#long af rant

[plague-of-insomnia]

I think the worst thing about kuro antis is how much of a disservice they do to Yana.

Acting like she’s a bad storyteller because they don’t like the way she tells her story.

Yana is an incredible storyteller.

She is able to weave together so many threads so there’s always a set up for something and yet she does it in a way that doesn’t distract from the overall story.

Just think about the twin reveal. It was set up as early as the ripper arc I believe and didn’t come out until 100+ chapters later. And yet if you look back you can see all the clues she left.

She carefully chooses how she sets up panels and which POV she uses. She picks her kanji so carefully, often they can be read 3-4 different ways!

To say she’s a bad writer or that she just “accidentally” does things for “fan service” is a slap in the face to the hard work and careful craftsmenship she puts into her work.

If you think she’s such a bad mangaka, if you find her “sexualizing” of characters so repulsive, then why are you in the kuro fandom? Why are you still reading the manga?

I’ve come across plenty of media where I liked the concept but hated the execution. And you know what I did? I stopped reading/watching and moved on. It’s that simple.

#black butler #yana toboso #黒執事 #mini rant #I have enormous admiration for her and I do not like when people imply she’s lazy #she has only missed a single month in 15+ years! and the chapter came out the next month anyway! #do you know how hard it is doing a serial work #especially with no break? #and to have such a tightly woven story when it’s so long and complex is impressive af #and her paneling is carefully planned #stop insulting her and leave if you hate her work so damn much #antis dni #100 notes

[fyodorkitkat]

If the PM had somehow been the primary target of all of these plots instead of the ADA I firmly believe half of the situations could have been solved with Kajii. I understand he isn't popular but listen there is a reason he is who they pull out first with a hat trick when shit gets real.

#like PM roundtable meeting have we tried bombing Fukuchi? no? Lets send Kajii #prison arc. easy peasy Kajii. you can just put him in prison for other reasons if he didnt get jailed in place of Dazai then you only have #to sneak the lemon bombs in #this is assuming the ADA gets vamped in this reverse situation instead of the PM #but you know who wouldnt hesitate to bomb the crap out some vamps to death? Kajii. look it isnt what you want but you cant deny it would be #effective #he is isnt even one of my faves but I have to admit as long as he isnt giving his philosophical rants and getting distracted by his own ego #dude is effective af yeah? #bsd kajii #bsd #also dont ask me how he literally would solve the prison arc because i legit was just thinking you know who could have already killed #fyodor if Fyodor can be killed? Kajii. also his bombs arent the ability so all those anti ability walls can still be blown up by his #bombs then. checkmate. #thank you for coming to my crack ada pm swap au ted talk

[swimsauce]

Animators' Perspective on FNAF Animatronic Facial Animation

/long post talking about animation

I really like how Steel Wool animators animate how the animatronic talk. They don't need to move their jaws when they speak (as they can just project their voices from their chests), but during normal operation they move their jaws to look more lifelike. What I notice in a lot of fan animations is that for every word/syllable, the jaw will fully open and close to emphasize every word/ syllable. This always struck me as odd, as it never looked right. The reason it doesn’t look right is because that's not how humans talk.

In the newer games, the animatronics open their mouths fully during the beginning of sentence, and make smaller motions with their jaws depending on the syllables/words they say, then fully close/go slack when they are done speaking the sentence. This is a good fix to try to make facial motions more lifelike while working within the constraints of their rigid faces. 

When we humans talk, we do not open and close our jaws the entire time we talk. Our jaws stay open for most of the time we talk because we literally project sound from our mouths, so the jaw stays open when speaking and only closes when you're done talking. But when you speak, there appears to be a lot of movement, due to the lip/facial muscles moving to enunciate the sounds you make to create the syllables needed for words/sentences. When you talk, you do tend to move your jaw a bit, mainly due to movement of your tongue in your mouth. But again, most of the motion is in your lips and facial muscles. Because the animatronics don't have lips/skin, the only way they can mimic naturalistic facial expressions is by moving their jaws in small motions.

Example Sentence: Way to go super star! I knew you could do it

Here is a clip of one of the sentences Glam Freddy says. Put your hand on the side of your face so you can feel your top and bottom jaw. Say the sentence above and notice how far and often you actually move your jaw when talking. A lot of the movement is in your lips and face, not the jaw. Look at how he talks, he only moves his jaw a little bit during the sentence itself, mimicking the small jaw motions. He only fully opens/closes his mouth when he is done speaking.

Speaking of other facial feature work arounds, they achieve a similar “cheat” with eye animation. When we talk and emote, we tend to move not just our eyes, but the skin around them, like your cheeks and eyebrows. In order to get more dynamic facial expressions,  the bots twist and spin their eyelids in order to mimic the scrunching looks you can get on your face. Example, look how Roxy, Yendo, and Freddy tilt the axis of their eyelids to give the impression of anger/sadness

There is also a little trick used sometimes when staging characters to convey facial expressions. While the jaw/face cannot change shapes, the angles they are viewed at can change the way the shapes are seen. Showcasing characters from certain angles can give better impressions of designs while others can be awkward or odd looking. These selective angles can be applied to convey facial expressions as well. Ex. Roxy, when looking at her face from the front or with her face tilted down, she appears to be smiling, but looking at her face from below gives a more neutral look. Jaw placement here is also important, with her jaw opened wider it looks like she is smiling, but a closed jaw makes her mouth look more neutral or like she's frowning. (a similar effect can be seen in the other glam models as well)

As an animator, facial expression is incredibly important to convey convincing character acting. Every time you animate a character, you have to troubleshoot and figure out solutions to get the best performance from the design you are working with. Can’t animate mouth shapes because the character doesn't have skin/muscle? Have them move their jaws subtly when talking to mimic tongue/lip motion. Can’t scrunch the eyes? Rotate the eyelids to give the impression of different eye shapes. They're great little tricks to give otherwise very stiff models the impression of life like movement.

Refs for talking points/animation reference:

jaw/tongue/lip motion in mri

good vid on animation lip sync

mouth shapes in general

#analysis #animation #fnaf #fnaf security breach #long post #robotics #idk sorry for ranting i just really like you can achieve life like motion in animation and on robots. they are one in the same for me #i hope this isnt too cringe i just really like thinking about what design principles and real life motions/actions are being mimicked #props to all the animators and designers out there this shit is hard af

[simulation-machine]

Update 8: The Great CC Purge of 2024

Ok, so after a nice break from even looking at my PC, I’ve started making decent headway in my project of deleting all the CC I either never use, or no longer want in my game anymore.

More details under the cut!

I pretty much stopped loading the game altogether and just started to sort and delete things using the Sims 4 Mod Manager (click here to check it out). It’s really streamlined the entire process.

My only complaint is that it’s not useful for CC that doesn’t have thumbnails and it doesn’t detect broken CC at all. But I’ve already gotten rid of 100 GB of CC I knew I didn’t want this way, and I’m maybe 3/4 of the way through my first round.

Eventually I will need to load up the game to do the final round and use the Sims 4 Tray Importer (click here to check it out), and while I’m dreading that part, it’ll take so much less time now thanks to the mod manager.

When my brain’s gotten too fried I’ve been playing some RimWorld. It really scratches the story itch Sims 4 usually does for me, tho it obvs uses lo-fi graphics and has an entirely different vibe. It’s more of a resource managing story generator than a life sim. And it’s hella sci-fi. Not sure if there’s much of a fan base for it on Tumblr, but it’s probably my second favorite game to play after the Sims 4. I’ve put in almost 10k hours since I started playing it Early Access in 2017.

So, yeah! This project has been so much more of an undertaking than I initially thought it would be, and I’m done predicting when it will be done since I’ve had a lot of random obstacles thrown my way throughout this whole ordeal. But I’m starting to see the faintest bit of light at the end of tunnel.

The best part about all of this is that I miss the game so much that it’s probably all I’ll wanna play once this is done. I have a draft detailing the process in the works that will make this a lot less painful for anyone else needing to do this.

Welp, back at it!

#blog upkeep #the great cc purge of 2024 #randomly thrown in rant about RimWorld in the middle #lol #i’ve been using the cc mod manager so much that it’s been in my dreams #my dogs have also been getting really long walkies when i’ve needed a break which means they’ve been happy af #also beenst choring so my house has never been cleaner #midterms are coming up so trying to get this done by then but we’ll see

[sortvaniliekrans]

I have ventured far and wide from the kingdom of A03 to hear your rant about the language of The Mer.

AW HECK YE I'M ALWAYS READY TO RANT

Sound under water is in general rather garbled and carries oddly, meaning if you tried using long and complicated words, odds are half of them would just get lost (good luck saying something like metamorphosis). How does one get around that? I figure by infliction. The mers sing, click and whistle, much like whales, dolphins, even some fish! This means one "word", aka sound can change meaning depending on what tune it gets sung to.

(gonna continue under a readmore as this got long, whoops)

For example, the sounds denoting 'light' can change to establish that it's light from above - which can be further specified into sunlight, moonlight, lights from boats, etc - depending on how it's sung out. Sing-songing something can completely and utterly change its meaning XD

Noun modifiers and grammatical cases can take form of either tonal changes, or chirps or whistles - if you whistle out a sound instead of singing it, or if you whistle before, during, or after making it. This means the previous example of the light sound can now denote 'light coming from below and assumed dangerous'.

(This also means Sun's and Moon's actual names are oddly specific because every little part of it adds meaning to the whole)

NOW ONWARDS TO THE NICKNAMES!

I translated the mers' preferred nickname for the reader as 'bright/kind heart', but going into the nitty bitty details of it, and considering infliction, additional sounds and hums, there's a thousand variations to this. In this case, 'bright' and 'kind' is the same word, meant to indicate something that is warm and loving, shining and safe, and as such it's simply understood as part of the word that this something being describes is dearly beloved.

For 'heart', it isn't the anatomical concept as much is it means 'soul', 'core', the very essence of a creature's being. The mers both use this to refer to the reader, but sometimes add a tonal shift that makes it closer to 'OUR core': meaning sometimes they're talking about the reader's heart, sometimes they're basically calling the reader their heart like the giant sappy idiots they are.

And of course they add a whole bunch of descriptors, most often 'ours' (or 'my' if they're alone with the reader), but also just 'small', 'cute', or 'pretty'. So the nickname can really vary from 'glowing heart of ours' to 'kind little soul'.

#pisces caelestis #thank you for this chance to rant! #I'm gonna stop myself now before it gets too long #also it probably shows but I do NOT have that linguistic intelligence #nouns and verbs and what's-it's genuinely confuse me XD #I just go with what I think could be cool af :P

[badolmen]

Look at me. LOOK at me. Old growth forests are important. Their loss is violence against the land.

BUT that isn’t a reason to point at younger, perfectly healthy closed canopy forests and claim they’re ecologically insignificant or bad. Their sparse understory is a function of closed canopy forests. Even old growth forests will have sparse understories if the canopy is closed. That’s how photosynthetic strata works.

The west coast has vastly different forests and history than the east. The rare volcanic eruption that made the giant stands of Douglas fir in the west possible would be literally impossible here. Our species are adapted for stand replacing fires set by indigenous peoples to drive deer and rejuvenate oak. Oak as a genus is dying here. We can’t set fires. We can’t harvest patches large enough to simulate a fire. Our deer are overpopulated and browse down every sprout that dares to reach for sunlight.

Making a sweeping ban on clear-cut and similarly ‘scary’ harvests would kill them for good. The restrictions on fire have nearly done that to species like Jack and pitch pine that rely heavily on fire to establish. They’ve been relegated to pine barrens and the rare sandy forest clearing. Our fire Cherry, thankfully, can last decades in the soil seedbank. You can only see them the first few decades after a large, complete harvest and then they die.

What’s good for one forest kills another. Not all trees are made ecologically equal - and that’s a very good thing. All trees and forests have their ecological value. Management of one forest is never applicable to other forests; they all have their own unique histories and communities that should be imitated when possible and left alone when not.

#ra speaks #personal #forest #forestry #I wanna agree w old growth forest folks so bad but then they turn around and say shit like ‘there is NEVER a good reason to clearcut’ #babes the kirt warbler would like to argue. bitches need 10-15 ft Jack pine to nest in. they’re picky. #you ain’t getting 10-15 ft Jack pine without a large. stand replacing. disturbance. #*shaking Californians by the shoulders* THERE IS MORE FOREST TO THE WORLD THAN DOUGLAS FIR. WHY ARENT YOU PROTECTING THE CLIFFSIDE CEDARS? #we have cedars on this coast that are OLD GROWTH. nobody but weird tree ppl seem to care bc THEYRE UGLY AF AND SMALL. #that doesn’t mean they’re ‘not old growth’ #gosh do NOT even get me started on the semantics of old growth #and like. yeah we can’t replace old growth in the west BUT NOT BC PLANTATIONS HAVE A HARVEST SCHEDULE. #it’s because the original old growth only exists bc a VOLCANIC ERUPTION wiped out most everything else and laid a nice bed of ash #for the seedlings to establish in. id rather a shitty plantation keep a 50-60 ur harvest schedule on a single piece of land #than have them slowly chip away at literally irreplaceable trees in the name of #‘sustainable forestry’ babe there is no sustaining the western old growth. either a volcano decides to give it a fresh start or not #I hate hate hate the eternal-ness ppl have attached to forests they are not here for you they aren’t even here for species that rely on them #they’re here bc a long time ago nothing else was. they’re here bc the soil was just right. they’re here bc the people before respected that #but also understood their power to shape the landscape. and in doing so they created diversity rarely seen this far north. #sorry. it’s been a day. needed a good rant.

[deus-ex-mona]

why can’t this week just end alreadyyyyyyy

#rant about the week incomin’ in the tags bc ‘complaining’ is my unofficial middle name #this week has *not* been my week so far and it’s only wednesday morning #my horrible week commenced on sunday night when i was unable to sleep bc my pillow was oriented wrong #thus i had a grand total of 1 hour of sleep which was not very poggers tbh. so i tried to sleep on the train but… #the guy next to me??? kept swaying to lean on my shoulder??? so i hunched over to avoid physical contact but he just landed on my back?? #so that sucked balls. i kept having to wake up to push him away with my bag and then trying to go back to sleep. #but then!!! just as i fell asleep after one such instance!!! the guy’s phone alarm went off????? like?? why???? why would you set an alarm?? #we’re on a friggin train mannnnn!!!!! why did you have to set an alarm????????????? #and ofc when the dude finally alighted (and i was asleep) he just *had* to jab me in the side with his elbow when he got up. ಠ_ಠ #so that’s how i knew the rest of the week was gonna be just ✨peachy✨ #anyways manning 2 workstations (+ 1 bonus ‘mini’ workstation) on 1h of sleep isn’t very fun. esp if you’re incompetent af like me #and ofc there just had to be problems too. like the printers couldn’t print (and the systems crashed everytime i tried to print something) #and this sample running software kept closing itself in the middle of running samples so that was a pain to deal with #and tuesday (yesterday) wasn’t much better. in fact it was ✨worse✨. none of the 2 workstations could get started till like 10am and aaaaaa— #to make matters worse i had stubbed my toe so badly in the morning that my skin tore. so walking was ✨much pain✨ as well :( #and ofc yesterday had to be the one day where i had to walk back and forth an unnecessarily high number of times >:( sadded #and ofc they *had* to have an hour-long meeting about something or other towards the end of the workday when i had yet to eat my lunch >:( #(fell asleep during the meeting though bc it was boring as balls whoops) #and i could only take a half-hour break after that >:((( i wanted my full hour dammitttttttt #and ofc it was raining when i left and ofc it took like 25 mins for me to hail a taxi on this booking app bc i didn’t want to take the train #and ofccccc i misheard the taxi driver when he arrived and he roasted my chinese speaking skills. and ofcccc we were caught in a traffic jam #(i had a really nice hour long nap in the cab though so thanks traffic jam) #and thus ended my terrible 2 past weekdays. i’m drained af and it’s *only* wednesday morning????!!!!!!!!!!!!! #i’m mentally looping anzu no uta (imascg) to cope. ‘nu-uh i don’t wanna work’ so true anzu #i just wanna sleeeeeeep and wake up this weekend or sth idk it’s too early in the year for this #it is suiyoubi my dudes #may spam self-rb my monster-length character image/gif posts later to cope. you have been warned

[eccentric-objects]

wait, wait, wait

okay so im rewatching warrior nun bc i have a thought about the other realm and theoretical physics but you know how the halo’s energy output increased when the bearer was experiencing strong emotions ?? well what if its not the emotion itself but something to do with how emotion affects a persons stamina. This would also explain why how well trained and how strong a person is factors into the order of the halo bearers and why it seems that the “strongest” sister warrior is next in line. This would also mean that in order for the halo to work it would have to take energy from the bearer (it still has its own energy but i think in order for it to be used for a specific purpose it takes some from the host). I also have a theory that the halo’s energy signature being dampened by being in a person may be bc of the human energy signatures muddying it so if the bearer’s energy is lower it may not be able to mask the halos energy as well which would also explain why the tarasks show up more often with ava as opposed to other halo bearers. the halo is always working to keep ava alive so when its been used a lot (and is therefore using up more and more of her energy) she literally starts dying which affects her body’s energy output and also requires the halo to tap into its own power source which increases the halos energy output so then the halo has a stronger energy signature while avas energy signature is weaker and less likely to mask the halos effectively.

theres so much more to this but i dont have the words to explain it rn so its gonna have to be another post

#warrior nun #i have so many thoughts and im not even 2 eps into my rewatch #the post im working on about the science of the other realm is gonna be long af #and its probably gonna take forever to write #warrior nun rewatch #warrior nun rant

[ezralva]

And please...Gege had stated long ago that JJK won't be a happy ending for all. Even Yuuji, as the mc, is not guaranteed to live. If you can't accept that then perhaps think again before starting it. You can dislike how the story goes or the characters, but throwing hate or insulting the mangaka directly by using his name, questioning his ability of doing his professional job he has done for years, on social media which are public places, are honestly such immature acts and reflect your own lack of manner, reading comprehension, personality, or even mental capacity.

Funny cz nobody asked you, Gege-haters, to keep reading the manga or following the leaks (if you don't even read the manga or just watch the anime) he puts effort every week to publish. People really think that creating original story with abundant unique characters and drawing them on weekly deadline-paced and selling them in shonen jump for years and even be one of the best-selling mangas worldwide is easy?? Sad that people are so quick to defend when there are fan-based creators getting hate but not when it's the original creator themselves. If you feel so great that you think you can write the storyboard better than the original creator than by all means write your own story or draw your own manga and see if you can sell more than 90 million copies worldwide like how Gege does (excluding the online chapters). Most of them don't even give constructive criticisms. Just plain (sometimes veiled) insults or underestimating comments so I suspect this also has to do with how they don't actually understand the story itself.

#i just dont understand how ppl cud publicly like the characters Gege made at the same time publicly insulting the creator #myb thats what happen when they only like the character as far as they can fantasize about them #doesnt care abt how the story is written or how the character is created to fulfill their role in the narrative as long as they can keep #fangirling and fanboying about them even at the cost of the characters being ooc af but myb that's all they seek so it's not my business #im glad im on tumblr so i can easily curate what i see but if i see one it's instant block for me #this is why im so embarrassed being part of the eng-based fandom for big fandoms sometimes #im sorry for my followers who have nothing to do with this and have to see me ranting like this 🙏 #im usually not like this but some types of ppl really grate on my nerves #i dislike ingrates and those who can't appreciate others' effort esp if they also lack reading comprehension skill #also those who don't even read the manga but following the trend of gege-hating like tf do you realize just how ridiculous that sounds?lmao #such hypocrites all of em

[rebelcliche-archive2]

on a real note: i love smut, genuinely. writing it can be a lot of fun, but it's really telling if someone only uses someone else's muse for smut. that's not cute. nancy is more than just a warm hole for someone's muse to enjoy. unless we have smth plotted where their relationship is based around sex, there should be more to the dynamic.

and i'm sure no one wants to hear this, but: this fandom's descent into 'smut or bust' is the weirdest shit i've ever witnessed. like, to the point where friends i've known for years are leaving bc they can't get interaction bc they don't want to smut / rp muses that aren't 'shipping age appropriate' to someone else's. it's a way different experience these days than the times in 2017, and not necessarily for the better in some aspects.

i'm not trying to sound preachy, i just think it's an absolute WASTE and disservice to not explore other dynamics with your own character and with others besides just sexual intimacy. there should be focus on other types of dynamics and interactions in this fandom, tbh. it's honestly pretty weird how there isn't / isn't much of them.

and all this to say, I LOVE SMUT AND THINK YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO WRITE IT IF YOU WANT TO! but it's a problem when you make people feel unwanted when you won't fucking write with them bc they don't wanna write their muse going down on yours / if they want to write something BESIDES smut with you.

#it's just fucking weird. and if me pointing this out upsets you feel free to unfollow. i'm just tired of biting my tongue. y'all don't have #to like it but i needed to point this out bc i've talked to MANY people who feel unwanted in this fandom bc their muses aren't 'shippable' #or bc they don't focus heavily on smutting. many of them have even left and it's sad af that it's like this. so yeah this all leads into #part of the reason why i'm keeping a small dash on the regular and being super selective with people i write with. ain't got time to be #ignored bc smutting with nancy isn't 'fun' or bc i don't smut on the regular. but yeah that's all i wanted to say. rant over. thanks for #reading if you did! and as i say every time: you're free to unfollow / softblock. i don't blame you lmao #💖 𝑮𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑹𝑨𝑳 : * out of character . #cw long post// //// #tw venting// ////

[seawitchkaraoke]

Okay but how do you actually food prep? Like. Ppl keep saying it’s great and you should do it but??? What, do y’all actually cook all the meals for the week ahead of time and then just stick them in the microwave? That sounds great but idk how long things actually last in the fridge, like what actually lasts a whole week??

#food #food prep #adhd #tagging this adhd bc this is a 'help i have adhd and i am bad at feeding myself' question #not a 'how do i make super fancy food' question #yeah idk how long things last i grew up with two brothers and we all got really tall #aka had huge growth spurts #aka were all constantly hungry #if leftovers survived more than two days that meant they were disgusting to our teenage palates #and mom probably made this food specifically so she could have some leftovers for once #i am much better at feeding myself whenever i visit my parents tbh #bc! they just have all kinds of food! there! and have a huge freezer! #they don't need to worry about things going bad bc it's a three person household and someone's gonna eat it #i rarely even buy cheese bc i don't hugely like cheese and worry about not eating it quickly enough #love potatoes but man eating them all before they get bad is a struggle in the summer #'store them cool and dry' lmao yeah sure i'll do that in this humid af place #anyway rant in the tags over #i just wanna eat good food! i am decent ish at cooking even! #but it's exhausting and doing the dishes is exhausting and making sure nothing goes bad is exhausting #man i wanna go visit my parents again #where we have a dishwasher #and enough adults that someone is gonna cook even if it's not me #and a big enough freezer to put a frozen pizza or two in for the days where no one wants to

[magioftheseas]

hello hello hello. i just want to say i saw a post you made about recommending 'surviving romance' and looking at the other ones you talked about i saw you had good taste and i was like. Sure!

oh my gosh. This Comic.

Is

Amazing.

just! I LOVE IT SO MUCH

like this is the type of thing I've been Craving. I admit i have a fondness for the isekai type set up you typically see in webtoons and manwha, and i love to indulge myself in the cliche ones that have heart, but sometimes i get. so tired of them.

i love world building! i love seeing beautiful art! i love the protagonist coming into their and their personality!

However, as time has gone on, my tolerance for one specific trope has weakened and weakened, until now it's gone to a point where I almost immediately stop reading when I sense it. It's hard to describe, but it's where like,,, it feels that the other female characters are only being used to prop the protagonist as the 'most special', you know? and the story does this by demeaning the other female characters (of which there are like. two other female characters, or something,)

An example of this that I see the most (and which usually gets me to run in the other direction) is where the original heroine of the light novel gets 'bashed' in some way, and turns out to be evil. And sure, it can be written well! but it happens every. time.

and it's like! It really gets on my nerves because everything the original heroine does will be immediately nitpicked, most of all by the readers/audience.

She engages in pleasant conversation with the protagonist? Clearly she's absolutely fake. She keeps to herself and barely glances at anybody? How standoffish. She's outgoing and enthusiastic when talking to people? Nobody's taught her any manners. She obliviously chats away in an awkward situation? Wow, she can't read a room at all. She runs away from a clearly dangerous situation? Filthy coward. She helps somebody who turns out to be dangerous? Naive and an idiot. She smiles? She's a snake. She's too dumb to live. She's plotting something. She's selfish. She's vain, too focused on her looks. 

What makes it even more infuriating is when I have seen OUR protagonist have the same behavior as the OG heroine, and nobody made a peep! When people only hate it because they see in other characters, and not our protag. Or when there’s a sharp contrast between the traits of the OG heroine and isekai protagonist. Like ooo, our isekai protag is cunning and smart, unlike OG heroine over there who’s naive and gullible and too trusting. 

(meanwhile, if protag did the exact same thing as the OG heroine, protag would be called kind and compassionate)

Some of the time, the comic signals you to ‘hate’ this OG heroine character over these little, little things. Like, for example, the POV character thinking ‘Can’t you read a room?’ in a situation where the original heroine is just trying to like. Talk to people, and there’s an awkward atmosphere for Reasons. (Which, by the way, I have a special disdain for this reason for ‘hating’ a character. Social cues are hard, man, and in these cases a lot of the time the heroine wasn’t even trying to be insensitive.) 

But other times, there isn’t ANY prompting from the comic to hate her, and the audience spouts all of these things off anyways! She breathes and people look at her like she’s a threat. And yeah, I understand it’s partly due to readers being genre savvy and knowing that authors really like to make OG heroines evil/unlikeable, but it puts a bad taste in my mouth when people start bashing/hating a character who’s been in the comic for one (1) episode because she’s… There. Existing. Being the OG heroine. 

and you know what? i think i know why this happens. i think it's because, due to her position as the Original Female Lead in the light novel, the author/audience feels like the OG heroine jeopardizes the position our isekai protagonist has in the story. Therefore, we have to beat her down in some way. We have to make so there’s never a chance that the love interests could love her. It’s not just that she has flaws, she has flaws that our isekai protagonist doesn’t have. She doesn’t have to be evil, she just has to be of ‘lesser worth’ than our protagonist. From the second an OG heroine steps into the story, she has to be constantly compared to our isekai protagonist in a kind of romance boxing match. And I just kinda. Hate that???? Hate that she’s automatically perceived as a ‘threat’ for existing?? for being a Girl??? for being somebody that the male protagonist could love?? 

Sometimes when I read the comments on a webtoon it’s like, god forbid women do anything. Literally. 

And because we’re critiquing her so that she never threatens the protagonist’s position for Top Female Love Interest, whenever she does literally anything else, people will always be poised to hate on it. She will always be defined by the threat she has to the romance, and to the protagonist, and I HATE IT. Because why do women have to see each other as a threat? Why do they have to be defined by romance? Why does the audience always see women as a threat? If the OG heroine was so great a protagonist in the OG light novel, why can’t she stay that character? Why does she need to be reduced and cut down in order for the isekai protagonist to be cool and awesome?? There isn’t a finite supply of cool and awesome women juice! You can have two female characters be cool and awesome (in different and similar ways) and have other characters fall in love with them! 

(As an aside, the character traits they pick to purposely make the OG heroine ‘unlikeable’ get on my nerves too. Sometimes they do a good job of it, other times it seems they just put the bare minimum into making OG heroine display an unlikeable trait before stopping. And then sometimes, the trait isn’t really hateable at all! I already said the whole thing about ‘reading the room’ earlier, which is a trait I can relate to, but aside from that… Like, she’s kinda ditzy? Not the smartest crayon in the box? So what?? Is she hurting anyone?? You’re gonna have to sell me more if you want me to decide she’s a ‘lost cause’!)

(Also, I realize ranting about the vilification of OG heroines when talking about SR is kinda funny, but honestly I'm not upset at all about OG chaerin eun because yeah, honestly, i'd go evil too if I had to deal with my life being a story. In addition... she's just fun to have as a villain hfasiucd. There's caveats to everything)

Going back to my initial statement for the trope of ‘disliking when women characters are used specifically to prop the protag up, because no one else is as great as her’, this extends even to ‘hopelessly devoted’ types of characters. Female characters who love the protagonist. These best friend types of female characters are allowed to be kind and skilled and pretty. But, you know, not as much as the protag. Never as much as the protag. We only really see them when the protagonist needs help. This is where a lot of maids and servants-type characters fall into, but don’t get me wrong! I love a lot of characters who fall into this archetype. I think it’s when it only either this or the hateable female characters that it strikes me as off. What I think strikes me as off about this ‘best friend’ archetype is that it’s defined by feeling a bit… uneven? Like the ‘hopelessly devote’ type of female characters feel like the isekai protagonist is almost ‘too good’ to be in the presence of them, if that makes sense. But, once again, I know I’ve found myself loving these type of characters before. Looking back, I’ve concluded there’s only one thing I need for it to not get on my nerves.

If there is a Single female character who can stand on equal footing with the protagonist, it’s all okay from me. A female character who can challenge the protagonist in some shape or form, and not be demonized for it. A female character who can exist with the protagonist, who the narrative doesn’t force to compete. A proof that the author/story won’t automatically portray female characters in a bad light because she is female. That is what I need.

Of course, I understand why there would be female characters like that, I do read these books for self-indulgence and I do love comeuppance upon people who have wronged you. Authors should write as they please, and if it’s not my cup of tea, that’s okay. Regardless, when I read a story where our female protagonist is only able to connect with male characters because our female protagonist is ‘not like other people’ and ‘special’, and the other female characters vapid or second fiddle to the protag, i mourn for the relationships that could’ve been. This is a very, very, very long-winded way to say I love the female friendships we get in Surviving Romance.

I love that the girls can be smart, scared, fat, quiet, loud, weak, and you know what? As they should, because they are human. And I could probably go on about Surviving Romance more, but this rant has gone on far longer than I intended. Sorry if this is incomprehensible, I am very passionate about this it seems, and i guess i wanted to type it down in a place where somebody could semi-understand my pain??? I am so sorry oh my gosh, you don’t have to read all that or even reply, but I just want you to know you’ve give my brain like. Electricity by providing that recommendation for Surviving Romance. You have actual immaculate taste, thank you for your time, i just wanted to let you know you basically rewired my brain.

Honestly one of my biggest mistakes was making my first isekai Who Made Me A Princess which, like, doesn't do that shit and also The Villainess Lives Again which super doesn't do that shit. And then I read Your Throne whose entire conceit is tearing down that shit and identifying the Real Enemy: the patriarchy.

This was one of my biggest problems with time travel *kinda* villainess isekai, Solitary Lady where the other girl is her adoptive younger sister like...yeah she's a ditz but she was also adopted into the shitty abusive family, and in being kinda sheltered, fucking obviously she'd emulate the shitty abusive family members. The thing was that without her family's support, she was as good as abandoned and the instant she realized the protagonist was OP, she *did* do the allegedly smart thing and try to suck up to her so as to not be on her bad side. But she still gets a lot of shit for being??? Bratty??? Like okay, she's a teenager? Also, she's loved by the shitty family while protagonist girl isn't? Like okay, but how the hell is that HER fault???? And of course, there are some stories that just take a really mean-spirited and classist route (Solitary Lady definitely has its grossly classist fucking moments like there being a snide remark at the sister for being adopted, like fuck off how can you think you're in the right if you portray that shit as deserved). And then some just get weird. Shoutout to that one where the enemy was gay people. I hope this means another man stole your boyfriend, author.

Point being is that I have an absurd fascination with this genre. But the internalized misogyny (along with the serious classism on occasion) fucking sucks. Even initially decent examples such as Beware of the Villainess fuck up on that front with how little Yuri gets to do in s2. But I do still like this genre. I recently started In This Life, I Became The Queen, and I'm really enjoying it thus far. Sadly, its handle of non-protagonist female characters is...shaky thus far, but some of them haven't been fully introduced yet so there's still hope I think. Wouldn't count on it, but I do like the protagonist quite a bit. I found the depiction of her body insecurities to be mostly tactful. (Mostly) At the very least, it's pretty uncommon to portray a female character as unwilling to show off her figure because she was traumatized by how she was shamed for it. Which actually feels close to realistic. In general, Ariadne isn't as above it all as her fellow protagonists and her uncertainties and struggles feel a tad more substantial. Also, I like how she sweetens on the youngest sister.

Mind you for specifically your problem, I would just beg you to read Your Throne if you haven't already. Your Throne is *so* fucking good.

#Magi answers #anonymous #recs #long post #sorry I ranted about fucking solitary lady specifically #I had a fascination with that one because of the admittedly compelling af premise and the beautiful art and then #it bombed with THE MOST BORING FUCKING ROMANCE EVER #also they changed artists between seasons which look s2 art is...fine...but it's just not nearly as good as s1...it's just not

[shikasual]

I'm so tired, frustrated and sad. I'm the only one on my team wearing a mask and every day a customer asks me why I am. Mockingly asking if I'm scared of catching COVID. YES I AM AND SO SHOULD YOU. COVID isn't over, COVID isn't a mild cold, COVID could destroy you or your loved ones. The rich elites are out there still 100% doing tests, wearing masks, etc etc meanwhile us peasants are out there like "it ain't that bad, we're all gonna die someday" like ????

#rant #covid isnt over #mask up #wear a mask #customer service #retail #after 4 vaccines i caught it for the 1st time officially this march and was sick af for 2 weeks #worst part was the constant dizziness making me unable to do anything or move much #i dont want to go through that again and nobody's safe from long covid