#b) has an interesting visual presentation style

[radlymona]

Saying that people who criticise 9 hour YouTube recap videos of tv shows have short attention spans is so stupid

#there are definitely shows that lend themselves to the YouTube deep dive/recap format #pretty little liars works because a) Mike’s Mic is an actually entertaining personality #b) has an interesting visual presentation style #c) the show was both crazy and indicative of a specific period of pop culture #I’m sorry but quinton reviews’ Sam and cat video is not that #I watched his victorious one and it’s unbelievably boring #these Nickelodeon shows aren’t interesting enough to warrant this format

[valent1neg0d]

THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS GETTING STARTED WITH THE LAW OF ASSUMPTION (AS SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN MANIFESTING FOR 5 YEARS)

1. the law of assumption is personal. considering how we have different sets of experiences, different environments, different upbringings, and even different languages, we have different assumptions.

because of this, we are affected by teachings and success stories differently. it's important to note this since a lot of manifestation coaches will teach you about the law in a way that worked for them (and the others they may have taught) but it's possible that their advice (even my own) may not be the best for you. even abdullah and neville goddard, two of the people who are known to start this discipline, may have ancient or varied belief systems and techniques. this is normal considering the world they lived in before is different from the world we live in now.

although, you should still read on abdullah and neville because they will teach you the basics and they will help you understand the foundations of the law.

as an example, you might manifest your dream career faster with simple affirmation techniques but a coach may have taught you to focus on visualization techniques.

even the idea that "dominant THOUGHTS manifest" or "what you BELIEVE in manifests" is entirely up to you.

note: notice how i said "may not be the best for you" instead of "may not work for you". any technique can, does, and will work.

how i learned this: when i was learning about the law, i mainly focused on neville's teachings because he was one of the most prominent figures in the practice. and though i liked his practical techniques (especially mental diet and inner conversations), there were some beliefs that i do not agree with e.g. divine timing, appointed hour, avoiding "does not" "is not" "will not".

when i was going through sammy ingrams' takes, she said that it's better to have concise affirmations/short list (non-verbatim) than a long list of 25+ affirmations. but going through affirmations without being specific about them doesn't personally resonate with me and that's just because i'm a detail-oriented person (also a writer).

what i can advise:

learn about different approaches

a. through scientific concepts. e.g. quantum physics, reticular activating system, cognitive reframing, cognitive behavioral therapy, the psychology of placebo effect, the psychology of affirmations, Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (a.k.a. the psychology of self-fulfilling prophecy)

b. through religious and/or spiritual concepts. e.g. passages from the Bible, passages from the Quran, deity work, spells and rituals

c. through self-development. e.g. identity-based habit

start the practice with an identity you like in the present or an identity that you resonate with (learning style, talents, interests, etc.)

examples:

-visual learner = vision boards

-loves writing = scripting

-words of affection love language = affirmations

take teachings with a grain of salt. do not limit yourself and do not allow other people to limit you. experiment with concepts, ideas, and techniques, and have fun with them.

2. techniques are only reminders. you are manifesting either by thinking, feeling, or acting out your desires. you are manifesting every second of the day either with your thoughts, emotions, or by embodying a state. you are only being intentional when you anchor techniques.

note: it is true that your dominant thoughts manifest. it is also true that what you believe in manifests, the same way that your inner knowing manifests. BUT these ideas are meant to empower you. they are meant to remind you that manifestation is as easy as thinking, feeling, acting, believing, understanding, deciding, etc. if an idea doesn't feel good to you, it doesn't have to be an ultimate truth you embrace and carry on with. this is the same with techniques.

what i can advise:

choose one technique and practice it for 7 to 21 days. it can be mental diet, affirmation tapes, sats, mind movies, etc. as long as you can persist with it. give it time. give it time. give it time. in other aspects of the world, you give change some time. when you're calcium deficient and you decide to drink calcium supplements, you realize that it's counterproductive to ask "why am i still calcium deficient?" as soon as you start your regimen because you know your body is changing with the supplement and you put your trust into it. after all, why would you choose a supplement you have no faith on? you just give it time.

note: you can still manifest changes to be instant. you can affirm "i am seeing results now", "results come immediately", "my manifestation is quick". the amount of time you're using a technique does not equate to the amount of time your results will come.

the reason why i encourage you to practice for maximum 21 days is so you can fully explore and master the technique you chose. with the abundance of topics and methods discussed in social media, switching and trying new things is tempting. now, there is nothing wrong with this. it's just that, you wouldn't be able to take a step back and reflect on what worked and what takes more effort when you change techniques every so often.

try a technique that is popularized in the media. a lot of the times, the reason why this technique gained traction is either because it's simple or because it has worked for a lot of people. now, here's the thing: if said technique wasn't for you, at least you can say "oh this is a tiktok/twitter/youtube/old/beginner technique, there are other techniques out there" and you can try another technique with less resistance. but, if it did work, then it did. congratulations.

you can invent your own. here are some techniques that i invented throughout the years.

a. "name is set and solid with the fact that..." - works amazing for sp, getting people to commit, getting people to pursue you

b. "okay! manifestation powers go brrr!" - funny but i do this when I'm spiraling; it also helps me surrender doubts and i think it's because it's so simple and unserious lmao

you can combine them. for example, you want to do sats but you cannot hold a vision for long, what you can do is montage photos or videos that is similar to the vision you want to manifest. you can also have affirmation tapes running in the background.

3. "concept" work can be such a banger. assumptions are basically the conception about the world, about yourself, about the people around you. hence, when you manifest and apply the law of assumption, you change or reinforce a conception.

these can be done through:

self-concept

what it is: your awareness about yourself; the way you perceive yourself.

how you can apply it: there are multiple ways to establish your self-concept but the best way, is to start reinforcing the universal truth: that you are inherently worthy. you deserve money and resources because you are worthy. you deserve love because you are worthy. you deserve ease because you are worthy.

other ways to grow your self-concept is celebrating the identities you have within yourself that you like e.g. that you are strong, you are disciplined, you are beautiful. be careful about strongly tying yourself into these identities though because these are not the reasons why you shall receive. again, you shall receive because you are inherently worthy.

why it works: by having a strong self-concept, you develop ease. you are less likely to rationalize or question the law or why you deserve the things you're asking for. and as you may think, rationalizing may be a form of resistance. questioning may be a form of resistance.

one of the ways i have seen this is when people receive incentives from work, instead of just receiving or saying "thank you", they say things like "what have i done to receive this?", sometimes completely rejecting this gift because of fear that they might lose something when they receive. this can be an example of a weak self-concept. consequently, the company starts questioning "did my employer really do enough to receive this?".

on the other hand, someone with a strong self-concept can take this incentive and buy the things they like because they know they deserve it. they can also take this incentive and say to themselves "oh it's because i worked hard these past few days". it's the knowing and confidence they have within themselves that everything around them has no other option but to recognize.

conception of other things (e.g. of love, of money, of a specific person)

you can work on your conception of other things the same way you work on your self-concept: choosing a narrative that is uplifting to you.

in case you have resistance to a specific object, you can also listen to people's success stories to start shifting to a more positive and desirable perception. one of the ways i do this is by going back to abdullah and neville's story. these two men lived at difficult times, through difficult eras, yet they manifested their desires. they managed to let go of the 3D.

4. practice some distance as you're starting. you were exposed to a different life before the law, it's only normal and human to have doubts or spiral once in a while. however, when you set distance on things that do not help you embody the state, you set distance on things that will feed your doubts and spiraling.

for example, if you're shifting to a state of wealth and you're affirming "i have 1,000 dollars". it's unhelpful and opposing to be constantly surrounded by someone else saying "you only have 10 dollars".

now, i do understand that not everyone can do this right away because of circumstances. but PLEASE do whatever you can to set this distance. find a voice to reinstate your truth.

a personal story, i am an asian girl living with a grandmother who was pessimistic about love because her two children (my mom and my aunt) struggled with it. because of this, she used to constantly remind me of how love is difficult. i didn't know this at the time, but this created a set of beliefs in my head. consequently, as a teenager, i only seeked and allowed love which was difficult because that was all i've ever known. that was all my assumption.

but around the pandemic, i went back to the countryside with my dad where i had a lot of time on my own. this was when i got deep into new-age spirituality and did shadow work. from here, i realized: this is not my assumption about love. before my parents broke up, my assumption was that love is easy. you only have to make the other person laugh. when i was busy in school and would spend most of the time at my friend's house, my assumption was that love is support and light. i started to get these epiphanies that a lot of my pessimistic perception was because of someone i was constantly surrounded with and that i have to build new assumptions.

but around august 2020, i have to go back to the city with my grandmom. i was afraid of the toll i might get into when i got back. however, because i already practiced distance and understood what are the assumptions that serve me, what are the assumptions that i want, i was more at peace. i listed down affirmations about myself, about love, about money, about being "deserving".

after this, every time she told me what love was, i can stop her and say no. i can tell her that it's not the universal truth, and certainly not mine. along the way, i started manifesting that she believes love is easy and supportive. i started manifesting that she believes i deserve love that is soft and tender.

then, when i got into my relationship, she was nothing but happy and supportive.

other ways i have practiced distance while manifesting:

unfollowing content creators who normalized hating men.

unfollowing content creators who were shady and negative about relationships.

unfriending highschool guy friends who do not make me feel safe about men.

unfriending relatives who make unnecessary comments about my looks, my studies, my relationship, and my earnings.

unfollowing girls who made me feel bad about also liking girls.

unfollowing manifestation gurus who romanticize struggles because "the more you struggle, the more you get blessed"

unfollowing manifestation gurus who say stuff like "if you want money, you have to take action to deserve it. not just manifesting"

now, you can totally manifest these people to change and be better, as long as it will make you feel good.

that's all i can share today (since this post is already getting long). i hope you learned a thing or two. thank you so much for reading. i love you and i appreciate you !

xo

#law of assumption #loassumption #loa tumblr #loa blog #neville goddard #living in the end #loass #loassblog #manifestation #manifesting #affirmations #visualization #self concept

[nuzzle]

Hi~

I saw your post about how lolita fashion (and ads for it) have changed in the last few years, especially for Angelic Pretty, and I agree completely!

I think the lack of creative ads these days might be b/c Gothic & Lolita Bible isn't around anymore? (cries) and Kera went purely digital ages ago, I don't know if it's even still around (I should have kept my old Kera magazines). But I remember how I always used to look forward to seeing the clothes and layouts that were featured in the new issues of each magazine.

My favorite when I first got into lolita was from the Wedding issue of the English edition of GLB; a model for Baby was wearing a lovely, tulip print skirt (or was it the jsk?) in blue, holding a parasol and sitting at a cafe table. Something about her looked so sweet and simple; I wanted to be a lolita just like that!

The models in the magazines always looked like they were happy or having fun, which I think is part of what made me want certain dresses or blouses. In AP's current ads, the model just looks... kinda sad and pouty and bored. I've noticed that for a lot of their dresses, they've been skimping on the lace, frills, and ribbons, and there's no more cute hair styles either! Meanwhile, wasn't it AP that brought lolita from old school to New School / OTT sweet when they had models wearing pastel pink / blue wigs for their Mermaid Symphony (iirc) photoshoot back in 2007?

On a different, but kinda related note, I've noticed that in the past 5 years or so AP has been making a lot of dresses with ridiculously high waists.... also so many sack dresses (I know they started doing this back in like 2012 or so with that polka-dot M&M print dress)

Sorry for the long rant, I just really miss the old days of lolita fashion

hello there!

i'm always glad to have some feedback when i post rambles and thoughts on things. i never expect it, so thank you for your input! it's also comforting to know others feel the same way.

i agree that without as many publications in general (especially physical) there's less of a reason to put as much effort into details, like the magazine spreads that were commonly done for example. most people get information on releases online these days, making physical catalogs a bit obsolete.. aside from collectors. i greatly miss all of the graphics and how inspirational everything felt back then, especially the little PNG pictures of items in catalogs.

you're completely right about pictures from GLB's and other magazines looking generally "happier" and more like daily life sort of pictures, like the one in the cafe you mention. that aspect of it appealed greatly to lifestyle lolitas! seeing a dress pictured in a "real life" situation rather than just a plain white background photoshoot picture makes a huge difference. it brings it to life, and makes it a lot easier to see yourself wearing it.

i think a big change in marketing is that AP doesn't cater as much to lifestylers.. and lolitas who are very much interested in the fashion beyond a surface level and see them as more than just clothes. all of the photos now actually feel like advertisements, when they used to also be appealing from a photography perspective. like they're only trying to sell you a product and not an experience, even if only visual. for me, that takes away from it a lot.. it almost feels as though that sense of community, and the acknowledgement that lolita is a subculture, is dwindling.

plus, it's definitely more than just presentation that's changed as you said. i feel as though the designs AP offers have been super uninspired compared to old releases. not as many details, not as much custom lace, and the general silhouettes becoming a bit lazy.. tons more, but i could go on for days. even the revamp and progression of the lyrical bunny mascot has felt a bit soulless. very sad to see, because i do agree that they were the brand to introduce OTT sweet in a revolutionary way.

as much as i gripe about old vs new AP changes, the positive side is that we can still look back fondly on the old era!

and no problem at all! it was nice to hear another perspective on this. ^^

#asks

[kazehita]

what’s isat about/what kind of game is it? looks interesting :0

hi anon!! YOU ASKED FOR IT!

"Live with the ever-present burden of being trapped in a time loop only you can know about in this turn-based RPG. Create a better future for you and your friends. Find hope where there is none left. Pray to the stars and free yourself from time.

-- In Stars and Time's steam page

In Stars and Time is a FANTASTIC role-playing-game created by a solo indie developer. It centralizes around an absolute delight of a character and their efforts to escape a timeloop! But truly, it's contents are even more awesome than it's premise. This game has a similar feeling to Undertale or Omori, but is very distinct !!! In my opinion it's more intense than the former, but much easier to play than the latter (Omori's themes made the game too intense and visceral for me to finish, personally).

My favorite thing about ISAT is it's characters and story, with the would-building as a close 3rd! I have to be careful not to reveal too much, because it's really so charming to experience first-hand. ANOTHER favorite thing about ISAT is it's art direction! Don't be fooled by it's b/w style, it is chock full of attention to detail and delightful visual work. Ok though, I actually lied! My ABSOLUTE FAVORITE thing about ISAT is it's Storytelling through gameplay - you have to take a fair share of initiative to really dig into it all! The game doesn't really sit down and try to tell you everything in a writer-to-a-reader way; instead the world and characters feel like they're living and breathing and communicating and experiencing! And so, subsequently, you the player experience the world very naturally as well!

In addition to this, the tone and energy of the writing is something I found very unique! It is so worth giving it a go! Lastly, copying over something I've said before: I actually didn't realize the cast was LGBTQ+ before I started playing, so that was a fantastic surprise. This game is angled to talk about the queer experience while being interwoven with the themes and setting - and it was a great experience for me to see, in particular, aro and/or ace characters portrayed excellently - both thematically and realistically!!! (And i do mean this. To write the queerness into the themes/worldbulding is, really really cool!)

I'm currently working through my second playthrough of it! I'm trying to catch the few things I missed. In general the playtime of this game can vary greatly! Some places say it's got a 8-10 hour runtime, but some real goobers out there can clock 40 hours or more (because they are insane. I say this with an awed voice not a judgemental one).

I'm not actually sure how long my playthrough took! It's the price i pay for leaving the game running in the background....

#asks #Anonymous #isat game #isat review (kind of) #it's like critically acclaimed or whatever so you can check out reviews done by people more normal than me! #I'm not actually sure how to advertise it in a universally appealing way #so i wrote about what matters to me most! #kaze speaks

[moonlitempty]

“It’s our basic human right to be fuck-ups. This civilisation was founded on fuck-ups!”

And after roughly 3 weeks of waiting, hoping, and constant refreshing of the tracking page, here it is finally, I am able to hold it, and see it, and analyse every intricate little detail of its design, and its packaging. And it makes me feel somewhat fulfilled.

I honestly keep struggling to find the words for this caption, my thoughts are all over the place and it feels like no praise or fawning will suffice, no amount of love dumping will be nearly enough to describe how absolutely lovely this record is.

The World’s End is a film I was afraid I wouldn’t like, even when I was just getting into The Cornetto Trilogy and familiarising myself with everything around it, I could just TELL The World’s End was, not quite a black sheep, but the odd one out in the trilogy. I saw hordes and hordes of people rave over Shaun (rightfully), I saw thousand of dedicated followers of Fuzz (VERY rightfully), but at most I saw a couple hundred people campaigning for End to have more recognition. So when it came to finally watch it for the first time, I was honestly nervous and I vividly remember I had to keep pausing the movie over and over again whenever Gary said or did something dumb, I felt bad for him, he seemed enthusiastic and he longed for his old life with his friends and none of them even trusted him. So that set a very specific lens quite early on that I saw the whole movie throughout, and I think it actually helped me appreciate the movie from the get-go.

So I decided to put my big boy pants on, stop systematically pausing the movie, and sit through it, no more pauses or interruptions.

•“12 Historic Ale Houses!”

I quickly found myself enamoured with End, I loved the unapologetic and almost blatant Sci-Fi route of the film, after all, Sci-Fi in general is a genre I hardly consume, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this film alone opened the doors of the genre to my once closed eyes. I grew to love the characters oddly quickly, my stand-outs obviously being Gary and Andy, but I also made room in my heart for Sam and Steven (the only survivors, ha!)

Also, it may have been the Blu-Ray doing its Blu-Ray thing but I thought the film looked PHENOMENAL, easily the most visually interesting film out of the Three, maybe it was also the use of more contemporary cameras and technology, it was an absolute treat to the eyes. The filmmaking and directing choices have been pointed out time and time again, Edgar Wright has the best directing style of any modern filmmaker.

But let’s get to the main subject, the soundtrack!

•The World’s End: Original Movie Score (Mondo Exclusive , Pressed on Crowning Glory Ale Vinyl)

This is a beautiful little record! It’s easily one of the prettiest in my entire collection, usually a splatter vinyl like this is pretty hit or miss, I’ve had my fair share of less than stellar records, but this one NAILED IT! I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures, but this record looks EXACTLY like a nice, cold, foamy and enriching pint of Ale, and the design of the centre labels is oddly satisfying, I lack the right words to describe it, but the entire film carries a sort of “vintage-ish” aesthetic in its graphic design and motifs, hopefully I’m making myself clear with that. It’s a mix of vintage and modern, if I had to describe it!

The record is very nice to the touch, it’s solid and quite heavyweight (which is a reassurance when it comes to vinyl), and it looks absolutely stunning when held up to the light. A detail I love is how the labels seem to slowly uncover the presence of The Network as they go on, by Side D the centre label makes it awfully clear that The Network is, a) a thing, and b) present everywhere in Newton Haven.

In the gimmick/fun little trinkets department, we have a small pamphlet! Styled as a tourist guide for the pubs in Newton, it features a full map of the town (the one Gary used to mark up the pubs), and the commentaries by both Edgar Wright and the composer Steven Price, these are frankly a treat to read and give so much more insight into not only the making of the score, but also the deeper meaning of the score, what Prince intended to transmit with the creative decisions he made while making and building the score, it makes listening to it a much more rewarding experience.

This will be forever one of my favourite items I’ve ever owned, period. Not favourite vinyl records, or movie memorabilia, items in general. And I feel immensely grateful to not only have it and hold it, but to also share it with everyone in a cohesive and engaging way. Writing this post has been an absolute privilege! Hopefully it is mildly decent and not just another one of my soliloquies.

If you got all the way here, you have my eternal gratitude and I love u mwah. here’s a cookie for your troubles 🍪

Let’s Boo-Boo.

#the cornetto trilogy #simon pegg #nick frost #edgar wright #the worlds end #gary king #andy knightley #vinyl #soundtrack #mondo #original score #vinylcollector #vinylcollection #vinyl records

[oneatlatime]

The Fortuneteller

(A title which I am itching to divide into three words instead of two because boy does 'Fortuneteller' look stupid - seriously, stare at it for a bit and see how fast it starts looking like Fortun Eteller)

The last couple of episodes have had a contemplative character, so I'm rooting for this one to be a silly one. Also more Sokka please. Poor guy gets demoted to one liners in the B-plot whenever Aang is the main focus.

Episode Time!

We start this episode off with a potential love interest for Sokka.

I had completely forgotten that Katara used to have a necklace. I'd also completely forgotten that she'd lost it. When did she lose it?

Aang-o-vision has a pretty heavy rose-tinted filter - literally.

Told you it was a love interest.

The NOISE Sokka makes when the fish slaps him! I love it. Hang on I'm going to rewind and listen to it again.

Yep. Still as good the second time.

Oh wow! Aang just got Momo-zoned. Gotta say I'm not a fan of a romantic relationship between Aang and Katara at this point, so I'm all for some Momo-zonage.

Platypus bear! Finally some hybrid animals. I was beginning to wonder if that would ever come back.

Is this guy a martial arts master or an idiot?

I'm leaning towards idiot.

Friendly reminder of Appa's size. That's a lot of molars. No canines or incisors? Guess he's an obligate herbivore.

Is sniffing eggs something that people do? I get sniffing melons or other produce, but eggs?

Yep. Floppy hat guy is an idiot.

Aang buddy you might want to get that checked out.

And with a mighty squelch, the egg fulfills this episode's Beat Up Sokka quota.

Appa shakes!

Those are weird ducks.

I don't know a thing about anime, but that's the most anime-looking guy I've seen in this show. Is this show an anime?

Meng-o-vision is red-tinted. Probably doesn't bode well.

Also, Meng could give Zuko some lessons on how to style Pipi longstocking hair. Someone with more photoshop skills than me needs to make a Zuko with Meng hair.

"Don't be modest, they're huge!" Presented without comment. I'm not going to say a thing. But we all thought it.

Katara is totally the kind of girl who would fall for fortune telling. We've seen (multiple times) that she is gullible. Actually, now that I think about it, we've had multiple episodes where Katara gets swept up in something a healthy dose of skepticism would have guarded her from - Jet and The Great Divide come to mind. The writers are really hammering the 'Katara is susceptible to romantic nonsense and Sokka is a science-minded skeptic' message home. Is this going to play some bigger part in the show going forward? Why else would we be on version number (arguably) 3 of this same plot?

Aang and Sokka took off their shoes, but Katara didn't. Huh.

Pinky out. Classy.

I am not digging the Aang x Katara stuff in this episode. I'm with Sokka on this one - let's pretend it was a stellar bathroom break.

Aunt Wu is being unnecessarily antagonistic to Sokka. First he gets an egg on his head, then Momo steals his bean puffs, now Aunt Wu tells him his life's going to suck. I should have been more specific when I hoped for a Sokka episode. I didn't mean a beat up Sokka episode.

Aang. Priorities honey. Honestly, Aang casually dismissing his destiny after all that build up did get a laugh out of me.

A god-like figure coming to have his fortune read and only wanting to know about his love life would give me a headache too.

Add malicious signage to the Beating Up Sokka list.

"The fluffy bunny cloud forecasts doom and destruction." I bet that's the first time that sentence has appeared in the English language.

These people are stupid. Blazing Saddles style 'common clay of the New West' stupid. It would take, what, a day? to run a visual check on the volcano. But nope. Too much work. Listen to me I'm morphing into Sokka.

Katara giving off some serious fangirl vibes.

Katara is officially addicted to fortune telling.

Live footage of me watching these village idiots.

Add duck to the list of Things Which Assault Sokka. Gotta love those duck noises though.

Sokka is getting dangerously close to advising negging here. Also Meng deserves better. Her poor pigtails droop in disappointment. Girl has sentient hair - she deserves better.

Papaya? When you don't like papaya? Just because some old lady said so? Too far. That's not even teenage nonsense; that's tweenage nonsense. I kind of feel like sending Katara to her room. Actually it's just like that one line Log Man said in the Jet episode. Something like 'He tells us what to do and how to think and things all turn out right.' Outsourcing your decision-making. Which, by the way, is both nonsense and cult-like. Then again, the lost boys freedom fighters pretty much worshipped Jet the way this village worships Aunt Wu, so... parallels?

So if this guy got the panda lily himself, doesn't that mean that he recently went up the mountain? Couldn't he have had a peak inside while he was up there? Would have taken an extra 20 seconds.

"Flowers are fine once you're married" Somebody get this boy to Victorian times. If he ever sees an ankle he'll self-combust.

You have a flying bison. Why don't you fly up instead of climb?

This is totally live action fire copy-pasted in to the animation. There has got to be a more technical term for that than copy-pasted.

Raise your hand if you saw the twist with the volcano coming. (I did I swear. Blue spirit was an outlier).

Forget Appa, why didn't Aang just fly up?

"They just won't listen to reason." "But they will listen to Aunt Wu." So the mountain comes to Mohammed. I guess talking to people in a way they understand / will listen to is a good lesson for an avatar to learn. I thought he'd learned that one in The Great Divide though. Either way this episode is getting increasingly frustrating.

Can Meng get a hug? She seems astonishingly self-aware and emotionally mature for a kid. Also way too smart for this podunk town. I may rescind the hug in light of the stalking.

Well, it's not exactly subtle, but at least volcanic doom isn't a fluffy bunny.

Look at those yummy purples. Finally an episode where it's light enough to have a beautiful sky. My collection of wallpapers was suffering.

Digging a lava trench might work, if the volcano is going to put out a gallon or two of lava. This must be a baby volcano.

Nevermind.

The ashes effect feels oddly 3-D.

I guess to an avatar this kind of challenge is small potatoes.

Totally ignoring the Aang x Katara stuff for a minute, I'm with Sokka on this one too, because I also had forgotten that Aang is a superbender. He didn't even need to go glowy.

If I lived in this village that redesign would absolutely give me nightmares. Are those mega claws of doom structurally sound?

I am going to punch this man.

Aunt Wu's final speech to Aang makes me think that at least she's not indulging in her own product as it were. I suppose a con artist (whose services are free, so, just jerking around a village for shits and giggles?) is better than an actual believer?

MENG!!!

Final Thoughts

This episode has me thinking about stories. Part of the reason Katara wants to believe in nonsense like fortune telling is because she is someone inclined to listen to / believe in stories. I think the opening monologue of the first episode mentioned something about her grandmother's stories. Katara was raised on stories and very much took them to heart as more than just entertainment. And you can't blame her for believing the conceits of stories could be possible in their world, not after the events of episode one dumped the star of those stories in her lap. Just so long as she doesn't confuse a belief in stories with a belief in happy endings. There is a war going on in their world, and judging by the stuff that the show did not shy away from discussing or implying in episodes like The Southern Air Temple and The Storm, I am willing to bet good money that there will be a couple of unhappy endings ahead. Not permanently unhappy; this is a kids' cartoon. But there will probably be setbacks and disappointments.

Would Katara have astrology nonsense in her dating profile?

"The fluffy bunny cloud forecasts doom and destruction" is going to be incorporated into my daily vocabulary.

Platypus + bear are interesting choices for a hybrid animal, since a platypus is about 15 normal animals smashed together anyway. A platypus bear is the swiss army knife of animals. Or the Mr. Potato Head.

At first I thought that Aunt Wu was a benevolent meddler (see putting together the couple with the panda lily), but she also advised that one guy to never bathe, which doesn't benefit anyone in any way that I can see. So I've concluded that she's a Bumi level ("it's pretty fun messing with people") shit-stirrer instead. Her services may be free, but she manages to pay for a very big house, an assistant in Meng, and anime guy the bodyguard(?) so I guess grateful villagers give her donations? However she's doing it, she's got it made.

There was some sort of running theme with those large blue-billed ducks that lived in the village. If that was meant to have more meaning than just a running visual gag, I didn't pick up on it.

Meng had a surprising amount of depth and insight for what (I assume) is a one-episode character. Stalking aside, I liked her.

This episode's humourous look at the stupidity of the village (in fact the science denial of the village) is not as funny as it would have been in a pre-covid denial, pre-antivax, pre-"global warming is a hoax" world. A shallow viewing of this episode is still funny because the villagers are just SO dumb (except Meng), but the more you think about the villagers' actions and the conclusions they reach at the end of the episode (to not change AT ALL - at least the tribes made up in The Great Divide, a similarly idiot-filled episode), the more you morph into Sokka. These people have denied reality so hard that it's frustrating rather than funny to watch. Their head in the sand approach is not cute anymore.

I really wanted to like this episode. Like I said before, I wanted a goofy fun episode after the one-two punch of the last two episodes, but this one rapidly went from goofy to frustrating. I can't tell if it's because I'm not the target audience (i.e. too adult) or if it's because much of the world is currently drowning in various forms of misinformation and science denial. I know this episode isn't supposed to be deep - it's supposed to be setup for Aang & Katara as a (hopefully very distant) couple. That's all. And the message at the end about shaping your own destiny (i.e. taking an active part in your life) is a good message, and thematically relevant to the avatar, who presumably is at least somewhat responsible for shaping the whole world's destiny. But damn if this episode doesn't make my teeth itch.

Pros: Sokka had some great lines. Appa got to shake. There were pretty backgrounds. The noise Sokka made when he got slapped by the fish was a thing of beauty.

Cons: Aang and Katara are not allowed to date until they're 35. I will smack each villager individually upside the head with a science textbook. Meng deserved better.

Maybe I'm just not in the mood for this episode. I'll stick it on the rewatch list just for the Sokka fish noise.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #the fortune teller #it should be THREE words fight me #avatar the last airbender

[mykpopwire]

interview: DXMON AIMS TO LEAVE A LASTING IMPRESSION WITH THEIR UNIQUENESS

K-Pop boy group DXMON (pronounced DAAI-MON) makes their official debut with 1st mini-album, [HYPERSPACE] on January 17th. Earlier on January 1st, ahead of their debut, they released one of the title tracks for the album, “Burn Up,” which set the bar for the members’ confidence and ambitions toward their new beginning as a group. DXMON is a word derived from the Greek word ‘Daimon’, and it is a name that embodies the will to proactively decide one’s destiny and achieve it.

DXMON’s members; MINJAE, SEITA, HEE, TK, REX, and JO shared more about their debut album in the recent interviews with global media outlets.

Q: Your title track is called "Spark", what was a moment that you felt a spark recently?

REX: For me, it was during the debut showcase. As we presented our stage for the first time to our fans, I felt that spark within me. It was a moment of pure joy.

MINJAE: I'm getting that spark even at this moment. It is very exciting for me to see all of you here with such interest in our group, and I promise to consistently showcase developed and improved versions of ourselves as we move forward.

Q: All the tracks in your debut album is unique and different in their own ways. Which track sound did you like the most? Is there a new sound that you want to try for your next release?

REX: I find the percussion sounds in the track "Burn Up" to be incredibly impressive. Every time I listen to this song, it gives me goosebumps, and I believe the performance of this track is powerful as well.

SEITA: All the members love punk or rock genres so they are something that we want to try in the future.

Q: "Burn Up" and "Spark" have different sounds. Individually, which song connects with you the most?

REX: I choose "Burn Up." It has all the elements that I want to show, including a powerful performance and a great melody.

MINJAE: I love the track, "Spark" because it is easy on the ears yet can become exciting and calm at the right moments. I love that aspect of this song.

TK: I choose "Spark" because I like songs that are easy to listen to. The melody of "Spark" carries an R&B vibe, yet the strong and intense beat is a unique blend that I haven't encountered before. Additionally, the song's story about beginning a journey resonates with me, and I find it very appealing.

HEE: I choose the track "N.W.B." The song is exclusively composed of rap verses which are delivered like whispers. Despite the consistent whispering tone, each rap verse has a distinct rhythm and flow, making it easy for listeners to engage with its unique rhythm.

JO: I resonate with the song "Burn Up" because of its intense and powerful beat, which complements our bold style and concept. The hairstyle also complements the vibe well. I believe it is a great song and perfectly fitting as the title track of this album.

SEITA: I also choose "Burn Up" because it effectively captures our passion and energy, showcasing the essence of DXMON exceptionally well.

Q: How does your style tie into your music and your aesthetic?

MINJAE: There are two title tracks in this album. The first one, "Spark," talks about our days as trainees, and "Burn Up" narrates our story after debut, symbolizing our determination to burn brightly.

Q: What do you think is your specialty that makes DXMON different from other groups?

MINJAE: I would choose our visuals and our overall styles, including our fashion and hairstyles, as well as our unique and powerful music.

Q: Members HEE and JO had very striking haircuts for debut. What initiated the bold styling decisions?

JO: The idea for the hairstyle was initially proposed by the CEO during the concept meeting. Upon seeing the sample photo, I was immediately drawn to its uniqueness. At first, I questioned whether it would truly suit me, but upon trying the hairstyle and looking in the mirror, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the hairstyle looked great on me. Then I experimented with various poses, gestures, and even rapped with this hairstyle and I became certain that it was a perfect fit for me.

Q: Among all the songs from your debut album, are there any songs or special points that listeners should pay attention to?

MINJAE: TK has a part in the third verse of the song "N.W.B" where he sings as if he is whispering. It's a unique element that I've never heard before, so I recommend using headphones when listening to this specific section of the song.

Listen to DXMON 'N.W.B' here!

Q: How do you deal with the responsibility of debuting so young?

JO: Being young, I believe we have the confidence to navigate through challenges. We are committed to giving our best, with the dream to become superb artists as time progresses and we gain more experience.

Q: What are some goals that you have and want to achieve as a group?

MINJAE: It is our goal to get our song onto the Billboard charts. REX previously said he had a goal he wants to achieve.

REX: Also, it is our goal to perform at Coachella.

MINJAE: Yes, that's true. We have two goals that we want to achieve as a group.

Q: Where do you see your group a year from now?

TK: I think DXMON a year from now will retain its essence but will have matured further, showcasing enhanced skills and a more relaxed stage presence during performances.

Thank you SSQ Entertainment and Helix Publicity for the invitation.

Watch DXMON 'SPARK’ MV here!

*photo courtesy of SSQ Entertainment

Don’t forget to like, follow and subscribe to MY K-POP WIRE for more K-Pop interview, debut, comeback and event updates!

X (Twitter): mykpopwire

Instagram: mykpopwire

TikTok: mykpopwire

Facebook: MY K-POP WIRE

YouTube: MY K-POP WIRE

Connect with DXMON!

X (Twitter): @DXMON_SSQ

Instagram: dxmon_ssq

Youtube: DXMON (다이몬)

TikTok: dxmon_official

#DXMON #다이몬 #SPARK #DXMON_SPARK #HYPERSPACE #DXMON_HYPERSPACE #BurnUp #DXMON_BurnUp #Youtube #MYKPOPWIRE #interview

[inkdemonapologist]

How do you feel about the upcoming DCTL graphic novel?

Cautiously optimistic!

When I first heard the rumours, before Adrienne’s announcement, I had pretty mixed feelings. My background is in comics, like that’s what I went to school for and worked on semi-professionally for years, and I love it as a storytelling medium, so I’m really intrigued to see how they handle the adaptation…and I also really, really don’t envy whoever has to make decisions on how to depict these characters.

But the announcement is encouraging! I haven’t kept up with Chris Hastings’ more recent work, but I remember enjoying Dr. McNinja back in the day, so I have to admit there’s something exciting about seeing a name I recognise and can be hopeful about to do a good job with the adaptation. Checking out the artist’s work, I’m gonna put a lot of my poker chips on “Sammy will look really normal actually,” but I don’t think that’s a dealbreaker – like, Dober’s Sammy is a big fav as far as Sammy designs go, and I think he’s a good example of how you can still get great Sammy vibes in a more conventionally attractive face. (though i also think there’s a chance of “the artist will lean fully into his unhinged vibes and make Sammy look like a batman villain” so wE’LL SEE!!) Genuinely, the artist’s portfolio seems well-suited to this. I would’ve pictured DCTL with a rougher, more indie look if you asked me to pick a fitting style, but I think this artist's slick Western-Comic-Book style with its strong spot blacks could be a REAL good fit for the inky vibes this story demands, and they don’t have the level of “sameface” that I’d usually be concerned about with these kinds of styles; there’s enough solid variation in their character art that I believe they can handle all the characters needed, and also do a cool ink demon.

DCTL does have some design questions that are genuinely pretty fraught, in that there's no perfect way to handle it (Norman’s a great example; do you take someone that 80% of the fandom has been drawing as a black man for years and make him canonically white, or do you present the Weirdo Creeping Around In The Shadows Who Mysteriously Gives The Protags Supernatural Info And Then Dies At The End And Nobody Misses Him as canonically a person of colour??? ROUGH CHOICE I DO NOT ENVY), but I'm still so curious to see designs for these guys, and my big hope is that the fandom will be understanding of the huge task the creators have been given and that this won't be regarded with the pressure of getting “The Official Canon Design That I'll Be Mad If It Josses My Interpretation” – like, getting an official Henry & non-old-man Joey in BatDR just felt like, y’know, seeing anyone in the fandom make a new set of designs. It feels like drawing fanart of the BatDR AU; it doesn’t mean my henry and joey designs are Obsolete. And I hope these designs are enjoyed from that perspective, as a new DCTL Comic AU, and that the fandom takes whatever we get as less THIS HAS TO MATCH MY PERCEPTION OF SAMMY B/C ITS THE OFFICIAL REAL SAMMY and more just, a take on a design for Sammy Lawrence.

Though of course I can’t help but be a little more anxious about Sammy specifically, haha. He is my big fav after all, and as embarrassing as he is in DCTL it has become a part of his story I’m quite attached to. A lot of humanity could be added to him or taken away depending on how he’s drawn… I don’t want to get my hopes up, but it’s hard not to hope that he’ll have Good Sammy Vibes that Resonate With Me Specifically.

And in general, my expectations are still tempered – the comic could certainly turn out to be very mediocre, especially depending on how well the artist is paid and how much time the creators can afford to put into it – but tbh I’m super interested in how this turns out. I can’t wait to see Joey in this style and it’ll be SURREAL to see a comic of like……. BatIM humans…… I’ve wanted sincere visual content about the humans for a long time and I’m stunned we’re actually getting it, so I’m feeling kinda cautiously eager!! I’m also curious if the comic will make an effort to preserve Buddy’s “voice” from the original novel, and how that will be handled – like, the whole book is really strongly framed as being written by Buddy, and that’s not just an incidental detail; it fleshes out his feelings about Dot, ambiguously gives us info on Boris without directly revealing the ending, and shapes the way he presents some moments as unreliable and time jumping strangely – he even talks about the frustration of not being able to just draw these things and having to describe them! (RELATABLE) – but at the same time, just filling a whole comic with tons of narration boxes is not usually a great artistic choice. It’s a really interesting challenge for the adaptation, and I’m curious if they’ll shift away from the framing device altogether or look for a balance to keep it.

Anyway TL;DR I’m keeping my expectations low but I’m really intrigued!! I don’t know if I’ll, like, actually acquire it; I usually don’t buy JDS Inc. stuff, but I feel more wibbly about the books in general b/c of how strongly I appreciate Adrienne Kress specifically, so we’ll see how I’m feeling when it comes out, haha.

#i know you have questions you always do #dctl graphic novel

[jmdbjk]

Okay Indigo, hit me.... show me what you got.

Closing out his 20s with a little angsty emo alt-pop R&B electric rock, Namjoon presents Indigo. Independent. Indulgent. Ingenious.

Though I was unfamiliar with the Korean individuals collabing with Namjoon on this record, I did take a "pre-listen" to some of their work before Indigo's release so I could be familiar with their style.

Of course I knew who Erykah Badu is. Though very talented and respected musically, she is not without her own controversies.

And I know Anderson .Paak. I am a huge fan of Silk Sonic, his Grammy winning duo with Bruno Mars who I am also a big fan of.

So these are just my opinions after listening and learning the lyrics. These are my interpretations of the vibe of the songs...

Yun. It is hard hitting first-out-the-gate and I can understand why Joon put this song first. It's a statement: Fuck you, imma do what I want.

Still Life, definitely love the R&B groove, love Anderson's vocals and the improvisation: "Joon: Shit happens in life...Paak: it's gonna be what it's gonna be brothah, you just have to do your thang." "Y'all can't lock me in a frame. I'm still life." The clever wordplay. A "still life" is typically defined as a tableau of inanimate objects such as flowers, fruit and other objects, arranged and then painted or photographed and framed. A still life. A moment in time. But in this song, I am seeing it meant as I am still LIFE, as in still living...you can't put me in a frame because I am living and breathing. So my take is this song says "let's keep it moving, never stay still, live life and don't let them define you by one frame of an image or one point or moment in time."

All Day, yay finally experiencing TABLO, great song, nice fast beat. TABLO's delivery reminds me of Eminem... personally, I am not a big fan of Eminem, but in this song, that type of vocal from TABLO works well. The beat will probably get this song added to my "walking playlist." WE GOT DYNAMITE IN OUR DNA! Might be my fave song off the album.

Forg_tful, an acoustic, laid back vibe, especially with the whistling... sort of John Mayer-ish? Very folk music-y and right up in the middle of Sawol's music genre kool-aid. Makes me want to order a caramel latte with a touch of almond milk at an independently owned hipster coffee shop. And I don't even like almond milk.

Closer, nice little bubbly intro segues to smooth urban R&B. Love Mahalia's vocals. So. Most of this song is sung in English. Paul Blanco has a few Korean words and that's it. The lyrics are very sensual. I find it conveniently uncontroversial that it is Mr. Blanco singing about 'when our lips lock' and 'making her body go diddy diddy bop'. The lyric: "but you run away like a fish"... that one sticks in my head because it is so visual! I saw a small fish get scared and scurry away! Great song.

Change pt. 2, unexpected electric riffs. Interesting that this song is entirely in English. I wonder who he is singing about? Harsh! Lol! Since its in English, it might be about the western music industry–as we know, they have to be spoken to in their language or they "just don't get it". Or it might be about a past significant other who did him wrong. "Some day a great grief will come for you." (That Miss Karma, she's the biggest fuckin' bitch I know.) "That's all I can say to you." (mic drop).

Lonely, I'm so fuckin lonely... super emo alt pop rocker. Joon made this song and these lyrics sound like some sort of weekly Top 40 groove-fest banger. The hook is an earworm in the making. "I'm fuckin' lonely....so fuckin' lonely." And the bridge is big and awesome. This song is a masterpiece of chart topping geniusness songwriting.

Hectic, with all its bright notes and beat, the gist of the lyrics say 'I been working my ass off, nothing glamorous about it, and people still say the same shit. Why am I doing this? What am I chasing? If doing this THIS way is a pain, how can I do it different?

Wild Flower... a big sonic, soaring, epic type song. Youjeen's big vocals and lyrics give me Katy Perry Firework vibes. The MV visuals help push the "big" to me. It's just a big song. Big Namjoon asking "what is this big life I have? what does it mean?" The visuals of him standing on top of the mountain and being able to see the entire world and it's a dawning day...not gonna lie, I did tear up. Seeing Joonie like this, expressing his lyrics visually in a music video touches my heart for him. The stage surrounded by Army... him standing and then laying in the field of purple flowers (also Army), it's very emotionally stirring. But I have something to tell Joon... as time goes by, one still searches for who they are and sometimes we never really understand who we are. All we can do is live our truths as authentically as possible.

No. 2, what a nice closing song to wrap it up. Don't look back anymore. There's nothing to prove. You've done your best. No lookin' back, no. The album ends and I'm smiling.

Like everyone else, my heart swells with pride. Over all, the lyricism is off the charts of course. Joonie is a wordsmith. Thank you Kim Namjoon/RM for putting your soul out there, sharing your emotions and thoughts with us in such a poetically lyrical way. Well done.

My disclaimers: I am not a music expert. These are just my personal opinions. But I do have impeccable taste in music. 💜

#kim namjoon #rm indigo #RM of BTS

[donnyclaws]

i just wanna say i LOVE your writing style, it flows so nicely but has this fragmentation that really just emphasizes all the right things. it really feels like the perfect way to capture tiger crawls home

Blows myself up 💥💥 that's the perfect word for it I think. Literally normal scene writing stressed me out bc I was like oh everything needs to be written down but also shown, and also in a voice that isn't confusing, good grammer, idw be a fake analysis fan who has nonsensical writing. But I find it really hard to start and do and think in that way, didn't realize the whole 'stop doing parts of art you don't like' thing applies to writing too. And getting jnto b horror has made me even more fond of lowbrow writing that just isn't good at all, I love it because it is good it's jsut bad by one standard. Lmao. Love the idea of your ideas and themes being strong enough to outweigh its presentation yknow.

So with Hatchfiend I'd been sitting on a script almost all year and liked how it felt to read, tried to lean into the kinda chopped up nonsense word style my brain tends to speak in and really liked the result. It feels way easier to handle dialogue and actions, let's me indulge, and if there's a bit of writing that feels wrong in my gut, I'm not beholden to any rules about how to communicate it I jsut need to write something else that hits the just right isms. I'm sure it'll end up being hard to read for people, and unclear, but it's 4 me and I prefer that.

Anyway thankyou I'm very happy to hear that. I feel like I just want to get tiger crawl home (what I have so far) out of my system bc it's clogging up my brain, bc I kinda use thinking abt scenes repetitively as a weird emotional processor that's not very healthy anymore. And with other shit idk, I used to hate the idea of doing tiger crawl home or anyrbing else as writing bc it felt ljke necessity. Now I'm very excited abt this, between this and zines, I really like writing and I'm happy that this can be a medium to work in since full comics aren't of interest or ability to me. But also still let's me add visuals and do literally anything and I can make a dense ass old web page to host it on. Heaven.

ANYWAY THANK YOU THANK YOU sorry for the Ramble 🌈♥️♥️

[soumic]

Sorry long art ramble incoming- the screensaver hit the corner of my brain and I had a coherent thought about like, the ever-present online discussion around diversity in character design/illustration and the idea of “art style.” I’m thinking mostly about ‘anime art’ (but western comics/cartoons as well) because that’s what’s dominant in the circles I’m in, but I think it’s broadly applicable.

I wonder how we might move the discussion towards the idea that everyone’s art is influenced by broader movements and existing works, and that every art style/movement has an inherent set of values that are reflected in their aesthetic choices. All art looks at the world and makes choices about what to include and what not to, and that’s political. Anime art is really beginner friendly because the long line of artists in the industry sat down and made a bunch of choices about how to simplify drawing people in service of the speed/clarity needed for animation/comics. It’s much easier to copy anime style which has been engineered for ease of drawing than it is to draw from life. This is great! It’s one of the reasons anime is so popular and enduring as a movement. Because of this though, when you draw on anime in your work, you are drawing on a visual shorthand/iconography of the human body/face that reflects certain cultural ideals of how people should look- and nowhere is that more apparent than when the visual shorthand falls flat. This is where we usually see the online discussion crop up- issues with grey skin tones, lack of body/facial diversity, difficulty drawing older characters, etc. and that’s where you get the reflexive “but it’s just my art style” response. Now, of course, having anime (or any other) influence in your style is not inherently a bad thing! It absolutely is a pillar of my own style! But it is also not a value neutral thing. By repeating the anime art shorthand without reflecting on this, you are a) robbing yourself of a chance to develop your artistic eye, and b) blindly subsuming a set of ideals into your work that declares what types of people are worthy of being depicted. Skilled artists can recognize the limitations of the shorthand and draw on other influences, research, and fundamentals to fill the gaps.

This is what people are getting at when they say things like “if you can’t draw fat people you aren’t a good artist,” or when they critique the popularity of things like genshin. Those statements are designed to be provocative, yes, but that’s because the people saying them have a vested interest in pointing out how the dominant artistic trends fail them. I think the more we can stress the importance of developing a critical eye for the political elements of art, the faster we can move away from the canned “but my art style” defensive response. We gotta remind people, especially beginner artists, that it’s not a personal slight about their own creativity, but more that cultivating our catalog of artistic influence is a collective and ongoing responsibility that we all share. It should be a skill we aim to cultivate just as much our technical skills, and by framing it as a skill it leaves the door open for people to learn and grow.

#text #personal #long post #wow sorry this post got so long #I've just been marinating on these thoughts for a little while #espc since me and several of my friends are working with kids and young artists lately #idk just thinking about the value of arts education and how it gets so sidelined #anyway draw silly anime art just be intentional about it

[lackablazeical]

Hello!

A. Why does Cuddle's teeth get bigger every time I see her

B. Her eyes also are getting bigger I think

C. Will we ever get a cuddles and raph fusion and the other duo? I think it would be fun for cuddles and raph's fusion to be a complete plush toy body with plush spikes yet the scars are like hard and burnt fabric that has similar texture to Raph's skin, like how some plushes have pure hard thread for details like noses and small scars!

D. I understand your stance on proship is a full no, and I respect that 100%, proshippers can die in a pit. But I'm curious, why do you depict minors in such abusive relationships? I mean, I understand that this is your au and creative liberties know no bounds however concept wise I am fascinated! These are late teens, 15 - 17 last I saw on the ref sheets, yet they are put into extremely gorey and torturous situations and abusive to others, including family. My question is what inspired you to make such a dark ass au? The concept and designs are beautiful, but what inspired you to make it go so dark for minor aged characters? Logically speaking I don't think I could ever see these characters behave this way before seeing your au, and I don't mean to sound rude at all! I do adore your au and characters and writing style, I'm just so curious how you decided to put these young characters in such terrible life positions. It's similar to the torture extent of Like Father Like Son, putting child/teenaged characters into situations that you would see in someone's deepest fears or in a rated R film. Why did you choose to do that? And again, I'm genuinely asking, because even as a horror fanatic, I can't see anyone putting characters to such harmful extremes. /genq

Hi!

A/B: I am inconsistent and don't put effort into drawing her cus I Do Not Like Drawing Her 💃💃💃💃 (I have a design for her the works that I like a lot more that hopefully WILL be more consistent lol, I am so sorry to any miss cuddles enjoyers)

C. Yes!!!! There are gonna be Donnida and Rizu (Raph+Chizu) fusions, then after that I was hopefully planning to do some other combos!!! But omg YES that would be so cute IWHIWJF Raph with little button eyes, ill take 10 please

D. Yes, absolutely completely against proship, I fucking hate proshippers, they all need to choke on forks, yes.

As for your actual question, a few different reasons.

One, I just. Didn't really care to change their ages very much from actual canon. I'm a minor as well (16) so I tend to have characters that are around my age LOL. It's just never crossed my mind that. The minor characters being involved in dark things would like. Add to the horror, I guess? Maybe cus I'm one of said minors IAHWIEBF I have no idea.

Two, I just. Like dark topics LOL. Always have. My interests involve bondage, taxidermy, body horror, etc etc. I just put a lot of that into my work, I love drawing gore and making art w/ dark themes (even bigger bonus if it means I also get to contrast it w/ bright visuals) addams family as a concept is honestly quite dark when you look closer at some of the jokes and situations, I'm just not very good at comedy so that kinda got lost which is a 'my bad' moment

Three, i didn't want to make light of specific topics so I keep and present them dark (for example, Leo stalking Usagi. I'm not gonna make light of stalking and abuse to keep a more lighthearted tone. I'm just not. So. Yeah). I think it's in bad taste to present certain things like that more comically, and I'll take the L of diverting from the source material a lot for it.

I wouldn't compare it to LFLS really! Lfls is a wonderful fanfic made by a wonderful person, but I think. What we try to achieve and the points/ideas we present are very very different, ya know? Hers is angst with a point, I'm just here to get groovy/j

I like the dark topics and I like presenting them as such, ISHDIFBFJ. Maybe it's just my low-empathy talking, but I like what I've done and I'm gonna keep improving it! I just. Idk, I enjoy it. About as simple as that!

I did at least try to go for some difference then other 'dark turtle' AUs I've seen! No hate to any of them, they get all the hearts and flowers from me, I just wanted something different and hopefully. Achieved that! Yay! :D

#blaze's answers

[doubleddenden]

So I finally completed Jenny Leclue Detectivu after buying it 2 years ago for like $2 on Switch.

I feel so bad that I waited so long to play this. The story is actually incredibly intricate and builds a lot of stuff up. I'm actually impressed with how they pulled off certain twists, even if i predicted some of them. The puzzles are decently challenging in a way that isn't too hard for my peanut brain- that's saying something considering that lately my mind has been in a deep fog and my concentration hasn't been that good- but they do make you feel smart when you do complete them.

I think other than some clunkyness of controls- which tbh isn't even that bad considering some of the other games i've played and also considering that A. its minimal and B. the story is the main driving point and gameplay is... I'd argue third after the story and art style, tbh- anyway I'd argue that other than all of that, one of my few complaints about the game is that there is a lot of illusion of choice present. Lots of times you'll choose between options and nothing really changes story wise. There's some interesting dialog results at the least.

I think my biggest complaint though isn't really a detriment to my enjoyment but more of a HOW DARE THE DEVS DO THAT!!! I mean it was clever but also HOW DARE THEY! People who played the game know exactly what I'm talking about. I cannot say exactly what it is because it's a spoiler.

Anyways I definitely got my $2 worth and I honestly believe the usual $20 they charge is a very fair price for the experience. The visuals are incredibly strong and memorable, the story is suspenseful, the characters charming and decently written, and honestly I need a Jenny Leclue DetectivU Part Deux right the hell NOWu! But also take your timu. Which I'm gladu it seems to be what they're doingu.

No I don't know why they added the extra U, but it's fun enoughu.

Anyway I look forward to it some day. It is a fun little mystery that's appropriate for Halloween. Solid 7/10 with points deducted for some slight clunkiness, the choice thing, and that last point is because you know exactly why, devs. I'm watching you bastards now.

#jenny leclue #jenny leclue detectivu #den reviews stuff

[foxilayde]

Sorry if this is an odd question but do you have any advice for writing smut? Every time I try it’s just so… awkward and reading it back makes me cringe

I’d say, remember: that even if it’s smut, you are writing a STORY. And what makes a story worth reading? Good stories have conflict, conflict every step of the way. Your favorite stories are full of conflict. And I don’t mean conflict as in arguments between two characters (though those are fun to write, too). Conflict, inner conflict, like the stuff you want to exude in intimate scenes? its more akin to just plain old “objective”. what does your character WANT? I’m assuming that you’re referring to the second-person-present style (eg. “you flick the cigar ash off the lapel of his jacket and lean back against the metal wall”) so it’s very fuckin easy to tell us what the mc wants. You can just say it. I like to write in the style of telling a really juicy story to my hairstylist like “and thennn you’ll never guess what happened”

Eg: “you want it bad, so fucking bad. It’s been months and months and now your nose is rubbed raw against the stubble of his cheek and you don’t know if it feels like time is speeding up because you’ve finally reached the moment you’ve been cresting towards, or if his lips really are moving that quickly against yours, if his arms really are moving like a fucking whip to divest you of your coat before your brain tells you your arms are cold, but of course you don’t stay cold for long because he wraps you in his arms again, in a flash, like the fucking fireworks behind your lids. He keeps kissing you warm and quick and you don’t care that your coat is on the filthy back alley sidewalk, all you care about is staying in this moment, even if it only lasts for the next 45 seconds.”

I like the kind-of rambling, run-on-sentences for intimate scenes because that’s how chaotic and frazzled and sensory it kind of feels, it adds a level of desperation to the CONFLICT right? The mc wants to hold the moment, but the moment is going too fast!

And don’t be afraid of zooming in on any feeling of conflict, expanding it, dissecting it, pulling the internal struggle apart into tiny pieces and laying them all out in agonizing detail using as many metaphors to describe the gutted mess as you can stomach.

I highly recommend you read The Bet by @no-droids for a masterclass fuckin academy award winning, Nobel peace prize worthy example of internal conflict and making it fucking SIIIING (that bitch really said I’m leaving no stone unturned when it comes to every. Single. FEELING that mc is having in every. single. moment.)

A mistake I see a lot of writers make is when they just stick with the smutty actions… those can be good they really can but come on, if we wanted visual stimulation we would watch porn. this is cerebral 👏 fantasy 👏 intimacy 👏 there is an attachment and love that your reader already has for the character. And self insert?? It’s so much more than smut. It’s fulfilling an emotional need a need to be desired, to be held, to feel on fire, to feel out of control, to feel owned, safe, special, important, worthy, beautiful, interesting, etc. Not to feel “fucked”. So focus on the feeling rather than the action. Like, give one part action to 9 parts feeling eg “he grabs the bend in your knee, hitching your thigh at his waist and Jesus you think you might fall over but he’s got you pushed tightly against the wall and there’s no chance in hell you’re going anywhere. He said it, hadn’t he? Exactly like that “you’re not going anywhere” and look at that, true to his fucking word, just like always. You curve your leg around his hip and he hums deeply, pushing you and your thin silk shirt ever further into the metal wall. Fucking shit he’s so big like this, forced perspective and all, you really could stay like this for hours, balancing on one leg like a fucking flamingo who broke free from the zoo. You look like a couple of horny teenagers is what you look like. But the fact that he doesn’t seem to care what this might look like to god any anyone passing the alley, a bird or a lovesick hooligan, makes you throw your own caution away and you slide your fingers into his hair, smiling against his lips”

Little action. Lots of feelings. Say an action and then “editorialize” the mcs response to the action with inner thoughts and feelings!

This is just the way that I do it. I write exactly the way my brain spits it out. Storytelling is so ingrained in our anthropology that people were telling stories as far back as we can be certain there were people. Cave drawings?? Baby that’s fan fic. It’s inside of your very genetic makeup. Just like your fingerprint is unique, your storytelling is going to be unlike anyone else’s. But every writer will tell you that when you start out writing you will sound a lot like someone else at first. And then the more you write the more you will sound like yourself. Just like any art. When you learn the guitar, or how to sing, you do covers, and over time the vocal affect drips away and forms into a distinctive voice. It’s why the number one piece of advice for writing is “just do it. Every day. Even if it sucks.”

And now I’m ranting so imma cut myself off. Hope this made sense/was helpful 🙏

#writing advice that has at least 20 typos #anon

[ballwizard]

speaking of plvaa we just started the final trial so thoughts on it so far before we actually get to the ending!! Under cut :-3

so overall the game has been VERY fun. bear in mind that I've been playing with octavius which makes games both more fun and funnier had I played them alone, so my opinion is a little rose-tinted a la having fun with my friend. HOWEVER. ive found the story and mysteries really fun and engaging!!! some of the twists have been pretty easy to call but i don't think that's necessarily bad? other than espella being bezella. that one is like comically obvious. but like the twist of both maya and layton being presumed dead?? that was fucking bonkers and i loved every minute of it (though it was obvious neither of them would 'stay dead'). i ALSO really liked the segment where Luke was a witness; it worked really well as a show of his character as well as a story beat. I'm always a sucker for distrust between good friends due to circumstances and it hit just the right pitch of desperation to be really really fun.

i think gameplay-wise it's a nice mix of both series, with the investigation portions taking after layton and the court parts taking after ace attorney (obviously). the hint coins in trials is a really nice mechanic & being thrust into an environment with new rules other than what seems most logical is a really fun way to play off the ace attorney format of solving cases.

I've had a running argument with otto that it's not actually magic and I'm genuinely excited to see how it goes. I still am convinced it's all just some incredibly convoluted plot a la unwound future or curious village or. any of the Layton games, but theres just enough doubt in my mind that it's compelling to consider. Im really excited to see how the final mysteries pan out...

visually the game looks pretty nice! though I do agree with the common sentiment that the styles clash a bit (every time we see phoenix in a cutscene surrounded by labyrinthians he looks SO out of place, or the one scene where phoenix and espella are talking and luke looks copy-pasted in). I would've loved to see the whole game in the Layton style, considering most NPCs trend that way anyways. It makes the more ace attorney-styled ones stick out like sore thumbs, like Greyerl and Mystere. Though it's so odd that most plot-important NPCs so far have been ace attorney styled, except for Kira? It caught me a bit off guard. But, even with the style mismatch, it still holds together.

I did want to talk about my disappointment with Greyerl though. Ive never been a fan of the 'secretly a girl/boy but posing as a different gender for REASONS!!' trope, more often than not because it's a) Easy to clock and not very interesting and b) Tends to lead into weird transphobic territory, a la "he's ACTUALLY a SHE?!?;?" or vice versa (or, in more annoying cases, like robin newman from dual destinies, flipping a switch in their behavior and suddenly presenting the complete opposite way. though i will admit i liked robin as a character). It kind of annoyed me with the whole thing. Either way, it was a smaller thing that didn't really impact my enjoyment all that much, but I still wanted to address in some way. I liked that Greyerl got to say it themself instead of being completely forcibly outed this time, but the whole thing with the unpinning of the hair was pretty dumb to me. I think their design could have stayed the same either way; an androgynous butler is not that strange of a character archetype, and makes way more sense than them just. Having extremely long hair somehow pinned up to make it look like a bowlcut. Blech. Whatever.

ANYWAY. This post is far too long already but I just wanted to close it out :-P TL:DR PLvAA has been a very fun and engaging experience so far and i hope and pray that it sticks the landing 😁👍💥‼️

#REALLY long ramble under cut. just my thoughts on the game so far #find later #<-so i can complete my thoughts when we finish

[measuringbliss]

love seeing you blitz through my madman ramblings. how are you doing? tell me more about those medias you rbed saying they were essential to experience? they sounded like games, what's neo twewy. how's the weather? it is presently unusually cold here and since I'm cold blooded it's got me very sleepy. have a lovely day and happy early new year! speaking of, do you have any resolutions if you do that sort of thing? okay bye!

okay wait too much stuff happening i (luv you)

I'm doing really well since I'm getting back home after having spent three days doing fun activities and eating good food with my dad and some of my family, so it was very entertaining and full of surprises. so I'm good but I've been dying to replay TWEWY and NEO TWEWY and I couldn't even listen to the soundtrack during this weekend so i'm slightly frustrated.

Okay so essential media.

I was going to suggest Hannibal but its appeal is very niche and the content can make people uncomfortable and I wouldn't say it changed my life.

What changed my life though is Chuck (2007-2012)

Romcom drama spy action pastiche series Chuck is about a nerd getting every secret from the government transferred to his brain, to the US government's dismay. They send a hot blonde and a grumbling Republican to make sure Chuck (the title character) doesn't get himself killed by other spies interested in the US's secrets.

Throw in a forbidden romance (agents shouldn't date, but Chuck and his partner Sarah aren't indifferent to each other), (b)romances (nothing textual but Matt Bomer sure gave a lot of yearning glances at our protagonist...), twists, treasons, awful-but-actually-great musical covers, and a lot of cameos and you've got basically a sibling series to Community, in that both shows had similar nerd audiences and had fan campaigns to renew them.

It aired at a point where I needed reprieve from everything else and it was perfect–it made me laugh and gasp, and it has a killer soundtrack. Also? Women? Beautiful.

TWEWY & NEO TWEWY (2007 & 2021)

In The World Ends With You, antisocial Neku is forced to participate in a deadly game in an alternate Shibuya where cooperation is key amidst strange fashion choices (that give you better stats), good food (ditto) and colorful badges/pins (a few hundreds to collect and make evolve, used to attack enemies).

The soundtrack is a mix of J-Pop, electronic music, rap, hip-hop and overall denotes a strong sense of identity. The visuals are incredibly stylish and the gameplay is both confusing and enthralling. Why is Neku playing this game? Who is the mastermind and what is their plan? The message is basic, but the storyline is captivating.

The original version came out on DS and made full use of its capabilities; battles took place on both screens, you used the touch screen to control Neku and buttons to control his partner on the top screen–at the same time and in synchronicity. It got rereleased on smartphones, and more recently on Switch, with updated graphics, music (the game going from ~40 tracks to about ~150) and gameplay (going from two screens to a single one) as well as a new chapter setting up the sequel, NEO: The World Ends With You.

While I applauded the original game for its creativity, smart script and ideas and audacious gameplay, it wasn't quite a perfect game for me. It all changed with Neo, which brings a new set of protagonists, a new gameplay (this time, one button is assigned to each character who each control a single badge), a new music style (more rock and metal, I listened to the album again and again and again and it helped me a lot with coping with shitty stuff happening last year), a similar artstyle but 3D this time and a MUCH longer script. NEO TWEWY is about double the original's length in spite of its similar structure notably thanks to its script style–however it's still very well written and thus, is not annoying to follow.

TWEWY is available on DS, smartphones and Switch. I recommend playing it before NEO TWEWY as plot points are continued and some characters come back. There's also an anime that compresses the story. If you go that way, make sure to check out Another Day, the chapter exclusive to the Switch version.

NEO TWEWY is available on Switch (that's the version I played), PS4, EGS and Steam.

SENSE8 (sometime this last decade)

Do I really need to introduce this show? Eight people from all around the world are psychically linked. Why? And what is this mysterious organization stalking them?

Helmed by Matrix creators Lilly and Lana Wachowski, this show was the first time I saw a trans characters. It's hot, it's funny, it's sad, it's sci-fi, it's a thriller, it's a lot of things (you might notice I love me some variety) and it's queer as fuck. Got canceled during Pride Month but got rescued (through a 2 hours long movie), and once again, everything I mentioned here has been cancelled or otherwise didn't receive the appreciation it deserved–multiple times.

Chuck's first season got hit by the Writer's Strike, then from the second season on it risked cancelation every season, sometimes multiple times (which is why both S3 and 4 seem a bit disjointed). TWEWY was a hidden gem only niche enthusiasts knew about, and NEO TWEWY's wider release wasn't any different. All three of these franchises have seen deep love from people who stumbled upon them.

Ahem.

The weather was surprisingly fine! I heard that in the US a lot of people got hit with blizzard and that kind of stuff, well here it's been warmer than usual. Didn't have to wear gloves or scarves, and it was sunny too! Definitely a pleasure to be outside.

I hope things get better for you!

I don't have any resolution because I tend not to fulfill them lmao. How about you?

Happy new year! 💛💛💛💛💛

#Asks #Chuck nbc #Twewy