#since this site apparently doesn't like links

[dnalt-d2]

Christ alive can anyone get a break right now??

(Ahem)

Update time, once again!

Also once again, it is a mixed bag

So to start off with, as most everyone knows, Pomme and Dapper's admins have resigned from their positions. This is incredibly unfortunate, and I honestly don't know what it's gonna mean for the French Creators who said they wouldn't stay on QSMP if Pomme's Admin was fired. Since she technically left of her own volition, I really don't know what they're gonna do

(Edit: I talk about Quackity's stream here but I don't speak Spanish so I can't personally say what was said exactly. Thankfully, it looks like someone JUST POSTED an English Translation so I'm just gonna drop the link here for anyone who wants to read it)

On another note: Quackity has finally given a slight update. For obvious reasons, he can't say anything specific, and I wouldn't have expected him to. But according to the translations I've seen so far, basically said that he can't update because the leaks that happened are creating added complications in the restructuring process. I'm assuming his reason for that is that he simply doesn't want anymore information to be leaked out, but unfortunately, that's just counterproductive to the miscommunication problem

AND SPEAKING OF MISCOMMUNICATION???

So as you all know, I've been in support of the French Union getting involved with this. As I've stated a dozen times now, Unions are meant to be resources, people who inform employees of their rights and do what they can to help them get those rights. As far as I know, one of the main things they do is mediate between the employees and the employers. But APPARENTLY the Union has not attempted to reach out to Quackity outside of Twitter. Which REALLY isn't all that professional. Twitter is a NETWORKING site. Meant to START building connections. Afterwards, people typically move onto email or even discord, which are way better equipped for the long-form communication that's about to have to happen

So even if Quackity WAS active on Twitter, which he isn't. And even if the Union DIDN'T know that, which they do. This isn't the right route to communicate. They have stated that he "has their email" and has to "reach out to them." They are apparently working on the logic that SOMEONE would have had to pass on the information to him by this point, which isn't a fair assumption at all, considering that we know there were Admins ALREADY hiding information from him before all this

They're acting like Quackity is the CEO of a major corporation, with COUNTLESS RESOURCES on-hand. Yeah he's the CEO of this business, but he's also a 23-year-old Twitch Streamer who in all likelihood is learning a LOT about running a business for the first time AS WE SPEAK. I'll tell you right now, when I was 23, I didn't know jack-shit, and I'd still say I don't most of the time. And the only reason I LEARNED jack-shit was because someone would actually TELL me about it. When someone makes mistakes, it REALLY helps them learn when someone is able to not just point out the mistake, but also HOW to fix it. I don't know how they're expecting him to grow from his miscommunication mistakes when they aren't willing to give him the chance to

And yes, there are MANY problems that need to be fixed, as I've said before. But Quackity did outright confirm some of the other things I've said too. That things ARE happening, and we aren't hearing about it. That we aren't GOING to hear about it. Which is fine. It makes sense. We aren't the people who need to know every step of the process. But he is going to have to figure out a better system for talking to the Admins. It's a real problem when he's communicating with people like Aypierre that Pomme's Admin has her job still, but didn't tell the Admin herself

There's still lots of problems, and I know it sounds like I'm just repeating myself, saying to wait and see, but in reality, there isn't much else we CAN do besides that and voice our support

This might be the last time I make a post on this for a bit, because this has been a little draining on me. Which I would normally be able to handle SUPER easy, I'm pretty good at handling stuff like this well enough. But now I've also got real-life stuff reminding me that no matter how much better things SEEM to be getting for me, something's gonna come smack me in the back of the head to remind me that actually things suck, and I just should've known better! And unfortunately that stuff requires my focus more than this. I'll still be here, watching everything, maybe commenting on stuff, but I might not be quite as vocal as I have been

Once again, I remind you all, take care of yourselves first and foremost. Whether it's physical, emotional, or mental, or whatever else. You matter more than the events taking place here right now. My support goes out to all of you, as well as the Admins who VERY WELL COULD BE SEEING THIS APPARENTLY. So I guess this message goes out to them as well lol. You guys rock and I've enjoyed all the contributions you've made

Anyways, see you all later

#qsmp #qsmp admin situation #admin situation #qadmin situation #quackity #qsmp quackity

[pileofmush]

warning: yes we're talking about taz skylar. yes i am opinionated.

i'm making this as a response to the posts i've seen floating around on my dash that are promoting neutrality, and, most annoyingly, whining about the backlash he's receiving.

you guys had your turn to speak so i guess i'll take mine!

no, this is not directed at any particular blog. yes, i am biased, and i'm not going to pretend that i'm not. and finally no, i’m not posting this to seem virtuous or some shit like that. glad we got that cleared up.

anywho. you guys are annoying me 😭

it's always #freepalestinetillit'sbackwards until your favorite british blorbo is questioned. questioned, rightfully so, mind you.

let's go over the facts:

this was posted by twitter user knsiara yesterday morning. apparently, people are also getting on taz about who he follows on social media, but that's none of my concern. i'm aware it takes effort to cull and monitor the values of those you follow. i don't hold that against him. moving on.

the real concern is the charity that he was directly promoting. as in, the charity that he's presumably donated to and encouraged his 1.9 million followers to donate to as well, seeing as it was linked right there in his instagram bio.

so! there is a bit of confusion about who the red cross supports. i've done some basic googling, and yeah it's pretty vague, so i do understand the confusion. it seems the red cross provides aid to both sides, which has already put me off (in no circumstance would i provide aid to the country enacting a genocide. because remember, it's less-so a conflict and more-so a genocide.) but that's beside the point. as you'll note in the right-most screenshot up above, it's the fundraising for the british red cross (BRC), in particular, that has raised some eyebrows.

so who does the BRC support, then?

there we have it. taken right from their site. i've even taken the liberty to highlight it for you: as it stands, the british red cross provides aid to "israel and occupied palestinian territory.”

what does that mean? well, i'm glad you asked. this leads to my next segment...

the assumptions:

does the BRC support palestine? no.

do they support israel? well, you read their words. it's not the clearest statement in the world, but it's to my understanding that the BRC supports israel, as it clearly subscribes to the zionist sentiment that palestinian land belongs to israel. hence, palestinian occupied territory. zionist rhetoric. now, that doesn't sound like an organization that has the people of palestine's best interests in mind, does it?

"but-but that doesn't make taz a zionist!"

oh, brother. he's donating to pro-israel organizations and encouraging his followers to do the same!! let's get serious here.

there is of course the possibility that he didn't research the charity. that he didn't know what he was promoting. and sure! it's possible. everyone's human. we all make mistakes.

but then he went and tweeted that vague as hell tweet implying that he sides with israel…

if it was an honest mistake; if he stood with palestine, he’d say so. morgan davies did, so let’s not pretend it’s a “protecting his job” move… (expanded on towards the end).

now, since i don't follow him, i don't have the timeline of things, such as when he added the BRC to his bio, or when people started asking him about it, but, i mean. the BRC was in his bio, now it's not. he posted the tweet two days ago, and has since deleted it. maybe it's bad timing, but, i'm not inclined to believe it is.

which leads me to my point that i'm highly suspicious of the taz-riders right now...

especially the ones outright complaining about him getting "canceled" and whatnot.

people use the word “cancel” so loosely now. it’s pretty much lost all meaning. choosing not to support taz skyler for his abysmal political opinions does not equate to him getting “canceled.”

dissing him on twitter does not equate to him getting “canceled.” girl no one is taking his netflix check away—he’s got a bag, he’s got a second season, he’s got his loyal stans: he‘ll come back from this. and honestly, throwing the term “cancel” around is ridiculous when we’re talking about matters like palestinian genocide.

yes, taz might have worded his response poorly under stress. but doesn't it still hold implications? what else can we assume if his response to people accusing him of promoting and funding israel is... we have different opinions, and that's okay 🤍

c'mon taz, you can do a little better than that, can't you?

so that's why i'm confused about why others are confused, regarding the backlash. we, the people, have such little control over the shit that’s happening in the world: of course we’ll exercise what little control that we have…

we’ll choose what we consume and who we monetarily support according to our own values.

people wanna talk about "parasocial relationships" and "putting him on a pedestal," but bae, i promise you, it's nothing personal. from me, at the very least. i was never a rider or a hater of taz, personally. but c'mon. he publicly promoted a pro-israel organization, and then made a vague nothing-tweet in response. backlash is warranted.

maybe you should reconsider why you’re so willing to ride for this man you don’t actually know… if we’re gonna bring up parasocial relationships, and all.

that doesn’t mean i support sending him death threats or doxxing him or anything like that, but i mean... if people have opinions, they're gonna talk 😭 getting called out on twitter is not the end of the world.

anywho. give him the benefit of the doubt if you want. but i think he's made his stance quite clear in his actions and inaction.

if you still want to simp over a man who thinks political neutrality toward genocide is acceptable, go ahead and take the watermelon outta your bio. there's no need for performative activism on this site. just admit to yourself that you're only willing to support palestine until it makes you uncomfortable.

as for support of the OPLA, that is, obviously, up to you. i, for one, won't be streaming it on netflix anytime soon. but, there are some actors in the OPLA who do support palestine, such as morgan davies, who publicly shot down the losers trying to angle that palestine is anti lgbtq+ and therefore does not deserve support (as if intersectionality and queer palestinians don't exist, lord) ...so, this is a nuanced convo and i may change my mind when season 2 rolls around if i feel the pros outweigh the cons. or i'll just follow morgan davies into their next project. whichever feels right.

what i won't do, however, is make this site comfortable for the taz-riders lmaoo, because there were a few too many posts advocating for him than i’m comfortable with from my fellow fans of one piece. one piece, of all fandoms, and we’re divided on the morals and ethics of supporting genocide—good lord— nor will i support anyone else on the OPLA cast who has a terrible take on what’s taking place in palestine. repeat after me, there's no such thing as neutrality when it comes to genocide.

free palestine, today. tomorrow, and the next. class dismissed.

posting this on 1/5/24, 7:00 pm EST. as of right now, taz hasn’t come out with a statement addressing the backlash. but hey! opinions can change and i hope he’ll change mine, for what it’s worth.

#mushy speaks!—✶ #taz skylar #free palestine #this what i do when i have free time i guess #if u disagree with me… argue with the wall tbh

[nanaosaki3940]

Some Keisuke Baji Facts (Not headcanons)...

I got into the Tokyo Revengers fandom right after watching the 1st season of the anime and from there I started reading the manga until I got caught up with it. Now, I'm up-to-date with everything related to Tokrev, even the spin-off manga as well...

Now, I have an issue with how people interpret Baji's character and how they portray him in fanfics or headcanon posts. I know you can have your own headcanons, but there's also a thing called facts or being canonically accurate. Most people interpret Baji as:

Keisuke Baji is an idiot, a literal moron.

Keisuke Baji is reckless, restless, always causing havoc, always seeking fun and adventure; in short, an energetic thrill seeker/troublemaker.

Well, that's far from what people think about Baji...

Baji's NOT an idiot

You can't call Baji an idiot just because he isn't academically smart or doesn't get passing grades in school. Sure, he's stupid when it comes to his studies, but other than that, he's really smart and highly intellectual in every other aspect. Moreover, Chifuyu's the one who's a moron here. In many fanfics and headcanon posts, I saw people writing about how dumb Baji is and how smart Chifuyu is and then talking about how Chifuyu guides/helps Baji to understand things or solve problems. And I'm like huh?!?! Have you not read the spin-off manga yet??? (Btw, the spin-off manga is CANON since it's been made under Ken Wakui sensei's supervision and he's heavily involved with the project...)

The whole manga is about what a big dumbass Chifuyu is and how smart, intellectual, and level-headed Baji is. Heck, Chifuyu's so stupid that this is what Baji has to say about him -

So, yeah...

CHIFUYU is the moron here, NOT Baji.

Also...

Baji's NOT an adrenaline junkie

I'm not gonna share pictures for that as proof. Instead, I'll just add the links to the sites where you can read the spin-off manga. I'll say it again - Baji's NOT some reckless, restless dude who loves causing havoc/chaos any time and every time he feels like it (unlike Hanma, Smiley, or anyone batshit crazy we know from this series). Throughout the story, Baji is shown to be quite mature and sensible as a person and also as a leader. He's more responsible, wiser, and more rational than everyone around him. Sure he gets very energetic and excited when fighting other delinquents, but other than that, he's just a simple guy going on with his everyday life. I understand why people think of him like that since this is literally what wiki tells us -

But he's more than just that...

Instead in the spin-off, Baji is portrayed as a calm, collected, and composed individual in each and every scene he appears, while Chifuyu and Ryusei are the ones shown to be more chaotic in nature who love getting into trouble at every opportunity they get. Also, Baji doesn't speak too much and always observes things around him quietly from the sideline, meaning unlike others, he's pretty observant. He's never once shown to be causing problems for others, but rather, he's the one solving the issues that others cause around him, meaning he's a dependable and attentive person (just like Draken). Not only is he calm and composed, but he also immediately figures out any situation in front of him and then confidently gives orders to the others; just reading the spin-off manga will make you realize how effective Baji is as a leader/1st division captain. And, in that episode (season 1, episode 14) where Mikey tells Takemichi that Baji punches people for no apparent reason, yeah, there's actually a reason why Baji does that and such a thing happened only ONCE in his lifetime (Go read chapter 9 of the spin-off manga and you'll also understand why Baji did that). Also, this is Mikey we're talking about; do you really think he'll give us the correct info? He just dropped that info without any context, and no wonder why Takemichi went like "WTF?" after hearing that about Baji... Anyway, Baji's more like Draken in a way, so to speak, and that's why he and Draken get along really well.

No wonder Baji's spending his birthday afternoon with Draken instead of spending it with Mikey or Chifuyu...

So, in short, Baji is:

Not some rowdy, adrenaline junkie like Hanma or Smiley.

An attentive, compassionate, and dependable leader.

Confident while giving out his orders.

A calm, composed, and observant individual.

Very smart and highly intellectual.

Cautious and doesn't cause trouble to others.

Actually one of the most mature ones in the group besides Draken and Mitsuya.

Baji loves fun and adventure from time to time, sure, but he's NOT an idiotic troublemaker.

Links to the spin-off manga -

#baji #keisuke baji #baji keisuke #tokyo revengers #chifuyu matsuno #kazutora hanemiya #tokyo manji kai #manjirou sano #manjiro sano #tokyo manji revengers #ken ryuuguji #ken ryuguji #takashi mitsuya #haruchiyo sanzu #ran haitani #rindo haitani #rindou haitani #hanma shuuji #hanagaki takemichi #shinichirou sano #shinichiro sano #wakasa imaushi #tokyo revengers letter from baji keisuke #tokyo revengers letter from keisuke baji #tokyo revengers baji keisuke kara no tegami #tokyo revengers a letter from keisuke baji #izana kurokawa #kakucho #kokonoi hajime #inui seishu

[matan4il]

That CUPE poster is fake. I don't know why someone would try to frame a Canadian workers union like that, but that is NOT the kind of thing they post, ever. They are in support of minorities and deal with Canadian issues and working conditions, not international conflict. And they would absolutely NEVER make a horrific poster like that. See for yourself: instagram . com/cupeontario/ and instagram . com/cupe_scfp/ and they're on Twitter and stuff too. The pixelatedness of that poster speaks to how fake it is too, none of their other material looks anything like that. And while Fred Hahn has posted/retweeted some stuff about the conflict on his twitter, he has never posted anything inflammatory like that and the reply of his that is in the screenshot is replying to something completely different.

Hi Anon,

I'm gonna reply to you and to the following ask together.

https://www.tumblr.com/matan4il/742531713829404672 This is a faked image; CUPE may have problematic opinions, but it doesn't help anyone to falsify atrocious posters when the reality should be more than enough.

Here's the post in question, showing a poster with the photo of Shani Lock's stripped, raped and murdered body being kidnapped into Gaza. The poster has CUPE's logo, as well as a text that legitimizes the Oct 7 massacre. CUPE, as mentioned above, is a Candian workers union.

Here are the links to the two IG accounts of CUPE from the first ask. To fthe first anon, you're right that the poster in question does not currently appear on either, you're wrong that they don't touch upon international conflict, they def weighed in on this one (more on that later in my reply).

The poster does use the pink filter and the CUPE logo with the right font, but it's true that someone skilled enough with photoshop can fake that. At the same time, if that person was good enough to be able to copy that well CUPE's visuals, I doubt they would be "exposed" through pixelation, so rather than proof of photoshopping, the pixelation seems to be a result of zooming in on the poster to show just a part of Shani's body along with the text. That would make the pic appear pixelated, and then a screenshot was taken that way.

So far, I would say nothing's conclusive one way or another. The poster isn't on the IG accounts, but it could have been there and deleted, or could have been posted on another social media site to begin with, the visuals being the right ones doesn't prove anything, and neither does the pixelation. BUT since I noticed the dialogue about the poster seemed to have taken place on Twitter, I went to have a look there.

I found the post where someone quote retweeted Fred Hahn, asking him about that Oct 7 poster, along with Hahn's reply that CUPE had nothing to do with it, and then he added the false accusation of genocide, telling people to "focus" (because apparently Jewish pain is never the main focus, not even when we talk about the Holocaust, which is the term for the genocide of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis... there's a reason I mention this, I'll get back to it later). I will keep my mouth shut about how many ignorant, antisemitic, anti-Israel tweets I had to see as I was scrolling in order to get to the relevant one, I'll just say that workers unions that want to be safe for Jewish workers as well should do better than that, including when the heads of these unions post on their "personal" accounts (since they're not posting as a private person, they're posting as the head of said union). Here's the exchange, dated Feb 14:

But the person who challenged Fred Hahn did mention where this poster was supposedly originally shared:

Apparently, CUPE has local branches, with numbers, and each has their own Twitter account, so I went to CUPE 3906, and went all the way back to their tweets around Oct 7. Needless to say, this official account is full of anti-Israel, antisemitic propaganda, too. Now around the relevant date, what does their timeline look like? There's one last pre-war tweet on Oct 6, a general anti-colonial one re-tweeted on Oct 7 (even though the timing makes the context obvious, the wording doesn't explicitly mention either Israel or Gaza), and then the next, VERY interesting tweet is on Oct 11. Here's the relevant segment (obviously the tweets appear with the latest at the top, older below):

Here is that Oct 11 tweet, which is a statement made in response to backlash they got for a tweet that they say was "made in solidarity with Palestinians."

Only the first paragraph is truly relevant, but the last one is also telling. "As the death toll rises," they said, just a day after Israel's counter action started, and while Israel was still counting its dead from the deadliest day in the history of this conflict, and the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Still, the more important part is that if there had been nothing wrong with the tweet they refer to in the 1st paragraph, it should have still been up on their account, but it's not. Something was there and deleted, because there's now NO TWEET between Oct 6 and this statement, that could explain getting backlash... Deleting the tweet indicates they KNOW something was wrong with it, and they no longer wish to be publicly associated with it. But what was it? Have a look at this tweet, replying to CUPE 3906 on Oct 11:

It explicitly mentions rape. If the above poster was a fake, photoshopped and shared online in February 2024, how did someone posting in October 2023 know to mention rape specifically, and not just CUPE 3906's general justification of the massacre?

I can't prove anything one way or another regarding a deleted tweet, and with the progress of fake images, no one else can either. But I feel like the general progression of events indicates to me that it's more likely the poster is real, CUPE 3906 realized they won't get away with it, deleted it, and then they all closed ranks, claiming the screenshot is fake. Again, whatever they posted in the deleted tweet had to be real bad for even people as one-sided as they are (with all of the anti-Israel and antisemitic stuff they do proudly still have up on their accounts), that they were compelled to delete it. And justifying not just the massacre, but the rape specifically, might just do that.

Now let me get back to the IG accounts that the first ask pointed to, because even though they post less frequently than the multiple Twitter CUPE accounts, they're still very clear regarding this union's bias, and I'll also get back to that Holocaust mention, as promised.

I did not find a single post of solidarity with or compassion for Jews on either IG account following the Hamas massacre. I did find, on the Ontario account (and cross posted to Twitter, too) shared on Oct 10 a post that states they stand with the colonized over the colonizer, while the image (as well as their anti-Israel tweets) makes it clear they're erasing Jewish history and native rights in the Land of Isral and Jerusalem. The image could have been inclusive, show both mosques and the Western Wall, but nope. Jews are excluded from this image of our holy city and historical capital.

I also found a post about Holocaust Remembrance Day, which presents the Holocaust as including Jews. To make it clear, as someone who works in the field of studying this: "The Holocaust" is a term which is meant to reflect the Nazi intention to fully annihilate the Jews, something that didn't characterize their policy with other minorities. This is why we distinguish the Holocaust, the genocide of the Jews, from the persecution of other minorities by the Nazis. BOTH matter, and we talk about and educate against both, but they do have different characteristics, and so these are events, which are related, but CANNOT be reduced into one framing term. It is so problematic, talking about an event that was specifically about the Jews, as 'including Jews.' But let's say maybe that was ignorance, a lot of people don't get this distinction. CUPE's text doesn't mention antisemitism once, in a post about the most extreme antisemitic event in history, at a time when antisemitism is reaching its peak since WWII. When CUPE posted nothing else about this rise in Jew hatred, this text is just NOT good enough.

And what makes it even more obvious that CUPE is not treating Jews as it does other minorities, is that the same account DOES include posts that are specific to other communities, and does center the term for their hatred and persecution. They shared a post about a mosque attack that occurred in 2017, and in the text, they don't hesitate standing in solidarity specifically with Muslims, and against Islamophobia. So, to CUPE, 6 murdered Muslims are worthy of centering in the post about them (rightly so), but at least 6 million murdered Jews are not. Worse, the post then goes on to repeat the false claim about a genocide in Gaza. It also mentions the rise in Islamophobia following the war, even though they posted NOTHING, on NONE of the accounts I looked at, which recognizes the much greater rise in antisemitism we've seen over the same period of time, and which was launched by an attack on Jews.

The bilingual account, which I guess is a national one, didn't even mention Holocaust Remembrance Day. But on the very same date (Jan 27), it did mention the 2017 mosque attack, as well as Islamophobia, anti-Palestinians, but not a word on antisemitism.

All of this together is so upsetting, shows such a deep lack of concern for the well being of Jews, such a strong bias against the Jewish state and Jewish identity, that I honestly wonder whether that one poster is truly an issue. If it was posted by CUPE 3906, as I tend to believe by all signs I've seen, it seems to be a continuation of everything CUPE is completely unashamed of. And if they didn't share that poster, well... I guess there's a certain amount of poetic justice about being accused of something you didn't do, and no one listening to you protesting against the lie, eh CUPE?

You're welcome to do with this what you will.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #antisemitism #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #terrorism #anti terrorism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish #israelunderattack #ask #anon ask

[pyjamaart]

I never needed such help / This is my SOS

(Content warning: self harm) (If you don't have a problem with that, huge Drillman essay under the read more lol)

When I said that I wanted to draw Drillman some more, this really wasn't what I had in mind.

This week, I've been shopping for music on various second hand sites, which made me realize I don't physically own one of my all time favorite albums: "Squaring The Circle" by Sneaker Pimps. I had to change that immediately. (As well as buying like 15 other CDs and vinyls, lol.) As I was listening to it once again, I realized just how much the song "SOS" reminded me of Drillman and his struggles.

If you don't want to look it up, here are some of the lyrics:

"I look much smaller seen from inside out/Far too small to see myself/Down on reflection, cast in hate and in doubt/Flawed and flaws I add myself"

"Oh mirror mirror hanging on the wall/Please just show me someone else/My hopes were low and I got so much so less/Nothing left to save myself"

Listen, this dude got some major problems with his self esteem. He feels like an embarrassment because he was forced into a life he never wanted by his father. Now he seeks revenge on the company that bought his families business, along with him and apparently his bodily autonomy. Think about that for a minute. How fucked would it be if your parents wanted you to be a doctor, but a requirement for that would be to have your hand surgically removed and replaced with a scalpel. That's the exact situation Drillman found himself in.

Now a lot of people probably think "Well why doesn't he just ask Dr. Light to give him a new pair of hands then, if he's this miserable?" This is where we get to one of Drillmans biggest problems: the refusal to ask for help in any way. And even after the finale of the season, why would he go to the Lights for help in the first place? Wasn't it Aki who thought the best way to help him through his problems was hypnotism? And in the process embarrassing him in front of the whole city, ruining the last bit of reputation he may have had? (For real though, that episode is so hard for me to watch. I just feel so so bad for him, since I really struggle with social anxiety myself.)

As the guys from the Youtube channel "The D-Pad" (who reviewed all of the MMFC episodes) fittingly commented: "This would be like fucking Vietnam for him." And they were right. Obviously, Drillman is horrified that Aki would humiliate him like this and lashes out, solidifying his opinion that asking for help is a bad idea.

In that episode, there's this one moment that really stuck with me. At around the 8 minute mark, while Drillman is having a breakdown over the terrible "music" Aki made him perform, there's this one shot where he takes a moment to look at the drills that replaced his hands in frustration. The camera perspective makes it seem as if we are experiencing this brief scene through his eyes. It's actually quite upsetting. (A link to the moment I'm talking about: youtu.be/OC_jdhoeTrE?si=ZPzAXu…)

This is also a perfect moment for me to gush over the voice acting for this scene. Andrew McNee did such a fantastic job of conveying Drillmans distress and anger through his voice. That reminds me, giving him a British accent was honestly such a good decision.

The reason he doesn't talk at all throughout most of his first appearance is probably because the writers wanted to surprise their audience a little. As in, you see this big, imposing construction robot and think "Oh man, what a brute. He probably has a pretty deep voice." And then he actually starts to speak and it's this sophisticated, well-articulated British voice instead. Quite the whiplash.

To get back to the original topic, I'm honestly still upset that they didn't give Drillman a redemption arc at the end of the show. This probably would have happened in season 2, as Mega Man even says at some point "I know deep down your inner bits are good", proving to me that the writers definitely had something in mind regarding Drillmans character arc.

And now that all of that is out of the way, we can finally get into headcanon territory.

You might have seen this image while browsing the tags and asked yourself, "Why is this Mega Man Fully Charged artwork littered with content warnings?" And well, now that you're here and reading this, you probably know why. I can't say I've ever made myself sick with a drawing before. That's a first for me.

My headcanon is, that after the finale of the show, Drillman is just utterly lost. Lord Obsidian, who sought him out specifically because he knew of Drillmans problems and offered him a place to stay and a way to get revenge on the people he thought responsible for his predicament, turned out to be a horribly racist human who was just using him to achieve his own devious goals. After getting his ass kicked by the Lights, the same people who had not only humiliated him in front of the whole city, but who had also left him stuck to his abusive father for an entire day (I bet that ride to the police station was horrible for all the people involved, most of all the police bots who had to hear the Drillmen yell at each other the whole time), Sgt. Night is detained by the police. We don't actually see what happens after that, because that's where the show ends.

I'd like to think that the Lights actually try to talk to the robot masters once everything is over, telling them all the horrible things their so-called "leader" has said and done. And most importantly, what he thinks of robots: That they're nothing but tools to him. That once they had gotten him his Mega key, he would have wiped their minds and turned them into mindless machines.  

I'm guessing none of the robot masters would take these news well, but most of all Drillman. I think that after he ran away from Skyraisers Inc. and fought Mega Man for the first time, he was really relieved to have some place to stay and a new goal, maybe even a robot to look up to. That being Lord Obsidian of course. Who knows what lies he told Drillman and the others? Kinda sad that we never really got to see what the robot masters who stayed with Lord Obsidian did the entire day. When they weren't causing havoc in the city, that is.

None of them seemed really friendly with each other in the finale, now that I think about it. I guess "Obsidians robot sanctuary" wasn't really a great place to stay at after all. But still better than being homeless, like that one maniac living in the forest all by himself. Speaking of Woodman, in my AU, he and Drillman already knew each other at this point. This also reminds me of something I forgot to mention in my last post. While I'd love to see them interact in any way, because they're both my favorite characters, I don't ship them in any way whatsoever. I'd also like to think that Woodman and Drillmans father were schoolmates back in the day, maybe even friends? (I'm still holding onto those 30 years).

Anyway, after all the former robot comrades part ways, now without a leader, what was Drillman supposed to do? Once again betrayed by a trusted figure, feeling useless and without purpose, still with these stupid drills mounted to his body... Still too ashamed to ask for help. After all that has happened in the past few hours he begins spiraling, which ultimately leads him to make a very unfortunate decision. Trying to get at least some of the freedom in his life back, he attempts to get rid of the drills making up his body on his own, using the same tools that have haunted him all this time to finally rid himself of this burden.

He regrets this just seconds after, when he's left with an unresponsive limb, metal and wires exposed and oil splattered all over his orange plating. All he can do is stare at the stained drill in front of him in horror.

"I never needed such help/This is my SOS"

Jesus Christ that got dark. Sorry. I mentioned in my last post that Drillman possibly has really bad body dysmorphia, which I'm also trying to convey here. Don't worry, he really gets his hands back after this. Maybe the Lights find him after that and the good Doctor offers to fix him up. By which I mean not only his arm. Because apparently, Dr. Light also doubles as robot psychologist. I just really need Drillman to get his happy ending. He really really deserves it after everything he had to go trough over the course of the show. 

I also need him to have a DJing redemption, besides the normal redemption. I've seen people headcanon that he exclusively likes classical music, but I personally don't believe that. He'd be the kind of music nerd who would say stuff like "I listen to everything" and then you look at his playlists and he actually listens to everything. Maybe not experimental noise rock, though. I can just imagine Aki and Suna helping him put on an actual show, this time without any hypnotizing bullshit, as a way for Aki to apologize for the dread he's caused Drillman during that incident. Drillman would be highly suspicious at first, but actually goes along with it in the end. Maybe they'd also take Fireman along, who Dr. Light also blessed with a brand new pair of hands. The punchline at the end would be that Drillman would have so much anxiety about embarrassing himself again, that he forgets to make an actual set list for the gig. In the end, he exclusively plays Lady Gaga songs, which no one complains about.

Alright then, enough yapping from me. I've really been writing this essay since 8pm. And now it's 2am. My god. I just have a lot of feelings about Drillman.

But now I really gotta go to bed. Stay safe peeps. I hope you actually read the content warnings. Jenny out.

#oh man i would like to formally apologize for this #just throwing my favorite blorbo into the shredder over here #if anyone needs me to add any other content or trigger warnings please please tell me i really dont wanna upset anyone with this #megaman #mega man #mega man fully charged #mmfc #drillman #drill man #self harm tw #its robot sh but juuuust in case yknow #robot gore tw

[lazywitchling]

Alright, here we go. My review for The Dabbler's Guide to Witchcraft by Fire Lyte

Final rating: ??/10 - it broke my numbers system.

TL;DR - I like the book. I'm angry at the author. It's great for new practitioners. If you're going to get it, please get it from the Spiral House Shop, get Alex Wrekk's two witchcraft zines to go with it, and go look at/reblog/contribute to the original Dabbler's Week project.

(Also I think this is the longest review I've written yet. I'm sorry.)

This book is very good. I'm mad about that. The author is an excellent writer. I'm mad about that. I want to dislike this book but I can't, and I'm mad about that.

So let's get into the breakdown of why.

First up, a housekeeping thing: "Fire Lyte" is a pen name that I don't believe the author uses anymore, so I will be referring to him as Don Martin, the name he is using on his current projects. I know he's on TikTok, formerly of Inciting a Riot podcast, now of Head on Fire podcast.

Second, some links relevant to the review-which-is-actually-just-a-rant:

The breakdown of things I found that were taken uncredited from Tumblr

I COULD be making this up and reading it in bad faith, but this bit about 'heteronormative marriage' has my alarm bells ringing

Why I hate the title of this book

The original Dabbler's Week project links

Anyway.

I picked this book up specifically because of the title. It's been 3 years since it was published, so it took me a while, but I remember looking at that title when it was first out and thinking "Hey... the timing of this... did this person just wholesale lift the 'Dabbler' idea from Tumblr?"

The answer is: Yes, probably!

(He also summarized the Malachite Dick post from February 2020, but he actually credited Tumblr along with relevant usernames, so that's good and also made me laugh.)

But... yeah. The fact that he's crediting Tumblr from something that specifically happened in February 2020, when the original Dabbler's Week was from late January 2020 and seems to have inspired his whole book? Don, would it have killed you to mention ANYTHING about that project and the people involved?

He's very big on talking about following trails of information, listening to podcasts, listening to the podcasts of people talked about on those podcasts, reading books talked about on those podcast, and so on. But if he doesn't start off by saying "Dabbler's Week was a project issued by asksecularwitch on Tumblr", then how is anyone supposed to follow THAT chain of information, hmm? If his whole advice on finding good witchcraft resources is to follow the chain of people who are sharing information from each other, but he makes no mention of where he got the whole idea for his book, then what?

Side rant: I'm real tired of how Tumblr information is simultaneously treated as too shitty to ever bother reading or mentioning, but good enough to screenshot, repost on other sites, recite word-for-word on tiktok, and apparently write a book about.

ANYWAY. I'm angry about it. I'm gonna be angry about it. Here, please look at these links to the shenanigans that began the original Dabbler's Week, because Don certainly won't tell you about this part.

Anyway.

Some bad things:

I mean, the plagiarism. I keep hesitating to use the word 'plagiarism', because to me that seems like wholesale lifting entire works and slapping your name on them, when all Don did was fail to credit a few Tumblr users he quoted. But then again, if I did that on a research paper in college, it would be called plagiarism, so.

This book is in fact not a great guide for 'dabblers'. The point of Dabbler's Week was that if someone didn't know if they wanted to commit to witchcraft but wanted to fuck around with casting some spells for a week to try it out, there were week-long guides on things someone could do to try that. This book is not for fucking around with magic, it's for people who are already sure that they want to make this a thing in their lives. It handles some heavier topics (e.g. vetting mentors and not getting sucked into a cult) that are very very important for someone who is BEGINNING, but may be too much for someone who just says one day "lol I think I'll cast a spell for fun". A far more accurate title would have been "The Beginner's Guide to Witchcraft", but then he'd lose that punchy and marketable and googleable term 'dabbler'. (Yes, I'm going to be petty about this.)

"Wow Jes, it sounds like you really hated this book."

NO I DIDN'T, AND I'M SO MAD ABOUT THAT!

Some good things:

The author has a writing style that I enjoyed very much. This is a personal preference, but I like when books are either written so that the author is fully invisible (Bree Landwalker's books do this wonderfully), or the author is fully visible, like they're sitting at the table having a conversation with you (Kelly-Ann Maddox's 'Rebel Witch' comes to mind, as does Alex Wrekk's 'Brainscan 33: DIY Witchery'). Don Martin is the table conversation kind. That makes this book very easy to read, while also getting information across in an easily-understood sort of way.

This book fills a very necessary gap in modern witching books. It talks about the online community of witches, and a lot of the pitfalls that have come along with the bonuses of having so much witchcraft available at our social-media connected fingertips.

He gets very in depth with things like cultural appropriation. That's something that you can find in a lot of modern witch books, but Don actually spends the time breaking the concept down and explaining WHY it's harmful, HOW it affects people, and quotes people from the affected minority groups. I have seen the appropriation topic come up in a lot of the witch books I've read, but Don is the one who has covered the topic the best, imo.

He spends time on topics that I myself would have been dismissive of. The example that comes to mind is the chapter 'Can I Make Sh*t Up?' My knee jerk reaction was "Yes, you can make your own spells, you don't need to get someone else's permission. Next question." But Don goes through the full breakdown of yes you can make up your own spells, yes you can make your own correspondences, but no that doesn't mean you can just throw a water soluble crystal in your water bottle because you think it's good for cleansing.

Actually on that topic, he covers a lot of the why not just the what. It's not just 'appropriation is bad', it's 'and here's why'. It's not just 'research your herbs', it's 'here's some examples of things that can and have gone wrong.'

SPELL CANVASES! There are 11 'spell canvases' in this book, and they're pretty much all just kids/teens science experiments (e.g. dissolving an egg shell in vinegar, lighting a tea bag on fire so it flies, and using food dye to color a white flower). He does not give intentions for these spells, but gives a spell technique and then some examples of how you could apply your own purpose/intention to it as needed. It's actually pretty smart, and now I wish there was more stuff like this.

He actually explains what UPG means. Man, 'UPG' is one of those things that I keep seeing as a 'I don't know what that means and I'm to afraid to ask' blog post. When someone pops into the witchy social media circles, we can throw the term 'UPG' around as if everyone knows what it means, and forget to actually explain that it's Unverified Personal Gnosis and what that means. Don's got us covered. Good on you, Don.

The one throwaway line about why you don't have to buy fancy witch things. Tucked away in chapter 12 is this almost nothing-sentence mentioning why you shouldn't be "going broke hoping to buy your way into 'effective' magic" (pg. 161). I have seen, reblogged, probably written posts about 'No you don't need the fancy tools! You can just use whatever! But you CAN buy them if you want, you just don't NEED them.' And we've all seen those around, right? But damn, if Don didn't just get to the heart of it. You can't buy your way into skill. YES, Don, THAT!! THANK YOU.

Alright. I'm running out of words. This isn't a review, it's a rant. Holy shit. Let me shut up with a TL;DR

Almost without doubt, Don liked Tumblr's idea enough to write a book about it, but failed to give credit. But he's an excellent writer and covers a lot of topics that are not often written about in printed books, and to get those blogosphere-ideas onto bookshelves is invaluable. This is a good book for beginners starting out in witchcraft, but not for dabblers who just want to screw around with some spells. Do the pros outweigh the cons? Is it ethical to buy a book when the author gets royalties but the bloggers he got the idea from do not? I don't know. I can't tell you that. You'll have to weigh all this against your own moral compass and decide for yourself. My recommendation is that if you're going to buy it, please buy it from the Spiral House Shop, because if Don Martin's going to get paid for this book, Alex Wrekk should too. Buy Alex's zines. Reblog Sec's posts. Links are up at the top.

#jes vs witch books #drama in your llama #navigation: reviews

[eepop-stuffs]

Btw here's some dope ass images and assets from the Fulla website

The polished and fancy heart swirl borders are from the reboot era version of the site. Anything with the wide heart and pastel pink/purple is from the reboot era. Before then the aesthetic was much more vibrant and more focused on a butterfly and flower motif. During the older era she used more hot pink and magenta, as well.

Still really want to know who the artist for Fulla is, maybe I could look for the rest of their possible work for the brand that way.

These are all that's left of the website since the website is mostly inaccessible through the internet archive, and almost every image asset is hard to find. The more modern website versions are extremely broken, and the most clear archive of it from the wiki is from 2006, and from the US version. The 2006 US version does have a lot of important things in it, however. It has a catalog from that time frame, one or two of the music videos, and an English translation of her theme song (which means we now have two confirmed translations, Indonesian and English)

(Above is an image of the Fulla mission statement from the website archive)

Fun fact about the mission statement: in Arabic it actually translates to "Every Arab Girl's Dream" which may be a little off bc I used Google translate but it seems simple enough that It shouldn't be too far off.

The website was advertised to have games from around 2010-11 and are labeled as "funs" on the website according to the site map URLs. None of these "funs" links lead to anything at all, as it says the website wasn't archived. I'm actually not sure whether there were actually flash games or some other type of interactive thing, but the controllers that pop up during the ad for the site leads me to believe they had at least something.

It is confirmed that they had coloring pages, though. Once again, according to the URLs that are not archived and do not function.

This all really frustrates me because the ad never showed what the website even looked like, and the only other place that possibly (like super possibly, I don't even know if it is of the website) could have a screenshot, the fulla house playset, changed the computer sticker graphic before release, along with a lot of the other stickers being turned into random product photos instead of cute detailed artwork (which is a decision I actually despise like omg)

The only things we have are what are saved in the internet archive's dumps of archived images. Any other file doesn't really work at all.

As of now, the fulla website, no matter what time frame you pick up until 2021, had a flash loading screen that you can't get past using normal means.

I am actually so mad that I can't find anything about this. Any other major doll website is completely able to be accessed, even the winx club one which has a similar issue with the loading screen. From past experiences before the winx site's arcive apparently just stopped doing it, the loading screen would lead to a pop-up window of something else which I forgot the contents of. So that may be the issue here, but I wouldn't know what's causing it or how to fix it.

All I want is a SINGLE SCREENSHOT OR RECORDING and i will die happy...😭

Because I'm a poor little high school child I sadly do not have the means to purchase a VPN. Maybe I could just do a free trial and cancel it after I've got what I needed, but there's not even a guarantee there will even be more if I look with a VPN.

#fulla dolls #muslim dolls #lost media #Youtube

[comicaurora]

With the ubiquity of Webtoons, it is apparently becoming less and less feasible for an author to start up a webcomic that they host themself and then actually garner and audience. How do you feel about the possibility that, supposing you are able to sustain Aurora to completion, 10 years from now Aurora might be one of the last of the traditional style?

Oh, I doubt that. If by "traditional style" you mean "one complete print-ready page at a time", infinite-scroller one-panel-at-a-time comics are a completely different animal, stylistically speaking. It's more like a reel of film or an animatic you scroll through than a comic. There are things you can do with it that you can't do with traditional paneling, and things you can do with traditional paneling you can't do with that. It's a "two cakes" situation - a functionally distinct art form with different strengths and weaknesses. Just look at what a webtoon looks like when it's printed in book form - all those straight-line panels have to be cut up and floated onto a single page.

It's not a style you favor if printing is a consideration from the get-go, like with some of the oldest webcomics that originally made the jump from traditional publishing to the much-less-annoying world of online distribution. They panels fit together because that's what they were meant to do, it leaves less empty space on the page and it's overall a smoother transition from online to print because the pages are basically already done.

And if "traditional style" means "independently run," well, comics and webcomics have, to my knowledge, always been a largely unprofitable venture for the individual creator, at least until physical book sales and merch enter the equation, and the question "how do I get people to read my webcomic" was never an easy one to answer - it hasn't gotten more difficult with time. Conglomerates like Webtoons and Hiveworks give creators an easier answer to that question by providing centralized hosting and advertising, but the mechanisms that made early webcomics work haven't appreciably changed. Anyone can buy a domain name, plug in some Wordpress tools and go to town, same as they could back in 2005. I'd say it hasn't gotten less feasible to be independent, it's just that sticking with a conglomerate is a (theoretically) simpler route to views and success that didn't exist in the early days of the 'net.

And the thing is, that doesn't mean they're better for everyone. If a conglomerate tool existed that would've let me make my comic site exactly how I wanted it to - with spaces for lore, maps, additional content, etc - I probably would've done that instead of starting from scratch, since lots of the backend structuring work would've already been done for me. But Webtoons comics are, as mentioned, completely stylistically different from mine, and Hiveworks submissions are closed, plus they design their own site for you and also lock themselves in as your publisher. I personally don't like it when other people take creative control out of my hands, and there are plenty of artists that feel the same way.

If anything, the rise of social media and the centralization of the net into things like twitter and reddit (and even tumblr) makes it theoretically simpler to get your independent comic noticed than back in the wild west early days, because now you know where a potential audience for your work is hanging out. Back in the old days I don't even remember how I found some of the comics I read religiously - maybe TVTropes links, thinking about it? But that was basically all they had for discoverability! From my perspective it's only gotten easier to get the word out about a project you're working on, and while part of that is because there are now large hosting platforms that comic artists can sign onto, part of it is a level of interconnectedness that has only grown with time that allows the work of independent creators to be discovered, shared and spread faster than ever.

#asks #art stuff #writing stuff #behind the curtain

[kratioed]

GOW | NORSE MYTHOLOGY: “VÁLI & NARFI” It’s clear that “Hel” will one day appear in future installments, as hinted in both GOW (2018) and Ragnarök, but anyone who is a myth enthusiast knows that Loki had other children besides his monstrous offspring in Norse Mythology because interestingly enough, GOW’s wiki community decided to include "Váli & Narfi" despite no evidence of their existence whatsoever throughout the Norse era.

Of course, it’s also a fandom site; while they can be a reliable source, said sources on their encyclopedia are sometimes inaccurate. Knowing the impossibility of their existence, I also thought about how they can coexist throughout the GOWverse (EDIT UPDATE 2/1/2024: Recently, the GOW's wiki community updated Atreus' "uncertain future" category and the links to Váli's & Narfi's wiki pages no longer existed. Doesn't mean it'll stop me from enjoying my fun! 😎). And the more I thought about it, the more apparent it became that they’re essential for the franchise…but it’s more like my personal headcanon rather than my “crack” theory. And so- I thought it would be fun to share my overly long detailed analysis with those who are fixated on Atreus’ other (im)possible children as much as I am because I need this to get it out of my system since they have been living rent-free in my head for almost a year just now.

Not only I'm doing this for shits and giggles- but also because this blog is now officially a Váli & Narfi stan account! Kratos would have LOVED his grandsons if they ever appeared in GOW, but it's very unlikely that would happen. This analysis would be a long one...so bear with me!

I think it would be poetic for God of War to end off including Váli & Narfi (alongside Atreus) for the final conclusion of the franchise. And yes, Hel would be an adult in this timeskip, contrary to popular belief that they were children in Norse Mythology. Despite their unfortunate demise, their backgrounds are nothing like their half-siblings’ in the Norse Mythos, making them the most ordinary of all Loki’s children. But you know what?- The concept of Váli & Narfi being the epitome of normality of all Loki’s offspring gave me an a idea; I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but Váli & Narfi (from Norse Mythology) exhibit some similarities to Kratos & Deimos. Before the Olympians (Athena and Ares) pursued one of the brothers due to a doomsday prophecy, Kratos & Deimos believed they were mere mortals during childhood as they still fit the epitome of normality as children, similarly to Váli & Narfi. They’re also gods at birth, but the only difference is that Váli & Narfi most likely knew about their divine nature, whereas Kratos (excluding Deimos) only discovered it later in adulthood (a silly parallel, but I still think it counts). Another example would be in the parallel dynamics of Váli & Kratos, as they both had experiences where they succumbed to their primal instincts in different circumstances; Váli unwillingly turned into a wolf and killed his brother driven by primal instincts under the Æsir’s (or presumably Odin’s) influence, almost similar to how Kratos was deceived and unaware, killed his first wife and daughter fueled by his primal desire for blood under Ares’ influence. While Váli’s fate remains unknown after Loki's Punishment, we can infer that both Váli & Kratos are the only survivors other than their brother. While the deaths of Narfi & Deimos are an obvious parallel, they're also linked to Bounds and Punishment in distinct ways; like Váli, Narfi was punished with his entrails used as bounds in retribution against his father, as well as due to his relation with Loki while Deimos, on the other hand, was bound and punished due to his existence as the "Marked Warrior" (same thing goes with Kratos since he too was also bound and punished at one point in Ascension).

Also; they were all subjected to violence as children inflicted by Gods. Consequently, it ultimately led the downfall of both Æsir & Olympians, as predicted by their prophecy. The prophecy of the "Marked Warrior" bringing destruction upon Olympus began the moment they abducted Deimos. The sufferings of Kratos' family (including Sparta and Pandora) at the hands of Gods contributes the downfall of Olympus. Their tragedies are the major cause of Kratos' justified vengeance to destroy the entire pantheon, ultimately leading the devastation of the Greek world.

In Norse Mythology (with my limited knowledge); Odin's and the Æsir's retaliation on Loki's monstrous children, particularly Fenrir, due to prophecies contributes their downfall in Ragnarök, especially with their involvement in Loki's Punishment. However, I believe that the suffering of Váli & Narfi at the hands of Æsir Gods is the primary cause for Loki's justified desire for vengeance- the Æsir's use of Narfi's entrails, his own son, as restraints adds insult to injury, intensifying Loki's anger. Obviously, Loki joined forces with those against Æsir Gods with his army of Hel's people while the events of Ragnarök lead the devastation throughout the lands.

But since this is GOW- I found this YouTube comment, which I've kept for quite some time, that perfectly said my thoughts out loud:

With the absence of Loki's Punishment; not only Kratos saved Váli & Narfi from Æsir's (particularly Odin's) wrath, he also prevented a similar tragedy that would inflict upon his grandsons the same way that Gods once inflicted upon him and Deimos as children (for now...just because Loki's Punishment never happened in Norse era doesn't mean they're safe. It's possible that the fates of Váli & Narfi could still happen in different scenarios- but this is a happy ending I'm talking about, so let's keep it that way 😌).

Now, moving along!- Notice the quotation marks around their names in the title post? There's a reason for that. It would have been so simple for Santa Monica to have Atreus name his sons "Váli & Narfi" as everyone expected from Norse Mythology, but I have to object. For several reasons; from what I've heard, there has been a debate about whether Váli is a son of Odin or Loki, or both Valis existed as sperate characters. Additionally, in GOWR, there's already a boss character named Vali (The Oath Guard), which I assumed it's a cultural practice for parents to name their child after a Norse god in Scandinavian countries (correct me if I'm wrong)- but I find it unlikely for Atreus to name one of his children after an Æsir (or any god in general). Similarly, Narfi shares a name with another Giant unrelated to Loki whatsoever. And given the wide variety of Gods and other mythological figures we've seen from Greek Mythology depicted in GOW, it wouldn't be surprising if other Narfi and (particularly) Váli Odinson were to mentioned or featured in future installments. And lastly, "Loki" is known as Atreus in GOW. "Hel," obviously, will be given a different name in the future. If Santa Monica can give "Loki" & "Hel" alternative names through creative liberties...then they can do the same thing with "Váli & Narfi." HERE'S MY IDEA: If you're not aware or need a reminder, Atreus gets to learn about Deimos during "Animal Instincts" side quest. Whether you choose to bring Atreus or Freya doesn't matter, it doesn't change the fact that Santa Monica had intended for Atreus to know about his uncle. It's still canon either way. And ngl "Death can have me when it earns me" from Kratos' line seems kinda foreshadowing...but I digress. Kratos named his son after Atreus of Sparta, the man who smiled in the darkest times, reminding others of the presence of humanity among war machines. I've also seen some suggestions that Hel's name could be Faye, Laufey, or even Calliope...but for "Váli & Narfi"...imagine how emotional it'll be if Atreus were to name his sons, Kratos (II) & Deimos (II). Váli Kratos II; named after his grandfather, was once a monster with the ability to change and open his heart into a benevolent god, symbolizing as the beacon of hope. And Narfi Deimos II; named after his great uncle, whom Atreus had known but never met, but wishes they had, honored his uncle by naming his son after him. There are hearsay, or statements from Cory Barlog (correct me if I'm wrong), that Kratos couldn't bring himself to name his son after Deimos due to painful memories. Atreus, on the other hand, is open to idea of his own son bearing Deimos' name...

EDIT UPDATE 3/7/2024: Just recently discovered in Greek Culture, it's common for children to be named after their grandparents- in which, aligns with my case for "Váli" to be named after his grandfather! Even though "Narfi" is named after his great uncle, I like to imagine this also apply the same thing in the context of GOW!

And also!- besides Narfi Lokison having a similar name with the other Narfi, it gets a little more confusing that there's a alternate version where Narfi's brother is named "Nari," and this time, Narfi is the one who turned into a wolf and kills Nari.

But Narfi's name later changed to Váli...

I initially assumed this version of Narfi & Nari was created due to speculation about Váli being Odin's son instead of Loki's or error translation. Nevertheless, this gave me another idea... Small reminder that Kratos sees himself and Deimos through Speki & Svanna. How about we merge both versions (Váli & Narfi / Narfi & Nari) together? Both can shapeshift into wolves, establishing their connection to Loki. Not only they mirror Kratos & Demios through Speki & Svanna, but also made them character foils for Kratos & Deimos (and considering the fact that Kratos mistaken Speki & Svanna as boys while foreshadowing his doting relationship with his future grandsons 🥺🥺🥺 lemme be delusion).

Because if you think about it...both his father and uncle are reunited once again, reliving their childhoods together through "Váli & Narfi" that Kratos & Deimos never had as children.

And that's about it! If you managed read through this wall of text, then congratulations!- here's a quick idea of what I envisioned Váli/Kratos II as your award:

He has his grandfather's looks in youth (which I tried to replicate) along with Kratos' amber eyes and Atreus' freckles. Narfi/Deimos II, on the other hand, is difficult to imagine...but it's very obvious he was born with the iconic birthmark like his great uncle. Anywho, hope you guys enjoy this read! It took me months to get this finish.

#Kratioed's Headcanons #Kratos (II) Lokison #Deimos (II) Lokison #Norse Mythology #Loki #Váli #Vali #Narfi #Narvi #Narfi and Váli #Narfi and Vali #Vali Lokison #Narvi Lokison #God of War #Atreus #Kratos #Deimos #gow #gow Atreus #gow Kratos #gow Deimos #God of War: Ragnarök #God of War: Ragnarok #God of War Ragnarök #God of War Ragnarok #gow Ragnarök #gow Ragnarok #God of War oc #long post #long text

[lol-jackles]

https://www.tumblr.com/lol-jackles/741426596160946176

Here is the post:

https://incarnateirony.tumblr.com/post/741037569962377216/im-a-complete-outsider-in-whatever-hell-is-going

Link. Goob has always been one of those parasitic zebra mussels who go from fandom to fandom attaching themselves to communities and colonizing them and sucking the life force from it and then get mad when the actual fans start pushing back against them. So for Goob is go apeshit when his ex is apparently doing the same but at his expense is never not funny. I admit, if she is really charging people "for her obsession with [goob]" I might kick over a few bucks to her patreon because you know stories from the ex-wife is gonna be gooooood.

Goob's obsession over his ex at the core is due to an unfulfilled personal life, especially since he doesn't have a current partner. So to keep that void filled in his own personal life, he engages in stalking and aggressive tactics and verbal abuses toward the ex in get her to react and respond. A quick look at Goob's site display his many, many posts insulting his ex while obsessing over her new life without him.

Goob's mind always makes as much sense as screen doors on submarines. The problem when you [Goob] lie to distort others’ perception, you [Goob] forget that it also distorts your own reality. He's basically a methhead who contributes nothing of value to cultured while slathering himself in gasoline, lit a match, and screams why am I burning?!?!' In other words, Goob created an entire fandom culture about watching him fail.

My advice none of you asked for, if you get dumped, be like Dr. Spock when he let his ex-wife know in a typically Vulcan way that he’s over her.

#goob

[vikenticomeshome]

The Cyberchase Homepage Through the years: part 1 (December 28, 2001 through December 12, 2004)

I decided to collect some screenshots showing the evolution of the Cyberchase area on the pbskids.org website over the years. Keep in mind that this is based off Wayback Machine archives, so I am limited to whichever variants the web crawler captured. They didn't necessarily crawl every time the page updated. There may also be assets missing, as the Wayback Machine doesn't always grab everything.

Let's start with the earliest known capture. This is from December 28th, 2001. This was 24 days before the show premiered.

We can see links to the webisodes, which were a set of official prequel web comics. There is a link to the original e-card creation page, as well as a link to the "What is Cyberchase?" page that explains the premise of the show.

The next major revision came up after the show released. The earliest capture of this page was on February 2nd, 2002. However, I picked a capture from August 3rd, 2002, as it was the earliest capture that wasn't missing any assets. We can see Jackie setting down to play the old Cyberchase flash game "Symmetrizer", while Matt is leaning on a small table near the TV that is advertising Season 1 Episode 18 "Problem Solving in Shangri-la". Inez and Digit are missing for some reason. Why is Buzz here without Delete?

They made a Christmas version of this page. The only capture I found was from December 3rd of 2002. They put some lights around their logo. Matt is now wearing a Santa hat. Jackie has a giant bow in her hair. Inez and Digit are still nowhere to be found. Did Matt and Jackie kick them out for breaking the TV?

The earliest capture I found of the next major update to the site was from December 3, 2003. Does anyone remember the "PBS Kids Go!" rebranding where they tried to market some of their shows to slightly older audiences? Inez and Digit are finally allowed to be in the group photo. They now have two TVs, as well as some combination of a computer and arcade cabinet. Why are Buzz and Delete here?

This version of the site got a Valentine's Day update to promote Season 2 Episode 1 "Hugs and Witches". This capture is from February 8th, 2004.

So, this capture from June 9th, 2004 is the same version of the site as prior to the Valentine's Day update. However, I thought I should include it because Creech and Slider popped in for a cameo.

Here is a capture from June 6th, 2004. It contains a summer promotion by Delete. It also replaced Jackie with a clone of Inez. This may have been a mistake in the website itself, since it seems to randomly pick a kid to put in a place on this background. Otherwise, the Wayback Machine may have grabbed the wrong image somehow.

And then, they cloned Matt on June 27, 2004. This must have been a mistake in the webpage code where they put the same kid in two places.

Yeah, Jackie got her turn to be cloned on June 29, 2004.

There was a layout update that added a promotion for new shows. I grabbed this example from September 3rd, 2004. It also shows off a contest from the time, which deserves its own post.

Fast-forwarding to October 13th, 2004, we have the kids in their Halloween costumes from Season 2 Episode 14 "Trick or Treat". We also see an advertisement for Season 3 Episode 11, "Shari Spotter and the Cosmic Crumpets". Apparently, they also fixed the duplication glitch.

On November 11th, 2004 We get a link to the winners of that contest.

This capture from December 12, 2004 shows that the kids have decorated for Starlight Night. We also see an advertisement for Season 3 Episode 12 "Starlight Night".

This seems like a good place to leave of for now. I didn't realize how many variants there were until I got into it. I will make a part 2 at some point.

#2000s #cartoon #cyberchase #inez #jackie #nostalgia #matt #pbs kids #2000s childhood #longpost #archived web content

[ca77um-ilo77]

alright you have me convinced!! what should i know before i watch indycar next season??

yooo i'm so glad i convinced you!! this is a pretty long post, and is kind of all-over the place. i tried to break it up by general topic, but i'm adding randomly as i think, so just a warning. i'll add some info links i like at the bottom. (if you or anyone wants to talk indy or f1, asks or dms are so very welcome, i love making friends <3)

one thing about indy is unlike in basically every else, many cars look very different even when on the same team as well as special liveries that are nothing like their normal ones, so i'd recommend getting the indycar app (it's free and user friendly once you figure out the weird layout) as it has a spotter's guide. it also has onboard cameras and radios for free (!!!!).

indycar is (usually) a pretty friendly sport, but as is the case with american sports, we like chaos, so the drivers can pretty much say anything except swear words lol. there's a few different clips of drivers threatening each other, which is great. id say most drivers are friends or at least acquaintances, expect santino ferrucci (huge bigot, pay driver, got kicked out of f2 for extremely dirty driving, and i personally hate his hair) and often romain grosjean as he hits people a lot. as for 2024 rookies, kyffin simpson's dad bought him his seat, and kyle larson saying the n-word in 2020 means he has some really, really racist fans.

the safety rules are strict and the cars are very durable which is good for high-speed crashes. the safety people (shoutout amr indycar safety team i love y'all, amr the company i hate you more than i hate the fia) travel with the races and have extensive training. they are also stationed in places that allow quick access to any location on a track. this is most apparent at ovals as they are much faster and more dangerous. at the other races, they are stationed where there is higher likelihood for a more dangerous crash that needs faster reactions. they take trucks to the site that are full of basically anything that might be needed. this is especially important as indycar refuels and are at high risk of combustion compared to f1. the calling yellow flags is also a lot more liberal which is nice. during longer yellows, and reds at ovals they'll run a sweeper truck to clean the racing line so people don't slide into walls.

for flag code info, as i don't have the patience to write it out, it is is section 7.2 of the rule book (page 27). i've linked it at the bottom of the post.

with the cars, they're all required to have the same chassis and aren't allowed to change a huge amount, so the racing is mostly down to skill, though andretti, ganassi, penske, and mclaren are better as they have more money. there are two engine suppliers, honda and chevrolet, iirc (don't quote me here) chevy is a bit more powerful, but honda is a bit more handleable. fast pit stops are usually about 7 seconds due to smaller pit crews (7 people maximum) and refueling. each car also has it's own pit box as teams have variable car numbers based on what they can afford. firestone provides tires, and there are two compounds, primary and alternate, as well as a wet tire. primaries are the harder compound and have a black sidewall. alternates are softer and have a red sidewall, except at street circuits where it's green to signify all natural rubber. use of both compounds are required. on broadcast you'll hear them mention "sticker reds" which are just the brand new ones.

more tire info in section 15 of the rulebook (page 84). there's some complex rules if you like tires.

the biggest difference between indy cars and f1 is f1 has power steering, indy doesn't. if you watch onboards, the drivers are wrestling the car the whole time, and most of the racing comes down to skill. the actual racing is often chaotic (indycar app helps with this. i keep it open always) and since there are many pit stops in a race (the cars use a lot of fuel) the leaderboard will change a lot.

the points system is very different, i'll try to cover it as succinctly as i can but i'm going to put a link for the wiki on it at the bottom anyway. (this is going to be formatted real weird, but i want to be brief). p1 50; p2 40; p3 35; p4 32; 4th-10th decreases by 2; p10 20; 10th-25th decreases by 1; everything p25 down is 5 points. drivers get points for finishing the race, basically. (unless there's more than 33 finishers, then 34 down get nothing, but that doesn't really happen). there's some bonus points also, 1 for leading a lap, 2 for most laps led, and 1 for pole position. the final bonus is for indy 500 qualifying. top 12 get points from p1 getting 12, descending by 1, to p12 getting 1.

as for the circuits there's three types: ovals (6 races, 4 tracks), roads (6 races, +1 non-championship race), and street (5 races). ovals are very high speed with little to no breaking. road courses are just your average circuit made for racing, the roads tend to be a bit rougher than f1's but that's kinda just how american tracks are. street circuits are, well, on the street. american roads suck major dick. the smoothest indycar street circuit is comparable to the worst of f1's. very bumpy, usually some good crashes (watch 2023 st. petersburg start. shit was insane).

as a fan, i cannot recommend irl indy more. some races are busier than others, obviously, but it's cheap considering it's a big racing category. 3 day entry for the less major races is usually $60-ish, and paddock passes are an additional $120-ish. not 100% on the price for pit access, but that is a bundle with three day tickets usually. the races aren't super crowded and there isn't assigned seats which is nice. the paddock is super open (check my "fenrir indycar" tag, quick access on my pinned) and you are able to walk up to and touch the cars if you really want (i wouldn't) as well as have conversation with engineers if they're not busy. if you have pit access the drivers are usually just wandering around and are often happy to stop and talk/sign something when not busy. there's also a high risk of nearly getting run over by drivers on their scooters. will power is notorious for this.

for my non-americans, (love y'all) we are very happy to have a conversation with strangers. the indy fans are often thrilled to talk about their favorite drivers and thoughts with anyone. when i went id say the only bad experiences i had was getting overwhelmed (my fault, i went to a place that i knew would cause a meltdown) and my dad getting hit twice by a man in a golf cart twice (same guy, not my dad's fault, the cunt didn't try to move, warn him, or apologize, just hit him, let my dad stumble, hit him again. i'm still mad). the seats are usually right on the track, so it's extremely loud and smelly. 10/10 can not recommend irl indy enough. i am biased to the pnw and it's the only race i've been to, but the portland race is great. it's not got masses of people, you can walk right up to the track to watch with the only thing between you and the cars being a concrete wall and a fence, and as it's a smaller race with less fans compared to the east coast and mid-west races, it's cheaper. biggest con is its built on a swamp, so super humid. (another pro, i'll be there <3 [joke.])

any questions you've got or clarification needed, my notifications are on and i'll respond to relevant stuff as soon as i see it.

LINKS:

rule book (clicking on a section of the table of contents will take you there)

points format wiki

schedule (tickets can be bought here)

app link

2024 series wiki (so helpful)

#f1 #indycar #fenrir indycar #indy 500 #2023 indycar #2024 indycar #formula 1 #anti santino ferrucci #portland indycar #ask #anonymous #anon

[lily-orchard]

Okay so I have the "source" that Brittany and Courtney are using to claim I'm apparently on CP sites.

The source is an anon. And even Brittany admits that the post linked was made suspiciously close to when Courtney started making their bullshit claims, and registered AFTER she started posting.

Then Courtney just takes it at face value, because it benefits her, and then proceeds to threaten my life, while making claims that you should put a pin in.

Then Courtney hastily deletes this post and posts a different one, claiming she has "more reliable resources than a Tumblr anon" and escalates her claim about some weird snuff film from "trying to find" to "have downloaded in the past."

She doesn't provide the resources she supposedly has, but she thinks "Well I have the proof" is enough.

Okay bitch. Show the fucking proof. If you have it, where is it? Because making a dummy account under a name someone else claimed was me.

I know you are lying. And you wanna know how I know?

It's in your own fucking source.

This anon claims they found this site by "googling" my known aliases. The site is a dark web Onion domain. Those don't show up on Google.

Oh and by the way, for those wondering. The description Courtney uses as her smoking gun?

This is the description

Yeah that's a real detailed description, you dumb, lying fuck.

This is their smoking gun. An account they claimed they found by googling, made the same week Courtney started screaming her fucking head off, with a description that matches a third of the women on the fucking planet, on a site you can't even fucking google.

I have absolutely no reason to believe that Courtney isn't the one who did all this. None what so-fucking ever. Her entire MO since she started this fucking nonsense has always been taking things she did to me, and trying to spin it as me doing it to her. She has pinged back and forth between violent threats, victim blaming, and fucking lies, and she's about as consistent with her lies as a fucking serial killer.

This is a woman who has physically, verbally, sexually, and psychologically abused me on and off our entire childhood, and once she found out I was living well became immediately enraged. But I'm not 14 years old anymore, Courtney. You can't coerce and gaslight me like you used to.

To think that I ever blamed myself for anything that happened with Courtney and our relationship deteriorating as teenagers is just embarrassing.

Courtney is a piece of shit, one who I have spent far too much of my time and energy on. I truly hope that everyone she has ever victimized gets the chance to spit on her corpse at her funeral.

Edit: Courtney's second post uncropped

#courtney peet is an abuser #pedojacketing #debunked #courtney peet #courtney orchard #brittany johnson #britts galaxy brain #stalking #harssment #transphobia

[northern-passage]

i've been seeing rumors that apparently discord filehosting will no longer be functional by the end of the year (no source for it yet from discord itself but there are a lot of people discussing it here and on reddit). this means if you're lazy like me and use discord to host the images you use in your games, like so:

it will no longer work. the image still exists, but that link doesn't, and it won't show in my sidebar. this link in the code is from june/july of this year, and here is a different discord link that i just generated today, and you can see the difference with these new query parameters, is, ex, & hm:

i'm not sure if that link in my code will expire in the same way these new links will, since obviously my old link does not have these parameters, but i figure it's better to be safe than sorry. so this is me telling you to get an account on an actual filehosting website like mediafire (that's where im going) or dropbox, etc

even if this does end up just being a rumor/not set in stone, it's a good excuse to move your images onto an actual hosting site.

obviously you may also include your images in the .zip file that you upload onto itch.io, so this may be completely irrelevant for some of you, but i tend not to do that because...? i like to make things difficult for myself.

#actually the reason i did it this way for tnp is bc i didnt know how to do it any other way back then lmfao #and then for bc i just. did it that way again because. thats just how i am #tho i use zip files for both now and do know how to link photos within them again im just lazy #to be clear i am NOT an authority on this i saw another post here talking abt it and looked around and saw ppl on reddit discussing the sam #*same #im just kinda rephrasing their words. im an idiot. hence me hosting my files this way to begin with lmfao #interactive fiction #<- putting it in the tag

[crystalsamethyst]

I have let myself be extremely vulnerable recently and I don't know if it's something people really care about but I'm going to talk about it.

The fact that I've been sharing the whole picture of who I am across several platforms is something I never thought I'd be able to do. There has been so much embarrassment and shame in my personal life over me writing fanfiction and latching on to series that I could barely even admit it out loud even though it was my entire sense of self. I couldn't talk about what I was writing. I couldn't share it. Even if people were genuinely interested, I'd have a panic attack thinking their perception of me would be altered and I'd lose everything.

Sharing what I write is extremely difficult because on one hand, it's a part of me, but on the other hand, there are things I have to incorporate for the stories that don't represent me at all and I'm terrified of people coming to the wrong conclusions about who I am as a person. Even if the writing is 100% aligned with what I wanted for it, that still doesn't mean it's always who I am or what I like or approve of for real life.

I also never thought of myself as a 'real writer' until I finished my own original book since fanfiction 'doesn't count' (in my irl world).

My username on fanfiction sites is different than the ones I share things about my actual life on and it will probably stay that way. It always felt like such a disconnect but I intended to stay anonymous, post what I wanted to, and not get found by a select few people who seemed to be able to find and shame me wherever I went (still found me on some of the sites but by then they didn't hold power over me at least)

So recently, I've been linking my work which is on AO3 under the same username I use for all sites I've posted fanfics on. I've even put direct links to my AO3 in some of my online profiles. There's a lot of my old work out there that I don't want to be represented by but someone liked it so I'm not going to take them down.

This is a very vulnerable process for me, admitting that I am a person and here is what I like and here is what I write. It might take a while until I'm comfortable sharing everything I wanted to post, but if I eventually do, I really hope people won't come after me for it (super unlikely scenario but, anxiety). I'm not scared of online hate, but I'm terrified of losing the respect and friendships of those I've connected with even if there is nothing even 'socially' wrong with the stories.

I really appreciate the support I've gotten so far. Especially with the TGCF community. I've had to learn a lot on my own since I started posting things like 13 years ago, and I'm still figuring out AO3 and learning new terms. I sometimes feel like a new young fan just now learning how the internet works.

I've been isolated a lot of my life and have several mental health issues plus autism so I'm super knowledgeable in some areas but completely in the dark in others that might seem incredibly obvious and commonly known, and it's the same for fandoms and websites. (I've actually been apparently using Tumblr wrong this whole time too for the like system. I've been using it mostly as bookmarks or read laters. Whoops.)

On a lesser note, I also never imagined I would start drawing again. I actually used to be pretty good at it but again, was shamed and ridiculed for a lot and compared to others so I stopped for a really long time. I'm glad I can share it without being tooooo embarrassed anymore.

It means a lot to me to be so supported, and I would tag a few of you specifically but I don't want you guys to feel called out. But please know that your support and enthusiasm means the world to me and I appreciate and care about you very much. Thank you for helping me feel safe while I'm letting myself be vulnerable.

#personal #writing #vulnerability #community #thank you #<3

[mortimermcmirestinks]

So uh, apparently people are sending asks to corporate blogs, Berry, you are much better at wording things than me, so can you please explain to people why that's a bad idea if they don't want tumblr to potentially be further sterilized and infested with ads?(please tell me your secret to wording things better btw)

I'll do my best! o7

TL;DR: sending asks to corporate social media accounts -- even silly or mocking ones -- is giving ammunition to advertisers, and the more that advertisers stay on [tumblr], the suckier the site will get for us, the users.

basically it goes like this:

Before anything else, you need to remember this: social media accounts owned by for-profit corporations are marketing tools, which means they're advertising. Corporations do not use social media outside of marketing; if you see a corporation using marketing, it is always an ad.

Anything you see from Marvel or Disney or Microsoft on [tumblr], Twitter, Reddit, or whatever?

Even if it doesn't say "sponsored", it's an ad, and that's all it is.

Every meme, silly behind-the-scenes video, apology video, announcement, relatable/personable post? They are ads, and ads are the product of advertisers.

A relatable meme posted by Marvel has more in common with an Avengers trailer than it does with a relatable meme posted by one of your friends, so for the rest of this post I'm going to just talk about corporate social media as advertisers, because that is what they are.

Now, advertisers want as many people as possible to see their stuff. Advertisers are exclusively in the business of grabbing attention.

This means that advertisers don't want to scare people away. Advertisers want their ads to be shown as broadly as possible, and they don't want their ads associated with uncomfortable or edgy things.

"Uncomfortable or edgy", of course, is a double-edged sword; on the one hand, when Sean Hannity defends a pedophile on Fox News, the ad boys will pull their ads, because yikes -- but on the other hand, when sex workers try to exist on [tumblr], the ad boys will also pull their ads, because of a long and stupid history of stigma associated with sex in the western world.

And important to remember: advertisers will give [tumblr] money while they're here, and whoever gives [tumblr] money determines the shape of the platform. (this is why you should blaze posts and do the paid ad-free browsing thing)

So here's where we talk about ✨engagement✨!

Engagement, invented by Sir Francis Engagem in 1836, is one of the banes of social media creators everywhere on the internet. It's less of an issue on Tumblr because Tumblr is a trashfire, but what is relevant here is the fact that engagement gives advertisers the means to make more ads.

If you send asks to Marvel:

Marvel will take that as a sign that people are seeing and engaging with their tumblr account, which means that people are seeing and engaging with their ads, which means that they will want to keep doing it.

since [tumblr] is a platform built on collaborative mechanics -- including reblogging, commenting, screenshotting, and, yes, asks -- unless the ask is truly rancid (and most asks, even mocking ones, are not nearly rancid enough to prevent this), sending anyone an ask is providing them with a means to, for lack of a better term, "make content", which, in Marvel's case, means make an ad.

Sending asks to corporate accounts encourages them to stick around and make more ads, which will lead to them having a firmer position on the platform, which will lead to them getting more control over the platform, which will lead to the platform slowly edging out all the "uncomfortable and edgy" stuff.

Do you like having queer spaces on the hellsite? Do you like having weird art on here? Do you like having bizarre memes and unique site culture? Do you like being able to say things like "kill" and "mental health" and "kung pow penis" and "I want to put Benedict Cumberbatch in a blender"?

Then ignore and block every corporate account you see.

do not engage. do not ask. do not reblog. block block block.

this post links to a compendium of corporate blogs. use it to block them fucking all.

spread the word

-

(and idk if I word things well or not? my go-to for wording things is to just try to make things as clear as humanly possible and be very specific about what words I use and when)

#rant #important #tumblr happenings