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#video games have legitimately made me good at managing my money
watercolor-wings · 6 months
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Boomers would hate this but playing video games has actually made me good at money management.
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millionancientbees · 4 months
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Something I think a lot of ppl forget when they’re dealing with suicidal people is that a lot of us are suicidal because we can’t afford or access basic needs, let alone creature comforts.
Before sending your suicidal friend to the mental hospital to maybe be severely traumatized by even less autonomy and also potentially lose their jobs and housing, have you:
-spent time with them so they’re not alone with their thoughts and organized a care group of their friends to help take care of tasks that are overwhelming?
-made a post or group chat to raise funds for bills that are looming and making them feel like they’ll never be able to succeed at life? Tried to help connect them with resources? Offered to sit down with them while they make calls? Offered to take a look at their debt and see if it can be refinanced? Etc, based on your skills, who you know, what you have the resources and comfort and closeness with the person to allow
-taken them to do some fun things? Gotten them out of their house and into the sun?
-gotten them something sweet or comforting or good smelling or whatever? A simple $5 candle can be a reason for someone to smile and feel cared about.
-gotten them tools to manage their sensory needs? Are they over or under stimulated? I will become immediately suicidal if I hear too many sounds while hungry or tired or upset or overheated or or or
I’m not saying the hospital is never the answer. I’m not saying don’t take people who are immediately in danger. I’m not saying you have to do this for people who are behaving in a way that will hurt you. But if you care about someone who is suicidal, this is something to think about.
I have literally been suicidal for as long as I can remember (and I remember a lot of my very early childhood) and some of the small things that have legitimately kept me alive over the years include:
-my friends buying me noise canceling headphones
-my friends taking me on a vacation
-my partner letting me read out loud to them when they were playing video games every night
-my friends buying my art or sending me money to help pay bills, get my car fixed, etc
-my sister giving me rides to my doctor appointments and buying me a little treat afterwards
-my friends sharing their audible/netflix/hulu/libby accounts with me so i had something to focus on other than wanting to die
-friends taking me out to dinner and letting me talk about my special interests
-my friend giving me houseplants and teaching me how to keep them alive, which required spending quality time together whenever I needed to learn something new and gave them an excuse to bully me into leaving my depression nest when nobody else could
-my friend buying me a vape when I was breaking apart and had nothing to do with my hands and nothing to calm my very upset nervous system and $2 in the bank and also I was going through withdrawals
-my friend teaching me how to drive and helping me get my license so I could have some autonomy
Like it really can be that simple. We sometimes forget that therapy and meds can only do so much at a time, and some people get treatment for their entire lives and still struggle a lot even when they do everything right, especially when they’re dealing with complicated issues like other disabilities, chronic pain, poverty, abusive situations/ongoing trauma, etc.
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anyu-blue · 1 year
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~
Honestly... as always... I'm exhausted. It's grown so much I've stopped fighting for my health aside from just trying to manage pain where I can. I'm tired of being the only one who cares and has any sense of responsibility, but then has to use my energy to push back and fight people who should be caring along with me.
I'm often right about these things... not as a brag, but as a "guys the evidence was right in front of you the whole time, WHY was it such an issue that you refused to see it/make me force your eyes open?" Thing... and I just .. can't. They don't want to listen to me. They want anyone BUT me to set them straight about it, ignoring my track record of being right and worthy of being listened to.. Idk why. They've even mentioned I'm not insufferable about the information, but that they just don't get it/believe me. And, honestly... that's worse.
I'm at the point of burnout, I'm consistently contemplating leaving my job and trying to disappear. The thing stopping me is getting caught and putting pressure on people because I'm no longer financially contributing/need them to pour money into a program or something.
The sad thing is... my sisters could get along just fine bill-wise without me. They're just so BAD at money they think they're poorer than they are. I don't have a choice but to watch them pour hundreds of dollars into one video game- literally buying everything that comes out in microtransactions, hundreds into pre-made and/or fast food because they don't want to learn how to/deal with cooking or meal prep, hundreds on name brand food/items (when the 'knock offs' are made at the same location), hundreds and hundreds in NEW games and merchandise whenever its something remotely interesting/aesthetic, and they refuse to set a budget for just about anything...
All of this frankly overzealous spending had my sister freaking out about a cost she KNEW was coming... and didn't save a dime for... and even knowing she didn't HAVE to save (our father was paying for it in full), she was still freaking out so much she decided to take it out on me.... I had to explain it to her in full why that was wrong, why she was going to be fine, and I had to do it all while being careful not to upset her MORE.
...
And then after it was WAY less than she worried it would be (and her own paycheck would have covered it) she then paid for it with our father's money... and took her own to spend hundreds at gamestop "because she was stressed."
I'm.
I'm not making this up. It sounds like these two are those clueless, spoiled, bratty blondes... and truthfully... they are.
They're both good people where they can be. Beloved by family, friends, and coworkers alike... and yet they're so irresponsibly IGNORANT... and i'm the only one who sees it... and has to put up with it. And I'm still the bad guy for constantly being stressed and/or not giving them tons and tons of praise... because people don't know I pick up after their irresponsible asses.
It's like this with many things... their own health, the places we rent, the car we have, the things we need... it falls on me to know and do because they don't want to. They legitimately have refused to learn and take any of these burdens on.
And people wonder why I only work 3 days a week... and seem to be starting to be incapable of that too.
Through all of this... even working only 3 days a week... I was able to save hundreds.. nearly a thousand.. I still have a few hundred left to my disposal after giving money to our grandparents right before our grandfather died a few weeks ago... after having paid for a trip almost in-full by myself (little sister gave me a little money afterwards)... after buying myself a bed I desperately needed.... all while paying off debts for surgeries.
Hundreds. I have saved HUNDREDS. On my meager pay.
Yes, of course, my sisters include me in the food/necessities they buy... but the sad fact is that if they DIDN'T, I'd STILL be able to save AND have more at my disposal than they would... AND they'd still come to me for help paying for other things!!! How do I know? I've been buying more for myself as of late... food I want, clothing/necessities I need, stuff I want on occasion... and still... I have a few hundred left. More I can and do set aside each month if i keep up with all 3 days a week at work. It's not a lot, but over time it adds up. And they do ask me to get stuff for them too.
*sigh*
If they set budgets for themselves... if they didn't impulsively buy so much shit they don't even use or need... they'd already have thousands. THOUSANDS... at their disposal. EACH.
Preferably, in my mind, for these basic life costs... for their healthcare that don't even try to care about, maybe... for the bigger and better things they complain about not having... not being able to do... and relying on me for... like trips/experiences (they're REALLY fucking rare-- and it's worth noting the trip I paid for was actually tiny. A few nights at a nearby hot spring location. Trips don't have to be BIG, but they can't/won't try for even the small ones... let alone the ones they want and then complain about not getting.. oi...)... like care for our animals.... like stuff to make life easier (gosh i want a dishwasher to help with my ocd issues and dishes... but I'm not buying one when i constantly have to worry about those two being dumb and needing financial help T^T)
*double sigh*
I'm just so exhausted all the time.
This isn't even getting into the rest of the emotional toll brought on by constantly being called worthless, treated poorly, tending to issues, and not having support in the areas I need it most as an Autistic person just trying to stay alive/level.
If I did have the support I needed... I know the absolute wreck I am wouldn't be such a wreck and I COULD do my dishes regularly instead of reusing the same items... could put away all my clothes in my dresser. Could organize my shelves. Could vacuum and clean and do all the stuff people think i should be doing the rest of the week when I'm not working... not just when absolutely necessary/I have a very rare day of just enough energy.
I hate my life in so many ways. Not trying to be a brat... but I really do.
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oh-boy-me · 3 years
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Can I please see MC beating the brothers at something they would normally excel at? Thank you, and have a great day or night! 💚
Hello look I’m finally getting back to old requests!  Surprise, 💚 anon!
Also, I chose specific things for MC to beat them at, because it made it easier to formulate thoughts.
--
Lucifer: Chess
Hmm.  This is.  He doesn’t like this.
He’s the demon of pride.  He’s supposed to be--no, he is--the best at everything.  Diavolo and Barbatos are the only ones allowed to hold a candle to him.
“Congratulations, MC,” he says out loud.  “It was a fluke.  I let them win.  There’s no way they actually beat me,” he says to himself.  He tries to hide his bad mood, but it’s pretty noticeable that he’s seething in his seat.
He needs to reclaim his throne, and they better not even think about letting him win or they’ll just make things worse.  Is this a healthy way to handle defeat?  Absolutely not.  But a hit to his pride is a hit to his pride, and he doesn’t take those as well as he’d like you to think.
The only way for MC to remedy this quickly is to point out that he taught them these skills.
Honestly the fact that it was chess specifically doesn’t really matter.  Lucifer is only fine with being second best at something if it’s luck-based (like Candy Land), or if he REALLY doesn’t care about it (like Candy Land).
Just kidding.  He will destroy them at Candy Land if it’s the last thing he does.
Mammon: Card Games
I tried to keep things related to their sins out of this, because being beaten at your sin would probably make you question your identity.  But with Mammon most of his hobbies seem to tie into his sin in some way, so I think this is our best option.
Anyway, Mammon isn’t happy about this by any means, but it’s also not going to ruin his day like it’d ruin Lucifer’s.
Like, he’ll grumble about it.  And complain.  Loudly.  He might even spam the group chat complaining about it while MC is still right next to him shuffling cards, and then Asmo will say “lol” and Lucifer will accuse him of something unrelated and that’ll make him grumble more.
And MC might have to step in somehow to get him to stop pouting.
If they were playing for money, he’s gonna keep demanding rematches until either he wins or something forces them to stop.
Unlike Lucifer, Mammon will be fine with them letting him win.
But once again, that’s for the money, not really for his pride.  He’s kind of used to losing at the things he’s good at.
Leviathan: Video Games
Hmm this is he doesn’t like this #2
Levi’s kind of built his identity around the things that he’s good at and the things he likes, so for MC to come in and upset that makes him, well, upset.
The first time sucks.  Like Lucifer, he sits there stewing in his frustration.  Unlike Lucifer, he doesn’t bother trying to hide it.  He might even tear up, which definitely pulls on the heartstrings but he shouldn’t be such a sore loser.
The closer MC is with him, the less upset he’ll be over time, though.  Because it changes from “this fucking normie came in and ruined everything” to “ahhhh dammit my friend beat me”.
Also, he’ll only get moody if MC beats him at a game he’s currently invested in.  He’s not gonna be surprised if he’s a little rusty at Street Fighter II now, but ex-father have mercy on anyone who beat him at a DBFZ when it first came out.
He’ll only legitimately try to kill them if they beat his Ruri-chan platformer speedrun time.
Satan: Grades
Satan thinks it’s great!!  He highly values being smart, but he doesn’t think it’s threatening for someone else to be smart too (except Lucifer).
If anything, he’s glad to know MC is someone he can reliably study and compare answers with.  Most of his study buddies end up being impromptu tutoring pupils, and he’d really like to just study for once.
Maybe it's surprising that the avatar of wrath isn’t angry, but like, he seriously doesn’t see this as something to be angry about.
Of course, he’s still literally the sorest loser in the three realms.  Never play games with him.  But this wasn’t a competition, and I can’t exactly say he excels at anything that would be considered a competition.  So yeah, MC manages to escape his wrath through a loophole in the ask.
Is he mad that he didn’t get full marks?  Of course.  But he’s mad at the teacher, not MC.  Unless MC tries to rub it in his face, because that’s just rude.
Asmodeus: Design
I was gonna do like a popularity contest, but we’ve seen him go through one in canon and that’s not gonna really add anything new.
So!  Let’s say he and MC’s designs were both candidates for something, and MC’s ended up being chosen.
Hmm this is he doesn’t like this #3
The problem is that while design has nothing to with his sin, and therefore his base identity, he sure seems to think it does.  Asmo thinks his entire personality is the things he’s good at.
He’s simultaneously the easiest and hardest to deal with out of those who are legitimately upset.  The easiest because while he’ll pout a bit, he’s going to properly congratulate them and it’s hard to tell that he’s upset when he’s giving them so many compliments and talking about how he’s gonna buy one of everything.
The hardest because he’s actually really passive aggressive about it.  For a WHILE.
He’ll also definitely try to steal their ideas for the future, or seduce whoever’s in charge of making the final selection.  It doesn’t matter if he got chosen legitimately or not, what matters is that he gets chosen period.
The best thing MC can do in this situation is get him to understand he wouldn’t actually be happy with a shallow victory like that.
Beelzebub: Sports
Another one who is very excited to have an equal!
Sports need more than one player, after all, and it gets really boring if your opponent is no match for you.
He’ll start to consider MC his friendly rival.  He asks them what their training regimen is and what diet they’ve adopted, so they can compare it with his own (scaled down to be equivalent).  Basically he gets information from them like Asmo does, but unlike Asmo Beel gets it by asking and shares the benefits with MC.
If there’s a sport that neither of them have tried before, he’d love to see how they do one-on-one as complete novices.  He’ll do his best to be mindful of his brute strength advantage if it’s a sport where that would matter.
The only thing he could be upset about MC beating him in is those restaurant challenges where you finish a massive dish within a time limit.  But even then, it’s not because he’s upset he lost.  He’s more concerned about their health, because if MC beat him at that holy shit.
Belphegor
He doesn’t care.
This took so long to come out because I couldn’t think of something MC would beat him at that he would care about.
Like
Slept longer than him??  He’s not gonna throw a fit about that.
And it’s not like he goes into things expecting to win; he barely wants to do things at all.
So yeah the answer for Belphie is it doesn’t matter what you beat him at, he won’t lose sleep over it.
Lmao sloth pun
Masterlist
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rederiswrites · 3 years
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately since the discovery that the media engine for a video game I never played has produced a lot of music that is totally my vibe (League of Legends), but I’m rapidly reaching a point where I kinda---don’t care? if a particular piece of art/media is the product of an organic process or ‘manufactured’. Or at least, I am done being upset by the art that happened because someone with money wanted something specific.  I have PAID for art that happened because I wanted something specific. It was really good art.
Are Kpop band members chosen via a very codified process and constrained heavily by imposed rules? Yeah, yeah they are, and you could pull particular gripes about a lot of it, but the fact remains that the process also finds and trains a lot of talented people and creates quite a few bands that I really like.
Like, I’m a little tired of this narrative that the best music is produced by dirty depressed people living out of their vans while they wait for their big break. I am tired of it MOSTLY because I really do not appreciate that the only way to live a half-decent life as a musician is to be *very* popular and succeed on the piled bodies of your fellows who never ‘made it’. I am tired of my musician friends either being cynical fast food managers or dangerously broke, miserable, and centimeters away from despair at any given time.
Did BTS come together organically? No. But they were hand-picked by an experienced producer with a clear vision, and it turns out he knew what he was about. I feel like at some point we have to start giving producers a little credit for art, too? Then there’s this sentiment that giving your artists training makes them somehow less legitimate and I don’t even know where to begin addressing that because that makes no fucking sense to me. We’re supposed to bag on Kim Seokjin because he put in hard fucking work and had trainers to get better at singing and dancing??? What??? He wanted to be more than a pretty face and we’re...mad about it??
I have huge fucking beef with Disney, in many flavors. But they do keep producing hits, and that is because they keep spending the money and finding the good talent. And I’m done being upset by that. Congrats, evil corporation, you evil corporation-ed successfully. Now, there is more great music in the world I guess. Grrr. Argghh. Go sing You’re Welcome and take some deep breaths or something.
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give-grian-rights · 4 years
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I love the dream smp, i watch all the perspectives like i do with the hermits... its just.. i cant bring myself to watch George, i mean i like him i do! It’s just.. he’s really bland and kinda boring to me
I’m glad I waited until today to post this, after a conversation I had earlier. But I... Full-heartedly agree
First off though? You’re INSANE how on earth do you manage to?? watch?? Dream SMP from all perspectives????
Wilbur’s alone is 26 hours worth of content. TOMMY’S HAD OVER  6 DAYS OF STREAMS. It would take Six days, back-to-back, to watch his stream. and now it’s probably at 7 days, because I did that math last month.
But onto the main point of your ask. George is... yeah. Now that I’ve found Sleepy Boi’s, Dream Team has kinda fell on the burner for me.
I love Sapnap, he’s chaotic and energetic and full of dumbassery. He’s skilled at PvP and enjoyable to watch.
Dream’s a skilled player and engaging to watch. He’s got an iconic laugh, and just generally a personality easy enough to watch, most days.
But?? George??? I don’t know. He’s fine. He’s?? cute??? but that’s like. the thing he’s got going for him. I like his voice, and I think he’s pretty good at the game. But most times he doesn't seem interested in what he’s playing.
This got long,, so for an explanation of my thought process and in-depth feelings on George and his relationship with his career, read more. Includes some major speculation and critic of his internet personality. 
The thing that really.. kinda pushed me away from George, was what i realized seeing his reaction to the original Warriors animatic. He didn’t remember any of the important scenes he was in- he looked confused, and like he didn’t have a clue what was going on. He was there and he just.. didn’t remember shit. He might as well have been a complete outsider, watching it.
Legitimately it feels like?? George is just so completely uninterested in what he does. He missed the election. He missed the Festiva. He forgets what storylines he’s been apart of- and of what he’s involved in!
I actually have a memory disorder. i didn’t even know my own birthday, or days of the week until i was 12. 
Even with that, I could sit there and tell you the entire plotline of an eight-hour-long roleplay from four years ago on Roblox. and... George??? isn’t invested enough to show up, or remember anything he did, or promised, or was promised, in Dream SMP.
If George just wasn’t interested in the roleplay aspect, and wanted to play casually on the server, that’s more than okay and chill. But no, he keeps siding himself with one part of it, agreeing to become what WOULD be a big important role. He then doesn’t show up, or remember jackshit about it.
If I’m being completely honest, I feel as if he’s the same way with content making. This is where I feel i’m getting into controversial take territory- if I weren’t there already- but if it wasn’t for Dream, and the influence, attention, and monetary gain brought from him- I don’t think George would be on YouTube.
George’s videos are fine. I watch them. But it’s never George that makes them enjoyable. They truly feel like just.. additional content for Dream fans.
While I full-heartedly believe Sapnap has the personality to hold his own on the platform without the contribution of attention brought to him by Dream, I don’t think George could say that.
You never really get to see George’s personality. George doesn’t do much. He’s there, sometimes making snide remarks, going along with what’s happening. but he doesn’t care, or remember, or interested in it at all.
Remember the Pizza Hut vlog? Yeah. That was George, meeting a friend. We don’t need to see it. He doesn’t owe fans anything. but instead of outright saying hey this isn’t gonna be posted, or hey this is happening i’m just not happy with how my editing on it’s been, he just isn’t doing anything. 
My thoughts on why that might be? Because George doesn’t know how to edit the vlog in a way the fans would expect from him. His Minecraft videos follow traditionally the same style as any of Dream’s videos. but he’s with Wilbur, and it’s a vlog. And he doesn’t know what to do with that. That’s what my opinion is, pure speculation of bits and pieces I saw from Twitter.
I’ve seen the posts from George stans. I’ve seen the.. extremists, who take their fave cc’s and talk/treat them incredibly uncomfortably. And I’ve seen people who think that somehow, George can/should rise above, both Dream and Sapnap. And I don’t think that’s gonna happen, not ever.
Maybe George does have some big passion for video-editing and YouTube, but I certainly don’t see it in his general attitude, behavior, and the way he engages with his audience.
He doesn’t seem interested in having a relationship with boundaries and in-jokes, or making original and engaging content to obtain his own fanbase. He doesn’t portray a personality that can hold it’s own. 
I think he’s here because he gets attention, and because he wants the money. and I don’t think that’s anything wrong. I’m not here calling him selfish or whatever else- I think he’s there for monetary gain, and that it’s fine. Because you have to make a living somehow. But he’s so set on being unproblematic, and following what’s expected or asked of him.
George doesn’t want to be left behind by Sapnap and Dream. He knows that he’s made a name for himself, just by who he’s friends with.
He wants to make that into something, into something stable. But he’s doing that by making more videos of him with them. He’s not taking that, and using it to his own platform, like he could.
He’s not a super-talented and invested player, given his chance to shine. He’s a skinny, white, British boy with a silly laugh and passive enough to either not care- or be oblivious of- the fact that he’s essentially being fetishized as gay, and that’s what’s giving him a career & platform. 
George is fine. I don’t have a problem with I'm. I don’t love him, but I watch him. I hope I’m wrong, but, I don’t think he’s on the platform for the longterm.
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purplesurveys · 3 years
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1175
What’s the last vegetable you ate, and when did you eat it?  My dinner had broccoli and bell peppers in it.
What was your last Facebook notification for?  It was Aliyah replying to our comment thread on one of my posts. There wasn’t anything in her comment that was worth replying to anymore, so I just reverted with a Haha react.
What bands have you seen live? Paramore, Coldplay (not super legally), and One Direction.
Tell me an interesting fact about your mother:  She almost became a flight attendant, but she failed the final screening because of her height. I think the idea of her nearly having a completely different career is very interesting.
What do you think is the most important thing to happen to you before the age of 13?  In my case, probably getting my period. I got my first one when I was barely 10.
What were you super against as a young child but aren’t anymore?  Chicken curry. I also hateeeeeeeed Dora the Explorer with a passion, but now I find the show hilarious haha.
What are your plans later today? My work sched this week had been so fucking PACKED, that I want to do nothing but catch up on sleep all weekend. But seeing as I’m a proponent of revenge bedtime procrastination, I also highly doubt I’d let myself fall into a nap (Exhibit A: Me currently taking this survey at 2 AM...) If anything, I’ll probably just continue watching BTS In The Soop and finally start on Season 2 of Bon Voyage.
Are you doing anything exciting this weekend?  Well, it’s the weekend already, so...that ^ I will also have to take Cooper to the vet this Sunday.
Who do you talk to the most? Other than my team at work, Angela. I’ve been extra talkative these days because of our now-mutual excessive love for BTS, that I sometimes feel bad that I keep bombarding her with messages.
What are some things you do regularly that make you feel old?  Talk to my friends who are still in college, especially when they update me about the current happenings in UP that I have absolutely no clue about anymore.
Who is your best guy friend(s)?  I don’t have any best guy friends.
Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?  Neither; I’m fine with my tannish skin tone.
If you had a tiny scar on your face, would you get it removed or just keep it?  Keep it; I already do.
Have you had an x-ray in the past year? Nah. My last one had been nearly 5 years ago, when I needed to get my back checked for scoliosis.
Do you think your first love still loves you?  No. And that’s okay. :)
What is something that is “going right” in your life?  EVERYTHINGGGGGGGGGGG I am so so happy with my life right now weeeee. I have the job of my dreams – I’m even working with THE ACTUAL K-POP GROUP SLASH PHENOMENON SLASH ICONS BTS for one of the clients I handle FHKDHGKHGFDKGHDKGH, I have the best and most supportive friends in the world, and I am now starting to grow my collection of BTS merch with my hard-earned money. Everything is going abso-fucking-lutely perfectly, and to think I didn’t think I would make it past 2020.
When did you feel ready to start dating?  Middle of high school.
When was the last time your pet bit you? If you don’t have a pet, have you ever been bitten by someone else’s?  I was play fighting with Cooper earlier tonight, and he got a little bit excited and ended up biting my upper lip quite harder than usual. It stung for a while, but it’s okay now.
Where were you the last time you made out?  I think it was my bedroom.
When was the last time you cried tears of joy? Yesterday.
How do you type your sad smileys?  Just this :(
Do you have “decorative hand-towels” that cannot be used in your house?  Nope.
What was the last soda you drank?  Probably the Coke I drank at an org event last year, pre-pandemic, out of sheer thirst. There wasn’t any water being served so I just gulped down the soda and tried to ignore the annoying fizziness. I don’t drink soda.
What was the last thing someone made fun of you for?  I was having a video call session with my workmates this afternoon as a way to end the week on a good note, and I recounted my experience of being locked out of the office while I was in the middle of a presentation for a client, and how I managed to get myself back in.
Have you ever had any type of surgery?  Nope.
Should kids be allowed to get tattoos/piercings without parental consent?  No.
Who was the last person to hit on you?  No one has in a while.
What was the last thing you decided not to do, that you were supposed to?  A deliverable a client asked me to do. It can wait til Monday.
What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to tell someone?  Maybe straight up admitting to my mom that she can be hurtful sometimes. It’s hard because she never actually processes things like that and they do nothing but vanish into thin air, even though it takes everything in me to be that honest.
What do you put on hot dogs?  Mayonnaise.
Ever fallen in the shower?  Like once, when I was 10 or 11.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever called someone you care about?  Continued from last night. It was probably ‘bitch.’ Based on what I’ve learned from my mom, I put extra effort in particuarly watching what comes out of my mouth, because I know how words stick.
Do you think that things will get better?  I did, and now it has.
Have you ever legitimately saved a person’s life?  I think I may have. The story is a little triggering though, so I wouldn’t share it.
What’s your favourite book genre?  Doesn’t really count as a genre but I like auto/biographies.
Have you ever walked out of a movie at the theatre?  I’ve felt like it, but I’ve never done it.
Do dogs like you?  Yes, at least for 99.5% of my experiences.
Would you say that you project an air of authority?  In certain circles. But there are some groups where I trust others to lead rather than me.
Have you ever jumped off a high dive into a pool?  Nah, because I’ve never seen one. But even if I did, I think I would be too scared to do it hahaha.
Do you use one towel when you shower or two? (one for hair, one for body)  One. I use it to wash my entire body already.
Have you ever been to one of the great lakes?  No.
Who do you know that had a baby recently?  The son of one of my old college instructors. I believe she had been born in March because that prof recently posted family photos on Facebook that celebrated the baby’s first monthsary.
Do you like Usher’s songs?  Not in particular.
When was the last time you went to a waterpark?  Not a big fan of these as I find them unhygienic haha. The last time must have been...like anywhere between 12-15 years ago.
Have you ever ridden a train? Just once, and I had to go with Jum because I didn’t want to go alone.
What do you eat your French fries with?  Mayonnaise. If there isn’t any available, I’d want the fries to at least be generously sprinkled with salt; otherwise I’d find it too bland.
Do you have family problems?  Nothing blatant, but I know we are more dysfunctional than how we make it out to be.
What’s the last food you ate that was stale?  Pizza. I got two extra large boxes for my birthday last Wednesday and until now we still have some of it around :((( I ate some slices at around 3 AM earlier and they were tough as fuck to chew, hahaha. Still good, though.
How do you like your grilled cheese?  I don’t have grilled cheese sandwiches often. Surprise me.
What is the most challenging meal you have ever cooked?  I don’t cook.
What was your favorite thing to do as a little kid?  I liked watching my cousin play video games; playing outside; and answering my friends’ autograph books (aka my pre-survey days, lol).
Have you ever been close to drowning? Yup but just once. I was swimming and was just about to come up for air when one of my cousins, coming from the bottom of the pool, suddenly started to playfully pull me down. I was nearly out of breath by then and he had a much stronger grip on me, so I struggled for a while and ended up panicking and thrashing around a bit before I was able to wriggle myself free.
Have you ever had a panic attack?  It’s rare that it happens, but when it does it’s really bad and there’s no telling when it would subside.
Do you like doing housework?  Some, and only if I’m in the mood to. If I feel like I have to do it, then I get lazy.
Would you ever get implants?  I considered it before as a teen, back when small-chested girls were still bullied or made fun of on an everyday basis. How fucked up is that? I’m so relieved at how much social media has progressed.
Do you own a robe?  No.
Do you have a little sister? What’s her name? I have a younger sister but she’s barely a baby; she’s literally turning 21 this year. Nina.
Do you like crust on pizza or do you cut it off?  I like crust as long as it’s normal crust or stuffed crust. I can’t stand thin crust.
What was the last song you listened to?  Euphoria - credited to BTS, but it’s a Jungkook solo.
Have any of your family members been to jail?  Not blood relatives, but I know of super extended unrelated family members who’ve been to prison. Is there anyone that you feel you still need some closure with?  I don’t think so. Sometimes no closure is closure.
Can you remember when you first learned how to read?  I can’t, actually. All I remember is that I suddenly wanted to read everything by the time I was 5 and asked for nothing but storybooks every Christmas.
What event in your life has transformed your personality the most?  College. Gabie also had a very big influence on me during our relationship.
Have you ever had any teeth pulled?  Yes, but it was because it was already decayed.
Do you still want to be what you wanted to be in elementary school?  No, but I do elements of it in my work so that works out well for me. I wanted to be an author when I was in grade school, and today I regularly write various materials in my job.
What’re some TV shows that you would like to get into?  I just wanna get reconnected with The Crown again. I was already into it but I had to stop watching for a LONG time, because the show had some personal connections to my ex and so it seemed hard to get into the new season without breaking down lol. Now that I’m doing fine, I feel like it’s a good time to revisit the show.
How would you feel if you were drafted for the military?  Won’t happen here, but it’s the kind of situation where I wouldn’t really have a choice and would have to follow.
What is your favorite Queen song?  I don’t have any.
Do you know how to use any foreign currency? What do you mean, use...? Don’t you just use money to pay?? Hahaha or if you mean convert, then yeah I know how to do that with several currencies – US dollar, Korean won, Euro, Japanese yen, and whatever official name the pound has.
Been kissed by someone who you knew was “bad” for you?  Nope.
Ever taken an at-home pregnancy test?  I have not.
When was the last time you were at a loss of what to do?  I usually don’t have plans laid out on weekends these days anymore, so lately it’s all been a matter of winging it and just wanting to make sure that by the end of the day I get to say I made the most out of my free time.
What did you do on your favorite date with a guy/girl?  The time we did museum hopping + Italian dinner, or the one where we had French dinner + jazz bar.
What’s a movie you have seen in the theater more than once?  I never do rewatches for movies still in cinemas.
What is the reason you’re still alive?  I was stubborn and wanted to see if life would get better; I didn’t want to leave my dogs behind; I didn’t want to miss out on how potentially great and exciting my life could end up being; I didn’t want to cause and leave an even bigger emotional rift on my family.
I’m so happy I stayed.
Have you ever had sex in someone else’s bed/bedroom?  Yeah. Not the best decision, and I wouldn’t do it again lol.
Do you ever brush your hair before you go to bed?  Sometimes, so that it doesn’t look like a bird’s nest when I wake up the next day.
Have you ever had a dream about sleeping with a celebrity? (You don’t have to give details.)  I don’t think so. I have definitely imagined it in...other ways, though.
Has anyone ever told you that they needed you? Do you think they meant it?  Both in the superficial and loaded senses, yeah. 
How did you feel when you woke up today? What was the first thing you thought about?  I felt kind of like shit, just because I slept for only 1.5 hours – my body automatically wakes me up by a certain time, no matter what time I fell asleep. And also because my back and shoulder muscles were killing me with how sore they felt.
Do you still tell your parents that you love them?  I show it, but I don’t say it. I’m pretty stingy when it comes to that phrase.
Have you ever said “I love you” to someone you weren’t going out with?  Yes? It shouldn’t be limited to people you’re dating? I express it to Anj and Andi all the time.
Have you ever been threatened before?  Sure.
Would you date someone with a physical disability?  Yes.
Think of the last person you had sex with. Do you think they’ve slept with anyone else since they last slept with you?  Purely guessing, it’s likely. I’m not updated about her life anymore, though; life has been going on as if she never existed.
The last time you dyed your hair, what color did you dye it?  I’ve never had it dyed.
Think of the last time you went out to eat. Who paid?  I went out by myself, so I paid.
Do you save at least 15 percent of your income?  Yeah. I had a very good saving streak in which I was able to save anywhere around 50-60% every month...and thennnn I became a fan of BTS early this month LOOOOOL so now I’m back to like square three when it comes to my savings haha. Like I still know my limits and when to fucking stop taking out money from my bank account, but I’ve been spending dramatically more than I have been in the last few months.
Do you ever go on Reddit? If so, what are some of your favorite subreddits?  I used to go much more regularly, to the point where it was a part of my daily routine. Now I go at least once a month. I usually check out the Ask Reddit (for anecdotes), Today I Learned (for trivia), and GMM subreddits. Sometimes I’ll get on the Squared Circle subreddit as well to be updated on wrestling.
Were you ever a flower girl or ring bearer in anyone’s wedding when you were little?  Many times as a flower girl, yeah.
Are your parents in good health?  Fortunately, yes.
Have you ever been a caregiver to a sick/disabled relative?  Nope.
Is there any type of medicine you can’t take? For what reason?  Not that I know of.
Do you have a favorite pair of pajamas? What do they look like?  I don’t have pajama sets since I find them too warm.
Do you have any interesting pillow cases?  Eh, I don’t think so.
If something on your body hurts, which part is it most likely to be?  Shoulder muscles or my lower back.
Are you more afraid of spiders or bees?  Bees.
Have you ever worn fake nails? If so, what did the last pair you wore look like?  No.
Is Russian or Native American history more interesting to you?  Native American.
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ponydiscordmod · 5 years
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Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) Spoiler Free Review
Ah yes, Sonic the Hedgehog. The movie that the first trailer convinced us would be a train-wreck...until they actually listened to fans and fixed things.
First off, let me elaborate on that: I’ve heard people saying that Paramount was responsible for the original design in an attempt to reach a wider audience. I can’t find a source, so take this with a grain of salt, but having seen the movie? I can totally buy it because one thing is abundantly clear: the filmmakers know Sonic the Hedgehog. Oh boy, do they know Sonic the Hedgehog.
I found myself smiling at several points in this film when I noticed a very clever nod to the video games that show the creators care about this franchise. The fights honestly feel like mini boss and boss fights from the video games with how they’re filmed. But the good parts of this movie don’t stop there.
You see, an adaptation needs to do two things: it needs to be faithful to the source material, but it needs to do its own thing. And this movie does. Sonic and Robotnik feel like themselves, but are both placed in situations we’re not used to seeing them in. It’s a nice take on them and made both very engaging to be in.
Speaking of which, Robotnik deserves special mention. Yes, Jim Carrey does not look like Dr. Eggman, but is he a good Eggman? Yes. Yes, he is. This is very much a case of an actor who was cast based on performance, not on looks. Though as the trailers show, he does gradually come to resemble the doctor more and more as the film goes on. The best part of this performance, however, is that Carrey isn’t playing a joke villain here. Robotnik is over the top, funny, and comical at times...but he’s also a legit threat who you can take seriously as such when he should be. And Jim Carrey manages that to a T. This Robotnik can be legitimate threatening and you can buy him as a threat. You can see why our protagonists should be worried about this guy. This is a villain that can make you laugh, but also make you worry about our heroes’ safety. This shouldn’t be surprising, given Carrey, while known for his comedy, has played roles calling for him to be frightening and dangerous before. 
As for Sonic himself, I can’t go too far into it as there are a lot of spoilers, but he was well done. His actor does a good job of sounding like Sonic, and there’s a lot of heart here. The redesign is great and looks like the character. But most importantly, this is SONIC’S movie. The human cast do have a major role in the film, yes, but our human lead is both entertaining, and more of a Supporting Protagonist than the main protagonist. This film is a bout Sonic, and it feels so good to be able to say that. 
Lastly, I have to make a point on that redesign: this required the movie to be delayed for several months and several million dollars added to the budget to fix something for the fans. I think this film deserved my money solely for that fact, because if we want Hollywood to put the fans first, we need to show them it’s profitable.
The movie isn’t perfect, what movie is? But as a Sonic the Hedgehog movie? It’s great and well worth a watch.
Like what I do? Consider supporting me on Patreon www.patreon.com/Godzillawolf?... or Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/godzillawolf
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beerecordings · 5 years
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okay oh my gosh i know i rant like once in blue moon but i get so ticked off holy hell every time i see someone complain that Jack doesn’t give them enough ego content first of all he owes you nothingggggg dude NOTHING BRO he could literally cut the story off tomorrow if he wanted to and he wouldn’t have cheated you out of anything. you wanna complain about hints? first of all not everything is a freaking hint and he’s allowed to use his characters however he wants if it’s fun for him to have shifting eye colors and spooky bits in a video that’s fine whether or not it’s a reference to Anti doesn’t matter if he’s having a good time they’re his characters bro!! let’s repeat it again: he owes you nothing!! he’s a gaming youtuber what the hellllll dude creating Anti at all and making Say Goodbye was sincerely revolutionary, that video is the reason people started realizing this shit was possible and seeing how cool it was. every youtuber alive was in awe of Jack the day Say Goodbye dropped that shit changed the game don’t @ me
let’s not forget that ego stuff is not only so time-consuming and high-pressure but it also costs like a ton of money?? like Who Killed Markiplier?? Mark has said multiple times he made next to nothing compared to what he put into that video it was just a passion project for him. you can’t demand Jack spends thousands of dollars on a project if he’s not even interested??
okay but!! the other thing is that he is interested and really loves them and wants to create stuff but i think you guys are forgetting that he has told us that the reason there wasn’t ego content for so long because he was legit having breakdowns over it?? like when was it - 2018, i think? when he said he had stuff planned, but then his mental health got so bad that he realized it was doing him way more harm than good. and he’s made posts on here about how the pressure has been so high he felt completely paralyzed by everyone constantly demanding that content from him that he couldn’t go through with legit plans he had and couldn’t make anything and started to get really stressed just thinking about making content. and it was after making that post and saying that he just wanted to have fun with it again that he made Chase and JJJJ! and they were so good dude!!! and clearly point!! to much bigger plans!!! even though they made him really scared and he said he was never more nervous posting a video than Chase. and you have the nerve to come up in here like “not enough storyline :/” after he finally managed to get free of that pressure and create something cool he was really really proud of and enjoyed.
you would not get pissed off at someone on tumblr if they suddenly stopped writing a fanfiction or comic or something like that and yell at them and harass them. maybe the pressure was overwhelming and legitimately worsening their mental illness. maybe they just lost interest. maybe it was expensive or too time-consuming or otherwise burdensome. you can just unfollow and go. or for fuck’s sake at least keep your whining out of the tags. like take a chill pill man. take a chill pill. take your lil bitch pills he doesn’t owe you anything man. he’s just a guy and sometimes he gets down on himself or scared or sick or busy or tired and millions of people demanding a story is so.... okay it’s just mean!!!!!! and doesn’t help him create at all!! leave him be!!! look i am just tired...
i don’t want to talk about this but there okay i’m done NO TALK TO ME AM ANGY -
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asagi-s-garden · 4 years
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It’s time for Dumb Headcanons-
For whatever reason, Kara is the one to carry her and Lena’s first born child, she can’t just vanish for almost a year without saying anything though, I mean what kind of hero would do that?
So she makes a public announcement right after officially finding out that she’s pregnant that she’s “going away for a few months on a personal journey”
Now the thing is, Lena knows her wife, she knows her very well, and she knows that her watching from the sidelines as Alex and the others keep the city safe is going to be incredibly painfull for her, so she decides to take Kara on a vacation for the first few months of pregnancy
Once they get around the second trimester they’re going to have to go into seclusion in a special fortress that Clark and Kate built for her that’s like half Fortress Of Solitude and half Batcave that’s structured to both keep enemies out, and keep Kara in, because they know their girl as well as Lena does (Alex tunes in from skype from time to time to tell them what they’ve done wrong specifically because she knows how crafty Kara is and is just “mmm nope you see that little crack in that wall right there? Yeah she could get through that, I don’t know how, but she could”) Ofcourse freinds and family are welcome to visit because it’d just be cruel otherwise but anyway
Lena knows Kara, she knows that staying cooped up in one place for 5-6 months is going to be hell enough as it is, the full extent of her pregnancy would be a NIGHTMARE, but she also is a little afraid to stay in National City during the first 3-4 months because that would equally be disasterous on Kara’s mental health, seeing shit go down and not being able to help, so she decides to take them on vacation instead, to some of the most peacefull places on Earth, like the New Zealand countryside and a small town in Switzerland and a tiny island that she may possibly own, it seems like a solid plan to begin with, until....
Proof That Lena Luthor Is Supergirl
That’s the headline that starts popping up about four days after they leave and it’s just everywhere, conspiracy theories that Lena is Supergirl because she “vanished“ at the same time that Supergirl left
Kara thinks it’s hilarious, it’s the best laugh she’s had in a week and that’s saying something considering how much time she’s spent watching cute cat videos on the private jet
They have to cut their vacation short so Lena can go back to National City every few weeks, show her face for a few days, and then leave again
Everyone starts making it into an inside joke that they have to be very carefull not to share outside of The Circle of those in the know because otherwise something might slip, Brainy in particular thinks it’s bizarre that Kara just keeps getting more pregnant everytime she comes back and yet somehow no one has tried to pin Lena’s wife, who’s pregnant, as the superhero who has to mysteriously vanish for nine months (because against her better instincts Kara does mention at the press conference that she’ll be returning in June, wich is about nine months from when she announces her departure, somehow no one has picked up on it, until they start with the Lena theory and go “AND HER WIFE IS PREGNANT AND DUE IN JUNE, COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT-” evidently they’ve decided that Lena is leaving because Kara is pregnant, wich isn’t wrong, but still somehow off)
By the time baby Kira Zor El Luthor is born (they made the conscious decision to break from the “L” tradition in Lena’s family only to end up with the “K” tradition in Kara’s completely by accident; their second born will be named Luka and Alex is going to headdesk so hard she bruises) half of National City has started to believe that Lena is Supergirl, somehow, and she and Kara- as Supergirl- have to actually appear together in public and shake hands with people to prove neither one is a hologram before anyone lets the theory die
Other less cohesive headcanons about this insanity-
-Kara insists that she take care of Kira when she wakes up in the middle of the night because to be 100% honest sleep is a luxury, not a necessity, for her- that’s not even being careless with herself, that’s just.... a legitimate fact... she doesn’t really HAVE to sleep very much as long as she’s under the yellow sun so why on earth should she deprive Lena of it???
Lena: Really, it’s ok, I’ve had a lifetime of being denied sleep so at this point I can actually function with out it :)
Kara: That.... that in absolutely no way makes me feel better...... also I have super hearing so I’ll hear her first anyway, there’s no need to wait for you to wake up..
Lena: Oh no that’s fine, I’m hypervigilant and paranoid so I’ll wake up as soon as she starts crying, no superpowers required! :)
Kara: That just makes me feel even worse?????? B-Besides I have a Kryptonian lullaby I can sing to her that works like a charm
Lena: Oh that’s so lovely, I have an old Irish lullaby my mother taught me right before she died that I can’t wait to sing to Kira as the literal only good thing that comes from my family legacy :)
Kara, near tears: ...Have I done something to you today????? ;_;
Lena: ...no?? why???
-The amount of food they go through during Kara’s pregnancy probably could have sustained a small country for atleast a month, it doesn’t seem to matter how much Lena thinks she’s stocking up ahead of time, it’s never enough and she inevitably always has to buy more the very next day, it takes the combined efforts of Barry and Kate to help keep things stocked so Lena isn’t having to constantly be leaving the Bat Fortress (it was the name Kate and Clark finally decided on and no one has the right to veto it no matter how much certain people want to) to restock, they start this Superhero Delivery Service as a Bros Being Bros type of thing, just freinds being freinds and loving their pregnant super freind so very much but after a week it turns into a ruthless competition of what, ultimately, is the better resource- speed or money, Barry has the Speed Force but Kate has every method of transportation imaginable and also drones and by the time Kira is born a rivalry has slowly simmered between them, the likes of wich goes right back to the type of “Who’s faster?” rivalry Barry has with the Supers, that probably won’t end even after they both die, Kara has mixed feelings about being the inadvertent catalyst for this but Nia thinks it’s the best thing that’s ever happened and she and Mary are placing bets
-Lena knows that Kryptonians don’t exactly have the same health issues to worry about that humans do but Kira is going to be atleast part human isn’t she? So Kara has to be willing to step up her health game wile she’s pregnant right??? Nice theory, no dice, Alex tried to warn her but Lena Luthor doesn’t lose and when she wants something she gets it................ unless that something is getting Kara to have a healthier diet, then there’s no force on any planet in any universe that can help
Lena: An apple
Kara: A dozen doughnuts
Lena: One apple
Kara:  ...Sixteen doughnuts
Lena: *gently places an apple on the table*
Kara: ....*stares intensely at the box of doughnuts, unblinking*
Lena: ....What are you doing?
Kara: I wonder if I try hard enough if I can develop telekinesis
Lena: No-
-True panic is Lena taking care of Kira at the office wile Kara is off doing the superheroing for the first time in months (nanny? nope, not in this house, the child never leaves our sight, we die like moms) and Kira starts giggling and levitates out of her bassinet wile Lena is on a conference call so her investors are met with a frantic Lena keeping her voice astoundingly level and clear wile running around the office chasing her floating baby, they mostly just get glimpses of her jacket from time to time and, if they ask, are only met with “I have a child now” and absolutely no other explanation
-For the first time since being on Earth Kara is faced with the cosmic joke that is Earth’s gravity during her late months of pregnancy because everything is wobbly and waddly and holy RAO HOW IS IT SO HARD JUST TO GET OFF OF THE FLOOR!?!?! SHE COULD FLY TWO MONTHS AGO AND NOW IT’S A MAJOR STRUGGLE TO PULL HERSELF OFF OF THE COUCH WHAT THE FUCK!?
-Kate has managed to live through four years of having actual freinds who have started to reproduce and never once has she reacted with more than marginally more interested than what she had during Crisis when Kara tried to hand Jon to her, but in those four years all of those freinds have been straight, to be fair, and there’s something a little different about seeing other lesbians with babies that’s mildly more tolerable, first it was Alex and Kelley, then it was Kara and Lena, Sophie and Mary keep cooing over the babies and Kate doesn’t really get that........ until she’s visiting Kara and an alien attacks and Kara is just “hold my baby-” and flies out the window and Kate is Stuck with a sleeping four-month-old and no ability to get to a phone without waking Kira up so she’s just kind of frozen like that for the foreseeable future and when Kara comes back Kate is laying on the couch, Kira sleeping on her chest, looking incredibly relaxed
Kate: Oh you’re back, we’ve had a lovely time
Kara: Awwwwwwwww, see? You are good with babies <3
Kate: Mmmm still going to have to disagree on that but your’s is... not... bad...
Kara: Sooooooo you’ll babysit sometime? :3
Kate: Nope, this last half hour was enough thanks
Kara: Wait until Sophie hears you lasted an entire half hour ;)
Kate: Just hold off telling her for about fifteen years or so, I don’t think we’re ready to live in a world where I can tolerate this for an entire thirty minutes yet
Kara: lol ok
Years later when she eventually ends up taking after her cousin and having a couple of orphans with her name on them she insists to Sophie that it’s Kara’s fault because “that time she made me hold her kid for half an hour did something to me I just know it”, Kara pops in one day after hearing this and just goes “You’re welcome~” before flying off again
And finally-
Kara: Lena honey I think Kira is a little too young to be getting her first suit tailored...
Lena: But she’s already a year old...???
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duhragonball · 4 years
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State of the Damn Wienerfic
I’ve finally finished the “thousand years ago” section of my OC’s backstory, which is a big relief to me.    The first 141 chapters of Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan were intended to develop the title character as a protagonist in her own right, and not just a guest star or supporting player to the main cast, like Tapion in “Wrath of the Dragon”.   I was always worried that I’d meet some untimely end before I finished, and no one would know how things turned out for her.  
From 142 onward, I’m flashing forward to the events of Dragon Ball:Xenoverse.    It’s not going to be a total adaptation of the game’s story mode, but I did like the notion that if I ever reached this point, the fic has a tenative ending, and a curious reader could run Xenoverse 1 on Steam and get a general idea of what happens next.   But I’m still alive, so I guess I’ll go ahead and write my version.  
It’s still surreal to me that I’ve reached this milestone.   I’ve thought about it for so long and now it’s here.   I wrote the bulk of #142 last November, and some other material that still needs to be organized, and my goal for this year’s NanoWriMo is to plow forward.   A lot of things will be different, and I think one of them is that I feel like I can be more open about the creative process.   So if you want to see how the sausage is made, click the read more.    If you’d rather see how crayons are made, watch this video below.   
youtube
There’s a Sesame Street version of this, but those are all orange crayons, and I like yellow better.    Also I like the way Mr. Rogers says “crayons”.
All right, now that those weird crayon people are distracted, let’s talk about Luffa.
I came up with the idea around 2004, I think.   DBZ was done airing in the U.S., and I wanted to write some sort of fanfic about it, but I was having trouble coming up with ideas.    I felt like the main story had wrapped up very well with Z, and GT only seemed to prove that you can’t top the original story.    So I started thinking about the lore, and that led me to the Legendary Super Saiyan that Vegeta spoke of in DBZ Episode 66.  
There were a few things that bugged me about the DBZ fandom at the time.    Mostly I was just reading the GameFaqs boards to find any hot scoops about upcoming DBZ games, and no one really knew much of anything, so the board was mostly guys shooting idle speculation back and forth.   Occasionally someone would bring up the fact that we never saw any female Super Saiyans, which led some to suspect that such a thing must be impossible.    The one explanation that stuck in my craw was that “women can’t get angry enough”.    Usually, misogynists are always saying women are too emotional to do anything else, so by that logic, you’d think it would be much easier for Saiyan women.    They’d just flip out whenever a stray laser bolt fries their hair, like Daphne Zuniga in “Spaceballs.”
The other thing that bugged me was the Broly-worship in some circles.   One way or another, Broly hype reached American fans well before the Funimation dub of Movie 8.   I remember the official promotions from Funimation acknowledging that fans kind of already knew who the guy was.    For a few years before 2003, I think Broly became this mythical figure, like your friend whose uncle works for Nintendo, or “Q” telling 4-chan all about how everyone you don’t like is going to get arrested soon.     I’m pretty sure this is why you can still find Broly fanart where he’s beating up Galactus, Kid Buu, and Superman, to name a few.    I think a lot of fanboys got it in their head that Broly could kick anybody’s ass, which is weird because he can’t even win in his own movies.   
I think even the official stuff played into this idea, since Broly would often be used as a special bonus boss in a lot of video games, so you beat Kid Buu and then hold on, now you have to fight Broly.   So it’s not hard to get the vibe that he’s the real final boss of everything.    I’m curious how the 2018 version of Broly will affect the perception of the character, but it’s probably too soon to tell.   In the mid-2000′s, though, it felt like a lot of people believed that Broly was a more legitimate Super Saiyan than Goku or the others, by virtue of being green and irrationally violent.  
So this was on my mind when I thought about what to do with the Super Saiyan from 1000 years ago.    I felt like there were people who wanted to believe that this character was a lot more like Broly than Goku, which is dumb, because the whole point of Super Saiyan Goku was that he was taking on the same role as the last guy.   And, for my money, the moral of Goku going Super Saiyan was that he was the only Saiyan of his generation who understood the same thing all the old Super Saiyans did.   Something about his upbringing on Earth helped him reach that level.    All the other Saiyans were too contaminated by their own culture of ruthless dickery.  
And so I thought that it would really flip the script if I wrote a story about that Legendary Super Saiyan and made him very different from the fanboy perception of Broly.    And I’d make him a her, just to twist the knife.  Not only is this not Broly, but she’s one of those women Super Saiyans everyone thinks can’t happen.  I doubt anyone from GameFaqs in 2007 would even notice my fic, but I’d like to think they’d be pissed about what I’ve done. 
I tried writing some of this down in 2006, but I didn’t get very far, mostly because I was intimidated by the scope of the idea.   I didn’t think I could do a long story, but I wasn’t sure a short story could get the idea across.   So I just didn’t do it at all, and kept thinking about it from time to time.    I wanted to make Luffa as a custom character in a video game, if they ever made a game with CAC features.   Ultimate Tenkaichi had it, but you could only make a Saiyan man... which just reinforced my motivations for doing this kind of a story.   
Finally, Dragon Ball Xenoverse debuted a more robust CAC feature in 2015, and I could design the character properly.   I didn’t have much in the way of ideas, so I just sort of let the gameplay take me where it would.   The game is set in the future, and Trunks just wishes for an ally, so who’s to say that this ally couldn’t have come from the past?    You do a lot of grinding in the game, and there’s a lot of exposition, and that gave me time to think about what what Luffa had been doing right before she got to this place.   And slowly, I started to iron out what I wanted to write.   
Her costume was just a convenience, really.    I went with short hair because the long hair doesn’t “float” when you go Super Saiyan in the game.    I wanted some sort of old-school looking armor, but everything in the game was based on costumes from the show, and the “Saiyan” armor in DBZ was Frieza’s thing.   It wouldn’t have existed a thousand years earlier.    I might have gone for something like Cabba’s outfit in Dragon Ball Super, but that wouldn’t be available until a few years later.   So that left me with a choice between a baggy martial arts dogi or the skin tight Pilot Suit.    The Pilot Suit is kind of... distracting, since it’s just a skin, and the developers make you stare at the character’s ass the whole time.    On the other hand, a baggy dogi kind of made her look like Cell Games Gohan.   So I went with baggy pants and fitted shirts.  
The black and yellow color scheme was mostly so I wouldn’t confuse my character from the others appearing on the screen during fights. That ruled out purple, orange, and blue, since the Z-Fighters wear those.   I resisted yellow, because that’s my favorite color, but later I realized black and yellow is perfect, because that’s the color scheme of the giant ape in Vegeta’s flashback.   
Playing the game helped motivate me to actually sit down and write the story, because I finally had a fleshed out character that I could see and do things with.    And making her fight DBZ characters got me to consider how she would react to those concepts.   Would she respect Vegeta’s royal bloodline, or would she be unimpressed like Goku?    How would she feel about Frieza’s destruction of their home planet?   Would she even recognize it as her home planet?   How does she feel about the fact that no one remembers anything about her?   
My goal for the first 141 chapters was to build a world and a backstory that would set up the answers to those questions.  The villains in that part of the story are all misogynists of one stripe or another.   They view women as tools to be exploited, or as enemies to be eliminated, or as distractions to be ignored.    They see Luffa doing her thing and they all say “She can’t do that,” and then she does it harder.   
Now that I think about it, I suppose the appeal to the character, and the thing that frustrates her so much, is that she’s just trying to be herself, but all these buttholes in the universe are outraged by it, and yet they just can’t stop her.   They want her to die, or go away, or become something else, something they can accept, but she just refuses to do that, and she’s got the raw power to tell them all where they can shove it.   This whole thing is my ham-fisted attempt to write a feminist allegory with Saiyans in it, and I’ll never be good enough to get it exactly right, but you know, it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.    Along the way, some LBGT stuff started to get into the mix, and I thought “Well, I’m really in the deep end of the pool now.”    I’m sorry if I got anything wrong, but I think I did okay.   I’m not breaking any records, but I managed to avoid drowning, right?  
Anyway, that’s why the Saiyans hate her guts, because all the Saiyans in DBZ resented Goku as being weak and worthless.    Even when Goku surpassed Vegeta, Vegeta still thought he lacked the killer instinct to be a “““true”“““ Super Saiyan.    Luffa’s got plenty of killer instinct, but the Saiyans hate her out of jealousy and fear.    Vegeta accused Trunks of lying about being a Saiyan, because his hair wasn’t the right color.  I wanted to make a whole population of Saiyans who would quibble over those kinds of details.    “The stone the builders have rejected has become the capstone.”   
This is also why I made the Saiyan King the main villain, because I wanted to echo Goku’s conflict with Vegeta, and King Vegeta’s conflict with Paragus and Broly.    If there’s a Super Saiyan every thousand years, then what happens to the second strongest Saiyan whenever that day comes?    Does he stand aside like John the Baptist, or does he refuse to accept the changing times?  
The purpose of all of this was to explain why Vegeta remembers the legend of the Super Saiyan, but nothing about the person.   Why doesn’t he know Luffa’s name, or what color her pants were?   Because his ancestors hated her, and suppressed the parts of her story that they didn’t like.    Even as Vegeta recalls what little he knows, he thinks “I never actually believed it.”
Okay, but Luffa had friends, right?   Wouldn’t they have left a record for future generations?    Well maybe, but how long would it take to fade into obscurity?   And Luffa’s kind of a private person.    Everyone in her inner circle avoided the spotlight.   There’s a move about her, but it’s filled with wild inaccuracies.   Eyewitnesses to her battles can only describe a glowing blur.     Close-up footage just shows an irritable Saiyan woman with a strange dyejob.   Most civilians find regular Saiyans to be pretty extraordinary as they are.   A Super Saiyan doesn’t seem that much more impressive.  
What you wind up with is this legacy of battles that were fought and won by a single, mighty warrior, but no one can agree on what that warrior was exactly.   At some point, enough time passes where the Saiyans are willing to reclaim the legend.   “Yeah, that guy had to be a Saiyan.      Who else could do all those things?”   But the things she stood for and learned along the way, that’s all lost.    
I just didn’t think it’d take me 647,471 words to explain all of that.  But now I can finally write the part with all the popular characters in it.   Right now, my big problem is that I have to slap together a few more OC’s and I need to figure out just what the hell Towa’s deal is.   The Dragon Ball Wiki attempts to explain whatever happens in those Dragon Ball Heroes games, but it doesn’t seem like they wrote any of it to fit a coherent narrative.    I’d like to use as much official Demon Realm lore as possible, if only because that’s what Towa and Demigra’s fans would be familiar with, but I’m not sure how this is going to look.   I mean, they’re gonna get an ass-whoopin’, I know that part, but I’d like to flesh out their characters before the beating starts. 
Anyway, I got my work cut out for me.  But at least the soundtrack will be epic.
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fightmeyeats · 4 years
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ACNH: Colonial Desires in the Context of Quarantine
Since finishing up my undergraduate studies in June, one of the major things I've been doing with my free time is playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons (please don't @ me but I've already logged something like 400 hours). As much fun as the game is, one of the things that's really stood out to me is how much AC:NH depends on and reifies colonial logics, and how important it is to unpack this in the context of the game's popularity and the ongoing pandemic.
One of the first ways I want to address colonialism in AC:NH this is through the way I was first introduced to it, namely through its connection to my thesis and what I refer to as the "terraforming imaginary". Before I started playing or had even decided to buy the game, I was working on my thesis "Constructing New Worlds: An Investigation of Climate Change and the Terraforming Imaginary" (which, shameless self plug but if you're interested you can check out my 10 minute video presentation for symposium at Johns Hopkins University here). During this time I was talking about my thesis pretty non-stop with anyone who would listen and as a result probably about half of my friends independently sent me this meme
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[ID: meme from @animalcrossingmemes which shows two children; the one on the left is smiling and looking off into the distance with the label "daydreaming about terraforming" while the child on the right looks stressed and upset with the label "actually terraforming". Beneath this meme is text from @kaijuno which reads "I realize this is an animal crossing meme but as an astrophysicist I was really excited for a second that someone was finally seeing the light on how fricking difficult an a huge waste of time it would be to try to terraform Mars". Beneath this text is another meme with four hands gripping each other's wrists to make a circle. In the center is the initial animalcrossingmemes image and each arm is labeled, respectively, "Minecraft Players," "Sims Players," "Animal Crossing Players," and "Astrophysicists apparently"]
Although my thesis addresses terraforming in the context of space exploration/colonization, AC:NH's engagement with "terraforming" (alongside other aspects of colonial practices and desires) helps to expand on the stakes of this. The reason I put "terraforming" in scare-quotes is because…technically, there isn't any terraforming in AC:NH, given that terraforming is "the operation consisting of rendering other stellar bodies—mainly planets and eventually asteroids—appropriate for human life" (Frédéric Neyrat, 46). While I'm all down for an interpretation of the Animal Crossing world as a non-Earth planet and the villagers as aliens, the island is already suitable for human life and the use of "terraforming" in the game is generally more readily identifiable as geoconstructivism: players redesign and restructure their islands, shaping waterways and topography to create idealistic spaces (as opposed to making the island literally livable). Either way, it speaks to the terraforming imaginary—the underlying set of logics and desires conducive to the imagining and desiring of “terraforming”, ie the logics and desires of colonization. Even though AC:NH's terraforming isn't technically terraforming, it is an embodiment of the terraforming imaginary, centering desires for the "civilizing"/"cultivating" of a space into an orderly, colonized ideal. On even a very surface level it is useful to think about this through the island rating system: islands are ranked out of five stars, with deductions made for things such as having "too many" weeds or not "cleaning up" by leaving items lying around rather than placed with intention. 
Another, perhaps more obvious, way in which AC:NH embodies colonial logics is through the "Nook Miles Tickets". Players trade in Nook Miles (an achievement based currency) for tickets which they can take to the airport and use to visit other, uninhabited islands which they can destroy to extract all of the resources slash-and-burn style. Players also have an increased likelihood of catching rare insects, fish, and sea animals to display to their own island museum or sell. As Wilbur, a dodo pilot, explains about this process: "we run the 'finders keepers' protocol here. Lumber, fruit, fish, whatever? Yours if you can carry it", going on to emphasize the importance of not leaving anything behind as there will be no returning; they "burn the flight plans" after each flight.
Although the rampantly destructive extraction of resources is the most apparent embodiment of colonial logics, the centrality of the museum and the imperative to complete each wing by finding and identifying all of the bugs, fish/sea creatures, fossils, and artworks in the game is an equally significant connection to colonialism. Benedict Anderson argues in Imagined Communities that the museum, along with the census and the map, "shaped the way in which the colonial state imagined its dominion—the nature of the human beings it ruled, the geography of its domain, and the legitimacy of its ancestry" (164). The specifics Anderson goes into differ of course, because he's talking about actual colonial states while AC:NH has the fluidity of embodying the underpinning desires which colonialism as process requires to function, but what holds true is that these specific forms of producing, organizing, and displaying knowledge which produced "a totalizing classificatory grid, which could be applied with endless flexibility...to be able to say of anything that it was this, not that; it belonged here, not there" (Anderson 184). Essentially, in AC:NH part of a player's ownership of the island occurs through a player's ability to classify and collect artefacts for the museum. Furthermore, this imperative to collect and preserve fossils, art work, bugs, fish, and sea creatures is part of the way the player's island is positioned as a place of value. 
The museum also implicitly functions to reify positions of authority, legitimizing a kind of monopoly of knowledge. In AC:NH, this primarily means the positions of the museum curator (Blathers) and, to a degree, Tom Nook (who selected and invited Blathers) are secured as the authorities on knowledge. When Tom Nook tells the player that the island(s) are deserted, we must take this as truth...yet fishing both on the player's island and the Nook Miles islands can turn up trash items like old tires, tin cans, and boots. Colonial logics depend on a management of who counts as "people" and what counts as "inhabited" and the myth of empty lands; Tom Nook's instance that these islands are all deserted is haunted by these lingering traces of some other inhabitation prior to the game's start. 
Okay, so you might be asking what does this all mean and why should we care? Let's talk about both the game's popularity and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which contextualized its release (and continues to shape daily life). Animal Crossing: New Horizons has not only received overwhelmingly positive critical reception, but is one of the best selling games both for the Switch console and the Animal Crossing series. According to freelance journalist Imad Khan's New York Times article "Why Animal Crossing Is the Game for the Coronavirus Moment," the game's appeal centers in its function as an escape to an "island paradise where bags of money fall out of trees and a talking raccoon can approve you for a mortgage". Khan quotes Dr. Ramzan (a professor of game narrative at Glasgow Caledonian University) who refers to it as "the universe you’ve always wanted, but can’t get." Given the significantly decreased mobility and connection that has accompanied social distancing, as well as the increased stress and heightened inequality which have accompanied COVID-19, this probably isn’t particularly surprising. It makes sense that a cute, low-stress video game would be a valuable form of escapism.
Mobility is a particularly fraught discourse in this context: on the one hand, concerns surrounding containment/immobility are heightened in the context of neoliberalism and within colonial societies, which depend upon discourses of individualism and independence to demarcate the “freedom” which comes from capitalist economies. At the same time, the desire for things like connection/community, movement, and spatial autonomy/sovereignty are not inherently colonial, even as colonialist logics frequently position colonial/capitalist/neoliberal expansion as the solution. Animal Crossing is heavily situated within this entanglement, simultaneously offering a very real form of connection (and even protest) for many people while also implicitly speaking to latent beliefs that colonization is a legitimate form of mobility and escapism. To say that AC:NH is the universe we’ve always wanted but can’t get is to refuse to engage with the inherent contradictions of neoliberalism and reafirm the notion that colonial capitalist worlds are worth wanting; that the fantasy of individual wealth and success through destructive extraction and market freedom, when obtainable, is good.
None of this is to say that playing AC:NH is the same as colonization, because of course it isn't. However, the colonial undertones of the game reflect the pervasiveness of colonial logics and desires in our daily lives, subsequently further normalizing them. Journalist Kazuma Hashimoto, for example, emphasizes the importance of contextualizing AC:NH's colonial undertones within Japanese Colonialism in "Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Japanese Colonialism". As Hashimoto argues, "I am only asking that people familiarize themselves with Japanese colonialism and why something as innocuous as discovering a deserted island can be read as colonialism — especially within the context of a Japanese game".
Inattentiveness to the more subdued, invisibilized manifestations of violence facilitates their internalization and acceptance; educating ourselves and paying attention to and challenging places where we feel comfortable with these kinds of escapist fantasies is an important exercise in critical thinking which can help us to continue to refuse their real life manifestations. 
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calamariimpossible · 4 years
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Magicians on the internet, crypto, and the email that broke me.
This is a continuation of a twitter thread that Muz (@mzkrx) started to write out in his car but then when he plotted out his thoughts, it made more sense to him to put it down in a blog format rather than a thread. You'll find out why as you read through.
Stuck in the car for half an hour so I'm gonna do a thread (Editor's note: Now a whole-ass blog post) about a strange email I got recently.
So I was casually watching magic tricks on YouTube. the funnest part of which to me is reading the comments. YouTube commenters love explaining how they think the trick is done and it's fun to read through their theories and connect dots between similar tricks, etc.
And then one time as I was scrolling I noticed a comment that didn't make sense. It was a string of an almost sentence. Intelligible enough to not be random words but odd enough to read like a trigger phrase for something.
The closest I can describe it as is like the string Zemo used to wake up the Winter Soldier, but with some syntax to it. Like "many thermos wiggle throughout exotic harbinger of circle ascending fuchsia entrapment".
Initially I thought nothing of it, but then I kept seeing them in these magic trick video comment sections. They're never the same string, and it's always under magic trick videos. from different channels even.
Hmmm.
The profiles that posted these comments are also always blank accounts with zero videos and no profile pic. Just their name. I felt like it was too much of a coincidence for these comments to only be under magic trick videos.
I also knew that the world of performance magic is thick with secrets. That is to say, there is deliberate obfuscation of information whenever you try to go online to find out how a trick works.
Magicians get together online and share information with each other just like performers of every other sort as well but the amount of code and doublespeak they use is an order of magnitude more annoying to decipher compared to say, an engineering message board or a gamedev forum.
Knowing that, I thought maybe this almost parsable gibberish I keep seeing everywhere was also some kind of code these people were using to talk to each other.
So I started investigating.
First things first, let's just Google one of the phrases. Maybe that's enough?
And it sorta was.
Pasting them onto the search bar lent me to only 1 result (wild!) and it was a website that looked really dank. Like geocities dank. Annoying neon colours and badly margined jpegs of tarot card images everywhere and a big bold header text that said something to the effect of:
"Congratulations, you've found our hidden message. This portal is only for those seeking knowledge beyond what is on the surface. Continue below."
* * *
I haven't been doing well. I feel like I say that too much. I say it on Patreon, on my personal podcast, whenever any of my friends ask me how I'm doing, pretty much everywhere. I feel very heavy. I understand I'm not the only one feeling like this during a pandemic.
Duh.
But I have this other version of worry that I can't quite articulate until right now: I'm scared I won't be funny anymore. Anwar and Farid can attest that even during our recordings I don't feel up to being funny. I question my jokes a lot. I barely enjoy telling them. I'm worried I'm letting everyone down.
To me, silliness and absurdism as virtues only make sense when the world has trace amounts of injustice and wrongness that training ourselves to see it in our everyday helps us remind ourselves of what is just and fair. The more we consume silliness, the more we are able to recognize silly and point it out. So we don't ignore it when things go wrong, so we talk about it, manage it. So we can take care of each other.
Maybe I can't be sure if we're all up for taking care of each other right now.
* * *
"Continue below" seems instructive, but it wasn't. Like I mentioned, the margins were haphazard and the CSS was all over the place. Some jpegs were straight up cropped off.
Meaning I can't be sure what "below" meant. But there were clickable images and text so I was readily intrigued.
It was tantalizing. Did I stumble into some secret order of Extremely Online Magicians? Maybe I'll finally find out why there aren't many female magicians out there. Maybe it's some sort of secret initiation to a secret message board full of secrety secrets. Secretly.
Y'all.
I didn't click on any of the linked images or anything. I closed the tab. That was the end of that.
An earlier version of myself would gladly run headlong into this rabbit hole to find out more and sink hours into some goddessforsaken labyrinth of links. But the current version of me recognizes this for what it almost certainly is: an abandoned roleplaying game.
Back in the early 00s when the internet was the realm of nerds and nerds only, it was full of people who loved sharing things for sharing's sake. It used to be punk rock to maintain a blog that only talked about snails or have a lo-fi YouTube channel that uploads biweekly 3-minute news about your house, or manage a little message board where people roleplay as wizards who rummage around the net looking for clues.
That last part was a thing I remember being actively involved in. In '03, a group of online friends and I wrote up a scavenger hunt of sorts where we sent people through various blog pages that we have where the goal is to just dick around and have fun. We wasted each other's time for sure. Hundreds of hours of it for literally no gain at all but for some laughs and fun memories.
The internet isn't like that anymore. People don't share something online for sharing anymore. Not really. There's this idea that if you put stuff out there, you want people's attention because numbers are good. You get a lotta reblogs and RTs and Likes which means people Like you.
If you don't have a lotta numbers, you don't matter. If you do, everyone has to talk about what you said or did because it's 'News' now.
Isn't that kinda gross, you think? That we need people to interact through an app to be sure that we're Liked? I say "we" but I mean me. I've successfully poisoned my brain to believe this to a certain extent too and it's not good.
I felt myself physically react when I closed that geocities magician website tab. I shuddered because my brain went from "this is cool" to "I gotta let people know I found this" to "this'll get me hella RTs" to "ew Muz why did you think that" within 3 seconds and I was disgusted with myself.
As a dude who started my online presence on YouTube and parlayed it into my real life comedy/writing career, I've believed for a long time that doing good work and putting it out there is what it takes for a working creative to make it because that's what I did. So there's this idea that making stuff and having it be seen is some kind of virtuous.
But it's not anymore. People pick fights with children for clout. Newspapers post about people's tweets as if its important. People are investing in crypto, a thing that literally only exists as electrical waste on a grand scale. We're boiling the oceans to yell at each other over nothing and exchange bits of code everyone agrees has ever-rising value but doesn't. Everyone is making and eating junk, it feels like.
So am I making junk? Have I just been making useless junk for literally over a decade now? Is that what I've been good for this entire time?
* * *
So the email.
It was a response from a company I applied to for a job. I applied as a creative writer and they're an advertising agency.
Receiving emails from a prospective employer when you're in need of a job is exciting! So soon after I applied, too. Wonderful. Here's what it said:
We just received your application today but would love to extend the opportunity for you to participate in the Case Competition as a prerequisite of your job application for Creative Writer position with [REDACTED] and stand a chance to be a winner for cash awards up to a total worth of RM1,800.
Yea.
They want me to enter a competition where I compete with other candidates to get a chance of being hired.
This company saw how many people applied for a job with them, and decided to dangle some cash and throw it over the fence to see which candidate will fight for it the most.
I didn't expect to feel vomitous after reading an email but that did it. I almost dry heaved. That's where we are now.
Recruiters see a glut of applicants and decided to play Fall Guys. These people watch Istana Takeshi and think Takeshi is the good guy. It hurts. It hurt me. That email caused me pain.
I can't at all empathise with recruiters who think this was okay to do. They really believed that creative writers will do a little dance for them just for money.
Look, I know we all need to eat. But I can also hate that people undervalue the work of creatives to this painful extent.
I don't give a shit about earning a lot of dough. I just wanna make things that tickle people. I want you to smile more.
That's the whole point of that weird little YouTube comment that led to the quirky website. That's the whole idea of making silly videos and dumb tweets and memes. We just want you to laugh.
But it seems people think so little of joy that they'll do whatever they can to avoid legitimately supporting and paying for stuff that gets them through the day. So much so that they want free work from us for the potential of maybe being able to get paid for more work. It breaks me, man.
I hate that I cannot make a living just trying my best to make people happy.
That's the best way I know to take care of you.
I know I don't just 'make junk' for a living. People have messaged me personally that my work has helped them get through tough times in school, in their relationships, at the office and I am eternally grateful that they took the time to tell me that.
I just also wish my feelings about my work aren't easily brought down by the majority of people who insist its worthless. Even if sometimes those people is me.
So forgive me if I won't be funny for a while. I'm gonna need some time to process this. Thank you for reading. I love you.
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ianmrid · 4 years
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I'm On A Master Quest! (Master Quest!)
Before I wrap up my SoulSilver adventure, there is one thing I need to go back to: the rescue of my Gen1 and 2 pokémon from my Game Boy cartridges. You may recall that last time, with the help of @cakeinmilk​, I had managed to back up all of the save files containing my teams from the cartridges, ensuring they wouldn’t vanish when the batteries inevitably fail. The next step is get them from those .sav files and into a legitimate game.
First up is getting a .sav file of a Gen3 game to transfer the pokémon into, as I want to pass the Gen1 and 2 ‘mons through as many legitimate games as possible once I rescue them. This is easy enough as ROM files aren’t hard to track down online, and I picked Pokémon Ruby since neither Ruby nor Sapphire have any restrictions on when you can trade - you can do it as soon as you have the Pokédex at the start of the game. Once I have this ROM, I open it up in the Game Boy emulator, Virtual Boy, start a new game and save at the earliest opportunity after getting the Pokédex. Now I have a Ruby.sav.
Now I need some specialist software - available for free thankfully! This is the PKX Delta conversion utility that allows you to open, edit, and save the .sav files for Pokémon games. Once installed, I open up my Pokémon Yellow.sav and select a pokémon to rescue. I decide to start with just one test case and pick the first member of one of my teams that I see; Dimebar the Sandslash from my Pokémon Blue final team (wo was traded to Yellow when I consolidated my final Pokédex there).
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Next, within the same utility, open up another file, this time my recently created Ruby.sav. With both windows open, it is now very easy to either cut and paste, or drag and drop, Dimebar from Gen1 to Gen3 - and it works flawlessly!
Now that they are here, it is time to make a few edits to the pokémon that will be needed to present it as legitimate to the future games that I want to pass it through. I mentioned here, that between Gen2 and Gen3, the EV and IV system was overhauled which means that when Dimebar has way, way too many EVs. These are limited to 510 from Gen3 onwards (with a maximum of 255 in any given Stat) plus the IV are all between 0-15, when they can now be between 0-31 from Gen3 onwards. There is a simple ‘Auto’ button in the editor, allowing it update to something valid, but I wanted the pokémon to be as accurate as possible to the one from the Game Boy team, so I used a combination of IV and EV edits to make sure that while the values for IVs/EVs are all legitimate, they also end up with all of Dimebar’s stats matching up with those it had in the original Gen1 game. Unnecessary!
There are a few more edits to be made. I set the ‘Game Met’ and ‘Location Encountered’ to ‘Other’ and ‘In-game Trade’ respectively, to ensure that it looks like the pokémon was traded into Gen3. I selected a Nature, an Ability, and a Gender for Dimebar (as none of these existed in Gen1). Dimebar now uses she/her pronouns. Finally, I checked the legitimacy of her moveset and deleted the move Cut since the games often don’t like HM moves on traded pokémon.
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Bam! Dimebar is ready to go! Now to get her to a legitimate cartridge.
This was the part that I expected to struggle with, but at least it won’t cost me any more money to try! This is because I fortunately still have my Flash Cart/SD card for the Game Boy Advance from when I was using the distribution ROMs for Mew and Deoxys, back in Gen3. This time, I use the Pokémon Ruby ROM with my edited .sav file instead and copy it onto the Flash cart and boot it up. So far, so good. I also boot up my legitimate copy of Pokémon Emerald on a second GBA, connect them up with a link cable, and head to the Pokémon Center in both games in order to trade. 
And...it actually works! I was genuinely shocked at how easy that proved to be - but also very pleasantly surprised. My Gen1 pokémon is now in my legitimate Gen3 game. I quickly tested out Pal Park and was able to move Dimebar to Pokémon Platinum like I would with any other pokémon. Huge success!
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With Dimebar having passed into legitimate Hoenn and Sinnoh games, I decided to leave it here for now. I’ll be taking Dimebar with me all the way through future generations as a test case as I really don’t want to do all those conversion edits on all of my Gen1 and 2 teams just to have found that I have missed something and have the transfer fail in Gen5, Gen6, or even beyond! At the rate I am playing these games, part 3 of the great Gen1 and 2 rescue, where I come back for the others, will probably be posted in several years!
Finally, I wanted to thank Atop The Fourth Wall, the author of this Youtube video as it was the very comprehensive guide that I followed to get this far - I wouldn’t have a clue where to start otherwise!
What a satisfying way to wrap up Gen4!
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tarralin · 5 years
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Whirlwind
SFW ((Word count: 3496))
A/N: This is almost a month late but here we go! A few of us were greatly inspired by this glorious creation by the amazing @pastel-hideout (thank you for doing the Lord's work👏👏) when fangirling led to brainstorming which led to this smut-off challenge issued by @darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts and @xathia-89 with a few others of us joining in. Part 2 will be hosted over on @spicytarralin at a later time
Sir by @darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts
Yes, Professor by @jennacat84
A Towel is Optional by @xathia-89
~☆~
She should have been home hours ago yet here she was burning the midnight oil on a Tuesday after both of her teammates packed up their desks with no prior notice, leaving her to thread together the monthly financial reports alone. Truthfully, it really could have waited until tomorrow-- or even Thursday-- but working so close to the wire always filled her with dread and stole her sleep anyway.
A few too many power surges during video game marathons as a kid had drilled home a habit of frequent saves and a need to hoard duplicate reports like a dragon collecting its treasure. Habits she was eternally grateful for in times like this as they enabled her transform the seemingly mountain-sized workload into a manageable molehill.
Aaaaannnnnddddd I'm done!
A perk to being the only soul in the office was no one around to witness the unladylike victory dance as she pranced barefoot to the printer or her horrible rendition of a Broadway musical number with the innocent corporate report portfolio as her prop. Until lively clapping sounded immediately behind her, startling her to the point of knocking her off balance from the grand battement she was performing and sending her promptly to the floor.
A chuckle rumbled from the white-haired culprit as he extended a hand to help her up. “I was unaware we had a little mouse scurrying about during the nights and giving free entertainment.”
Her ears burned from being caught as a cold sweat ran down her back at the embarrassment. She accepted his hand to right herself and inspect the portfolio's contents before correcting him. “Only tonight. I'm not in the habit of pushing things off to the last minute… and I thought I was alone.”
“You were until a few moments ago,” another chuckle as his gaze latched onto the reports in her grasp. “I was just informed two of my lead accountants left the company without warning this afternoon and abandoned their work. I just came to take care of it myself but it looks like I was beaten to the draw. It's reassuring to know there are reliable individuals here who will rise when others fall. Let me take those off your hands.”
He reached for the folder only to be denied when she pulled it back out of reach. “I'm also not in the habit of releasing sensitive documents to just anyone who claims to be a boss. Especially when I, personally, have never seen his face. I apologize for any offense but I'll drop them off at the office myself, thanks.”
The casual smirk faded as surprise flashed through in his golden eyes before his grin returned, outstretched hand sweeping the room in an open gesture for her to lead the way.
Emboldened by his quick acceptance, she trotted away toward the elevators--
“Ahem…”
--until his voice stopped her and she watched the man bending to retrieve her heels from the floor. “Don't you need these?”
I'm going to have potato chips for ears before the night over if I keep this up. She managed to avoid eye contact as she slipped back into the death traps of fashion but caught sight of a growing grin as he waited patiently.
“I've never actually been to the executive floor before.” The typical droning elevator music had been cut at the end of business hours, plunging the ride to the top floor in the eerie silence she hated and felt a need to fill the void. “So this is a bit of an adventure.”
“Nothing too grand, I assure you. Just a few conference rooms and the private offices of the department heads.”
She shrugged at that. “Still a first and-- whoa!”
The entire floor appeared encased in sparkling crystal in the moonlight. Frosted and etched glass separated each room and office instead of plaster and drywall, giving an illusion to privacy. Dimmed lights along the wall base lit the floor path to the center hub where a circular receptionist desk sat like the heart of communication it probably was to the handful of walkways.
And he said ‘nothing too grand’.
“I have a strict open door policy.”
“ ‘Open door’? There are no doors at all to open.” Her eyes scanned the area for where the portfolio was supposed to go until they landed on a silver box to her left similar to a post office mail drop. As she approached it, an engraved plate denoted it as the ‘after hours’ report drop.
“Feel better?” The gentleman questioned with a raised eyebrow and the same smirk from earlier after her bundle landed inside the box with a distinctive thunk.
“Yes, I can now sleep soundly without it looming over my head.” She answered firmly, turning back down the short hall. She only made it a few steps before the jingle of keys sounded throughout the floor. She turned just in time to witness the man unlocking the box as if he had a thousand times, tucking the portfolio under his arm like a morning newspaper.
Yup, my ears are definitely burning to crisps.
She tried to evade him but the elevator just wouldn't move fast enough and he stepped onto the platform right as the doors closed behind him. She didn't dare say a word, thinking back to earlier and worried about how long he had watched her gather the reports together. She was so sure she had been alone until he appeared out of nowhere like a ghost.
I'll probably be fired in the morning.
The landing bell signaled the end of the line and they both exited into the parking garage, waving to the security guard before he caught her attention by holding up the folder. “I assume you'll be available for questioning should I require any clarifications?”
“Actually, after that performance, I planned to live under a rock for the rest of my life.”
“Depriving the world of such a delight? And people call me a tease.”
She shook her head with an eye roll, fighting against the fresh wave of embarrassment that threatened to singe her ears and cheeks again. She never had trouble remaining professional at work before, why was it so hard now and especially in front of this man? She needed to wrap things up and be on her way before she made a fool of herself any more than she already had.
She turned to him once reaching her car. “It was an honor and a pleasure meeting you, but now I have a suitable rock to hunt down and so I bid you goodnight.” There. That was mostly professional, right?
“The honor was all mine,” he extended his hand casually for a parting shake. She hesitated when she caught a glimpse of mischief sparkling in those golden eyes but shook off the feeling and accepted his hand firmly. Of course, it was a trap. Instead of releasing her after the appropriate time, he turned her hand in his and brought her knuckles to his lips. “As was the pleasure.”
That promptly turned her brains to mush incapable of words. With only a nod, she retrieved her hand and loaded in her car to finally make her way home.
~~~
Instead of being fired the next morning, Mitsuhide Akechi himself walked the finance floor until finding her desk to hand her a crate loaded with binders of financial reports for the last two years.
“I have some concerns but can't locate exactly what's wrong. I've already distributed your usual work to others as this will be your priority for the next week. You'll report directly to me only and the conference room at the end of the hall is yours for the time being as well.” Like a whirlwind, he was gone again, seemingly oblivious to the excited chatter following the shocked silence he rendered across the floor with his mere presence.
Even with such vague instructions, it didn't take long for her to find his ‘concerns’. The reports before her spelled out a textbook case of money laundering. However, the culprits were good at covering the tracks and distinguishing the pseudo-businesses from the legitimates would be the most time-consuming. But not impossible. All she had to do was find the patterns within the numbers…
It didn't take the whole week. By lunchtime on day three, she had her final report ready with her findings. Even with the evidence in hand, it was hard for her to believe that she had been working alongside the culprits for so long. No wonder they up and left all of a sudden, they must have known their thievery had been found out.
But why didn't Akechi seem surprised?
After presenting the information, he only smirked up at her as usual. “You even tracked down the ‘business’ owners. Impressive.”
When you say it like that… “Y-you already knew?”
A sigh as he righted the report in front of him into place. “I've known of those two's illegal activities since before they began.”
“Then why didn't you stop them?”
“ ‘Never interrupt your enemy when they're making a mistake’, plus it was quite entertaining to watch their poor attempts for a little while.”
“ ‘Entertaining’?! Who on Earth would just sit back and watch while people steal from their company? And what was the point of having me investigate it if you already knew?”
“Because, my little mouse, if you brought me the correct names it meant you played no part in the scheme.”
Ice flashed through her veins. “What's that supposed to mean?”
He stood at that, circling his desk to loom over her. The gaze he leveled her way froze her feet in place and, for a moment, she really did feel like a mouse caught in a predator's trap. “You didn't really think there was no backup plan, did you?”
Only sheer will kept her from trembling as realization struck. Just a few weeks ago, her identity protection plan had notified her of suspicious activity but assured her they had it taken care of. “They… they tried to pin it on me.”
“Indeed, luckily it appears you made some smart choices. And of course, I happen to be a little more than the average businessman.”
And here I called Dad paranoid for buying me that protection...
“Also,” his voice switching back to business mode as he paced back to his chair drew her from her panic. “Your thorough investigation shows you capable of filling one of the empty lead positions.”
“You're promoting me?”
He blinked up in genuine surprise. “You have an objection?”
“No!” She recovered. “It's just… a lot to take in and definitely not the direction I thought things would take.”
“Oh?” He grinned with genuine interest. “What direction was that?”
"A few days ago I thought I was fired!"
A chuckle while he sipped at a coffee mug. "I'll email you a briefing on your new duties and you can visit HR once you've moved into your new office."
"Thank you!" She turned excitedly on her heels to begin her new journey.
~~~
Akechi became a familiar face on the finance floor after her promotion, claiming an interest in overseeing her transition and supplemental training himself. Though it seemed he had more of an interest in seeing how far he could push her past her limits. For weeks, each visit rendered her with a heightened pulse as his words always held a double meaning that never failed to pull very not safe for work images to mind. He never touched. Nor pushed further if she showed the teeniest hint of resistance, switching back to complete professionalism that only flustered her more most days.
That changed one day when she needed paper for the floor printer.
The supply closet located to the left of the elevator and stairwell was so small it was nearly impossible for two people to fit into the space packed with Xerox packages and janitorial supplies.
Nearly.
“Little Mouse.”
She jumped at the shattered silence until recognition of his baritone registered. “Mr. Akechi, can you please stop doing that?”
“But you make it oh so tempting, I can't help myself.”
“And you said you were more than an average businessman.”
His familiar chuckle pranced across her ears, sending delicious shivers down her spine. “Up to now, I have been. Took pride in my self-control. Imagine my surprise when I witnessed a carefree spirit dancing on my financial floor and suddenly taken by an overpowering urge to join her.”
She blinked up at him silently while he stepped so close she could feel the heat wafting off him though, as usual, he never touched. His words sounded more and more like a confession, an impossible confession. She was just an accountant-- No, wait… Her throat finally opened up for her to ask the question suddenly screaming for an answer. “Did you really promote me for my capabilities, or only to get close to me then?”
The question was out but she looked away, unable to witness the answer with her own eyes. Slender fingers whispered across her jaw, coaxing her to look back up to him. Those same fingers traced her bottom lip once she did, the liquid heat of his eyes taking her breath from her.
“I was already infatuated before walking you to your car, I will admit. Then I pulled your employee records. Spotless with nothing but positive words from your previous superiors. That, alone, wouldn't be very impressive to me but were you aware you have a letter of recommendation from Tokugawa? Those are not easily achieved. Honestly, I have no idea how those other two ever thought they would manage to frame you for their misdeeds. Which is why I gave you the chance to prove yourself first but had the termination papers ready to sign should you have failed that little test, feelings present or not.”
“But I passed.”
“I knew you would-- hoped even. You are talented and earned that position yourself, have no doubt in that.”
“Alright…” Now, how the hell am I supposed to address the other thing?
As if he read her thoughts, he brought the tip of his finger back across her lips to softly silence her. “I know this is not the typically ideal setting for such a conversation but I couldn't hold back any longer when your snark offered the perfect opportunity, Little Mouse. However, you need not worry about rushing me any reciprocation. Take your time to think about it and I will deal with my own troubles in the meantime. Should you choose to explore further, you need only call me by my first name.”
Her heart raced again. He really had thought of everything, even a clear route to refusal… One she didn't need. She didn't need any more time.
He had just turned to leave when her hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him in place.
“Mitsuhi-”
His lips were on hers before she finished the name, demanding entrance that she gave willingly. Her fingers tangled in his blazer lapels in a feeble attempt to hold onto the world around her while blindsided by such feverish desire as he all but devoured her, his tongue coaxing hers to dance with him.
It wasn't until the prep counter edge hit the back of her thighs that she realized her skirt hiked up past her stocking bands as he settled her effortlessly atop its surface, the cold of it a stark reminder to their location.
“Wait,” she gasped once gathering the resolve to break the trance.
His palms dropped from her hair to the counter instantly at her plea while his forehead rested on hers, patiently waiting for her next words.
She smoothed the wrinkles in his jacket her fingers had created as her breath returned. “Not yet, not here.”
“Too soon.” He nodded in agreement as his own eyes cleared of desire's fog. “I'm sorry, it has been quite some time since I've lost rein of my emotions and it looks like I still have a ways to go before I can properly control myself around you.”
She couldn't help the soft giggles bubbling at the confusion clear in his brow. “Usually, I'm the one who has to control herself.”
“No, I don't believe that.”
She ignored his usual teasing while hopping off the counter to right herself again. His fingers brushed lightly through her hair to fix wry tufts while hers continued to focus on his blazer lapels and shirt collar. Only when she finished did she look up into his eyes while claiming his hands in hers. “I am interested but I've also rushed into things a lot in the past and they always ended horribly for everyone. I'm only just now starting to feel confident in my position and think it best-- given my track record-- to go slow.”
His head rested leisurely back to hers and she wondered how he could stand the heat emitting from her flushed face? She barely could. His smirk returned to its rightful place as his thumb ghosted over her bottom lip. Whatever he was about to say, was lost to the door handle clicking.
Mitsuhide had two paper boxes on the counter in the next instant and another occupying his hands before the door cracked open to reveal one of her subordinates. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, what perfect timing!” Mitsuhide grinned to the intruder. “We were just thinking we would need the trolley, but not with an extra set of hands.” The box in his hands shifted so suddenly the poor man at the door nearly fell backward as he tried to catch it, just for Mitsuhide to load another box on top. “You got those, I'll take these, and you can handle that last one, right Little Mouse?”
Proving he truly was a whirlwind incarnate, Mitsuhide was out the door without another glance behind him.
~~~
The premiere performance of Madama Butterfly sold out almost immediately and yet what was it he waved in front of her face one autumn Thursday morning? He even arranged her the day off to prepare for the evening. No dress? He arranged that, too; curating a selection to choose from, as well as a hair and makeup appointment if she desired it.
The show itself was as beautiful as it was heart-wrenching, even with Mitsuhide distracting her a sizable portion of the time by monopolizing her hand with soft caresses and softer kisses over every inch of skin. Afterward, he insisted on showing her the best view in the city which happened to be the rooftop of the office building.
“I didn't know all this was even up here.” She didn't even try to hide the awe in her voice as she took in her surroundings. If she didn't know any better, it would be easy to believe they were in Central Park with the colorful flower beds lining sections of expansive lawn covering a majority of the roof. A covered patio near the door sat upon a raised dais that overlooked the city with an outdoor kitchen and bar. No additional lighting was needed due to the glow provided by the surrounding city life.
“There are only a select few who do, plus the gardener who values his own secrets enough to keep mine.”
“Do I even want to know what that means?”
“Probably not.” Rumbling laughter as he looped an arm around her waist to guide her to the patio where a sake warmer awaited. If anyone had told her at the beginning of the month she would end up enjoying an exotic brew with the boss on the rooftop lounger, she would have laughed in their face! But here she was gazing over the city skyline in an elegant dress and gorgeous hair, a nearly forgotten sake glass in one hand while Mitsuhide occupied the other as he's had during the opera.
Each deliberate drag of lips across her knuckles sent heat racing through her veins that had nothing to do with the sake. Only when he was satisfied no part of her hand went untouched did he move on to continue the trail across her wrist and forearm. Molten gold irises held her own captive as the knuckles of his other hand softly traced her jaw.
"Have you had enough of the view?"
There was no mistaking the true question being asked. The weeks since their closet confessions saw many dinner and lunch dates. Weekends were designated ‘adventure’ days when they found local activities to do together, even if just strolling the shoreline or boardwalk. Almost every outing ended with at least a soft kiss on the top of her head, more than a few escalating to being pinned to the wall much as she had the counter in the stock closet. But every time he would cut it short with a clear question and an easily accessible way out for her to choose.
This time, she didn't.
~☆~
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Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared REVIEW:
  Hello there everybody! My name is JoyofCrimeArt and I do review-y type stuff on rare occasion! I've been a fan of online original content ever since I was a kid, ever since I first got into "Homestar Runner" back in 2010 (before that most of my internet time was spent playing flash games online and listing to Phineas and Ferb songs on Youtube.) Me and my brothers fell in love with Homestar Runner, as well as the various spin-off series that came from Homestar like the "Teen Girl Squad" and the "Strong Bad Emails." While I'm sure there where some web series I had seen before then it was Homestar that was the first big one and ever since I have been enamored with online original content. As time went on I became fans of other online web series, like Death Battle, TOME, RWBY, and many many others. There is something I find just magical about online original content. It's completely unfiltered content. Online you can do or create anything you can imagine, have it run for as long as you want it to (assuming you have the money or dedication to keep producing it) without the threat of it "not meeting the right demo" or "not pulling in high enough ratings." If you can imagine it and have the gumption to put in the hard work you create anything you want to. It like the artist equivalent of the American Dream. You can do anything you want, and be as creative as you want to be! Sorry if that came off as a bit long winded and cheesy but that's how I feel about this exciting new medium. And while there are tonnes of web series I would like to talk about in a review at some point, (and hopefully I will get to some of them in the future) for today I want to talk about a web series that brings whole new meaning to the word "creative," Don't Hug Me I'm Scared.   "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" is a British web series created by Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. Also TomSka was an executive producer for episodes 3-6. Which...actually explains a lot. Basically DHMIS Is a six part miniseries that ran from July 29th, 2011 to June 19th 2016. The series is basically an education series in the style of "Sesame Street" starring three puppets named "Red Guy," Yellow Guy," and "Duck Guy." (And yes those are there official) names as they learn different educational lessons from different "teachers" in each episode. Now if you haven't seen the series yet I highly suggest you check it out before continuing the review because this is the kind of show where the less you know going in the better, plus combined the series is only about a half hour long. However, I feel like I must warn you, this series is not for young children. It is for adults. (Because come on, it something online and it looks wholesome. Of course it's actually fu*ked up.) Don't go into this series unless your in the mood to see some messed up sh*t. So before you advance be aware, SPOILERS!  Anyway, you back? Okay, so for those of you who already know the show or don't care about spoilers, the show is really a dark parody of pre-school televisions that should either be classified in the horror genre, the REALLY dark comedy genre, or BOTH, depending on ones personal point of view. Each episode tends to follow the same basic formula about some teacher showing up and trying to teach our main characters a lesson, but somewhere along the way the message becomes corrupted and usually ends with the puppets being traumatized or killed. Episode Two, for example, is at first about time, but slowly but surly ends up becoming about the impending death or everyone and thing. Episode Three starts talking about love and ends up being about cult indoctrination. It's pretty messed up stuff. But I know what you're thinking, who cares? There are tonnes of stuff that take kiddie things and makes them adult, especially on the internet. What makes DHMIS so special? Personally, I think want makes Don't Hug Me so special is the amount of detail and that was put into it. Even without the shock value the series is still a well made and interesting spectacle to see.  So let's talk about the characters. While this form of simple and short form series doesn't lend itself to any complex characterization the main three puppets still have distinct personalities, even if there not the deepest characters out there. Red Guy is the sarcastic and rational one, and always talks with a deadpan tone to his voice. He is the smartest one of the group and is the fastest to figure out that something wrong is going on. Yellow Guy is naive, childlike, and not very bright. He is the most excepting of all of the puppets. He's my favorite character in the series, because by the end you just feel so bad for him (watch the series if you want to know what I'm talking about, I don't want to spoil to much.) Duck Guy, honestly, is my least favorite of the main three puppets. He seems kinda foppish and a bit more likely to kinda acts as the smart one when Red Guy isn't used for that, but overall I feel he's the weakest of the main three characters and doesn't have as much character development.
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(...) (What did you say to me, b!tch?)  And I say character development because, shockingly, all three characters do go through some character development as the series progressive. The characters become more self aware, and eventually start to expect something bad to happen once there weird "teachers" show up, instead of just going with it like they did in the earlier episodes. One of my favorite blink and you miss it style jokes in the series is when Duck Guy freaks out when The Computer mentions being able to tell the time, because he remembers the "lesson" about time he already learned from the clock. It's cool because they are learning form past experiences. Also there's individual arcs for the characters as time goes on like Red Guy learning to be less of a downer and being more creative.  The show starts following a basic formula, with a teacher teaching the puppets a lesson through song, then something messed up happening and the world resets. However what I really admire is that this show plays with that formula, starting with episode four onward. The shows starts to lose it's status quo and, as mentioned above, the characters start to become more self aware. The episodes start having frickin' continuity! For real! It's really unexpected and, in my opinion, was a really good idea. The audience where starting to see the formula, and after the first episode where just waiting for the episodes to become messed up. So they decided to create a story to draw the audience in. If they just keep doing messed up things over and over again the show would become boring but the twist of actually telling a story, couple with the brevity of the story, managed to keep the story interesting the whole way through.  The story is...weird. It's very much up for interpretation and cryptic. Sort of in the "Five Nights at Freddies" kind of way. Hints and Easter eggs are hidden in the various episodes and there are tonnes of theory videos online about what it all "really means." So if that's your kind of thing then you'll love this series. there are so many weird hints and recurring motifs that I haven't seen a single theory that covers everything. The final episode feels like the story is solved but heck if I know what the story even was about. I think the point of DHMIS isn't about actually solving the mystery but rather making up your own conclusion. I don't think there is a one hundred percent "definitive" answer, partially because of the theme of "creativity" that is in the series a lot and partially because Becky Sloan in an interview said in regard to fan theories that "they are all correct." and I love it when creators say that. They leave things up to the audience to decide what to take away form the series, instead of telling them.  Don't Hug Me I'm Scared's attention to detail goes beyond the recurring motifs and Easter eggs though. What I really appreciate about the series is the attention to detail when it comes to the parody aspect of the show. Now this is a subjective thing, but I've always felt that the best parodies are the ones that either respect the thing that they are parodying. If you like the thing that your parodying it will give you a better understanding of it and make it easier to parody, cause you know exactly why the thing works and is good. It is possible to parody something you hate if you really get what your parodying, but it may end up coming off as sounding bitter. (Not always mind you, but sometimes.) It is clear that there was respect and love for educational programming like Sesame Street, and thus the parody ends up working a lot better. The high production value also helps the parody aspect. The puppets in DHMIS look really good! They look like they could be legitimate puppets in a real children's educational television program. This ends up making the twist that it's actually a horror story even better because the audience doesn't know what to expect if there going into the series blind. They might stumble upon the video and think it's a clip from some real British television series. The series wouldn't be able to work the way it does now if the puppets looked creepy from the start, there would be no contrast. To be honest the puppets in this show look less creepy than some real children's educational puppet shows.
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(That top pic is from 80's direct to VHS education series "Peppermint Park" by the way, and also sorry if I accidentally gave you any nightmares.)  Speaking of which, the production values of this whole show is frickin' incredible! Admittedly the production values for the first two episodes aren't as good as later episodes, but starting with episode three the series becomes amazing to look at. Every prop is is made of felt or cloth and the world is heavily decorated down to the smallest detail. The show also incorporates a multitude of different art styles throughout the series. Sure it's ninety percent puppetry but they also incorporate stop motion, flash animation, purposely bad CG graphics, and even some live action film making in certain parts. Every episode features a different song, and most are really catchy (Though the series tends to focus less and less on the songs as time goes on in order to focus more on plot, which is kind of a bummer.) The humor won't be for everybody, it's that sort of dry and surreal humor found in say, and old adult swim show. It's not for everyone but I really like it. It would be so easy to just make this show a kid show that ends up becoming disturbing, but this show does offer other positives so you can still enjoy the series after on re-watch.  If I had to pick a favorite episode out of the six I would probably say episode three. I like the song, moral, and environments the most out of any episode and I feel like the comedy in that episode is the best of the whole series. Episode three also acts like a nice breather episode as it's one of the least terrifying one. My least favorite episode would probably be episode five. The song isn't that catchy in my opinion and it keeps getting interrupted by the plot, which isn't bad for the episodes necessarily but it does hurt the song.) Also I honestly can't tell what the message is. Most other episodes have a message, even if it is a dark and twisted one, like how episode four is about the dangers on the internet, how it just wants information from you, and how easy it is to get sucked inside it. But episodes five's moral, I just don't really see it. I still like the episode but I just find it a bit subpar compared to some of the other episodes. And no disrespect to you if you love episode five or hate episode three, it's just my personal opinion.  So yeah, I highly recommend DHMIS. It's bright, it's disturbing, it's funny, it has incredible production value for a Youtube series, it has great songs, it has chicken picnic's and aspic, what more can anybody want! While it's in no way the perfect series it's a really creative show that I think really pushes the envelope of what a Youtube series can be, because honestly that's probably the most impressive thing about Don't Hug Me. It managed to become popular without feeling the need to conform to what everybody else on Youtube was doing. It is something completely unique. While there may be tonnes of online gamers and film reviewers (And I'm not trying to knock those type of Youtuber's as I am a fan of many people that fall into that category) but there is only one online surrealist, horror, dark comedy, musical, puppet show! And that's Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared. It's not for everybody, but if your a fan of things like "Too Many Cooks" than you'll love this.  So that's my review of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared (Hopefully it didn't come off as too rambly and fanboy-y). Have you seen the series? If you have, what do you think? Do you have any theories or interpretations on the ending? What's your favorite episode? Tell me in the comments bellow if you'd like to. I'd love to have a civil discussion about it! I'd love to hear what you all have to think, even if you disagree with what I think. Also I'd love to know what you think about my review style, and what I could do to improve upon it in the future. Please fav, follow, and comment and If you liked the review and I will see you all next time! Have a great day! (I do not own any of the images in this review.) .......Okay, I change my mind. This guy is my favorite character.
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https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Don-t-Hug-Me-I-m-Scared-REVIEW-629975791 DA Link
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