will play out because they literally say that will happen and they have gone to LENGTHS in real life to make it happen.

i saw someone on twitter who bothered to take a screenshot of some galaxy brain on reddit finally figuring out that ibushi and omega see each other as endgame, and captioned it something like ‘golden lovers is the worst story in wrestling please stop.’ which is totally an opinion you are welcome to have but also, the part about them being each other’s endgame is a thing they both have said and kenny in particular will never let anyone forget. i do not understand why people give it the ‘lol shut up fangirl shippers’ treatment when it’s a thing that has been telegraphed since the beginning of time, unless you are calling ibushi and omega fangirl shippers, which you actually probably should bc no one ships GL more. anyway, i actually completely get why people who don’t like the storyline, or don’t like kenny, or whatever, have a different reading of the actual events that took place. but it means that you asking me this question isn’t going to get you a satisfying answer, and that makes me feel like you’re just asking me this to make me feel bad for liking a thing incorrectly. 

but you did ask, which is totally on you, so: Ibushi said (explicitly, in interviews, and on twitter) that he was frustrated with himself for not Reaching His Potential. He never expressed frustration with Kenny, or even with NJPW’s booking. He wasn’t even officially signed until a couple months after Kenny left. 

It was like this: he was an outsider in the company. He was always paired with the guy who is like, certified by the belt to be The Best Wrestler In The World. That guy had a problem like the bus in Speed, except instead of having to maintain a speed of 60mph to avoid exploding, the bus has to constantly say its boyfriend is the coolest. So Kenny, the best wrestler in the world according to kayfabe, is like ‘actually my mans here is the best wrestler in the world’ and kota’s like ‘thanks i love you too but i’m pretty sure you’re the one with the belt and the pwi cover and 437 meltzer stars you fucking labradoodle.’ (I’d bet money Kota does not know what a labradoodle is.) Kenny’s stanning was sweet and well-intentioned but to Kota it only highlighted the achievement gulf between them. And it did not help that his mentor Tanahashi was like ‘allow me to highlight the achievement gulf between you and your genetically inferior labradoodle boyfriend, whomst i don’t like for Reasons.’

And that made Ibushi be like ‘i’m 36 (at the time) years old and I have every muscle and yet, no accolades. the fact that i have not yet managed to be the unequivocal best and that i foolishly had a body and feelings is shameful and weak.’

That’s how he is: he beats himself up about stuff like goddamn taking time off to heal from neck surgery and a mental breakdown, and the unforgivable sin of not being quite sure what direction he wanted to take his career. It felt really bad! It deffos did! But his frustration was not directed where you think it was! But that’s the part I said you’re not going to agree with me on, so!

There was so much going ON in this story and it was really GOOD! Like all the stuff with Tanahashi was incredible and heart-wrenching and you just wanted to both smack and hug all three of them and it was a really good story! 

Sometimes I just need to remind myself of that bc people who dislike the Golden Lovers are very reductive about why they assume people like the thing they do not like. But yes, it actually is a good story, now that I type a tiny part of it out like that; not my fault some people seem to have missed the epic heroes’ journeys forest for the gay love story trees. Not that there’s anything wrong with gay love story trees; also very much part of the forest.

Anyway Anon, part of the reason earlier on I speculated that you just came to my inbox to try to make me feel sad for liking things in a way you did not was that... honestly. HOW did ANYONE watch Ibushi say “I was always alone, before” after he won the 2019 G1 and go “king said ‘new career who dis’ and deleted kenneth’s number from his phone! 👏always 👏alone 👏before 👏!!!’ 

Like yeah those are the words he said but, you know, words can mean a lot of things! and personally, I think it’s relevant that those words were enveloped by a heartbreakingly pained smile that says ‘GREAT question Tokyo Sports, i WILL cry RIGHT here at this FUCKING folding table if you do not IMMEDIATELY pretend along with me that my existence began earlier this evening when I entered this arena. thanks in advance!’ Like!

Yep, look at that smug fuck pretending not to know who his shitty ex is! Prolly thinking of some good labradoodle jokes.

(On the real i know that not everyone is good at ascertaining emotion from facial expressions. I get that, and I’m not gonna dog on anyone for it, because I myself am often not great at it. And honestly? If he meant this in the “I don’t know her” sense, I would probably have loved it, bc I am a Kota Ibushi fan first, a human second, an antifa supersoldier third, and then a Golden Lovers Scholar like somewhere in the low 20s. But... I can’t even pretend that reading works for me. I hate looking at these gifs. That’s how much this reads to me as Having A Bad Time, like this man’s face is among my favorite things to view on this horrible planet and my heart feels like it’s being poked with a broken toothpick every time these gifs loop.)

And finally, because of the thing I said in the first paragraph that I wrote when I was like “i’m just gonna write a quick answer to this ask” like some kind of fucking fool who has never seen my own blog: it would not “be different now”, it has always been this story, and both Kenny and Kota say that when they are able to. It mixes kayfabe with real life, and in real life it’s really clear that it’s endgame for both of them, and I’m very sorry to GL haters but please direct your displeasure with the narrative to the two nerds who are determined to continue it across decades and oceans.

[romancing-lady-whistledown]

Just wanted to comment on your last post - there was no frustration and drama for me when I was watching Elu and Skam and Skam France before I made the huge error of looking for the fandom and joining it. Now I realise it was a big mistake, I have to constantly block people on Tweeter for hating on my faves and I've come to really hate another remake which I only didn't care about before having to deal with its stans. So I totally understand what you're saying. Me, I wish I'd never joined.

So this got long af so I’m gonna put it under the cut lol

Oh I absolutely feel you, when I say frustration and drama, I am refering to the live-watching experience and all the fandom drama that comes with that. I have a very polarizing feeling about being in the online fandom personally. For me the positive aspects have been so big that I can’t say that I wish I’d never joined personally, but especially if the positive aspects I’ve experienced haven’t been part of your fandom-experience I definitely see how you can get to the point where you wish you never joined in the first place, especially in the past year, because the negative aspects...they’re rough, and they do make the experience of the actual show different from if you just watched it on your own or you watched it as a casual viewer in the country it’s airing in, rather than as a part of the fandom on Tumblr and/or Twitter.  

I watched the original Skam as a casual Norwegian viewer, I was in a Facebook-group with other casual Norwegian viewers, there was never any drama about anything, not the clips, not the characters, not the actors and not the creators of the show. It was just watching the clips, often someone commenting about how the clip was cute, funny, sad ect, and then everybody moved on with their day. There would sometimes be a thread with questions like “Where do you think William is?” or “What do you think is up with Even?”, but it was always very casual. Sometimes I think the online fandom forget that the majority of the remake-viewers are the casual local viewers, the ones who only casually watch that one remake as a show on it’s own, not as a part of the “Skamverse”. The international Twitter/Tumblr-fandom is just a little part of the people watching the show and the opinions we see here don’t necessairily reflect those of the more casual audience (as one can often see in for example reaction-videos on Youtube where the reactors watch alot of shows at the same time and might not even blink at something that might’ve been a big deal in the online fandom). 

Being a casual viewer worked so well for me with Skam, the whole viewing experience was very chill and enjoyable. I did the same thing with Skam France S1 and S2, I watched the first episode of every remake, and Skam France was the only one I felt compelled to continue watching. It wasn’t the most exciting experience plotwise since it was just the exact same as the og, but I love the cast, I love the French language and it was overall pleasant and fun enough that I kept watching both seasons all the way through. As someone who has no attention span for TV-shows, the fact that they did keep my attention without anyone to push me to keep watching is enough for me to not concider them bad in the way alot of people do. Not very exciting after having watched the og, sure. Do I prefer the og S1 and S2? Yes. But bad? I personally wouldn’t say that. If I came into the fandom before I started watching on my own I know I would’ve been told to either skip S1 and S2 or skip Skam France altogether, and that obviously wouldn’t have been very good advice in my case, although it might be for someone else. That is why, when someone shows up on Tumblr saying they wanna start watching the remakes and ask for advice, I never ever tell them not to watch a remake. I could be robbing them of something that might deeply touch them, just because it didn’t touch me. 

This brings us into one of the aspects of being in the online fandom that can be both really positive and really negative, that being the way it can affect your experience of the show itself. On the positive note, there’s no way I could’ve gone through Skam France S3 in the casual way I went through the original Skam or S1 and S2 of Skamfr. No way. Having someone to talk to about all the amazing moments with was an actual need for me. Hell, two years later and I still need that. Not to mention the fan art and fics that has kept Elu alive for me ever since S3. There was this whole detective-work in the fandom about finding Eliott’s Instagram during S3, finding out about the Instagram-posts David and Niels made about the S3 clips, being in the online fandom actually added to the experience of watching S3 for me, and even now almost two years after S3 I’m left with some actual friends, friends that aren’t even in the fandom anymore but who I still talk to almost daily, as well as some lovely bloggers who are still invlolved in the fandom and who’s blogs I prefer to visit rather than visiting the tag.

But then there’s the negative side of this. While being in the online fandom certainly can add to the experience, it can also affect it negatively. That was what happened with S5 and S6 for me, to the point where I had to switch between staying completely off Tumblr and delete the Twitter app from my phone. While S5 had a couple of plotlines I didn’t like, it also had alot of amazing moments when it actually was dealing with the main theme of the season. S6 did not give their plotlines the proper exploration and conclusion they deserved, but on the other hand the reason why that was so frustrating to me was because I found those plotlines so interesting and actually wanted to see them explored properly. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have cared if the plotlines were dropped out of nowhere, like ofc it would’ve been weird but if the whole Tiff-plot suddenly disappeared I wouldn’t complain. While they were flawed and nowhere near the level of S3 for me, I did enjoy so many of the clips and Skamfr S3, S5 and S6 are the only remake-seasons I have downloaded on my computer knowing I will rewatch them regularily. If I didn’t overall enjoy them, I wouldn’t wanna rewatch them. I don’t hate-watch anything. I could barely get through Skamfr S4 (a season I genuinely didn’t like) and I could not get through Wtfock S4, (which I liked even less). So the flaws Skamfr S5 and S6 had didn’t turn the seasons as a whole into trash for me, but I know they did for alot of people and going to the tags while in the middle of the live-watching experience couldn’t just be a bummer, it could almost transfer some feelings and opinions that weren’t my own onto me just from seeing them repeated so many times. I appreciate nuanced discussion, which does include constructive criticism, and there was alot of that too, but there were also alot of posts that I would not concider that. In this case, when I got some time and distance away from the live-watching experience and got the space to think for myself, I realized that as often is the case, my feelings about the seasons weren’t black and white, or in this case, masterpiece vs trash. Yes, I don’t like certain plotpoints (like the love triangle and car-scene from S5 or the Tiff-plot and the overly rushed conclusions to the otherwise interesting plotlines in S6), but that doesn’t mean that I personally think S5 or S6 as a whole are trash, not when the good episodes and clips were as good as they were to me personally. The online fandom experience has also, just like for you, completely turned me off from another remake that I otherwise felt neutral about and at one point even liked, which really is a shame.

So yeah this turned into a long ass essay just to say, the online fandom-experience is a true mixed bag for me. Although the positive experiences I’m taking from it, mainly the lovely and talented people, the friends I made and the full Skam France S3 experience, ultimately made it worth it for me, I can totally see how, especially if you didn’t have those experiences, you would simply wish you never joined. When it’s a pain, it’s a pain.

[brightblueinky]

Long winded ramblings about a Bronycon video

So I’ve seen some hubbub about a YouTube essay going over the history of the Brony fandom up until the last Bronycon. (You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVOF2PiHnc ) I just got around to watching it today and I was...somewhat confused by some of the stronger negative takes I was seeing floating around Twitter, and I’ve been in a “fandom discourse” mood lately so, hey, I thought...why not talk about it. The first part of this was originally going to be a Twitter thread until I realized Twitter wasn’t going to let me keep going on the thread so I gave up and decided to put it here instead (lol) so it’s probably going to be a bit choppy since I was trying to keep it readable for that format.

So first of all, my background, so I can be completely honest about where I'm coming from and try not to portray what I'm saying as like...an end-all-be-all take here, because I don't wanna do that. I was never really an MLP fan. I watched the first season of FiM and really enjoyed it, but I didn't really engage with the fandom because by that point I'd gotten to where I didn't spend much time in huge fandoms. So I can't come at this from the perspective of an MLP fan. When I’m addressing the fandom here, I’m coming at it as an outsider in the sense that I am not a MLP fan/brony. What I AM going to do is come at this from the perspective of something of a "native" to fandom. I've always been a geek. I've engaged in online fandom in some form or another since I was about 8, which was in the mid 90s. I've been around the fandom block. Actually, I can even say that I used to lurk on 4chan a lot and I saw a lot of the early Brony discussions there. I also watch @JennyENicholson's videos, and yeah, there's been times where I've been bugged because we had a disagreement of opinions and felt like it was a little harsh. She's got a dry sense of humor and sometimes it's hard to read when she's joking and when she's being genuine. So like, I wasn't surprised when I saw some hubbub from some people online about her doing the video about Bronies. Not at all. But I gotta say...I am really surprised by some of the more INTENSE takes on the video after watching it?? The LARGE majority of the video is @JennyENicholson covering this fandom from an INSIDER'S perspective. She was an MLP fan before FiM, she was active enough in the fandom to be a BNF. A huge, huge amount of the video is positive and nostalgic. In fact I now wish I HAD been in the fandom! It seems like it was a lot of fun! The only thing I felt was maybe harsh in the video is I think she gave the impression that being "furry" is exclusively a sex thing, but by the end she talks about furries being a community that's a very inclusive, kind community with a lot of queer people, so even then I think if you're really paying attention to the whole video you're not going to come away with the idea that the furry community is bad. Just maybe could've had more nuance earlier in the video?  So from glancing through mentions of her in a Twitter search (which is definitely not going to be a perfect sample) from what I can tell there's like two things that people seem to be upset about with the video: 1, the idea that the fandom is "dead" and 2...just...Body Pillows. So let's talk about the dead fandom thing first. As I mention, I have been in fandom a long, long time. Although I (usually) shy away from big active fandoms now, I started off in bigger ones--Sonic, Pokemon, Digimon, LOTR, etc. The two fandoms I currently care about the most, though, are definitely fandoms that tend to be called "dead" and were never HUGE to begin with (Princess Tutu and Chrono Crusade). I think I can count on my hands the number of ppl who actively discuss or create fanwork for CC.   So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I've been on both sides of the coin here. And let me reassure Bronies: "Dead", while maybe too strong of a label for what it actually means, does not have to be a negative thing and you don't need to defend your fandom from it, IMO. I think the "dead" label simply means that interest in the fandom has cooled, the number of active participants is significantly down from the heydays of the fandom, etc. And I don't think that's an unfair label for brony fandom from what I know.   If there was a large scale replacement for Bronycon then maybe it'd be unfair, but...yeah, if you're losing your large hubs for the fandom community, if the flow of fanwork and discussion has slowed, I think "dead", as it's used, isn't an unfair label.   But again, I don't think this is a bad thing! I'd imagine that even the current state of the brony fandom is larger and more active than the Princess Tutu fandom at its greatest heights. It's a pretty relative term. It doesn't mean nobody cares, or that you can't still enjoy it! All the "dead" label really means is acknowledging the change in a fandom. It's not a bad thing. I might be 1 of ~30 writers for Chrono Crusade on AO3 but I still have fun writing fic and I still get hits and occasional positive comments. It's not bad. Just different. Okay so now let's talk about the body pillow thing and oh man, is this going to be a minefield, lol. Let's first talk about my personal lens I'm going to come at here... I've created NSFW fanwork. Some of it taboo. I'm also (somewhat) a part of the "proship" discourse on Twitter which is basically a community of people that push back against another community of "anti"-shippers who feel that some ships are problematic (because of character age, power dynamics, etc) and shouldn't be shipped. (I think that simplifies a lot of the discussion on both sides but it’ll do for the purpose of what I’m getting at here, I think.) At its worse this debate has lead death threats and suicide attempts. I have seen people get treated abusively for fanwork (sometimes NSFW but not always). (And I also want to add that while I think the major component of the pro-ship discussions on Twitter are anti-harassment, there’s been some ‘edgy’ types who think that it’s fun to harass antis with NSFW fanwork and the like and I want to make it clear that is ALSO ABUSIVE AND NOT OKAY.) Basically, I want to say I'm sympathetic to a knee jerk defensive reaction over NSFW fanart. Okay? I can get why people might want to push against criticism of stuff they enjoy/create, and that there’s an element of possibly being harassed for fanwork you create. But the thing is, I don't think this is really the attitude Jenny is taking in the video. She lightly mocks NSFW stuff and body pillows, but often describes it as "harmless" and "fine". The only time she's critical of it is when she notes that sometimes body pillows with suggestive poses could be on display at conventions where young kids were present--at a con celebrating a show MEANT for young kids--and that probably shouldn't have been allowed. She's not saying you can't buy a body pillow, or create one. She didn't even say that while discussing body pillows of characters who were 10! She expressed personal discomfort, but the only restriction she really suggested was "keep this out of the sight of minors." And I don't know why that would be a controversial take. I read lemons when I was younger so I'm not going to sit here and act like it's going to completely ruin kids lives or anything. But I ALSO think it's appropriate to have boundaries for sexual materials for kids (or anyone who doesn't want to engage for whatever reason). I want my stuff to be clearly labeled as NSFW, with tags being clear about the content, so people know what they're getting into. I’ve grown to care about this even more as I’ve gotten older. I don’t really want to know about minors reading my nsfw fanfic or anything. I’m not going to, like, parent them and shame them if they do, but I don’t want to engage with it, I want my stuff to be labeled, and I am DEFINITELY not going to put it on public display at a place where I know kids are allowed, ESPECIALLY not when it’s work based on stuff MEANT for children! I mean, I grew up in a fundamentalist Evangelical household and I will rant at you for hours about how damaging I feel that environment was, and that I don’t think kids and teens should be completely shielded from sex, etc. But that doesn’t mean that having boundaries in place is a bad idea, especially when minors are involved. I also think that boundaries are good just for the sake of consent, too? I’m not saying that someone accidentally seeing suggestive art is the same as them being raped, please don’t conflate it like that, but if people don’t want to see it for whatever reason they should be given the opportunity to make that choice as much as possible. The stuff that Jenny mentioned brony conventions would do (requiring stuff to be sold under the table, or having late night hours for the dealer’s room where 18+ merch could be displayed and sold) seem like really good policies and pretty similar to what I’ve seen at anime conventions I’ve attended (although occasionally some stuff that was maybe a biiit more suggestive than I’d be comfortable displaying in public...but hey, my local con allows kids but also makes it clear in their rules that it’s mostly geared for 13+ attendees and that it’s up to parents to decide what’s appropriate for their kids, and I think that’s fair). And yeah, I know, nothing that Jenny showed in the video being displayed at Bronycon was 100% explicit, just suggestive. She notes this in the video herself, saying that yeah, it doesn’t show genitalia, etc...and as I’m writing this I think I’ve maybe rambled too much about NSFW fanart when most of the stuff we’re talking about here is more “suggestive” than straight-up porn, since that’s probably muddying the waters a bit. But I gotta, gotta, GOTTA address the sentiment I saw multiple times on Twitter in response to her video: “Dakimakura/body pillows aren’t sexual and to say that is orientalist.” I...what? What the fuck? Okay, again, I’m going to make it perfectly clear what my background is here so that I’m not claiming to have some expertise that I don’t have: I am white. I am VERY white. My parents did the DNA test thing and the most “exotic” thing that came up is that my dad is 3% Spanish. Not latin american, I mean from Spain spanish. I am sooooo fucking white. I’ve studied a LITTLE of Japanese culture in college classes but that wasn’t even my field of study (Communication major on a Broadcasing track, minor in Theatre) so I’m not going to tell you I’m an expert on Japanese culture. I’m just a weeby geek that grew up in anime fandoms and never really stopped consuming Japanese pop culture. I have a very limited experience with Japanese culture. I am NOT an expert on what is and isn’t orientalist. I know I’m really hammering in this point here but I think it’s really, really important that I make it clear that I shouldn’t be used as an expert on this subject. But what I DO have a background in is someone who has engaged in Western fandom of stuff from Japan from a young age, I did spend a lot of time on 4chan, this is NOT the first time that I’ve seen some form of an “this isn’t sexual at all and you’re just a PERVERT” discussion about fanservice and...okay first of all, I highly doubt anyone saying this is any more qualified to define what is and isn’t orientalist than I am. I think this is bullshit and it feels like an attempt to make your opinions more legitimate by implying people that disagree with you are some form of bigot. (And look, I was a sheltered, insecure, stuck-up teenager in fandom, part of the reason I feel like I can recognize this is I totally pulled the same shit. I am not going to act like I have never tried to pull this and that I’m a pure innocent woke intellectual who’s never said something foolish, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let it slide, either.)

While writing this I googled ‘dakimakura’ to make sure I was spelling it right and noticed that Wikipedia does note that the origins of this style of pillow are sometimes used by Japanese kids as something like a security blanket, which I’m guessing is where the justification for the argument is coming from, but let’s be intellectually honest here--body pillow covers being sold at a convention aren’t primarily meant to be a security blanket for kids. And, okay, maybe you have a body pillow cover with a character on it that isn’t exactly in a sexual pose, just laying fully clothed on what looks like a bedsheet background. But I don’t think it’s an unfair argument to say that even THEN it implies a sort of intimacy, right, possibly a desire for a romantic attachment? Like, sharing a bed with someone doesn’t have to be sexual or romantic, I used to share a bed with my brother in hotel rooms when we were kids, but I’m also not going to share a bed with my brother and then hug him closely to my body no matter how he’s posed or what he’s wearing??? And look, maybe a body pillow isn’t ALWAYS sexual but to say it’s NOT sexual, which kinda implies NEVER, is so disingenuous. The top result I got when I searched for “anime body pillow” is a shop that includes categories like “18+ body pillow” and “sexy body pillow” and also SELLS FAKE BREAST INSERTS FOR SOME OF THE PILLOWS SO YOU CAN SQUEEZE THEIR BOOBS (obviously, NSFW link: https://www.dakimakura.us/ ) Like, COME ON, I don’t think it’s orientalist to say that something is sexual when Japanese people are actually selling body pillows they label as 18+. The second result even has a second for pillows you can insert sex toys into. And yeah I saw the guy saying “masturbation isn’t sex!” and sir at BEST you have a very narrow and incorrect definition of sex as simply being intercourse and, again, at worst you’re just being straight up dishonest. In fact, I’ll straight up call myself out for this. There’s a fanart body pillow of a fictional character I’ve considered buying several times! (Not porn but still probably NSFW link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/701912275/dakimakura-hypnosismic-doppo?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=hypnosis+mic&ref=sr_gallery-1-4&organic_search_click=1 ) Is this porn? No. You can’t see much. But on one side of the pillow he’s got his shirt untucked, you can see a bit of his stomach, and his fly is undone and you can see the band of his underwear peeking out. This is sexual. I’m not wanting it to like, get off on it, exactly...honestly it’s maybe a bit ironic, and a lot of wanting a body pillow in general is I like sleeping hugging onto something but I have a different sleep schedule from my husband I find him too big to hold all night and too warm in the summer anyway. But I’m not going to tell you that me wanting this PARTICULAR pillow case isn’t at all sexual, I know what I’m doing, I like the character and think the drawing is hot. I’m not saying don’t buy body pillows, okay? I’m not saying don’t sell them. I don’t think Jenny is either (she literally OWNS ONE that she shows in the video!!!). But don’t act like there isn’t ever anything sexual about it existing to try to defend their existence, okay? You don’t need to be a fucking coward about it, and you especially don’t need to say it’s racist if people call out something as being suggestive when, well, it fucking is. And I think it’s totally 100% reasonable for someone to say “hey I don’t think it’s a good idea to display suggestive art around kids, especially if it’s depicting young characters.” TL;DR -- Chill, guys. CHILL. Your fandom is getting smaller and the term people use for this is “dead” but that’s not a bad thing, you’ve still got the fandom, you can still enjoy it, there’s definitely no need to take personal offense over it. And enjoy your body pillows, but don’t be disingenuous about the fact that they can be suggestive and try to act like anyone that calls it such is racist, that is such bullshit. Like what you like, other people’s opinions of it is not automatically a personal attack on you, there’s no need to jump to being defensive every time someone says something vaguely negative about it. Chill, fandom friends. Fandom ain’t bad but it also doesn’t need to be the center of your identity and you don’t need to lash out against people for daring to have opinions about a thing you like. You especially don’t need to act like other people are perverts for noting something being suggestive. Chiiiiiiiiiill.

[cherriesink]

Sirius Artbook Vol 1

My Sirius BD came in a few days ago, and I thought to share some of the artbook. It actually clocks in at 92 pages and not the advertised 96, but I’ve been so burned by this anime that I don’t care it has nice paper.

Volume One is Jaeger-only, no vampires and no side cast.

First are the character bios for the team, which are basically two pages each with website descriptions, screenshots, and some setting material.

Yuliy get four pages because he’s a special boy.

They also list everyone’s weapons: gimmick three-sectioned staff (Yuliy), “Willard’s weapon” (which is a Luger Pistol, but they probably don’t want anyone making that connection), thompson submachine gun (Dorothea), bull-barreled shotgun (Philip), and simply “a weapon case” (Fallon).

After that is a mere four pages of character drafts, which were also posted on the designer’s twitter.

Episode 1-6 summaries each get a page spread and are pretty much copy-pasted from the website’s story section, but hey at least it looks pretty?

The biggest chunk of the artbook (36 pages!) goes to rough keyframes. Artists aren’t listed, but it’s fairly obvious which are Sato’s cuts and which are regular staff.

Also, a few of Ando’s storyboards.

Interviews with the staff are sprinkled between story and animation pages. The different background colors were a nice touch. 

Not a full translation, but I’ll summarize a few points for each:

Mai Matsuura (Art Director)

She was the original designer for Agatha, Sachi, and Alexei.

The hardest thing to draw in the entire show was hair, everyone in the studio struggled with it. Though it looked simplistic, movement and bounce were difficult.

Personally, she had trouble determining Yuliy’s facial expressions since he’s not very transparent.

Foreheads were emphasized in Nishimura’s original designs, and so she kept that in the simplified art style.

Differential details: Yuliy and Willard are both very left-sided (i.e. most visual information), Phillip’s lower eyelashes are spiky, Fallon has small eyes, Ando kept telling her to give Dorothea a bigger butt.

She was unhappy how the “Thanks, Ryoko!” scene was emotionally unclear.

Yuto Uemura (Yuliy)

He was very excited to work with veteran staff, especially Horiuchi.

As things progressed, his portrayal of Yuliy gradually shifted from “revenge” to “this is my job as a Jaeger” character.

He tried to give a gentle impression toward teammates, but it might’ve felt cold with “an exquisite distance (lol).”

Family is a keyword for this show.

He thinks of Yuliy as a protagonist who keeps on going no matter what bad things happen. He’s a main character that feels heroic with an impression of principled royalty. (The point is he’s like Aragorn, I guess.)

There wasn’t much effort put into matching child!Yuliy, who felt more like an ordinary boy.

Kenyu Horiuchi (Willard)

Horiuchi immediately saw Willard as someone who wasn’t shaken much, cool and intelligent, but maybe carrying complicated baggage from the past.

Later on, there was an “Are you atoning for sin?” feeling.

Care was given to different nuances and tones when saying Yuily’s name, and guided by the director.

Breathing techniques were also important.

He has complicated feelings on being typecast into serious roles for older men, but also sees the show itself as one of his favorites.

Nanako Mori (Dorothea) x Shunsuke Takeuchi (Fallon) x Yusuke Kobayashi (Philip)

Kobayashi originally auditioned for Yuliy, but got a second one for Philip.

Mori describes Dorothea as someone who has a lot of yang (masculine) qualities and seriousness, but is able to switch to a cuter persona when talking to a friend.

Philip was directed to be portrayed as a “child of the times” who could switch between professionalism and childishness.

His “Don’t touch my hair!” lines were usually ad-libbed.

Fallon is kind and energetic like a big brother, but isn’t very deep.

They saw familial love and duty as big themes, between Dog-ville and Philip’s past and the Naoe drama. Takeuchi mentions the vampires were family too, in a sense.

Masahiro Sato (Animation Director)

It was a precondition to have good action staff, so Sato was recruited before the basic premise had been written.

He did about half of all action cuts.

Wolf Guy, the Doberman Cop liveaction, and old Hong Kong and Toei movies are listed as influences, but he laughs that the story turned out nothing like them. 

Originally, the werewolf element was stronger than the vampire element, since the vampires were added later in the planning stage. But lots of things changed, and only the three-sectioned staff concept was kept.

The three-sectioned staff was his baby.

Yevgraf’s stupid glitter leotard was his idea.

Finally, a few pages at the end for background art.