#so I've decided to focus more on the characters than the actors themselves

[snaccpopstudios]

Hi everyone! We're here with the long awaited post on our newest bachelor, Simoun. We know you've all been abuzz with questions about him so we hope to answer some of that in this deep dive into his creation. This post is in lieu of our usual Wednesday devlogs as we've been writing this over the span of several weeks, and was co-authored, edited, and reviewed by Tobias, Jude, ToyboxToonz, Primarvelous, and Sauce. The above image was drawn by @toyboxtoonz.

You can read the full post for free on Patreon, or click the readmore to see it all!

Personally speaking, some of my concerns since Simoun's debut are thoughts like "Do people think I'm making SnaccPop Studios push an agenda?" and "Do people think I'm going through a checklist while making new characters?" It's made it difficult for us to write this quickly because this is quite personal to myself and the rest of the sensitivity consultation team on the DachaBo team.

Concept to Creation

The story of DachaBo begins way before SnaccPop Studios itself was even a concept (that's Sauce's story to tell though). Early Patreon art of Simoun exists from November 2022, back before I was signed on to manage the Patreon and any other projects besides Sunny Day Jack. Sauce had some ideas laying around for several other characters in the DachaBo universe that didn't make it into the proof-of-concept demo:

I dug up an old draft for the DachaBo cat character we teased and it featured a story concept where the cat character was originally a female DachaBo character, referencing the original female design. And overtime he got tired of how he was being treated and decided to change his own self to reflect who he wanted to be, not the sycophants who collected the toys and whatnot ... It was shelved because I didnt have the means to sensitivity check it The designs are half cooked is all but he was supposed to be Indian ethnicity coded for no other reason than I've never seen a character like that

One thing that's important to note is that there definitely are Indian folks who are gender diverse (see Hijra on Wikipedia for a quick primer on one of the traditionally recognized nonbinary genders in South Asia) so it's not a novel concept by any means, but it's also not very common in media whatsoever.

Why The Long Wait?

One of the other contributing reasons as to why Sauce wasn't able to do much with the concept at the time is because we didn't have a VA for him confirmed yet, as I explained in May:

One thing that's rather unique to SnaccPop Studios in all of my experience as a game developer is the fact that all of our series involve coordinating with Voice Actors from the start, which means we need to take the VAs themselves into account when making characters. Adding another layer of complexity in hiring is the fact that SnaccPop Studios is a strictly Erotic Adult brand focusing on masculine love interests, and even if we focus more on the softcore, there's still the unfortunate stigma that any 18+ work has when attached to your name. All of these contributing factors make the potential talent pool that much smaller. This isn't to make excuses: I know SnaccPop Studios can do better on this front. While we can't make changes to some of the existing series' main cast (we don't want to put people out of a role they've been promised), we will do better moving forward to incorporate more diverse characters into our future titles, and that's a pledge

In the field of voice acting, it's best practice to cast actors with similar backgrounds to the character they're voicing, particularly for characters from marginalized populations (ethnicity, culture, gender, etc.), because it's a recurring issue in all professions where marginalized folks are regularly turned down for employment or career opportunities. You don't have to look far for instances where other voice directors failed to cast the proper talent for a character, even in the AAA sphere where they ought to have the resources to be able to find the proper talent; at SnaccPop, we wanted to avoid that situation at all costs.

Finding Simoun's Voice

So we had to confirm a VA first before we could do anything. Sauce, Reece, and I all tried to put private ads out for a trans masc POC (any ethnicity with dark skin) actor for a R18 game, which was largely met with silence at first, then responded to by folks who didn't fit the role in a full capacity (many only hit one or two of the criteria we laid out, some of them none at all). And it's not hard to imagine why: it's common knowledge that the majority of erotic works often fetishize marginalized people who are otherwise underrepresented in mainstream media. Things such as skin color, body type, hair color, age, etc. are treated as traits to be objectified, and on the off chance that queer folks or people of color might see themselves in porn… it's usually not for the most flattering or empowering of reasons. How could we, an exclusively Adults-only studio, convince someone who isn't familiar with us that we wanted to make something for people like them rather than something that turns them into mere masturbating material?

We were almost about to give up on the Catboy until I decided to take a chance on contacting a VA whom I hadn't had any formal and proper interactions with before. I'd been a fan of his work and knew him from an audition he sent in from a previous game I had worked on, but he knew me solely by name at best since we were following each other on Twitter. Still, it was a lead, and after chewing my nails for half a day, I shot off a message to Soren Viloria.

And what do you know? He said he'd give it a shot as his first NSFW role.

Naming the Lad

Soren is a Filipino VA, and despite the fact that I myself seem to be mistaken as Filipino by other Asians quite regularly, I'm actually not as well-versed in that culture as I ought to be.

There's actually a reason why we were so secretive with Simoun's name for a while: he didn't have one yet, so internally we just kept calling him "the Catboy." We wanted to pick a culture-appropriate name for him, something that was meaningful: Soren initially suggested "Siopao" as it was a common cat name (it's a type of Filipino Steamed Bun, so think of how many pets you've seen who have names like Cupcake or Nacho Supreme), but that didn't seem serious enough for a tsundere catboy like him. A few days later, Soren did a little research on a few well-known characters from Philippine media/culture that fit the bill a bit better:

Elías from the Philippine Revolution novel Noli Me Tángere (a required reading in the Philippines). Cat may like his radical tendencies for revolution and his deep, devoted connections.

Simoun from Noli's sequel, El filibusterismo. Holds revolutionary values similar to Elías, but far less noble and more of a loner. Violent at times, and will do what it takes to get his way.

Panday/Flavio, a very popular hero. Part of his charm is that he doesn't have special powers, but took matters into his own hands and forged a magical blade. Has been portrayed in both 'cool' and comedic ways.

Ricardo "Cardo" from the Philippines' longest-running TV drama Ang Probinsyano. Just a cool action hero dude who cares about family, but is also very ambitious and angy.

Seeing as how we already had an Elias Gallagher, Simoun seemed to be the perfect fit, and the name stuck pretty easily.

Simoun's Boundaries

Now that Simoun had a name, we were able to talk about him more seriously beyond the simple "tsundere cat" tropes. You've all already met Gil Finnegan, who we originally brought into SnaccPop Studios to handle the narrative design for DachaBo but was then onboarded to help with Sunny Day Jack, and those of you in the Patreon Discord server are familiar with our mods Tobias and Jude; along with me and Soren Viloria, that brought the grand total of openly trans masculine members on the team.

We all talked about our personal experiences as trans masc/AFAB people, what things we rarely saw reflected in both mainstream and indie media, things we wanted to see more of. Something we all agreed that was difficult to find was trans masculine folks in sexually dominant roles in erotic media, whether that was live video, audio, writing, art, or a combination thereof; there was only a handful of series we could count on our fingers as far as sexually explicit content that featured trans masculine people in roles that weren't exclusively submissive/bottoms, and the majority of us had already seen those or at least heard of them before (ie. Gummy and the Doctor and Sasha From The Gym were prominent ones). Either discovering this content was difficult due to Search Engine Optimization favoring depictions of trans feminine folks, or it simply didn't exist.

All of this, along with the backstory that Sauce had for Simoun, led us to determine that Simoun would be adverse to submissive roles in intimate situations. Simoun isn't the type to want to be penetrated either due to previous trauma surrounding his gender. Bear in mind that this isn't meant to imply or suggest that there is only one "acceptable" sexual preference for trans masculine folks, nor is Simoun meant to represent all of trans masculinity; he may be our first trans masculine character but certainly isn't the last, as we hope to feature more types of characters at SnaccPop Studios.

As an aside, it should be noted that the trend of erotic trans feminine content being more readily available doesn't necessarily mean that trans women have more positive representation per se; for every kinky piece of art created by trans feminine folks out there, there could be ten more works that fetishize and objectify their bodies. We probably don't need to tell you about the common derogatory slurs that have been used to refer to them; trans feminine and trans masculine people deal with varying levels and types of transphobia as well as situations that oversexualize (or even undersexualize) them, and it's important to focus on content that doesn't strip them of their autonomy.

There actually was a period of time between the release of his concept art after Soren was onboarded where the team observed comments both on Patreon and in the Discord regarding Simoun, and we discussed how we could avoid having people try to ship Bo and Simoun together; because Simoun hasn't had bottom surgery of any kind, we wanted to ensure that tokophobia (fear of pregnancy) or dysphoria wouldn't become a thing for any of us involved in the team or for our trans masculine Patrons. It was a bit of a chicken or the egg situation, trying to keep up with the evolving comments about Simoun to try and anticipate what people might accidentally say.

Debut Day Thoughts, & Moving Forward

We were quite happy with the general reception everyone had with Simoun, and we're excited to see so many people taking a liking to Simoun after his reveal. SnaccPop Studios has always strived to provide inclusive and diverse stories for those who don't often get represented in media, much less NSFW media, and the team was quite elated to see folks who were just as happy to see Simoun.

We hope that the love and care we put into building Simoun has shone through in this post and will continue to shine as we write more of him for DachaBo, because we're just getting started.

#dachabo #character design #trans masc #transmasculine #transgender #minors dni #gamedev

[futuregws]

I don't even know how to start this post all I know is that it's gonna be all over the place. But I guess the first thing I should start with and set the tone for the rest of the rant bc it's gonna be long, is that edissy shippers are gross, and I really don't think i need to explain much bc we have all seen their behavior before and how they are the ones that made the stranger things fandom be so full of toxicity, and if you haven't seen their general behavior look it up on a unbiased page and you'll see bc this post is not gonna focus on their behavior in general I'm gonna narrow it down a little to a specific group of people within the edissy shippers that somehow they manage to be worse but in ways that is blatantly disrespectful to the actors themselves.

I've said it so many times on here before but since this specific rant is about that I think I should say it again, if you wanna ship 2 fictional characters, go for it, if you wanna ship 2 real people that ARE together that's a little less "okay" but they are together so whatever, but now what we are NOT gonna do is ship two people that are not together, simply bc you also ship their characters and if you on top of that are doing this simply to piss off fans that don't like your fictional ship, then you need some help, doesn't matter what type of help but please get some bc this is the behavior of a 10 year old and even for them this is not okay so why would it be for grown ass adults. Shipping Eddie and Chrissy is one thing and I'm not gonna go into that bc I've made it very clear what my feelings are on it and it's not the point, but when you decide to drag this ship to real life and involve Grace and Joe you're a fucking weirdo, y'all can get mad all you want bc at the end of the day it will make it clear why you're getting mad, it's bc you feel called out on it. And if the act of shipping two real life people who are only co workers isn't bad enough then we also have shit like this

What goes through your mind when posting this disgusting shit, oh wait nothing goes through your mind at all bc y'all don't think, going around claiming that Grace and Joe are fucking based on NOTHING, even just bringing that up is gross bc they are co workers and it's weird that you're even thinking about that, and saying that you didn't get to enjoy their fictional versions so now you are gonna use the actors, REAL LIFE PEOPLE, wtf is wrong with you, how can you not see how absolutely disgusting that behavior is, they are human they're not some dolls that you can go around making up stories about and control what they do, and once again how bored do you have to be to wish that they fuck in public just to piss "antis" off, they are not your little puppets that you can control and use to annoy others, and the fact that y'all thought about that wrote it, read it and still didn't see anything wrong, once again please get some fucking help

And this too, wtf is this are you getting that bored with your stupid fictional ship that you decide to go for this, bc babes if you're bored I could give you a list of stuff to do or even games to play but don't be gross and do this type of shit, it's not normal and it's not okay, you are a fucking weirdo and you need to grow tf up, most of you are 25+ and yet constantly act like 14 year olds while the actual 14,15 and 16 year olds are being ten times more mature than you.

And there was even more screenshots I could use but Tumblr has a limit apparently so those are gonna have to work, if you read all this then thank you bc I didn't realize how long this was getting but oh well, and I'm prepared to get attacked I've been before even when calling out gross behavior like this people seem to not want to understand what's good and bad, and if that one person that commented on one of my other posts about this topic sees this, was I being dramatic like you said, please read the screenshots and I dare you to say that shit again bc if you think this is me being dramatic then you can fuck right off bc this is not dramatic if I wanted to be trust me I gladly would

#I highly doubt anyone is gonna read any of that and I don't blame you but please do?? #And also those screenshots are not mine they belong to someone on Twitter that I'm not saying their URL bc we all know #What that would lead to #Hopefully this post reaches the right people bc I don't wanna be getting more weirdos like the ones on those screenshots #joseph quinn #eddie munson #gvd #Stranger things #joe quinn

[jesterofinaba]

∗ 10﹕ is  there  a  piece  of  your  character’s  canon  that  you  refuse  to  accept ? ∗ 18﹕ which  of  your  verses  or  arcs  is  your  favorite  to  write  about ? ∗ 28﹕ what  is  a  turn - off  when  you’re  seeking  writing  partners ? ∗ 33﹕ have  you  ever  been  in  the  middle  of  drama  in  the  rpc ?

𝑬𝑿𝑷𝑬𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑺𝑬𝑳𝑭 .

[ oh boy this is going to be a long one. strap in fellas ]

∗ 10﹕ is  there  a  piece  of  your  character’s  canon  that  you  refuse  to  accept ?

[ I think the one that most prominently comes to mind is that I write Adachi as aroace, and the way he views his victims in canon is... arguable, I'd say. It's debated whether he actually lusted after Yamano and Saki - and that's something I personally disagree with.

I think Adachi experiencing any kind of romantic or sexual attraction, especially after his crimes, isn't something that would in any way help him improve, and I think the idea of "I'm expected to find women attractive and get laid, so this is just another thing this stupid society wants me to do, yet when I get rejected it's another way I'm not getting what I should be in the eyes of society" with Yamano, that in combination with "people get opportunity and talent given to them on a silver platter and everyone has things so much better than I do, so they shouldn't get to complain" with Saki is a much more complicated and nuanced motive.

Now, I don't think this is something Adachi can really vocalize, I think for a while he really does think he killed because he liked them because that's how he think he should feel and he's very emotionally stunted. ]

∗ 18﹕ which  of  your  verses  or  arcs  is  your  favorite  to  write  about ?

[ I. love writing arcanaswaps. I wonder if people know that-

No but seriously, getting to explore ideas of what Adachi would be like had he taken a different path in life is super interesting for me to write about more than any other muse I've written. I think Adachi is very much the product of his circumstances and changes drastically based on what kind of life he leads - like how much more carefree and childish he acts when he decides to become an actor in the Magician arcana verse, or how dedicated he becomes when he finds a purpose in a career in law in the Hierophant arcana verse.

I'm also a huge sucker for platonic relationships that help both characters become the best versions of themselves. I just gravitate towards that (I think the whole power of friendship is the elementary school teacher in me talking). I really really enjoy seeing Adachi grow because of the influence of people who, over time, become important to him, no matter the AU.

Familial relationships my beloved. The family my beloved. twin au my beloved. judgement siblings my beloved. i can go on for eons. ]

∗ 28﹕ what  is  a  turn - off  when  you’re  seeking  writing  partners ?

[ I'm going to be honest, I'm not much of a chat rp or like two sentence per reply threads kind of person. It's cool if you like that, but more dash comms than threads, text rps, or using discord threads as a part of canon really aren't my thing. It'll become apparent why by the next question.

Also, I'm kinda ehh on people who tend to really only focus on rp for ships, whether that's a multi ship or a single ship. When I write a character that doesn't ever interact with someone in that sense, I've had that experience where it felt like we just couldn't find a lot of depth in our dynamic. ]

∗ 33﹕ have  you  ever  been  in  the  middle  of  drama  in  the  rpc ?

[ ha ha ha...

Well, about a year and a half ago I was part of a group rp, and I've kind of made my distaste for it known as of late. It focused a lot on chat-style rp, as well as making things in discord (and with about 100 people in it and a full schedule, made it hard to keep up) canon. It was very exhausting trying to keep up with everything and stay involved with so many moving parts, and the mods not really wanting anyone else to join the mod team despite a growing player based because it would "ruin the surprise."

Speaking of the plot, it was incredibly, incredibly angst-heavy in discord. All of the time. With little to no levity. It quickly turned to lots of muses dumping about their trauma - and how characters who were portrayed in the verse were evil and wronged them, yet not ever changing that so that it was just muses crying and complaining and getting in arguments ad nauseum. It drove quite a few people away.

There was also some other stuff about mods making battle decisions that kind of screwed myself and some friends over "for the angst" and the battles being so angst heavy and telenovela-esque I dread even thinking about them.

I ended up leaving because there was a ship between an adult and a minor in the verse that was being defended by its writers and there was (rightfully) a big blowup about it. The group dissolved pretty soon after that. ]

#chibitantei #𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝚖𝚢 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 [ ASK ] #𝚁𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚝𝚎 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚕 [ OOC ] #drama cw #[sotfd was.. something]\ #[can't deny that i had fun at times. became closer with people im still friends with now] #[and there were dynamics in it that i loved writing.] #[but. if i had to do it over again? i wouldn't. it drained me pretty severely]

[kim-ruzek]

I like Brettsey, but I'm not the biggest Brettsey fan because I'm not a big shipper, honestly (so I like Stellaride and Burzek as well and feel nothing for the other OC ships), but even I have to admit that they did them; the individual characters and the fans are so dirty with that break-up. I don't think the writers realise how shitty they have been with all the baiting and saying stuff they don't mean. I'm disappointed but not surprised, but honestly, this is how I've felt about OC for a while now:

Making Violet's whole storyline about two men-Gallo and Hawkins

The constant miscommunication or lack of communication with Stellaride and Brettsey

Dragging the slow burn with Brettsey on for way too long.

Replacing Mason (Chris Mansa) with a white male actor.

Saying they had no more storylines for Dylan Scott even though he's what made Med feel like it was worth watching again.

Pushing Ritter and Kevin to the background and only using Kevin for a race storyline.

Notice how it's the black characters they keep treating like crap.

The constant back and forth between Kim and Adam.

The lack of acknowledgement that Kim and Adam, two white cops, are raising a traumatised black girl (one acknowledgement isn't enough.

Having three opportunities during season 10 of CF to cast people of colour or LGBTQ individuals and instead casting 3 white heterosexual characters.

The list goes on.

I think that's when you really know that as writers when you've messed up, when people who like the characters but not really a big shipper can appreciate how dirty they've done them!!! The thing that annoys me most about all this bloody baiting and shit is that they had ample of warning Jesse was leaving, and yeah they probably wanted to see if he just wanted a year break or if it was indeed long term but there was plenty of time to do the storyline and have the conclusion be like this but in ways that actually makes sense with the bloody characters!!!

But yeah, as disappointed and frustrated it makes me, it unfortunately doesn't surprise me. But that kinda makes it more disappointing, that it didn't exceed the incredibly low expectation I have for these shows.

And YES omg the Dylan Scott thing has pissed me off so much, because I think a lot of the fandom can agree, that he brought a new life to the show and actually made med more worth it! But no, off he goes!

And don't even get me started on how they continually push Ritter aside-- literally did he have only one line (about violet's bloody love life at that!) last episode??

And pd continually just using Kevin for race storylines -- and then not even reflecting on the biases and problems poc face in every episode, just once in a blue moon when they remember Kevin is a character-- it just really pisses me off. I am hoping this season he gets a storyline outside of it, because he is so long overdue but I'm not very optimistic because I thought the Celeste storyline last season would be but nope!

I do agree they need to address the two white cops raising a traumatized black girl thing more, but that I'm even less optimistic about. The main problem is they decided to bring her in before burzek has sorted themselves out, which means, especially with too much focus on other characters, whenever any episode is on them, the writers decide to continue the insane miscommunication and conflict between them rather than idk, doing a much more interesting storyline about interracial adoption? My hope is that now it looks like burzek is sorting themselves out that we'll get more storylines around that but I very much doubt it since this is cpd after all !!

Tbh when I got into one Chicago I did get into it knowing that most likely it will not deal with race well but I am a huge shipper-- I watch things for the romance really, and that's everything -- so I accepted that but honestly it's-- ESPECIALLY fire bc pd has always been pretty damn shit and definitely has been since s5-- gone supeeeeer downhill recently and it annoys me so much!

Thank you for sending me this!!! Even if I got a little ranty! 💖

#ree's asks #chicago fire #chicago pd #one chicago spoilers #thank you for asking!!! 💖 #ree has thoughts

[vulpiximisa]

Futsal Boys review, that's somehow longer than the Ryman Club review, but maybe because I've posted about Ryman Club before

Watching bad/shitty sports anime for boys is slowly becoming my repertoire, so of course, I was like, yeah lets watch this low rated sports anime on MAL. Let’s talk about Futsal Boys.

So I, unfortunately, am a person who does like shows when there are voice actors I like in it. IT’s not any different from watching a movie or series because an actor you like is in it. Which isnt to say that the show will be made or broken just because there’s a lack of familiar seiyuu. But I’m just so incredibly baffled by how the entire cast of Futsal Boys are all newbies? Either this is their first Anime role and maybe they’ve had experience in other things (maybe Youtube? Singing? dramas?) but the fact that there are No familiar faces makes me wonder iff they either were very confident in their product or they had no budget to get anyone. (Aside from Fukuyama Jun, who I was Super surprised voiced the announcer, because I was like “No way thats FukuJun because there’s Nobody Here.) 

Okay, so, not that it’s starting off rocky, let’s look at the content and characters? 

Futsal, what is it? Lmfao. I didn’t know either so I had to look it up, and to sum it up, it’s indoor mini soccer, with half the court size and half the team size. It worked really well because the series was only 12 episodes long and the team consists of 7 boys, which is a perfect amount. Not everyone on home team got a moment or development, but you know them enough and I think the characters that did get spotlight (mostly the four first years) are familiar enough to the audience and to each other. 

I personally loved the tightness of the four first years. (I think they are first years, I could be wrong, but you know who I’m talking about, Haru, Sakaki, Ryu, Taiga) [Also I do not want to be biased because I Love the Karasuno First Years but I digress.] Of course the focus is on Haru and Sakaki’s red and blue rivalry and partnership etc and also Ryu and Taiga come in a pair (the dragon and tiger duo) but I also really loved how Haru and Ryu became besties and even got their own duo attack. Taiga is a lot more quiet and is often seen with Ryu of course, but I like that he isn’t afraid to talk to (back to?) Sakaki, who is also stand alone/aloof. Ryu also get’s to but into Sakaki’s business, of trying to make the entire group all Buddy Buddy. They’re not a star pair or anything, but they interact enough. Of course it’d be perfect if we got to see more Taiga and Haru interact, but that’s not too much of a concern.

Unfortunately the characters themselves aren’t anything super deep. I would have liked to know more about Haru and his abandonment issues, and I think episode 5 and 6 were great for even existing, but he doesn’t really go into it again afterwards. I’d been looking forward to Sakaki’s backstory the entire time, (who did he used to pass to and how did they die and traumatize him XD;;;;) and not that I’m disappointed in the story itself, but I would have liked to see Nagato again. (Not me thinking he looks like my boy Naegi Makoto that I want to see him again lmfao) I think coming from Salarman’s Club, Azuma spoiled me with an actual good and likable ex partner with partner issues. It felt a little inconclusive, not being able to get any closure from Nagato. Like yeah, Sakaki finally manages to make a Full On Pass to Haru, (with their cheesy attacks and animation and all) and we kind of knew it was coming, but I felt like the lead up might either have been too late or not as dynamic as I liked? I personally liked it more when Sakaki was struggling to decide if passing was right or not. Like (SORRY TO COMPARE TO HQ AGAIN) when Kags wasn’t sure when to be King or Goody Two Shoes. I thought Sakaki needed to learn that passing wasn’t just about giving the ball to someone else but to be able to decide for himself when is a proper time to pass. (Like him calling to pass to someone vs someone calling to get passed to.) Anyway, that wasn’t how that turned out, so maybe that was my fault for having expectations. 

Ryu and Taiga are, there, I guess. I don’t have problems with them, though I kind of like how Ryu looks with the long hair and ponytail but he doesn’t do anything that’s like “femmy” or “shota”, he’s literally still a boy but he just Looks like that. Taking selfies and having fun at the arcade doesn’t count, he just wants to chill with his friends.

That leaves the senpai group of Tsukioka, Yukinaga and Usami. From the get go, Tsukioka is introduced as someone big and important, a very strong player that had played with/against the other National team members. (Or something, I don’t remember. Is it like, Japan’s Youth something something.) Tsukioka is a very strong captain and leader and you see him working with his kouhai to make a strong and better team. Unfortunately, I think Yukinaga and Usami just relegate themselves to the side lines and Tsukioka just takes all of the action in being a senpai.

I’m actually upset because Yukinaga was the original goaleiro until Taiga came in, I was kind of hoping for an arc for him. (Sorry to compare to HQ again, but very much like Suga to Kageyama.) Taiga literally came in and they were like “yeah, he’s on our team, let him in.” There was even a scene of Yukinaga injuring his hand during practice earlier in the episode before Taiga came in, and if it was along the route of “Yukinaga can’t play anymore, please help us Taiga”, I would have accepted it more? Like, Taiga jumping in because he saw Ryu hurt again (Family Guy dead pose meme in the exact position twice in a row) isn’t bad because it triggers his reason to play futsal again, but I would have liked a little something more for Yukinaga. They had him sub for Sakaki that one game vs Adalbert, (which again made me think of Suga and Kags) but it wasn’t like he had a moment for himself and it was just to get Sakaki to cool down.

As for the other teams, I literally confused the Other Prince School (Amanogawa) with Adalbert because they’re both pink and princely, or something. Also I’m a little baffled that they have a different character designer for every team? Not that the designs themselves clash, but it’s just weird to me ^^; 

I thought Momomi was nice and fun (and reminded me of Jouzenji SORRY IM HQ BRAINROT). NGL I thought Yukimaru was Sakaki’s ex because he was plain looking and had an ahoge. This actually would have been a lot cooler, but I guess we can’t have Real characters knowing each other or anything. Anyway, even though I liked Momomi and that match, I was kind of baffled that they get almost 3 episodes to them, and the final Adalbert rematch was literally only 2 episodes? Like I know Momomi wasn’t a full 3 episodes, but we get to see them before the match and their entire schtick. Like, I guess we saw Adalbert before so we don’t really need another introduction, but since it’s a Revenge Match and the conclusive match for the end of the series, you’d think it’d be a lot longer? (And have a little special animation? Or that’s just me, I want cool sakuga.)

Other comments, uh, they never really explained the Futsal terms to me or the audience. Didn’t even use the excuse of Haru being a noob to info dump to us. I’m only guessing because they look and sound similar that the goaleiro is the goalie. The other stuff I literally have no idea what they are. The Play Caller sounds like the important role but I don’t know what that actually means. (Being a setter in volleyball? I guess?????) There was a good amount of Sport in the show, but there was also a good amount of character drama. I think the balance is good, and even though I won’t jump at the opportunity to watch games, I think it was fine. Me personally would have knocked the games down by like 10% but no real complaints. 

Animation was… it did what it had to. They never looked Beautiful or Gorgeous and we never got really cool sakuga. Their special attack moves are Not Cool Sakuga. It’s something that’s cool if you were five years old XD;;; (Is that why the final move in the last game was not impressive to me? Sakaki doing his Super Move to Pass was fine but I personally wished they reanimated Haru’s move, with an added personal touch, just to make it a little more special instead of the stock animation. But also, the fact that they have stock animation attacks makes me not take the game seriously at all. (Gemini Twinkle AKA playing soccer in space with my friends) 

Anyway, I wasn’t paying attention to the OST, so it probably wasn’t anything stand out. The OP and ED were fine. Anyway, Futsal Boys, I gave it a 7/10 on MAL, just because it wasn’t AMAZING, but it also wasn’t utter Trash Shit Show. It’s a little sloppy, and jouseimuke which probably is why it’s rated low because Dude Bros infest MAL. Like even though it’s an all male cast and you know they are trying to sell boys, there wasn’t any baity moments at all. Like, the fact that male friendships and fiery partnerships/declarations of rivalry, doesn’t even make it homoerotic to me. Like you sure can take it if you want, but they could have gone worse and gone the Number24/Free route if they wanted but they didn’t.

#pixi watches anime #re futsal boys

[specialability]

User @apfelhalm posted lamenting how people have mostly turned to posting fanworks only on semi-private discord servers and it blew up, so this slight resentment seems common. I have been on Many social media platforms over the years and have some Opinions, but didn't want to hijack their post since this turned long.

tl;dr discord definitely kinda sucks but it's not like there are a bunch of better options for semi-public fandom discussions :/

Discord is basically IRC with a flashier interface and voice chat. I have never been good at instant messaging or group chats, so my dislike of Discord extends from that. As soon as there are more than 3-4 people in a real-time conversation I need to focus on that convo and can do anything else at the same time. And in really busy servers/chats by the time I decide what I want to say and type it out the convo has moved on.

It's true that they're also not easily discovered and unless someone intentionally invites you, even if it's an open channel it's hard to feel welcome just walking into a room of strangers. If you already have a group of friends and just casually transition to discord so you can talk in real time more easily, it's fine. That's what it was built to do. It is more irritating when, as OP says, everybody just stops posting publicly anywhere else and just shares stuff to their one group discord. It is a really clumsy platform for finding or saving things and if it's even slightly active it's not possible to just check once or twice a day, you have to be on it all the time or you don't know what's going on. It's even worse if you aren't in the same time zone as everyone else. Like I said, it was the same 15 years ago in AIM chats or IRC channels, this isn't a unique or new problem. It's just that back then everyone who wanted to post any images or longer writing had to use other blogging sites as well due to character limits & the need for image hosting.

Despite disliking a lot of things about it, I have used discord regularly in the past when I've been part of gaming groups. There are competitors starting up, but it is still the first place to go for free gaming voice chat.

There are obvious reasons why people get tired of public fandom... I intentionally only use tumblr and not twitter for fandom stuff for the same reasons. So I can't really fault anyone for retreating behind closed doors.

It used to be that it was difficult to find and "join" fandom for technological/financial reasons and that friction meant the community was smaller and therefore there was a greater sense of safety through obscurity. There was also more consistency in social norms online and people who were bad actors would be shape up or be excluded simply because after a while they would be blocked from every available forum. This might seem overly harsh, but it's the way all small communities naturally police themselves. The unfortunate side effect is that charismatic bad actors in small communities can take over and ruin things for everyone who doesn't agree with them, especially if they can financially afford to run their own forums and suck all users out of other ones... but that still happens. And those fandom social norms could be inherently discriminatory towards marginalized groups, forcing people to put up with shit to participate at all... but that also still happens.

Fandom is now much more public. You don't "join" fandom in the same sense now, it's everywhere in popular media. Talk show hosts showing actors sexy fanart of themselves isn't even shocking any more, it's old hat. Some actors and creators knowing about fandom isn't new, but there was a certain understanding that you weren't supposed to shove it in their faces. Now it's unavoidable and corporations and savvy self-promoters capitalize on it (like that weird Interview With A Vampire fanfic app).

If all communities have 1% of users being intentional bad actors, with a group of 100 people that's only 1 person. You might be able to convince someone to not be an asshole at that ratio, and if they don't cut it out you can kick them out. With 1000 people that's 10 people, which is also somewhat manageable with an active moderation team. With 100,000 people that's 1000 people. That's a lot of harassment to deal with. With the number of users in the millions, it almost feels like there are more bad actors, trollers, grifters, and spam than there are genuine people. Not to mention you've now got a very non-homogenous group who are going to differ in opinions on things like NSFW content. And there's no way to kick or ban people from the community or provide meaningful moderation because there is no one community, there are several interlocking ones. I am sure that many people who joined fandom in the past 5-10 years simply do not know what an online community moderated space looks like outside of Discord.

All my opinions on internet communities is based on personal observation and some old internet truisms. There is a lot of nuance I am excluding for brevity's sake. I just think it's important for understanding why, when a community becomes super big and public, a lot of people flee for the hills to make new smaller groups. And right now that small and medium-sized semi-public community space is usually Discord.

Even if it's understandably the place people are congregating right now, I don't think anybody should get too comfortable on discord. They have made moves indicating they want to cash out. They have become harsher and harsher about NSFW content in the past couple years (due to the same reasons why tumblr has). Not to mention most people don't realize that discord as a company can view anything posted on any server, even private ones, so you need to assume nothing you post there is truly secure (especially if a corp you don't trust might buy it). Even if someone were to invent a new social media platform friendly to fandom (yet again. see also: dreamwidth, pillowfort, mastodon) they will run into a lot of the same problems w/r/t collecting funding that tumblr and discord have. So I don't see any other better options on the horizon and it's impossible to try to herd fandom in any particular direction, so who knows what the future will bring us.

#misc #fandom

[strangertheory]

Hi! I don't think I've seen you comment on Noah's recent fanmio call where he once again casually talked about Byler. I was wondering what your thoughts were, as I value your opinion. Do you think he's teasing Byler because he knows it's endgame and just doesn't care about spoiling stuff? Or do you think he's talking about it because it's actually not gonna be canon and he's just like "yeah you guys will have lots of scenes to fuel your ship in S4!" (but platonic)? Anyway, I just want to say that I really appreciate your blog and reading your thoughts and I've been following you for more than a year now! Lots of love <3

I think that Noah is acknowledging Byler's relevance to season 4 because at this point in time he's allowed to do so because whether Byler is relevant to the story is not the most important or most mysterious question that we should be asking at this point in the series.

In my opinion the way in which Noah has answered these questions implies that there is a conditional "Yes, but!" that we should be aware of. Yes, but you'll see. Yes, but it's complicated. Yes, but it's not what any of you expect.

I'm aware that there is a lot of skepticism in the fan community and that there are even fans that insist that the subtext in the show that Byler fans have picked up on is completely imagined. As you probably know: I strongly disagree. I think the subtext is very intentional. But just because certain parts of the fan community have treated Byler like a controversial or unlikely idea doesn't mean that this is the same perspective or priority that the production team has taken in all considerations. Perhaps the production team has enjoyed allowing fans to argue over these types of details for long enough and they've finally decided that whether or not Byler is relevant to the story is not as surprising a question as fans think it is. Maybe they want our focus to extend beyond "is Byler going to be canon" and for us to instead ask "in what way will the potential for an eventual romantic relationship between Mike and Will be addressed and revealed in the story?"

I strongly suspect that the way in which Mike and Will's relationship will be written is not what fans might expect.

I think that Byler will not be what fans entirely expect it to be, and that this will be for multiple reasons.

I think that it's possible that the way in which either Mike or Will navigates their internalized homophobia could create a lot of complexities in their relationship.

I also suspect, as I've addressed in other posts on my blog, that there is a meta-narrative in the show and that we might see some huge plot twists and revelations that impact all of the characters including Mike and Will and the way that they feel about each other.

I'm of the opinion that Noah casually saying that there is "some of [Byler]" in season 4 simply means that "Yes, the relationship and the idea of romance between Mike and Will is relevant to the plot" but we do not know in what way it will be written. Who has feelings for who? Are they requited or unrequited? If they both have feelings for each other will they be willing to pursue a relationship or will one or both of them decide that they don't want to deal with the social risk? Could one of them be in denial and angry if confronted about their feelings? What assumptions have we made about these characters and their stories that might turn out to be incorrect? What questions will remain unanswered by the end of season 4 and possibly even after season 5? What secrets in these characters' lives will impact this storyline in a way that is very different than what we might anticipate?

To me, the question has never been "Will Byler eventually be acknowledged and explored in canon?" but rather "How will Byler eventually be acknowledged and explored in canon?"

I am optimistic that Byler is deeply relevant to the story because I truly think that the writers have put a lot of careful thought into creating the details and foreshadowing that was woven into seasons 1-3, but my optimism is still rooted in my respect for the writers' ability to tell a compelling story about characters that I care about and not rooted in a very specific conditional expectation of how that story should be told. Sometimes when I see posts by other fans in the Stranger Things community I become worried that a few of us are narrowing our expectations so strictly that fans may be setting themselves up for disappointment.

If you take actors' statements affirming the relevance of Byler to season 4 as simply meaning "yes the idea of a possible romantic dynamic between Mike and Will is somewhat relevant to season 4," then I think that's a fairly reasonable idea. If you take Noah's statements to mean "Yes Mike and Will both return each others' feelings, Mike and Will start openly dating in season 4, Mike and Will clearly state their specific orientation with terms familiar to teenagers in 2021, they both come out to all their friends and family in the 1980s without anyone reacting badly to it, and they both live happily ever after" then I'm concerned that you might be demanding too specific an outcome and that specific expectation could hold you back from enjoying an otherwise very powerful alternate narrative that tells a different story than what you may have expected.

It can be exciting to speculate on what might happen in the show but I am doing my best to not allow my expectations to limit my enjoyment and appreciation for the canon story itself.

I think that it's important that we also recognize that season 4 is the penultimate season and that it is therefore an opportunity for the writers to both begin revealing certain secrets while also, potentially, creating more angst and conflict before resolving issues in season 5.

Thanks for Asking about my thoughts on this! I share everyone's excitement over Byler being acknowledged as relevant to season 4 by one of the actors, but I don't think we can assume to know what that means. And that's exciting! I want to be surprised. I want to be able to follow the hints and clues given to us in seasons 1, 2, and 3 and to be able to understand and appreciate the eventual plot twists and revelations but I don't want to fully anticipate every single moment or else there's nothing to look forward to.

#byler #stranger things #stranger things theories #stranger things 4 rumors #stranger things 4 speculation #stranger things 4 spoilers #stranger things 4 #long post

[sepublic]

You know, I've seen plenty of great ideas for Amphibia x TOH swaps, but there's one thing I haven't seen anyone point out yet. If Luz takes Anne's place and goes to Amphibia, then she gets something she's always wanted at the start of TOH: Being part of a prophecy.

           …That is, a VERY interesting concept, not gonna lie!

           The thing about Luz’s fundamental issues prior to meeting Eda was… She really had a problem with distinguishing fantasy from reality, learning to set the boundaries between the two, and fully respect said boundaries. She wasn’t malicious of course, but regardless…

           This is an interesting ask because we don’t know yet how the prophecy will unfold and be revealed within the show, or even its exact nature! But regardless, this is making me imagine Luz meeting the Plantars, and… Really, I can see Hop Pop’s more down-to-earth nature helping Luz learn to distinguish fantasy from reality, to an extent. Especially since Hop Pop himself is lowkey like Luz in that they’re very unorthodox heroes who don’t quite save the day the way they expected to; But their methods are –usually- valid. Such as Hop Pop accidentally inspiring a revolution among the Frogs, or that time he served as a martyr for those tiny frogs, with his mistreatment by the Hasslebacks being the final injustice that pushes them to fight back and defend themselves, without having to rely on any outsiders to do the work for them. Then there’s him projecting a Noir Film onto his search for Sal, to the point where he straight-up kills an innocent man…

           And, that’s making me imagine Luz and Hop Pop kind of bonding over this (not the murder though), especially with Hop Pop’s failed dreams of becoming an actor. I can see Luz being pretty sympathetic and a lot more involved in Hop Pop’s stint with Renee Frodgers, a lot more than Anne did- And considering we see her try out for Romeo and Juliet at one point, maybe she also has a taste for theater herself! Not to mention, all of this discussion of confusing fantasy with reality is just reminding me of Marcy… Specifically, the speculation of Marcy low-key seeing her time in Amphibia as more like a videogame with its tropes, to a potentially harmful extent as she might not treat this situation as a very real one with actual stakes and living, breathing people.

           Of course, the thing to remember is- Luz takes a lot of initiative in her own character development, too! She’s a receptive person and self-reflects. I feel like even if she never met Eda, it wouldn’t have been out of the question for Luz to still resolve her own issues… It’d have just been a much more difficult and tedious journey, especially if Luz had to go through that Reality Camp. But regardless, when you remember that Hop Pop also goes through similar character development, albeit more around the Season 2 timeframe… With Hop Pop making the conscious decision on his own to call out Renee on her thievery, without Anne nor any circumstances goading him into it, because he’s a very moral character at heart…

           Maybe Luz could have issues like Marcy. It’s worth considering if Andrias is manipulating and feeding into Marcy’s dreams. But regardless, I see Luz and Hop Pop working together, mutually, to get past their own issues, well before the prophecy is revealed- And we still don’t know when that’s going to happen! Maybe Luz and Hop Pop could be a duo reminiscent to Luz and King during Sense and Insensitivity. I can’t say for sure if Luz’s character development will be as potent by the prophecy’s reveal, as she is as of the Season Finale in HER show… I think Eda is ultimately a wiser character than Hop Pop, and characters like Willow and Amity serve as neat narrative contrasts/foils to Luz’s own antics. Though, I can imagine Luz getting caught up in shipping Sprig and Ivy, and possibly the fallout of this leading to a lesson or two…

           But in the end, as I said- Luz has a good heart, and she goes around to do the right thing, in the end. She’s like Hop Pop in that regard, and of course there’s also the existence of Sprig and Polly, not to mention what a fellow weirdo like One-Eyed Wally might have to say, here or there. I guess a lot of it depends on the exact context of how this prophecy is revealed, and how it even works… But I see Luz as being grounded by the more down-to-earth Wartwood, well before she gets to Newtopia. This does raise the interesting idea of her possibly backtracking on her character development, especially with Marcy’s influence and Andrias’ potential manipulations…

           And yet, I can see Luz still turning around to do the right in the end, just as Hop Pop did; Even when his dreams DID come true, and he became a renowned actor! I think Luz would come to the conclusion that even being ‘chosen’ by some divine force doesn’t really make her any better than anyone else… Not to mention that the people and world she’s saving is still very much its own thing, not beholden to her. So I see Luz accepting the mantle of being a hero, if only because she’s a good person and of course she’s not going to let something bad happen… And I can imagine the Plantars helping to gently nudge and remind Luz of her past lessons, to not get confused with fantasy and reality again. The prophecy would definitely be a twist antithetical and contradictory to Luz’s character development, given how she’s being transplanted into a different show with different themes, originally intended for a different protagonist…

           But, if Marcy is going to learn her lesson and get past her own issues –assuming those specific issues ARE a thing of course- then I can see Luz being a guiding light and force for her… Maybe the two mutually navigate past potential delusions together, who knows? I’ve speculated in the past how Luz would handle the revelation of having powerful magical heritage... How Luz would truly show off her character development by rejecting even this seemingly objective, tangible cosmic reason for her being special, and still asserting her equal standing with everyone else. Even when placed on top of the hierarchy, Luz rejects it, showing how much her lessons mean to her. I can see Andrias trying to set Luz up to agree with his hierarchy under that concept of divinely-ordained ‘specialness’, and how it’d all just tie into Luz working to abolish the caste system with Hop Pop.

           I can see it being a contrast to Sasha and Grime, who want to topple the current Newt Hierarchy… More than likely, so they can switch it around with Toads on the top. Not exactly the most helpful change, in the end… Luz decides that instead of reversing the roles, it’s best to just get rid of the roles entirely. It could play into a discussion of privilege, and it’d be interesting to see how Luz, Marcy, and Sasha would all bounce off of one another- Sasha low-key has her issues with dismissing the people of Amphibia, and once talked about ‘having fun’ there. Obviously her respect for Grime has changed this a lot… But there’s still that willingness to conquer what she fully recognizes now as an actual civilization of people. She would certainly take the revelation of a prophecy as full justification that she was never wrong about anything, and that Sasha is of course entitled to taking over Amphibia- Especially if Grime feeds into this both out of genuine support and his own desires.

           Then there’s that idea of Sasha and Grime enabling one another to be worse, even if they also still go through a little bit of positive character development… And as for Marcy and Andrias, I can’t quite say because the latter is still quite the enigma. Either way, Luz has to serve as a grounding force for the other girls with Hop Pop’s help… And really, it sounds like the set-up for total chaos, a battle royal, a complete free-for-all with every Amphibian and Human for themselves as they navigate one another amidst the backdrop of this prophecy. If we want to apply Luz’s motif and themes of being a guiding light for other characters in her own show, I can see her forcing Sasha and Marcy to confront the reality of what they’re doing… And I think interactions between her and Grime would be fascinating, as she’d be VERY much in favor of toppling the monarchy- But specifically to undo the hierarchy entirely, instead of switching it around to the Toads’ favor. If Sasha and Grime enable one another, perhaps Luz will have to act as a voice of reason and buffer between the two- And again, it depends on how Sasha and Grime’s character development goes.

           Overall, this sounds like QUITE the debacle, and I’m kind of fascinated, imagining how these different characters with different motifs, meant to be compatible with narrative parallels and contrasts, amidst the themes of their particular show; And how they’d adapt and fit into another show’s cast and themes! Anne taking Luz’s place in the Boiling Isles would be interesting, given how Anne has clearly internalized Sasha’s idea of ‘knowing what’s best for someone you care about’, and how this seems to be a recurring trend amongst people like Emira and Edric toward Amity, Lilith with Eda, etc. And, I guess I could go into a whole ‘nother discussion of how Eda has to help Anne recover from this low-key abuse and toxicity, and Anne having a similar moment of standing up to Sasha with those characters, possibly citing her own experiences… But, that’s probably a discussion for another time, I think. I guess it depends if I have the time and energy for it, and my cyclical focus aligns just right…

#the owl house #owl house #amphibia #the owl house luz #luz noceda #amphibia hop pop #hopediah plantar #speculation #meta #ask

[the-trashy-phoenix]

Supernatural season 6 review (part 2)

Link to part 1:

Irene and I have already finished watching season 6 and I have mixed feelings on it. I immediately noticed the difference between this season and the previous ones, and I think it's not necessarily a bad thing, although probably the whole season can't compete with the previous two. All in all I didn't mind it at all, despite it definitely not being my favorite season, because it contains some new elements that add depth to the characters.

It starts with Dean trying to live a normal life with Lisa and Ben, after he promised it to Sam, but we can immediately see that, despite being a good life and him being fine with them, he feels that he's missing something, and that something, more than it being a life as a hunter (because Dean already said before he would have liked to retire), I think is his brother's presence. Dean's attempt to live with a family is destroyed by the moment Sam miraculously reappears in his life, along with a number of new family members, the Campbells (including their mother's father Samuel, killed years earlier by the yellow-eyed demon), who doesn't seem to particularly like Dean (and the feeling is mutual) and who keeps the purpose of their monsters (and the alphas of each species) hunts a secret from the brothers.

The first and I think most important mystery of the season comes when Sam admits he doesn't know how he got out of the cage and especially when Dean realizes that his brother has changed drastically. I feel like this season, much more than the others, is shown particularly from Dean's point of view from the very beginning (as we see what his life is like without Sam) and so we find out with him as the season goes on what is the next situation he (with his brother) will have to deal with, since it's not clear as it usually is, indeed one of the things that makes this season particularly different from the others is that we don't immediately know who's the villain to defeat. The first problem is finding out who brought Sam and Samuel back, although it seems to worry Dean mostly than anyone else.

Another problem is added when, on episode 06x03, Castiel (called by Dean after many attempts from Sam, who soon finds out Dean's try actually works because of his brother and the angel's "profound bond") informs the brothers that there is a civil war in heaven and that he is fighting Raphael, who wants to take control of the angels and restart the Apocalypse, considering that the plans did not go as the angels would have liked. Castiel is rather mysterious and secretive about the war and the brothers don't know much more about it, considering they focus more on their individual cases and Sam's situation.

I have noticed that the brothers often tend to focus on their problems rather than giving importance to the others' as well. They don't seem too willing to help Castiel (though he doesn't seem willing to be helped) and even when they know Bobby made a deal with Crowley they don't try to fix it. Their attitude emerges especially in episode 06x04, in which we see everything from Bobby's point of view and discover many sides of him that until now we did not know. The episode shows how Bobby behaves during his typical days and we can immediately notice how many things the man does both for himself (in case of finding a way to untie the deal with Crowley), but also for other people (like Rufus, his friend who's also a hunter we've seen already multiple times before and whom I'm pretty fond of), and especially for the Winchesters, who call him for whatever problem they have during a case and for which he wastes hours of his day. They don't pay him back with much and Bobby finally makes them realize how selfish and self-centered they are. The two then help Bobby and the man manages to recover his soul. In addition to his altruism, I also appreciate Bobby's efficiency: he manages to get his soul back in an episode, while the Winchesters can't do it even with a season available.

Going back to episode 06x03 we meet Balthazar, an angel who initially seems to be against Castiel and the Winchesters, but who we discover, as the episodes continue, that he is on the side of "team free will", as he helps them multiple times. I hated when Castiel killed him, since he is one of my favorite angels, both because of his personality and because, despite appearing to be the usual indifferent angel, he actually cares about the cause of the protagonists (and thanks to him we have one of the funniest episodes of Supernatural, 06x15, in which Sam and Dean are catapulted into "our reality" and take the place of the actors who play them, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, continuing that strand of metanarrative and bringing it to the next level of fun, since at this point this episode isn't just making fun of the Supernatural storyline, but also of the show and the actors themselves).

Dean, from episode 06x03 and as others go by, realizes that there's something wrong with Sam, since he seems more cold and heartless than ever, the feeling is fortified when he thinks Sam purposely let a vampire bite him so that he could find out who the vampire's alpha was and where he was (in order to bring him to Samuel). The transformation (that Dean thinks is definitive) leads him to want to say goodbye one last time to Ben and Lisa (with whom he had previously made a deal that allowed him to continue hunting with his brother, who needed him, and return to the two as soon as he could). Being a vampire, he tries to stay as far away from the two as possible, but loses control and throws Ben to the wall, running away soon after. Because of this episode Lisa breaks up with him and Dean, as much as he's hurt, realizes that it is better to get away from his family, to prevent them from being in danger. As much as I love Dean with Castiel, I like Dean with Lisa a lot too. It is probably due to the fact that he has a normal life with her (and I love seeing a domestic Dean), that I like Lisa's personality and that he manages to be a good father figure to Ben (we can see he's quite good with kids even in episode 06x02, when Sam and Dean have to deal with a baby shape-shifter). I hated seeing in episode 06x21, after Crowley captured Lisa and Ben, Dean deciding to erase their memories and going away from them permanently. I felt like the whole situation needed more closure. Back to episode 06x05, he manages to return human at the end of the same episode, but the feeling that Sam has a problem only intensifies when he realizes his brother was smiling as the vampire bit him.

One of the things I've enjoyed the most this season is definitely Sam's status and Dean's emotions about it. He finds himself in a position where he doesn't know how to trust his brother (and in the meantime he also has to endure the breakup with Lisa, which Sam seems to just pretend to care about). He's sure Sam has a problem in episode 06x06, where Sam in front of the goddess of truth manages to keep lying, so she yells at him that he's not human, shocking Dean. After defeating the goddess, Sam confesses everything: he has let him be vampirized and he knows there's something wrong with him, although he doesn't know what it is. Thanks to Castiel in episode 06x07 they discover Sam was brought back without his soul, which is still in the cage with Lucifer.

I love soulless Sam, especially for the new dynamics between the brothers, among whom Dean is now the one most responsible and empathetic, and for Sam's indifference to any human emotion (for example in the episode, in which Dean is kidnapped by "aliens" and Sam seems to be totally serene about it). Of course Dean wants to recover Sam's soul, while Sam does not seem particularly concerned about his lack and, on the contrary, believes that soulless he is a better hunter (and, since Castiel points out that all that time in the cage with Lucifer has most likely damaged Sam's soul irreparably, he's not even convinced it's good to have it back). As true as this may be, soulless Sam seems to become more and more dangerous and Dean finds himself looking for an extreme solution: thanks to Death he manages to recover Sam's soul and separate his memories in hell from the rest of his soul with a wall.

Sam returns with his soul, but without the memories of the last year, so he gradually discovers all the horrible things he has committed without a soul: he is shocked and feels very guilty, even if his brother tries to convince him that that was not really him and that therefore he should not feel responsible. I don't know why but I particularly love the relationship between the two brothers after Sam recovers his soul: first of all you can see the huge difference between soulless Sam and the Sam that we all know and love (I think his emotions and sensations emerge exponentially now, and as much as I liked him without his soul, this shift made me love the "normal" Sam even more), second of all there's a feeling of protection and understanding from Dean and Sam respectively, which leads me to think that they matured even more after the end of season five (in fact I was particularly surprised to see that Sam didn't seem upset by the fact that Dean didn't immediately tell him what had happened to him). Although this situation seems momentarily overcome (even if Dean is afraid that the wall will sooner or later break) the Winchesters have to face two other unsolved problems.

The first one is Crowley, who, once he becomes king of hell, we discover wanting to find Purgatory (to expand his kingdom). We also find out Samuel is working for him by capturing monsters that would eventually tell him how to reach the place (and he's doing it because Crowley promised he would bring Mary back as a reward). If Dean's esteem for his grandfather was already low, this new information gives him the opportunity to completely separate from him and the new relatives, realizing that he doesn't always need to have a family connection if there's one of blood. His grandfather's last misstep comes when, while Sam and Dean, with the help of Castiel and Meg (who wants Crowley dead as much as they do), he misleads them and imprisons them at Crowley's behest. The team manages to break free and Castiel appears to be able to kill Crowley once and for all. The Winchesters meet their grandfather during a hunt in which he dies, as does Rufus. The difference between the reactions to Samuel and Rufus' death is obvious, underlining the further difference between a family formed by blood bonding and a family born by love. I think the introduction of the new relatives, apart from to deepen the concept of family, was rather useless, created more to add mystery to the whole Sam affair than anything else.

The second problem concerns the Mother-of-all-things, Eve, who managed to get out of Purgatory and bring with her a series of monsters, intending to take revenge on Crowley for trying to appropriate Purgatory and the soul of its monsters (of which Eve is the mother). I didn't love this villain that much, it seemed to me introduced rather hastily and without any anticipation, moreover, in comparison to everything that was there before her, Eve seems rather weak, in fact Dean manages to kill her all in all pretty quickly.

On the other hand, I'm glad she was a passing villain and she died already in the episode 06x19 because that gave the brothers and Bobby the opportunity to find out that what Crowley really wants is souls, that he will get them by opening Purgatory and that he's actually still alive. We soon find out that all the unresolved things (like what concerns Crowley, the war in heaven and Sam's soul) leads to one character only: Castiel. I think this revelation is the best (and saddest) part of season six of Supernatural. At the end of episode 06x19 we already see Bobby and Sam suspecting that Castiel is hiding something from them, as it seems impossible that he failed to kill Crowley. The only one who can't even think Castiel would do such a thing is Dean (too blind because of his love for him).

In the next episode, 06x20, which has to be one of my favourite Supernatural episodes ever, everything starts to make sense, since it's all narrated by Castiel. After defeating Lucifer, he retrieved Sam from the cage with enormous difficulty (unintentionally leaving his soul there) and returned to heaven, discovering that Raphael would start a new Apocalypse. He decided to oppose him, although he did not know how to do it, so he initially thought to ask Dean for help, even if he wanted to leave him alone. Indeed, when Crowley proposed to him a deal to access purgatory and share the souls with which they would both strengthen (and Castiel would do it so much he could defeat Raphael), the angel accepted, and since he knows the boys will not like knowing he's made a deal with the king of hell, he doesn't tell them, carrying out the plan with Crowley on his own. As much as I understand Castiel's reasons for working with Crowley, I think he handled the whole situation in the worst possible way and it now seems like a hallmark of the Winchester family choosing to hide their secrets rather than get help from others. Throughout the episode all the tracks seem to trace back to the idea that Castiel is collaborating with Crowley, but Dean continues to trust the angel, trying to defend him in every way.

I think from this episode we can see a further change in the relationship between Dean and Cas: betraying the Winchesters is the last thing the angel would like to do and Dean would rather not see all the evidence that leads to Castiel's betrayal than to admit his best friend has plotted behind his back, because that would be the thing that would hurt him the most. When the Winchesters and Bobby find out by Castiel's mistake that he's been spying on them, Dean realizes he should deal with the fact that his best friend has betrayed him and so he calls him to confront him.

This is probably the saddest scene in this episode: when the Winchesters and Bobby trap him, he continues to look for excuses, until Dean asks him to look him in the eyes and tell him he's not cooperating with Crowley. At that point Castiel can no longer lie, but tries to show the others his point of view, which the three of them do not share and condemn heavily enough. I understand that in this case they have the right to feel betrayed by Castiel, but this is not the first time someone has kept something hidden from the others (it happens literally all the times) and that someone has worked with Crowley (they did it just on the previous season), so it seems to me a bit of a hypocritical attitude to be so upset with Castiel, since the angel has done nothing but help them from the moment he sided with them, while they haven't even tried to help him with the angels' war. Indeed I think they should have found a sort of compromise to resolve the situation in the best of the ways, instead of hindering each other. But I think Dean is mostly hurt by all of Castiel's lies and the fact that he totally fell for it rather than the betrayal itself, so, knowing him, that would have been the hardest thing to do. In my opinion the whole episode focuses on Dean and Castiel's feelings the most, to a point which it almost touches a romantic level, and that scene is the icing on the cake (is it because of the scene, and the script, itself or of Dean and Castiel's intense, longing and hurtful stares? We'll probably never find out, but I love to suffer with them).

In the last two episodes we can see the consequences of the previous episode: after trying to convince Castiel that opening the doors of purgatory was a bad idea and failing miserably, Dean understands that all he can do is hinder him. We can also see the difference between the two brothers, as Sam is more willing to interact with Cas, meanwhile Dean doesn't seem to want to deal with him anymore (even when he should ask him for help to find Lisa and Ben, although in episode 06x21 Dean asks Castiel one last favour, which is to erase Lisa and Ben's memories).

Castiel, on the other hand, tries multiple times to convince Dean (and the others) to trust him with his plan. They can't, so when they try to stop him the angel has to intervene. While I could justify Castiel actions until 06x20, I couldn't after that: after returning from the death and assuming it was God who brought him back, he started to believe what he was doing, making his own choices, was right. So far I couldn't agree more with him, but this security has turned into arrogance and Castiel seems to realize this, as episode 06x20 ends with a desperate demand for an answer from God, since he doesn't know if he's on the right path anymore. Despite these insecurities in the last episode, 06x22, he completes the plan, depriving Crowley of his half of the souls and blocking the Winchesters by breaking the wall in Sam's mind. I understand he didn't know how else to stop them, but until the previous episode he wouldn't want anyone to lay a finger on the Winchesters, so that seems kinda hypocrite. Despite that, Dean and Bobby tries to find Castiel and Crowley before it's too late, but when they find the demon, on Raphael's side, once he found out that Castiel would not comply with the plan, the angel comes back already full of souls and power, after tricking Crowley and completing the plan on his own, and finally kills Raphael. Season six ends with Sam that somehow has reached them, despite being fresh of memories of the time he spent with Lucifer in the cage, with Castiel believing he's the new God (and having all the powers to do so) and with Bobby and Dean knowing the next problem will be how to stop Castiel before he causes another disaster.

I think this season has a lot of great elements, like soulless Sam and the plot twist around Castiel, but also many weaknesses, like the Campbells and the enemies like Eve and Raphael, who in my opinion didn't make such an impact, making Castiel certainly the most interesting villain.

I already know what will happen to Castiel and the boys, but watching them like that always breaks my heart.

- Carly 💚

#supernatural #spn #spn review #supernatural review #supernatural rewatch #sam #sam winchester #soulless!sam #dean #dean winchester #castiel #godstiel #destiel #deancas #bobby singer #bobby #crowley #crowley spn #meg spn #lisa and ben #samuel winchester #rufus supernatural #balthazar #balthazar spn #raphael spn #eve supernatural #spn lucifer #purgatory

[dreamerandcrazy]

Ok, so I haven't been able to comment much on my Riverdale rewatch mostly bc i'm watching it with my boyfriend and we have an agreement of no cell phones when we're watching, otherwise we can't pay proper attention to it. But I wrote down some notes about the episodes I did watch (I watched up until ep 6, which is very ironic bc apparently today is its anniversary, so yay for my perfect timing). I actually remember most of the stuff that happened in s1, so here's mostly a few things I paid more attention to or noticed about the characters and the ships, or things i'm able to look at through a different view now that i've watched all the seasons. Strap in if you want to see my notes, if not just scroll please, no ship or character hate here please. Also, feel free to ignore, this is really just a personal look in some stuff I didn't notice in my first watch.

- Betty's character used to be much happier and lighter in season 1. I know we're introduced to "Dark Betty" right in episode 3, but still, I feel like the way Lili played Betty in season 1 did not hold the same "darkness" as it does in the following seasons. The scene where she is dancing happily in her bedroom because she's going to homecoming with the boy she likes? The scene where she introduces Jughead to the Blue & Gold and gets him to work with her? Her genuine innocent happiness at seeing her sister again after so much time? The way she interacted with Kevin and Veronica? Those were all chef's kiss because she actually feels like a teenager in them. In all her girly glory, she radiates youth energy and it's a thing that was sadly lacking after s1. Btw this is not a critique at Lili's acting at all, I blame it entirely on Ras and his obsession with dark Betty.

- There's actually so many indications of Cheryl being a lgbt character in the first episodes that I have no idea how I missed it the first time. But then again, there were many indications with Veronica as well, and sadly that's not the path Ras chose for her.

- Jughead in s1 is truly so superior in so many ways that it's not hard to see why he quickly became such a fan favorite. I think even if he wasn't played by Cole Sprouse, he still would have conquered many fans' hearts. Sadly, the things that made Jughead such a loving and interesting character for me also fizzled out in s2 when the writing team decided to make him a woke serpent leader instead of allowing him to sticking to his true personality as a passionate mystery lover, a dedicated friend and very nerdy, which was very cute. I feel that we got some of that back for him in s4, which was good, but sadly s1 is where my love for him really stayed to stay. But I still care for him, and s5 has a promising storyline for him which i'm excited about, so let's see if s5 Jughead can become better than s1 Jughead.

- Going back again to Cheryl for a sec, I just noticed that the red lipstick actually wasn't that common for her in s1? At least not in the first five. I wonder when did it start becoming her trademark? Anyways, it's actually a really good look her and allows you to appreciate Madelaine's natural beauty even more.

- Also, did anybody notice how Alice lowkey figured out who killed Jason in ep 2 lmao, like... in episode two she legit says she wouldn't be surprised if the Blossoms themselves had killed Jason, which... is what happened LMAO, considering we know it was his father. And even more hilarious and tragically ironic note, in ep 6 she's laughing at Betty suggesting that Hal killed Jason because "do you think your father has the stomach for it?!"... Ma'am... i'm-.... 😂😂😂😂.

- This rewatch has reminded me of how much I adored and how I much I miss Josie and the Pussycats. The girls were such a nice addition to the cast, and their songs were so beautiful. I truly wish we get to see them again someday, but at the same time I also think the actresses deserve to be at a work place where they're given the treatment they deserve and not completely ignored and treated like extras.

- Archie/Valerie was super cute and is very underrated in the fandom, but i'm glad Valerie stood up for herself and didn't take any of Archie's or Cheryl's sh*t. Still sucks because they were really good together, though.

- Why was Jason not allowed to talk, lmao? Like, i'm sure it's become a running joke in the show at this point, but back when season one was airing what was the excuse for it? He appeared in so many flashbacks and scenes and we still never heard a single word ☠️☠️☠️☠️. I just want to know what was the reason lol.

- I liked s1 Reggie, but I feel like Charles Melton's Reggie is better because he actually feels like a douche with good intentions lol, and he has more of a personality. Most of the time I even forgot about Reggie in s1, but after s2 he definitely made me more aware of him. So for that, I like Charles Melton's Reggie more. But the actor from s1 still did a good job with what he was given.

From now on I will be talking about the ships, so bear with me, and know that I am a multishipper. Yes, I have my preferences. No, my word is not law, it's just an opinion, so please respect it.

- Bughead is still super cute in s1. I feel like from s1 they will always be my otp, even if I no longer feel as strongly about them now and have a different insight as to where I would like their story to go, and now I definitely see the problem others had mentioned before of how they kind of took over the show, which is something I kind of closed my eyes to before... But I really loved them in s1. It felt like a very juvenile teenage relationship, they didn't give much thought on why and if they should be together, they just went for it like teenagers usually do, and they were very very cute together.

- I feel like if you don't count Beronica (because they really were the best no matter what you say or ship), if there's a ship that deserves "best chemistry" award for s1 is probably Varchie. I lost my interest in them years ago, but this rewatch reminded me of why I actually loved them once. They never really became an otp for me, but Kj and Camila's chemistry in s1 was VERY GOOD, and I really liked them. Their kiss in the pilot was electric and the s&xual tension was OOF, and that chemistry carries on through the season. You can easily tell something will happen between them eventually. It makes me sad bc I don't know what happened after s1, but their chemistry from s2 onwards was just... not there for me. Which is ironic bc it's the season they truly started dating and they got a lot of smexy scenes, but I just... didn't feel it. But I'll leave that comment to my s2 rewatch. For now just let me enjoy Varchie's chemistry in s1 while it lasts because it was really good.

- Now we get to Barchie, who I made clear was the reason for my rewatch, so let's get to it. I LOVED the way Barchie was written in s1. I remember when I first watched Riverdale, I was curious about their dynamic but didn't put much thought into it because I loved Bughead too much and wanted them to be together, and I thought Barchie would be the traditional "first og ship" thing and wouldn't have a big follow up, but boy was I WRONG and am I GLAD for it. I'll talk more about their development in the next seasons when I get there, so for now let's focus a bit on s1. Just in like the first two episodes, there is so much Barchie foreshadowing, like, it's legit insane how it was right there in my face and I missed it the first time! "I have never felt what i'm supposed to feel with betty", "it's not my fault he doesn't like you", "I can't give you the answer you want"... Omg, those are obvious eyebrow raising "this will come back to bite you in the a$$" moments and it's incredible how they actually DO! I would call it clever writing, but like... it's Riverdale lol. So I really am just glad that the ship was done this way, i'm glad Barchie has the back story that they do, they've really come a LONG way and i'm happy I get to experience their whole growing storyline. It's also especially good because s1 actually provides you with scenes that show you their friendship and how they're so close, you see them hanging out, talking, their pictures together, everything was just really done well with them. Still have a bit of critique with the way Archie contradicted himself sometimes regardinf his feelings for Betty, but let's be honest, we've watched enough Riverdale to know that's just a problem with the writing.

- Kevin/Joaquin is still my favorite Kevin ship, i'm sad it's completely impossible to go back to them someday so for now i'll just be really glad it existed and that I got to see them even if it was short-lived. They had great chemistry and their kiss scenes always outsold.

- Beronica... sigh. Beronica. The most wasted chemistry i've ever seen on CW and I've watched a LOT of CW shows. There was so much potential there, s1 was practically overflowing with them and it's one of the reasons it became some popular. I remember when the Beronica fandom was the biggest one, ah, good times. Veronica and Betty were easily the best part of season 1, their friendship, their lowkey romantic moments, they were just superior in every way. This ship deserved better, not even just as a ship, but as a friendship.

- Veronica's s1 hair >>> Veronica's hair in seasons 2-4. I loved the side part and I am glad it's back in season 5, it looks so much better like that.

- Cheryl, as always, deserves better. Can't wait for her to meet Toni so I can watch again Cheryl finally get to love someone and be loved back, which is exactly what she deserves.

For now, that is all! I will probably make another post soon when i'm done with season one and from season two on I will be live-blogging the episodes since I will be watching it alone. Once again, pls, no hate, my thoughts are my thoughts. Peace.

#bri rewatches riverdale #riverdale #barchie #choni

[lucyskywalker]

I've done the personality test, and guess what?

I am an INFP-T.

It described me well. Is any other INFP mutuals out there? 👀👀👀👀

“Mediator” personality

Mediator personalities are true idealists looking for the best even in the worst people and events, looking for a way to make things better. While they can be seen as calm, reserved, or even shy, Mediators have an inner flame and a passion that can really shine. Composed of only 4% of the population, the risk of feeling misunderstood is unfortunately high for people with the personality of Mediator - but when they meet like-minded people to spend their time, the harmony they feel will be a source of joy and inspiration .

“Mediator” personality (INFP-A / INFP-T)

Mediators are guided by their principles rather than reason, excitement or practicality. When deciding how to move forward, they will look at honor, beauty, morality and virtue - Mediators are led by the purity of their intention, not rewards and punishments. People who share the personality of Mediator are proud of this quality, and rightly so, but not everyone understands the unity behind these feelings, and can lead to isolation.

Everything that is gold does not shine; Not everyone who wanders is lost; The old man who is strong does not wilt; Deep roots are not affected by frost.

JRR TOLKIEN

We Know What We Are, But We Don't Know What We Will Be

In all their splendor, these qualities allow people with the personality of Mediator to communicate deeply with others, easily speaking in metaphors and parables, and understanding and creating symbols to share their ideas. The strength of this intuitive communication style is good for creative works, and it is not surprising that many famous Mediators are poets, writers and actors. Understanding themselves and their place in the world is important for Mediator personalities, and they explore these ideas by projecting themselves into their work.

Mediators have a talent for self-expression, revealing their beauty and secrets through metaphors and fictional characters.

Mediators' language skills also do not stop with their mother tongue - they are considered gifted when it comes to learning a second (or third!) Language. Their gift for communication also helps the Mediators' desire for harmony and helps these personalities to move forward as they find their vocation.

Listen to Many People, but Speak to Few

Unlike people with a more social personality, Mediators will focus their attention on just a few people, a single worthy cause - overly widespread, they will run out of energy and will be discouraged and overwhelmed by all the bad guys in the world that they cannot correct. This is a sad sight for Mediators' friends who will depend on their optimistic views.

If they are not careful, Mediators can get lost in their search for good and neglect the care that life demands in their daily lives. Mediators often drift into deep thought, enjoying contemplating the hypothetical and the philosophical more than any other personality type. In the absence of control, the Mediator's personalities may begin to lose contact, withdraw and enter "hermit mode", which means that friends or partners have to use a large dose of energy to bring them back into the world. real.

Fortunately, like the flowers in spring, the Mediator's affection, creativity, altruism and idealism will always return, gratifying those we love, perhaps not with logic and usefulness, but with a worldview that inspires compassion and kindness and beauty wherever you go.

#me #personal #do i really give those vibes? #how can it be so right? #im gonna hide myself #INFP #INFP-T

[aboleth-eye]

Hello! Would you have any advice for new DMs/things you wish you had been told when you started DMing? I'd like to try it myself, but I've only ever been a player, and just figuring out where to start is a bit overwhelming! Thank you in advance!

Great Question!  Here are my Lessons Learned from when I ran a game for the first time!  

There are Four Lessons I wish I’d known when I got started:  Have Your Resources Handy, Start Small (3 Parts), Things Go Awry, and Have Fun Together!   ((This is going to be a very long post, so I’ll cap it a little less than halfway down))

1.)  Have Your Resources Handy!

If this is your first time running a Tabletop RPG system, even if you’ve been playing for years, HAVE THE BOOK(S), WEBSITE(S) AND/OR PDF(S) NEARBY!  I’m serious about this, guys!  Playing a game or watching someone else play is a totally different monster to running it!  

When you first declare to the group that you’d like to host a game, I recommend you read the rules over at least two or three times before hand–start with a deep read first to get it all in your head, and then you can choose to speed read once you’ve had some time to digest the rules.  

But even if reading ttrpgs is your thing, have the resources within easy reach.  Either have your laptop available with open tabs to any pdfs/scans of the game source material and any relevant websites (like standard reference document pages), and/or have a physical copy of the game book with you.  If you are running certain monsters or encounters, I also recommend you copy down any stats and information to a separate text document (on laptop or printed) so you won’t have to page through stuff during the game.

2A.) Start Small: The Setting

If this is your first time or fiftieth time running a tabletop roleplaying game, and you are running a new system for the first time, limit the scope of project to start.  Writing campaign and world settings can be very intense, and it is very easy to write something too specific and railroad people into your lore and world.

For instance, don’t create a massive world with a continent of named cities and landmarks!  Don’t plan out every inch of your world, or else it’ll turn into a “fill-in-the-blank exploration” story instead of an organic world you can change as your group learns and grows!

My first campaign started in a very specifically written city on the edge of a vast magical desert.  I planned out a timetable of events that would catapult the players into the “open-world”.  The players noticed this and didn’t appreciate it. 

Also, do not bog your players down with Lore!  I’ve gone into campaigns where you need to know information “for backstory”!  This is your first campaign, it’s good to know what to introduce and when!  A group of starting adventurers typically doesn’t need to know your world’s entire array of deities, pages and pages of history, and legends “that shaped the world”!  You can introduce these things at character creation IF THE PLAYERS ASK, and then slowly dish things out as the characters live in your world.

It’s also good to not ties yourself down to specific placement of towns, countries, cities, landmarks, etc.  Leave the map blank save for the starting area, and any broadly defined areas such as forests and mountains.  Once characters finish their first missions and adventures, they’ll explore!  With all the “white space” of your world, you can insert places and things as you journey with the group!  

One of my favorite encounters when I was very new to D&D was when we accidentally burned down a forest.  We were fighting a massive tiger with a pixie NPC in a forest, and the pixie just trapped everyone (tiger included) in entangling vines.  Our pyromancer in the party tried to set the beast on fire, and they rolled a critical failure.  

The beast was set on fire and died!  And so did the pixie!  And now there’s a raging forest fire we have to run from!  We get an oxcart running and we take shifts to outrun the magical fire–FOR THREE DAYS!  It was an incredibly tense situation, and it was fun to add “an entire forest” to the pyromancer player’s list of things they set on fire.

You know what would have made all that suck?  If the DM had decided: “Okay, you pass through this location which is a lich’s hideout and have to face that; then the next day you’ll have to ford a river with the tired oxes.  Finally, you’ll be passing through this county’s border…”  

We just burned down a placeholder  forest, and all the consequences that came with it came AFTER we were finally safe!  The DM didn’t bog us down with heavy lore and their maps during a tense situation; they kept the focus on the action at hand.

Prioritize the players’ story before your own!  That’s the lesson I want to make absolutely clear.  You aren’t telling your story with friends as the characters; the Dungeon Master/Game Master/Storyteller is the worldbuilder who tells the character groups’ story as they interact with the world.

2B) Start Small: The First Encounters

Another item I want to bring up is Do Not Start Your Campaign with a “Unique Encounter”!  Start your campaign setting with a simple task for the players to face.  Here are the kinds of challenges I mean: defeat a bunch of zombies in a graveyard for a reward, go into a mine full of bats to retrieve a homing beacon, follow a simple mystery to find a girl’s lost dog, etc.  The Players’ should be introduced to your world with something simple to follow–that way they can make their marks and introduce how they roleplay to the story.  

Do Not try something you’ve “never seen before”!  Don’t have the characters whisked off to another plane or world while they slept!  Don’t have the players face fifteen or so mooks at once during an ambush!  Don’t have your characters struggle to tread water or leap floating platforms while fighting a monster!  These kinds of encounters instantly put players on guard and feel railroaded!  Give them the chance to decide how they integrate themselves into the adventure.

My first campaign violated this rule.  When the players left the city to enter the desert, they were suddenly beset by 12 monstrous scorpions!  And me, in my ambitious tunnel-vision, thought it’d be interesting to have each scorpion have its own turn.  I rolled twelve Initiatives for the scorpions and it was a LONG combat when it clearly didn’t have to be.  

It all looked so good in my head, but when you get players involved you can tell how grueling and boring something like that could be.  I learned a lot that session.

That combat ended the campaign for me.  I decided to go back to the drawing board because that kind of thinking was not going to fly for me and my friends.

Instead, give your players a task that could easily be solved in one or two sessions!  Do not give your players “only one way” to solve this!  For instance, if your first challenge is to get past some guards, let the players come up with the solution themselves.  They might decide to fight the guards, use magic/science to teleport past them, go off on a side quest to become guards so they can infiltrate them, or even walk up and attempt to socialize with them.  You as the storyteller/DM merely narrate the results of whatever the characters do; just bridge the gaps and think of consequences from the players’ actions.

ALSO!  Have a time limit for your first session, or plan breaks for food/drink/stretching.  This activity of DMing can be very stressful, and you might need a break to take stock of what problems and choices occurred during play.  

2C.) Start Small: The Players

Have your players build starting or low-level characters (I typically start with 3rd level for D&D).  The low levels will mean most powergaming and gamebreaking attempts by certain types of players will be nipped in the bud right from the start.  It will also typically limit the powers and abilities of your group (so you won’t have to memorize or look up high-level stuff until much later).  

Another thing I highly recommend is that you are present during character creation!  Do not let people determine/roll character abilities and stats without you.  Either be physically present when dice get rolled and abilities get determined, or be present digitally in a chatroom, discord or roll20 when electronic character sheets get filled in!  

My first campaign I allowed one of the players to bring a character from a friend’s campaign into it.  The original DM ended the campaign; and even though I had played in that campaign alongside this character I had no clue what they could do.  This made things challenging because this character “suddenly” remembered they could fly–so I had to add aerial combat onto my plate during the first fight of the campaign.

It made the situation tense, especially with my bad early encounters (see the 12 Scorpions combat above).

3.) Things Go Awry

If you’ve come this far, there’s one last piece of advice I want to give you.  Your first campaign is gonna suck in one way or another.

I don’t mean that to be disheartening; I want you to think of it as a learning experience.  Whenever a person learns a new skill or engages in a new activity for the first time, it’s always gonna suck.  (Even if someone has a “natural talent”).  You as the DM/Storyteller are going to notice problems crop up left and right; especially if you don’t take the advice I offered above.  For instance, if you start learning to paint with a new medium or start a sport you’ve never tried; you need to practice with the tools and techniques you’ve prepared to see what works for your style of learning.  

Running a roleplaying game is a very unique mashup of activities.  There’s typically a math element you need to consider behind every action the players take.  You need to workout your improvisation skills to bridge connections and gaps your players make.  You need to get in front of a group of people (sometimes more or less experienced than you) and tell a story that keeps their attention.  It’s a stressful mix of being an improv actor, a storyteller and the physical laws of your world.

Hopefully your players will understand when things get crazy and overwhelming.  Gametime might come to a halt because you need to look up a specific rule or wording that you aren’t familiar with.  It’s okay.  Until you get to know how your game world runs with your players in it, it is totally fine to take a breath and think things through.  Oftentimes you can ask your players for help in making a determination or house-ruling.

Last note on this topic: Get Feedback!  At the end of the session, be bold and ask your players if they enjoyed the session, what they liked and what they didn’t like.  Feedback is how DMs get insight on how the game is playing out.  While you’re DMing, your mind is on a million different topics; let the players tell you how they felt during gameplay, so you know what made them feel good or bad on the other side of the curtain.

4.) Have Fun Together!

This is something that needs to be said, if I’m honest.  Running a game can be a stressful activity that “ruins” some things about it now that you are “behind the curtain”.  This is your first session, in what you hope to be a series of games where you and your friends make all sorts of memories.

However, some DMs get incredibly discouraged and no-nonsense when they run a game for their first few times.  That is understandable, especially if being the “mastermind” is a challenge you haven’t prepared for.  A few sessions in and you might find the game isn’t fun for you and/or your players.  That might be a sign that you need to take a break from hosting–use that time to think how you can make the game fun for everyone, or if this campaign just needs to be scrapped!

The priority of the DM is to bring people together.  If a game system, campaign concept or player actions aren’t making the group (you included) happy; it’s better to stop things and take stock before things go too far.  It is never fun to admit your game isn’t viable or enjoyable, but hopefully you’ll have new experience you can take with you the next time you try your game.  

And heck, if you find you prefer playing at this time, that’s fine!  Even if this attempt didn’t have the results you expected, there is nothing to stop you from trying again later if you wanted.  But now that you know how it is behind the curtain, you are naturally more observant to how your own DM/GM runs their games and you can learn from it.

Remember how good the game system/lore/etc made you feel!  It’s why you wanted to DM in the first place; you recognized you had a story you wanted to tell, and this ttrpg had the tools to bring it to life!  No matter what problems arise when you’re behind the curtain, the game should still bring you enjoyment whether you play or manage the game.  Do not give up on the game just because of one bad session or two!  

When I decided to end my campaign, it really was a painful decision.  I loved the world as it was in my mind, but I was not executing it well so that my players enjoyed it.  I got feedback after that terrible 12 Scorpions combat, and decided to take some time to think about everything.  Our group went back to our original DM, with other members trying to DM in that time; and honestly I didn’t DM until I started a small separate group months later.  

During that gap in DMing I digested what I liked and didn’t like about my campaign, and had more time to reflect on the rules.  I decided to take a few steps back and learn from my mistakes.  I still made mistakes the second and third times I DMed, I make mistakes even to this day.  

But at the heart of it all, I love games so much that I want to constantly make my stories and worlds even better, even to this day.

I take the struggles of DMing as learning experiences, rather than let them define me as a writer, storyteller and game master.  I use them as stepping stones so I don’t fall through the gaps again.  I may have started out with a bad first campaign, but I would never take those mistakes away.  

I hope these lessons were helpful!  I love D&D and tabletop roleplaying games so much, and love giving out advice on how to make the experience your own.  I hope this helps a lot of new people bring their stories to life!  Also, I hope I helped everyone’s expectations into the right state of mind.  

Good luck and happy gaming everyone!!  Much love!

– Aboleth-Eye

#aboleth eye #d&d ask #d&d resources #dm resources #lessons learned #tabletop games #tabletop resources #dm inspiration #tabletop inspiration #game night #tabletop story

[a-taste-of-the-sky]

Duck Butter is the First Film that Made Me Feel Truly Seen and Understood as a Queer Woman

This is a big claim, but it’s true.

Duck Butter, an indie dramedy, was released April, 2018. It stars Alia Shawkat and Laia Costa, was written by Alia Shawkat and Miguel Arteta, and is directed by Miguel Arteta. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, Alia Shawkat was awarded Best Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival for her performance.

CREDIT: VULTURE.COM

The premise of the movie is that two women named Naima (Shawkat) and Sergio (Costa) meet and decide to do an experiment where they spend 24 sleepless hours together, and having sex every hour on the hour.

The two talk about how they have both been disappointed by falseness in previous relationships. This prompts Sergio to say, "I want to know you, for real. I want 24 hours and I want to come with you every hour . . . I want to see you taking a shit and getting angry . . . we can do it. We can fucking skip time."

This decision essentially fast forwards their relationship, and their intimacy, so they can see each other’s flaws, and also see each other getting angry and sad. So they can get to know each other "for real." However, the two barely know each other when they decide to do this experiment, and things don't exactly go as planned.

As a gay woman, I’m always looking for media that represents my experience when it comes to life and love. However, when it comes to LGBT+ media, I am often disappointed. For one, more films are dedicated to a queer male experience than a queer female experience. (I should also note that there are more films dedicated to gay or bisexual experiences, than transgender or nonbinary experiences; trans and nonbinary people are definitely lacking in representation as well.) There are also often bad tropes that pop up in films centering on sexuality. Gay people often die, or cheat, or hate their gayness and struggle to come out. And when a queer person finds love in a same-sex relationship, AND has a happy ending, AND the movie has quality writing, acting, and production, it almost feels like a miracle. I feel like at this point, I’m almost always expecting a subpar LGBT+ movie, and I’m pleasantly surprised when the movie is well done. So when I do see a quality LBGT+ film, especially about queer woman, I make note of it, and try to tell people about it.

Duck Butter is my favorite LGBT+ movie, that I’ve ever seen -- and I’ve seen a lot of them. This is (1) because I think it is a quality, artistic film, that explores interesting questions, and (2) because of the fact that I finally felt like I could see my own queer, female experience reflected back to me onscreen.

That being said, I’m not going to claim that every woman who loves women (or every LGBT+ person) will love this movie. Sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s uncomfortable, and sometimes it's shocking. I also don't think everyone will love the way it ends. But this movie doesn't shy away from the intense parts of relationships; it leans in.

This movie made me feel seen and understood as a queer woman because of how real, and how normal, the two queer women interacting felt to me.

CREDIT: COURTESY OF TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

The two elements that made Duck Butter feel the authentic to me, especially where other movies failed, was the conversation in the movie, and the sex.

Conversation: In other movies that depict queer women in relationships, I’ve often felt that there was not enough conversation -- and maybe even little or no conversation -- where the characters got to know each other deeply. I’ve noticed that there’s often a focus on the physicality of attraction. In movies like Kiss Me, the lack of serious conversation between the two women in a relationship seems to imply that the intensity of physical attraction will overcome anything they would need to talk about, or that their relationship is somehow inevitable. The lack of deep conversation in other films showing women in relationships always bothered me. The conversation in Duck Butter, though, is not only there, it's constant. The conversations are sometimes deep and meaningful, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes intense, sometimes meandering and playful. But the dialogue between Naima and Sergio allows these characters to become known to each other, as well as the audience, in a way that I haven't often seen before in films depicting queer women. I think by making conversation between Naima and Sergio such a strong part of the film, Duck Butter seems to say that conversation IS important in relationships, same-sex or otherwise. It shows that people DO need to talk a lot, and talk through difficult things, in order to try to start a relationship with one another.

Sex: The other big reason I loved this movie was the the way queer women’s sexuality was portrayed, and how it lacked the male gaze. I've often felt that sex scenes in other lesbian movies are unrealistic, often made either too innocent, or overly sexual in ways that appeal to the male gaze. Duck Butter, however, felt different to me. The film is full of sex, nudity, and discussions of sex, but it always feels safe and intimate, and most importantly, made for queer women. This feeling was created intentionally, and discussed prior to shooting, by Shawkat, Costa, and the Director of Photography, Hillary Spera (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6m460lrjOuc). Shawkat is also out as bisexual in real life, and her knowledge as a queer woman seems to have greatly impact how this movie was made. It shows gay sex and intimacy in ways that feel normal -- in other words, in a way straight people always expect (and get) to see themselves represented on screen. The movie is also never about the characters’ struggles with their queer identities, simply about two people navigating love and sex, in a way that made me, a lesbian, feel seen and understood.

I also liked how this movie depicted queer women’s loneliness, and desire for something real, and I liked how it asks important questions about love and relationships. I also really appreciated the quality of the writing, acting, and production. 

This movie was a super important one for me as an LGBT+ person, because of the authenticity I saw in the actors’ performances of love between two women. It really portrays these women and their relationship as something normal and beautiful, and interesting to explore. It definitely gets intense and weird at times, but I really valued the realness of it, and it’s something that made me feel seen. If you are LGBT+ as well, or value authentic representation in movies, I would recommend it.

And even if you don’t watch it, or don’t enjoy it as much as I did, I think the fact that movies like this are being released now, is an indication of how far we’ve come, and how we’re headed in the right direction in the future, in terms of authentic LGBT+ representation.

#duck butter #queer #lgbt+ #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbt movies #lgbt film #lgbt cinema #gay movies #gay film #gay cinema #alia shawkat #bisexual #lesbian #queer women

[duanecbrooks]

The Return Of Girls Gone Write     Further unmistakable evidence that women, by and large, are the superior writers: the former George W. Bush press secretary and current Fox News host Dana Perino's my-life-with-my-dog-Jasper memoir Let Me Tell You About Jasper...: How My Best Friend Became America's Dog and the large-screen sprite Anna Kendrick's personal/professional memoir Scrappy Little Nobody. These two books are, frankly, flat-out joys to read, the former being a frequently warmhearted, often humorous, always heartfelt telling of her life and experiences with her pet dog Jasper, who, as she convincingly claims, has become the real and true star of the Perino family; the latter being an engaging, sprightly, consistently witty literary self-examination of one of the modern-day American cinema's most succulent and most appealing chicks. To partake of these tomes consecutively, both from beginning to end, is to spend quality time with a pair of delightfully quirky, keenly aware, firmly articulate she-babes who, each in her own way, have a marvelous sense of proportion, a marvelous refusal to see themselves as having any kind of Greatness.             Before getting into just exactly why these superb books are superb, allow me to go into how I first became aware of Kendrick (If you'll remember, Perino first came into my life via her first-rate within-the-George W. Bush-administration memoir And The Good News Is...: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side). Kendrick caught my attention, as do many other other folks and things these days, via YouTube. Specifically, first, during a compilation of Kathie Lee/Hoda's "best" Today "celebrity moments," wherein, when Kendrick was asked whether or not she'd like to play a game, she facetiously mimicked Nader and replied mock-earnestly: "No! I hate games! I hate fun, I hate laughing!" (Later, she was shown doing some mock-dirty dancing with said girls); second, during a trailer for one of Kendrick's more recent theatrical films, namely Get A Job, the aforementioned trailer's two highlights, for me, being 1) this scene where Kendrick's filmic character, Jillian by name, is sitting on the floor lamenting the fact that she spent almost all of the money she had on a BITCHIIN' pair of shoes, while clad in a pair of equally bangin' black toreador pants that, given her sitting position, magnificently show off her magnificently long, lean legs and her magnificently-proportioned bare feet; and 2) a long shot of Kendrick adorned in a man's white shirt and tie and black high heels and again displaying those stylishly long, lean legs. Thus I was already primed, due to being previously turned on by Kendrick, to favor her tome.             It's here where I'll deal with the highlights of both books, the places where our memoirists especially grab ahold of and, simultaneously, charm and delight us.               .Perino, on the vast network of fans/friends that has developed due to her having Jasper: "It is a bit wonderful that through television and social media, Jasper and I became friends with so many people across the country. I enjoy interacting with my followers and fans, and I really feel that we have modern-day friendships--people I've never met, but that I've come to know over time through short digital interactions. It has widened my circle of people I talk to, and it's deepened my appreciation for people from all walks of life. I now get a chance to communicate with people I wouldn't have ever known; the Internet has given us a way to connect and network that didn't exist before. We're all neighbors now (with the proper amount of fencing to keep things friendly).               "Often this new group of people has cheered me up or warmed my heart just when I needed it. Working in politics and live cable television can be stressful, and switching off at the end of the day isn't always easy. Jasper's following has actually given me a way to set aside the work portion of my day and exchange some messages with my electronic friends, which helps me keep grounded and cheerful."                 .Kendrick, on her brother Mike: "My brother is my hero. I've idolized him since the day I was born and I still do. He's responsible for at least sixty percent of my personality, for better or worse. I'm told that if you're an only child, you grow up thinking you're the center of the universe, and if you have tons of siblings you grow up with a healthy perspective on how small you are in the grand scheme of things. I'd like to think that my brother told me I was a worthless brat often enough that I got the same effect...     "Mike's main interests [when we were kids] were watching Star Wars, playing Magic: The Gathering, and avoiding his annoying little sister. The only time he happily included me was when he wanted to play 'Pro Wrestling Champions,' as I was an ideal partner on which to inflict moderate injury."           .Perino, on Jasper's television debut: "Jasper made his debut on The Five [Perino's Fox News political talk show] as a sleepy puppy at just two months old, and a star was born. I brought him on set and when we were back from commercial break, I showed him off for the camera. He looked right into the lens with his deep blue eyes (a Vizsla [Jasper's breed] is born with blue eyes that eventually turn amber). He snuggled into me. Hearts melted.             "Jasper has tons of personality and is as photogenic as any dog I've known. On Jasper's birthday, my [The Five] producer lets him come on the show and he sits on a chair, for the most part, wearing a bow tie collar, and you would think he knows exactly what he's doing when he looks into the teleprompter. He's certainly better behaved than [Five co-host Greg] Gutfield."             .Kendrick, on her early period as an actor: "Starting in theater gave me a basic work ethic that I may not have gotten if I started in film and television. I worked six days a week, eight shows a week (two shows on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Mondays off). It wasn't so much the schedule--I worked in accordance with child labor laws--it was that I was held accountable for my work.             "Once, during rehearsals, our director was playing with the shape of a musical number that involved most of the cast--which jokes should stay, where they should go, etc. He decided to try reinstituting a small joke I'd had in a previous draft, and we started the number again from the top. I lost where we were in the music and I opened my mouth to say the line, a measure too late. He was already shaking his head and signaling the pianist to stop.             "'Anna just lost a line. Let's go back to how it was before and start again.'"         .Perino, on her period as W.'s press secretary: "[B]ecoming the White House press secretary was the best thing that ever happened to my career. I learned so much--about policy, world affairs, management, and politics.             "But the most important lesson I learned working for President Bush was about character and how to conduct myself under stress and attack. I found out how to be productive despite obstacles, and appreciated how a communicator can help calm a situation, advance a negotiation, or lead to a solution.               "The press secretary is the pinnacle for a public relations professional--it was the opportunity of a lifetime.                 "But having worked in politics for so many years, I'd built up a fairly tough exterior. The daily battles can wear a person out, and in some ways, I became edgier and harder than I'd ever been.         "It was also a lofty position, and the surest way you can lose your way in Washington, D.C., is to let any of that power or prestige go to your head.             "Throughout those years [first dog] Henry kept me from losing sight of what was important in life: appreciation and gratitude for my health and blessings, and the love I shared with [hubby] Peter and our dog."     .Kendrick, on her early life as a struggling actor: "The next pilot season [for television series] was starting up, which meant I was usually sent on one to four auditions a day. I discovered MapQuest and wrote down directions by hand since I didn't have a printer. Between that and my growing knowledge of the city, I was only getting lost, like, six times a day. Pilot season is grim because you're sent in for everything, no matter how wrong you are for it. I kept a mountain of clothes and accessories in my trunk so I could go from the fourteen-year-old goth daughter on a TNT drama to the spoiled twenty-two-year-old receptionist on a workplace comedy. It's obvious now that splitting my focus made it responsible for me to do well on any of them, but I was in no position to turn down auditions.               "How do I describe my personal life during this time? I met funny, interesting people. I went to art galleries downtown, I performed a one-woman show for free on the street corner. Except none of that's true. I spent most of my time trying to find ways to occupy myself without spending money or ingesting calories."                     .Perino, on what she terms Jasper's "protest pee": "When I wrote And the Good News Is... I received a lot of gifts for Jasper, including an embroidered quilt with the Great Seal of the United States. It is beautiful and functional. [Peter and I] take it with us to our friends' homes if we are invited to stay the night, because, well, you try telling Jasper he can't sleep on the bed. With the quilt, we're covered. Literally and figuratively.                   "When we're at our place in South Carolina, leaving him in the house is even more stressful. For a while, whenever we'd go out, we'd come home and find that he'd peed on the floor. As soon as we'd walk in, we'd know something happened, because Jasper would grab a toy as he always does, but instead of frantic joy and butt wagging, his tail would be down and he'd look guilty. It was hard to discipline him because you're supposed to catch them in the act. [Hubby] Peter would get pretty made at Jasper, and I'd feel terrible.                 "'He's so scared to be left alone,' I'd say.           "'No, he's being a brat,' Peter responded."                   .Kendrick, on behavior at showbiz events: "There's a campaign called #AskHerMore, which was started by some thoughtful, intelligent females (Lena Dunham, Reese Witherspoon, Shondra Rimes, etc.). It aims to ensure that when women attend events, they are asked about more than their dresses. Men don't answer questions about their clothes; why should we [women]? A simple and understandable request.                 "However, if people could ask me less, that would be great. I would love it if we could limit my red carpet topics to my favorite colors, what sound a duck makes, and my thoughts on McDonald's All-Day Breakfast--blessing or curse?"                 Also: Nearly the final half of Perino's book consists of various @FiveFanPhotoshops pictures that very humorously show Jasper in a collection of quite colorful poses--Jasper painting a portrait of Perino's former boss, W.; Jasper as a race-car driver; Jasper and Perino involved in the Kentucky Derby with the latter on top of the former, et al. And Kendrick's tome closes with a "Bonus Reading Group Guide," wherein there are "a few questions to help you get the most out of your reading experience."(As an addend, Kendrick wittily 1] apologizes for the "fact" that her "Guide" offers no red meat for those of us who "happen to run a trashy celebrity news blog that requires you to peruse the content of privileged cretins like me"; and 2] gives us permission to "use these questions [in the "Guide"] as a template for creating misleading but juicy headlines." She winds up by, also wittily, summing up what she, so she claims, is conveying: "[F]amous white girls are really fun to be mad at") Among the queries asked in the "Guide":                                        .."Though every page of Scrappy Little Nobody is perfect in every                           way, which part is your favorite? Make a list (it can be a Post-it that                           says, 'Every part is my favorite') and tape it to your chest for the rest                                 of the day."                                        .."When Anna compares Zac Efron to Charles Manson, is she making                                 a joke or trying to warn us about a potential murderous mastermind?"                                .."In the sections about Alexa Chung and Olivia Palermo, the author                           viciously maligns two innocent and very fashionable girls. Is Anna a                           shady, basic bitch, or the shadiest, basic-est bitch?"                                       .."Anna makes a lot of bad decisions. Can you think of a time when                                 you've made a bad decision? Oh wow, really? We're gonna pretend                                   you can't think of a single example? YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER                             THAN ME?!"             And thus there are the books of Dana Perino and Anna Kendrick, the former being a greatly stylish, consistently witty, always loving paean to a dog who is not only a beloved pet but, as Perino very convincingly limns, one of the most well-known and well-regarded personalities in America (easily, happily, well above and beyond any yammering about "animal rights"); the latter being an engagingly lively, undeniably honest, unrelievedly funny self-portrait of a celebrity gal who is obviously on the sides of life and living, whose unflinchingly upbeat, never-say-die attitude comes through in literally every paragraph.                 In the much-lauded theatrical film The Magic of Belle Isle, the single Mom Charlotte O'Neill (Virginia Madsen), during an evening dinner with her daughters and that evening's guest, the renowned Western novelist Monte Wildhorn (Morgan Freeman), asserted: "I've always felt that a book does something no friend could: Stay quiet when you want to think." To partake of the Perino and Kendrick tomes as they "[s]tay quiet" is to have you "wanting to think" about them--always favorably and, very often, with unsheathed laughter.

#women #superior writers #Dana Perino #Let Me Tell You About Jasper... #anna kendrick #scrappy little nobody #pet dog #jasper #and the good news is... #youtube #get a job #the five #AskHerMore #@FiveFanPhotoshops #the magic of belle isle #Virginia Madsen #Morgan Freeman #unsheathed laughter