#which like... I understand if so. but I'm glad it still exists as a deleted scene at least

[fairyroses]

— Deleted Scene from SMALLVILLE, “Talisman” (3.20)

[willowser]

trying to hide your plagiarism isn’t a good look bestie

okie !! taking this moment, for the first and last time, to say, overall: if you're coming into my inbox to be hateful, it will be deleted outright 😌 i am a grown, adult human being and this is my little space and !! i won't allow anyone to poison it 😌 thank you !!!

to you specifically, anon-dear !! you have come to visit me and left me hateful messages just about every day for going-on three weeks now !! so i will finally acknowledge you publicly and give you the attention you so desire !! 😌

you have yet to supply me with any evidence whatsoever that i've plagiarized, as i asked you to do in my first response, and that proves to me that there is none ! you claim that i locked my blog to delete evidence, but — again, i ask you — what evidence ? if you would be so kind as to give me even a smidgen of an idea, i would be glad to pull it up for you ! bc i didn't, in fact, delete anything while i was private.

again, i offer you the opportunity to message me privately, if this is a real concern of yours ! which i don't believe you will do, but ! i will be waiting ! if you're still insisting that i've stolen the "love island bakugou" concept, then i urge you to understand what plagiarism really is.

you've also called me a "white, racist piece of shit" that "steals from woc", which is hilarious, considering i'm hispanic.

and finally !! this will not continue 😌 please understand that every message you send to my inbox with no other intention than to be hateful and ugly, will only be seen by you and i and it will die there because that's what i've decided 😌 you will not exist here in my lil safe space, because, again, that's what i've decided 😌

genuinely, i wish you the best, and i hope that you will grow from this ! if you would ever like to come into my inbox to talk to me about the things you love or whatever head-canons you have for your favorite 2d men or any other thing that belongs in this place — i would love to have you 🩷✨️

[spockandawe]

You know what, I'm not happy about this either :T

Unless I'm t-boned by another reblog from someone huge, this likely won't reach as wide of an audience. And I regret that! Because either I presented myself badly or people are taking the wrong thing away from my words.

So, I strongly, STRONGLY believe in supporting writers. I also strongly believe in archival work and preservation of online media. I mentioned my own binding of the raksura patreon short stories earlier this year, hoping to manifest an official printing to buy, which.... folks, the implicit logical endpoint is that I went and expanded them all and saved them locally too.

It wasn't scraping, since I've seen that description being tossed around in the notes. My copy was manual copy and paste, because I don't respect my own time, and so was the other recent version. If you're going to rail against that, I guess you've successfully transported nft rage about right click + save as to a new medium.

Frankly, the patreon interface is a pain for this. Infinite scroll is part of the enshittification of the internet, this is a lot of text and posts, patreon isn't a powerful archival site, and it started choking horribly by the time I was halfway through. Now that I know people can still sign up (which i didn't, for years, that closed label is misleading), I still emphatically encourage them to do so and fight through the lag to read the stories.

I also quoted the thing where I said I owned all the books in three formats - physical, ebook, audiobook. Guess what copy I use for most rereads - that's right, none of them, because I was a dumb youth who didn't understand how awful kindle drm is and I can't word search in a paper book, so the secret fourth format is pirated ebooks, which I know amazon will never be able to yoink out of my grip. If I ever git gud at illumination and make a hand-illustrated compendium of the series, that's going to be my starting base, because there arent digital rights to lock me down to owning ACCESS to a copy of the book and not the copy of the book itself.

Now, the existence of pirated ebooks isn't all sunshine and roses. I've seen the talks about how new books IMMEDIATELY get pirated and shared and start cutting into an author's livelihood and future publishing prospects. I think it's incredibly important to support authors directly and in ways corporate marketing teams are able to observe. But especially in light of the Hollywood strikes, I'm sure many of us have seen posts about corporate entities playing shitty games with what they'll make available and withhold, and what they'll CHARGE versus what the customer has PURCHASED.

The only thing in the original post I take issue with is the reposting of something that was still available directly through the author. That has already been addressed. The originator is remorseful. I still understand if the patreon vanishes, to be clear. But i quietly made my own copy years ago BECAUSE i understand how easy it is for something like that to vanish, for much more arbitrary reasons. It could have been vanished because of site policy, patreon abruptly archiving all posts more than X years old. Online media is dangerously ephemeral.

I bind a lot of cnovel fan translations. So many amazing stories are getting licensed for translation - great! But it's also a massive extinction event for all the backbreaking translation work other fans have been sharing for years for free. And from that perspective it's a fucking TRAGEDY. I have... a Lot of files that I'm not sharing publicly. My goal is never to preempt or undermine the translators who did the actual work. But that hoard of files is still precious to me, because it takes about five seconds to delete a gdoc of translation, and there's not always warning to save a copy first.

Again, emphasis, my only issue here was the reposting. I'm not happy that it happened. I'm glad the files were quickly taken down, whether or not the patreon itself goes away. I'm glad op is remorseful for overstepping, and I can... mostly see how they didn't realize the problem, and mainly wanted to help more people experience a story they loved.

So it's also worth saying that I'm also not too stoked about the direction tags on that post were starting to go. 'Piracy is inexcusable, piracy is the death of--' STOP. I recognize that begging for nuance while tossing thoughts out onto social media is a losing game. But actually, I'm out of patience for black and white thinking happening on my post. Piracy is a valuable tool for archivists and a hazard to creators, which is why it should be practiced quietly and with deliberate care. It should be practiced in a way that attempts not to damage the creator's livelihood or take away control of their creations. That's where the misstep was here. OP understood they had misstepped and they were expressing remorse even before I got on my high horse, and it sure doesn't seem like the notes care about that, so! I'm done letting the outrage machine feed on it.

That's probably enough. I'm not saying anything I haven't said on here before. If you've ever grieved for a beloved fic missing from your ao3 bookmarks because it was deleted, you understand the basic archival urge. If you lost access to a favorite artist's extensive archives because the images were flagged in the 2018 boob ban, you should be able to understand. I manually saved 36,000 pictures in that brief grace period before I completely burned out. The fundamental impulse shouldn't be that hard to grasp. The rest is just responsible practices, and people fuck up sometimes. It sucks, but sometimes you don't recognize a boundary is there before you blunder right over it with the best of intentions. I think a lot of us have been there too.

Anyways, this is too much text, how boring to look at. Here's my remaining pictures of my own little anthology copy. Still manifesting an official release someday, or any books of the raksura material at all. Money will literally fly from my pocket to purchase it in every available format.

[yellowocaballero]

definitely no pressure or anything and u can ignore this entirely but i would love to hear more abt any of ur ideas for atsv fic (ur multiversal mistake peter parker fic appealed to me greatly) ...... i loved how atsv tied so explicitly into metanarratives by just calling them 'canon events' instead of smth else and the whole movie felt like it was justifying miles as spiderman and that his story is just as much a spiderman story as the others. and i love how you engage with canon in similar ways ? like u engage with the text of canon on a level that i find really interesting frex like i loved ur stephanie fic extra just bc stephanie is a character done so dirty by canon in all these awful misogynist ways that ur fic felt like like such an amazing contradiction.... this ask has kind of gotten away from me, but i hope ur doing well on the whole !

Thank you! All of the Spidey crossover fic ideas I have are tepid, so none are good enough to share. Bad crossovers are easy, good crossovers are so hard. And there's nothing more obnoxious than a bad crossover. MK/Avengers fics, you were awful.

I typed out this whole dissection on how modern Spider-Man writers have completely lost the thread of Peter as an 'everyman', and how he wasn't an 'everyman' because he was relatable in terms of personality, identity, or actions, but because he was relatable in terms of problems, and how once Spider-Man stories started being about how difficult it is to be Spider-Man Masked Hero instead of being about how difficult it is to survive in this world and be a good person when you never know if you're doing the right thing or not, then they stopped being actually engaging as everyman stories. and when you simplify Spider-Man down to 'he's just like you except with a cooler life!' then you miss WHY it's important that Peter's life is marked by tragedy and defined by his sadness, which is the fact that if his life was easy then it would indicate that it was easy to be a good person, and what the story tries to say is that being a good person is the hardest thing in the fucking world But Baby We Do It Anyway, and THAT'S what Spider-Man is about, and -

Then I realized that was fucking dumb and also not what you asked and deleted it. ATSV is peak fanfiction because it engages in conversation with the text, and while it has a lot to say about Spidey stories itself it is not a Spidey story. I think end of the day 'what classic spidey is about' just can't be what Miles is about, because Miles is about his relationship to Peter & Spider-Man. They're mutually exclusive. Miles CAN'T have Peter's story at all, because ATSV is telling a story about telling a story. Superhero stories really can't exist unobserved anymore huh. This is so common - Spidey stories since the 2010 have honestly been about being Spidey stories - that at this rate it is also a Spidey story and so it is valid on the grounds of how ubiqutous this story is. I sound like a dipshit.

So I'm still trying to formulate a good story. Miguel vexes me, I've been trying to lock down a good story idea for him for ages and it just hasn't happened. What I liked about the SM2099 comic was the fact that it was about Miguel, who was dealing with a problem that a lot of adults deal with: having your sense of self and identity disrupted, having your understanding of the world disrupted, and trying to sort out how to build yourself into somebody you can live with. I don't think he ever truly figures that out. So it's hard to write a story asking that question, because man I'll let you know when I figure it out too.

And I'm glad you liked New Wave - that was also heavily in conversation with the text, because the text hated women. Steph is an everyman to me - not because she's remotely similar to any human being in real life, but because she wants what any human being would want. And does the weirdest possible thing to get it.

[theteablogger]

Follow-up Q from reading back on the timeline: is there a place on here/elsewhere where screenshots or Wayback captures from AB’s blog are, if such things exist? Since he deleted his blog (or possibly just made it private) there are a lot of dead links etc., or analyses of an original post which appears nonexistent.

PS thank you for still being here. I know a lot of AA bloggers are not, which is understandable because he seems to have gone quiet for a few years, but coming from someone on the West Coast who’s also trying to get into costuming, seeing the bullshit he’s pulled around the entertainment industry/film/TV, and then realizing that he’s also in fandom freaks me the hell out. I’ve met that ‘type’ before and body-shaming is such a rampant issue around costuming (and even tailoring more broadly) that day one of my education on the subject was “Do not ask a person for information about their body which you do not absolutely need; so not make comments on their body (including “compliments” on their figure etc); and put their physical safety and comfort as a top priority”.

I found your blog because of the Strange Aeons video and was sad to learn that much of the early bullshit happened in my hometown, but when I came back to this blog I was far more horrified discover that this person is also a serial sexual harasser and body-shamer not only had gone viral one here (the “cis people can get dysphoria” tweet went around costuming tumblr for obvious reasons) but also was/is in this industry. That is such a dangerous position to put him in, not just because he’s clearly a sexual predator, but because bad costumes regularly cause people serious injuries. This is especially likely to be the result of directors trying to make women look skinnier or otherwise “more attractive,” and the harm is often most serious in scifi/fantasy contexts where lots of stunts happen. Good costuming requires ETHICS when it comes to things like health, body image and, yes, gender. Mr. “Complimented his ex on her weight loss when she was literally starving because of him” should not be trusted with such a job ever imo.

I hope there are no dead links on the timeline--all the links on there should be to screenshots of Andy's posts rather than directly to his blog. There are definitely dead links in a bunch of my old tumblr posts, though.

As far as I know, the timeline is the only place to find a significant number of screenshots from Andy's blog. The Wayback Machine has captured some of it, but it's scattershot and some of those links don't work. archive.is also has a little bit.

“Do not ask a person for information about their body which you do not absolutely need; so not make comments on their body (including “compliments” on their figure etc); and put their physical safety and comfort as a top priority”

I'm glad to hear that this is emphasized in costuming education, and sad to say that Andy has violated all three of those rules at least as recently as 2018, which isn't that long ago. I agree with your concerns, and those are some of the reasons I'm still around. I hope this blog is a good resource for people in the industry to find information about Andy's past and decide for themselves how to respond if they encounter him.

[thecrusadercomrade]

Very Important Announcement

As of tonight, I have come to a very important decision regarding my works: I will be orphaning all of my shipping/romance stories.

Some of you may have seen this coming with the other decisions I've made in the last few months, but I imagine most of you are very shocked by this, so please let me explain.

For a long time now, I've had a growing distaste for the focus I've put on ship fics and romance in the past. Even with me now writing non-romance fics, they are still vastly outnumbered by the fics that do have romance as a major component. Looking at my account statistics, the vast majority of the numbers in every category are mostly from ship fics. This domination is not the way I want my account to go, and it's not the identity I want to have as a writer. Thus, in order to "rebrand" myself as a non-romance writer and fully change direction, I will be orphaning all my stories that have romance as a major component, including my Amphibia and TGAMM oneshot collections. Through this I will have a fresh start without having to move to a new account.

Keep in mind that I am merely orphaning these works, not deleting them! Though I'm not very satisfied with them anymore, I know many people have loved them, and I don't want to just completely erase them from existence just because I don't like them anymore. By orphaning these works, people will still be able to read them, and they won't be lost to the void, so there's no need to fear that. When orphaning works, there's also an option to attach my name/pseud to the works even though they're not on my account anymore, which I'll be using to help avoid confusion when people see that they've been orphaned.

This is an absolutely huge step, and it's not one I take lightly. I've thought about this for a long time, and I've decided that it's the best way for me to be happy with my writing going forward. All of my ongoing fics, like The Long Road Home, Two's a Crowd, my TWDG What-If collection, and To Continue On will all be unaffected by this change, so fans of those works have no reason to worry about them.

Thank you all for your patience with me over these last few months. I've been going through a lot of changes in my personal life, and this is a really big milestone that I'm glad I've finally become brave enough to reach, even if I'm still a little worried about how people will react. I hope you'll all be understanding, and that those of you who are fans of my current ongoing stories will continue to be fans despite this upheaval.

Thank you very much for reading this, and for all your support over the years I've been writing. I hope you'll be with me for many more to come.

[theheartlandsblog]

hello @neonxdecay ! i remember you! i WAS in the middle of drafting an answer for you, but it turns out that if you save a drafted answer for later on mobile, then the ask just gets straight up deleted, as does the draft. 😑 so here's where the answer is going to be now, and sorry about that!! thank you for your kind words.

i'm also SUPER glad you asked. i love talking about history. i got wordy (I CANNOT OVERSTATE THIS, IT'S HUGE) so it shall be underneath the keep reading/expand post prompt. this will all be about the 19th century, ya know, cowboy times, just FYI. just let me know if the hyperlinks work. 🤎🤎🤎

i'm going to talk about my russian history first! undeniably, the very best sources i've ever come across are these two books - EAST OF THE SUN by benson bobrick, and THE FAMILY ROMANOV by candace fleming. they're both nonfiction books about russian history, but not textbook-y - instead the authors have written an actual, compelling *story* of the history. these two have taken me a LONG way.

EOTS spans the entirety of russia, begins in antiquity and ends in the 1980s/90s - the book itself was published 1992. it talks about everyone and everything - the native people of eurasia, the immigrants, the europeans, the wildlife. TFR, on the other hand, focuses on the ruling family of russia, when they still had kings/queens and such (the romanovs!), and their impact, both good and bad, on the country. combined, they're a fantastic perspective on pre-revolution russia, which is the russia that existed in RDR's timeframe, which i've found really hard to get since interest in pre-revolution russia seems so slim - ESPECIALLY here in the states. it's profoundly difficult to find conversation in the USA about russia that isn't heavily biased and stereotyped. i'm ukrainian from my dad's side, so it's a passionate matter for me. i enjoy every second.

i also study the russian language! just knowing about what people speak helps you understand them. i've been working through it on duolingo for a little over a year, and i know duolingo isn't fantastic (and neither is my russian), but it is all i have access to at this moment. i'll watch movies in russian, videos of RDR gameplay where the game is in russian, i'll literally go to r/russian on reddit and just read the discussions there. i like to read wikipedia articles on timely occasions like the construction of the trans-siberian railroad, or what traditional clothing for the poorer population was like, and even what the plant life is like.

i think the key ingredient is ravenous, ravenous curiosity. i do all of this for my russian characters in HOMEWARD. i am so compelled to tell stories, and from whom they originate hardly matters to me. i love history!! i am a nerd!!

now, onto my american history, which is thankfully a lot more easy to find when you live here, and is a little more accessible than books and language programmes! for this, i am extremely happy to report that youtube is my go-to and is a delightful way to learn.

i started with studying CLOTHES. i have an enormous playlist full of videos on history of anything, from all about the world, and 19th century american clothing remains the overwhelming majority. literally just studying clothing will by default teach you more than simply *clothing* because then you have to learn about what materials they were made from, so what was grown or what animals were raised for that, and then you learn about who the people were in charge of making them, and what culturally influenced aesthetic, modesty, wealth, etc, etc, etc... i know it sounds a bit wild, but if you're gonna study any history, choose someone's clothes! ♡

channels like bernadette banner, the sewlo artist, nicole rudolph, and abby cox are treasure troves of information about historic attire. i love these women!!! studying history is a lot easier when you find someone passionate about it. don't go dragging yourself through a college textbook to try and learn, unless you're passionate about that.

but you know what? let's go deeper than that. let's start getting even *more* niche into history. i guarantee to you that it's out there. here is a playlist by a channel called real pixels which describes in detail how historic relevance and accuracy relate to RDR2. here is a video by a henry films, showing off the real-life counterparts to RDR's towns. here is a video by a channel called early american (this entire channel is a GOLDMINE) about what it was like to do laundry! here's a video by a lost leadville, about old western accents! i've watched all of these, and i watch them often, again and again and again, and i watch them as i write, and i watch them for fun, and THAT is how you learn.

but you mentioned and asked for books, and boy, do i have some american history books for you, too! here's two - WALDEN by henry david thoreau, and STATIONS WEST by edwin d. culp.

WALDEN is an autobiographical account of the real mister thoreau, who voluntarily lived alone in a little cabin he built on the shore of the real walden pond, in concord, massachusetts. evelyn miller from RDR2 was based on him! the book was published in 1854, and is an irreplaceable source of what it was like to live in young america, not-yet post-colonial, that wary, small culture, sometimes even that abject poverty, that wilderness. STATIONS WEST is a little different. it's half pictures and half text, and though it's focused on a fairly niche subject (trains!), it's proved a fascinating collection of primary sources for 19th century living in the united states. newspapers describing accounts of travel, pictures of railroad maps that people scrawled on, ticket stubs with prices of 10, 15, 20 cents. i heavily referenced a lengthy newspaper story from there just to emulate how english was written back then, for the letter that reverend swanson wrote to arthur in chapter 4 of HOMEWARD!

you have to get creative with it! to me, nothing is enough - names and dates aren't enough - pictures aren't enough - sometimes, even whole books aren't enough. i ask myself how can i apply this history? how can i bring life back into it? how can i use it in a context that is not words and static depictions on paper? how does it make me happy? where do i see it echoed today in my present day life?

FINALLY, i also read historical fiction - as in fictional stories that were published in the time period - and i think that step is literally just as important as reading nonfiction. i could go on about this one for ages, but my god, i already have, so i will leave you with this: storybooks from then are delightful on their own because they're books (who doesn't like that!!), and doubly so when you're approaching them to research, because they provide cultural context to when they were written, examples of how written english has changed, and sometimes they're a little more accurate to life back then than a period piece is now. here's two - for my russian fix i'm working my way through WAR AND PEACE by tolstoy (published 1867), and i've just finished TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA by jules verne (published 1870), this is a ✨️french one, but was (and is still) loved around the world.

so, holy bejeezus, i think i'm done showing off some of my sources and explaining how i use them. if THIS doesn't answer your questions then i have no idea what will. thank you for asking such an engaging question, this was a lot of fun! 💐 ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ here's one of my cats sitting on my books while i got them out, as a treat.

[lorenzobane]

I cannot believe I am doing this, but it's just driving me fucking crazy. This is about the utterly exhausting and circular and goddamn endless discourse about AO3, and I simply cannot take it anymore. The hyperbole, bad faith arguments, and deeply strange interpretations of what is going on are..... Why. Don't we have enough problems?

Recognizing that this is exhausting and stupid (it was trending on Twitter???? GUYS??) I'm putting this under a cut to not clog up people's dashes. I just feel like there really are solutions and people keep talking around each other and lobbing wild accusations. Come on- CP apologists? Pro-censorship? Let's take a breath. Apologies, per usual, I talked way too much.

First- let's get some perspective. Fanfiction is a hobby. That is all it is- it is not, at its core, more moral or less moral than crocheting. That isn't to say that you can't be a remarkably talented fic writer or that fic writers are never professional writers (though when professional writers are writing professionally, they are not writing fic. Therefore they are not engaging in the hobby of fic writing. They're engaged in the vocation of writing.).

Just like any other hobby, people who do it often get better at it and begin to hone their skills in much the same way that any other hobbyist does in any other skill. But at their core, the point of writing fanfiction is to have fun doing a creative activity with people who are interested in similar topics to you. It is not going to solve racism or cure wealth inequality, or usher in a new shining dawn for gender equity. It, because it is written by very normal people, will always reflect the real flaws and virtues of real and normal people. To suggest otherwise is self-aggrandizing and nonsensical. I'm glad people find joy and pleasure in writing fic (I am one of them!), but we have got to stop saying things that deify fic above other forms of art or writing. AO3 is basically a hobbyist forum and that is okay.

Now- onto my actual point: whatever happened to nuance?

"These freaks will do anything to defend child porn/racism." Okay- well, that is a pretty incendiary thing to say. What is actually being said? People who oppose bans are typically looking at the censorship on TikTok, Tumblr, Facebook's attempts at monitoring, and fanfiction.net and see nothing but colossal failures. So when people suggest potentially banning or deleting erotic works with minors, others who have never seen it done well and have only ever seen it backfire for basically every other tech company are understandably skeptical. Why would it work on Ao3 when it hasn't worked anywhere else? And if these people are still going to write it, except untagged, now we have an even bigger issue because you can't avoid it.

The typical solution for this is "okay, well, hire moderators or build an algorithm," which is expensive and will almost certainly lead to more backlash because they'd need to fundraise for even more money that people already resent having to do at all. Not to mention the backlash when they do/don't decide that something is harmful that other people might/might not. This is especially true of issues regarding racism- unless everyone they hire has a Ph.D. in the topic, I doubt taking the problems to a random committee will solve anything. And maybe I'm insane, but I REALLY do not want a computer taking charge of issues as sensitive as this. As a general rule, I do not want an archive to be making moral decisions about anything. As even more of an aside, I just refuse to describe a dead person as "unalive" in a fic because an algorithm went too far.

Okay- but does that mean we shouldn't do anything about those problems? Do I think the people who sincerely believe we need to fix things are "pro-censorship"? Of course not. There really are existing solutions that are common sense and broadly popular that would put the power in the hands of the readers as opposed to censoring the writers. Instead of focusing so hard on regressive policies to punish or try to eliminate the problem (which is pernicious enough that a simple ban wouldn't work anyway), why not focus on progressive policies that people agree on and can actually work to make people's lives better? People are capable, smart, and thoughtful- when given the tools they absolutely can manage their own online experience.

Author blocks: People should absolutely be allowed to block authors. This one is easy and obvious- it doesn't do much by way of protecting people before they see content but it does help protect themselves from ever seeing it again.

Saved excluded tags: Create a system where you can input certain tags that you always want blocked no matter which fandom you're looking on at the site. This one is another great way to put power in the hands of the reader.

Community fics: Allowing authors to select a group of people that they want to share their particular fic with. If you want to write your cannibal mermaid fic about Hamilton and you don't want to face backlash? Just set it to only be accessible to selected users.

For ideas that go a bit further*:

Stronger age restrictions: If the concern is that young people are being groomed, maybe a solution here could be to have members (I really can't remember how this works because I signed up so long ago) give their birth year. Then just automatically filter out any E or M rated fics for people under 18, similar to how they filter out member-specific fics.

Member-specific fics: On a related note, an option could be to have fics that include an "underage" tag and are E/M are automatically member-restricted.

*Caveat: these two face a similar unintended consequence that would restrict minors from interacting with erotic content at all. Now, for little kids that is fine but for a 16 year old... I mean, there really are teenagers who write porn and there really are young people who are going through puberty and... well. This restriction would obviously be a burden specific to them, but would protect them. Also- they can just lie, lol.

Anyway- as with all policies and all problems, you are always going to deal with unintended consequences of any new policy you put out but you have to be willing to accept that and at least think them through. It drives me CRAZY when people act like we either decide to do an ineffectual ban or we do nothing at all. I am begging you to be at least willing to LOOK for middle ground.

But at the end of the day, remember: This is a HOBBY. It really is not that deep. There are about 5 million users, and even if you say that the real number is closer to 8 million that is still .1% of the global population. I am BEGGING you guys to stop calling each other CP apologists and freaks and pathetic losers and pro-censorship weirdos and purity culture losers. There IS a real problem here and everyone is a little bit right. Just, like, chill a little.

[nonbayanary]

Just gonna vent a little about my fic

I'm rereading some parts of my fic and I WANT TO SCREAM AJDHDJDK like, "NO, HIRUMA WOULD NOT SAY THAT???" but it's ME who wrote it and i want to bash my own head in! To my present self, I feel as if my past self mischaracterized Hiruma so much in Chapter 2, and I feel truly ashamed of posting it at its draft stage. (Although I posted it BECAUSE I was sure that if I didn't do it soon, I would delete the whole chapter entirely smh.)

Which is why I feel genuinely shocked sometimes when people say they like my fic hhhhh. Like please don't get me wrong, I'm so so SO GRATEFUL, and I love all the kudos and comments! But sometimes, I'm teary-eyed, like, "Hiruma and Sena are SO mischaracterized here, and yall still love this fic, despite its flaws and shortcomings? AAAAAAAA!!!"

I'd also like to say that now that I'm rereading Sena's dialogue in my fic, I'm screaming, "SENA WOULD NOT SAY THAT!!!" Like ohmygod, WHAT HAVE I DONE, WHY DID I POST THIS???

But also, I can't really blame myself??? I wrote Chapter 2 when I was low on sleep, and ULTRA HIGH on coffee. Like, after working a 9 to 6 job, which is on a COMPUTER, I'd eat dinner, and then continue spending my night hours writing Chapter 2, STILL ON THE COMPUTER. Veins in my eyes would regularly pop, and I'd be typing deep into the night with scattered blood on my sclera.

Because of that, I was almost always sleepy in the daytime. So I'd combat that grogginess with coffee—TOO MUCH COFFEE. In just a few hours, I'd drink three cups of coffee, and top it off with a fourth cup, just to get the inspiration going. And inspiration WOULD come, but I'd be so high that my fingers were shaking. I would feel like I was on a different plane of existence, lile my whole core was vibrating with caffeine. My hands would dance on the keys of my keyboard, as fast as Eyeshield 21 himself. Yet, I'd be so high that I wouldn't even FEEL the keys on my fingers.

I'd be triumphant—but only for a little while. The caffeine crashes afterwards were shit. Inspiration would stop flowing, and I'd just stare at the screen blankly, all blood-red eyeballs and despair-filled gaze, with the knowledge that I ruined my body—and would continue to do so—for one mere fic chapter.

It's understandable that Hiruma and Sena would say shit they wouldn't, because I was high as fuck, and low as shit on logical reasoning.

Still, I can't help but cringe when I reread my fic, the product of several months' worth of sleep deprivation and self-sabotage. Would Hiruma say, "Lead the way"??? Would he say, "Due to certain circumstances, I will be passing away"??? FUCK NO!!! Would Sena say, "And you're the troublemaking son he talks about"????? Would he say, "So you noticed"???? I THINK THE FUCK NOT!!!

But I think all I can do is forgive myself for this misinterpretation of the characters. I'm glad that at least you guys liked this story, misshapen though it is. Maybe one day I'll rewrite this fic, when my circumstances IRL are better. When I'm out of my domestic abuse situation, and when the inspiration finally flows again, because I'm not in a constant state of fight-or-flight every hour.

Perhaps, perhaps.

[ciaossu-imagines]

Truly. And thank you so much. Well, considering the series does make me happy (including a certain someone), I feel like I will probably be happy while reading it and true. We got hints of angst in the anime and I feel like they’ll undoubtedly be explored more.

Sure thing. And do. It’s good so definitely check it out when you have the chance. I see and I understand. My friend sent me some manga panels of the slightly darker moments and I feel like it would have been difficult to animate. Though I have heard that they’re making another season, that’s coming out this April, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Yeah. The second season is pretty much entirely anime-only and Alois and Claude do not exist in the manga universe. But the third season is based on the manga again so then the anime series becomes good again. Me too. Like I was already excited to hear about him voicing Grelle and then Lawless’s VA also appeared later on so that’s just great. But at some point Grelle did sing and I could connect the voice to Yata’s moment in Requiem of Red.

Don’t worry. That will never happen to me. I look forward to reading long texts from my friends. And mine are as well so it’s totally fine. Thank you. I sent out the replies slightly earlier today since I finally got everything typed out. And looking forward to seeing all of your post stuff. That’s really nice to hear  😊

Thank you. We’ll see since honestly, even though I am looking forward to everything, there are still many chapters to read but I do hope to read more of it because I feel like Servamp has become a new love of mine. Thank you. I’ve given you my essay and hope that it’s all clear enough since it was a ramble but it was the only way I knew how to do it. It’s nothing. Some bits were a bit more difficult to come up with than others but all in all, didn’t take extremely long. Only time will tell with that one. But either way, I am looking forward to learning more about him and of course seeing more of Lawless (and him). But yeah, every interaction is important so they will be interesting to see.

I see. That is a real shame and sounds like it would be horrible in some cases. I see. A part of me figured that after I initially read your message but it’s so horrible that they’ll still fight you, especially if the frames are super expensive. But I am glad that there is an optometrist around that you can go to, even if it does take ages. Yeah. I can imagine that. Like overall, I have pretty okay eyesight since I don’t wear my glasses during the day in the house but I feel like I’d also definitely struggle with reading the subtitles unless I was sitting right in front of the TV. And it’s great that it has great sound quality 😃 And fair enough. Best to use things util you entirely can’t anymore.

I see and that does make sense then. Glad to hear that you also love that song 😄 And wow, that’s a lot of songs. I have a playlist of slightly more than 70 songs that I listen to while posting on AO3 or doing something with my hands that’s routine but I also sometimes listen to songs that aren’t on the playlist while I’m on my computer, doing other stuff. True. I rewatched some Naruto episodes some time ago and just went straight for the dub, not even considering the sub since I knew it was good. Sure thing 💕

C

I'm so glad the series makes you happy and I'm looking forward to talking to you more about it, both through anything you wanna send through the inbox and in our messages through dm's (which I am hoping to get off one more within the next week or so before I go temporarily AWOL to write commissions/passion projects). And I will say they definitely do explore more of everything touched upon in the anime within the manga. Manga often gives more space and time to really flesh out events and characters and development, just because the pacing can be a little more relaxed and it's one of the things about that medium that I really love.

I will check it out when I get the chance and thanks again for letting me know about it. And I do feel the art style of Black Butler, though ungodly beautiful at points, is something that definitely would be hard to animate and still keep looking exactly that way. And I hope you'll enjoy the new season when it comes out. I have been told by another friend that some of the specials are really fun to watch, but it's definitely worth it to devote my time to catching up manga-wise if I feel like getting back into Black Butler, so I might just bump that up the to-read list a little, especially since I've been a little spoiled in that I'm told there's some really interesting things going on now with Undertaker and that was a character I had really loved and found intriguing. I couldn't name a single one of the voice actors from shows I like without googling the characters I first heard them as, so again, just you and the people like you, who can hear those characters all in the voices and know voice actors work definitely make me flabbergasted, in the best of ways, and make me really happy for these artists getting the recognition and love that deserves.

Aww, thank you so much for saying that. That's very reassuring to hear because yeah, when I get talking, I don't shut up and I have been told by friends in real life that getting texts from me can feel a little bit like a bombardment but I'm always just so excited to talk to interesting people and discuss things and share my thoughts. Plus, I adore long replies and walls of text from people, because it shows excitement and enjoyment of the conversation, so long replies never both me either, so you're cool that way. And I have the replies but haven't really taken the time to fully read everything, just in trying to work away at stuff as quickly as possible. And thank you for looking forward to it and I hope I won't disappoint. I will take this point to say, if everything goes well, I'm ahead of schedule enough that I should be able to completely clear the inbox and draft folders and reply to dm's before I take my sabbatical to write that commission and a couple things I've been pining after time to write, like The Ever Young, the delinquent! Shouhei fic, and a couple AO3 planned fanfics. I have two AU posts, two match-up requests, two regular headcanon requests, three drabble/fic requests, and this and another chattering reply to do so really, I'm down to under 10 actual replies to write.

I have never done this in the blog history but am taking the opportunity to ask that nobody send anything new, even chattering, to my inbox. Despite me closing it, I have been getting new requests. I kept one but deleted three. I really need a little bit of radio silence, just for a week or so, so I can really buckle down and write these posts without my focus getting distracted or me feeling like things just keep being added to the 'to-write' pile, please and thank you.

You're very welcome. And I love that it's become a new love of yours and honestly, in my opinion, you're getting through it at a really good rate. And for anyone wondering, and because I did see your dm asking this question, I am not caught up fully on Servamp, I lost the time to really read it shortly after Niccolo was introduced, so no spoilers please past that point. And your essay was both lovely to read and clearly written, as are most of your fandom thoughts! You know I do enjoy hearing them. And thank you again for doing that for me. I have read through all that and it's perfect and just what I had been hoping for and I will make good use out of it!

And it is a shame, because good quality health care should be a basic human right to me, but at the same time, I have to remember to see the positives in it all. And I don't agree with fighting any patient for their prescription, as it's actually legally a right for the patient to know and you actually hit the nail on the head - Vogue Optical frames can range from $200-$400, after my lens prescription is added in there, as I have absolutely horrific eyesight and already wear bifocals at my age. So, not even ashamed to admit that I am a little jealous of people who don't need to wear glasses all the time and terribly jealous of people who don't need to wear them at all because I've been wearing glasses since pre-K haha.

I love music, and I only switched to a digital library because I ran out of space. I still have, in storage, a shit ton of CD's (both burnt and bought) and cassette tapes, plus a couple vinyl records. Music is a pretty constant for me, that or podcasts, way more than I would say television is and every time I sit down to write, I normally make an hour or two long playlist to listen to while writing so I get having a playlist for when you're posting on AO3. Heck, even the shortest of my drabbles on here have at least a 3-4 song playlist I listened to while writing them, and some of my AU's have a 20 song playlist I listened to on loop while thinking them out and writing them. Also, always up for song recommendations, in case anyone has some, just putting that hint out in the universe for ya'll to drop them in my dm's.

[marlette-au]

An Update

Hey all, Scott here!

I understand the silence for comic-making has been a bit... long as of late. Things may continue to be a little inactive for a while on that front, but I do have some news that may excite you.

Slowly, I'm moving the Marlette comics to ComicFury!

This means a lot of things for this little AU. So, below, I'll detail exactly what will happen with this change and why I've come to this conclusion.

Why ComicFury?

Truth be told, uploading the comics to Imgur isn't very fun. For one, if I need to fix a typo, I have to upload the image, resort the album in order to place it correctly (which in itself can take a few minutes, depending on the size of the comic AND the visuals for the panel), and delete the old image. There's no "update image" button. This is, frankly, really elaborate in ways that frustrates me. That's why the ol' "lense" typo from Tape 1 still exists...

There's the ability to add captions for each panel, but I can't visually separate an author's note for clarifying something, versus making a transcript. I've never written them for the comics, but I do want to to help make things more accessible. Without the visual and even technical distinction between them, I fear it might make things a little frustrating for more than just me.

Changing hosts from Imgur to ComicFury will help alleviate the issues I've described. I can add author notes to certain pages, and I can add transcripts easily! That way, things are so much better for everyone.

How long will this take?

Ever since I've uploaded the comic, Magic, I've been working on the site in quiet. I initially wanted to host it on Neocities for its custom layout, but after seeing the rather complex systems for comic hosting I've seen, it deterred me for a while. Then, I realized... hey, one of my favorite Undertale AUs is hosted on ComicFury, and they also have a custom layout! And looking into its system, it has systems that very closely resemble something I've been wanting and looking for.

All of this to say, the website should be complete very soon! It's very close to completion, though I still have much to do. I have to finish coding the looks of the website. Everything looks roughly the way I want to right now, but there's small little touches I'd like to add. At most, this will take a month, and at least, it might be out this week!

What does the site look like right now?

Well, I'm glad you asked! Here's some screenshots of what I have so far. Note that not everything here is final.

The page that displays the comic will have a border if your resolution / window size will support it. If it's smaller, don't worry, the border can disappear for optimal reading experience!

The sidebar holds important information about the comic, a search bar to look for specific pages, and a section that holds other AUs one may be interested in. There might be more information here in the future... who knows!

For now, that's all I have to show. I hope this makes up for the silence I've been giving. I'll make a post when the website is ready.

No, the site will not replace the Tumblr. Both will run together.

Thank you for your patience, as always!

[satorugojowidow]

Hi Adari! I'm a big fan of your metas, especially your jjk ones because you see things from an angle the rest of the fandom doesn't. I'm sad you're not enjoying the current arc. How do you think

Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoyed it :) 

The part of plot that involves usa army show a poor understanding of geopolitics. Which is disappointing because Gege always managed very well to introduce political problems in the manga.

For Kenjaku’s plan it was necessary the introduction of non sorcerers combatant and it was solved with the usa army’s plan that is plain ridiculous. 

Why is it ridiculous? First, Kenjaku sells the curse energy like a new source of energy that will erase the dependence of oil and usa government is all willing to take that chance and that is stupid. Why? Because there are alternative sources of energy that are clean, easy to get and, more importantly, won’t involve declaring a third world war. We are talking about Japan, not Irak, I’m sorry to said this but the consequences of an invasion are bigger. Plus, sorcerers are a minority even in Japan, in Kenny’s powerpoint is not established how it is possible to switch to curse energy and how the resource won’t deplete in a short time. If the plan was to use sorcerers as weapons, like super soldiers will be more plausible. Yet, the open assault on Tokyo is still a problem. And let's never forget that oil dependence is only holded by the oil companies lobby. Nobody in usa government will put the country in such a crazy adventure only to start a problem with the oil industry, which is huge, and pay for their campaigns. 

Second, the idea that curse energy was a secret to governments. Curse energy is not important outside of Japan, yet some event involving curses and the existence of foreign sorcerers has happened. Considering this, it is not plausible that the government that had an espionage agency wouldn't know anything about it. In the 1970 usa government was very interested of mind powers and everything related to those researches, that is the perfect context to investigate this type of event. 

When Kenny was presented talking to representatives of China, I thought that foreign governments were interested in taking Japan’s monopoly on curse energy by solving whatever is making the curse energy to concentrate there (Tengen). But since sorcerers are plausible to be born outside of Japan and there are sorcerers like Mei Mei that will sell anything for a good price, it is not realistic to think that there are no sorcerers working for agencies outside Japan. 

How could it be done better, in my opinion. First, delete everything related to the use of curse energy to replace oil because is stupid. I believe that considering the major event that is culling the game and the huge consequences of it, a military intervention is plausible. Not to kidnap sorcerers but to destroy the sorcerers that are causing the problem and restore peace in Japan. The manga already established that curse energy existence and culling game was from public knowledge. In front of an event that puts in danger global security it is realistic to believe that OTAN will interfere. usa army intervention could be justify in this way, to protect global security and behind that there could be secret reason like taking material of research. 

Right now in the manga, usa army is invading and attacking the civilian population of Japan without a good reason, that could start a war. usa may be a powerful country but they can’t do whatever shit against a first world country.

About these past arcs, I’m not against the conclusion but the execution. The army intervention is good but is poorly justified and honestly, I feel second hand embarrassment reading that. I’m also not against Yuki’s death, but she gave us nothing, she left as she came. When she first showed up it seemed like she had a plan, but she had nothing in her hands, she just did what Tengen asked and the whole conversation didn’t even help us to understand what the hell was going on with Tengen. Noritoshi and Maki bonding was good but poorly executed because the whole arc of worn naoya was eclipsed for those random dudes.

[richardsondavis]

I want to go back to Reddit. I want to see what they are saying, if what they're saying is true.

Why change your opinion? No, you won't change your opinion. Best case is you'll feel like shit.

Hmmm, I guess so. It's the curiosity.

Yes, I understand yet we both know that they will not be giving you any favors. Glad that one person there said that Viz isn't localization cause it is just the in-house version of Shueisha. I believe we call that confirmation bias.

Hence why I want to go back!!!

You deleted your account. Most likely that post got deleted as well.

I see. I'd like to believe that.

Please do, Richardson. Your peace of mind is important. You are insignificant in this world.

...

Hmmm?

Just checked my post, it's still up. Most of my replies get downvoted. One of the things I got was that you have to just leave the official translation world. But these fuck still call officials localization and the unofficials translation. What did I expect?

Told you. Great question I have though is what is the matter? Now that these ideas are gonna live rent free in your head. No, how presumptuous of me. Please explain to me how the entire post makes you feel.

Thank you. So I made my reddit post with no ill-intent, just good natured questions.

So I got my replies and they all start how I imagined it. Localization is a disease, learn Japanese. That it exists and the only way to avoid it is to get off the grid. To not give these companies money, if it is my will. That one feels like a "If you don't follow us, we'll berate you" kind of thing.

That just really fucks with me. Perhaps it is all in my noggin.

So I'd like to break down the various comments I got.

First comment talks about how localization is now embedded in Western society, and that the best way to combat this is to raise awareness using social media and that money talks no matter what. In hindsight, I should've done something of the sort when I was reading Machimaho. Missed opportunity. I made a reply to that raise awareness using social media comment. I pointed out that Kimetsu no Yaiba made a lot of sales for it's final volume. Which I believe insinuates that what Viz is doing and by contrast, the "localizers" is okay. I don't agree with that sentiment, not one bit. Later on there's something that I like that I'd like to address.

Next comment is a guy that says that all official translations are localizations, without a doubt. That the best way to live is not give them money and get off the grid and purchase the Japanese ones and learn Japanese, cut out the middle man and told me to laugh at the faces of the "scanlators". I somewhat agree with this one save for the laugh at scanlators part cause that's just rude and I don't really want to be rude. In hindsight, Chainsaw Man, Dandadan and Call of the Night are all series I can get digitally and pirate it. It does hurt my eyes at times cause you know, screens and all that but I really feel quite regretful for purchasing the series. The folks at r/MangaCollectors do feel the same, I will reckon. Even Tumblr has beef with official translations every now and then.

I didn't really agree fully with the guy but he had an interesting take that I will want to take it into consideration. It's a bit strong yet tame.

Some guy replied that machine translations are what he prefers unironically and that he claims that the official translators are using machine translation as well to make their work. Might as well cut the middle man. Said like an asshole, I'll admit. I don't like this comment. It's the "I will leave official translations and I'll probably judge you if you avail them in my presence" crowd. They also call all official translations unironically "localization". Truly appalling, in my honest opinion.

My reply is if there is a way we can find a compromise. I didn't really want to leave official translations fully cause I know full well I will gravitate towards that thing back and then again. Of course, in r/KotakuinAction fashion, I got downvoted and the reply to that is that if I really wanted to make a difference then I should stop giving them money. I'm not gonna give Seven Seas a single centavo, that's for sure. The only ones I'll truly avail is Viz and Kodansha and Yen Press. That is still giving money to the evil English localizers but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make. Pretty sure the latest Viz series hasn't seen any of these mistranslations or open interpretations. Well, the latest that I know of being Dandadan so I have yet to see it.

IT'S SETTLED!!! I'M GONNA KEEP COLLECTING MANGA!!! FUCK WHAT THEY SAY!!! I LOVE READING AND I WILL JUST DO WHAT WORKS FOR ME!!!

Next comment makes a distinction between the good faith localization, where translating idioms to the nearest possible language (in this case English) and still makes sense and be accurate and bad localization where there's an idiom that has no equal translation to English then they initiate this bad faith injection of their own personal views. Seven Seas has lost me, to be honest. I wholeheartedly refuse to even get their series, pirate it even. Waste of space and time.

Next comment says that they wouldn't blame me for doing so. Made a claim that fan translations are superior and will always be. Got 8 upvotes. Of course they would prefer the fan translations, as predicted by that particular dude's blog I read a while back. Basically, the modern otaku should remember their roots. Roots being fan translations and scanlations and all that. Very inflammatory, I will say.

Made a reply to the reddit comment. Asked if it would be disingenuous. And I got 0 upvotes. Not negative though so that's a plus.

Next one asks if the one talking to him is the author or someone else? He would like the someone else to be as far away as possible.

I then asked him if he would consider that translated works as someone just telling you about the thing in general as disingenuous.

He said two things, first an analogy about pizza in a Chinese buffet. The "localizers" are looking to make a Chinese buffet with only pizza. I am most certain, that to this person, the Chinese buffet will always be the scanlation and fan translations. He will never call these localizations cause they're not shit, according to him. Very reductive.

But a good analogy. I find Seven Seas to be the pizza here. The Chinese buffet being the three I avail, Kodansha, Yen Press and Viz. Of course, if I say this then I'll be labeled and downvoted. Thankfully, I wouldn't have to handle that baggage.

Then the second thing is that he finds that translation is just how someone else would tell the thing to you as extremely disingenuous and to be honest I kinda agree with him. I would presume that this person would avail scanlations yet they are also a way for how the ideas are conveyed, that another person is going to be translating it and will be presented to the world. I just find that that is someone else telling me what the work in general. What I take from this comment is that we would both agree on the idea that learning Japanese is the best way to go here.

Alright, next comment is a dude saying that current translations are the only ones he refers to as "localization." He talks about games translation next and frankly I couldn't care less. I don't like JRPGs.

Next is the best two replies I agree with and is really very open. I'll just post them both here to preserve the context.

The first one is basically similar to my case-by-case basis approach. I have the time to read and will decide for myself.

The second dude says it all. Hoo-fucking-rah!

Then the last comment is talking about how localization is necessary to some degree. The kind of thing that gets you upvotes on r/animecirclejerk or something. Some dude replies that Japanese can't be translated one-on-one but that got replied with it can be. The last comment thread is a doozy.

So there's my thoughts on these ones.

Very fine.

Of course these are all sorted by best so the first ones are the most upvoted. Place is an echo chamber but has great takes. I wouldn't consider this a loss but thankfully I've gotten myself out before I fucking oof myself. Heh.

Interesting take my friend. Glad you got it all out.

Thanks.

Now, rest and be an individual. Make your own decisions. Besides, you aren't harming anyone.

I would like to get Lore Olympus.

Goddamnit!

[miutonium]

Anon Asked:

I am so much in the same boat. It feels embarrassing to talk about how lonely I am, but it’s been three years since I graduated university and I really have been so alone since then. I had a severe falling out with my university friends and I just haven’t made any new ones, despite trying every few months on dating apps or going to meet ups, and it just makes me feel so discouraged. It’s almost nice to hear that other people are in the same place, though I hope you find friends soon. It makes me feel less like something is wrong with me, to hear others are struggling to make connections.

__________

Sorry I accidentally deleted the ask in panic because I published it early my badddd 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Anyway, yes I understand how embarassing it is to admit that you're lonely. It feels like you're exposing your weakness to others. I only talk about my struggles with loneliness here because this is where I feel like I am safe and can be honest with myself; People around me and surrounding me doesn't know about it and I can't let them know that I am lonely, it makes me feel like I am vulnerable.

Sometimes I feel like something is wrong with me because I am unable to make friends and have meaningful connection with people despite how I am surrounded by a sea of people. And I'm sure you feel the same way too when you're unable to make friends despite trying to meet new people from various apps and meet ups. It feels like a slap on the face when you are reminded that the reason you're doing this is because you lose a friend that you though were your rock, the one that you thought will be with you and stay by you whenever youre happy or sad. It's such a shitty situation overall, it's almost like you lose a part of you.

Losing a friend sounds silly. For everyone, it's a part of life. And it is a part of life. But I wish people treated losing friends just like how they treat a breakup because in all honesty, this is a breakup. You lose a meaningful friendship with someone you though will be with you almost forever. It sucks.

And that's what sucks about trying to make new friends, it's tiring. You have to introduce yourself to people again and again, hoping that they'll accept you and then have to walk on eggshells trying to figure out which trait of you looks presentable to people so they like you. I hate that I have to tell people who am I and what I like and build the idea of what am I to them, I hate it. Most importantly, I hate that I have to start from scratch and build up trust with people, after all that you've been through when you lose your friends. It sucks, especially when you're an introvert.

Despite everything though, you're still here. You survived being alone. Whenever I'm going through my blues, I remind myself that I went through a lot just to be alive, and it's good to wake up and being able to breathe. I'm glad that I get to wake up another day to feed my cat and give all my love to them. I can't deny that I don't work well being alone so I express that whenever I can here. I know there's people out there that I don't know exist and don't have the pleasure to meet me just yet wants me to be alive. Just like finding your soulmate, finding a good friend takes time. Sometimes, they will come when you least expect. It's ironic but that's how I met my former friends, they always come when I least expected them to be. So in the mean time, while you look for the person that will treat you right and kind, treat yourself kindly first too.

Nothing is wrong with you, I assure that. The only wrong thing is the timing. I hope you will find the friends that you deserves too 💕💕💕

[movedtohypnocus]

final thoughts on Sonic Frontiers (as a viewer and not a player)

ive got some stuff to say about the game since i finished watching playthroughs and i will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but still going to tag it and add a read more.

i will not be sharing/posting any big spoilers for the game until after official release as ive stated before (albeit in a now-deleted post). regardless, any possible spoilers will always be tagged. same goes for fanart.

Admittedly before, I didn't have much hope for Frontiers despite my excitement, but recently as more and more info came out (and me looking for leaks oops), I was a lot less pessimistic.

It takes a LOT for something in the franchise to disappoint me, and I mean that. I'm more of a "accept something as it is" kinda guy when it comes to Sonic because for even the "bad" games, I just appreciate them for existing in the first place since they make me happy.

But unfortunately, as great as Frontiers was throughout the majority of the game, the ending was surprisingly underwhelming at best, disappointing at worst. It wasn't bad I guess and maybe that's just me being nice, but it was anticlimactic for sure. I will say, while many people find the true final boss to be boring or otherwise "lazy", I honestly thought it was interesting. It isn't the best final boss fight ever, but interesting. I'm hoping we learn more about them in the future.

There is a point on the 4th island where the stakes of the story are at their highest, only for it to be easily resolved within seconds in the most anticlimactic and cheesy (/neg) way. Which is unfortunate seeing this was something specific fans were looking forward to. The game from that point on kind of takes a turn. Again, it's not really bad, but it feels like stuff is missing from the game entirely and a ton of missed opportunities.

There is also a big complaint I keep seeing about the final islands just being extensions of Kronos, and to that I say I really don't mind. The 4th island is story driven strictly anyway, with no enemies, Cyberspace levels, or maps. I do tend to look forward to lore than gameplay regardless, so I understand people being upset by this, but I personally am not.

Despite all the negatives, the majority of the game was amazing from a viewer standpoint. I loved the character interactions and developments, and I can't even say "oh this character had the better development" because they all were great in my opinion, and I hope we get to see that in future games. There were plenty of moments between characters that got me emotional to the point of tearing up or entirely sobbing, but that could just be me.

Another thing I adored was the soundtrack. Some songs are definitely more memorable than others, but that's just kinda how soundtracks are. I enjoyed the vocal tracks and Cyberspace level themes a lot. Music is a big, important thing to me and I'm glad Frontiers did not disappoint on that at all.

Seeing as there are things that were very obviously left out or cut from the game for one reason or another, I hope they get expanded on in some form. It would be nice to get an IDW comic about Frontiers more extensive than the prequel honestly because there is so much potential.

I'd say up until the 4th island, the game is a 9/10. Anything after is a 7/10. Definitely get the game if you've been looking forward to it; I'd hope its flaws don't ruin the whole experience for you when most of the game is good, just don't expect the most spectacular ending.

And of course before I close this off, if you do still plan on playing it, there is a "true" final boss that is not indicated anywhere in or outside of the game at all. To get to that boss, you need to play on hard mode. Easy and normal mode gets you the cut/shortened ending.

Overall, if given the chance to play Frontiers, I will. I just don't see myself buying it for a while (mainly because I'm broke lmfao).

I hope this was helpful to someone, and I hope despite everything you still allow yourselves to have fun with Frontiers.

[doctorofmagic]

I find it so sad and upsetting to see the Clea tag here on tumblr being SO full of people complaining about her and being upset that Stephen didn't end up with Christine... I just want to read some new people appreciating Clea now and her fans being happy, and yet I'm finding so much negativity 😔 I love Christine as well and I was so happy with what they did in MoM with her character and her relationship with Stephen, and yet palmerstrange fans are all so angry. These ship wars are so stupid, kill all my joy of being in fandom.

PS: Anon who sent me the Palmerstrange ask, I’m sorry but tumblr got dumb and deleted your post as I was editing this ask. But luckily enough I was able to answer your whole question before it got deleted. Sorry :/

Okay *sighs*

First of all, I'd like to say that I understand where both preferences come from, even though I've always been biased because of Cleaphen (even when it was just Victoria and Clea, I always rooted for Clea because I knew how deep Stephen loved her - and yes, Stephen is poly-coded in canon).

Anon 1: I was avoiding the tags but your message made me curious and since I lack self-caring, I checked it out and yikes, yeah... I understand where they come from and I respect their sadness for having their ship wrecked but uh...

It's okay, they may not accept Clea now but who knows? They can always change their minds, especially if they see that Stephen is happy (which is really a sign of love).

I mean, I've been there in other fandoms so I know how it feels, but it's not like I didn't appreciate the new possibilities cause, luckily, I'm able to multi-ship so all good.

But true, true. Ship wars are the stupidest bs in any fandom. Also if I was THAT obsessed with canon, I wouldn't have a fic with 14+ ships featuring Stephen lmao. It's not that serious. Besides, canon never stopped people before, me included 😭 90% of my ships are not canon, so what?

Anon 2: At this point, I'm just glad they introduced her instead of using Christine as a variant, ngl 😭 this concept of variants in the MCU just set everything on fire. It worked so well on comics but now, like, I'm not commenting on THAT. I refuse to do so. But okay, okay, at least she's here!! Also I really don't see that Stephen's story will end in DS3 when we're having a fourth Thor movie coming and it won't probably be the last? I strongly believe we'll have so much more of him, and consequently Clea.

Anon 3: Thank you for your kindness! Yes, yes, let's always support older women and their amazing work! I'm just glad to see more of this on screen. There's still a long road but the more vocal we’re about it, more often we’ll see them represented.

Anon 4 who asked about Palmerstrange: look... I really tend to avoid ship discourse on my blog because I know it hurts people's feelings so I'd rather not to, even though the opposite is not always true. Besides, I liked them in the What If? episode, although I agree that MCU!Stephen and Christine were portrayed in a way that their relationship wouldn't be rekindled. But that's just my interpretation. People ship for less. Crack ships exist. Who am I to judge people's preferences? (except pr0-sh1pping. That's definitely not my cup of tea.) In my opinion, when Christine kisses Stephen's cheek in the first movie, I knew they wouldn't end up together since I understood that moment as a gesture of platonic affection. And the fact that Stephen clings into her memory is because he needs love, and her memory is all he has left. But then again, that's MY interpretation. Doesn't mean I'm right.

What I'll criticize, though, is people coming for Clea and saying all kinds of nasty stuff when first loves are hardly endgame irl. It feels real to me. The point is, I agree with you, but it doesn't invalidate Palmerstrangers who felt compelled by their story on screen because it was their interpretation when consuming said content.

--

In any case, my point is, it's really hard for me to validate or invalidate people's preferences when it comes to shipping because, as I said, I'm able to ship Stephen with every character in the Marvel Universe, it works in my head regardless of canon. But that's just me. There are ships that I really dislike in the MCU and have strong opinions on them but you'll never hear about it 🥴 and this is why I avert my eyes to this kind of discourse.

(truly, this subject feels like walking on eggshells oooooof)