#in fact the only big one was a diamond option that in context makes no sense to agree to

[warden-melli]

Diamond Clan Analysis Part 1: Adaman’s Big Lie

This post started as way for me to give more context to an observation/interpretation I made in a seperate post, but it’s evolved into a larger analysis of the Diamond clan as a unit. More specifically it focuses on the ways that it’s individual members communicate, and of the ways that impacts their relationships, the world around them, and the greater plot. Before I start though, everything I post lore wise is 100% based on canon sources, and can be supported with screenshots/canon resources if necessary. This is my personal interpretation of events, but any/all speculation is based on canon information. Your interpretation may vary.

Fairly early in the game Kamado, Irida, Adaman and the player character meet in Galaxy Hall to discuss the noble pokemon Kleavor, which has become frenzied. It’s a touchy subject as Adaman advocates for a direct approach to the threat, implying that Lord Kleavor should be taken down. This is despite knowing that the Pokemon is sacred to the Pearl Clan.

Irida is understandably resistant to such a plan, pushing back against the idea as the two argue. Notably Adaman offers an interesting fact. that if his Clan were to interfere directly it would risk war/conflict with the Pearl clan.

Irida makes the point that they don’t even know why Lord Kleavor has became frenzied in the first place, and Adaman agrees, stating that he too would like to know the answer, and claiming that Lord Kleavor’s frenzy is a first for as far as his clan knows.

The group discusses their options, and to be respectful to the Pearl Clan’s concerns Kamado offers a compromise.

Instead of directly confronting (or defeating) Lord Kleavor, you (the PC) are granted permission to investigate before deciding how to proceed. Adaman, despite advocating for a more direct approach only minutes earlier concedes, and the group all come to the decision that you are to simply observe Kleavor to try and gather more information before deciding how to handle the situation further.

After the meeting you report to Cyllene to be briefed before you’re to head to the Heartwood to begin your investigation. It’s during this meeting that Adaman and Mai approach you. After exchanging pleasantries he cuts to the point. Despite just coming to an agreement with both the Pearl Clan/The Galaxy team that you are only to study Kleavor, he directly asks you to go behind their backs and quell his frenzy instead.

This is a major ask/risk. If Adaman was discovered directly interfering by asking you to go behind their backs, it could risk war with the Pearl Clan, (and quite possibly also the Galaxy team, as this request directly undermines the plan that all groups agreed to) but at the same time if you were to be the one to succeed and quell the frenzy, he would have achieved his goal, and his involvement need never be disclosed.

(It’s important to note Mai’s presence in this meeting, as it is implied by dialogue/earlier events that she is the reason that Adaman asked you specifally to be be the one to quell the frenzy. After agreeing to help her earlier in the plot, Mai witnesses you defeat an Alpha Kricketune (proving to her that you are potentially strong/skilled enough to handle the task), and relaying this information to her leader. This informs Adaman that you are not only competent, but also trustworthy as you have helped out his Clan in the past. This is why he is not only aware of your skills, but is willing to take a chance by reaching out to you)

He then goes on to explain his situation in more detail, offering more context as to why you may want to help him, and of why he would risk a possible war with the Pearl Clan in order to find a way to cure a frenzied noble. He reveals that his clan has a similar situation, and that a pokemon that is very dear to him up in the mountains (Lord Electrode, The Pokemon Melli is sworn to protect) is also in a frenzy. He is willing to risk anything to find a way to help/protect Lord Electrode and Melli up in the mountains.

Adaman openly deceives the Pearl Clan, and the leader of the Galaxy Team in order to discover a way to quell a Nobel pokemon. He does this in order to help his friend (We know from dialogue in the Daybreak update that Adaman and Melli are childhood friends, and that Melli only became a warden in the first place in order to help Adaman) and the Nobel that he serves up in the mountains. While his deception/lie is never openly discovered by either Irida or Kamado, Adaman faces the consequences of this decision in other very impactful ways.

This leads me into Diamond Clan Analysis Part 2: (Coming soon)

#adaman #Irida #kamado #warden mai #warden Melli #pokemon legends arceus #pla lore #pokemon #Melli speaks #long post

[alexandriaisburning]

015: Girls’ Fashion Shoot

CANON FIRE is made possible by the generous contributions of readers like you. Support more writing like this on Patreon. Thank you!

Girls’ Fashion Shoot is the second or third entry in the "Model Debut" series, made as a tie-in for Nicola, a Japanese fashion magazine aimed at young teen and pre-teen girls. It's hard to say exactly which entry this is, because even Japanese Wikipedia's page for the series is little more than a stub (1). Girls’  Fashion Shoot is the only one of these titles that's been localized here, and aside from some unreadable scans of Nicola covers in certain backgrounds, all traces of the Nicola branding have been scrubbed.

Playing this was the first time that I'd felt entirely out of my depth when covering a game for the series. Not because it's complex--in fact compared to a lot of other "games for girls", GFS is incredibly straightforward. Something like Style Savvy often has plenty of simulation or management aspects, and even the casually paced pets sims can give you plenty to think about over the long term. Instead I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choices it gives you before you even start the game. 

Immediately, Girls’ Fashion Shoot bombards you with questions like your lucky number, favorite color, printed patterns, and favorite style, with differentiation between the general image (cute, cool, tomboy, sporty etc.) and the formal style (prep, lolita, Bohemian, BCBG), all with the assumption you understand what these mean. Some fashion styles I hadn't even heard of before, so before the game even began I was doing frantic web searches. 

After this little quiz you immediately get thrown into making an outfit for your first fashion audition,with zero character customization outside of hairstyle or eye color. Given the huge focus on personal style, I was honestly shocked to see you couldn't change anything about the character. It became the first personal friction point of many. It's possible that this was also a budget consideration, since later titles in the series have slightly more options (2), though you may or may not be surprised to hear there isn't much variety for skin tones. 

By contrast the starting options for creating your first outfit are absurdly large. There's more options here than might be available in the entirety of a big budget game, all of which you get to keep afterward, and continue to add to afterwards. Clothing all have multiple tags for colors, style etc., which you'll need to make browsing manageable, and to help you meet magazine assignments.

I found the magazine prompts helpful here, since they helped me narrow down which options I should be looking at, and focus on making one out of the ones that matched the theme. It helped me get out of my head when it came to my own personal preferences for styles and aesthetics. 

Good or bad, I tend to end up projecting my sense of style onto characters I create in games, which inadvertently leads me to making pretty safe choices even when presented with tons of wild options. Having my options narrowed down, or straight up having outfits picked out for me, kept me from getting the usual aesthetic tunnel vision and made me more adventurous with my choices. 

Magazine layouts are a different beast. There's an almost Blingee sense of style to the decorative options given to you here. Sparkles, heart, diamonds, skulls--there's a whole suite of decorations and backgrounds to bedazzle your photos with. Personally, I often found this aesthetic kind of tacky, but in this context it works well, and gave me an appreciation of the hyper girly touch they added. 

Girls’ Fashion Shoot's loop is so straightforward that most of my responses come from how I feel about character creation, fashion and personal aesthetics. The game's loop of taking jobs, designing outfits and layouts, and using the earnings to grow your closet and repertoire is so immediate and simple there isn't much to say about it. Yet it still ended up challenging me because of how it bumped up against how I play games and my own self-image. And this is before I get into any of the gender feelings stuff, which would double the length of this piece. 

Straightforward to the point of obvious, Girls’ Fashion Shoot is an everyday fantasy meant to be enjoyed for minutes at a time, but gave me enough to think about for an entire month. The nuances of what options they considered important, and what they cut in translating that for an English speaking audience, is fascinating in its own right. It's easy to take it on its face and see another simple entry in the catalog of girl's games, but with a genuine interest, and a little self-reflection, you'll find plenty to dig into.  

Girls Fashion Shoot is available on 3DS via retail and eShop, at until the eShop closure in 2023. As an aside, hacking a 3DS is easy, anyone can do it.

#girls fashion shoot #3ds #fashion #girls mode #style savvy #games for girls

[theriverdalereviewer]

finished foreign affairs and i think this might be the most poorly written choices book. ever.

#and i’ll tell you why #for a book about politics it really wasn’t a present as you would think it is #like so much of the plot’s problems had to do with the paparazzi and regular college shit that you would think it was about celebrities #and since the plot hinges on scandal’s you’d think that they would be really big scandals when they weren’t at all #in fact the only big one was a diamond option that in context makes no sense to agree to #the only time the plot got interesting was when the fake dating stuff started and that ended so fast i don’t even know what the point was #not to mention how much it doesn’t make sense depending on how your love interest looks #cause blaine is a black man in my book and he looks nothing like the two options to fake date #speaking of blaine did we ever find out about the whole suspension thing i can’t remember #as for the other lis tatum randomly left us and then came back and i don’t know what the point of it was #but i guess anya’s storyline made sense so there’s that #the mystery on the other hand was just bad #like whoever was behind our scandals stuff was so obvious #the fact that our mom’s campaign rival was involved was so utterly obvious that i ruled it out #so that was disappointing #and then i think it was clear to everyone that winston was behind the scandals anyways #going back to the politics stuff it was all so low stakes #the way it all worked was so unrealistic idk if that’s the world building to blame #and our main characters relationship with their mom was just plain uninteresting #ALSO unsurprisingly that diplomacy points system made no difference i see pixelberry are still afraid to give different endings #oh and the ending was rushed and corny the end #foreign affairs #fa #choices #choices: stories you play #okay last thing that didn’t make sense and then i’m done #how our mom’s political rival put in all this effort to hide their identity and then when they have to go meet anya in person #THEY DONT EVEN TRY TO DISGUISE THEMSELVES?? like that made no sense

[user-2-electric-boogaloo]

A Comparison of RTD and Steven Moffat: Saving The Day

So for this analysis I’m going to compare when Moffat and RTD save the day well and when they save it poorly. There are a few bits of criteria I need to explain.

 First I will only be including main series, no Torchwood, no spin-offs, and no mini episodes.

Second, I have to define what makes a good and a bad ending (my examples will come from episodes written by neither of them): 

Bad endings include when the sonic saves the day (see The Power Of Three) (there are exceptions, see below), when a character spouts some useless technobabble that doesn’t make any scientific sense/when it doesn’t make logical sense in general, when the Doctor invents/presents a machine/equipment that miraculously stops the baddy and is never referred to again (see Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS), and any other ending I deem to be bad (see The Vampires of Venice)

Good endings include when the sonice activates a device that has been well established to save the day, when technobabble is used that actually makes some scientific sense, and just generally when the baddy is destroyed in what I deem to be a creative manner that makes sense with all the things that had been set up in that episode (see The Unquiet Dead).

There will also be cases where there isn’t really a day to be saved, however this happens more often with Moffat.

Let us begin (obviously there will be spoilers but the last episode in the list aired nearly 4 years ago so what you doing with your life).

RTD:

Rose: Bad

What even is anti-plastic?! Like seriously, he’s faced the Autons loads of times and has never thought to use it any other time.

The End Of The World: Bad

The Doctor just goes up to the appearance of the repeated meme (ha meme) and rips its arm off. He then just summons Cassandra back by twisting a knob which apparently everyone can do if “you’re very clever like me”.

Aliens Of London/World War Three: Good

Just nuking them all was a bit dodgy but I’ll give it to him purely because it had been set up earlier in the episode and it is a genuine option that could have been taken.

The Long Game: Good

The heating issue was set up within 2 minutes of the episode starting. It’s always good to see the Doctor using his enemies weakness against them.

Boom Town: Good

Only just. It’s technology that hadn’t been showcased ever before and came out of nowhere, but I’m allowing purely because it was setting up The Parting Of The Ways.

Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways: Good

See above. It was set up the story before so it works.

The Christmas Invasion: Bad

This was so close to being good. If RTD had just let the Sycorax leader be honourable then everything would have been fine. Instead he had to let him be dishonourable and then the Doctor through the Satsuma at a random button that for no apparent reason caused a bit of floor to fall away.

New Earth: Bad

It only makes sense if you think about it for less than 10 seconds as just pouring every cure to every disease ever into a giant tub and then spraying said supercure onto them all, then having them hug each other to pass it on. That is suspending my disbelief just a bit too far.

Tooth And Claw: Good

Everything is set up in the episode so I’ll allow it but I fail to see how Prince Albert had the time to ensure that the diamond was cut perfectly.

Love And Monsters: Bad

It’s Love And Monsters. Need I say more?

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday: Good

It was very clearly set up throughout the episode.

The Runaway Bride: Bad

I don’t like how a few bombs can supposedly drain the entire Thames.

Smith And Jones: Good

All the events were well established

Gridlock: Good

It’s a fairly bland way to save the day, just opening the surface to all the drivers. But how else could he have done it?

Utopia/The Sound Of Drums/Last Of The Time Lords: Bad

As much as I like the idea that he tuned himself into the archangel network, he basically turned into Jesus. It is arguably the least convincing ending in modern Doctor Who history.

Voyage Of The Damned: Bad

Why was he the next highest authority? If he’s the highest authority in the universe why didn’t they default to him in the first place? If not then why not default to Midshipman Frame? And if he’s somehow in between them then why? Also Astrid killed herself for no reason when she easily could have jumped out of the forklift.

Partners In Crime: Good

It works in the context of the episode, but I don’t see why they needed two of the necklace things.

Midnight: Good

It’s human nature, you can’t get more well set up than that.

Turn Left: Good

It works logically

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End: Bad

Donna just spouts a load of technobabble whilst pressing buttons and then the Daleks are magically incapacitated.

The Next Doctor: Bad

Why do the infostamps sever Hartigan’s connection with the Cyberking? As far as I remember it ain’t explained.

Planet Of The Dead (co-written with noted transphobe Gareth Roberts): Good

A good couple scenes are dedicated on getting the anti-gravs set up.

The Waters Of Mars (co-written with Phil Ford): N/A

The day isn’t really saved cause everyone still dies anyway.

The End Of Time: Good

Using a gun to destroy a machine is much better than using the sonic to destroy it.

Summary for RTD:

Out of 24 stories written by him, I deem 10 to be bad endings with 1 abstaining. That’s 41.7% of his episodes (43.5% if we don’t count any abstaining).

Steven Moffat:

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances: Good

You’ll see this a lot with Moffat, he knows how to explain things without stupefying levels of technobabble. “Emailing the upgrade” is a perfect example of this.

The Girl In The Fireplace: Good

Some basic logic, the androids want to repair their ship, but they can’t return to it, they no longer have a function so they shut down.

Blink: Good

Always loved this one, getting the angels to look at each other, however they do look at each other sometimes earlier in the episode.

Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead: Bad

This is more of a problem with the setup of the episode, I don’t like that he can negotiate with the Vashta Nerada. I’d rather see them comprehensively beaten, but I guess it’s good for the scare factor that they can’t be escaped from.

The Eleventh Hour: Good

He convinced the best scientists all around the world to set every clock to 0 all in less than an hour. In the Doctor’s own words “Who da man!”

The Beast Below: Good

The crying child motif pretty much ended up saving the day (well for the star whale, life went on as normal for pretty much everyone else).

The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone: Good

The artificial gravity had briefly been set up earlier so I’ll allow it.

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang: Good

Everything had been set up perfectly, the vortex manipulator, the Pandorica’s survival field thingy, the TARDIS exploding at every moment in history.

A Christmas Carol: Good

Literally the entire episode is the Doctor saving the day by convincing Kazran not to be a cock.

The Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon: Good

The silence’s ability to influence people is their whole thing, so using it against them is a good Doctory thing to do.

A Good Man Goes To War: N/A

The day isn’t really saved, Melody is lost, but River shows up at the end so is all fine? I love the episode it’s just the day isn’t really truly saved (yes I know Amy was rescued but she still lost her baby).

Let’s Kill Hitler: N/A

There isn’t really a day to be saved. They all get out alive but no one is really saved other than maybe River but we all knew she was gonna live anyway.

The Wedding Of River Song: Good

Whilst opinion is divided on the episode, the ending still works. the Tesseracta was established in Let’s Kill Hitler, and the “touch River and time will move again” was established well in advance.

The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe: Bad

I don’t like how the lifeboat travels through the time vortex for no reason but to rescue the dad. It don’t make no sense and I don’t think it’s explained

Asylum Of The Daleks: Good

Oswin had access to the Dalek hive mind so of course she should be able to link into the controls and blow everything up.

The Angels Take Manhattan: Good

Paradoxes really do be something powerful, and they even acknowledge how nobody knows if it’d work so I’ll let it slide.

The Snowmen: Bad

Lots of people cry at Christmas, why are the Latimers anything special?

The Bells of Saint John: Good

The whole episode is about hacking so why shouldn’t the Doctor be able to hack the spoonheads

The Name Of The Doctor: Good

It was the story arc for the season pretty much, so of course it was explained well in advance.

The Day Of The Doctor: Good

Both the storing Gallifrey like a painting and the making everyone forget if they’re Human or Zygon works in the context of the episode.

The Time Of The Doctor: Bad

Since when were the Time Lords so easily negotiated with?

Deep Breath: Good

I like the dilemma over whether the half-face man was pushed or jumped.

Into The Dalek: Good

It’s set up well with this new Doctor’s persona of actually not being too nice of a guy (at first).

Listen: N/A

There isn’t a day to be saved. It’s just 45 minutes of the Doctor testing a hypothesis and I low-key love it.

Time Heist (co-written with Steven Thompson): Good

It works logically so I’ll allow it however it isn’t very well set up at all.

The Caretaker (co-written with noted shithead Gareth Roberts): Good

The machine to tell the Blitzer what to do was set up well in advance so I’ll allow it.

Dark Water/Death In Heaven: Good

The fact that Danny still cares even as a cyberman is set up fairly early on after his transformation.

Last Christmas: Good

He does use the sonic to wake up Clara but he convinces the others to wake up through talking so I’ll allow it.

The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar: Good

It’s set up well with that little scene from actually inside the sewers.

The Girl Who Died (co-written with Jamie Mathieson): Good

IDK why the vikings would randomly keep electric eels but they’re set up well so I’ll ignore it. 

The Zygon Inversion (co-written with Peter Harness): N/A 

Not including this one as it’s only the second part and I’d argue the ending is most likely Harness’.

Heaven Sent/Hell Bent: N/A

Again there isn’t really a day to be saved, yes Heaven Sent really is amazing but it’s only the first part and, being completely honest, he dies several billion times before finally getting through the wall.

The Husbands Of River Song: N/A

Again there isn’t really a day to be saved here.

The Return Of Doctor Mysterio: Good

He gets Grant to catch the bomb which is good. But he does just sonic the gun out of Dr Sim’s hand and says UNIT is on its way which just sort of wraps it up very quickly.

The Pilot: N/A

No day to be saved here.

Extremis: Good

You could technically call it the sonic saving the day, I consider it to be the Doctor emailing the Doctor to warn him of the future.

The Pyramid At The End Of The World: Good

The fire sanitising everything makes sense and it’s in character for Bill to love the Doctor enough to cure his blindness in return for the world

World Enough And Time/The Doctor Falls: Good

Yes it is the sonic just blowing the cybermen up, but it’s blowing them up with well established pipelines so I’ll allow it (also the story is amazing).

Twice Upon A Time: N/A

No day to be saved here. Just Doctors 1 and 12 getting angsty about regenerating.

Summary for Steven Moffat:

Out of 39 stories written by him, I deemed 4 to be bad with 7 abstaining. That’s 10.3% of his episodes (12.5% if we don’t count any abstaining).

Conclusions:

Moffat was much better at saving the day than RTD

Moffat liked telling stories where the day didn’t actually need to be saved

I’ve spent way too long on this and I need to sleep

If I spent as much time on this as my coursework I’d probably pass

If you’re still reading this, you probably need to get a life

#doctor who #steven moffat #rtd #in case you can't tell I really don't like RTD #Remember the Superwholock days when everyone ripped the shit out of Moffat #what am I doing with my life #tardis #rose tyler #martha jones #donna noble #amy pond #rory pond #rory williams #river song #clara oswald #Bill Potts

[vicunaburger]

Admittedly, I’m Hard to See

Fandom: Beetlejuice the Musical Chapters: 17/? Pairing: Beetlejuice x OC (Holidae) The Players: Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz, Holidae Bell Word Count: 1,924 Warnings: M for Mature Content

Notes: TW: Mentions of Hospitals, Not-Quite Self Harm, Injury

Chapter 17: In Which We Lie by Omission

Toast was a tricky food to master.

Not only did one have to factor in the age and setting of each, individual toaster available, but the thickness of the bread was vital to the equation. There was thin line between “just right” and “burnt offerings”, usually moving from one end of the spectrum to the other in the literal blink of an eye.

Lydia squinted her eyes, peering into the orange glow of the toasting mechanisms, trying to determine the level of toast her bread had achieved. Behind her at the kitchen table, Beetlejuice sat quietly, deep in concentration as he mulled over the newspaper spread out before him. Normally, he could solve the weekly bridge puzzle within a few minutes, but his mind was somewhere else, and the answer was eluding him.

With a soft growl, he erased the notes he had been making in the margins of the puzzle, smacking the bits of eraser off the table with more force than what was needed. The soft scritching of graphite against newsprint started up again, only to be interrupted -again- with muttered curses and furious erasing.

His bestest best friend was town between asking him why he was so irritable that morning, or continuing to monitor her toast situation. Both options were precarious paths to navigate, and both of them could end in misery if she wasn’t being extra careful.

“So… hard hand dealt out this week?” Lydia made the first cautious move, still focused on her breakfast. “It’s always the diamonds that get me. You get week after week without them, and then the whole hand is littered with them. Do you think actual bridge is easier to play? I mean, after you scour the world for two other people that not only know but can play it.”

There was no response from the spectre; not even a sound of half-assed acknowledgement.

Concern overtook caution, and Lydia turned to face the dead silent man at the table. Beej was just staring at the paper now, the pencil being thoroughly chewed to bits within the maw of teeth he sported, the end dangling like a cigarette out of the corner of his mouth. Reaching over the table, she snapped her fingers close to his face, trying to get his attention.

“What did I tell you about eating pencils? Quit- quit doing that! You’re gonna drool all over the table.” The petite woman snatched the pencil away from him, raising her voice a little. “Earth to BJ? You in there today?”

He snapped upright with a frown, licking his teeth free of graphite and wooden splinters like an animal, “Did my little Holly-Jolly have a cat?”

Blinking, she took in his navy blue appearance, the space around him seeming to shift like it was an out of focus photo, “A what- oh god, my toast!”

Lydia plucked the now charred pieces of bread out of the toaster, setting them on a plate as smoke gently wafted into the air. Grumbling, she sat down that the table across from him, grabbing a butter knife and attempting to scrape away the burnt coating.

“A cat? Nah, Holli’s allergic to most animals.” She replied, glancing back at the empty bread box on the counter, “Ugggh, out of bread. Knew I should have sent her to the store…”

“Holidae lied to me.” Beetlejuice’s reply was flat, spoken from low in his chest. “Why would she lie to me, Lyds?”

The crunching of the knife against crispy bread stopped immediately at his use of Holidae’s proper name. Lydia’s brain started clocking a thousand impulses a minute, going through several ways to continue the conversation without endangering herself or the house.

“Okay… okay… we need to back this conversation up really fast because you jumped the tracks on me, buddy.” She continued to work on her breakfast, trying to keep the atmosphere light. “What did she supposedly lie about?”

“The cat,” one clawed finger started picking at a small hole in the tablecloth.

She waited to see if he would elaborate before trying again, “She told you she had a cat? Alright, that’s not a huge offense yet, so what was the context? I can’t answer the question without all the facts, Beej.”

Beetlejuice was tearing the tablecloth now, “We were takin’ a shower-”

Lydia grimaced, “I want you to keep any sleazy, porno-riffic details to yourself, or I won’t help you.”

“Nothin’ happened in the shower.” There was a flash of his usual humor peeking through the distress, but only for a moment. “She’s got these big scar things on her arms so I asked her and she said it was a cat. But if she never had a cat, then she lied right to my face. I lie to other people, sure, but nobody lies to me. Not anymore. No offense.”

“None taken,” she shook her head, sighing heavily. “Unfortunately, this is not an adventure I can lead you on, my friend. I am not in charge of Holli’s personal… things. Don’t ask her about it, don’t mention it again. Forget you saw anything and move along.”

She waved her hand in a Jedi-like fashion, earning her a deeper frown from the ghoul. Exhaling a long breath of air, Lydia stuck an unburnt bit of toast into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. If she just spilled all of Holli’s dirty laundry to BJ, there was a very good chance Holidae would drag her to the third floor and toss her out an open window. If she kept quiet like a church mouse, Beej could very well do the same thing; and truth be told she was not ready to spend an entire afterlife being annoyed by the ghostly guide.

Better the devil you know?

“I will tell you once and only once: you are not allowed followup questions, nor are you allowed to interrupt me for any reason. Capice?” Lydia stuck out her hand for him to shake, knowing tempting him a deal would get him to behave for the time being.

The force at which he smacked his palm against hers, coupled with the grip he took hold of her hand, made her wince in discomfort. She could hear the faint popping sound between her knuckles as he squeezed extra hard, pulling his hand away with an unwavering stare. Lydia rubbed her hand gingerly, pouting as she tried to think of where to even start. Certain tidbits of information could be dangerous if let slip to him by accident; the ghost tended to err on the side of literal meanings of certain idioms or phrasing, which wasn’t helpful when trying to explain a serious topic in a less-serious way.

“Yes, they were self-inflicted. No, they weren’t intentional.” Lydia began, gauging his reaction carefully. “You ever notice that when she gets nervous, she starts to scratch at her skin? Like she’s suddenly itchy?”

The spectre nodded, but kept quiet to honor his ‘no interruptions’ caveat.

“Holli has these… instances where she gets too much into her own head. Not literally. She just starts thinking about different things too much and starts to forget to pay attention to where she is or what she’s doing in the moment. There was something… someone upset her-” She stopped herself, fumbling over the words as she spoke them.

“Someone?” He couldn’t help himself, digging his claws into the table.

“Irrelevant.” She snapped, “The point is, when Holli forgets things, she tends to forget important things like eating or sleeping… breather functions. It used to be really bad in college, before she started managing it better.

Lydia watched him carefully as he listened intently, taking note of his solemn mood, “Well, I went on that trip with dad and Delia a few summers ago, remember? And I didn’t… hadn’t paid attention to the fact Holli was having an episode. She always told me not to fret about her, since she was an adult and… well…”

She paused, taking another bite of toast. Even though Holidae never once put the responsibility of her mental health upon her, deep down, Lydia regretted not catching the early warning signs of Holidae’s episode. Lydia was still dealing with her own internalized issues, and Holli always told her to take care of herself more than anyone else.

Beej tilted his head sharply, knowing his friend was thinking hard about something, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it could be. Lydia only thought that hard when she was trying to concoct a lie, or spare him some tedious details that wouldn’t have made sense to a demon like him. Breather details. Things he never had to experience, or things he never needed to consider.

Swallowing her toast, she continued softly, “When I got back, Holli had been admitted into the hospital. They said she hadn’t slept in days, which made her vividly hallucinate random things in the middle of classes; it’s why her arms are torn up. From what the doctors could understand, she claimed she needed to ‘remove the layers’ because there was something wrong? Or she said it was burnt somehow? She doesn’t remember anything… not even me being gone! The first thing she asked me when I saw her in the hospital was if I had missed my flight. It had been a week since I told her goodbye.”

Lydia let out a humorless laugh; memories of her friend hooked up to machines like Frankenstein’s monster with wires all over flooded her mind. Holli looking like death warmed over, sitting confused in the hospital bed and picking idly at a cup of jell-o.

Holidae had been more concerned about her. Her vacation. Not even comprehending her situation until a few days later.

Wisely, the young lady did not disclose the gruesome details of Holidae’s recovery to her demonic pal. Something deep in her gut told her that he wouldn’t have been thrilled to learn about the agonizing healing process; long nights unable to find relief as the skin stitched back together. Pain killers only did so much.

“Just… don’t bring up the scars again, okay?” Lydia sighed, a bit relieved to get that weight off of her shoulders.

Sometimes, it was good to talk things out with a third party; human status notwithstanding. Before Beetlejuice could give any sort of response, the front door opened, the sound of keys clattering into a ceramic dish filling the silence.

“Lyddy, they were out of that weird cereal you like, so I got you the off brand in the industrial sized bag. Should last a few decades.” Holidae’s voice carried into the kitchen, causing both Lydia and Beej to turn toward the entryway to the hall.

In a flash, the demon vanished from his seat at the table, reappearing in the foyer much to Holidae’s shock. With a snap of his fingers, the bags she was balancing in her arms were neatly placed on the kitchen counter, and Holidae herself was wrapped tightly within his grasp.

“Whoa… hey, Juice, are you okay? I was only gone for like an hour.” Holidae was muffled against his coat, half her face pressed into his shoulder.

“Exactly! A whole hour! What if something cool had happened and you weren’t around to see it? Or you might have been kidnapped by angry lawn gnomes! Which means I would have to heroically charge in and save you from their clutches, and of course you would reward me with a night of hot, passionate- oh. You know what? That sounds super special awesome.” He was babbling, pressing sloppy kisses all over her forehead. “Go back out and make yourself attractive to lawn gnomes. Go GO GO!”

Quietly, Lydia listened from the kitchen, surprised that Beej actually listened to her warnings about keeping Holidae unaware of what she had told him.

Then again, there was no guarantee he would keep that promise for long.

Writing Tags: @hoodoo12 @mr-geuse @paxenera @leiasolo77 @go-commander-kim @a-subconscious-manifestation @asriells @missihart23 @heknowshisherbs @mrgeuse @amywright @beetlebitchywitch

#beetlejuice x oc #beetlejuice the musical #beetlejuice broadway #beetlejuice fanfiction #beetlejuice x self insert #writing time

[minijenn]

Sigh...

Alright, enough is enough. 

Time to give a certain someone exactly what they want. 

(long, drama-related post under the cut imo)

So since I would say around May or April, just about every single day, several times a day, I’ve been receiving a handful of negative guest/anon reviews on both UF and Keys on Ao3 and FF.Net alike. The crux of every single one of these reviews basically boils down to hatred for the Stonemason idea being used in UF2, specifically the idea that Yellow Diamond will be redeemed after it. To be even more specific, here are some things this individual (and despite using several different “names” to post these reviews under, I am well aware that they’re all coming from the same person) has accused me of: 

1. Singling Dipper out for “baseless angst” (when that’s not even true, that entire arc will stir up angst for just about everyone). Also says I’m wrong just for enjoying writing angst when its a genre that a lot of people like writing/reading, I’m not the only one smh it’s popular for a reason. 

2. Being willing to let YD get off scott-free for what she does to Dipper in that arc (something that I never said and even if I did say it in the past that’s not necessarily my current plan now) just because her and the other Diamonds were redeemed in SU canon (which again, I have confirmed that I’m not necessarily following to the letter and I’m still currently very much in the process of trying to figure out what I want to do in that regard)

3. The Stonemason arc being an example of “bad writing” and being full of “holes” despite the fact that its NOT written yet and WON’T be written for another few years or so at this rate

4. Claiming that the only reason why I’m willing to let YD off the hook for her actions is because I see her as “attractive” and a “wiafu”, despite the fact that anytime I say that I’m clearly joking, that’s what I do around here smh 

5. Making several blatant attacks on my person, including calling me a fascist, an incel, a pedophile, homophobic (despite the fact that I, myself, am bisexual), claiming that I’m “creepy” for writing fanfiction, claiming that I am a “middle age man” (I’m a 24 year old woman), claiming that I have no sense of morality, get off on torturing children/child abuse, and a number of other horrible, baseless claims 

6. Claims that Dipper needs to get revenge on YD by shattering her when that would stir up an entire whole other mess of problems, by 1. starting an entirely new Gem war no doubt since Blue and White would be livid 2. completely against Dipper’s character entirely and against the spirit of GF, SU, and UF 3. not at all “cathartic” and is really just simple, sociopath thinking expected from a small, immature child obsessed with the idea of “getting even” without growing from an experience and moving on to become the better person instead. Which of course, is probably what this individual is. 

7. Has said insane, immature, stupid shit like this. There really is no making this up: 

Mind you that this person has left these reviews not just on UF, but on Keys to the Kingdom, a KH fanfic that has nothing to do with UF, but these reviews are still very specific to UF all the same, which yes, does basically make this spam. And indeed it is spam because today alone so far, I have already gotten 6+ reviews from this single person alone:

This person also loves taking things I’ve said here on the blog in answers to asks from years ago out of context, never mind the fact that they might not be in line with ideas I currently have and/or again, are completely without context to what the original conversation was so they can twist whatever I said to fit their bizarre, hateful agenda. Here’s a taste of some of today’s fare, for reference: 

At first, I thought this whole thing was just a troll, but really at this point it’s become legitimate harassment. I’m not, nor have I ever asked, everyone and anyone to accept and enjoy everything in UF. I know some people don’t like the Stonemason arc, that’s fine. But I also want people to understand that I haven’t even written the damn thing yet. My entire plotting process for both UF and UF2 alike are always in flux, even from chapter to chapter, in both large ways and small. Minor details and big ones are going to change with time. Not that this person cares about that since they’ve already decided a long time ago that they hate both me and my work for whatever reason (seriously I have no idea what i did to them to provoke any of this). 

(also before any of you say “oh well Jen, just turn off guest reviews and this will end!” Ao3 and FF.Net don’t give authors the option to do that, so I’m pretty much stuck where I currently am with this whole terrible situation unfortunately)

Now mind you I do have a theory about who this individual actually is but I’m no going to address that here because stirring others to action against them isn’t my intention with this post. My intention is something I’m sure they’re not even going to listen to but I’d like to make an earnest appeal all the same, so now, my dude, let’s speak to you individually. Since you clearly want attention so badly in all this, looks like you’re finally about to get exactly that. 

Look. I get that you don’t like this whole Stonemason arc. Again that’s fine, you don’t have to like it. But you sending me these reviews every single day, day in and day out is not going to change my mind, especially given your downright malicious tone in every single one of these. Consider, just for a moment, that I’m an actual person behind this screen, a person with feelings and thoughts of my own just like you are. A person who is out here writing fanfictions because it is something that gives me a personal sense of enjoyment to see a story I’ve crafted play out, and enjoyment in how others interact with my work. Your reviews haven’t changed any of that, I’m going to keep on writing despite them and I’m going to keep on taking pride in my work regardless of anything you have to say. That’’s what being the bigger person is all about. 

 But before sending any more of your petty little reviews, just... all I’m asking is that you think about what you’re saying and why. Does sending these reviews make you feel like you’re superior to me? Is that really what you need to feel some sense of fulfillment? Because really, friend, you could find that sort of fulfillment in something much more genuine and wholesome. Read a book, watch a movie or TV show you really love, go outside and take a walk, hell even write your own fic if you despise mine so much. But just... maybe try to find something else to do with your time instead of attempting to tear other people down for no reason. 

I highly doubt this is going to change anything, hell you may not even read this to begin with, because again, you’ve already decided you hate me for some reason and that’s fine. Go ahead and hate me. I just want you to maybe do a little self reflection and consider that what you’re doing only makes you look bad in the end. 

And with that, MiniJen’s out. Peace. ❤

#i have a lot more screencaps i could have shown off #but honestly at this point im just tired #this is tbh the last thing im gonna say about all this for awhile #and the only reason im saying anything at all is bc its gotten so bad in this past week alone #nevermind that im already dealing with anxiety to begin with bc of recent family developments #i'd rather just be left alone instead of harassed like this #ugh.... #jen rambles #drama

[savsfm]

madelaine petsch, twenty-three, cisfemale, she/her. —  SAVANNAH WALSH was just spotted out and about in los angeles with their signature VINTAGE DENIM OVERALLS. the paparazzi tried to be subtle, but the ACTRESS caught them snapping pictures and DARTED INTO THE NEAREST SHOP. they jetted off to A SECLUDED, PRIVATE BEACHFRONT before getting asked about HER UPCOMING SERIES FINALE this time, which kinda coincides with their notorious WARY attitude towards fame, doesn’t it? 

HELLO hello , i’m bay & this is my sweet lil savannah ! actress , sports fanatic , dog lover , confirmed adhd ball of energy ( as far as you know ) . if she had a label , it’d be the benevolent , and . . . well , let’s just get right into this ! 

·   ☆     .    𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚜  !

full  legal  name :  savannah raine walsh . –– her mother had a hand in her middle name , and boy was that woman a hippie . age :   twenty  three  .   gender :   cis-female . nicknames : sav , savvy , little walsh ( when in context with her older brother )   pronouns : (  she/her  ) occupation : actress ; sophie turner career claim . inspiration : listen . . . there’s a reason i chose sophie . also jane sloane . details : growing up with just her father and her brother , for the most part , sav was very much the tomboy type , and despite her father’s history in the mlb , the walsh kids often spent time away from him and lived a relatively normal life . this made sav’s climb to fame a bit more of an adjustment , but people seem to love the down - to - earth way she has about her . after wrapping an iconic fantasy series ( think game of thrones ) and starring in a blockbuster ( think dark phoenix ) , everyone seems to be wondering what’s next for america’s favorite sweetheart .

·   ☆     .    𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍  !

micah “mickey” walsh came from nothing . he was a natural born athlete with the drive of a kid who had nothing to lose and everything to gain , and he could’ve stepped right out of high school and onto a minor league baseball diamond , but his parents –– loony as they seemed –– insisted he go to college first , and he spent four years playing for vanderbilt , where he met his wife marnie . they fell in love , hard and fast , and by their senior year , they were throwing together a shotgun wedding in order to say their vows before her baby bump began to show . 

the first few years were a whirlwind with mickey never giving up his dreams of having a family and having a professional baseball career. two years in , he was called up to the big leagues , and thus began the ICONIC career of mickey walsh , second baseman and a monster at bat . after three years in the mlb , the walsh family grew , and when SAVANNAH RAINE was born in chicago , illinois , wrigley field filled to capacity celebrated . 

three years later , mickey was traded to the boston red sox , and the walsh family moved again . for some time , things were well , and they appeared to be living the dream . mickey loved boston , and boston loved the walshes , so much so , that contract after contract was renewed at fenway . when savannah was five , however , tragedy struck and her mother fell ILL . by the time sav was six , she’d succumbed entirely to her illness , leaving her and her brother , luke , to grow up without a mother .

the walsh family was devastated , mickey taking indefinite time off from his career to be with his children . his parents moved to boston shortly there after to help out with things around the house . mickey tried to keep a happy way about him , but after a season out , everyone could tell he was itching to get back , if only for the DISTRACTION of the game . . . so luke & sav grew up darting around fenway park . they attended every home game , stayed up to watch all of the away games , and they genuinely loved it . babysitters chased after them in exhaustion , and their grandparents did the most they could to raise them right .

savannah was always a FIERY little thing , and it had nothing to do with the red locks she’d inherited from her mother . she was joyful and playful , kind and a lot for any one person to handful . she asked too many questions and had QUITE a knack for theatrics . most of all , though , from a young age , she was simply good . . . and she really never expected to get into acting .

all of that energy had to go somewhere , though , and seeing as she was dramatic as is . . . she was enrolled in dance classes and school theatre projects . she took a liking to acting , starring in school plays and toying around writing her own short films . in high school , savannah was everywhere . . . spread far too thin . but hey ! keeping busy is what this girl lives for ! 

at sixteen , she enrolled at an acting camp during the summer in los angeles , and this is when she found out that her family and friends weren’t simply full of shit ,  like she’d assumed .  she had talent , and she could make a career of acting . . . and unlike others , her rise was a bit too quick . she spent the summer going to auditions , and her BREAKOUT role was one of her first . . . v much a sansa on game of thrones type of deal .

sav finished off high school through a personal tutor and online schooling , but NOT going to college , for either of the walsh kids , was never an option . so she wagered a gap year from her father ,  so she could film seasons 2 & 3 of her show . other seasons were filmed during summer months , on breaks , and on long weekends . she SPED through her degree at new york university , and graduated in 3 , freeing up time to act full time .

there’s a GENUINE way about her that just . . . captures people , when she isn’t in character . in interviews , on talk shows , on red carpets . . . she’s just blatantly very soft , very sweet . skeptics think it’s an act , but anyone who KNOWS savannah knows that the only thing she fronts for the camera is constant energy . ya girl is tired . . . all the time , but will never admit to it ! 

after one of the most watched television series finales of all time and a franchise film –– along the lines of x-men/marvel –– stunning the box office , savannah is taking a moment to SLOW DOWN , because she’s never exactly done so . . . right now ,  she’s trying to figure out where to take her career next with a pile of scripts sitting at home and the world of the silver screen at her fingertips . 

·   ☆     .    𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 & 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚜  !

like i said , miss savannah is very outgoing , very bubbly . she’s good with people . . . but let it be known that she’s an introvert at heart . my girl is queen of leaving parties early . 

definitely the lost-in-a-daydream type , and she’s always been a bit of a QUIET hopeless romantic . less grand gestures and magnificent romantic adventures , more of just . . . a genuine believer in love . which . . . CERTAINLY lines up with the way her life threw her for a loop , just after nineteen , and one (1) nate carpenter absolutely turned her world upside down . it took all of one chance meeting , and sav was completely smitten . despite the fact that their dads kind of sort of ?? hate each other , they are happily planning on spending the rest of their lives together , dipping out of Famous People Things by 9:30pm at the latest .

painfully honest . . . maybe a little too honest. if she’s not careful ,  she can occasionally say too much and put her foot in her mouth . no amount of media training can REALLY rein it in . . . so her publicist is well paid and honestly . . . she has a hell of a time keeping spoilers to herself , so a lot of interviews regarding big plot lines are often with castmates aksdjfha

has a dog named hercules ! not named after the greek hero . . . or the disney movie . . . but rather named after the massive beast in the sandlot . her hercules is a mutt she rescued as a pup . they’re not really sure what he is . . . only that he’s kinda big and definitely has some german shepherd in him . 

sports fanatic af . her dad played professional baseball , and now he coaches for the new york yankees . her brother is a household name for hockey fans . . . and , well , catch her in a bright blue dodgers jersey with the name carpenter on the back , every baseball season !! 

she hasn’t TOTALLY grown out of her tomboy-ness . she still wakes up early to go surfing , still does far better in beat up converse than she does in HEELS , insists on the thrill of doing her own stunts , curses like a damn sailor , and loves a good worn in denim . queen ! of ! rocking ! overalls ! 

thinks about her mom a lot , but tries not to do to the fact that it just fuckin . . . makes her sad and anxious . the grief , she can handle , but the nerves ? her mother died of breast cancer , and savannah STUBBORNLY refuses to get tested to see if she’s got the genetic marker for it .

still visits her grandparents in boston often 

has a very .. . strange relationship with fame . she knows it’s fleeting , and she doesn’t really care for her private life being prodded into . in fact , that’s the worst part of it all . it’s taken a toll on her self - esteem , here and there , but for the most part. . . . she tries not to let it get to her . if she could do the acting thing without the fame , she honestly would . 

ok that is . . . my girl savannah . i hope y’all love her as much as i do bc i am vERY EXCITED ok !!  HIT ME WITH A LIKE & I’LL COME SWOOPING IN FOR PLOTTING !! 

#luxuria:intro #* / . . . INTRO . / * #this is a DAMN mess y'all

[lizzybeth1986]

Hey, it's the Kiara Deserves Better™ anon! I haven't had the chance to finish it until recently. Your essay was great as always and highlighted why I'm so frustrated with how they've written Kiara. I'm tempted to ask you for another essay, but I'm not sure what to ask for xD. But I figured since you've written so much for me already, I thought I'd share about me: I want to replay and do Hana's route because she deserves better as always, so are there any diamond choices you would *not* pick?

Ahhh yes! I remember you xD I'm always happy to churn out essays as long as I know what I'm talking about 😅😅 I'm glad we agree about how frustrating (and downright disgushing) the treatment for Kiara was. I can't promise to do entire essays on her BUT I sure am planning some fanfic prominently featuring her and Hana 😃 I'm just in two minds because either I'll need to wait until TRH QTs are over or I'll need to abandon my QTs altogether. But I have loads of ideas and I'm impatient to start!!

Okay soooo...which Hana scenes wouldn't I pick? I think that depends on what kind of diamond content you wouldn't like, but rn I'll go with the ones I feel have least value in terms of actually getting to know her.

A lot of the times my problem is that you can tell when they wrote a scene clearly so you could gain advantages, rather than anything related to Hana herself. In such scenes she is not important - how the MC can use her (and at least on one occasion steal credit for Hana's creativity) is. Which bleeds into my overall problem with the canon Hana and MC dynamic (friendship or romantic) itself. Like, when you have to aggressively rewrite whole parts of canon in your fanfic to make your MC seem like a better friend at least...you know there is something wrong.

Book 1: Most of the scenes are top level! Cordonian Waltz...Piano Scene...Yacht scene...Her Confession Scene...Her Finale Scene...all very beautiful and very unique and they all explored different facets of her character. Like even the ones that are about skill or give perks have space for HER personally!

Perhaps some of the scenes in Applewood you can skip, but that would mean you won't get much time to interact with her on closer level there. The pie baking contest is really more about the special touches Hana adds to the pie (like the decoration and additional instructions), but I think you can win the contest for free as well! Buying the Derby champion horse also unlocks an extra scene where she teaches you dressage moves but a lot of the personal stuff she tells you is mostly free content. So on a more personal level (and if you don't mind Hana winning the horse race at Fox Hunt 😁) it doesn't exactly count for much and you can maybe give it a miss.

Book 2: Oof. Terrible mostly. I won't deny you'll find a few gems (Patisserie scene...Library scene...Proposal scene 😍😍😍 Even the McDermots scene is pretty good, besides that one dialogue option where they make Hana call Shanghai "ancient" 🙄). One of the worst ever Hana scenes comes from this book.

Hot Chocolate Scene: Okay so on it's own it's actually a nice scene! It involves genuine personal time with Hana where you ask her questions and show concern...and that gets harder to come by later on in the series. BUT the part that makes this so awful is that this scene should have been where we saw the flashback, not Drake's. In fact the scenes should have been reversed. Drake had no authority talking about something that involved Hana esp when Hana herself never gets the opportunity to use this fact (that Liam brought her back, not Madeleine) to her advantage. So yeah. This scene is good coz you know a little more about her family but awful coz she was robbed of the chance to talk about how she REALLY returned.

PARIS RUNWAY: I put this in caps and italics and red letters because it is the worst scene in the history of this series!!!! Like ever. Where do I even begin with the PROBLEMS in this one.

First, this is not a Hana scene. It's a Penelope scene with a Hana kiss tacked on at the end, for convenience. I bought the scene in my fail playthrough and didn't include Penelope and you could really feel the difference.

Second, like...you know how wearing the Snow Bunny outfit in Book 1 unlocks the Drake Meteor Shower scene, right? They could have easily used that kind of coding here. Buy the outfit and you unlock the chance to model. You know what happens if you don't buy it and buy the Hana scene? The audience applauds you for going on stage in a tank top and jeans. In Paris. It doesn't make any fucking sense!

Third, this particular chapter has diamond scenes for all three LIs. Liam gets to take the MC to the Eiffel Tower and talk about his father as a King and his vision for Cordonia, Drake gets an emotional reunion with his sister. Hana gets...this. A scene that doesn't even give HER importance coz no, kissing Penelope's ass is more important. Hana got bullied the previous night and Madeleine lied through her teeth about her motives the next day (by option) but no, the girl who secretly dragged our reputation through the mud is more important.

Fourth, the scene preceding this one was a group scene masquerading as a "Comfort Hana!" scene. That scene basically focused on anyone who wasn't Hana (including Olivia btw)

The other scenes are fine (following this is patisserie scene and library scene, my favourites in this book), and the Champagne scene is okay, but ultimately it's a decent scene that views the upcoming trip to NY as more important, and there is very little on Hana herself. When you think of that in the context of Hana having very little attention to herself in her own home, and the fact that in the next chapter she is NOT THERE...it's not great. But you can still purchase it because nothing can ever be as bad as the Paris Runway scene.

Book 3: Okay so in this book your scenes are split between "character" and "LI" scenes. The first you will get no matter who you are marrying, coz it's supposed to be about their issues or things only they can specifically impart to you. The second will be exclusively romantic scenes with your LIs.

Character Development Scenes: Hana has three and none of them are good at all. The team took laziness to a whole other level in this book. The Polo scene gives you extra perks at the game in Portavira, but there are very few variations between the "friend" version of this scene and the "LI" versions. Like when Hana has questions about her future the MC - whether she is marrying Hana or not - can claim (optionally) that Hana could be a "professional best friend" (to this day I don't understand why they couldn't replace that option with "Duchess" in Hana's playthrough). The scene where they get Hana's traditional handmade outfit was supposed to be the culmination of Hana's arc but it was awfully executed but the big downside to NOT buying it is that Hana never gets to wear that lovely outfit again (except for a brief time during the wedding). I would have called this the worst scene if Paris Runway didn't take that title and run with it. The Snow Angel scene is Lythikos is...okay, I guess? At least it's about her and not how the MC can best use her.

Again, in the case of both Polo scene and Snow Angel - the scenes are decent, but in both those chapters they're pitted against Drake scenes where you can see the difference in effort!! You can tell Hana's scenes were a real quickie, and devoid of any care or love from the writer for that character.

LI scenes: Thankfully you get better LI scenes for her in plenty. I'd avoid the one in the bathtub in Chapter 2. It's not very well written and the LIs all sounded like each other. This was originally a problem in the Applewood spa scene too but I think they changed it here and there. The rest of the LI scenes were pretty fantastic Hana wise. Some of them even delved a little into the aftereffects of her upbringing...which they never ever brought up again.

Honorary Mention: Hana's Gift. Coz every other LI gets beautiful gifts that are unique to them but for Hana the MC grabs a...telescope and slaps a Hallmark card message to it.

But the thing is that perhaps your criteria for what scenes would be good or not would be vastly different from mine, so do keep that in mind when you're choosing. A good way to gauge would be to maybe take a look at a particular scene on YouTube just to confirm.

Hope this helped!!

#ask me #ask lizzy #hana lee #the royal romance #long post #anonymous #courtly ladies anon

[letsrevieweverything]

My Favorite Pokemon (That Aren’t In Sword and Shield) #1

   Pokemon is, at its essence, a franchise based around it’s large number of playable monsters. It’s basically just a simple RPG, but the ability to pick out your favorite  creatures from hundreds of options is what makes it so unique and endearing. While certain Pokemon are pushed as “the main ones” by marketing, it’s still a game where you can choose to surround yourself with only barnacles then have said barnacles save the world. 

   At least, it used to be. As of the release of Sword and Shield, over half of all the Pokemon have been removed from the game. There’s a lot of debate about this and why it was done, and while I will say that I think the game’s designers made the wrong move, I don’t really want to get into that right now. Instead I want to talk about some of my personal favorite Pokemon, monsters that in my opinion (and perhaps only MY opinion) have exceptionally good character designs. Monsters that will not be appearing in the mainline franchise for the foreseeable future, who are at risk of being forgotten entirely if there’s never any demand for them to be put back into the games. Here are my favorite Pokemon (that aren’t in sword and shield), presented in no particular order.

Kricketot and Kricketune

   It love that “Bug” is one of the 18 “elemental” types in Pokemon. It both implies that being a bug is a superpower on par with being able to breath fire or do karate, and also insures that every new generation will give us a handful of bug-based monsters. So let's talk about Kricketot and Kricketune, bugs that exemplify some of the traits common to the type and also some of my absolute favorites.

Kricketot

   Look at this little man. It’s got kirby-like stubby limbs, a big “nose” instead of any visible mouth, a completely blank expression, and best of all it’s stylized to look like it’s wearing a little fancy suit with a big collar. It’s extremely adorable and also looks absolutely nothing like a bug, it’s only bug-like trait being the pleasantly swirly antennae on its head. A small but still substantial number of bug-type Pokemon just look like little humans with bug traits, but Kricketot is such a cute and iconic man-bug that I’m not even upset that it doesn’t look anything like a cricket. In the Pokemon world the closest thing they have to a cricket is just a little buggy humanoid dressed like a musical conductor and that’s wonderful. Still, there’s something else about Kricketot that communicates it’s a bug specifically in the context of Pokemon. It’s bulbous “nose” and beady eyes bear a close resemblance to the face of gen 1’s  bug-type Weedle.

 Weedle was a bee larva with an inexplicable pink “nose” and no mouth (and also sadly another Pokemon we won’t be seeing in Sword and Shield). Right in the first generation Weedle taught us that a mouthless big-nosed face was a valid face for a bug. So by the time we met Kricketot, we were already predisposed to read this cute weird face as a “bug face”. What I’m saying is that Kricketot looks more like a bug if you’re already familiar with Pokemon. It’s design fits right in with the gen 1 aesthetic, just with more details. 

A few last thoughts about Kricketot before we move on;

-My least favorite thing about it’s design is the bit between its antennae, it looks too much like it’s nose and I think the antennae would look more natural if they were just coming straight out of it’s head

-As a kid looking at the pixel art in Pokemon Diamond I perceived it’s collar as being round and fluffy, like a fur scarf. Seeing it as a flat disk for the first time with 3D models was a bit jarring, but ultimately that fits it’s conductor look more.

-Speaking of it’s collar, the females have bigger collars than the males which is probably one of my favorite gender differences in the series because there doesn’t seem to be any biological OR stereotypical reason for it to be that way.

Kricketune

   Look at this thing, really take it all in. It’s a bug but it also resembles a string instrument like a violin or cello, but it also resembles a fancy orchestra man, like the kind of person who would play the cello that it also is. Magnificent. It’s a beautifully balanced medley of bug, object, and concept. It's “mustache”  appears to be made out of modified antennae of it’s pre-evolution, but it also resembles the curly holes on the sides of a violin (sidenote: I just found out those are called f-holes and I don’t know how to feel about that). The antennae on its head look like conductor batons. And best of all, it’s got stabby forelimbs like a praying mantis (or I guess like a Scyther?)  that also act as violin bows so that it can play itself like a violin and also probably skewer it’s prey. Kricketune is objectively very silly, but with those sharp forelimbs, which the pokedex actually describes as “knifelike”, and it’s blank buggy stare it actually looks a bit intimidating under all the stilly stuff. It’s like an ostrich or a hippo; it looks silly from a human viewpoint but it’s actually just a dangerous wild animal that can’t help the fact that it looks like it has a mustache. 

   I suppose now is the time I should mention that it’s not actually based that much on a cricket, but rather a violin beetle (sometimes called the banjo beetle instead, which gives me a great idea for a regional Kricketune variant). It shares its long neck and antennae with the real thing, but there’s so much more to Kricketune’s design that it doesn’t just feel like they plopped a real bug into the game and gave it anime eyes, unlike some other Pokemon. Also given that it’s a musical Pokemon based on a beetle, I think the translators missed the chance to make a rather obvious pun involving the name of a certain famous band. God now I’m really sad we can’t have Kricketune in Galar. Do you think Galar has a sport involving hitting a ball with a bat called “Kricketune”? 

A few last thoughts on Kricketune:

-It’s cry is hilarious and the main thing everyone remembers about this Pokemon, which is too bad because the rest of it is equally hilarious.

-My least favorite part of it’s design is those extra lines on its face. It already has a nose, we don’t need those!

-I just love the color scheme of both of the Kricket-mons. The red, cream and black looks so eye-catching.

And that ends my review of two hilarious and charming bugs we will not be encountering again for the foreseeable future. Goodnight sweet crickets.

#pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #kricketot #kricketune #pokemon swsh #pokemon review

[transienturl]

the first half of the ask post you didn't reblog because you're doing them all anyways

Thanks, me!

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans?Option 7, None of the above: highball glass. I looked up the glassware model I like; apparently the manufacturer calls them “nordic cooler glasses.” I much prefer glassware made of glass to any other type, and dislike the ridges/patterns on a lot of drinking glasses. Yep, I’m this picky.

2. chocolate bars or lollipops?Chocolate. I like chocolate’s texture and the way it melts, and I don’t like eating bits of paper.

3. bubblegum or cotton candy?Cotton candy. Bubblegum is gross.

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?Uhh… hm. “Smart,” probably, which wasn’t particularly helpful. They probably had a bunch more to say but I don’t remember what anymore.

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?I like this ask post! As mentioned, glass cups. I like how soda cans feel in the hand but the drinking experience is just alright. Plastic is just unpleasant.

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?I had to google “boho” and I’m still not super clear on what it encompasses, but it seems kinda neat! Also I have no idea what grunge really means. If I had a feminine body and thus felt like dressing up, I’d definitely pick boho out of the google image results of each of those terms.

7. earbuds or headphones?Both; if I wear either for too long I switch to the other for comfort. But I’m at least somewhat an audio enthusiast, so I could go on for a long time here. Ex:

The soundstage of open-back headphones is really unparalleled for one. Apple’s earpods/airpods actually fit me and have basically no microphonics, which usually are a big issue with IEMs for me, plus their resolution on the high end is surprisingly great.

Insert the rest of this discussion here.

8. movies or tv shows?I watch either of these not from seeking them out but from circumstance, but often wind up liking them. I’m one of those people who thinks, “I’d watch that,” and then never watches whatever that was. So I don’t really know which I do or would prefer.

9. favorite smell in the summer?Uh… hm. That’s a really good question. What’s most interesting about it, I think, is just the list of smells people associate with a season. Of course there’s environmental ones like rain, but for summer I assume you have to go with, I dunno, fair food or something like that.

Anyway, no idea! I can’t think of a lot of meaningful smells that aren’t food, honestly.

10. game you were best at in p.e.?I remember enjoying capture the flag a lot. I dunno if I was actually good at it, though. I did have pretty good short-duration speed, so I was a decent defender. I don’t really remember what else we did.

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day?Nothing. (I don’t like most American breakfast foods much, though that’s not why.)

12. name of your favorite playlist?I called it “the playlist which is entirely fire” because why not. Alternately, the playlist with all of my music is just named after me.

13. lanyard or key ring?Key ring; I’m not a… yeah actually that joke would only work for people who went to my high school and follow this blog (hi Xander).

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?That’s also a really good question and I’m positive I have an answer, but I can’t think of it. I eat candy once every like 3 months, so it doesn’t exactly come to mind easily. The candied pecans I just tried are pretty good, though. Insert reference to my halloween fanfiction.

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?Y'know how there are some things that you remember deciding at one point were your favorite, but don’t remember well enough to properly consider now? A lot of my favorite pieces of media are like that, but I have at least some confidence in the decision I made at the time. Not so much here. I remember thinking with surprise that I enjoyed The Mill on the Floss when I read it in class, so that’s what comes to mind, but I think it’s the wrong answer. I’m pretty sure there are some books I really enjoy that I’ve forgotten were originally for class. Random example that I think is also wrong: The Hobbit. The Giver is pretty darn good, too. Fahrenheit 451. I don’t remember this being the case but we might have read A Wrinkle in Time in a class. Et cetera.

Wait, no, actually, I figured it out: Island of the Blue Dolphins. (Which, actually, goes in the “this might be too much of a childrens’ book to enjoy rereading” category along with Summerland, The Great Tree of Avalon, The Marino Mission, What the Moon Saw, The Secret of Platform 13, and Island of the Aunts, all of which I loved at the time of reading. And potentially also The Book Thief, although I doubt it. Can you tell I like award-winning children’s books, though?)

16. most comfortable position to sit in?With crossed legs or on my feet, which people seem to find weird.

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?I only have one regularly-used pair of shoes.

18. ideal weather?Still. I can’t stand wind of any kind. A range of temperatures is nice (not too hot; not *too* cold but snow is pretty so I’ll allow a wide range in that direction.)

19. sleeping position?In a ball, or at least partially curled up.

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?I haven’t written on paper in like a decade. I had to recently in order to leave a sticky note on something and had actual trouble making it legible. Essentially everything I write is on this 2013 Macbook Pro keyboard.

21. obsession from childhood?Um… existentialism? The pretend world my sisters’ and my stuffed animals lived in? Popular science topics and things from video game worlds, all of which went into said pretend world? Jet aircraft? Algebra and geometry puzzles? Configuring laptop computers?

22. role model?John Green. People who can communicate/present things effectively.

23. strange habits?I’m sure I have a ton. I’m not going to delay posting this to come up with any, but I’ll think about it. But especially if we’re using western society as the ‘norm’ for the sake of the question, I think there’s a ton of stuff I do that’d surprise people.

24. favorite crystal?Hm. I like the colorless ones like diamond, I guess? I just generally like gemstones, especially in fiction when they have powers. Oh, how’s this: I tend to like crystals that are (semi)transparent, so they have depth to them and change appearance as they’re rotated.

The other weird, mostly-unrelated thing that comes to mind is when I made a necklace for my best friend in elementary school and spent a lot of effort picking out the right sort of pendant, but I don’t think it was actually a crystal. (I often wonder what it would’ve been like if I hadn’t moved; I bet we’d still be close.)

25. first song you remember hearing?Neat question! I have no memory of a particular song being the first. My parents played music a lot when I was little, so a lot of their CD collection makes me think, “I’ve been listening to this since far before I noticed that I was.” The most recent one of those I heard and wrote down was Cathedral of the Pines by Tim Janis.

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?…complain about the heat? :D Hm, I don’t have a lot of outdoor hobbies.

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?…complain about the cold? :P I do like to ski somewhat. And I like hot cocoa.

28. five songs to describe you?

Eric’s Song – Vienna Teng

Doubt – Ruby Day

…hm. Looking through my playlists and the #media tag on this blog, there’s a ton of songs that I like, and where that fact tells you something about my taste in music, but it’s hard to find songs whose content particularly tells you something. Let’s just go with songs I find some meaning or relevance in?

Laughing With – Regina Spektor

Rainbow Connection – Kermit the Frog/various covers

Okay, I ran out of songs with particular meaning; let’s finish up with one whose meaning is arguably a lack of particular meaning?

Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell

29. best way to bond with you?Talking, I guess. Boring answer, maybe, but I think most bonding experiences I’ve had were just two people talking about something important.

30. places that you find sacred?My elementary school? Is that a weird answer?

Other than that… a lot of places, really. Depending how you use “sacred,” I think it could apply in my mind to lots of unique places, especially natural-wonder type things.

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?I haven’t got one. None of my clothes are things I’ve picked out to look good, honestly. The thing that makes me feel more “ready to go out and kick ass than usual” is, like, bringing a phone charger with me in case I run out of battery in the process of whatever ass kicking it’s going to be, and that’s not an outfit thing.

32. top five favorite vines?Remember vine? Good times.

1. A Legendary Argument (https://vine.co/v/enUmZjLFgw2/); the “just do it” “no” one

Yeah, that’s it. I don’t know of any other ones.

33. most used phrase in your phone?I… don’t know how to tell. That sounds like a cool thing to figure out but I dunno how to see that.

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?None, thank god.

35. average time you fall asleep?Too late.

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?No idea.

37. suitcase or duffel bag?I don’t really know what context to think of this question in. Like, is there a time both would be valid options? Anyway, suitcase. Honorable mention: backpack.

38. lemonade or tea?I only like either of these in moderation. Usually I’d say lemonade, but lately I’ve been disliking acidic drinks more than usual, so maybe I’ll say tea. Actually, what I like is chrysanthemum tea, which you can get at dim sum places sometimes.

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?I’ll go with lemon cake. I can only eat a really small amount of lemon meringue. If someone made more of a lemon meringue tart with a really thin layer of lemon (maybe 10mm or a bit less) and a lot of crust and meringue, that could be really good though.

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?If “bad” counts as “weird,” let’s just say it involved sexual misconduct.

41. last person you texted?My dad (a link to instructions to get free in-flight wifi; nothing interesting).

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?I prefer to put stuff in pants pockets so I have them if I take off my jacket, but then my pants fall down because I have no hips and my pants are all regular-person sized.

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?I immediately crossed off everything except hoodie and cardigan. With a different body I’d definitely pick cardigan.

44. favorite scent for soap?Unscented.

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?Eh, I mean, I think they all have potential. I’d pick sci-fi or fantasy over superhero; print comics have never interested me at all, though I’m sure there’s interesting stuff in there too.

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?I feel like it’s just whatever you’re used to, honestly.

47. favorite type of cheese?Maybe fresh mozzarella? Either way, it’s going to be something people who really like cheese would barely count as cheese.

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?If I were a fruit… not to take it too literally, but I can’t think of a better way to interpret it. Um… a ground cherry, because it’s cute and has a place to hide in.

49. what saying or quote do you live by?“Hope is the correct response to the human condition.”

There are probably better ones that correspond to things I live by more, but that’s the one I have a quote for. Guess who it’s by? I’ll give you one guess.

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?Not sure. Show of the Weekend (@outsidextra) definitely wins “hardest laugh that I can remember recently” though.

#long post #personal

[rattmemes]

HANDSOME JACK Sentence Starters

(some quotes are altered for the sake of context) (alter as needed tbh) [ ] indicates optional words

“ As you know, I am ___. ” “ A siren, who’s wisdom is matched only by your beauty. ” “ You make up in brute force what you lack in subtlety. ” “ It’s cute that y’all think you’re the heroes of this little adventure. ” “ You’re bandits, you’re the bad guys. ” “ I am the goddamn hero. ” “ Welcome to ___, kiddos! ” “ You seeing the problem here? You’re still alive. ” “ So if you can just do a favor and off yourself that’d be great, thanks pumpkin. ” “ Thanks, pumpkin. ” “ Man these pretzels suck. ” “ How’s your day been, buddy? We haven’t really talked much since I left you for dead. ” “ Hey, you think you’ll freeze to death out there? ” “ Bandit’s will get you first. ” “ My day? Been pretty good. Just bought a pony made of diamonds. ” “ Yeah, because I’m rich. So y’know, that’s cool. ” “ I’m racking my brain trying to think of a name for that ___ I bought. ” “ I was gonna called it Piss-For-Brains in honor of you but that just feels immature... Maybe Butt Stallion? ” “ Butt Stallion says ‘hello’. ” “ You’re so... Unburdened with things like intelligence, culture, morality, honor, ambition, good looks-- I could go on, but I won’t. But I could. ” “ Ah dignity! I almost forgot to mention dignity! ” “ Just turn yourselves in and I promise, your deaths will be quick. ” “ Hey, you like my speech? I was lying about the last part, by the way. ” “ I’m gonna spend a loooong time torturing you [bandit] scum to death. ” “ I got a little secret that I-- y’know what? You don’t to hear it. ” “ It’ll be nice to see a friendly face when I’m burning that place to the ground. ” “ Oh, and I have decided I will tell you my secret later on, once you’ve earned it. ” “ I couldn’t predict you were that desperate. ” “ I heard that ___ liquefies people and drinks them like flesh smoothies. ” “ My secret involves your pathetic resistance dying, and my laughing. A lot. ” “ Hooo, you feel that? ” “ That’s the sound of progress, baby. ” “ I’m smarter than you! I don’t mean to condescend, that’s just a fact. ” “ I’m sorry-- condescend, it’s a word that means ‘talk down to’. You got that, kitten? ” “ God it’s embarrassing how far behind you guys are. ” “ A staggering alcoholic who’s best friend is a bird told you __... And you went with it? ” “ Were you dropped on your head as an embryo? ” “ Wow! Bravo! Champagne! Cheers! High five! Sloooow clap! ” “ The kids gloves are comin’ off, tighten up the big boys pants because things are gonna get really, really bad for you. ” “ Even for you that’s pretty-- man that’s really stupid. ” “ I told you, I always win. ” “ I love the way you just up and trusted ___. ” “ Oh, get over it, I shot ONE baby, and in fairness it was being a dick! ” “ Hey... Y’know I think it’s finally time to tell you that little secret. ” “ I’m such a rockstar! ” “ I learned a lot about survival, about greed; but most of all, I learned no matter how badass they may be, anyone will happily lay down their life for a pretty girl. ” “ You’re kind of pissing me off here, kiddo. ” “ Which makes killing you my top priority, congratulations. ” “ That’s enough, you can stop pretending to help the bad guys now. ” “ You know [I’m]//[the hero’s] gonna win, but you just don’t die quickly. ” “ ... Yadda yadda, this jackal rushes me with a spoon- a frickin’ SPOON- and I’m DYING laughing, right? So I scoop out his stupid little eyeballs with it! ” “ I dunno, maybe you had to be there, the moral is, you’re a total bitch. ” “ Run all you want, we all know how this is gonna end. ” “ And that’s why you’re gonna die here. ” “ Funny thing: if you want to destroy a man, you don’t need to kill him. You just need to kill what he loves. ” “ I was gonna do this whole thing where I’d lure you in here and kill ya, but you just-- like just kinda showed up! Thanks for saving me the trouble, kiddo! ” “ Just gonna warn you, you’re really not gonna like this next part. ” “ This is what happens when you don’t listen. ” “ Ohhh- where the hell is- ugh I had a violin somewhere, I was gonna play it all sarcastically- god dammit it was gonna be awesome- ” “ Ohh, I can’t wait for you to see the surprise! You’re gonna like AAAAAHHH I’M BLEEDING SO MUCH!!! SO MUCH BLOOD!!! AAA! Ha! It’s gonna be great! ” “ Wooaaa, you didn’t think you were gonna get out of here alive, did ya? ” “ I want scalps, people, and I want ‘em now! ” “ Did you know that some people on this planet still believe in silly superstitions like: angels, demons, and ancient alien warriors? ” “ Hey kids, did you know that your chances of being disemboweled increase by eighty-thousand percent upon leaving? It’s a scientific fact! ” “ Hey did you know that littering is punishable by death? If not, you also oughtta know complaining about laws is considered verbal littering. ” “ Remember, we should all love our parents, but love me more. ” “ Now I have the voice of a douchebag. Great. ” “ It’s not enough! I want it all! Every planet, every star. ” “ Call me old-fashioned, but being a God sound like a hell of a lot of fun. ” “ That’s uh-- that’s cute. ” “ But we let [them/him/her] live, because that’s what heroes do. They show mercy. ” “ They will die staring at their own lungs as I rip them from their chests. ” “ What’s that saying? Don’t pick a fight with a man with nothing left to lose. ” “ I’m gonna show you just how much you have to lose. ” “ A-ta-ta-- language. ” “ Now do me a favor, and die. ” “ Nah I’m just playing, he’s still really dead. ” “ ... My [daughter/son] is dead... ” “ I will find you, and you will regret denying me my vengeance. ” “ Mm you feel that? That electricity in the air when you’re just aching to murder someone? Haven’t felt that in suuuuch a looong tiiiime... ” “ You’re too late, dumb ass! ” “ WAKEY WAKEY YOU SON OF A BITCH! ” “ When you get to Hell, tell your friends I said ‘hey’. ” “ You’re a plague. ” “ KILL GODDAMMIT KILL! HAHAHAHA! ” “ Don’t let ‘em shoot you THERE- ” “ No no no-- I can’t die like this- not when I’m so close- ” “ Holy NUTBALLS! What happened to your frickin’ face?! ” “ You tell me why you look like you headbutted a belt sander. ” “ That is a heartbreaker, but... You got something in common with ‘em now at least! ” “ Hohoho... holy crap! Did you see her head? It was like-- PBBLLT! ”

#rp meme #sentence meme #rp sentence meme #role play meme #role play sentence meme #sentence starters #rp sentence starters #role play sentence starters #rp #handsome jack starters #borderlands starters #handsome jack sentence starters

[faelapis]

anonymous asked: 

what do you think of steven’s words to bismuth, about shattering gems “making them the same” as homeworld gems? do you think that’s a good moral to push?

look, i’ve seen this post before. i know the expected answer is to say that steven needs to grow and realize he can’t always help people, that it’s a harsh truth that killing the big bad is the only thing that will solve the conflict.

but that’s just flat wrong. 

i think it’s uh... ignoring a lot of context to act like what steven universe is setting up can be neatly summed up in that “makes us the same”-statement, and the show is just too ignorant to realize that of course bismuth is right. 

in this post, what makes those moments powerful is not the fact that someone is willing to kill. it could have been about anything. it is about deciding that in a situation where your options are either to keep your perfect ideals and do nothing, or set them aside to fix things, even in an imperfect way, you will choose away your own ideals. that’s a poignant notion, because it is selfless. it makes for good drama. it is an act of moral self-sacrifice, where those pompous ideals are usually portrayed as not having any value in the first place. 

they also work because they are defiant. in those scenes, there is a second or third party trying to convince the hero that they’d be sacrificing their ideals to save the world. in steven universe, that is not the case. no one is trying to tell steven that if he tries to save people, he is betraying his precious ideals. that kind of “idealism vs realism” dichotomy is neither the question nor answer. 

so when you frame it like that kind of situation, you are ignoring what the wider framework of the show is actually asking. 

let’s compare it to batman - or at least, the “for the sake of argument” version of Hypothetical Batman: he never kills, and lets no one die. the reason many people think Hypothetical Batman is kind of a self-serving idealist by not killing villains is because it results in more death, except with innocent civilians. gotham is framed in such a way where the villain will always escape the prison. the only reason there’s still a conflict is because Hypothetical Batman stubbornly refuses to kill. cruelty would fix everything.

in this regard, Hypothetical Batman is entirely incurious about how crime and punishment works in the real world. if you care about cultural phenomenons rather than just individual cases: statistically, people who are given real help in prison are less likely to reenter than those treated harshly. the death penalty does not deter crime. compare the re-entry rate of america’s (overall) harsh and violent treatment of criminals vs. the rehabilitation-focused model of norway. in america, more than 75% of prisoners reenter the system. in norway, that rate is as low as 20%. that’s one of the lowest in the world. 

i think “idealism vs realism” conflicts are kind of... boring, when there’s an  obvious solution, and the only reason it’s not used is because of theoretical morals that are not equipped to deal with one’s own universe. that seems to be the issue portrayed in this post... but that’s not the case in steven universe.

SU asks what the consequences of bismuth’s idea is. it asks whether it would have worked, and at what cost. and that’s a cost that’s outside the main character’s feelings and ideals. 

after all, this is about killing diamonds - which did not result in absolute liberation last time. it resulted in jasper. it resulted in eyeball. it resulted in every bitter, broken, and traumatized homeworld gem aching for retribution and closure and meaning.... and that meaning cannot be found by just abandoning their socialization and spontaneously joining the “right side” of the conflict. that’s not realistic. 

there needs to be a process of healing for everyone affected, and an understanding that everyone were doing what they thought was right. only with that understanding, which steven ultimately wants to bring, as the “bridge” between earth and homeworld, can there be genuine hope for peace, healing and change on a systematic level. hopefully, resulting in the diamonds stepping aside without having to shatter them, and the homeworld gems discovering who they are outside their basic roles. 

#steven universe #su theory #bismuth #the diamonds #jasper #eyeball #writing #gifs /

[aussietiesonline-blog]

Blue Bowties – The Gentlemen’s Choice | Aussie Ties

Sophistication and Confidence – a man in a bowtie radiates both; unless of course he has chosen the wrong bowtie or worn a bowtie with the wrong collection. In that case, the bowtie renders his entire costume pagliaccio. Such mistakes are avoidable; however, and the proposition a bowtie makes to a man is a simple one.

Are you going for a gentleman’s look like in the old Bond movies? Asking question matters a lot while choosing a bowtie because sooner or later every thinking man discovers for himself that wearing the right bowtie is the nicest thing he can do for his shit, suit, and style. When one’s ensemble features or is constructed around a well-chosen bow-tie, there’s no sharper way to step-out. Sometimes a bowtie is de rigueur, but a bowtie is always a bold and emboldening selection.

Difference between Self-Tie, Pre-Tied & Clip-On Bowties

Sometimes Self-ties are known as freestyle bowtie. It represents a classic style and has an organic look when tied. It can be challenging to tie the first few times, but the payoff is well worth the effort. Pre-tied, as the name suggests, are the bowties that comes tied previously and the knot is sewn in place. It’s easy to put on but any bowtie aficionado will be able to spot the difference. Clip-on bowties get clipped directly onto the collar of your shirt. This style is the least convincing and is most appropriate for small children.

Sizing Your Bowtie as a Final Touch-Up to Your Look

A bowtie is, with limited exception, a one-size-fits-all affair. With a little trial error, any adjustable bowtie can be made to fit the neck of the average adult male. The band/neck strap of a bowtie typically has either an adjustable slider or a hook-and-holes arrangement with pre-marked measurements. Bowties can generally accommodate collar sizes between 14.5 inches to 17.5 inches. If your bowtie has the hook-and-hole adjustment system, match the sizing to the size of the collar of the shirt you will be wearing. If your bowtie has a sliding-adjustment system, it’s highly recommended to go with the advice.

With upturned collar wrap the tie around the collar band as if you are preparing to tie it. At the topmost button of your shirt, cross the two ends of the tie – just as if you were going to tie it in a simple overhand knot. The length of each of the tie’s end bits should appear long enough to execute a bow but should not seem too long. How long is too long? It is difficult to say, but the distance between the crisscrossed part of the bowtie and the start of your bowtie’s flared part should not be more than three fingers’ width. Adjustment is inevitable, and practice is necessary.

Well-Liked Bowtie Shapes You Should Know

The Butterfly:

The modern butterfly, also known as the thistle shape, is the style of bowtie with which most people are familiar. This butterfly is appropriate for virtually every occasion and is perhaps the best style to acquire first if you are beginning to experiment with bowties. It is believed that every man’s bowtie collection should have at least one butterfly bowtie.

The Big Butterfly:

The big butterfly is larger and has a more relaxed silhouette than the butterfly. It is sometimes worn with formalwear and is perhaps best-suited to fancy-dress occasions. The style is very appropriate for larger and/or taller men. Absent a suitable context, or on a smaller man, the big butterfly can look comic. It’s a grandiose tie, and should, therefore, be worn grandly.

The Batwing:

The batwing shape also known as a straight or slim bowtie is the smallest in height. Untied, this style looks like a long rectangle strip with flat ends. Batwing bowties are typically less than two inches in width. Tied well, they provide a clean, symmetrical look. Some regard it as less formal than the butterfly but is a classic shape and remains acceptable for black tie events. Be sure not to tie it too long, or it will look like you are wearing a propeller.

The Diamond Point:

The diamond point bowtie has pointed ends, and when tied is delightfully asymmetrical. It’s one of the favorite styles in town.

The Rounded Club:

These days the rounded club bowtie is the rara avis of the bowties. Arguably the least formal of the lot, this is the bowtie for a Sunday run, a picnic by the lake or a spot of angling. It’s a well-liked style and looks awesome tied with cotton and rougher dress code.

Why the Blue Bowties Are Considered the Gentlemen’s Choice?

The blue bowties are rarely the wrong ties to wear provided you have chosen the right one for your ensemble, the ensemble is occasion-appropriate, you have tied your tie well, and you wear it with ease and casual manner.

Blue Bowties Go Well with the Right Formal Attire:

Weddings apart, one of the most common places to see a blue bowtie in action is a formal engagement. The dress code for these is relatively straightforward and unambiguous: dinner jacket (Tuxedo) and a blue bowtie look pre-tied and diminishes both you and your ensemble. Known sometimes as full dress, blue bowtie is the most formal of all dress codes. As the name suggests, a blue bowtie always a self-tie is absolutely necessary.

Blue Bowties can Complement Your Semi-Formal Attire As Well

Notwithstanding the fact that the very phrase semi-formal is vexing, any affair so-billed is a wonderful occasion for experimentation with bow ties. We don’t recommend taking too much license with your ensemble; it’s better to lean towards formal than list towards semi. By all means enjoy your options with respect to blue bowtie styles, materials and textures but your aim is to remain aligned with a dress code, so do resist the temptation to get too creative.

Blue Bowties Can Also Give a Head-Turning Look to Your Casual Attire Combination

Casual dress codes liberate you to rewrite the rules if you wish to do so. First-time blue bowtie wearers may incline towards supporting accessories like braces, suspenders, printed socks, and bright shoelaces. It is recommended to not getting carried away or going in period-costume unless that’s your cup of tea.

Choosing your ensemble is only half the battle. The best thing you can wear with your blue bowties is confidence. Too often, bowties will wear the man instead of the other way around.

Browse through the largest inventory of blue bowties to order at Aussie Ties online and get dressed up for the grand entry to occasions.

#blue bowties

[freewheelen]

Harley-Davidson vs. Millennials (from the POV of a Millennial)

As of late, there's been a lot of talk about the scourge of Millennials and how they're ruining everything from bars of soap to lotto scratchers.

"Millennials aren't buying diamonds." 

"They don't eat Big Macs."

"No of them watch cable."

And my favorite: "Millennials are killing Harley-Davidson."

As a Harley rider born between the years of 1981 and 1997, I feel obligated, no entitled, to lavish the internet with my opinion on the topic. Oh, coveted opinion, the most valid of all arguments.

I'm a new rider and when my bike search began, the choice was clear from the beginning: Harley-Davidson. I don't know if that decision is attributed to my obsession with Orange County Cycles when I was 13 or if I watched Terminator 2: Judgement Day one too many times as a kid, but nothing said motorcycle to me like a chopper. Long, relaxed, powerful. You had the perfect DNA for a mile-eater. A highway hauler. You had an American classic. 

It was that image - that mysticism of the open road, that promise of freedom - that pushed me toward my nearest Harley-Davidson dealership. And that's when reality sunk in. For those that don't know, Harley-Davidson is the antithesis of cheap. Don't get me wrong, they're amazing, reliable machines, but when an Ultra Limited costs more than a new Camaro, you need a large quantity of disposable income to justify the purchase. Definitely not a comfort I can claim, so I relegated my options to the smaller models and stayed away from the more 'luxury' cruisers.

And when you come to think of it, every item listed at the beginning of the post is considered just that, a luxury. Diamonds, Big Macs, shit, even cable isn't really considered a necessity for survival - and motorcycles are no exception. 

As a Millennial, I'm a big proponent of minimalism. Belonging to the generation that popularized tiny houses, it's probably no surprise that I live in a 300 sq ft studio apartment with my girlfriend and our dog. For context, that's like fitting your kitchen, closet, bath, living room and bed into a master suite. Far from palatial. Along those same lines, I only own a small selection of consumer goods. You can't own much when you don't have a place to put it. Due to the fact that I'm limited on quantity, I emphasize quality in the things I choose to buy, which are predominately American-made (Wolverine Boots, Gustin Denim, etc.).  

I grew up in a blue-collar family. My grandfather was a baker, my uncles moved furniture, and my grandmother delivered party supplies for a living. While I've only held white collar jobs (film industry), I want to do my part to support that dwindling workforce in this country, to support the communities I came from. I guess my allegiance to the MoCo [1] is based less on nationalism and more on classism. All that to say, when I saw H-D's prices, I figured, "you’re paying for quality labor," but that type of purchasing pattern and reasoning isn't shared among my cost-driven, globally-minded peers. Couple that fact with the influx of urban dwelling in the past decade and you have a perfect storm for Harley sales.

Due to the elevated level of congestion in major cities, Millennials have taken to more nimble, handling-oriented motorcycles that can slither through stagnant streets. In LA traffic, it's practically impossible to squeeze a big bike between lanes. The other day, I knocked a lady's side mirror off with my Sportster, and my bars measure 24 inches in width! If I had a Softail, I would have been the meat in a vehicle sandwich. Because of these close quarters, this environment makes perfect sense for an FZ-09 or KTM Duke 690. They're perfectly suited to the urban landscape with their sleek design, technological controls, and standard ABS, which explains the recent shift toward that streetfighter style.

In the time of the Boomers, the motorcycle field in America was much more limited. Not only were the options minimal, but America was the land of highways, stretching over 2,600 miles, coast-to-coast. With hundreds of miles between cities, choppers were the perfect tool for the job, not to mention the ultimate self-expression on two wheels. 

Nowadays, there are hundreds of brands to choose from and even more classes of motorcycles: Sport, Touring, Electric, Adventure, Scrambler, Literbike, Naked...GROM (just kidding). Back in the day, more people could also afford to live in the suburbs, allowing you to safely store your bike in a covered garage. But in the city, you have to worry about parallel parkers, drunk drivers, and thieves (I've seen 3 Softail theft ads in the past month in LA). You almost don't want to buy anything "too nice", including large $15,000 motorcycles. 

At the end of the day, it all comes down to price. That's something on which Millennials, Boomers, and even Gen-Xers can agree. With the death of the Dyna (RIP), Harley has essentially erased the only Big Twin [2] attainable by blue-collared folk, while the new Softail pricing only appeals to those with six-figure jobs without six-figure student loan debt. 

2018 Softail Fat Bob, courtesy of Harley-Davidson

On top of that, I have numerous friends that are entering the most terrifying and financially taxing stage of lives: parenthood. When all is said and done, motorcycles aren't even the main mode of transport for most people, especially if you have a kid on the way (that’d be something). I know a lot of buddies/peers that expressed wanting a motorcycle after I purchased my Sporty, but unlike me, they don't lead a careless, Peter Pan-esque lifestyles. Some things in life you just don't get to plan, certain stages have to take priority over others, and if that means waiting until your midlife crisis to buy that new Road King Special, then the MoCo will have to wait.

All this to say, Harley-Davidson bikes are luxury items. They are, as Blockhead [3] recently referred to them, the Apple of motorcycles. They utilize classic design, adopt technologies later than most, deliver less capable specs than competitors, and upcharge the consumer. They're a luxury brand selling a lifestyle, a culture, an image. They cram nostalgia into new packages and sell it by the thousands. They charge $40 bucks for a t-shirt, $400 for a quarter fairing, and $600 for a 10K service. They're as boujee as they come, they just happen to dress up in a greasy mechanic's shirt.

But with all that off my chest - and damn, it felt good - as long as Harley's providing blue-collared American jobs, I'm buying. If my peers understood that it's not just the bike you're purchasing, it's the intangibles that come with it, would they do the same? If they realized that there's an entire community that comes with the motorcycle, would they want one? If they could comprehend the fact that every time I've pulled to the side of the road another Harley rider has made sure I don't need any help with repairing the bike, would they throw a leg over?

I guess, only time will tell, and over the next 10 years, H-D plans to release 100 new models. That means a drastic overhaul of their entire lineup, and if the new Softails are any indication of what's to come, they're headed in the right direction. For evidence of that, we need to look no further than the American auto market. In the early 2000s, Chevy, Ford, and Dodge delivered muscle car essence in a modernized package. The fervor around those heritage pieces helped the auto companies recover from the recession and stabilize. 

If the MoCo can cater to the tastes of new riders while developing new technologies, there should be a healthy forecast for their future. With a new electric bike arriving in 2019 and models like the Bronx and Pan-America on the horizon, it feels as if Harley is listening to their fan-base and diversifying their portfolio. 

Project LiveWire, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times

America is a large land full of people that buy diamonds or sapphires, that eat Big Macs or arugula, that watch cable or Netflix, and the more Harley branches out, the more people will be able to enjoy it.

[1] Nickname for the Harley-Davidson Motor Company

[2] Nickname for the larger engine bikes in the Harley-Davidson catalog

[3] Motovlogger that owns numerous Harley-Davidsons

#harley #harleydavidson #harley davidson #vs #millennials #millennial #gen y #babyboomers #genx #gen xers #sportster #dyna #bigtwin #softail #livewire #electricmotorcycle #ktmduke #fz09 #rubs #realbikers #blue collar #american #america #panhead #knucklehead #flathead #evo #twincam #shovelhead #theriderwriter

[aion-rsa]

Malcolm & Marie and the Rise of Quarantine Filmmaking in COVID

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At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when accomplishing even the simplest tasks had taken on the burden of the impossible, Netflix’s “secret pandemic movie,” Malcolm & Marie, became a way to process a year of stalled projects and compromised creative control. A Deadline feature retraced how Zendaya, one half of the two-hander’s cast, reached out to Euphoria creator Sam Levinson with the plea for a self-contained project when COVID delayed the HBO drama’s new season.

As Levinson rushed to write a script based loosely on his own experiences of failing to thank his wife at a movie premiere, he and Zendaya brought on Tenet star John David Washington for a movie at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster; the Euphoria crew, in a COVID bubble in California, were able to keep working for a few weeks in June 2020 when so many others were laid off. What they created was a passionate, claustrophobic black-and-white relationship drama that has the rare distinction of being created during a pandemic while its story still reflects life before the virus.

On its own, Malcolm & Marie falls somewhat short of Oscar bait expectations. However, the film takes on greater nuance when considered in the context of the growing subgenre of post-lockdown movies. While this may ultimately prove to be a short-lived category of filmmaking, it already includes four incredibly varied films. Even if they all started with the same universal constraints—COVID tests and social distancing, small casts instead of big—they make for radically different statements about human connection (either during the pandemic or not), futility, about purpose.

In fact, you can plot these four movies over the axes of ignoring COVID versus acknowledging COVID in their actual plots, and closeness versus distance in the execution of said stories.

Malcolm & Marie

Ignoring the Virus and Embracing the Closeness of Quarantine

What’s immediately ironic about Malcolm & Marie is that its setting is anathema to our current situation: The eponymous couple come home from a movie premiere (remember those?), where he (Washington) is being celebrated as a rising Hollywood talent, and she (Zendaya)—an amateur actress, a recovering drug addict, definitely not a model—has been reduced merely to his loyal girlfriend. Their feature film-length fight might take place within the bounds of their spacious rented house, but every source of conflict and sticking point exists out in a non-pandemic world.

At the same time, the viewer is tangentially aware of the real-world limitations in filming this movie, i.e. the need to stay in one setting with only two players. The inability to leave that house–except for Marie’s desperate little steps of leaning out the window to smoke or of that ambiguous ending–is authentic to anyone who has been stuck in a relationship-defining fight: There are no shortcuts, no escapes; the only option is to see it through to the ugly end, only to watch the toxic cycle start all over again.

The actors’ close attention and shaping of their roles lends Malcolm and Marie’s relationship real intimacy, but it also contributes to the sheer exhaustion of watching these young lovers metaphorically eat their own tails without getting anywhere. Despite Malcolm’s appalling outbursts and Marie’s stunning monologues, nothing really changes; even his quiet “I’m sorry” at the end is a puny concession after all that emotional effort.

In fact, this ouroboros feels most like a reflection of the endlessly unfruitful fights that many a couple has experienced since lockdown began.

Locked Down

Acknowledging the Virus and Embracing the Closeness of Quarantine

By contrast, Mr. & Mrs. Smith director Doug Liman’s Locked Down casts its marquee stars (Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor) as ordinary people in the extraordinary circumstances of early 2020, when a pandemic that people still didn’t fully understand reshaped their home into a workspace, and work into a prison rather than an outlet. Steven Knight’s script—written in July 2020, on a dare—carries so many authentic field notes that it’s almost difficult to watch. You feel it from Zoom fatigue, with wine o’clock creeping up into the AM, to people talking over one another on video calls where they’re ostensibly checking in on each other. 

Liman also employed the same amusing device used by the Parks and Recreation COVID special, in which real-life couples had to explain why their characters happened to be inhabiting the same physical space during this era of highly negotiating personal contact. In Locked Down, it’s Psych star Dulé Hill and his costar (and real-life wife) Jazmyn Simon as the sympathetic American counterparts to Linda (Hathaway) and Paxton (Ejiofor), an American and a Brit who are not holding up well enough in quarantine. (A bevy of cameos, including Mark Gatiss, Mindy Kaling, Ben Kingsley, and more also scratches that itch of wondering what celebrities’ homes might look like.)

Paxton and Linda’s marriage seems to have ended around Christmas 2019, but being stuck in their flat just as the pandemic hit—he’s a driver unable to work while she’s a CEO who has the excruciating duty of firing her “family” of coworkers over Zoom—has beaten their senses of purpose to a pulp. Paxton attempts to make up for that by making the masked grocery runs and trying to connect with his neighbors through shouted evening poetry, but he’s suffering the all-too-familiar depression of the furloughed. Linda isn’t far behind when she finally confronts the soullessness of her corporate job.

When fate delivers the incredible coincidence of Linda overseeing the load-out of a priceless diamond from Harrods—with Paxton assigned to transport the goods—the estranged couple decide to embark on a heist, because truly what else are you going to do during a pandemic? Ultimately, Locked Down does a better job with the romantic dramedy aspect than the heist, yet its use of the iconic London department store is as ambitious as Ocean’s 8 with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Though there are more twists to the movie’s character studies than the logistics of nicking the diamond, the scenes in which Linda and Paxton stroll through the deserted Harrods food court—which arguably carries just as many culinary treasures—provide that same breathless sense of getting away with something.

Both films were made with unprecedented levels of safety and sacrifice, which regardless of the final products’ quality will always set them apart from pre-COVID entertainment as successes in filmmaking. But then there are the COVID films that have embraced social distancing, building it into a plot point or stylistic device rather than employing movie magic to obscure it.

Host

Acknowledging the Virus and Embracing Social Distancing

Interestingly, one of Levinson’s early pitches to Zendaya was a horror film, although of course they eventually pivoted to relationship drama. Fortunately, another enterprising group of creatives went the horror route, and they managed to fold in a poignant tale of female friendship over digital distances in 2020’s Host.

A British found footage successor to Paranormal Activity told entirely over Zoom, this indie tale has a shockingly reasonable premise: Five girlfriends, bored to tears during lockdown, decide to conduct a séance. (Again, what else are you going to do?) But when sarcastic Jemma (Jemma Moore) fakes a backstory about a suicidal friend and their medium Seylan (Seylan Baxter) mysteriously drops the call, the girls are on their own as a demonic force crosses over into the physical plane… and into each of their flats.

Read more

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In the past year, we’ve all learned that Zoom calls can be awkward, boring, and occasionally revelatory—but this is the first time they’re truly scary. Host utilizes the familiar horror tropes of darkened rooms and whispered panting at the slightest of suspicious noises, but it takes on an utterly disturbing dimension when it’s five young women, in the prime of their lives, are all trapped at home apart from one another—not even that far, as Jemma and séance enthusiast Haley (Haley Bishop) live within walking distance of each other.

In found footage fashion, there are plenty of Paranormal Activity-esque moments of people getting dragged or lifted by otherworldly forces. Kudos to director and co-writer Rob Savage for remotely directing his actors, who had to learn how to do the aforementioned practical effects inside their own homes. But where Host is scariest is when it leans into Zoom technology, from a chilling use of silly facial filters to a sequence that will make you reconsider ever making a custom video background for your future Zooms.

As the demon begins picking them off at random, with the others watching in helpless horror, Jemma’s shift from apathetic nonbeliever to selflessly trying to save Haley is incredibly moving. There’s so much history to this fractured friendship that you’ll be rooting for them to reconcile, even as you realize Host’s final trick: It’s only as long as an unpaid Zoom session.

How It Ends

Ignoring the Virus But Still Embracing Social Distancing

You could make the argument that Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones’ pre-apocalyptic comedy could be interpreted as taking place during COVID, what with its many comedy stars all acting a conspicuous six or more feet from one another. It’s just that even if that were true, it wouldn’t matter, because there are bigger fish to fry. Specifically, an asteroid en route for Earth, conveniently set to make impact at the end of Liza’s (Lister-Jones) and everyone else’s last day in sunny Los Angeles.

Trying to make it to an end-of-the-world party in LA without her car, which has been stolen, Liza and her younger self (Devs’ Cailee Spaney) wander through the aggressively bright county, populated with other people doing their best to cope. Unlike the other films on this list, How It Ends makes no effort to hide that it was shot with stringent COVID protocols enforcing social distancing: Cameos from the likes of Fred Armisen and Lamorne Morris are shot on different floors of houses while Bradley Whitford is so far removed in his scene that it’s impossible to get him and Lister-Jones in the same shot.

How It Ends is more a series of loosely-connected sketches than a super cohesive narrative, but that’s how the film manages to bring in so many talented stars as kooky strangers whom the two Lizas encounter, from Nick Kroll as the shadiest of drug dealers to Olivia Wilde as Liza’s estranged psychic friend (a scene-stealer) ,to Ayo Edibiri (another absolute delight) as a teacher who decided, hey, why not try her hand at stand-up comedy while she still can? Even with this layer of grim humor, get ready for this movie to spark unexpected pathos in these Decameron-esque encounters between strangers. By leaning into the physical distance between these characters, How It Ends shows how even when faced with the literal apocalypse, humans will still hold themselves apart from one another. While Liza makes peace with a number of key figures from her life, by the time the asteroid is creeping its way to the horizon, she is faced with her most challenging, but also most freeing, task: To accept that it’s okay to just be alone with yourself during a world-changing catastrophe.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[junker-town]

Western Illinois, Year 24, 2030-2031

The Leathernecks hang a banner for national title No. 4 and try to go back-to-back for the first time ever.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies.

Before we get to Year 24, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season.

Year 22 ended in a heartbreaker for Western Illinois: we lost in the national championship game in the final seconds, and then saw our three best juniors leave early for the NBA draft. We would begin Year 23 with only one returning starter.

We struggled in the non-conference schedule, losing seven games before entering Summit League play. We again swept the conference and won the conference tournament, earning a No. 13 seed to the big dance.

We beat No. 4 seed USC, 83-76, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. We defeated No. 5 seed Pepperdine, 90-86, in the round of 32. In the Sweet 16, we knocked off No. 8 seed Ole Miss, 106-85. In the Elite Eight, we shocked No. 2 seed UConn, 91-82, to punch our ticket the Final Four. Read the full recap of our road to the Final Four here.

We beat No. 11 seed UNLV, 91-90, in the Final Four on a last second putback by LF Neal. We then defeated No. 1 seed George Washington, 104-88, in the championship game to win our fourth ever national title. Read the full Final Four recap here.

We signed three recruits after the season: four-star center Cecil Sinville, four-star point guard Goran Kent, and three-star small forward Nic Cummings.

For the fourth time since Coach Rick arrived in Macomb, the Western Illinois Leathernecks are national champions. Hang the banner!

I’m still shocked by this title run. As a No. 13 seed, we’re now the lowest-seeded team to ever win a national championship. To do it after losing three great players early to the NBA makes it even more remarkable. We weren’t even good in the non-conference slate! None it mattered once the calendar flipped to March, when we found the gear we’d been searching for all season.

Celebrate this “One Shining Moment” with us:

Onward to Year 24. Let’s defend this ship.

Here’s a look at our roster heading into Year 24.

Let’s begin the new season by stating a simple fact: we’ve never won back-to-back national championships. In fact, the previous three times we’ve defended a title, we haven’t even made it past the round of 32. I believe this team is again good enough to win it all, but it’s going to be tough considering what we lost. Artie Snipes, our 7’1 junior center, bounced early to the NBA. We also lost power forward LF Neal to graduation after he cemented himself as one of the great glue guys in program history.

Fortunately, we’re still returning three starters, including the Most Outstanding Player from last year’s tournament. Let’s meet the starters:

PG Koko Reeves, redshirt senior, 91 overall: Koko silenced any doubters coming into the season by developing into a rock solid lead guard for a national title team. Reeves was productive throughout the regular season (13.2 points per game) and thrived on the biggest stages, most notably with 13 points and 12 assists in the national title game. At 6-foot, Reeves is the smallest player we’ve ever had, but he’s also our best three-pointer with an 89 rating from deep. He could be in for a big year. Former No. 52 overall recruit.

SG Edwin Wolfe, redshirt senior, 88 overall: The Wolfe Man began last season as our lowest-rated starter in, like, decades. He ended it as a Final Four hero and national champion. Wolfe hit his first seven three-pointers against UNLV in the national semifinal, and played excellent defense all year. The 6’2 guard has the highest steals rating (95) in program history. While a bit undersized, he gives us a solid three-and-D option on the wing. Former five-star JUCO recruit.

SF Jitim Dupree, redshirt senior, 93 overall: The 6’10, 242 pound wing officially became one of the all-time great Leathernecks with an inspired run through the NCAA tournament last year. Dupree dropped 30 or more points three different times, including 34 points on GW in the national title to win tournament MOP. A disruptive defender because of his length, Dupree is also a reliable outside shooter who can finish inside. He’s the second tallest player on the roster this season and might even log some small-ball five minutes for us in the tournament. Former No. 91 overall recruit and projected lottery pick.

PF J.J. Bracy, redshirt sophomore, 88 overall: Bracy was our highest-rated recruit ever when he gave us his commitment as the No. 24 overall player in his class. He just had one problem: at 6’6, he was significantly undersized for a power forward. We hoped Bracy would grow at least two inches in school, and that’s exactly what happened. Now 6’8, Bracy enters the starting lineup as a sophomore with a fascinating skill set. He’s the highest-rated shot blocker on the team (94 rating) and an excellent rebounder on defense. On offense, he’s a pass-first forward who also has shooting range. Watch the Bracy recruiting hype video by reader Ryan if you want to see how we scouted him. I’m super excited to see what he can do.

C Dick Copeland, redshirt sophomore, 87 overall: Copeland is distinct in Leathernecks lore for three different reasons: 1) As the former No. 2 overall center prospect, he was the highest-rated big man we had ever recruited when he committed. 2) He has an A rating in potential, which is the highest in program history. 3) He hasn’t grown since he entered the program, which means he’s the shortest center in school history at 6’8. Copeland is obviously super talented going by his potential rating, but the last few seasons we’ve had 7’2 Kevin Brazzle and 7’1 Artie Snipes in the middle for us. It’s going to be really interesting to see what we do with such an undersized front court.

We also have some serious talent on the bench, though we’re not very deep. You might remember Alexis Willingham from dropping 15 points in the national title game. Now a redshirt sophomore, Willingham has grown an inch to 6’5 and gives us a big guard with shooting ability on the second unit. He’s joined by fellow sophomore Skip Clemmons, a natural shooting guard who moves the wing after growing to 6’8, 247 pounds. He’s almost bigger than our starting center! There’s also the debut of 6’3 redshirt freshman shooting guard Albert Jagla, who is the highest recruit in program history as the former No. 17 overall prospect in his class. Rounding out the rotation is 6’11 center Cecil Sinville, who will be our first true freshman in the rotation since ... Ira Wells in the very early days of my tenure. Hey, we need at least one big off the bench. Sinville also has A- potential and was the No. 1 center in his recruiting class, so it’s probably unlikely he was staying in school for five years anyway.

We’ve also decided to keep walk-on Ian Hoyer, a 6’8 power forward rated as a 54 overall, to provide some additional depth. I’ll tell you now I immediately regretted this decision because of how often the computer decided to play him in games despite the fact that I had him set at zero minutes in the rotation.

We’re redshirting our two other freshmen: small forward Nic Cummings (74 overall, B- potential) and 6’5 point guard Goran Kent (72 overall, C potential). Cummings already has a 92 dunking rating! Next Tom Chambers? Kent looks pretty mid to be honest but at least he has great size.

Recruiting

The real intrigue of this regular season is going to come in recruiting. Because we only filled three of our four available scholarships last season, we have five scholarships to play with this year. We’re prioritizing getting a high-level shooting guard and two big men. Here are the five players we offered on the first week:

6’4 SG Neil Modrovich out of Cleveland, No. 62 overall and No. 17 at his position

6’10 PF Michael Pratt out of Kenosha, WI, No. 120 overall and No. 10 at his position

7’2 C Daron Coulter out of Charlotte, No. 196 overall and No. 7 at his position

6’5 SG Terry Bills out of Chicago, No. 31 overall and No. 7 at his position

6’2 PG Jessie Waller out of Fort Lauderdale, No. 50 overall and No. 22 at his position

The challenge of this dynasty has always been recruiting top players to such a small school. Our total number is recruiting points is so much lower than power-five programs, so we have to be smart about how we allocate them. I decide to use my flights on Modrovich and Pratt. We badly want to land at least one of them at the early signing deadline.

We also need to add in our created players for the winner of last year’s bracket contest. Reader Abby won as the only person (I think) to pick our Leathernecks to win it all. Thank you for your belief. Here’s the description she sent in:

Position: PG

Height: 5’11”

Weight: 160 lbs

Aesthetics: As femme as you can get, lmao: Long hair, no facial hair, give her some diamond stud earrings and a small gold necklace.

Stats/play style: Tenacious defense. Surprisingly high vert. All passing on offense with solid drive and cutting skills. Reliable from the line, likes to make contact. Quick feet, not great stamina, is that her 5th board?, and you know I’m clutch.

Done and done. I’m also recreating reader Justin, who won the bracket contest two seasons ago, because I made his character too old and bad last time.

We begin the year rated as a 97 overall. Somehow, we aren’t ranked in the preseason polls? Give the champs some respect! I guess we’ll just have to prove everyone wrong again.

First game: @ No. 9 Indiana

We’re starting the year off with a true road game against a national championship contender. Indiana has a loaded roster and looks like they will be among the top seeds in the NCAA tournament. Last season, we were much better as a stream team than a sim team. This will be a legitimate test to see if we can beat elite teams during sim games now that we’re equipped with *championship experience.*

Loss, 79-57. Woof. That’s about the worst we’ve played offensively. Not much to take away from a game were we shoot 32.7 percent from the field and turn it over 13 times.

Next up is South Florida, led by junior power forward Rudolpho Butt Jr., the created player made by former bracket contest winner reader Gavin. RBJ is a rated as a 91 overall and gives USF a dynamic 7-foot big man with versatility on both ends. The rest of this Bulls team looks legit, too. We streamed this game on Twitch.

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Win, 99-77. The stream team is back in the building. We looked great, with the old stars leading us once again. Jitim Dupree (23 points) is unguardable, Wolfe continues to bring two-way impact (15 points, four steals), and our young bench is ridiculously talented. I’m particularly excited about Jagla dropping 15 points in his debut.

That game is why I’m optimistic about this team entering the tournament regardless of how we do during this regular season. It sure would be nice to get a high seed, though.

We face Miami (OH) next as requested by reader Z.W. Should be an easy dub.

Win, 79-73. OK, that was a little closer than anticipated. Look at Koko Reeves go off: 31 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Beautiful. We love to see a short king shine. I’m also enjoying the boost off the bench from Skip Clemmons, who added 15 points on 3-of-4 shooting from deep. I really think Clemmons is going to be a monster for this program at his peak.

We get some bad news on the recruiting front: Waller gets an offer from South Florida he likes better than ours, so we drop him. We instead decide to extend a scholarship offer to 6’1 point guard Shamell Schneider out of St. Paul, MN, the No. 53 overall prospect in the class and No. 25 point guard.

Michigan is the next team on our schedule.

Win, 63-46. We put up a great defensive performance while only finishing with six stocks. Maybe Michigan just couldn’t hit anything? Sophomore power forward J.J. Bracy was excellent, finishing with 18 points and six rebounds on 6-of-8 shooting.

Signing week is here we are at 100 percent interest for both Neil Modrovich and Michael Pratt.. DePaul is also at 100 percent interest for Pratt, but they haven’t offered yet. We have no competition for Modrovich, so hopefully he’s ready to commit.

But first, we face DePaul. The Blue Demons haven’t had much success in this sim playing in the old and absolutely loaded Big East, but they’ve got the best of us several times in head-to-head matchups.

Loss, 85-75. Rough. Koko went loco again, getting hot from deep to finish with 27 points, but it wasn’t enough. At least we finally got a good game from our center Dick Copeland, who finished with 17 points despite only making 7-of-12 shots from the foul line. We also have our two early conference games this week, and we blow out Oakland and beat IUPUI by 11. That makes us 5-2 on the year.

Wow, we go 1-for-2 in recruiting. Pratt gets a DePaul offer and signs with the Blue Demons. Just heartbreaking. Did he base his decision on the game we just played?? Man. In better news, we did land Modrovich:

Modrovich is a really nice get as the No. 62 overall player in the class, and the No. 17 player at his position. We’re hoping he can grow an inch or two in school, and prove he’s a better shooter than his numbers indicate. That is a nice start to our biggest recruiting class yet, but sheesh I wish we could have landed Pratt, too.

Schneider also commits to Minnesota. Now armed with two available scholarships, we decide to offer three-star center C.J. Cesar out of Cincinnati, the No. 9 overall big man in the class, and four-star point guard Drake Amous out of Modesto, CA, the No. 95 overall player and No. 40 overall point guard in the class.

Next up is Illinois. The Illini are our long-time rival who are a tough test every time. We need to show we still run this state after the loss to DePaul.

Win, 90-73. Huge. Koko continues his killer season with 24 points on 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range. Our young, undersized front court of Copeland and Bracy played well, too, combining for 36 points.

We get more bad news on the recruiting front: Terry Bills gets an offer from Michigan State he appears ready to accept. We withdraw our offer and redirect it to 6’5 shooting guard Theo Cowans, a four-star recruit out of Brookings, South Dakota ranked No. 85 overall and No. 30 at his position.

Dayton is up next. The Flyers have been awesome in this simulation, and they are awesome again. We could see this team deep in the NCAA tournament. This will be a test.

Loss. 87-72. Ugh. Bracy played well, but we just couldn’t match the talent on the Flyers. We want a rematch in a stream game. Also, why is the walk-on Hoyer playing 17 minutes???

Now we have Iowa. The Hawkeyes really haven’t been a factor in this sim at all. We need a win here.

Win, 73-43. We had big Copeland energy in this one, as the sophomore center finished with 21 points and six boards. Nice to see Willingham get hot (12 points) off the bench, too.

Next up is Seton Hall. This would be a nice win if we can get it.

Loss, 89-84. A bunch of solid offensive performances for our guys, but we couldn’t get enough stops defensively to win. It’s tough to beat a good team when your starting point guard and center have rough nights like Reeves and Copeland did here. I do like what Dupree did (17 points, seven rebounds) — he’s always been a better stream team performer than sim player, but we can use more efforts like this to help us get a decent seed.

We close out the regular season with Kentucky. The Wildcats actually haven’t been a top-tier program during this sim — they have zero national titles — but they are still always competitive. Let’s see if we can get a dub here.

Loss, 67-48. Well, damn. That was an atrocious Edwin Wolfe game (0-of-7 shooting), but we can’t only blame him. As a team, we shot 25.4 percent from the field. That’s not how we wanted to end non-conference play. We finish with a 5-5 non-con record. We’re going to need to win the Summit tournament once again to make the big dance.

We have like a five-year winning streak in Summit League play at this point. As we enter conference season, can we run the table once again?

Yes we can. Our Leathernecks again go 18-0 in the Summit League once again to end the season at 23-5. The recruiting period ends with a mixed bag: we’re in position to land 6’9 center C.J. Cesar on the first day of the spring signing period, but Coulter, Amous, and Cowans all remain far way from making a decision. It’s going to be a big offseason to shape the future of the program. For our created players, reader Abby appears set to sign with Villanova. Reader Justin signed with NC State already.

Before we get to the conference tournament, let’s check out the stats:

Long-time fans of the series will remember that our center or power forward leads us in scoring almost every year. I don’t think we’ve ever had a point guard put up numbers like Koko: 16.7 points per game on 41 percent shooting from three. I thought everyone else was decent but not amazing. Hopefully we can find a higher level again in stream games.

We need to win the conference tournament first, though. Let’s do it.

Summit League tournament

Our first game in the conference tournament is against Oakland.

Win, 109-57. Koko, Copeland, and Dupree all scoring more than 20 points! We now face IUPUI in the semifinals:

Win, 84-50. Excellent balance throughout the rotation. Now we’re in the Summit League championship game against UL-Calcutta.

Win, 67-62! We’re back in the NCAA tournament to defend our title. We actually watched the first half of this one on Twitch, then ‘simmed to end’ with a big lead. And we nearly blew it! That would have haunted me if we didn’t pull it out.

I have no idea what seed this team will get at 26-5 on the year.

2031 NCAA tournament

Western Illinois is a No. 10 seed with a first round matchup against No. 7 seed Cal. The winner is likely to face No. 2 seed South Florida in the round of 32. Yes, the same USF team we whooped in a stream game earlier this year.

Here’s a look at our roster going into the tournament:

All five of our starters are rated in the 90s as we enter the tournament. This will be one last ride through March with Jitim Dupree, Koko Reeves, and the Wolfe Man. Can’t wait to see what Bracy and Copeland can do as first-time starters in the tournament. I’m also really excited about our perimeter threats on the bench with Willingham, Clemmons, and Jagla.

This team has lots of shooting, with five players rated 80 or better in three-point shooting, and another (Clemmons) who’s rated as a 79 in the category. We have lots of March Madness experience. Our only real flaw is our lack of size in the middle.

Here’s how we matchup with Pitt in the first round:

We want to be back-to-back champs. After messing around with ‘coach mode’ during the regular season, I’ve decided against doing it in the tournament after this post by reader Dave on our Reddit fan page.

We’re going to be streaming the NCAA tournament on Monday, Oct. 12 at 8:30 p.m. on Twitch. But first, let’s get to the bracket contest.

Join our bracket contest!

We’ve been running a bracket contest for the last few seasons, and it’s been a ton of fun. We’re opening it up to anyone who wants to enter as long as you turn in your bracket before we stream our first NCAA tournament game on Monday, Oct. 12 at 8:30 p.m. on Twitch.

Here’s a look at the full 2031 NCAA tournament bracket:

How does scoring work?

We use a standard scoring format. You get one point for correctly guessing the winner in a first round game, two points for correctly a winner in a round of 32 game, four points for correctly guessing a winner in a Sweet 16 game, eight points for correctly guessing a winner in an Elite Eight game, 16 points for correctly guessing a winner in the Final Four, and 32 points for correctly guessing the national champion.

Can I see the rosters for the other teams?

No. We’re going no rosters this year. It’s a free for all!

How do I enter?

1. Click this link to open the interactive bracket.

2. After opening, in the top left select File > Make a Copy

3. Make your picks

4. In the top left, select File and either “Share” and share with [email protected] or “Email as attachment” and email as an Excel file (not PDF please!) to [email protected]

Once your picks are entered, you can track scoring with Sean’s Blog Team app that works on desktop and mobile.

What does the winner get?

The winner gets to create themselves or a character as a five-star recruit ahead of next season. We won’t go after the created recruits at Western Illinois to preserve the integrity of the game, but we’ll follow the career of your character throughout our series.

Please enter the bracket contest and join us on Thursday, because it’s going to be really fun. Here’s how you can watch Western Illinois vs. USC in the NCAA tournament on Monday, Oct. 12 at 8:30 p.m. on Twitch.

No. 10 seed Western Illinois vs. No. 7 seed Pitt, first round, 2031 NCAA tournament

Game: No. 10 seed Western Illinois vs. No. 7 seed Pitt, first round, 2031 NCAA tournament

How to watch: My Twitch channel. You don’t need to sign up for anything to watch, but you do need to register for an account to comment. Do it, it’s fun.

Date: Monday, Oct. 12 at 8:30 p.m. on Twitch

Tip-off time: 8:30 p.m. ET

If we win: We’ll face the winner of No. 2 seed South Florida vs. No. 15 seed CS Fullerton in the round of 32 immediately following the first round game.

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