#but as a character-driven gremlin I'm having the time of my life just fucking around and falling off buildings

[thebibliosphere]

A friend gifted me Gotham Knights on Steam after I expressed a vague interest in it. I believe my exact words were, "The color of the cover art is very cyberpunk bisexual, and I love that for them."

A lot of key smashing ensued, followed by, "No, wait, you have to play it, you have to. Don't ask why. You'll know when you see it."

After spending a substantial few hours with my new dopamine generator, zipping around Gotham as various different heroes, grappling my way across the skyline, and driving my motorbike into walls (sorry, random Gothamites.) I got to the part of the story where Dick Grayson is seen drinking from a bisexual-themed Bludhaven mug (WE WANTS IT, PRECIOUS, WE NEEDS IT), followed by Babs posting a gossip article in the literal batfam group chat (I have no idea when she actually sent it, I keep forgetting to check the chat lmao) where Dick fully leans into being Bruce's son by being the biggest, sluttiest fuckboy imaginable when the male interviewer asks Dick if he has a "type" then describes the way Dick drops his voice to an "intimate purr, his gaze for me and me alone" followed by the most bisexual response ever which can be summarized as "People are gorgeous. All of them. Why restrict myself to an archetype when the world is full of beauty?"

And can I just say, as a slutty, slutty bisexual *chef kiss* love that for him. That and all the nude photoshoot offers he seems to be getting lmao.

Combine that with the interactions where Tim talks to the batfam about his boyfriend, asking for relationship advice (Babs telling Tim she's hopeless with guys, so to ask Dick instead), Dick suggesting Robin and Nightwing should go to Gotham Pride in costume so people know the batman are firmly in camp LGBTQ+ (followed up by an email between Babs and Jayson where they talk about wanting to go to Pride to support Tim so he'll know they're proud of him), the rainbow flags in the living room, and the trans, bi, pan and I think non-binary flag (need to check, might be demisexual) bike color options, I can honestly say I'm having a lot of fun careering round Gotham like the most terrifyingly competent, backflipping, Solo Pride Parade that's ever swung out of the skyline to dropkick a cop into oncoming traffic.

#batfam #gotham knights #gotham knights game #this game is like playing crackfic #crackfic with the occasional bit of pure soul-destroying angst #it's quite clunky and a bit grindy #but as a character-driven gremlin I'm having the time of my life just fucking around and falling off buildings

[thepurplewombat]

I want to hear your Jiang Cheng thoughts!

YASSSS my beautiful purple boy, I love him so much.

Sexuality Headcanon:

Idk I think he has like, a complicated relationship with sex and the concept of desire? Like, he's not opposed to the idea of sex, if it happens to come up (heh), but it's not something that he feels driven to seek out on his own. His relationship with sex is kind of like my relationship with chutney, I think? Like, if there's no chutney, that's fine. I won't go buy chutney, or go looking for chutney, and I don't feel like my food is incomplete without the chutney, but if the chutney is there? If it's readily available right at the table? I'm not saying I've accidentally put so much chutney on a burger that the patty fell out and I didn't notice, but I'm not not saying that either, you know?

Honestly, I think his sexuality can be best described as 'lazy'.

Gender Headcanon:

I think he has a complicated relationship with his own gender, in that he probably thinks his father would have preferred Jiang Yanli to be the sect heir, but Jiang Cheng was The Son, and therefore he, who was much too much like Madam Yu to please his father, was the heir. So it's not that he's genderspicy or whatever, it's just that he doesn't particularly like being a man and feels that his life might have been simpler if he'd been a girl and JYL had been a boy. Madam Yu would have enjoyed having an extremely cunty daughter, I think, and not being The Heir would have meant there would be less pressure on him to be So Grownup All The Time.

A ship I have with said character:

So like, I think he loved Wei Wuxian a lot, but I don't necessarily think it was romantic? But I can be convinced because honestly, Jiang Cheng is not well about Wei Wuxian and that can manifest in many ways. One ship that I do love for him, however, is Jin Guangyao. I just think...look, these boys are both fucking feral for family. The depths of their loyalty...it's insane. Like, do you know how much abuse it took for Jin Guangyao to turn on NMJ? three murder attempts, it's insane. And I think that him and Jiang 'casually carrying around my brother's flute thirteen years later incase he needs it' would actually be very good for each other. Of course you would either have to go poly or somehow short-circuit JGY meeting Lan Xichen, but it can work, and it can work really well!

A BROTP I have with said character:

Okay, hear me out on this one: Lan Xichen. I just...I don't see them romantically at all, but I think that they could be extremely good friends, if the stars align properly. Because I think Lan Xichen would enjoy having someone around who hasn't fallen on his mouth, and his gremlin side would appreciate Jiang Cheng's cunty side, while I think Jiang Cheng would appreciate having a friend like LXC.

A NOTP I have with said character:

Look, it's a free Internet and everyone can do what they want, but pairing him with Lan Xichen just confuses me. Like, why? Jin Guangyao is right there and him and LXC are obviously in love, and they've had 20 years in canon to be more than Some Dude to each other, and there's no evidence they ever did. But like, if it makes people happy, that's cool!

A random headcanon:

There are still no dogs at Lotus Pier.

General Opinion over said character:

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. He's such an amazing character and I want to both stufy him like a bug and wrap him in six blankets.

#Wombat answers asks #spriteofmushrooms #jiang cheng

[solarcitymelodies]

Long af post warning oops 😐✌️

You know what? I'm gonna say it. Ventriloquism community (or lack thereof) hot takes.

This art is dying for so many reasons, and it's not just because the people in the community are so old that we are literally dying off-- it's how dated this art is in general. Like, people aren't willing to try new things, and it's very bothersome. The thing is, we've been doing random comedic banter for decades, and that worked for a really long time! But that was before streaming was a thing. It's easier now to follow a more in depth plot because you're not worried about people missing certain things. That's why so many characters in ventriloquist acts are pretty much always the same: so you don't miss anything. And the puppets, as characters, tend to be just a few steps shy of seeming organic, because they're really only there to propel the comedic effect.

Mostly, this art has been boiled down to not moving your lips, but here's my big huge hot take: the heart of ventriloquism isn't how well you can appear as if you're not talking, it's how well you can make convincing, realistic characters that get people invested. That's where the REAL core of it is, because if people are invested in the character, they aren't paying attention to how much your lips are moving, and we have proof of that.

Peter Brough was a massively famous ventriloquist way back when, but here's the thing-- he didn't do live shows very often at all. Most of his work was over the radio, where nobody could actually see whether or not he was doing ventriloquism, and people just had to trust that he was. And he was, they saw that when he did the few live shows he did, but apparently he wasn't very good at it. Did people care? Nah. They were in it for Archie Andrews, the little puppet gremlin that everyone just adored.

And so I find it interesting that our community celebrates his work, which was highly story-driven and relied on that rather than how much his lips were moving to create the effect of ventriloquism, but they also don't want to give any other story-driven shows a chance?? Especially seeing as the way we're doing things now clearly isn't working. I think we could learn a think or two from Peter here.

I mean... Honestly? With fandom culture and all that... That's how you get people interested in things, is having a community based around characters people like. So, like, as weird as it sounds, yeah, I'm saying that we need to make ventriloquism acts more accessible to fandom culture, because that will help build the community. The only way to really do that is to make the shows more dynamic, more fleshed out, more plotty, I guess. We gotta give people something to care about. This is why I really like what Trillo and Suede does, because even though it is yet another old white guy playing with some puppets, it's so different, and that's a good thing! There's characters you can actually connect with and relate to and get super invested in, and it gives us all that without sacrificing the comedy, which is of course a HUGE part of our roots. I don't think we'll ever drop the comedy out of our acts. That's what we're built on. But it wouldn't hurt to take ourselves just a bit more seriously.

Creating characters that are just undeniably human no matter how nonhuman they actually are is the whole point, and we forget that there's SO many ways to do that. Like, David Strassman does a really good job finding other ways to bring the show to life, but I think the most iconic way he does this (and debatably the most iconic thing he does ever lmao) is with robotics.

it's cool as fuck, lemme show you. (The cool stuff starts at 2:08) also I should warn you this man swears a LOT and has very vulgar humor so I apologise in advance for that

https://youtu.be/RdaDUIJayC0

This is literally so cool?? AND NOBODY IS ACKNOWLEDGING IT???? There are so many cool things we can do with modern technology that can make this art, like, infinitely cooler so that the new generation can actually take an interest in it, and it's disappointing that we're not taking advantage of it.

We've been using the same routines and the same formats for way too long. It is not 1833 anymore, unfortunately, and even though it's not entirely our fault that people have less interest in ventriloquism nowadays, it... Partially is, because we're not making any attempt to invite them in. We're losing our chance and it really sucks to see.

So like basically what I'm saying here/TLDR ventriloquist humor is outdated and I think we'd gain a greater audience if we had more substance to the characters we create :)) also stop making termite jokes for the love of god if I hear one more termite joke I will scream

#ventriloquism #ranting about old white guys basically #who wants to join ventriloquism fandom with me #i hope one day ill actually have confidence lmao then i can actually do my own shows n whatever #would be cool #Youtube