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cursed-40k-thoughts · 24 days

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MTG or YGO?

Long post? Long post!

Are you asking what I prefer? YGO. Are you asking what I think is better? That is wholly dependent on what a person wants out of a card game.

YGO's biggest barrier to entry is the fact that the cards are written in their own form of legalese. I mean this very literally, too. They use "Problem-solving card text" where it makes use of deliberately placed adverbs in effect descriptions to dictate moment to moment interactions. It is almost like learning a new language, and has been compared to learning how to read through legal documents. It becomes comprehensive once you wrap your head around it, and is the reason you can do some properly crazy/funny shit in the game, but wrapping your head around it and understanding what new cards do is a whole thing. Having someone who's played YGO before teach you how to play the game is basically the most reliable way to learn it. It's genuinely a problem.

MTG is, comparatively, much easier to learn. Very low floor of entry, and sequenced in such a way that you can understand basically how the entire game works in a few hours. MTG's complexity 100% exceeds YGO's at the uppermost levels, but the way game comprehension builds on itself is much cleaner, so it feels less obtuse overall.

MTG is mechanically more casual friendly. The current MTG darling format, Commander, is basically a 2ish hour social game where four people engage in a free for all that hinges partially on social politicking. It's typically chill. You also have a lot of assorted 1v1 formats and such. There is likely a "way to play" that will resonate with you, and the games tend to be slowish.

YGO doesn't really have multiple formats in a meaningful way. You can absolutely do group stuff and set informal rules, but the game ultimately hinges on 1v1s. With the frontal complexity of card text, these can and will feel very lopsided and frustrating until you understand what's going on. Once you do know, it's super cool, but getting to that point can feel like a chore. The games are also typically quite fast (maybe 3-6 long turns) and very dense with card interactions and timings. I enjoy it for the way it makes me strategise (or not), but it's definitely a preference thing.

Cost is something where YGO absolutely curb stomps. I can get a whole deck of picked out cards, plus a suite of "staple" (eternally meta relevant) cards, with lots of cool foiled versions and stuff, for like 50-70 bucks USD. You are NOT doing that with MTG. MTG is a stupidly fucking expensive game, where reprints of important cards are rare to encourage market speculation (I am not kidding) and finance bros have an ACTUAL PLACE in the community. There is a reason that casual MTG encourages proxy use. It's fucked. Also, as an aside, MTG's shiny/foil cards are dogshit. Same-y and super prone to curling. YGO foils are extremely good and pretty.

Cost feeds into another issue; set rotation. You can argue merit in both directions with this one, but for the average person with average money to spend, MTG takes another L here. MTG has set rotation. Basically, in the standard 1v1 format, cards that have been out more than 3 years will no longer be playable in that format, and you have to get the new cards. A lot of the alternate 1v1 formats in MTG actually just boil down to "1v1s but you can use cards as far back as X" because... people want to use their cards they bought. YGO doesn't have this. It instead has a banlist, updated every couple of months, that aims to curb problematic card interactions. Ultimately, though, if you buy a thing and like the thing, you can basically always use the thing. (MTG, as an aside, also has banlists for its formats, but it's in addition to the rotation stuff. The fact so many formats are there to ignore X years of rotations is also kinda telling, imo.)

Art direction and flavour are a personal thing. I like both, though I think that YGO's reputation for archetypal/thematic variation and card art quality are well-earned. That'd be wholly up to your preferences.

So yeah, I have a fondness for both games, but I ultimately prefer YGO because I like doing unhinged bullshit in it, I like the art a whole lot, and I like that all my cards are affordable and retain usability in a typical play environment.

#ask #YGO #Yu-Gi-Oh #MTG #Magic The Gathering

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archivalofsins · 8 months

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It's ultra funny because I try not to get too serious. However, I'm sure people believe I'm just rather opinionated and a downer, but I am trying to be better at letting stuff be. Because I recognize it's not that serious to people. However, I also understand that for some, it may be difficult to understand where people who consistently vote and want Amane innocent are coming from.

It isn't nice to have ones whole point boiled down to so you support cults. Yet, at the same time, I have to wonder if people realize how boiling it down to that sounds. Firstly, just because someone uses the buzzword cult to elicit a kneejerk response and delegitamize the religious beliefs of those different from them does not change that what the person they are referring to is actually practicing are their religious beliefs which I believe should generally be respected regardless of one's own personal feelings.

There are a lot of mainstream religions, if not all of them, that have been referred to as cults at one time or another. So, to me, this always comes off as someone genuinely asking,

"Oh, you support someone's right to follow and believe whatever religion they wish?" To which my response would be, "Yes, within reason."

Literally, the response to the previous statement should always be yes. Unless someone's beliefs are literally killing people, which is not a part of Amane's teachings or the rules she listed. Something illustrated well in Purge March, considering Amane punishes her mom for killing the cat, and Amane's mom punishes her for saving the cat.

One of the rules is basically do not interfere with the fate of other living things whether you are healing or killing and Amane breaks it while killing her mom by using the fact her mother broke this rule as an excuse to now punish her mom and relishes in doing so saying,

"You're sorry I don't care. Please go ahead and die already." - "Tis ordained, thou shall stay thine course, then perish."

One of the rules literally amounts to stay in your lane, and yet it was still interpreted as what exactly? Like how else was this interpreted, I'm not understanding. To me, this literally reads as "You will live your life and your life only then die". This is the rule I interpreted both Amane and her mom breaking by intervening with the life of the cat in different ways, which was not them "staying thine course". The life of the cat was neither theirs to save or end because its life is not their course.

Amane's belief amounts to setting boundaries in what she wishes to have done to her and around her. It is not her fault she's currently in an environment where she is consistently forced to engage with and be around people who do not respect her beliefs. Her whole point when boiled down amounts to going have Shidou stop doing this thing that makes me uncomfortable and is antithetical to my personal values in my vicinity.

Does Amane need to learn that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and faith? Well, I could see how some could believe that, but personally, I don't think so. Because she literally came in here saying that if you do not judge her for her faith or what she has done, then she won't judge you. She has shown that she is capable of dealing with others living differently than she does, but she is more than willing to meet intolerance with intolerance.

Again, something that fits with that fourth rule, since we are not staying our course, I believe we are in a way giving Amane permission to leave hers and interfere with the courses of others. Just like she used the rule to excuse attacking her mother. For me seeing Amane's character be boiled down to her beliefs and her dedication to said beliefs ignores the fact that the people who fostered this environment of intolerance and hostility that she is reacting to was us through our previous verdict.

It's also just quite odd because, like, do people not understand what a slippery slope persecuting someone based on their beliefs alone is? Who decides what religions/beliefs are right and wrong? How do they judge which ones are wrong or right? What precedent does stating that judging someone off of that alone is okay set, and who can it harm/has harmed in the real world before?

Then even if I was afraid of Amane starting a cult when she literally only consistently speaks to one prisoner alone by choice, why would my adult response to that be to literally create a religious confrontation with a child? When I could simply be like, okay, those are your beliefs, and I accept them. However you have to do the same for others not everyone is going to agree with you and that's fine.

Not everyone follows your religious beliefs or subscribes to your teachings about medicine, and you can not force them to. Just as I can not force you to change your beliefs. Society should be built off of a mutual respect of people's cultures, religious practices, and boundaries. If one is unwilling to give that to someone else, they can not expect it to be given to them.

It's just that simple. In my opinion, and that's why even judging Amane for her beliefs alone wouldn't make me think she's guilty. Not because I support cults but simply because I'm not going to persecute someone solely due to the fact they have religious beliefs that differ from mine. Because I personally believe doing that is a slippery slope.

#milgram #amane momose

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momentsofamberclarity · 3 months

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How exactly does anti-endos and anti-shippers overlap?

Being a system is a disorder, with its own terms, criteria, and so on, which endo-"systems" have decided to use for themselves ignoring the fact that it is a trauma disorder. Any research done "proving endos are real" has been disproven many, MANY, times, and as far as I'm aware there's no proven cases. To be fair in that regard, there are many disorders that started out that way, but the difference here is the person who came up with the term has agreed they were wrong (they were actually a system (DID, i believe) who had just FORGOTTEN about their trauma, having trauma you forgot about is very different from having no trauma at all). So, if not even the research made to prove it can prove it, the person who came up with it agrees with it, and actual research that has been proven goes against it; how is it "gatekeeping rhetoric" to call out the fact those aren't real systems? How is calling out someone faking a disorder somehow anyway similar to... shipping discourse?

Gatekeeping the disorder does happen, to actual systems, but telling people they aren't a system because they don't fit the actual criteria isn't that. That's like getting mad at a site for deleting your post after you broke a rule and calling it "gatekeeping". If you're using something (such as terms made FOR systems), you should follow the criteria for it.

Do you have any proven resources on what makes an endo a system? What the overlap of anti-endos and anti-shippers is?

Like, I'm honestly curious and do wish for some kind of conversation about this, because this is something I've never seen before and it seems very based in personal opinion instead of fact, which is odd since you list it as fact every time. I'm curious on where you got these ideas, basically.

how is it "gatekeeping rhetoric" to call out the fact those aren't real systems?

Anon, I need you to reread your own sentence.

You deciding for yourself who can and who cannot be a system just based on the terminology they identify best with is gatekeeping.

There are many reasons a system may identify with the endogenic label and it is no more your business than asking a traumagenic system the details of their trauma.

And that is the exact same black and white thinking as an anti-shipper telling a proshipper what they can and cannot ship just because they themself don't like/condone/whatever that ship personally.

These are the same anti arguments being made. They both boil down to invalidating someone else, more often than not a complete stranger, on the basis of one's own personal moral ideals of how others should behave or identify themself.

You don't have to agree with a term to respect someone else's right to identify with it. You don't have to ship or even agree with the concept of a ship to support someone else's right to ship it in their own safe space.

#endo safe #proship safe #proshippers please interact #syscourse #okay to reblog #ambers.ask #ambers.res

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the-owl-house-takes · 8 months

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“How is Belos a colonizer??” Bro needs a basic history 💀 How do you think Belos got to Connecticut in the first place? Also he genuinely colonized the Boiling Isles with how he took over don’t overlook that.

He can hate multiple things?? LMFAO the puritans hated tons of minorities witches included, even if we take the puritan shit out Belos is still bigoted I don’t understand why people are trying to defend him? 💀 He’s literally Belos

“He was not racist where the hell did that come from” bro do you hear what you’re saying - think about what time period he came from.

“There’s quite literally no homophobia or transphobia in toh” that’s only limited to the Boiling Isles 💀 and Belos definitely not from there

“I think it came from Luz being a POC” “it’s not a race thing” “idk where that idea that witches are a race came from but it’s definitely odd” literally just look at where Belos came from. All bigotry ties together mind you. For example you can’t advocating for women’s rights while being transphobic (TERFS) cause then you’re putting not only trans people down - but yourself and other minorities as well. It all connects. Also nobody is saying witches are a race 💀I don’t understand how Belos fans in all the time brainrot ting over Belos don’t realize what time period he came from and how’d it effect him?? (I am a Belos fan myself)

“It’s a fictional character guys!”

Yeah and people love thinking realistically abt him lmao. The fictional character arguments are always so lazy + ignore the real-world messages - yes he’s a fictional character. People like him because he’s so realistic. There are real, yes real people out there, who if they had the chance - would do the exact same things he did just to get rid of a minority. Thats not an exaggeration that’s simple how deep bigotry can run and I love how Belos’ can be portrayed in multiple ways.

Also saying that Belos only hates magic purely because Caleb got ‘corrupted’ by a witch is not correct at all. That bigotry was there longgg long ago 💀 if anything that only amplified it. Belos doesn’t have a justifiable reason to hate witches/magic (Caleb falling in love with a witch is not justified hatred.) he simply does it because he holds those bias & allegories for 400+ years. Note this can extend to how differing witches are to humans in Belos’ eyes. How LGBTQ+ is acceptable for witches while in humans it’s sinful, unnatural, etc. How witches don’t have racism (I swear to god if one more person tells me that there’s no people of color on the Boiling Isles, HAVE YOU SEEN GUS?? 💀) whereas Belos came from an era where racism (to put in its simplest terms) was very much thriving!

The Boiling Isles represents literally everything a bigot like Belos would be against, witches included. Witches can be gay, witches can be people of color, etc. “Belos hates witches only” doesn’t really work for him and what his character is written for. He’s an allegory of bigotry and with the way he acts & speaks you can definitely see it. Fiction affects reality and reality affects fiction.

“He wanted control over the magic and to limit it to what he wanted.” That’s true! I’m unsure where you were going with this? He actually didn’t want this, he only used the coven system as a way to kill everybody easily in one take. He simply needed to gain control over magic first - that was never apart of his original plan. He was out here to kill because the boiling isles represents everything he is against.

“But Caleb came from the same time period and he’s not bad!”

I love comparing Caleb & Belos together sm. Further cementing into the ground that Belos being a bigot is all his doing is because Caleb unlearned the bigotry. Caleb was also a colonizer, he was also a witch hunter! He also likely held those other harmful beliefs for most of his life! But Caleb changed, whereas Belos clung to those beliefs. That’s why I love these two they’re a great example of why bigotry is taught and can be unlearned! Acknowledging this can add to their stories more, give them more depth, add more realism to an already scary villain! The reason Belos is so scary as a villain is because of how real he is - there genuinely are people out there who’d do the same as him if given the chance.

As a POC who studies a lot about how bigotry develops - I love studying Belos, he’s very well written in this regard imo! I feel like people who don’t want to acknowledge the rest of Belos’ bigotry miss the point of his entire character arc 😭 he’s somebody who fell into the deep extremes of bias & hate - let him be hateful.

I hope this helped the original person to have a better understanding of this topic? They seemed ill informed/uneducated so I hope my rant helped 😭(not saying that as an insult btw)

#the owl house #toh #character analysis #long post

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chibishortdeath · 6 months

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Fuck it, Simon Belmont, because why not you basically themed your blog after him

You don’t have any specific numbers, so I’m just answering every question >:3c mwahahaha—

1. “Why do you like this character”:

A lot of reasons!!! First off, most of his games are super fun and some of my favorite platformers just in general. I replay CV1, Simon’s Quest, and SCV4 most often cause they’re a real joy to play! I also absolutely LOVE Simon’s story, I’ve considered making comics about it if I could ever get out of recent art block whoops, even though I’ve seen many people say he doesn’t have one (´TωT｀). His designs are really cool, he’s got great music in his games, there’s just a lot to love and I’ll explain more in detail in other questions.

2. “Favorite canon thing?”

I really like the concept that he looks up to Christopher as this legendary hero and then ends up considered the same kind of legendary hero by Juste and others after him. It’s pretty ironic, kinda bittersweet, especially after being hated for so long. Castlevania loves its cycles like that. Also just Simon’s Quest in general, I love that game.

3. “Least favorite canon thing?”

Ooo that’s very hard. There’s kinda a lot of things about him that aren’t explained or confirmed, especially personality wise, but I kinda like that in a way cause it leaves room for interpretation and whatnot. Idk hmmm. I’m gonna go with Grimoire of Souls in general. I had some hopes for it, but it ended up being kinda lame. A lot of the characterization was weird and don’t even start me on things like the Cursed Whip theory being in there 💀. So I just choose to ignore it and not consider it canon.

4. “If you could put this character in another media, what would it be?”

I have thought about drawing him as if he was a character in other series for ages lol. I’ve already drawn him as a Pokémon trainer, I’ve thought about drawing Castlevania and Soul Eater crossovers before, and I tried drawing him in the style of Resident Evil 1 but could not get the art style down. Idk put him in Fortnite or something that’d be funny we already got Solid Snake so Konami has been in talks with them I guess X,,,,,,,,,,D

5. “What’s the first song that comes to mind when you think of them?”

Probably either Simon’s Theme (of course lol) or Bloody Tears, but I do wanna mention that I have a YouTube playlist of songs I wanna make Simon animations with eventually (alas animation is HARD).

6. “What’s something you have in common with the character?”

Mostly negative things unfortunately d(;w; ). Like self comparison, doubt in my own abilities, trouble making and keeping friends, etc etc. Although a lot of these are based on assumptions and interpretations, as a lot of him usually is. Simon does have a really similar hair color to me on the NES box art tho so that’s cool.

7. “What’s something the fandom does with this character that you like?”

There’s a lot of really nice art of him!!! Usually portraits, but sometimes there’s other doodles and whatnot too :3. Cool fan redesigns too! I also have seen a lot of neat headcanons, a lot of which I’ve adopted. I also appreciate the Captain N reunion stuff for the most part, it’s pretty wholesome.

8. “What’s something the fandom does with this character that you don’t like?”

I’ve seen a lot of comics, especially around when Smash Bros Ultimate came out, that were really… weird. I think all of them could kinda be boiled down to “old = bad” in the way that the artists probably just found out he was from the 1600s and then decided to make him the Boomer to Richter’s Gen Z for whatever reason (ya know despite Richter being from the 1700s but anyway). Simon would either be the jerk in the situation and/or the butt of the joke. I don’t think that Simon would have any issue with any of the female characters’ outfits let alone start harassing them for it. I saw some comics that made fun of him for not speaking very much in some genuinely disgusting ways too. Like making him not able to read or practically just the generic caveman stereotype. Especially in cases where the artist would depict other silent NES protagonists really nicely after making Simon out to be a complete idiot and asshole. There was also the trend of making him generally be all “oh no witchcraft!!!!!!!!!! What sin!!!!!!! The horror!!!!!!!!” about like anything and everything. I guess a lot of this comes from Smash Bros fans not usually being fans of Castlevania, but I’ve seen it in the Castlevania fandom too just less frequently. There’s also the “Simon has no story” thing oof. I’ve seen people tell people to skip his games or play fan games instead before :(

9. “Could you be roommates with this character?”

Realistically, no, my room is too small for another person :(. If that wasn’t an issue, then yeah probably :).

10. “Could you be best friends with this character?”

I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO—

11. “Would you date this character?”

No, he’s probably married, generally feels more like a bestie, and I’m aroace lol

12. “What headcanon do you have for this character?”

Too many oh my god. I think he probably makes things. That’s a very vague sentence lol, but think like armor, knives, general woodworking, all his necklaces and headbands and stuff, etc. He generally seems like he keeps to himself and lives mostly alone, so I can see him doing all that by himself. He keeps some bones and teeth of things he hunts most of the time. A lot of people have him as the most super Christian of the family, but I see him as like Christian but really not organized or strict about it, if that makes sense? I’ve seen someone else describe the Belmonts as like “Christopagan” before and yeah I think that fits. Idk why but I have consistently drawn him with his cross necklace in his mouth sometimes. I headcanon him as semiverbal (I think that’s the correct term for it, basically like inbetween speaking and nonspeaking). I like to think he’s like really average height for the 1600s cause he’s about as tall as other townspeople and skeletons and stuff. Which is funny cause that’d make him like 5’5-5’7 ish and that’s kinda short in modern day lol. And I guess that makes his 8bit sprite being used all the time make more sense XD. I have way more, I didn’t even get into Simon’s Quest related ones, but I don’t wanna make this too long aaaaaaaaaaaa

13. “What’s an emoticon that reminds you of the character or you think they’d use a lot?”

Ok this is funny cause I actually do have one for this and it’s got context. It’s the “:3”. So I was watching a bunch of people’s playthroughs one night cause I was bored and ran into a channel with a toooooon of speedruns of maps from Harmony of Despair. Whenever they’d get to a boss battle they’d use the typing feature just to go “hi” with a different cutesy emoticon every time, but when they got to Dracula they specifically went for the “hi :3” and then went “oh no :(“ when Dracula started attacking and now that’s the way I think he’d text I guess.

14. “Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character”

How does one properly explain how much this guy slays in one aesthetic term—

15. “What’s your favorite ship for this character?”

Oooooo, in canon probably like his wife (Selena) and/or the Mysterious Woman (who could be the same character depending on what theories you go by), but outside of that Simon Belmont x Getsu Fuma and I can’t even explain exactly why, but it’s pretty cute.

16. “What’s your least favorite ship for this character?”

Any BelmontXBelmont shipping ugh, it’s unfortunately really common on some places… also the whole Lucas or Pit or whatever other child character thing the smash bros fandom had ugh. I guess I also just don’t see the appeal of shipping any of the Belmonts with Dracula.

17. “What’s a ship you don’t hate but it’s not your favorite?”

I’ve also seen people ship him with Solid Snake, Palutena, or Bayonetta before. Ummm he doesn’t really have a lot of other characters he’s shipped with tbh. Idk I saw someone ship him with one of the priests from Simon’s Quest once.

18. “Relationship in canon you admire?”

Unfortunately he doesn’t really talk to people enough in game to form canon relationships 😔

19. “Relationship in canon you don’t like?”

I don’t even know if I can answer this one for the same reasons as the above 💀💀💀. I guess the townspeople hating the hell out of him, but I don’t hate that cause it’s kinda integral to the plot???? Yeah idk lol

20. “What character is the ideal best friend for this character?”

Simon and Shanoa would get along a lot I think. Sara too. Hmmmm… I think he and Alucard would probably also be good friends. Christopher too for many reasons. Simon just really needs friends my poor dude is out here in Dracula’s Castle and the Romanian countryside after being cursed alone like this poor guy :’(

21. “If you’re a fic writer, what’s your favorite thing to do when writing this character? What’s something you don’t like?”

I have not written much at all, however what small comics I have done I looooove to make sure to sprinkle in whatever symbols he has in the games into it. He has a lot of cool things ranging from like rose thorns to The Hanged Man card and a lot of them end up meaning things like martyrdom and whatnot idk I made a post about it a while ago :3. I also like specifically Simon’s Quest speculation stuff, like what if scenarios for the vague, left open spots of it. If it’s not something super angsty or lore heavy, it’s usually just wholesome character interactions or doodling him being comforted by Christopher or Trevor cause I was sad or something lol. As far as things I don’t like writing uh idk that’s hard, maybe just any kind of filler scenes cause I’m not very good at those oof. Dialogue is hard too 💀💀💀

22. “If you’re a fic reader, what’s something you like/don’t like to see in fics?”

I’ve mentioned a lot of things I don’t like seeing in uh question 8, but things I do like is when people really try to go full horror with him. I’ve seen some Simon’s Quest fics (sadly there’s very few :’3) that really try to get that same feeling of anxiousness and dread the game does and I love that honestly. It’s a really dark story in the series! I also saw one that went psychological horror with it with him kinda losing himself a little at night it’s just ough it’s cool :D! Simon is a horror protagonist! Make him afraid!!!

23. “Favorite picture of this character?”

Again, too many!!! X3

24. “What other character from another fandom reminds you of them?”

Not from fandoms I am in (yet, hopefully I’ll get into these), but Ragnvaldr from Fear and Hunger I’ve heard is just directly inspired by him and Alfred from Bloodborne also, to me, seems heavily inspired by him. The whole Vilebloods section seems very Castlevania inspired tbh. From other fandoms I’m in, that’s hard to say, there’s not really any I don’t think.

25. “What was your first impression of this character, is it the same as now?”

Well I got into Castlevania through Smash Bros and at first was completely indifferent about him, he was just kinda fun to play as. Then Richter got me to play SotN and actually get into the series more. I had no idea I had SotN on XBOX360 for a long time, but that made it pretty easy to start playing. And now I am absolutely hooked and Simon is my favorite character so uh yeah X3.

26. “Freebie!”

I guess I just say anything? Ok, I am currently half trying to cosplay Simon’s Simon’s Quest design rn! I have like everything but the armor, but I’ll have to wait a while to be able to get materials for it oof. But yeah :). Hopefully that works out.

Ok yeah that’s pretty dang long wow, but yeah, thanks for the ask!!!! I am happy to rant about Simon anytime :3

#castlevania #castlevania games #text post #simon belmont #asks #ask game #yay! Simon :3 #I feel like I could probably go on even longer with other questions but uh yeah #more reason to do more of these ask things they’re fun :)#incoherent rambling #idk if I should put a cut somewhere in this cause WOW that is LONG jesus #hmmmmmmmmmmmmm idk #I should post some of the Simon and Fuma art I have sometime when I’m not feeling weirdly self conscious about it—

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neolxzr · 11 months

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i had ur post about twt stuff reccomended 2 me and ough. ive never been on twitter and i love aira sm what the hell are they saying about him over there.

sorry if this gets long this topic bothers me so much dghfk the first part actually answers your question anon the rest is just me ranting

amen to you for never looking at twitter but basically theres a lot of people on enstars twitter who HATE aira. it depends on the person but its usually some variation of "he's racist." ive seen several people on twitter get harrassed and have to go private over making tweets that boiled down to "aira is fine actually." there are people who like him on there but i get the consensus that hating him is a very normal and accepted opinion to have

there is one interaction of aira's that i think is bad and choose to ignore like most enstars fans do with at least one of their favorite characters because sometimes the writing sucks lol. like most people choose to ignore all of the weird transphobic comments towards naru that their favs have made but apparently aira isnt allowed that same treatment? lol

but in general the way he's treated over there bothers me for a couple of reasons

1) stop drawing conclusions about characters when you havent fucking read their stories!!!! i know for a fact that most people who hate aira haven't even read most of the main story or feather touch or any story that talks about his character and just take what other people say about him at face value and its annoying. also they just disregard his growth as a character entirely 2) most people take a very western centric view when looking at him so they disregard his struggle with being mixed race because they dont think hes like. oppressed enough? when most people dont understand how different the culture in japan is and how it might actually affect him (again. read his stories please) 3) aira is like. 15. and yes, he is mean sometimes. he is a child. the way he acts is pretty normal teenager behavior, especially for someone who is written as being really insecure 4) he is not real!!!! you cannot ask a fictional character to take accountability for their actions because he is not going to make an apology video about it

this goes back to the thing i was saying in my other post about twitter's weird obsession with having the moral highground when it doesnt matter at all. liking an anime character is like the least harmful thing ever and trying to police what characters are ok to like isnt social justice grahfghdj

TLDR twitter loves calling aira racist and i think its really annoying, reductive of his character, and kind of just plain wrong, but its a really good example of twitter users feeling the need to try and be morally superior to other people for no reason over stupid things

#cryn answers #anon #sorry for how long this is shfjghdg #i didnt even get into people hating hiiai #same sort of thing aira is racist to hiiro and aira is an awful person etc #like read any alkaloid story and youll understand that isnt true and also you are not protecting hiiro by hating aira #hiiro LOVES aira. he mentions him in every other sentence #whatever. anyway

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chirpsythismorning · 1 year

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So are we gonna talk about how we have to face homophobia on a daily basis online and it has not once been addressed by Netflix or the writers like ever. And it's not like they do not see any of that stuff happening. It's happening basically HD on Twitter.

And the way they do not even bother to say something, even though they were the ones who teased Byler during the whole pride month. Literally, multiple queer fans felt like they received a slap in the face, yet no one said anything regarding the treatment of Robin and Will in this season. And all this happening during the pride month was trash. Never once addressing any of this and the treatment Will got from the show and by the fans... was a choice. Not to mention them constantly fueling homophobia on twitter or queerbaity posts are... a choice.

It's just simply disappointing and makes it harder to respect the writers.

I just want to preface this by saying that homophobia is bad. Obviously. It will always be bad and how I feel about that doesn’t change just because I’m not acknowledging it every time it occurs.

I’ve had asks like this before where I say pretty much the same thing every time, and so I considered not posting this bc I just sound like a broken record.

To be clear, the writers have posted in the past about how fans should be able to ship whoever they want to ship, at a moment in particular when people were hating on byler and non-canon queer ships in general. And so we can’t expect them to come to the rescue every time something is blowing up on Twitter. Otherwise, they would never have a day off.

Twitter is a cesspool and giving attention to it only makes it worse, that’s what it really boils down to. Once you open up that can of worms, it never ends.

It isn’t even just homophobia on there. Every form of bigotry thrives on that platform, where everyday they’re mad about something and demand everyone to confront it or else. And that’s just not healthy. Its not sustainable at all.

And to be clear, all sides on there have really, really toxic stans, including bylers. Not all of them are toxic, but it’s really hard to get by on there unless you can handle seeing that stuff on a daily basis. Some byler discourse on Twitter is a large part of the reason people want to claim all bylers hate El. And it's because of the toxic ship wars on there, where they always take it too far and create division by hating on Will or El or Mike, and then it stretches to the actors and goes on and on. All of that drama is best to ignore for your sanity. Confronting it won’t solve anything. A lot of those people, even when faced with common sense, still choose the road that revolves around hatred and disrespect without any remorse. It’s not worth getting worked up over.

Also want to make clear that the original tweet Stranger Things posted had nothing to do with byler. Shippers on Twitter will make any and every post about their ship and pressure the people running the account to post something. The comments are always filled with all sorts of tweets like that so it’s not just bylers either. This means it arguably could have been anyone that was called out for commenting something unrelated to the post. It just so happens that byler is getting a lot more popular, to the point where they do dominate on Twitter as a platform considering most of the ga doesn't even like milkvan anymore anyways, and a lot more people are open to byler. So I would imagine most of the comments did look something like that.

When it comes to queer-baiting from official Netflix accounts last summer, I do think that the only reason they did that stuff, like make posts with byler in the literal caption on tiktoks, was because it was during an official promotional circuit that focused on byler in the penultimate season. If byler is endgame though they couldn't disclose that, they arguably did exactly what they had to do. They had to refer to it by name to get more people aware of it, but also keep it subtle, and they especially had to drop it post vol 2 because s4 closed off in a way that wanted us to think milkvan was endgame based on the monologue.

The thing about queer-baiting and why it is so fucking shitty, is because it almost always leads no where. They do all of that stuff, with the creators behind the scenes knowing it will never happen. They mock and hype it up and get people psyched, only for it to lead to nowhere. That's how it's always been.

The point of how they are approaching byler, is to give the impression it's like every other queer-bait before, only to flip the switch. The beauty of it, is all of these people that have been wrong before, and were told they were be going to be wrong again, weren't wrong this time. And that's going to be even more satisfying after they pull the rug under those that were telling bylers to know their place and to accept that it's like every other queer-bait. Once and for all when s5 comes out, the roles will switch and it will be much more satisfying than them just laying it all out there at any point in advance super obviously.

Like people who are paying attention, know the message of the show goes against all of those things and those that don’t and insist that doesn’t play a role, are the ones who have to wait to find out, with them tuning until the very end only to realize they were the ones wrong.

And there is a difference between the st writers account, who is often an intern directly in very close contact with the writers, or the writers themselves potentially at any given time. Whereas the official netflix accounts are run by various interns connected to Netflix, with people above them calling the shots for official major posts. Though stuff like replies is often given at the discretion of the person running the account at that moment. Sometimes they say stuff that doesn't land or that was inconsiderate. I'm sure there has been instances of people being fired in the worst cases of stuff going down. But in this case, it really is just a case of fans being chronically online and making everything about ships when it never was in the first place.

Also, in terms of the writers, there is a strike rn so under no circumstances will the writers be tweeting at all, bc that’s the whole point of striking, not participating in writers duties. And that is literally a writers account for Netflix’s Stranger Things.

I also try to keep this rule for myself on here, but believe me when I say, you do not need to follow the crowd and give input into every drama that arises.

We have our own drama over here on tumblr too, so it's not like we're by any means perfect at all times. Sometimes one person says something and suddenly people are saying that a bunch of people are saying that even though it was only one person and now everyone has to give their two cents and you can't go in the tag without being bombarded with the same posts rehashing it from every which angle.

But you can choose to not participate every single time something occurs. You can choose to live your life without reacting to every given thing. That's just a lot better of a way to live mental health wise too. Like I personally don't want to be confronted with a bunch of homophobia in the tag bc one person said something. And that's also why we try to encourage people to just block the sloppy seconds anon, bc most of us don't want to see that in the tag. We come here for appreciation and making connections not giving homophobes a platform to spout their bs.

I will probably make a post about this again inevitably when the next big thing happens.

But just remember, the back and forth in general with these accounts messing with fans in regards to ship wars is far from over (well at least 2 years max).

Also keep in mind, we are on hiatus rn, so anything from ST accounts is going to be related to like press and merchandise outside of the show itself, which we saw with this one today that ignited all of this, was related to a ST game releasing...

When the promotional circuit finally starts, like in the months up to release, that's when you're going to see really intentional promotion that was planned ahead of time, months in advance, by experts and graphic designers working closely with people from the ST production on their vision of what they want to hint at in promotion.

The first promotional post for s5 we can look forward to, is the picture they are bound to post when announcing the first day of filming. With the strike it's hard to know when that will be, but once the strike is over hopefully with a fair deal made for the writers, that post announcing filming will be dropping soon after presumably.

In the mean time lets try to make this a space that isn't like Twitter where everything is so deep and we need to call it out. More often than not it's not that deep and the trolls don't deserve our attention in the first place. The best way to piss them off is to keep having a good time and ignore them. They hate that shit more than anything lol!

#byler #byler tumblr #twitter #st writers #queerbaiting #is bad #but if we're dealing with a straight bait situation...#giving the assumption this is queerbait for as long as they can #is going to make the rug being pulled that much more satisfying to those that have been through this and are going to finally be right #it's revolutionary tbh #and when people inevitably are like genuinely homophobic about the results of the show itself #as opposed to mindless ship wars with the sole purpose of getting a rise out of the opposing side #it will actually mean something to confront it when they are making clear where they stand on things when the show speaks for itself #s5 is going to be followed by press and interviews and cons and a bunch of opportunities for them to call out fans for the rest of eternity #my advice #stay off stan twitter #for your sanity

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gunkreads · 10 months

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Ehhh.... debating making a big post about Oppenheimer here (I'm gonna). Seeing a lot of sentiment against the movie that I don't want to engage with. I watched it last night, which is super weird for me since I 1: don't really watch movies, 2: almost NEVER go to theaters, and 3: wasn't super really stoked about the movie in the first place.

It being a big-budget Nolan movie, I was going to be disappointed if I walked away thinking it was anything less than "good", and I wasn't disappointed. It's got a nice dense story structure while staying both complex and concise, it's pretty visually striking, it's paced very well (especially for a 3 hour movie), its actors all do a very good job convincing you that they're famous for a reason, and I now know the locations of each and every hair follicle on Cillian Murphy's face.

On the other hand, it pulled off the perversely beautiful feat previously reserved for directors like Michael Bay and Guy Ritchie of inverting the relative horniness of sex scenes and explosions. The sex scenes have, yknow, the appropriate amount of narrative weight, but they're just downright weird in ways that feel jarringly unintentional compared to the rest of the movie. The explosions, on the other hand, are downright fetishistic. It's a movie about the biggest bomb. It'd be weird if they weren't.

Lots of discourse going around about the topics the movie doesn't address--specifically the effect on the lives of the bomb victims. To this I say "yeah". It was a narrative decision to basically ignore the victims in favor of the titular character's perspective, and I believe the movie does suffer slightly for it. It definitely brings the moral values of the narrative into question. However, the complaint seems to boil down to "the movie didn't focus on what it should've focused on", which is a complaint you could go crazy making. The movie isn't a documentary. If it were, this decision would be really, really bad.

But it's not a documentary; it's a mythologization of history. Cillian Murphy's Oppenheimer isn't a person who does and says things; he's an archetypal representation of the effects of the things he does and says. It's about him. Does that mean you lose a huge amount of perspective, to the extent that the most important groups in the real-life story are spurned? Yes. Does it mean you get a narrower, more detailed focus on the main character? Yes.

Does it mean the movie calls him a good guy? Absolutely fucking not. The second thought I had leaving the theater (after coming to terms with how in love I am with Cillian Murphy) was "I don't like the way that man treats his wife!" And that's just one of his many "mistakes" that the movie tactfully blames squarely on Oppenheimer himself. He's really not presented as "the good guy all along". The narrative is very, very aware of how inexcusable "getting caught up in the moment" of designing a weapon of mass destruction is.

Probably the most interesting theme of the movie was the interplay between science, politics, and poetry, the way each is the same as the other, and the role charisma plays in all three. Fictionalized-Oppenheimer is simultaneously a scientist and a politician, which makes him a poet by necessity. I don't really know of a way to discuss this without going into pages and pages of description of the way the medium of film works, so just suffice it to say that all the media involved in a movie are pushing the interrelation between these three concepts.

Also, Matt Damon is always fucking fantastic. Sorry for being basic.

#oppenheimer #movies #departure from your irregularly scheduled programming but this movie was well made

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lightyearssurrogatedaddy · 11 months

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the straight A student gets nowhere in life because they're used to following directions and not trying another path.

the D student who has mental breakdowns every time they're set down to testing however...

anyways I've been thinking about the school system lately. I've recently discovered that if I turn schoolwork into a stim activity I forget that it's actually supposed to teach me stuff. At this point I'm just repeating what they say and daydreaming mindlessly about my fics and future activities.

so how can I fix the school system... since I figured out a way around it by ignoring it completely, what's a way I can suggest betterments?

blah blah blah, not that 'frequent breaks' and 'applying yourself'

that's bullcrap, c'mon I tried that for years and only got more stressed.

the main problem with schoolwork is that it's boring, and it doesn't properly measure intelligence at all. Yes, the things they do mention, like science, language arts, history, all very important, but they're not letting us come to the discovery ourselves, which makes the value of learning that 'protons are positive' completely meaningless.

there's no reward. The 'reward' we get is good grades and praise, which actually harm our want to learn even further! If the prospect of a reward is the driving force to do something, you're gunna do that something as lazily as you can get away with just to get that reward.

so first you remove grades.

but then you're left with a boring quiz that doesn't hold any sense of accomplishment once you finish it, so why do it?

most of you read books, what makes you keep reading it? My mother says that the reason she keeps reading is cus she wants to know how it ends, so that means she has questions right? Questions about the story, characters, etcetc. And a phrase I hear sometimes in the writing community is, "Its not about what happens, its how it happens."

so if we make the educational system more like reading a book... A short expositional phase that gets the student's attention, filled with questions, possibilities, and few answers... basically get the student involved, get them outside, have them look at something complex and complicated and get them to say, "I wanna know more about THAT."

Also like with drawing! Most people start drawing because of professional art they saw.

creativity and curiosity are VITAL in learning new concepts.

here's more about how predictable today's system is. Most of my answers are based entirely off of PURELY the word choice of the question, I get questions right just by seeing which answer is 'fancier' looking.

you want kids to pay attention in class? Don't give them A,B,C answers, dummy, give them a topic and they'll come up with their own answer. Doesn't matter if they're wrong or right, they tried to answer it, just keep exploring the topic and they'll come to the conclusion eventually.

treat the subject like a discussion. I learned that in America, you can't eat a dead body off the side of the road because it qualifies as having the corpse in your possession. And it only stuck in my brain because there were a lot of people adding onto the conversation.

and no, taking students outside with worksheets and explaining how a river works is not a good example of learning.

teacher who put that 'Learning is Fun!' poster on their walls are the bane of my existence. Cus they always bullshit people if they don't do their work correctly.

if I've repeated words someone's already said I'm very sorry, I don't mean to bore people with the same old sentence over and over again :( I'm genuinely just frustrated with school and it's been boiling in my brain for the past few years.

#school #lsd's bullshit #small rant #school system #i still hate math tho

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gresidentdoorkicker · 7 months

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//I took inspiration from a character driven creative writing class on Skillshare, though it's morphed into something more

//please enjoy

There are effectively two ways of thinking when it came to choosing one's companion animal. Practicality and aesthetics. Each one broke down into different hyper specific sub-thoughts and niches but it boils down to practicality and aesthetics.

Alex fell into the latter. You'd think that somebody like him, tall, stout, darkly clothed, quiet, would have a badass guard dog, something large and protective, meant to act as the big brother to groups of stoned sheep, sluggishly bumping around the pasture. No, Alex rejects such stereotypical norms. He settled on a much more spiky path of reasoning when it came to choosing a companion animal.

Fireball was her name, being pissy was her game. Alex had a sticker in his truck window proudly proclaiming to the rest of the world 'my pet can eat your pet'.

While most would think it was ironic, be assured, it wasn't. Fireball is a four foot long Savannah Monitor lizard. She weighed about 60 ish pounds with an attitude to match. The lizard was surprisingly smart, she knew her own name and a few basic commands.

It was with these musings fresh on Alex's mind that he met the anthesis to his hypothesis.

Fireball was doing her thing, stalking some hamster in its temporary holding tank, in the main lobby of the specialty veterinary office near my house. Alex was filling out a release form at the front desk, occasionally giving a pull on Fireball's leash, reigning her back to reality and out of feral hunting mode.

Alex had an earbud in his right ear and leaned over the counter, using his left arm as a rest for his upper body. Rather shamefully, if he had to admit, Alex was absorbed within his own little bubble. Ignorant to the workings of the environment around him. Not completely, mind you, but primarily. Years of conditioning and military service kept his head on a swivel, but blaring metal music and the hills and valleys of signing your name at the bottom of the page had taken precedent.

It was with these considerations in mind that Alex turned around and powered forward in his typical way of making everyone think he had somewhere important to be and that they were all in the way, right over a spectacularly short individual who had been struggling to carry a stack of boxes.

"Gah!"

"Damnit! You ass! Watch where you're going,"

Alex had fallen quite comically over after losing his balance as he tried to recover from banging into the short individual, who he quickly realized was a woman.

"Sorry...Sorry,"

Alex quickly collected himself, sheepishly picking up the stack of packages that he'd dubiously knocked over while simultaneously keeping a handle on Fireball.

"You big dumb oaf! You think you can just do what you want because your head is all the way up in the clouds," Her face was a beet red as she took her packages in their stack "It's just perfect!"

"Uhh?"

She couldn't be any taller than five foot and 4 inches, but she had a bark that made her seem eight foot tall. She seemed like the type of person who had a cat, or a goldfish. She made Alex, six foot and then some, seem small.

"Yes! Perfect! You army guys are all the same. Clumsy and obnoxious. Aware only of however far their eyes can see,"

She ranted and raved to herself, oblivious of the eyes that were now angrily turning their way, marching off toward the door marked 'employees only' clearly delivering the stack of packages he'd sent across the floor.

Speechless, bewildered, and flustered Alex nervously waved an apology before scooping Fireball up and tossing her over his shoulder, as if she were hugging him, and walking out the door.

Alex gently guided Fireball into her custom harness in the back seat of his truck, cheeks flushing as he heard the voice of the small delivery woman approach and then recede behind him as she went for another armload of packages.

Alex paused as he risked a glance over his shoulder, smiling slightly. He'd never had anyone, outside of the irate officer back in the army, speak to him that way.

Alex thought he was in love.

#writing #had this in my drafts #need to become a better writer #short stories

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twstgameplay · 2 years

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Hello!

My question is about the most optimal way/order to cast the spells of the cards. With this current lineup and investment, I’m able to kill using all turns on turn 5. I did a couple more runs with some good rng (no power drains) and found I’m not quite able to even reach my high score and I was wondering why that is. for the team above for cosmic exam, would using the trey duo with caters spell 1 on the 3rd turn as opposed to the first turn give more points?

I understand that overkilling with riddle is the most optimal way to end the battle since he has the most damage output but I was wondering if there was an optimal way/order to cast the other duos? Would casting trey’s duo before cater’s or Azul’s before trey’s change anything? And also would casting both of their duos (cater and trey) at the same time as opposed to separately be worth more?

Thanks so much for your help!

There's no evidence to suggest that the order in which you cast the DUOs will affect your score. There are some RNG variability in each battle, but essentially it boils down to doing the most damage you could possibly do without killing too fast or too slow. In basic tests, the gauge under the HP also matters, as the stronger your attacks, and the less hits you take, your percentage will be higher.

As for the optimal order to do your attacks: it would also depend on the foes' effects. This cosmic battle was from the last session, with Malleus, Jack, Jade and Floyd. Using these four as an example, the only one you would really need to watch out for is Jack, since he could cast a Power Drain on your cards. You'd want to make sure that it doesn't hit any of your DUOs to do the most damage.

So I would most likely suggest these pairings, given this team (in no particular order except for the last one):

Riddle S1 / Azul S2 - To get the most damage possible, try to do Azul's DUO with Riddle's S1. If Riddle's S1 is at Level 10, then it will also do two strikes during its attack. Azul's attack can go first, especially if you think a foe will use a Power Drain effect for the second attack.

Cater S1 / Jade S2 or Trey S1 - You want to use Cater's S1 effect to use a Power Drain on the foe, so they can't hit you as hard, lowering that gauge percentage. If the RNG works out, you might want to try to use it against whoever has the Power/Damage Boost effect, to effectively cancel it out. At the base level, Jade has more POW than Trey, so if you can use his S2, you'll get two strong hits (from Level 5). If you need to heal instead, use Trey's S1.

Cater S2 / Trey S2 - Your secondary DUO team. You don't have to do them together at the same time, in fact, based on RNG, you can do Cater S1 with Trey S2, and Trey S1 with Cater S2. The pair here and the the pair above are more or less interchangeable.

Azul S1 / Riddle S2 - You'll want to do this as your final attack, as you surmised. The reason why I suggest splitting up Azul and Riddle is that you want to overkill as much as possible. The more bigger hits you do at the beginning of the battle, the more you can finesse with the smaller, single hits later on. It may be that if you attack with Azul's S1 here, that you'd kill before you can use Riddle's DUO. If that's the case, then you have the flexibility to make Riddle's S2 go first, and ignore Azul's S1.

Again, this was just an example for this team, considering a cosmic team, but generally you'll want to think about effects of your foes and what matches up well with them. Like I said above, there isn't any concrete evidence that the timing of DUOs will affect your score (except for the last turn overkill). Cater's debuff is your best friend here, and if you can use it on whoever hits the hardest out of the foes, that will also help in raising your score.

~ 🐬

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst jp info #twst strategy #mod jeido

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csmeaner · 2 years

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Design Shitting: Obscure Edition

Meet the Lumenfox! They’re usually not too expensive in large part due to their obscurity. I stumbled upon these by accident and it seems their defining trait is the majority of them being over-designed.

Last shit for a week or so after this. Gotta go out of town.

https://www.deviantart.com/lumenfox

For example: https://www.deviantart.com/yoshimiko-adopts/art/closed-ty-special-summer-event-auction-754675390

it’s the whole freaking package of mediocrity. i could dunk on this species all day but it’s basically the same as every other middling quadraped species. they honestly slapping on shit for the sake of having shit without a single thought on how it would look overrall. it’s truly the lazy weeb’s sparkledog and the obvious asian shit slapped around is borderline racist in its ignorant portrayals. there’s so much shit everywhere to pretend that there’s an actual design to look at and once you peel that away all you get is a dog with broken wings and gross gradient hair without a cohesive light source. if you look at the page all it talks about is how it’s a species and it’s closed and only the owner can make them and here’s links to other sites the species is on. I searched but there’s very little actual worldbuilding all the effort is on getting people to actually buy these bargain bin rejects. despite trying to look more stereotypically asian than a fortune cookie the species currency is called quantums for some unfathomable reason

Toxic fumes: https://www.deviantart.com/yoshimiko-adopts/art/HALLOWEEN-LumenFox-Adopt-for-WorldOfXaunus-715549255

just an enormous fart cloud obscuring most of the body and veering into the opposite direction of looking way too lazy. Just green splotches thrown all over and some crystal shit that shares the same texture what a fucking dreaaaaamm/s

The head is turned in profile towards the end of the body. You’re welcome. https://www.deviantart.com/yoshimiko-adopts/art/CLOSED-TY-Special-summer-Event-Auction-756867481

thanks for the heads up because without zooming in it’s impossible to tell what’s going in. I actually like the idea of the fireworks but it falls flat on everything else from the obvious stamp brushes to the shitton of useless crap on its body. without all the junk it’s a thoughtlessly plain design that doesn’t read well. even the ab of 68$ feels too much for what can be boiled down to a blue dog with corn in its ears

FLY, FUCKER, FLY. https://www.deviantart.com/yoshimiko-adopts/art/CLOSED-Legendary-SV-special-Lumenfox-Auction-830590687

truly i ask what giving it a dress and heart chains adds to anything other than take up space. adding more shit does not make a better design and i’m sorry elnins convinced you that was true. the tails are shaded differently that they don’t look attached at all, and the heart chains look thrown on last minute. it’s actually fine without the clothing and extra shit and i’m surprised we jumped from an ab of 68 to 350 in just two years despite no increase in quality whatsoever. get that bread i guess

View at full size to find the face: https://www.deviantart.com/yoshimiko-adopts/art/CLOSED-Legendary-June-Lumenfox-Auction-846905527

im so tired of people throwing in random shit just to make a design feel fancier. the fuck are the jellyfish for when it’s already a huge cluttered mess of swirls and overlay textures? i can’t even tell that it’s wearing something. pet peeve but the names are so uninspiring try a little harder

The wings are just the start for this one: https://www.deviantart.com/yoshimiko-adopts/art/CLOSED-Easter-Lumenfox-Auction-911707165

give me back the road trip one because at least with all the extra shit it’s obvious they at least tried. it’s the same four-ish colors repeated over themselves ad nauseum with over inflated tail and wings and hair with just the laziest attempt at a background and a thousand watermarks stapled on. it’s cluttered in a lazy way, adding detail for the sake of detail with no actual thought behind it

Zoom in on the eyes. This thing is as dead inside as we are: https://www.deviantart.com/yoshimiko-adopts/art/OPEN-Legendary-Primordial-Lumenfox-Summer-auct-918883322

aaaand we’ve gone back to landfill levels of shit thrown around. from the stupid fucking fish on the wing tips to the wreathe on the tail to the fucking trident placed behind it and a thousand brush stamps. it’s not going to cover up that this thing is a hundred layers of gradients and sparkles and gross sea dragon looking wings. the fucking title is off center and that’s super fucking annoying to look at too that’s just bad design plain and simple. i know im ripping into this species really hard compared to others but this really is a good example of how cs makes people shit out design after design and try to make it as cluttered as possible to earn its keep like there is a middle ground and they fucking missed it not to mention all the other problems this failure of a species has.

#submission #design shitting #Lumenfox

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andromedasummer · 1 year

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is there seriously nowhere to buy textbooks in person anymore for vic uni?? wow that really is horrible. fuck all the "protestors" and their lingering sentiment. what's your opinion on vic uni as it stands now? i've heard from a lot of people that in recent years it has changed (in a negative way), and even tho the uni wasn't responsible for the protestors, i heard from some people that they weren't so keen on the uni in the aftermath. whether it was due to the proximity to parliament or i also heard the uni's response towards students was basically "tough luck" when their finances and studies were impacted due to the "protestors"

yeah we got emails and the response was straight up "nothing we can do, avoid coming in if you feel threatened" which was like. yeah?? we feel threatened? 12-18 yr old girls at the local high school had to add like 20/30 mins to their commute because if they went past the protests they would be harassed. my 19 yr old coworker was reduced to tears by a man screaming at her at the train station about her mask. she had to come into work using uber to avoid it happening again. she lived over an hour away, it was NOT cheap.

i walked past or through the protestors a lot because i had to go in that way to study, home was too busy and our internet was spotty. i had to get very used to ignoring the shouting. but the public were at boiling point by the end assaults/harassment of the general public had gone up, local businesses being invaded happened more and suddenly people were driving past the protestors throwing milkshakes or yelling at them, which only made them more aggressive.

as for whats up at vic im not sure im the best person to ask. i dont pay attention to too many of the changes and rarely participate in clubs (i did help with classical theater and uniq in my first 2 years)

what i can say is the million dollars spent on the new science centre was useless, as the reason the science department needed a new building was because their lecture halls and labs were too small. the buildings rooms are the exact same size as they were in the other building. so the science faculty are fucked if they want anything for the next decade because "oh well you just got a new building." i dont know why theyve bought that massive bloody abandoned building down the hill and dont see how paying for its destruction is going to help with costs, god knows what they plan on putting there. at least first years will stop breaking in and cutting themselves on broken glass and nails/falling through broken flooring.

i adore pretty much all but one or two lecturers ive had at vic, the good ones are exceptionally good and make attending class a joy. and because nz is so small they know everyone in their subject worth knowing and are happy to make connections with them possible which is a lifesaver. also as someone who restarted their degree cos health problems + changed subjects ive had a LOT of lecturers from psych to classics to media studies to polsci. my main problem is the problem is the treatment of lecturers.

a close friend of mine from high school works as a tutor there and as much as he adores it, every time hes ever gotten his paycheck its because his union pressed vic to send it on time. recently theres been protests by staff for better pay, which i fully support, i even attended some protests because quite frankly for the experience, knowledge and ties these people have they are paid a pittance.

as for the book stores, we have multiple bookstores here but most are secondhand. the ones that arent dont stock textbooks, because the dedicated textbook place for 50+ years has been vicbooks. i dont know who it will fall to. unitybooks maybe? or we'll just have to order online like i said before.

but with the protests, people likely got turned off heading to vic because, ultimately, parliaments down the hill from from it. literally you just gotta walk up the terrace, turn right and then walk another 5 minutes. takes 20 minutes if youre fit enough. getting into uni was near impossible for most people because you had to go through or past the protest camp to get there (unless you were lucky enough to live on the other side of the city and go up the terrace the other side). also, because the main city train station and main city bus station are/were on the other side of the camp, it made confrontation if you used those modes of transport unavoidable.

ultimately the protest is not vics fault, not by a mile. if i were to blame anyone it would be 1. the protestors themselves 2. the police, who, when i walked past on day one, had only sent a cop car and 3 cops to watch over the situation, which is how they managed to pitch all the tents/blockade the traffic/take as much ground as they did. police were woefully, woefully unprepared. 3rd blame goes to the tow companies who all refused to remove the vehicles blocking the street because they were sympathetic to the group that were spraying nazi symbols on the war monument and calling for execution of our politicians. fuck them.

honestly im just glad that its over, even a year on. my dad was coming home when the fighting broke out and he could see them throwing bricks and starting fires a street away and the riot police bearing down on them and using hose. it was incredibly unnerving to watch, esp as i had friends and family working in the buildings around there.

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shxxtingstarss · 2 years

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therapy no. 30

Today was the first session of my long-time therapy, which means there are 35 sessions of the current contingent left.

We mainly talked about how I'm still mostly ignoring and avoiding any emotions that are coming up, and how I'm keeping myself extremely busy because I'm scared of what will happen if I "sit with my emotions" and can't put them away again and they overwhelm me and I can't cope... etc. I first thought I avoid them this much because I am scared of not being productive anymore because I am at least a little bit productive and I can mostly handle my daily life, which was not the case a few weeks ago, but now I have this boiling pot of emotions where I am keeping the lid closed as tight as possible, but at some point the pressure inside the pot will be too high and the lid will come off explosively... so my therapist suggested something that my one (1) friend already suggested last week (almost chose the exact same words): he was thinking if it could be a good idea to sit with my emotions for a defined time of the day so I could get some pressure out of that pot but still be a functioning human/student etc for the next days/weeks. I ignored that suggestion when my friend Maurice made it and with my therapist I figured out that that was because I am way too scared of what could happen if I can't put the lid on again after some time and get the complete breakdown (that will unevitably come at me at some point when I keep on holding the lid down) earlier than "necessary". Now I want to try to remove the lid for some defined time before my next gym-session, but I am afraid that I won't be able to get the lid off. Well, best I can do is try. This was the first time my therapist proposed something I could try/do differently and he even helped me figure out when to do it (not in the evening because it is way harder for me to regulate myself on my own in the later hours of the day and this is the reason why I'm shutting down my emotions completely rn, because I got so overwhelmed the last few weeks, I had to call a friend of mine, Jerom (not Maurice anymore because I felt like I annoyed him enough already) in the evening or even late at night because I couldn't handle it anymore, and that happened more than once and I didn't want to annoy him any more too, so I decided to just... not feel anything for the next weeks. Well yeah, that's mostly working... but the second I sat down to wait for my therapist today, and I didn't have anything to do or a lot to think about, A LOT of emotions came up suddenly and I almost started crying so umm... yeah maybe I should try to get some pressure out of that pot before it does that on its own.

I also mentioned the last talk I had with F about the "complicated" topic and how effing cold and cruel F reacted to me explaining to him how and why that stuff made me feel so bad... my therapist translated it into "topics/headlines" and put it this way: I made F aware of a personal boundary he overstepped, he reacted by telling me my feelings about that topic were wrong (literally did say that) and thus ignored my boundary, and when I made him aware of him ignoring my boundary, he told me the same thing again + that I was feeling wrong and that he didn't have to care about something like that because "that's my problem then". When we had that talk I couldn't believe what I heard, tried to explain to him again and again why that wasn't okay at all, but he really didn't understand anything (and partly didn't want to I think) and got colder and more cruel to me by the minute. I gave up eventually (should've given up way earlier) and my insecurities about if I (still) want him to be my partner got way bigger after that + I really don't feel any affection or sth like that towards him.. which I can def understand very well. Jeez. F basically did the same thing my parents/mother did during my whole traumatic childhood. That's ...totally fine, yeah... NOT.

#psychotherapy #bpd #actually bpd #actually borderline #therapy #borderline personality disorder #relationship struggles #emotional numbness #emotions #mental illness #borderline #trauma

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tarobytez · 3 years

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disability in the Six Of Crows Duology; an analysis of Kaz Brekker, Wylan Van Eck, and the fandom’s treatment of them.

****Note: I originally wrote this for a tiktok series, which im still going to do, but i wanted to post here as well bc tumblr is major contributor to what im going to talk about

CW: ableism, filicide, abuse

In the Six of Crows duology, Leigh Bardugo delicately subverts and melds harmful disability tropes into her narrative, unpacking them in a way that I, as a disabled person, found immensely refreshing and…. just brilliant.

But what did you all do with that? Well, you fucked it up. Instead of critically looking at the characters, y’all just chose to be ableist.

For the next few videos paragraphs im going to unpack disability theory (largely the stuff surrounding media, for obvious reasons) and how it relates to Six Of Crows and the characterization of Kaz Brekker and Wylan Van Eck, then how, despite their brilliant writing, y’all completely overlooked the actual text and continuously revert them to ableist cariactures.

Disclaimer: 1. Shocker - i am disabled. I have also extensively researched disability theory and am very active in the disabled community. Basically, I know my shit. 2. im going to be mad in these videos this analysis. Because the way y’all have been acting has been going on for a long ass time and im fuckin sick of it. I don’t give a shit about non-disabled feelings, die mad

Firstly, I’m going to discuss Kaz, his play on the stereotypical “mean cripple” trope and how Bardugo subverts it, his cane, and disabled rage. Then, I am going to discuss Wylan, the “inspiration porn” stereotype, caregivers / parents, and the social model of disability. Finally, I will then explain the problems in the fandom from my perspective as a disabled person, largely when it comes to wylan, bc yall cant leave that boy tf alone.

Kaz Brekker

Think of a character who uses a cane (obviously not Kaz). Now, are they evil, dubiously moral, or just an asshole in general? Because nearly example I can think of is: whether it be Lots’O from Toy Story, Lucius Malfoy, or even Scrooge and Mr.Gold from Once Upon A Time all have canes (the last two even having their canes appear less and less as they become better people)

The mean/evil cripple trope is far more common than you would think. Villains with different bodies are confined to the role of “evil”. To quote TV Tropes, who I think did a brilliant job on explaining it “The first is rooted in eugenics-based ideas linking disability or other physical deformities with a "natural" predisposition towards madness, criminality, vice, etc. The Rule of Symbolism is often at work here, since a "crippled" body can be used to represent a "crippled" soul — and indeed, a disabled villain is usually put in contrast to a morally upright and physically "perfect" hero. Whether consciously on the part of the writer or not, this can reinforce cultural ideas of disability making a person inherently inferior or negative, much in the same way the Sissy Villain or Depraved Homosexual trope associate sexual and gender nonconformity with evil. ”

Our introduction to Kaz affirms this notion of him being bad or morally bankrupt, with “Kaz Brekker didn’t need a reason”, etc. This mythologized version of himself, the “bastard of the barrel” actively fed into this misconception. But, as we the audience are privy to his inner thoughts, know that he is just a teenager like every other Crow. He is complex, his disability isn’t this tragic backstory, he just fell off a roof. It’s not his main motivation, nor does he curse revenge for making him a cripple - it is just another part of who he is.

His cane (though the shows version fills me with rage but-) is an extension of Kaz - he fights with it, but it has a purpose. Another common thing in media is for canes to be simply accessories, but while Kaz’ cane is fashionable, it has purpose.

The quote “There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken.” is so fucking powerful. Kaz does not want nor need a cure - its said in Crooked Kingdom that his leg could most likely be healed, but he chooses not to. Abled-bodied people tend to dismiss this thought as Kaz being stubborn but it shows a reality of acceptance of his disability that is just, so refreshing.

In chapter 22 of SOC, we see disabled rage done right - when he is called a cripple by the Fjerdan inmate, Kaz is pissed - the important detail being that he is pissed at the Fjerdan, at society for ableism, not blaming it on being disabled or wishing he could be normal. He takes action, dislocating the asshole’s shoulder and proving to him, and to a lesser extent, himself, that he is just as capable as anyone else, not in spite of, but because he is disabled. And that is the point of Kaz, harking back to the line that “there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken”.

I cried on numerous occasions while reading the SOC duology, but the parts I highlighted in this section especially so. I, as many other disabled people do, have had a long and tumultuous relationship with our disability/es, and for many still struggle. But Kaz Brekker gave me an empowered disabled character who accepts themselves, and that means the world to me.

Keeping that in mind, I hope you can understand why it hurts so much to disabled people when you either erase Kaz’s disability (whether through cosplay or fanfiction), or portray him as a “broken boy uwu”, especially implying that he would want a cure. That flies in the face of canon and is inherently fucking ableist. (if u think im mad wait until the next section)

Next, we have Wylan.

Oh fucking boy.

I love Wylan so fucking much, and y’all just do not seem to understand his character? Like at all? Since this is disability-centric, I’m not going to discuss how the intersection of his queerness also contributes to these issues, but trust me when I say it’s a contributing factor to what i'm going to say.

Wylan, motherfucking Van Eck. If you ableist pricks don’t take ur fucking hands off him right now im going to fight you. I see Wylan as a subversion another, and in my opinion more insidious stereotype pf disabled people - inspiration porn.

Cara Liebowitz in a 2015 article on the blog The Body Is Not An Apology explains in greater detail how inspiration porn is impactful in real life, but media is a major contributing factor to this reality. The technical definition is “the portrayal of people with disabilities as inspirational solely or in part on the basis of their disability” - but that does not cover it fully.

Inspiration porn does lasting damage on the disabled community as it implies that disability is a negative that you need to “overcome” or “triumph” instead of something one can feel proud of. It exploits disabled people for the development of non-disabled people, and in media often the white male protagonist. Framing disability as inherently negative perpetuates ideals of eugenics and cures - see Autism $peaks’ “I Am Autism” ad. Inspiration porn is also incredibly patronizing as it implies that we cannot take care of ourselves, or do things like non-disabled people do. Because i stg some of you tend to think that we just sit around all day wishing we weren’t disabled.

Another important theory ideal that is necessary when thinking about Wylan is the experience of feeling like a burden simply for needing help or accommodations. This is especially true when it comes to familial relationships, and internalized ableism.

The rhetoric that Wylan’s father drilled into his head, that he is “defective”, “a mistake”, and “needs to be corrected”, that he (Jan) was “cursed with a moron for a child” is a long held belief that disabled people hear relentlessly. And while many see Van Eck’s attempted murder of Wylan as “preposturous” and overall something that you would never think happens today - filicide (a parent murdering their child) is more common than you would like to believe. Without even mentioning the countless and often unreported deaths of disabled people due to lack of / insufficient / neglectful medical care, in a study on children who died from the result of household abuse, 40 of 42 of them (95%) were diagnosed with disabilities. Van Eck is not some caricature of ableist ideals - he is a real reflection on how many people and family members view disability.

Circling back to how Wylan unpacks the inspiration porn trope - he is 3 dimensional, he is not only used to develop the other characters, he is just *chefs kiss* Leigh, imo, put so much love and care into the creation of Wylan and his story and character growth that is representative of a larger feeling in the disabled community.

That being said, what you non-disabled motherfuckers have done to him.

The “haha Wylan can’t read” jokes aren’t and were not funny. Y’all literally boiled down everything Wylan is to him being dyslexic. And it’s like,,,, the only thing you can say about him. You ignore every other part of him other than his disability, and then mock him for it. There’s so much you can say about Wylan - simping for Jesper, being band kid and playing the fuckin flute, literally anything else. But no, you just chose to mock his disability, excellent fucking job!

Next up on “ableds stfu” - infantilization! y’all are so fucking condescending to Wylan, and treat him like a fucking toddler. And while partly it is due to his sexuality i think a larger portion is him being disabled. Its in the same vein of people who think that Wylan and Jesper are romantically one sided, and that Jesper only kind of liked Wylan, despite the canon evidence of him loving Wylan just as much. You all view him as a “smol bean”, who needs protecting, and care, when Wylan is the opposite of that. He is a fucking demolitions expert who suggested waking up sleeping men to kill them - what about that says “uwu”. You are treating Wylan as a burden to Jesper and the other Crows when he is an immensely valuable, fully autonomous disabled person - you all just view him as damaged.

And before I get a comment saying that “uhhh Wylan isn’t real why do you care” while Wylan may not be real, how you all view him and treat him has real fucking impacts and informs how you treat people like me. If someone called me an “uwu baby boy” they’d get a fist square in the fucking jaw. Fiction informs how we perceive the world and y’all are making it super fucking clear how you see disabled people.

Finally, I wanted to talk about how the social model of disability is portrayed through Wylan. For those who are unaware, the social model of disability contrasts the medical model, that views the disability itself as the problem, that needs to be cured, whereas the social model essentially boils down to creating an accommodating society, where disability acceptance and pride is the goal. And we see this with Wylan - he is able to manage his father’s estate, with Jesper’s assistance to help him read documents. And this is not out of pity or charity, but an act of love. It is not portrayed as this almighty act for Jesper to play saviour, just a given, which is incredibly important to show, especially for someone who has been abused by family for his disability like Wylan, that he is accepted.

Yet, I still see people hold up Jesper on a pedestal for “putting up with” Wylan, as if loving a disabled person deserves a fucking pat on the back. It’s genuinely exhausting trying to engage with a work I love so much with a fandom that thinks so little of me and my community. It fucking shows.

Overall, Leigh Bardugo as a disabled person wrote two incredibly meticulous and empowered disabled characters, and due to either lack of reading comprehension, ableism, or a quirky mix of both, the fandom has ignored canon and the experiences of disabled people for…. shits and giggles i guess. And yes, there are issues with the Grishaverse and disability representation - while I haven’t finished them yet so I do not have an opinion on it, people have been discussing issues in the KOS duology with ableist ideals. This mini series was no way indicative of the entire disabled experience, nor does it represent my entire view on the representation as a whole. These things need to be met critically in our community, and talked about with disabled voices at the forefront. For example, the limited perspective we get of Wylan and Kaz being both white men, does not account for a large portion of the disabled community and the intersection of multiple identities.

All-in-all, Critique media, but do not forget to also critique fandom spaces. Alternatively, just shut the fuck up :)

happy fucking disability pride month, ig

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