#this is the rule we have set up for so long to avoid drama

[armoricaroyalty]

Film Grammar for Simmers

What is film grammar?

"Film grammar" refers the unstated "rules" of editing used in movies and TV. Different types of shots have different associations and are used by editors to convey different types of information to the audience. Many of these principles were first described in the early 20th century by Soviet directors, but they're used consistently across genre, medium, and even language: Bollywood musicals, English period dramas, Korean horror movies, and American action blockbusters all use many of the same techniques.

Because these rules are so universal, virtually everyone has some internalized understanding of them. Even if they can’t name the different types of shots or explain how editors use images to construct meaning, the average person can tell when the “rules” are being broken. If you’ve ever thought a movie or episode of TV was confusing without being able to say why, there’s a good chance that there was something off with the editing.

Learning and applying the basics of film grammar can give your story a slicker and more-polished feel, without having to download shaders or spend hours in photoshop. It also has the bonus of enhancing readability by allowing your audience to use their knowledge of film and TV to understand what's happening in your story. You can use it to call attention to significant plot details and avoid introducing confusion through unclear visual language.

Best of all, it doesn't cost a dime.

The basics: types of shots

Shots are the basic building block of film. In Sims storytelling, a single shot is analogous to a single screenshot. In film, different types of shots are distinguished by the position of the camera relative to the subject. There are three big categories of shots, with some variation: long shots (LS), medium shots (MS), and close-ups (CU). This diagram, created by Daniel Chandler and hosted on visual-memory.co.uk illustrates the difference:

Source: The 'Grammar' of Television and Film, Daniel Chandler, visual-memory.co.uk. Link.

In film, scenes typically progress through the different types of shots in sequence: long shot, medium shot, close-up. When a new scene begins and the characters arrive in a new location, we typically begin with a wide establishing shot of the building’s exterior to show the audience where the scene will be taking place. Next comes a long shot of an interior space, which tells the where the characters are positioned relative to one another. The next shot is a medium shot of the characters conversing, and then finally, a close-up as the conversation reaches its emotional or informational climax. Insert shots are used judiciously throughout to establish themes or offer visual exposition.

Here's another visual guide to the different types of shots, illustrated with stills from Disney animated films.

This guide is almost 2,000 words long! To save your dash, I've put the meat of it under the cut.

Long shot and extreme long shots

A long shot (sometimes also called a wide shot) is one where the entire subject (usually a building, person, or group of people) is visible within the frame. The camera is positioned far away from the subject, prioritizing the details of the background over the details of the subject.

One of the most common uses of long shots and extreme long shots are establishing shots. An establishing shot is the first shot in a scene, and it sets the tone for the scene and is intended to give the viewer the information they’ll need to follow the scene: where a scene is taking place, who is in the scene, and where they are positioned in relation to one another. Without an establishing shot, a scene can feel ungrounded or “floaty.” Readers will have a harder time understanding what’s happening in the scene because on some level, they’ll be trying to puzzle out the answers to the who and where questions, distracting them from the most important questions: what is happening and why?

(I actually like to start my scenes with two establishing shots: an environmental shot focusing on the scenery, and then a second shot that establishes the characters and their position within the space.)

Long shots and extreme long shots have other uses, as well. Because the subject is small relative to their surroundings, they have an impersonal effect which can be used for comedy or tragedy.

In Fargo (1996) uses an extreme long shot to visually illustrate the main character’s sense of defeat after failing to secure funding for a business deal.The shot begins with a car in an empty parking lot, and then we see the protagonist make his way up from the bottom of the frame. He is alone in the shot, he is small, and the camera is positioned above him, looking down from a god-like perspective. All of these factors work together to convey his emotional state: he’s small, he’s alone, and in this moment, we are literally looking down on him. This shot effectively conveys how powerless he feels without any dialogue or even showing his face.

The same impersonal effect can also be used for comic purposes. If a character says something stupid or fails to impress other characters, cutting directly from a close-up to a long shot has a visual effect akin to chirping crickets. In this instance, a long shot serves as a visual “wait, what?” and invites the audience to laugh at the character rather than with them.

Medium Shots

Medium shots are “neutral” in filmmaking. Long shots and close-ups convey special meaning in their choice to focus on either the subject or the background, but a medium shot is balanced, giving equal focus to the character and their surroundings. In a medium shot, the character takes up 50% of the frame. They’re typically depicted from the waist-up and the audience can see both their face and hands, allowing the audience to see the character's facial expression and read their body-language, both important for interpreting meaning.

In most movies and TV shows, medium shots are the bread and butter of dialogue-heavy scenes, with close-ups, long shots, and inserts used for punctuation and emphasis. If you’re closely following the conventions of filmmaking, most of your dialogue scenes will be medium shots following the convention of shot-reverse shot:

To keep long conversations from feeling too visually monotonous, consider staging the scene as a walk-and-talk. Having two characters move through a space can add a lot of dynamism and visual interest to a scene that might otherwise feel boring or stiff.

Close Ups

Close-ups are close shots of a character’s face. The camera is positioned relatively near to the subject, showing just their head and shoulders. In a close-up, we don’t see any details of the background or the expressions of other characters.

In film, close-ups are used for emphasis. If a character is experiencing a strong emotion or delivering an important line of dialogue, a close-up underscores the importance of the moment by inviting the audience to focus only on the character and their emotion.

Close-ups don’t necessarily need to focus on the speaker. If the important thing about a line of dialogue is another character’s reaction to it, a close-up of the reaction is more effective than a close-up of the delivery.

One of the most iconic shots in Parasite (2019) is of the protagonist driving his employer around while she sits in the backseat, speaking on the phone. Even though she’s the one speaking, the details of her conversation matter less than the protagonist’s reaction to it. While she chatters obliviously in the background, we focus on the protagonist’s disgruntled, resentful response to her thoughtless words and behavior.

In my opinion, Simblr really overuses close-ups in dialogue. A lot of conversation scenes are framed entirely in close-ups, which has the same effect of highlighting an entire page in a textbook. The reader can’t actually tell what information is important, because the visuals are screaming that everything is important. Overusing close-ups also cuts the viewer off from the character’s body language and prevents them from learning anything about the character via their surroundings.

For example, a scene set in someone’s bedroom is a great opportunity for some subtle characterization—is it tidy or messy? what kind of decor have they chosen? do they have a gaming computer, a guitar, an overflowing bookshelf?—but if the author chooses to use only close-ups, we lose out on a chance to get to know the character via indirect means.

Inserts

An insert shot is when a shot of something other than a character’s face is inserted into a scene. Often, inserts are close-ups of a character’s hands or an object in the background. Insert shots can also be used to show us what a character is looking at or focusing on.

In rom-com The Prince & Me (2004) (see? I don’t just watch crime dramas…) the male lead is in an important meeting. We see him pick up a pen, look down at the papers in front of him, and apparently begin taking notes, but then we cut to an insert shot of his information packet. He’s doodling pictures of sports cars and is entirely disengaged from the conversation. Every other shot in the scene is an establishing shot or a medium shot or a close-up of someone speaking, but this insert gives us insight into the lead’s state of mind: he doesn’t want to be there and he isn’t paying attention.

Insert shots are, in my opinion, also used ineffectively on Simblr. A good insert gives us extra insight into what a character is thinking or focusing on, but a poorly-used insert feels…unfocused. A good insert might focus on pill bottles on a character’s desk to suggest a chemical dependency, on a family picture to suggest duty and loyalty, on a clock to suggest a time constraint, on a pile of dirty laundry or unanswered letters to suggest a character is struggling to keep up with their responsibilities. An ineffective insert shot might focus on the flowers in the background because they’re pretty, on a character’s hands because it seems artsy, on the place settings on a dining table because you spent forever placing each one individually and you’ll be damned if they don’t make it into the scene. These things might be lovely and they might break up a monotonous conversation and they might represent a lot of time and effort, but if they don’t contribute any meaning to a scene, consider cutting or repurposing them.

I want to emphasize: insert shots aren’t bad, but they should be carefully chosen to ensure they’re enhancing the meaning of the scene. Haphazard insert shots are distracting and can interfere with your reader’s ability to understand what is happening and why.

Putting it all together

One of the most basic principles of film theory is the Kuleshov effect, the idea that meaning in film comes from the interaction of two shots in sequence, and not from any single shot by itself. In the prototypical example, cutting from a close-up of a person’s neutral expression to a bowl of soup, children playing, or soldiers in a field suggests hunger, worry, or fear, respectively.

The Kuleshov effect is the essence of visual storytelling in a medium like Simblr. You can elevate your storytelling by thinking not only about each individual shot, but about the way they’ll interact and flow into one another.

Mastering the basics of film grammar is a great (free!) way to take your storytelling to the next level. To learn more, you can find tons of guides and explainers about film grammar for free online, and your local library doubtless has books that explain the same principles and offers additional analysis.

Happy simming!

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Today’s replies! Mostly related to some of the previously posted comics and drawings.

But starting with an ask that isn’t related to our stuff!

Anonymous asked:

Ryuichi, did you see Azul's new birthday card, Platinum Jacket?!

Yes! He looks great, especially the Groovy card qwq

To be honest, this year’s birthday set/theme isn’t the most exciting (I just really loved the broomquets), but Azul’s card is very good.

Anonymous asked:

"To the VDC group,

let me welcome you once more into the halls of our dorm. With your combined efforts and talents you will surely make our college shine at the VDC, and here at Ramshackle we're glad to be able to help you in any way we can. I must however bring to your attention some unseemly behaviour that... sorry, I can't keep this up anymore, so let's get to the point: please stop treating the dorm like some cheap themed love hotel.

I understand you all have your reasons, whether it's because you get frustrated thinking about your rival and need an outlet, or because you think sex will help you fix your broken marriage, or simply because you're too  much of a wimp to say no to Ace. I get that, but I can only tell Grim that this racket is the ghosts' fault so many times, and I really am not ready to give him the Talk... So please, have mercy...

The Prefect"

Do you think something like this might have happened?

(this ask and the next one are related to this comic)

LOL ANON this is exactly what would’ve happened, the only difference is that Vil is abstaining from sex until the whole thing is over, and if he can’t have sex, no one can. So Yuu shouldn’t even worry about confronting everyone about this, because Vil is going to do it for them lol Ace and Deuce specifically will get scolded for disrespecting the Prefect’s hospitality and acting so indecently.

Poor Deuce… he really can’t say no to Ace and now he’s getting scolded too 😔 So embarrassing.

Anonymous asked:

epel has to seduce the competition then

Let’s hope he absorbs all the unresolved sexual tension of his bandmates like a sponge and marinates in it until the day he sees Neige… wait, that wouldn’t work, it’ll just make Epel horny lol

Anonymous asked:

Your deuce look like a beautiful butch lesbian in that skirt and i love this so much. You're the only one who can get me to love how he looks fr fr

(this ask is related to this drawing)

Butch lesbian omg…

Aw come on Anon, it’s just Deuce being his adorable self, I can’t take credit for that~ He’s always cute!

Anonymous asked:

Idia in a short little skirt. Lilia probities him into it. Lilia will probably also randomly flip it up much to Idia’s horror.

If Lilia sees a skirt on a cute boy, he flips it. This is the rule. It’s his instinct, his nature, his philosophy.

Stay strong, Idia… His long-ass legs would look so nice if he wore a skirt. He really should. And then instantly get attacked by this pervy grandpa lol

Anonymous asked:

Have you and katsu ever heard of the new show "Hazbin Hotel"?  it's basically without spoiling anything a Musical Black comedy drama show that plays in Hell, and it has its dark moments. I figured you two might like it, so i would definitely recommend it.

We have heard of it! It’s pretty impossible to avoid right now lol, especially with all the jp artists suddenly getting into it and drawing a lot of amazing fanart. It’s very amusing to look at…

Thank you for recommending it to us, Anon! We’re not planning to watch it for now and aren’t really sure that it would click with us (if that makes sense), but we do like black comedy a lot + I’m glad the themes of the show made you think of us!

[acourtofthought]

Not Elucien related but do you think after HOFAS there's a chance that Nesta will in fact move away from the inner circle? The spoilers I've seen, it feels like she is unhappy with her life and I think there's a possibility we might see her moving away from NC altogether and getting involved in Autumn drama (helping Eris kill Baron).

I do think Nesta will move away from the Inner Circle, but not the Night Court.

At first thought, it seems like Feyre, Nesta, and Elain all working together as one big happy family within the Inner Circle would be picture perfect.

But, would it?

Because there will always be an imbalance in that scenario. Feyre is their High Lady and Rhys would be their High Lord, the sisters would be forced to listen to them when it came down to it.

And that does not give room for the sisters growth into individuals, into striking a healthy balance where they each respect their own strengths and independence outside one another.

Nesta's sister and Nesta's brother-in-law being able to tell her what to do does not create an environment where being sisters comes first.

I think the same will be said of Elain, she is mated to Lucien who is set up to become a High Lord and regardless of what side of the ship wars you fall on, mates are equals which means Elain should technically have it in her to be capable of ruling as well. Her ending up working for the IC would also create an unfair imbalance between her potential and her relationship with Feyre.

But in SF, everything we were told is that the Night Court is her home. The HOW is her home. There is nothing to indicate she would leave the Night Court for Autumn and honestly, there's nothing to suggest that Eris would be willing to work with Nesta after she screwed him over in SF. The Autumn Court drama involves Beron, Lucien, Eris and the LoA. Despite them working with Eris in SF, their interactions with him took place outside the NC because outsiders are not permitted within it's borders. So long as Beron is alive, nobody with NC ties is going to easily play a part there, not when Eris was aware of Az trying to spy.

This next part will contain HOFAS spoilers so if you're avoiding them, you might want to stop reading here.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The ending of HOFAS has Bryce leaving her birthright (which is the Prison lands, the would be Dusk Court) to Nesta because of the 8 pointed star tattoo she had.

I'm not sure that the land itself is destined for Nesta to rule because she isn't a descendant of Theia and we're told that only her heirs have true claim to that land.

But Nesta is set up to become the general of the Valkyrie and she is most likely going to be responsible for setting the restoration of the lands into motion. Just as Bryce passed the torch to Nesta, it could be part of Nesta's destiny to pass the torch to whomever is meant to tie their magic into the land (maybe Mor?). The reason I say this is because whoever is tied to the land should probably remain there and since Valkryie territory is a group of female warriors, I can't see how Nesta would be it's "leader" (different from general) when she's mated to Cassian and they were left the HOW which Nesta says is her home. Since Mor's preference is that of females, she and a female love interest would make sense being the permanent presence, overseeing the Valkyrie while Nesta is their general.

But regardless of who oversees the Valkryie territory, we learned in SF that the Valkyrie were independent of the courts which is a way for Nesta to remain living in the Night Court while her job provides her a loophole to not report directly to Rhys.

[edslacefront]

We know for a fact that Stede's a Leo historically (and I think it adds up w his character) but hottake: I think Ed's a Leo too, I was torn between that and Gemini, he's a dramatic know-it-all, but I think he def has Gemini goin on in his chart. I think Stede and Ed actually must have fairly similar charts, like they're actually so similar as people besides the way they grew up and that's why they get along so well ya know? Anyway as an astrology ho this is my shot at Ed and Stede's top 6 in their charts, shouting it into the void:

Stede-

A lot of fire and air in this one that's just the vibe I get, he's passionate and longs for adventure, he's actually quite clever but can be a little insensitive sometimes, yet somehow also attentive to those he cares about.

Sun- Leo (as stated earlier) I feel like this one needs little explanation (I end up talking more about his sun sign when I compare him to Ed later when talking about Ed's sun, see below lol) Dramatic, theatrical, draws attention, flamboyant, just listing synonyms at this point

Moon- Libra, At first I thought he'd have a water moon bc he can be quite emotional, but I think thats just the outwardness of his Leo placements. he has this ability to set his feelings aside like an air sign, like when he saved the crew even after Ed died, and then went to mourn in private, although he seems dramatic emotionally he has an ability to detach himself, he forgives quite easily which is a trait ive seen a lot in Libra moons, he has a lot of faith in people. His relationships w others are very important to him, an air moon just makes sense w his whim-prone-ness

Rising- Leo (again ik), he's dramatic asf likes to make a theatrical entrance, draws a lot of attention to himself and cares a lot about his appearance, puts on a confident facade over his cripplingly insecure self in true Leo fashion, is a natural entertainer when he starts to get attention in man on fire

Mercury- Libra (again ik I swear I know about more than two signs) , had to be an air sign he can chat and chat and chat, Ed and him can talk for hours they gotta both have air mercurys, he can also be quite charming in his banter like when he charms Anne Bonnie and Hellcat Maggie like he's a little bit of a flirt even when he doesn't intent to be, he can also be so shady and cunty when he wants to tho, like this dude likes to stur the pot as a strategy kind of lives for the drama, he can be quite clever when he's in a pinch and can always talk himself out of a situation, his bullshitting ability is off the charts

Venus- Taurus, at first I thought he'd have like no earth, but I think he's a little bit more practical in love with the way he thought going to China was too fast, He's still a very attentive lover tho, with Taurus ruled by Venus, he offers Ed a lot of comfort, he's very calming to Ed with his presence and very patient with Ed, he's stubborn in love he never gives up on finding Ed/never loses faith in their love, a real romantic w his cheesy poetry in his letters, immediately shows Ed all of his fancy stuff and that's what initially kind of draws Ed to him, got that luxurious appeal that finer things in life swag

Mars- Libra (AGAIN IK, but a Libra stellium just makes sense to me, not trying to make him seem one dimensional I just get this vibe so strong I swear I'm not just going off stereotypes) This man's always solving conflict or being avoident of his problems, like it's always his tactic, like when he turns Neds crew against him by pointing out that they're being treated unfairly. He prefers for things to be harmonious

Ed:

I think this dude is a chaotic concoction of distributed fire water and air, no practical earth in this mf

Sun- Leo. I just think they both have to be Leo's, Ed is just as dramatic and it's like the world seems to revolve around him at times (like the sun, Leo's ruled by the sun, haha) he just gives such strong Leo-ness w this mane he's got (him and Stede both have excellent hair as a defined feature now that I'm thinking about it) and his facade of confidence is just pure Leo. Him and Stede can both get jealous in a Leo way, like when the other gets all the attention. They both can be a little egotistical and can be kind yet also not take others feelings into account before thinking of their own, like being considerate is not always their first instinct.

Moon- Scorpio. MAN does this boy get HURT. He lashes out asf he is so sensitive. Izzy says "Stede" once and gets fucking shot don't u dare point out what this dude is upset about. He feels things so intensely, doing dramatic shit getting emo w it, gets absolutely consumed by his feelings, had to have a water moon he's a whole tsunami. He's not so secretive w how he feels like maybe the average Scorpio moon but I think the Leo brings it out. This is where Stede and Ed have to figure out how to communicate their feelings w this air and water combo but I think Stede's Libra moon takes the time to understand Ed and how he's caused hurt.

Rising- Gemini. Infamous. Regarded as highly skilled "He's histories greatest tactition", u never know his next move, never shuts up, either introducing himself like "hey everybody I'm blackbeard : )" or "I'm the fucking Devil", the talk of the town, been there done that knows everybody

Mercury- Also Gemini. Like I said he never shuts up, him and Stede talk each other's ears off w these air mercurys, always bouncing between topics, good story teller, him and Stede both, he's always fuckin yelling in my experience Geminis r loud talkers. Goes on rants talks like a nut job. And he's sooo so intelligent his brain is going a million miles a minute, good at memorizing information it makes him a good pirate. Geminis get so eclectic w what they know and they're so so clever and witty and snarky "that's blackbeard, I'm Stede remember."

Venus- Pisces. This dude longs for sweet and delicate affection, he's got these princess doe-eyes, fluttering his lashes and shit, he falls fast for Stede, romanticizes shit, he gets lost and infatuated and day dreamy w shit. He imagined Stede as a beautiful mermaid coming to save him for fucks sake. He's a *sighs* and looks out the window yearningly mf. He PINES like no other. Immediately wanted to watch Stede while he sleeps and switch clothes and go to China, an idealist. I think this matches w Stede so well bc Stede's also a romantic, writing letters and shit, Stede butters him up, but Stede had the ability to remind Ed to be a bit more grounded. They're both so tender ugh they both like to comfort each other ugh

Mars- Aries. He can be quite childish and gets set off by one thing, he has a quick temper, outbursts of yelling, like his rage builds up intense and fast and then burns out, like he literally throws tantrums like when Izzy was pestering him about the plan and then he's like "EVERYTHINGS SO FUCKING BORING". when he's angry he's all consumed and murderous. In my experience an Aries Mars is most likely to smash a chair against the wall and throw a Vase, but then forgive after one conversation bc of how fast burning they r like a bomb and then quiet, returning to that childlike play fullness an Aries has, does shit like play knife parade bc that's their sense of fun, spiteful and gets embarrassed, like when he leaves the fancy dinner table like "YOUR ALL PHONIES" and then is like I've gotta shoot all of them.

Anyways if u read all of this (I doubt anyone will) thanks for listening to my shout into the void, if u disagree pls be gentle lol.

[collectorofsims]

The Gemstone Legacy Challenge

Enjoy drama filled game play? Ready to help your Sim through generational trauma? Enjoy The Not So Berry Challenge? Well then welcome to The Gemstone Legacy Challenge!

Think of it as the Not So Berry Challenge, but with less packs required to complete it. Before we start with the requirements of each generation, we should probably go over some of the rules first!

Much like The Not So Berry Challenge, each heir/heiress must represent the color of each gemstone. You do not have to make the skin match if you choose not to, but you must do it in another way (ex: hair, clothes, makeup, etc.)

Spouses' colors aren't a big deal. If you want to make them match, more power to you, but it's not required.

You can use the freerealestate cheat when getting a home, but it can only be used once for each generation. You may also use a money cheat, but only if it's going towards something that is part of the challenge (ex:buying a required item)

Unless it's required of the generation rule, you can choose where to live.

Lifespan has to be on normal settings, otherwise it's not really a challenge.

There's no specific gender you have to start with, but the first generation has to be able to reproduce.

Each name must match the gemstone the generation is signed to (you can name them that particular gemstone as well if you so desire)

Every aspiration must be completed before you can start playing as the next generation. Careers only get fully completed if it's stated in the generation's rules.

Generation One: Amber- Orange

You're new in town, which means you're pretty lonely. But that's all to change once you start going out and meeting new people! You just want to take life one step at a time, not feeling any kind of rush. You go at your own pace and march to the beat of your own drum.

Career: Freelancer (any of your choosing)

Traits: Self-Assured, Cheerful, Lazy

Aspiration: Friend Of The World

Rules:

Must have at least one child as an Adult (though the child can be born while you're a Young Adult)

Collect all 24 Gemstones

Master the Charisma skill

Throw birthday parties each life stage for self and child(ren)

Generation Two: Amethyst- Purple

You grew up with a parent who was well known, but was never well off due to laziness. You feel like you missed out on having the finer things in life, but certainly don't plan on continuing to do so. You may be a parent, but your child(ren) are an afterthought sometimes.

Career: Style Infulencer

Traits: Creative, Materialistic, Self-Absorbed

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy

Rules:

Must marry into money (ex: one of the Landgraabs or Goths)

Transfer all the money from the spouse's original household when moving them in to yours

Master the photography skill

Master The Style Influencer career

Start having child(ren) as an Adult

Have at least one affair after you're married (could be a short one or years long one, you choose)

Generation Three: Beryl- Teal

Growing up, you weren't noticed much, making you resent children (even though it's your parent(s) you should probably be mad at). You were practically raised on computers and gaming and have made them your whole life. Even though you have no desire for children, your spouse does and because you love them so much, you agree to have one, though you'll ignore them anyways by throwing yourself into your work.

Career: Tech Guru

Traits: Hates Children, Genius, Geek

Aspiration: Computer Whiz

Rules:

Marry a Family Oriented Sim

Only have one child

Master the Tech Guru career

Have a low relationship with your child (you may use cheats if need be)

Master the Logic skill

Be Best Friends with your spouse

Generation Four: Diamond- Gray

You've worked so hard to earn your parent's love, but they avoided you like the plague. To make up for it, you worked your way to the top to become a beloved actor/actress, which is how you met your spouse. As soon as you hit it big, you only associate with others like yourself, forgetting all your childhood friends and even your parent who's love you wanted the most. Perhaps you're better off without them?

Career: Actor/Actress

Traits: Ambitious, Outgoing, Snob

Aspiration: Aspiring Star

Rules:

Marry another Actor/Actress

Master the Acting Career and skill

Master the guitar skill

Have triplets (you can use cheat for this)

Stop contact with generation 3 at career rank 3

Move to Del Sol Valley as a Young Adult

Generation Five: Jade- Green

Being in a set of triplets and having famous parents, not only were you never bored, but you were also never alone and now all you want is peace and quiet as you practice your secret love of baking. You leave your old town and move to Oasis Springs because SimsGod knows nobody wants to go there.

Career: Astronaut

Traits: Loner, Neat, Gloomy

Aspiration: Nerd Brain

Rules:

Master the Astronaut Career

Have a failed marriage to a Sim with the Slob Trait and 2 failed relationships before that

Master the Baking skill

Have woohoo with an alien resulting in a pregnancy

Generation Six: Onyx- Black

If the dictionary had pictures, yours would be in there next to “Black Sheep”. You never really fit in with the rest of your family. Maybe because you're half alien, or maybe because unlike your parents, you want nothing to do with space. You like Earth and everything it has to offer and don't understand why your parent wants an escape so badly.

Career: Politician

Traits:Clumsy, Loves Outdoors, Dog Lover

Aspiration: Friend Of The Animals

Rules:

Have one of each pet (varies on the packs you own)

Master the gardening and pet training skills

Join the Speak For The Trees cause

Marry a Cat Lover

Master the Politician career

Generation Seven: Pearl- White

Despite your parent being super busy running the country, they never forgot to value their time with you and your pets. For that, you value family and love and all around togetherness, which inspired you to want to protect and serve the local families like yours, but sometimes your passion can make you a little hot under the collar.

Career: Detective

Traits: Active, Childish, Hot-Headed

Aspiration: City Native

Rules:

Move to San Myshuno

Master the Detective career

Master the Fitness and Logic skills

Marry a neighbor in your apartment complex

Conceive a child in a closet or observatory

Generation Eight: Ruby- Red

Your parents were never shy about showing each other affection as you grew up, but something about that made you uncomfortable in flirty situations, making it hard for you to find love despite wanting to find someone to spend your life with so you fill the void with food.

Career: Culinary

Traits: Foodie, Unflirty, Glutton

Aspiration: Master Chef

Rules:

Master The Culinary career (Chef branch only)

Have one science baby with your best friend

Never get married until your child is a Young Adult

Master the Cooking and Gourmet Cooking skills

Generation Nine: Sapphire- Blue

Being raised by a single parent made you tougher than what people expected. Unlike your parent, you have no problems in the romance department and thrive in any romantic setting. You're not sure who your child's parent is, but all you know is you love them unconditionally and would do anything for them.

Career: Secret Agent

Traits: Romantic, Erratic, Noncommittal

Aspiration: Villainous Valentine

Rules:

Get married 3 times before you're an elder that isn't from where you grew up

Master the Singing skill

Have an affair during each marriage that results in a pregnancy

Leave someone at the altar twice

Be Best Friends with your next heir/heiress (you choose who it is)

Generation Ten: Topaz- Pink

You and your parent are best friends. Growing up you wanted to be just like them, however you are nothing like them and realize that pretty quick. So you move away to find yourself and start anew. As you find yourself, you reconnect with your highschool sweetheart who never stopped loving you, picking up exactly where you left off.

Career: Writer

Traits: Bookworm, Family-Oriented, Perfectionist

Aspiration: Big Happy Family

Rules:

Ghost your highschool sweetheart as soon as you become a Young Adult

Leave someone at the altar as a Young Adult

Master the Writer career

Master the writing skill

Move to a different place from where you grew up

Marry your highschool sweetheart after you reconnect

Adopt an infant

[we-love-morioh-cho]

Chapter 58 - Kaato's Return

I try to avoid long, speculating posts for my Jojolion liveblogging BUT Chapter 58 has my mind racing with ideas and I'm so excited for the Higashikata family drama that I need to get this out of my system. This single chapter has more character intrigue to me than other entire parts of Jojo, that's how much I love this stuff 😭

This post is really, really long and messy and probably more headcanon than actual analysis and will not be very polished. It'll likely age poorly and be very wrong but this is legit some of the most enjoyment and interest this franchise has ever given me. To avoid spamming the tags, I'm shoving a lot of ideas into this single post so I apologize in advance.

Kaato

One thing I've had spoiled about Kaato is that she isn't the main villain but that everyone wanted her to be. So I'm already really excited for her character but I'm not sure what to expect. Given how Jojo is written, I'm expecting there to be more to the child murder. Her intro referenced Jolyne a lot, soooo I'm thinking she was pressured by someone / set-up.

Maybe I'm just falling for her scheme like I did with Damo, but her grief and pain here feels genuine to me. If there is more to the murder, then this is a tragic situation for Kaato - she was separated from her children and has been iced out of her own family. There must be a reason she could never tell them the truth too, maybe she's still in danger?

This series tends to neglect mothers in the narrative so I'm enjoying their focus in Jojolion, plus there's some sort of parallel with Holy being established. I'm trying really hard not to stan her before knowing the full story in case it's absolutely fucked up but god is she iconique. I'll talk about her in passing in other character's sections, there's already A LOT to say and already she is a very high tier character to me.

Josuke and Kei

Poor Josuke man.....I was not expecting the hospital scene and it really got to me 💔 I'm so glad Jojo has been exploring it's protags' internal lives more in later parts, I would say since Jolyne it's felt more introspective and emotional. I'm glad poor Josuke is getting to have his grief explored and shown, it makes the storytelling so much more impactful to me at least. I must ask why Kei wasn't at the hospital, surely she must know of Holy's condition and should be involved too. Have her and Josuke even really spoken since early Jojolion? I need more of Kei as Holy's condition becomes more and more important.

What on Earth does Josuke feel seeing Kaato show up? We don't get an answer in this chapter BUT I am hoping him and Kaato will interact in the future and this will be brought up. There's just a lot of directions to go with this dynamic and I hope we get it explored. He was pretty passive during Kaato's scene, I kept hoping she would point him out and question his presence but fair enough. Also, it was interesting how him and Kei were the two outsiders during this scene - as their mother is dying, the mother of the Higashikata family appears and is clearly involved with Jobin who is also vying for the miracle cure that they need too. Crazy potential here with these characters.

Norisuke

Not to be a Kaato apologist already but I have some things to say about this man. I'm assuming that, if there is a deeper secret to the murder, he's unaware of it, but I really have to ask why Kaato wouldn't tell him?

I get that telling your two youngest kids that their mother was in jail for killing a child would be rough but GODDDDD he couldn't even tell them when they got older or at least keep his story straight? Also, evidently Jobin and Hato never told their siblings about their mother - how did that conversation go? Norisuke had to be the one to enforce that rule and I'm sure it was not an easy process.

Did Norisuke ever talk to his eldest children about their mother leaving? Because with how Hato phrases it, it seems like he brushed it all under the rug. And while it's obviously sad the two young ones never knew about her, imagine what the two eldest kids felt having known her then watching her be dragged away????? He never even showed the little ones a photo of her, that is insane and just next level to me. Was Kaato's crime not widely discussed in the town? How did neither Joshu or Daiya ever hear about it somehow?

This section originally spiraled into a HUGE theory / headcanon / speculation discussion on how the Kaato situation might've led to a divide in how the eldest siblings and youngest siblings were raised, but I'm gonna wait on that thought until I know more and give it it's own post in the future sometime.

Jobin

Jobin was a pure menace this chapter and I fucking loved it. He really let his convicted-murderer mother into his family's house, didn't inform anyone of her release, and shows up as soon as she leaves to casually drop that he orchestrated this whole thing. And then he rocked up like this -

I'm guessing he watched / listened to the whole ordeal from afar and just chose to watch the chaos? I have a lot of thoughts and theories about how Jobin views his younger siblings and this chapter doesn't help lol. Why did he do this? What did he gain from this? Absolute deranged menace behavior lmao

I'm now thinking that Jobin and Norisuke's issues with each other may have originated from Kaato. Jobin is clearly close with mommy dearest and seems to take her side over his dad's. I'm not.......the biggest fan of potentially blaming Kaato for Jobin's issues and I hope this isn't just an 'evil mother turns son against poor father' situation because I am not a fan of that trope.

Kaato briefly mentions that she's helped the family's success so I'm wondering if she is behind Jobin's philosophy of advancing the family's greatness beyond Norisuke's smaller ambitions. You know that other trope of women in patriarchal systems using their cunning and male relatives to exercise great power from the shadows, a la Agrippina and Nero? Yeah.

Anyway, him and Kaato are obvs scheming and I am so fucking keen and ready - Jobin has been a great antagonist so far and I am here for the fucked up mother-son team taking on Norisuke. The Higashikata family drama has hooked me from day one and I really enjoy the focus on their dynamics. Norisuke's final line this chapter is incomplete as he ponders something about Jobin, I love the mystery set-up with what could be going on. I adore how character-driven this story is and how personal the stakes are - I've ALWAYS wished the series explored the Joestar family more in-depth and, while it's obviously different, this part is making me veryyyyy happy with the Higashikatas. A++++ content for me and Jobin remains both compelling and really fucking funny.

Daiya

Not too much to say but this shit is so sad to me. Her entire life, Daiya's father and two eldest siblings never told her about her mother, to the point she seems surprised to even have one? Maybe this is just meant to be a joke about her being dumb / she's more surprised her mother is alive but still. Norisuke couldn't show her a photo, or give her closure or anything? A memento to think of her? Even a story so she could at least know something positive about her own mother who she surely must have wondered about before?!?! Norisuke is on thin fucking ice istg.

I could easily see Daiya latching onto Kaato moving forward and maybe even taking her side over Norisuke. Ofc she loves her dad but she's also a teenager finding out this critical bit of info has been hidden from her her entire life and is clearly so, so excited to have a mum 💔 Imagine how impactful it would be if Kaato managed to win over 2 of their 4 kids, the eldest and the youngest? I don't wanna get into speculating too much though.

Also - it was very sweet to me how Daiya was the one person who tried to approach Kaato and clearly wanted to help her up when Joshu tripped her. Regardless of Kaato's trustworthiness, I just thought that was very sweet of Daiya even if it maybe was naive 🥺

Joshu

Hate him and need to see him die rn. Kaato was completely justified and very based for attacking him and I hope she kills him with her bare hands. Literally the dinner table scene from Hereditary. What the fuck kind of parenting does Norisuke even do? Kaato's here for 5 minutes and puts Joshu in his place, while Norisuke just seems annoyed by him and has nothing to really say about him sexually assaulting Kaato in front of the entire family.

I don't want to imply that a strict mother would entirely fix Joshu's issues but holy shit, at least she would actually do something to discourage his behavior besides sighing and looking embarrassed. Is Joshu the way he is, in part, because Norisuke is a lousy dad who has implicit biases and an acceptance of his son's horrific behavior? Maybe. In an alternate world, could Kaato have whipped him into shape growing up and saved us all? I can dream.

Hato 👑

Fuck!!!!! I love Hato sm and am so so so happy she got a little spotlight this chapter 🥺. Initially this post was just gonna be about her because I'm in my Hato-obsession era so hard rn, but I had too much to say about everyone else. This will be a long section so I saved it for last but I will def return to some of these ideas when I've finished Jojolion.

From a writing standpoint, Hato is so valuable in this chapter. She fulfills a role that really no other character could and its cool to see - Hato is the only character who could realistically convey info to Josuke, and therefore the audience, about Kaato. The parents are too caught up arguing with each other and wouldn't want to tell the whole room about the murder. So who; a) knows about Kaato and her actions and b) has a good enough relationship with Josuke to convey this info to him? Hato. And what's cool is that Josuke knows this.

Josuke is perceptive enough to realize that Hato recognizes this woman and quietly asks her who she is. Despite how personal and emotionally-difficult this moment would've been for Hato, she opens up and tells him (and thus the audience) this family secret.

This next point is probably a bit more fanfic than analysis, but Hato would easily be the closest person to an ally Josuke has in the Higashikatas besides his complicated dynamic with Norisuke. It's really understated and maybe not even intentional, but Josuke and Hato logically should trust each other.

Jobin and Joshu just have an all-out antagonistic relationship with Josuke and have actively clashed with him multiple times. Josuke is on good terms with Daiya and Tsurugi, but not only did both begin by attacking Josuke, but they are both young and cannot always fulfill an equal role to Josuke because of this. Mitsuba and Kaato are currently unknowns, leaving Hato.

Unlike Norisuke, Hato has never antagonized Josuke. She has never gone after someone he cares about and, critically, is uninvolved in her family's shady stuff. She's not in the position to hide vital info from Josuke or scheme against him. All around, Hato seems pretty pleasant honestly and doesn't ever hurt others the way her siblings all seem to do - her eccentricities are harmless and Josuke doesn't judge her the way he judges other characters. In a house full of shady and bombastic people, I can see Josuke really appreciating Hato (Kei should really fulfill this role too).

In the Vitamin C arc, he specifically wants her permission before he kills Damo. Josuke can be ruthless at times, Damo is actively killing the family and it would be very justified for him to just kill the guy BUT he waits for Hato's approval. To me, that really says something - that he respects and likes Hato enough to go out of his way to consult her. Then, Hato and Josuke work together to defeat Damo, both using their stands to overcome Vitamin C. And Josuke's words on Damo being a threat and needing to be defeated helps Hato in her emotional journey - helps her reach the point where she fights back.

They're paired together a lot in this chapter and it's sweet seeing Josuke actually have a nice and healthy bond with someone in this goddamn family 😭 They really play off each other in a compelling and dynamic way, they're open to what the other says and they just generally seem to be on the same wavelength. I just see endless potential in them working together and getting along and maybe becoming like actual siblings and I hope we see more because I can see The Vision and I love them.

Focusing back on Hato, I desperately need to see more of what her childhood was like. What was her and Kaato's relationship? The only thing Kaato says to / about Hato is that she's "as beautiful as ever" and then a little quirk she had as a child. This doesn't give us a lot so I don't have a clear idea of their dynamic outside of wild headcanon. More importantly, Hato knows her mother well enough to anticipate her retaliation against Joshu. This makes me think that maybe Kaato was a stern mother who never took any disrespect and that she potentially had her stand even in Hato's childhood. There's so much potential here but it's too early to know anything.

While I know it likely stems from Araki not really intending for Hato to be a major character, from a Watsonian perspective it amazes me that Hato is as well-adjusted as she seems to be. The amount of disruption she faced as a child, losing her mother and then having her father give conflicting info is insane. Again, how did she rationalize all of this?

And then, worse of all, for her to have to look up her mother's crimes herself and find out about the murder herself - I am begging for a flashback to that event. Did she confront her father? Was Norisuke ever planning on breaking the news to her? Did she ever talk to Jobin about the crime?

I'm not gonna dwell on this too much, but this reveal makes the lack of Jobin + Hato moments so far really stand out. With their father having to raise the young ones and trying to brush everything under the rug, did the 2 eldest siblings ever confide in each other? It doesn't seem like it, their large age gap and Jobin's shadiness around Kaato gives me little hope Hato could find much solidarity with him but I might be wrong. I would love to have a scene of the 2 talking about this or really just interacting in a meaningful way.

This is much more fanfic-y and is my feminist lens coming in, but I can't help wondering if Hato took on a sort of 'motherly' role after Kaato's arrest. I'm not saying Norisuke like demanded she help raise her siblings buuuuuuuut I could see societal expectations and their family's situation causing Hato to take on this role regardless. Jobin was nearly an adult when Kaato left and seemed to go off and start his own family / pursue his own ambitions. He doesn't seem very close with his siblings and, with how much Norisuke has on his plate, I could see some responsibility and expectation falling onto Hato's shoulders. A maid could've helped but it is unfortunately a thing that eldest daughters in a family are burdened with these duties even when older sons are in the family. And with her mother gone and her male relatives set to run the family business, it just feels very likely. Would the eldest daughter even have a chance to run the business?

Hato is close with her younger siblings, she playfully teases Joshu and looks out for Daiya. While she has her own quirks, she is generally much more mature and responsible than most of her family. As the inheritor of the family curse and the business, a lot of focus would've been on Jobin growing up. Norisuke wanted to act like Kaato never existed and Jobin is distant, clearly knowing more. Hato would've been the primary female figure in both Daiya and Joshu's upbringings, she had to lie to them and keep the secret of Kaato for their entire lives. But she's not included in all the other secrets of her family, she's left out of a lot of subplots and the idea of her being involved in the business is never even suggested. Most likely, she'll remain a minor character, but god would I love for all of these intricacies to be explored. There's just sooooooo much juicy potential here, so much family drama and character arcs and social commentary and thematic stuff here and I know I'm overthinking this but idc I love Hato and her unique role in the story and this chapter has really opened my mind to a lot of ideas and possibilities.

Lastly, I just wanna point out Hato's current feelings towards Kaato and how she seems to be distancing herself from her mother. She seems distrusting and literally looks down on here in the panel above - please God give us some interactions between these two, I am so intrigued to see more of what Hato thinks about her. If there is more to the story of Kaato allegedly killing a kid, how will the family react if it comes to light? I hope we see lots more family drama and I am begging for more Hato focus especially, love her so much.

[galaxysharks]

HSMTMTS Maddox Autism Analysis

I had to use my laptop for this one, cause I'm not about to write all this shit on mobile. However, I shall not be adding gifs and pics to this one, cause i don't have those on my laptop, and i think there is a limit to those anyway. This one's long, and not guaranteed exhaustive cause my memory is Meh, at best.

Anyways, Onward!

General Info

So just from Promotional Material for Season 3

Maddox:

Techie Who always follows the rules.

The most excited person for Camp.

Hates Change

Comes to the same camp every year

From these, we already can see the building blocks of a targeted interest and a need for routines. The always following the rules is reminiscent of Autistics not breaking rules due to simply not thinking to.

Once the show itself aired, Maddox pretty quickly showed multiple indicators as well. For the sake of organization, I'm going to break these down as Tics and Tendencies and give a few examples, rather than by episode.

Irritation/Panic at unexpected changes in schedule

Saylor mentions frequently that Maddox is really struggling in Season 3 because for the first time, something is drastically disrupting this yearly escape. Unlike Ricky who, while panicking at the change, is able to actively work against it, Maddox struggles with fighting the change and usually must physically remove herself to prevent a more extreme reaction.

Maddox begins already thrown off due to Jet being sent with her to camp.

Dislikes when the Auditions is interrupted by Jet arriving an hour late.

She isn't hanging out with EJ this summer, likely due to feeling thrown off that he brought an entire troupe of friends.

Literally everything in Woman in the Woods - and going to her hiding spot to avoid a full meltdown.

RCOSL changes how she normally does the set direction in order to cause drama - again runs off after her and Jet's fight.

Really struggles with Madison's initial appearance at camp.

Realizes she signed to go to NZ before getting with Ash, and completely removes herself from the post-production celebration that LITERALLY every other character attended.

Very Literal Speaking

Several times when Maddox accidentally gets herself in trouble its because she says something that doubles as a pointed metaphor, even though she was being literal.

"...that kind of bond is....Forever"

"...you just got to commit to one side, of the boat....or else you'll fall in..."

"You have two minutes" - and actually timing it

"....and well, life has other plans..." - not realizing Ash could take this as an attack on her relationship.

"...Yeah my crystals haven't charged in like a month" - thinking Jet is literally taking about what she was actively doing.

Scripting

Maddox has multiple moments where she communicates using a clearly practiced script, and a few where she struggles once someone doesn't react how she expected and she did not have a response ready.

Shallow Lake Welcome Song

Introducing herself in the Honeycomb

The automatic little Thank yous when that one kid compliments her at a few points in the season.

The safety information on Newbie Night

The Woman in the Woods story is scripted - she gets interrupted and starts mixing up scripts when trying to get back on track.

Truly awful improvised scripting during RCOSL. Also not having the words to tell Carlos to lay off the whole 'hot for Jet' thing.

Memorizing all the lines she would need as a PA on the flight.

We literally see her scripting her confession to Ash.

Fumbling through talking to Ash about the NZ move, as she didn't think it was a conversation she was going to need to have.

Info Dumping

When Maddox gets excited, she frequently starts info dumping without thinking about it, usually while also kind of tuning out whats happening around her.

Several times in 3x03

Talking about her favorite nigh before she realizes no one is listening.

again when leading the group to the tents, when she is giving the rules and safety information.

Info dumps about rising signs before Ash gets upset and leaves.

general tips for color wars with Gina in 3x06

Snapping

Maddox tends to snap when deciding what to say to someone.

When she calls out Carlos for changing the cast list

We can hear a snap when she first asks Ashlyn if she was a Leo rising

She snaps when getting annoyed at Jet and Ricky when she directs them

She snaps after finishing her script for confessing to Ashlyn

Tapping/Clapping

Maddox claps and taps things when idling or when she is in between actions. Generally, if she's not got her hands in her pockets and isn't holding something, then she's doing this.

Maddox taps her hands together after Ashlyn catches her attention about the letter.

Clapping hands together as she talks when entering the honeycomb.

Taps on the set pieces when not using the drill.

Claps her hands with the paper star when Carlos suggests she likes Jet.

Taps on the bunk beds while talking to the girls after Camp Prom.

Taps on the broom while cleaning after Opening Night.

Claps her hands while talking to Ash in the hallway when walking to set.

Taps the tree stump that Ash hands her.

Shaking Things

Not as common as the tapping, but if Maddie is only using one hand she tends to shake the object she's holding.

The Letter to Big Red

The Markers after signing the wall.

The pamphlet on PA barking

Facial Expressions

Maddox's face tends to either be way more expressive than expected for the response she is giving, or way less. When she is alone, or with friends/Jet, her expressions are more free. she spends less time guessing and just lets her face to whatever its going to.

During RCOSL, her expression is almost unchanged, probably due to having to think about it constantly.

Once Newbie Night started going downhill, she paid more attention to seeming fine.

She is a lot more open in the fourth season, except with Quinn, where she remains professional.

Special Interests

More than pretty much everyone, Maddox has clearly defined interests

Camping

Set Design

Production

Possibly 80's style Camp Humor/Horror

Avoiding Adverse Stimuli

Okay so Maddox has exactly ONE coping mechanism, and its removing/Distancing herself from the situation.

Stands by the stage instead of joining the crowd on Welcome Day.

Does not return to the Bunks until very late.

Sits alone brooding when Jet takes off

Goes to hiding spot after scary story is interrupted

Stays by the wall for much of movie night

Building set/Managing costumes alone, instead of adjusting to help.

Operates more or less ALL of stage alone using a switchboard. Including in Season 4, when we know she has stagehands available.

Goes to hiding spot after argument with Jet.

Goes to probably commit balloon homicide before Jet stops her.

Hides from Ash to avoid NZ conversation.

Mentions that she doesn't actually attend Camp Prom all that often and normally goes to prank the boy's bunks.

Its okay, she'll probably get better about this with her now robust support system.

Anyway, there is definitely more, but this is what i can remember without immediately re watching the show again and going episode by episode.

[random-iz-stuff]

My thoughts on ZADR:

I’m completely neutral on it. I don’t hate it, I don’t mind seeing it, but I also don’t actively ship it (although this is mostly because I like the idea of Zim being aroace and not because I dislike the ship itself). And here’s why.

DISCLAIMER! VERY BIG DISCLAIMER!

I am not a proshiper. If you ship pedophilic or incestuous shit, you will get no defence here. Get lost and don’t come back. I’ve seen enough shit in other fandoms already.

I’m saying this because ZADR is believed by many to be a proship, which is why many people dislike it. When in reality, ZADR isn’t a proship and I explain why in this post.

I just wanted to say this to reiterate that I am not a proshiper, nor do I condone proshiping. I’m constantly paranoid about people getting the wrong idea or misinterpreting me and really want to avoid that. I’m not looking for drama or a fight. That being said, if you ship pedophilic stuff, incestuous stuff, beastiality or any of that horrible stuff, get the fuck off my blog. You aren’t welcome here.

DISCLAIMER OVER!

Now onto why ZADR (and other ships involving irkens) isn’t a proship or anything really worth throwing a fit over.

Dib is canonically 12 years old. That’s a fact. But the thing is, while Dib has a canonical age, Zim doesn’t, and never will. Zim’s age is up to viewer interpretation.

Zim’s age, despite what many people believe, isn’t set in stone.

Zim’s age was never mentioned in canon. In fact, not a single irken has ever had their age revealed.

The wiki seems to have pulled the “Zim is 160 in human years and 16 in irken years” fact out of its ass because I can’t find a source for it anywhere, plus the wiki has a tendency to make stuff up and present it as fact with no evidence. So it isn’t a reliable source of information in any way.

Jhonen has stated Zim’s age three different times (that I know of), and he’s changed his answer every time, calling Zim a child, an adult and a teenager. So he obviously doesn’t have a clue of what Zim’s age is and most likely never really meant to give Zim a canonical age in the first place when he created the show. So not even the creator of the show himself is a reliable source of information when it comes to Zim’s age.

Although Zim’s age is never explicitly mentioned, we get some possible small hints in canon. HOWEVER, these hints all contradict each other and can go either way in proving that Zim is a child or an adult.

Zim could be an adult because he has a high ranking military job that seems impossible for a child to achieve (an invader, at least before his first banishment) plus he worked as a scientist before, so he’s held multiple adult jobs. He also seems to be the same height as other (presumably) adult irkens. He also has a long history involving his scientist job, his joining of the military and his entire work up the military hierarchy to become an invader, plus his banishment to Foodcourtia, which probably all happened over a long course of time. He’s also allowed to pilot a ship and other various vehicles, which, assuming that irkens follow the same sort of rules for ships as we do for cars, shouldn’t be given to children. It’s also revealed in The Trial that irkens can live for several centuries.

But on the other hand, Zim could very easily be a child or a teenager because the empire may use child soldiers, which does have some possible evidence like Smeets graduating at the age of 10, irken military equipment seeming similar to video games and the fact that the irken empire is a power hungry dictatorship. It would also explain why Zim chose to infiltrate Earth by posing as a human child attending a human school, along with the immaturity and pettiness that Zim shows throughout the series. Not to mention the fact that Zim is directly implied to be particularly young by irken standards, with the Tallest mentioning in The Trial that Zim is supposed to have a trial in several centuries, but they chose to force it to happen now, implying that Zim hasn’t hit the age where a trial usually happens, which is presumably adulthood or later. Zim being a child or a teenager also explains why the Tallest are so immature, as they are the same age as Zim, so if he’s not an adult but is instead a child/teenager, the Tallest are as well.

So the evidence goes both ways. Zim’s age is entirely up to viewer interpretation. If you believe that Zim is an adult, he’s an adult. If you believe that he’s a child, he’s a child. If you believe that he’s a teenager, he’s a teenager. Zim’s age is a literal question mark, and unless new, official content is released that explicitly confirms Zim’s age, that’s not going to change. As mentioned before, Jhonen Vazquez, despite being the creator of the show, isn’t a reliable source because he’s contradicted himself at least three times now and doesn’t seem to have given Zim (or any irken for that matter) a canonical age in the first place.

And going by those rules when you look at ZADR, you quickly realize that the entire dynamic of ZADR and every other ship involving irkens in any way also depends entirely on viewer interpretation. If you interpret Zim as being a child that’s a similar age to Dib, he’s a child that’s a similar age to Dib. If you interpret Zim as being an adult, he’s an adult. Zim’s age is a blank space that you can fill out however you want.

ZADR is only a pedophilic proship between a child and an adult if you believe that it is a ship between a child and an adult and/or you actively make it that way when making the content, because Zim’s age is whatever you say it is. A random number generator could be used to decide Zim’s age and it would be equally canon as everyone else’s opinions regarding Zim’s age, including the words of Jhonen himself.

So long story short, ZADR isn’t a problematic ship unless you make it a problematic ship or it is explicitly mentioned to be a problematic ship in whatever work of fiction you’re seeing it in. So just don’t make a big deal of it and ignore it if you don’t like it.

[klarion-collab-2022]

THE CHAOS CORNER

Hello everyone! Since the ending of the collab, the Discord server used to run the event has been turned into a more casual, if still Klarion-centric discord server!

The Chaos Corner is a Klarion-centric Discord server both queer and system friendly, filled with several channels for playing games with friends, roleplaying, and sharing your art and writing!

We hope you'll consider joining! There will be server rules and extra info below the cut!

🛑 TAKE ANY DISPUTES OR DRAMA TO DMs. THIS IS NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION. 🛑

📌 While not a rule, I want to let you know you do NOT need to apologize for inactivity. Your personal life comes first and foremost!

📌 Be kind, use common sense!

📌Look at the #🚫-blacklist for topics that should be avoided or censored!

📌 Please be sure to set your server username to display your preferred name and tumblr username! It helps to avoid confusion about who is who! - Example: John || defaultuser123

📌 There are likely to be minors in this server, so please don't talk about anything above PG-13 levels. Do not send ANY explicit images, fics, or links of any sort ANYWHERE outside of the designated adult category. This will lead to an immediate kick and ban.

📌 You will have to ASK for the role to view the designated adult category. You can ask for the role in either ⁠❔-help-desk or Mod Andy's DMs

📌 Only users 18 and older are allowed to ask for the role. Anyone caught lying about their age to view the adult category will be kicked and banned.

📌 Keep subjects in their designated channels, please!

📌 We have a channel for roles, where you can react for any roles listed there! #roles

📌 We have PluralKit for system alters! You may configure the bots needed in #⚙-bot-spam! - Please do not use PluralKit if you are not a system! If you have any questions about what a system is, please check the link here for information! ➡ https://system-terminology.carrd.co/

:pushpin: We have Tupperbox for the Roleplay Corner! Be sure to configure anything you need to in #🤖-tupperbox-setup!

📌 Please do not use slurs of any sort in this server. Do not act hateful or push any sort of bigotry or hateful ideology in this server. This is a safe space first and foremost, where everyone can have a good time and have fun. - The word 'queer' is allowed here as long as you're not using it in a derogatory manner! People of the community use it as a part of their identity, and it's not right to make people censor a part of themselves.

📌 If someone expresses unease or discomfort with a conversation or topic, please drop it and bring it to DMs!

📌 We have a designated category for venting and talking about content that's in the blacklist. Please keep all your vents and blacklist talk in that category. To view the vent channels, you must give yourself the respective roles in #roles.

[prettydead]

Cirque du Souls is a Discord/Tumblr group verse. It follows the mystery of the ill-fated Circus of the Macabre, and how those of Madame Caligari’s Carnival of Curiosities deal with the hell they’ve unleashed.

Premise: In 1892 The Circus of the Macabre set up their tents for the last time after a tragic fire. The flames consumed every soul within that night. Present-day Madame Caligari inherited a mysterious old trunk connected with The Circus of the Macabre. When opened it unleashed a curse. Now stalked by the damned souls of The Circus of the Macabre, the performers must race to figure out the truth behind the curse and the past in order to survive.

Rules: 001. No Drama ooc. IC drama is fine, in fact we encourage it. 002. Any major plots/sub plots have to be run by the admin team first, if we see something that we deem to be a major plot we may come to you to discuss to see if it fits in with our overall group! (Aka pregnancies, marriages, possessions, death, anything that could interfere with the over arching plot. etc.)  003. You are allowed to have 4 characters.  004. This is a mature group, 21+. No minors allowed. 005. Include everyone! Don’t exclude people because you don’t like their character, etc. 006. OCs are welcomed and encouraged! 007. Duplicate fcs are allowed if the first person to take the fc agree to it. 008. You can write all nsfw (violence, sex, blood what have you) - as long as you do it in a spoiler tag.  009. PLEASE put all triggers you have in triggers. Rping triggering topics is allowed - as this is a horror roleplay. Threads that involve triggering topics should have TW: (whatever the trigger is) in the TITLE of the thread- so people know  to avoid it. Also put especially descriptive triggers in a spoiler tag. Just to cover all bases.  010. No bubble rping - make sure everyone is included. 011. Try to branch out and include as many people as possible. We know you may not be able to interact with everyone, but try your best not to exclude anyone. 012. No power imbalance ships; ex student x professor. 013. Breaking these rules will result in a strike, three strikes means removal. ( Character List ) ( Click Here to Apply )  

[francesderwent]

Okay so it’s like this, right:

Lucy and Bella both arrive in this new place because they’re both running from a lack of love. Lucy’s mother thought of her as a source of income, Bella’s mother was merely flighty and distracted, but both girls make the decision on their own to get out. Bella’s is a kind of quiet martyrdom, taking herself out of the picture so her mom can be happy even though Bella expects to be miserable in Forks; Lucy’s is less straightforward, but she’s certainly not openly pursuing her own happiness, she’s just turning her back on what she cannot bear any longer. Their destination isn’t a true home, it’s just somewhere to kill time. 

Lucy falls in with Lockwood & Co. Bella, eventually, falls in with the Cullens. Lockwood exerts a powerful fascination over Lucy; he’s charismatic, he seems grown-up, he’s fearless. I think of that scene where they’re out in the middle of the street after dark and Lockwood is saying that they’re the only ones who are brave enough to be out in the world while everyone else is cowering in their beds. Edward immediately exerts a similar fascination over Bella: he seems set apart, distanced from the unimportant dramas of teenagerhood and high school. 

Then Lucy realizes that part of Lockwood’s glowing vitality comes from the fact that he’s dancing a little too close to death. He appears brighter than everyone else because he’s close to flaming out. And Bella finds out the truth: Edward is not set apart because he’s more connected to life than all their peers. He’s, quite literally, dead.

To give credit where credit is due, both boys want to avoid dragging the girls down with them. Lockwood risks his life specifically to save Lucy’s, because even if no one would miss him, she has everything to live for. Edward tries to stay away from Bella, because vampirism is a curse and he doesn’t want that for her. 

But that’s where we start to see drastic divergence. Because Edward does give in—does date Bella, and marry her, and turn her. In Edward, Bella rejects humanity, rejects the whole natural world of life and death and all its suffering. She doesn’t want to be a part of the ordinary world; she wants to stay young and beautiful forever, no matter what she has to give up to get it. She ends up receiving some of those things anyway (she stays close with Charlie [and her future son-in-law Jacob bleaaaugh] and she is able miraculously to have a child), but in principle she accepted the loss of all that as worth it, if only she could have Edward and have him on her terms. What’s important to her, above all else, is positive feeling. She chooses Edward because she loves him more. She chooses vampirism because she’ll be inured from loss and pain, she can stay in the teenage honeymoon phase forever. 

Whereas Lucy does risk her life alongside Lockwood—they walk directly into the realm of death together—but both of them always come back from it, and they only risk their lives for the sake of life. Lockwood is willing to die to hold back the forces of death, so that life can rule in the world, so that people don’t have to cower in their beds. His youth shines bright because he is willing to lose his life, because he’s not clinging to it. And in the end, he lives, and Lucy lives with him. Their love for one another, crucially, did not kill them. It didn’t isolate them. It was a reason to wake up and make breakfast, a reason to do home repairs and plant flowers, a reason to gift family heirlooms, binding themselves into the cycle of life and love with everyone who came before them and those who will come after. Where Bella commits herself to an eternity of never being able to stay in one place for too long, Lucy finds a real home.

Both love stories have a similar set-up. Lockwood and Edward seem built along the same type of the broody hero. But the essence, of the story and of the boys, couldn’t be more different. Twilight is a gradual rejection of everything human with its flaws and its difficulty and its tragedy. Lockwood & Co is about the triumph of flawed, tragic humanity over and above those who would seek to transcend it.

[paperzombiie]

How is Nohreh doing?

he's... surviving(?) this is gonna be a long post bc i've been wanting to talk about this so i apologise in advance fndjksnfjd

right now his story and the rp is on hiatus for numerous reasons but to summarize it:

-original rp discord group closed suddenly bc admins were antis, threw a hissy fit and didn't want anyone to have fun if it wasn't on their own extremely sanitized """moral""" terms (like, every time a character did anything wrong we had to clearly state we didn't support what they did... and other even worse things like that ugh)

-we (the users) made a new discord group to continue with the story as we pleased (hence the change from "azalea valley" to "rhododendron island". the tag is now called "rhodo island")

-we had a few rp events but eventually we all got busy with our jobs/uni so we had to make a pause

story wise, Nohreh has:

-found out Demian bit Coni on a full moon and went hiding from everyone

-went looking for him when he didn't reappear after a week and become closer after taking care of him

-had a period of "peace" until they uh... let's say they both fucked up and had sex again when they didn't even know what they wanted from each other. that put a strain on their friendship, Demian refused to talk to him but only bc he was so afraid and anxious (he doesn't hook up with the same person twice to avoid getting attached and this went against all his own internal set of rules), Nohreh thought he was mad at him, communication issues ensue

-they finally talked about it (or at least tried to) and both concluded they needed a bit of time away from each other to think but agreed to talk about it again after some time passed

-Nohreh took that opportunity to go to the sea and finally dare to search for his grandpa following a lead he obtained a while ago

-not only he did find him but he also found his grandma! they were both alive living in a mermaid city but grandpa couldn't go back to the surface due to a curse. his grandma was actually the mermaid witch who lifted the seal that suppressed his mer self from birth on this comic (she's the one saying "welcome back")

-spent some time with them catching up and learned a bit of his own family history, along with the reason they decided to stop living as mermaids and forget the rest of the family (said reason is still a WIP, sorry 💦 let's say it was just good ol' family drama with a mix of magic in it)

-came back to the island and reunited with his friends and Demian. they talked, agreed to take things slow and take care of each other

-had a halloween party organized by the villagers and almost had a date night with Demian. as the island is located in the southern hemisphere that means it was summer storms season... a particularly bad tropical storm quickly developed on halloween night and plunged the whole island into chaos. lighting caused the lighthouse to malfunction and the electricity of the whole place went down for a couple of weeks. a dense fog seemingly undisturbed by the storm engulfed the town and strange things started to happen, with voices being heard at night and weird silhouettes seen stalking the villagers in the fog

-Nohreh and his friends had to go through a few chilling adventures to restore the power to the lighthouse and the island, and finally succeded! the fog disappeared and everything went to normal... or at least as normal as one can be after a strong tropical storm

-in the process he discovered the lighthouse acts as a guardian for the island that keeps the paranormal fog at bay. it's inhabited by a lady who's some kind of brazilian fairy whose name escapes me at the moment, the thing is, she controls electricity and provides the whole island with power

-he's helping rebuild a few places and trying to return to his normal life... but things feel different. dead animals keep washing ashore on the beaches and Fay has told him he had a premonition about a new danger lurking in the island after the storm awoke it...

aaaaand that's all i have for now lol

i suspect this is not the kind of answer you were expecting, maybe something with a little drawing on it but i honestly been too caught up with what's happening with my country so i apologise for the lack of drawings ;__; still, it fills me with immense joy to know someone still wants to know about Nohreh so, thank you for asking!!

[drakeanddice]

We fought the first battle of Big Stump in our Mausritter game last night, and it marks the first time in a long time that I’ve run a mass-combat in an OSR game. In fact, unless I am failing to remember an occasion, the last time I ran a mass-combat it was in D&D 3.5 after reading the old Heroes of Battle. Not Tome of Battle, the book that gave fighters spell-like abilities. This one.

You know, I pulled this book off the shelf to brush up on how I used to run flowchart-style mass combats with branching decision points and victory-point driven outcomes and timelines and such, and I guess —like with most of the 3.5 era— I forgot how much I disregarded or fixed or built myself.

The book basically tells you to do the normal thing. Prep a series of connected encounters and let them advance through them like a dungeon. Like, they have archers on a hill and they’re charging through the canyon and they’re setting fire to the curtain wall. What do you want to do? Your players make decisions and each victory in an encounter awards them various numbers of victory points. At the end of the engagement you tally up the victory points and compare it to a chart based on percentage available and see if their side lost terribly, lost marginally, achieved a stalemate, won marginally, or won an overwhelming victory. That’s the basics.

It’s not really a mass-combat system, it’s a system for playing a small unit of special forces navigating a mass combat like any of the other environments that D&D heroes navigate, doing the things that D&D heroes do. They fight groups of 1-12 bad guys, avoid traps (things like mines and artillery fire), loot treasure (hey cool, a banner of +2 vs Necromancy spells!), make choices from among a narrow list of prepared options, and wait for levels (there are Renown points that translate to promotion in the fantasy army).

There’s a short section all about applying Victory Point ratings on the fly, but it’s largely DM-by-feel and not terribly effective. There’s a section that’s explicitly, “what if my players wander off the flowchart I’ve created?” And the consensus is either use the scanty improv rules or use a higher ranking NPC to order them back onto the rails. There’s…a lot in here that isn’t really helpful for me and my game. But the overall Victory Point structure is kinda neat.

But Big Stump was a mass-combat that the PCs were explicitly not only participating in, but commanding in the field. Which means that I needed to retrofit a quick and dirty combat abstractor onto it.

I know that Kingdoms and Warfare from MCDM had something that might’ve been helpful, but I don’t own that one, so I kitbashed something together and ran it off the cuff last night. And you know what? Juicy drama, high-water marks, heart wrenching moments, desperate escapes, lines held and broken.

Love it when the magic works. And when it doesn’t feel like the battle of Helm’s Deep is just another dungeon.

[spxcemuses]

RULES.

Hello everyone, I'm Space and welcome to my semi-selective multimuse blog! My rules are listed below, make sure to read them before interacting/following! UPDATED: 2/21/2024 and WILL change with time.

GENERAL:

Age: I am a legal adult (22) and I RP with people who are 18 and older due to darker themes explored directly or indirectly on this blog, no exceptions.

"Personal" Blogs: AKA non-RP blogs on Tumblr. I have decided that I will block you regardless on if you like and/or interact with my posts. This is because I am a RP blog, which is different than a fiction/fan-blog, etc. Nothing against you or what you post, it's just for my own sanity. The only exception I'll make is if you are a RP hub blog and/or have RP sideblogs.

General: This blog is semi-selective, which means I am more open to mutuals and people I know. We don't have to be mutuals to write together, though. I have the right to not accept every RP. I may take a while to follow you back. Reblog memes/gif sets/etc. from the source instead of me please; I don't practice "reblog karma". Will block bots, minors, and non-RP blogs.

OOC Communication: I consider it important when it comes to discussing RP ideas and continuing/dropping threads. You don't have to be friends/etc. with me if you don't want to but I'm relatively chill to talk to! Discord is available to mutuals upon request!

Rules Passwords: I used to have a rules password but realized that a lot of people are anxious about sending them in and/or don't have them, so I will not have one. However, I will send rules passwords if you require them. I expect you to read/follow my rules if you plan to interact with me.

Turning Asks Into Threads: I am usually okay with asks turning into threads, no matter how long or short. However, I would like it if you asked me either in IMs or an ask to continue into a thread, especially if we have more than 3 threads.

Reply Speed: My reply speed is slow (usually a few weeks/a month) and varies depending on the muse/character you wish to write with. I have most of my posts set within the queue system. Please note that I may not write a muse you want/desire at any given point in time. If it's been 3+ months since I've replied, please pop into my IMs/Discord and remind me if you want! I'll also DM you to ask if you want to continue a thread or not.

Interest Tracker/Checker: [TBA].

Drama/Callouts: I do not tolerate OOC bigotry/drama on this blog and will hard-block people if those situations come up. I’m also anti-callout unless there’s legitimate evidence but even then, I make my own decisions/judgements. I don’t need/want people to ‘warn’ me about others in my inbox; this isn’t middle school anymore.

DNI: Speaking of drama, this is a new section I'm adding for my own safety and comfort. Do not interact with me if you go by these aliases: Aku/Grim*, Loke/Wards, Legend, Arke/Mocha, Hearty, Kier, Rosario/Whitley, Slurk, Shiloh/Spork, Boogey, Marrow, Stols, Mars, Skeptic, Pucca [tba if neccessary]. I have chosen to block these people out of my own choice, even if I did/didn't know them in the past or have RPed with them. I don't have ill-will against the people I've listed; I decided this because some have call-outs (most with legitimate evidence) and are considered problematic. That and I just don't feel comfortable interacting w/these people; it's that simple. Do not come at me to defend them or send hate to me about them; I choose whom I interact with. I will not be upset at you if you interact with or associate with these people (again, can't control whom others write with), but I want to avoid them as much as I can, thank you.

Unfollowing/Blocking: I usually softblock people for a myriad of reasons, but you're more than welcome to follow back if I've softblocked you and you want to write again/etc.. I don't mind if you ask me why I've softblocked you/etc. but I expect you to respect my decisions & be civil about it. If you want to cut ties with me entirely, hard-block me instead so I don't accidentally pester you and think that a Tumblr glitch happened or something. I hard block if you're problematic (and there's evidence/personal interactions) or if you've personally been rude/harassing to me.

ROLEPLAYING/INTERACTIONS:

Muse ≠ Mun: I am not my characters; the majority of my muses are antagonists/villains with bad morals. I do not support/condone the actions of my muses in any manner IRL. I will not “water down” my muses for you.

Triggers: There will be potentially triggering topics (directly or indirectly) on my blog. I will tag things accordingly with "trigger tw/trigger mention tw". I also have fandom-based tags that you may block. The list is HERE. Things I won't RP: bestiality/zoophilia, pedophilia, abortion/miscarriages, [TBA].

Writing: I am a RPer who writes 1-3 paragraphs in third person but can go longer if motivation calls for it. You do not have to match my length, but do not give me one-liners/just dialog when I give you a paragraph; that’s simply not fair. I will likely drop a thread if that happens unless it’s short from the start.

Interactions: This blog is crossover friendly, AU friendly, and OC friendly! I don't RP in Tumblr IMs nor RP w/personal blogs. My ask box is always open too, so feel free to send things in!

Dropping Threads: If you at any time want to drop a thread, feel free to but IM/message me first so I can remove it from RPThreadTracker and plan new interactions. I will likely do the same.

Plotting/Winging It: When it comes to RPs, I usually like to have light plotting/a general sense on where a thread will go; I don’t really “wing” things too often unless they're short interactions.

Relationships (general): Do not assume our muses have a relationship (unless they've interacted in canon). If you want pre-established relationships, please talk to me about it first.

Romantic Relationships: I am multiship, but am going to be more selective with it. I prefer to have chemistry/slow-burn threads between our muses after a couple of threads rather than insta-shipping. Some muses may not be applicable for romantic shipping, either. Do NOT use my muses for shipping material/no forced shipping. I do not ship incest or adult/minor ships.

Smut/NSFW: I have a sideblog that is very selective and low-activity. I expect our muses to have interacted at least once before writing NSFW content. I don't write smut with underaged characters or muns. If I find out you lied about your age to write smut with me, I'll hardblock on both blogs.

If you have read the rules & acknowledge them, please like this post here so I know!

[telomeke-bbs]

BAD BUDDY – OH, THE ALLEGORY OF IT ALL

This write-up was inspired by something that the ever-incisive @miscellar posted on 27 Sept 2022 regarding Bad Buddy's lack of homophobia (linked here), by the resurfacing of Pran's guitar during my rewatch of Ep.3, and also by a post from the thought-provoking @faillen (which unfortunately I can't track down and link to – my apologies!).

I really wasn't planning to do another write-up of this kind for some time, since we're now in the Bad Buddy rerun season and for the next few months I was only planning to list observations (not any kind of analysis) while going through the episodes in chronological order. Just a bit of light (if long-winded) reporting, avoiding (what amounts to, for me at least) any kind of heavy lifting to do with the messaging behind the media.

I'm actually far more interested in the social, cultural and linguistic aspects of any media I consume, and Bad Buddy is so rich in these it's possible to ignore its weightier content. My preference is for entertainment media to be lighter on the political front, since real life can be heavy enough to deal with. And I've been actively avoiding the heavier stuff in Bad Buddy, for these and other reasons.

But now I think it's time. 😉

It should be clear to everyone by this point that Bad Buddy is very much an allegory for the experience of growing up queer in queer-hostile environments.

The series is fronted by the out, proud and wise Khun Noppharnach Chaiwimol after all, so some aspect of queer messaging was always going to be inevitable in the mix.

(above) Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol

And part of the genius of Bad Buddy is that its queer themes are interleaved within layers of fulfilling (and sometimes even exquisite) TV drama craftsmanship from all those involved, from the crew, to the writers, to the directors and of course to the actors (with a couple of exceptions perhaps, and I think we can/should forgive the inexperienced newbies among the cast). The queer themes are there, but they're not the eyewhacking coat-of-arms in the center of the tapestry – they're woven unobtrusively into the main fabric instead.

As homophobia is basically absent from their fictional universe, the fact that PatPran's relationship is (eventually) a gay one is – on the surface at least – totally immaterial compared to the other issues dealt out by the narrative.

For example, they have to hide their friendship behind a fake rivalry at university, because their faculties are at war. And then they have to face the hostility of family members – their parents – because their relationship (romantic or otherwise) is forbidden due to the enmity between Ming and Dissaya.

We see Pat trying to live his life as a do-over of Ming's, according to the rules set by Ming himself, rather than on his own terms. And Pran fights to contain the expression of his musical talent, as symbolized by his guitar-playing, because of Dissaya's displeasure with it (I've written-up Pran's side-story in greater detail in my previous post, linked here).

To deal with the pressures that their families and social circles put on them, Pat and Pran are forced to be a certain way, to act a certain way, and to conform to established norms or the needs/wants of others. They deny their authentic selves and their illicit relationship, burying their true natures, in order for there to be peace in their lives and so that they can go about the basics of just living.

But that comes with always looking over your shoulder (that's Pran at the wonton noodle stall in Ep.3!), and resorting to lies and subterfuge in order to get things done (Let's build the bus-stop together! It's for a good cause! But we can't let them know the whole truth, that we're really friends!).

There are so many examples. It's everywhere in Bad Buddy. And if any of this sounds familiar to LGBTQ+ viewers, well of course it's intentional. Because Pat and Pran's lives basically depict – metaphorically – the hostility, hiding, self-denial and performative deception that so many LGBTQ+ people have to grapple with on a daily basis.

But the strife in Bad Buddy from the warring faculties and families, Pat re-living Ming's glory days for him, and Pran's side-story with the guitar, are all allegorical in their messaging of the queer experience – none of the drama or conflict springs from anybody actually being LGBTQ+.

So in the end, making the trauma queer-adjacent rather than queer-centric, all while cloaked in the comfortable fleece-lined coverlet of a Thai BL rom-com, means that even non-LGBTQ+ viewers will be able to identify with Bad Buddy's themes of alienation and othering, as it applies to their own lives.

If you've ever had to face familial, social, religious, or any other kind of pressure because you are different in some way, even if you're not LGBTQ+, it wouldn't be difficult to be empathetic about PatPran's predicament. The fact that the queer aspect is right there embedded in the fabric of the show, without being the cause or focus of the angst, still alerts any viewer to the issues faced by the community, simply by osmosis.

And that's a gentle, yet powerful way of getting the message across, that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, including members of the LGBTQ+ community of course, but really it includes anybody who's disenfranchised, marginalized, or discriminated against for arbitrary, unjustifiable reasons.

I've said it before, and I think it bears repeating, that perhaps Bad Buddy's greatest gift is its normalization of the LGBTQ+ experience, while demonstrating that so many struggles of the human experience are common to us all.

For in looking past our differences to the commonalities that bind us, we take the first step toward creating a world that allows for differences to exist, without the discrimination that harms so many.

Pat and Pran found a way to surmount the opposition in their lives and live their own truth, and in doing so found their way to a very satisfying ending for their love story.

The message to us is that we can live our own truth too – and not only that, but also that we should live our own truth. Because ultimately it's what we deserve – just like everybody else. 💖

[stuffnonsenseandotherthings]

Watch It Or Drop It - A 2024 Drama Challenge

As always, the impending chime of a brand New Year just around the corner is stirring up the age old urge to Sort My Life Out somewhere deep inside me and rekindled the burning flame of No I Really Mean It This Time once more.

So far this has meant deep cleaning my house with a fervour rarely seen outside of the pages of the most fanatic of Cleaning Tiktokers (something which will definitely have faded even before the clock strikes 12), setting up a planning and organisational system so that my life can go smoothly for once (that will probably last until summer after which point I'll be so sun addled I'll stop caring about to-do lists altogether), and forcing myself to confront my mountain of unread books (by placing them accusingly next to my bed so I can wake up and fall asleep to them until the growing sense of guilt forces me to hide them in a cupboard).

No a bad start if I may say so myself. It's not even 2024 yet and things are already looking Sorted.

Joking aside though, while there are, as there usually are, big (potentially life changing) goals that I want to work towards this year and which will take a fair bit of work and/or courage on my part to make happen, there are also smaller ones. Manageable ones. Silly ones. Ones that'll make the whole year just a little bit more fun. For example: clearing my MyDramalist Want-To-Watch list.

Because there are 84 dramas on that list and while some of them haven't aired yet, over two thirds of them are fully complete and sitting patiently, ready for me to watch at my own leisure whenever I want.

And, unfortunately, up until now I've been so over-faced with how many dramas there were waiting for me that I didn't want.

At all.

As in I was actively avoiding watching anything off my Want-To-Watch list.

As you can imagine this has been frustrating because 1) this is the opposite of what a Want-To-Watch it's for (I put the dramas on there for a reason after all) and 2) not very conducive to making the big, scary number go down, quite the opposite in fact.

So I've found myself at a bit of an impasse.

And to break that impasse I have come up with (what I hope is) a foolproof solution (because there is nothing more fool than having to trick yourself into doing something you want to do anyway).

The Watch It Or Drop It Challenge

Rationale:

I have been avoiding watching dramas on my Want-To-Watch list because:

1) I'm feeling overwhelmed with the amount of dramas currently on there and end up feeling time pressured to watch them all.

2) Linked to this, I'm worried about making the "wrong choice" (i.e not enjoying which ever drama I pick and being disappointed about something I was previously excited for, being in the wrong mood for a drama I would have otherwise enjoyed) leading to analysis/choice paralysis where I end up being unable to pick anything at all.

As such I need a system that:

1) Takes aways the element of choice, at least in the initial stages.

2) Removes some of the pressure to enjoy every drama I pick and allows me to celebrate both a "watch" or a "drop".

Rules:

1) Dramas are selected completely at random using a random number picker (this random number picker to be precise, isn't she gorgeous?).

Unless it hasn't aired yet (in which case I obviously can't watch it, I'll do a lot for this challenge but not bend time and physics) I have to give it a go. I can't spin the wheel again. What I get is what I watch (or drop).

2) I watch it or I drop it (self-explanatory, really, given the name of the challenge but it's something my brain clearly needs reinforced otherwise we wouldn't be here in the first place). A drop has just as much "value" as a watch in terms of continuing my learning curve about my drama tastes and there's no shame in not liking something I thought I would enjoy.

3) I can take as long as I need to decide if it's a watch or a drop, the only condition is that if I am watching it, I actually have to be enjoying it. This is not an endurance test or an exercise in how long I can guilt myself into watching something (5 minutes before the end of the final episode is the current record by the way, incase anyone's interested), this is me making sure I...

4) ✨ Have fun ✨ There are many things in life that aren't fun, watching dramas should not be one of those things (although they are allowed to make me so uncontrollably, that I will allow, nay even encourage).

🎉 And there we have it! My own little challenge for 2024 🎉

I'm feeling very pleased with myself but let's see how long I can keep it up, unless something drastic happens I'm planning to start a little early and pick the first drama tomorrow. I'm going to be post the whole challenge here (which dramas get picked, pre-watch thoughts, whether I watched or dropped it and why, etc) for accountability's sake because I know myself well enough to know that if I don't then this whole meticulous plan isn't happening. I also think it could be a nice little momento, if this whole challenge is successful, something to look back on from the time I bravely took on and defeated a list of my own creation.

And so without further ado,