#this has been annoying me so much

[project-sekai-facts]

How are we feeling about ensekai’s emu3 translation!!! (I’m mad)

(if you remember the 3 whole posts i made when asahi got de-gayed on EN you'll know i am mad too and that this is probably going to get long)

i don't like to be too cynical but it was so obvious that they were going to change that line, i had a feeling since the event first released on JP and after the incident with Asahi where I went through and tracked down multiple other examples of EN removing queer subtext it became clear to me that in no way shape or form was "emu-chan really loves nene-chan" making it to EN without getting changed. what i didn't expect was them changing Nene's line after Luka's comment, which actually makes this whole situation far worse than many of their other instances of toning down queer subtext.

for anyone who isn't aware of what happened, in chapter 5 of the current Emu event, there's a scene where Nene, Rui and the Virtual Singers are talking about what would cheer Emu up. The vsingers all talk about how much Emu loves spending time with Nene, leading to the following exchange

If you look for them, any fan TL of this scene will be something similar to this:

Luka: ...Fufu. Emu-chan really loves Nene-chan, doesn't she? Nene: Th-that's nothing special...

EN's official translation is this:

So what's the issue? I'll start with Luka's part. In the original text, she uses the word daisuki, which can mean to "like a lot" or "love". It's a word you will see frequently in the idol/idol-adjacent genre of games, due to its ambiguity in that it can be read as either platonic or romantic when used towards a person, and often will be used in ambiguous situations so that it's harder to confirm the writers' intentions either way. so here, fans of the emu/nene ship could view the fact that emu loves spending her time with nene as more on the romantic side, but people who don't like the ship could view it as platonic and move on.

while they didn't translate daisuki directly, Luka's line still works, and still contains the ambiguity that works as ship tease in the original text. it's a perfectly fine localisation that still conveys the original intent. despite that, there is something to be said about EN's consistent refusal to translate daisuki as love in most instances when it's not used on An/Kohane (but then again, EN has literally teased An/Kohane on their twitter account so is it all that surprising?).

Here's some examples:

Aibou no koto ga daisuki de / he loves his partner -> he cares about his partner very much (The Power of Unity chapter 7 when Kaito is comparing Arata to Akito and Toya)

HARUKA-CHAN, DAISUKI DAYOOOO!!! / HARUKA-CHAN, I LOOOOOVEEE YOU!!! -> You're the best!!! (Dear Me, As I Was Back Then chapter 4 when minori is at an ASRUN concert. this one isn't actually that great of a localisation)

Honachan no koto daisuki dakara. Kore de iinda yo. / I love Honachan, so this is fine. -> I want what's best for her. And this is it. (Leo/need main story chapter 14 after Saki tells Honami she won't bother her anymore)

Minna daisuki de - taisetsuna tomodachi na no / I love them all - they're my dearest friends -> They're all amazing, and very dear to me. (Leo/need main story chapter 17. this isn't good either)

What's particularly amusing about that last one is that there's a second official translation for it that I assume was done by JP staff (since EN never promoted doing the Journey to Bloom subs like they did back when they provided subs for Petit SEKAI) that actually keeps the word daisuki as love.

Yeah. I love all my friends - and they mean the world to me.

It's a better localisation than the official EN team one.

Questionable localisation choices aside, Luka's line is fine and is actually in line with the original. The issue with this localisation very much lies with Nene's part, because that is an entirely new line.

In the original text, Nene's "that's just normal" or "that's nothing special" or however you choose to TL it, is meant to be her questioning Luka's statement, since all the things that the other vsingers said that Emu liked were pretty normal things like going shopping and playing video games with nene. To Nene, these things are normal activities for them to do together, so she gets embarrassed by the fact that Luka concludes from that information that Emu loves Nene. When I dissect it like that I think you can really tell what the writers were going for here lol.

"That's just us being friends" does still convey the idea that Nene thinks these activities aren't anything out of the ordinary and she isn't sure why the vsingers are picking these out as some of Emu's favorite things to do, but it's very different from the original line. "But those are just normal things we do together" is something I just came up with on the spot, but it's a lot closer to the original text and still conveys the same meaning. The fact they changed the line to "that's just us being friends" is, honestly, not even subtle that they're covering up queer subtext. The original scene was very clearly written in as ship tease, and EN mentioning "friends" for no reason, especially since the word nor anything close to it was not used in the original, is instantly a red flag because it's like the go-to for queerbaiting and censorship. This was intentional. There was no need for them to specify that the relationship is platonic, Luka's part is ambiguous for a reason so that fans can view it how they like.

Just to top all this off, here's Rin's original line just before that Luka+Nene interaction:

Oh, and! And! She said that playing games with Nene-chan is also super fun!

And here's Rin's line from the official EN translation:

That's not the same thing, but even more weirdly, the incorrect part (super fun->really loves) is a correct translation for the part changed in Luka's line. So, they can do it, they are willing to say "really loves", just not in the right places. Maybe because Rin's part is less personal than Luka's part? It's strange actually, this isn't the first time they've done this either. Off the top of my head I can think of an example from Shiho's Varied Kindness 2* story where they translated the word "suki" as really loves, despite that being much stronger than the original word used (and the fact that daisuki is used a lot in the Leo/need stories and it's incredibly rare if not entirely unknown for them to translate it correctly).

It's not subtle that they're trying to remove implications of the characters possibly being queer, they did it in curtain call and they did it in walk on and on, and multiple times before then too. And considering some of the content in this year's events and the amount of times they say daisuki alone, it's gonna keep happening. honestly i hate the fact that i keep trying to justify the translations in these posts. these translations are intentional. what happened in the curtain call translation back in october says enough. when a character who uses explicitly romantic language towards another guy passes as a straight character in the translation you know they're doing it on purpose.

oh and once again, it's only the EN server that has this issue. The scene in question was translated almost word-for-word on the TW and KR servers.

read fan translations. they're better than what EN gives us and people put a lot of effort into them.

#since the EN translation qualifies as a leak i am scheduling this to post when the event drops #asks #mod talks #i'm going to leave this in the tags because i don't want to make the post any longer #but something that's been really annoying to see recently on twt has been the gradual uptick of players saying that there's no queer #characters/subtext/etc in the game outside mizuki being trans. and i do wonder if EN's consistent habit of toning down #or outright removing moments of heavy subtext and other more ambiguous shiptease moments has anything to do with it. #that or people live under a rock because even EN keeps most of An and Kohane's relationship intact and there's still plenty of #moments that were impossible to edit or tone down due to being plot relevant or being part of longer interactions that wouldn't make sense #if part of it was changed. like the An wedding event. #eh maybe people are just ignorant. #but anyway it does bug me immensely that EN-only players are getting a censored version of the game. it's 2024. staff can do better. #also like i mentioned in the part about rin. they /add in/ things occasionally. so why the hell are they removing so much?

[felinenthusiast]

In wake of the stupid shitshow that is this dumb coronation, I saw someone going 'oh protests are illegal in the UK? Ireland we've got to get you out of there' and I've seen a lot of other stuff to that effect of 'oh poor Wales', or 'get out of there Scotland' (from people outside the UK) and like!!! people in England are also suffering this impacts people in England!

I agree and fully support all kinds of independence for the other countries in this shitshow of a nation- do not twist my words with this one, I support independence, and when I see folks from those countries only talking about this, obviously I support them because their primary concern is independence.

But!! It's fucking infuriating to see people from outside the UK acting like the other countries just have to get out of the UK and then no more innocent people will suffer, as if that's the only problem, as if there aren't plenty of people in England who don't deserve this nonsense either

#rambles #uk politics #sorry this has just been frustrating and annoying me SooOOOoooOoo much #unrebloggable because people aren't responding to what tgis is actually about #someone made a good comparison that southeners in the US gwt thrown under the bus for 'always voting conservatively' #but there's still so so many people in those states who are bipoc ir lgbt+ ans suffering #who're just stuck there. #and people then think it's alright to show bo sympathy to them! whixh is ofc.. awful

[michaeljoncarter]

To this day, I can never figure out who is Jon and Kon when they're together on panel. Best chance I have is when the artist draws Kon with an open jacket in costume or they draw Jon as old or even older than Clark.

jon is such a crazy character because it's like i don't even know how it's possible for a character to be like this. he's been through the hands of like 12 different people at this point--including some incredibly talented writers & artists--but somehow managed to pick up not a single unique trait in terms of characterization OR design

there's just literally nothing identifiable about him personality-wise or appearance-wise that sets him apart, and in a medium like this that relies so heavily on characters having at least a couple traits that will be instantly recognizable due to the fact that they'll be drawn by a different artist like every other week & their appearance will be in constant flux, if you don't have some sort of through line (or, god forbid, you've made the through line that this character is EXACTLY like an already existing character), they are going to be literally unrecognizable and just make the already often confusing art of figuring out who the fuck is who on a page that much worse

the vast majority of the time, jon is literally only identifiable by the process of elimination. in the son of superman era, you'd have two identical supermans and have to identify which was clark so you could know the other one was jon. and now that that nonsense is blessedly over and they've mostly given up on making him clark 2, he's just "character who is identical to superman but is now wearing a tweaked version of the superman suit instead of the actual thing."

so now you have to look for kon, whose concept & personality are so distinct that he remains identifiable despite the fact that we've now turned every single super-character's design into a watered down ripoff of his, to be able to figure out which one jon is. because he's somehow less visually distinct than the guy whose whole thing is that he's a literal clone

#ask #anonymous #&& for blacklists: #anti jon kent #it's so insaneee ehgbkvnf #sorry for rambling & idek if im making sense but god yeah this has been bothering me so much #the epitome of go girl give us nothing #i know people get annoyed with me bitching about this character all the time but goddd #he's just so bad in every way it's WILD

[snezfics-n-shit]

#this meme has been going through my head for a bazillion years lol #i love to interact and then it hits me that im probably bothering you guys #plus the current popular stuff I am sadly so unfamiliar with #when i was younger i would gravitate to my own interests when i was unfamiliar with other topics and it got on peoples nerves a lot #and i completely understand that so i dont wanna repeat those mistakes #its just like a game of pingpong of me talking too much and me hiding under my desk bc i feel like im bothering everyone #also like the last time it was p much confirmed i was being annoying i cried for like two hours bc my fears were realized haha #and when a line is drawn for me i kinda like to stay at least 2ft away from wherever that line is just to be safe #you gotta like throw a cookie attached to a fishing line to get me closer to the line lol #because i will seriously be way too cautious otherwise #im trying to get more brave though im just kinda like my cat who heard a noise in the bathroom cabinet #and now he refuses to go near it #being mindful of others feelings and respecting their boundaries is super important to me #and sometimes that boxes me in a bit

[sentientstump]

that melting expression spoke of troubled analysis of surroundings, it appears on my face every day too. (translation: ayo, my eyesight is also goofy!!!)

doodle page with exploration of the theme for this comic below 👇🏼

literally drew that face and was like "huh, i will implement this idea into the very core of my being. no one can stop me " or something like that- xD

#the definition of ''made random observation outta nowhere one day and then proceeded to squelch the heck outta it for the next 3 days''👍🏼 #usually i make it on the fly or after a long day of pondering inside the brain but here i decided to doodle it out on my phone for once #and thats why im including it here because i want the future me to open this and be like wow stump history has been made here #truly the day we will remember forever.... o7 lolol #this was fun btw :D #hylics #wayne hylics #dedusmuln #i wrote their names in the image descriptions so much ough its sorta annoying to write ''dedusmuln'' while also pronoucing it in my head LOL #('dedus- d- dedusmuln.' while zooming in on their battle icon like in vinny's hylics video) #artstump

[moonpaw]

Fighting DEMONS rn trying not to get invested in one piece to figure out wtf you're posting about!!!!

come here cyber.... we have this thang

‎

#mp answers #i've been trying so hard not to be annoying to my bnha friends but if you will allow me to push this for this ask let me say 🙏 #if you're afraid of the episode count for one piece the manga is a lot quicker read while being just as enjoyable because the art style is #an actual delight. its great its fantastic im absolutely in love with it #the series is soooo good and i know luffy can seem unappealing to people before they start but he's just SUCH a great character & continues #to be even now. the story is SO GOOD the characters are SO GOOD... theres so much lore and world building that its insane #if you read the manga we get 'cover stories' on what's going on with previous characters to see what theyre up to even though we moved on #from where we left them. a lot of these cover stories blend into the main story so well its just seamless #there's one where we get introduced to a character we dont see hundreds of episodes into the anime and they show up like; during the second #saga. the series is about traveling to other islands and every single arc has been tied to another in some way or form that shows up later #even if its sagas and sagas later- it still becomes relevant again!! it's a huge ongoing story and there isnt a single arc that feels like #it has no purpose (sans filler in the anime-but even then!! some filler arcs are really entertaining!) #it's emotional! its sad! its downright stupid and silly but GOD... you can feel the love that oda put into this series and his characters #and the emotions in the expressions and the messages the story gives off it just makes me UEUHGHHAHGHH!!! #it's all about the adventure and the romance of it all! its about the freedom it brings and bringing freedom to others! #its a series where treasure should be a focus given its pirates and the its a giant treasure hunt for the one piece and yet! and yet so man #of the characters treasures are things that are not coins and gems but people and promises and family and and #im going to EXPLODE i love one piece

[pttucker]

'Death Scream is a demon curse. I haven't killed one yet who used that ability'. Yoo Mia's cheeks puffed up from beside him and she asked, "What is it Oppa?" "It's nothing." Yoo Joonghyuk hesitated for a moment before adding, "…It seems that guy is doing something bothersome again." "That guy?" "There is such a person." Yoo Mia watched her brother, who had spoken in a cold voice. There was a nuance different from usual in his voice. It was a small change, like a grain of rice, but Yoo Mia was able to perceive the change. It was because Yoo Joonghyuk was her oppa. "Are you referring to that ugly ahjussi?" "…" "Oppa looks happy when talking about that ahjussi." Yoo Joonghyuk was embarrassed when he saw his smiling sister and he replied sharply. "You are mistaken." "Is that so?"

Joonghyuk: "That guy" (affectionate)

CALL HIM OUT MIA

#lmao 'something annoying is happening somewhere' #'it must be dokja's fault' #(he's not wrong) #really this is what the fourth time dokja has pretended to be him by now? yjh should start going around pretending to be dokja to get even #lmao at his baby sister being all 'ohhhh big brother has a cruuuush' #someone told me before I started that pretty much everyone ships them in the novel #and so far they have not been wrong #joongdok #yjh #yoo mia #orv #orv liveblog #orv spoilers #orv novel chapter 157 #omniscient reader's viewpoint

[kindacts]

and finally it seems my lonely days are through i've been waiting for you

#alangaipa #moonlight chicken #asianlgbtqdramas #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat #firstkhao #alan anantachai #gaipa mlc #can i tag people or will you be annoyed at me #usernuria #tusernix #my abba streak continues. predictably #it has been so long since ive giffed Wow i was rusty #and ive never thought so much about fonts in my life #do u ever work on a set for so long you have no idea if it looks good anymore cuz i'm there rn #tv #mine #EDIT I AM DUMB AND DIDNT KNOW THE WORDS HELP

[icewindandboringhorror]

Some (late) holiday photos of the boye~!

#cats #holiday #OUGHH....... barely could even get these edited and posted... my mysterious sickness flare up has been sooo bad the past few #days.. I didn't even go to the usual obligatory family christmas I was supposed to attend (!!! health issue/medical mention in tags below) #My stomach issues basically put me in a constant state of uncontrollable shivering/body shaking + nausea + sometimes rapid heart #rate. and when it happens at night that makes it like.. nearly impossible to sleep when you're violently shaking + you can feel your heart #so strong + you keep having to run to the bathroom every 5 minute to cough and gag #and throw up and so on and so forth. etc. So I went like 40 hours without any sleep almost for christmas eve and all of christmas day #last night I finally got maybe 2 hours of sleep in between the nausea and shaking and stuff. and then today I was able to get a few #hours of sleep in the afternoon. Today I tried taking an anxiety mediciation a doctor gave me in case it was anxiety related (it's apparent #ly used to relax people and works in the moment. rather than like Anxiety Mediciation that you have to take for weeks to see any effect #because I think this isn't actually acting on your brain chemistry it's judt like..a mild sedative or something.) but all that did was make #me dizzy and sweaty lol. I;m glad I slept a little but I'm just still frustrated that I don't feel normal. I started having these #'episodes' (with the stomach issues + shaking + heartrate + nausea etc.) like at the end of october. And usually it will happen for like a #few hours at a time. or i'll lose sleep one day and then be fine the next. but this has been like nearly 3 days of feeling weird. so is #getting kind of annoying... It's funny too because I was so so productive like.. literally the few days before. I was feeling much better #and I was working on my game and blah blah. But then.. random issue flare up out of nowhere of course.. yaayy.... happy holidays to meee lo #I did at least see two random ducks outside of my window in the yard area for christmas. and havent seen them since. So it's like.. hrmm.. #pacing around my room nauseous and shakings and etc. but at least... hello.. two little ducks placed there just for me :3c #Now I get anxiety every night which I'm sure doesn't help/could exacerbate whatever underlying genuinely physical issues exist. But after #like 2 nights of 'I spend the night sleepless and incredibly uncomfortable just sitting in the dark sick' then bedtime is like.. dread... #I even was trying slapping myself in the face in desperation to see if somehow that could shock my body out of whatever the hell it was #doing lol.. up at 3am holding ice cubes in my hand and hitting myself in the head and crying from exhaustion and thowing up.. literally #ridiculous cartoon character feeling... AAANYWAY!!! At least I have baby boy pictures. and I have lots of doctors appointments so hopefully #whatever the issue is can be sorted out at some point. I don't know much about ibs but hopefully maybe something like that that I could pos #ibly take medication for and not something more seirous or anything. Maybe there's a food I'm secretly intolerant to or whatever. #And I did at least post a sims holday video actually timed for the holidays so that's something. I havent been productive really latrely #though obviously.. I can't even play games or small tasks when in that state since I'm just SO physically uncomfortable. Nausea and heart #stuff are THE hardest physical sensations to ignore.. BUT yeah... hoping I shall sleep at all tonight. hopeing to get like 3 productive #things done.. at some point... at least SOMETHING... lol..... *** *** ***

[milfcamilanoceda]

I feel like a lot of "Camila shouldnt have been a nerd, it should have been Manny and Camila should have been the neurotypical one." Criticism fail to take into account the inter generational trauma that exists in POC families especially POC neurodivergent families. Like the criticism boils down to this- "Luz comes across more of a jerk as she wasnt That lonely. Camila would have been more understanding of Luz if she was actually neurodivergent and would not have try and send her to the camp" and i am like no, no she wouldnt have. Neurodivergency in people of colour often goes undiagnosed especially if they are women of colour and especially if they are from older generation. And often times these older folks grow up to believe that the neurodivergent issues that they dealt with was a failure on their part rather than you know, them being neurodivergent. Which is how we get adult parents who say shit like, "Oh everybody has [a very specific symptom of a neurodivergent brain]. You just got to go through it [aka i did not get any support growing up and had to deal with this on my own]."

And this to me fits Camila and Luz. The way i interpret the problem was that it was never that Camila didnt understand Luz, but rather that she did understand her while not understanding herself. She saw her own self in Luz, her own isolation and years dealing with bullying and treated as an outcast but never stopped to examine WHY it happened to her. She didnt want Luz to go through what she went through so she turned to what worked for her, trying to change yourself to fit even if it meant hiding parts of herself. And this is ultimately what caused their relationship to falter. Add Manny's death and them being new in town further resulted in both of them, especially Luz being isolated and outcast, from the town and from each other. And ultimately them coming to an understanding, with Camila admitting her nerdy side to Luz and to herself was what helped their relationship and truly let Luz to discover what she truly want and thus hatching her palisman.

Should toh have had explored Luz's loneliness and isolation better? Absolutely! Did Camila try her best especially as a single mother? Yes! Has Camila contributed to said loneliness and isolation? Also yes! Camila to me is the opposite of Eda. Where Eda was the neurodivergent kid who grew up fighting the system to be herself, Camila was the neurodivergent kid who grew up to accept the system thus rejecting herself. Which was why Luz flourished much more and felt more accepted under Eda's tutelege than she did with Camila, and i wish this is the angle toh explored more.

And look i dont want to begrudge anyone who feels the other way and doesnt agree with me. They have the right to their own interpretation which are based on their own valid experiences. But i prefer this interpretation a lot more to theirs.

#Anyway this is just my take #Toh has A LOT to say about institutions using isolation to exploit people #And how even if there are people who can understand and care about you cant do it because ultimately they too are part of said system #Luz's loneliness absolutely should have been explored much more i 100% agree with that #and it still annoys me that we got so much more deeply into Eda's Hunter's and Amity's backstories than we did with Luz #But i feel taking away Camila's secret nerdy side takes away from a canonically an incredibly layered relationship #Especially cause to me Camila and Luz's relationship and their misunderstandings was the driving force of toh's plot #They are all flawed!!! They are all flawed because they are traumatized by the system!!! #Anywat here's my hot take #camila noceda #luz noceda #the owl house #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers #Does this count as toh crit? #I do think the show do have certain problems and no the shortening wasnt the only problem #toh #eda clawthorne #It was still a good show. Not perfect but good #toh critical #toh criticism #(I guess i'll tag it anyway)

[charmac]

Bit of a (late) long-ass personal post, but this past year has been insanely monumental for me and a lot of it, if not almost all of it, was centered around this silly comedy show.

Starting the year adopting the most perfect cat in the world purely because he looked like Agent Jack Bauer, I've ended up meeting amazing people and making great friendships, both online and in person, I met Glenn and Charlie and MEE and Meg (and Humphrey) and Danny?? got my first tattoo, bought way too much whiskey, and I've just really, genuinely enjoyed my time posting on Tumblr, making shit, and writing fic more than I have in half a decade. It's stupid, and sappy, and probably pretty parasocial, but I owe so many of my best experiences this past year not only to the show, but to joining this community. Because I wouldn't have experienced much of any of this if I hadn't jumped the casual fan on r/IASIP ship and washed up ashore here. And being here has improved my life and my mental health in ways I can't even begin to properly express.

So here's a photo dump of what I have to dub "A Very Sunny 2023":

To everyone here, thank you for being a part of my 2023. I'm not sure what 2024 has in store, but I'm happy I'll be here, creating and experiencing whatever it is, through and beyond.

#personal #sunny 2023 #sunnyblr #sorry to be really annoying but yk #this is my blog and i like to use it to document things #and this is the best format for this kinda thing :) so excuse me #this has been a crazy year when i look at it all #i had a shortlist of photos for this post and it ended up 72 photos #lmfao like damn.. gotta be selective STILL #the expansion of my sunny wall is like poetic you see #again im sorry i think thisi s probably peak absolute insanity to most ppl who follow me #but so much shit happened i wouldnt have dreamed of #like crazy insane wow i still cant believe this was all real #glenn flipping me off remains my favourite thing to have captured #i love that stupid video it makes me go crazyyyy #but yes obviously top moment goes to charlie calling me out in the audience about the tattoo. then finding out he told mee about it #again thank you. like. i straight up owe all of this to sunnyblr existing #if it didnt i would just. not have been this deep and able to meet people and experience all of this

[spaceratprodigy]

Do You Forgive Me? — [ Faith/Max 📿 AU ]

I always told myself, on those hard nights – you, so close, sleeping next to the man you were supposed to be next to – if you showed up, if you asked me to, I would take off the collar and go with you. Anywhere in the world.

[Referencing this scene from Midnight Mass]

Commission Info | Ko-Fi | My Links

#yes I keep this page of the script saved to my phone at all times leave me alone #I am cringe but I am free #you can pry my silly annoying self-indulgent lil AUs out of my cold dead hands idc #also happy anniversary to these two goobers btw :] #it's been exactly 2 years since the very first time I drew faith and max together!! #much love to everyone who has been so kind and supportive and adores seeing them as much as I do #truly the most special feeling in the world #<3 #my art #faith and max #the outer worlds #captain of the unreliable #vicar max #maximillian desoto

[ct-multifandom]

I don’t usually make posts like this, but I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-intellectual junk lately, and I really think we need to put the word “pretentious” up on a shelf until people learn what it actually means.

It doesn’t describe someone who likes artsy-fartsy deep meaning media. People who are pretentious are fake. They’re posers trying to be sophisticated and unique, not like other girls. They pretend to only like stuff they think will make them sound cool when they talk about it. They want to act like they know something you don’t, and they want attention for it.

By definition, if you genuinely enjoy something, you can’t be pretentious. If it resonates with you, and you analyze it, and you don’t care what people think, that’s the polar opposite, actually. If you love obscure experimental prog music, if you watch underground high concept indie films through English teacher eyes, if you spend hours in a modern art museum reading each piece as a vessel for storytelling, if your backpack’s full of poetry books that inspire you, if you play underrated games that were someone’s passion project, if you have an interest in studying the classics or the masters, you are not pretentious.

Of course, some people just don’t like some stuff, and that’s fine, but that’s not what this is about. Don’t let anti-intellectuals shame you for enjoying things just because your interests are inaccessible to them, because they refuse to be brave and put effort into critical thinking. You’re not stuck up for refusing to overlook the craft of artists.

#anti intellectualism #media #movies #books #music #critical thinking #my friend who primarily listens to one very popular band once said that people who listen to obscure music are annoying and pretentious #which rubbed me the wrong way because 1 she knows that I listen to obscure music and 2 it’s such a cowardly consumerist take. anyone can #make music and hey a lot of the people who do make GOOD music. and this goes for all *obscure* media #this post was mostly inspired by people talking about Barbie and those anti pick me girls like the pick nobody girls who insist thinking is #for boys and having fun with an empty brain is for girls. Greta gerwig is an artist. I haven’t seen the movie yet but I know it has a deeper #message than haha cute pink! I’ve seen the summaries about the true meaning. the pinkness and popularity doesn’t negate the narritive. #though in the notes I saw a lot of tumblristas comunistas shitting on the film for being one big ad that people *fell for* which tbh is #tbh almost as anti-intellectual. don’t get me wrong they milked this film to sell hella shit but I don’t believe kids who play with dolls #are the target audience as these people claim. Barbie is a culturally iconic symbol almost archetypical of societal expectations for women #you say barbie people think unblinking perfect plastic pink girly. reminds me of the poem The Last Mojave Indian Barbie. yeah yeah you all #hate brands but this one carries undeniable significance and makes for a powerful literary device. it’s been used many times before #sorry for writing a tag essay about a film I haven’t even seen but I’m tired of internet people focusing so much on proving others wrong #that they end up oversimplifying everything just as much as the other person. god I saw people doing this to Nimona saying transphobes were #looking too deep into her character and they’re reactionary clowns for making that jump. like for once the transphobes are right. she is #trans. it’s a queer story. and irl the first people who notice queerness are the bigots who can tell you’re different. sick owns telling #them the story’s not that deep is harmful and it’s like they’re ignoring the real message on purpose. okay enough rambling hehe! thanks #barbie #nimona

[dulcewrites]

Olga Orozco, from Engravings: Torn from Insomnia: “To Destroy the Enemy,” // Anne Carson, The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides // Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica in Dune // Olivia Cooke and Tom Glynn-Carney as Queen Alicent and Prince Aegon II in House of the Dragon // Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale // Wenzel Tornøe details // The Trojan Woman

Cassandra Devereux, Queen Consort of the Seven Kingdoms // Queen of Ash and Bone // Queen of Grief

#ahhh this maybe being my fav web weave ever?? #these tags will be annoying but let me break this down #ok but queen of swords mistress of grief lady of tears - that is so her?? #especially considering all the people who had to die for this moment #also her helping kill one queen and that spiraling to her being queen consort… yeahh #I put Jessica there bc I feel like her relationship with Paul is so interesting #I think cass and alaric would have a really interesting dynamic #he is her ‘band-aid’ turned her duty - a position neither of them have been in #I put Ali and Aegon mainly bc I have this vision of cass having to crown alaric #both Alicent and Cassandra being women wrapped in duty even if it hurts #then I like the idea of her being of the sea.. her mom an iron islands girl married to a riverland boy #cass was pulled out of the sea! #and to end I had to out a quote about Cassandra of Troy #Helaena is much more a Cassandra like figure for the obvious reasons #but I like the idea of our Cassandra being someone who can sense doom #it has riddled her life #whew ok that was a lot #web weaving #fmo aus #fmo k&q au

[mod2amaryllis]

who else haunted by an apology you never got the chance to make???? 🤪🤪🤪

#this isn't too serious this is about my college roommate #i was awful and i think about it all the time and wish i could send her a pizza and say any resentment is justified i'm so sorry #but i don't keep track of people. i don't know her last name i don't know how to contact her or if she'd even want that #i just think about it constantly for some fucking reason #if you're out there....man i'm sorry i didn't try harder to be friends i was 19 and at my absolute worst #I'm sorry about the illegal rat cage i never cleaned #literally i wish i could pay you reparations you wouldn't have to say a word to me just receive 'you didn't deserve that' + 50 usd #i think part of why this particular memory is so persistent- and has been for years like it constantly comes up when i'm tired- #is because the stakes are relatively low #like i was just a shit. i was just annoying and unkind. and then we both moved on and i'm better now and i assume she's ok. #the scope of it is just small enough.... like a burr. in my brain. #I'm hoping if i throw this into the ether i won't think about it as much lol #m2a

[textfromthelookout]

Did you hear of the news?

I have. :(

Everyone else has their tributes so, here, a summary of my experience with Dragon Ball.

I was in fourth grade art class. A kid had the February 2005 issue of Shonen Jump, back when Shonen Jump was still physically printed here. I recognized Atem on the front cover because the Blockbuster around the corner from our house had DVDs (I think they were DVDs and not VHSs then since I distinctly remember it having a menu and special features) of some of the later episodes of Duelist Kingdom and my brother and I watched them on repeat. So I was like oh, hey, what's this? They make books of that stuff? I don't remember the conversation but the kid ended up giving me that issue, and I took it home with me.

There were a LOT of significant, groundwork things happening in that issue, now that I think about it. We were just beginning to see Sanji truly in action against Pearl. The Dark Tournament was in it's early stages still with Roto fucking around and finding out against Kurama. Sakura shears off her hair in a move that rearranged sexualities the world over. The reason Atem was on the cover was because Yu-Gi-Oh Millennium World was just debuting its first and second chapter. Bleach wasn't even serialized yet. And Dragon Ball, of course, was also there, about a hundred and fifty chapters ahead of everybody else.

Keep in mind that this was my first experience with manga, period. So my very first experience with Dragon Ball opened on this:

and ended on this:

Yeah. Truth be told, at the time Yu Yu Hakusho piqued my interest more than Dragon Ball (a guy fighting with plants? how creative!) but I never did forget these chapters. I thought the art style was so different from the others.

At some point after this, probably between several months and a year and a half, the TV happened to be on one evening when Toonami was airing Dragon Ball Z. Oh hey, I said, I recognize that art, I know those characters. So I hung around and watched some of episode 281. Two things about watching that episode stick with absolute crystal clarity in my mind to this day. Firstly: Buu choking Vegeta out with his arm freaked me the FUCK out as a child. I could not tell you why I had a fear reaction to it but hey, there you go. The second is this:

Specifically I remember 'You died once. If anything happens to you now, you won't exist anymore. There'll be nothing I can do to bring you back.' Not precisely word for word over the years, but Schemmel's tone of voice on this particular lineread. If I had to guess I'd say it was because at that point in my life, uh, death was kinda permanent? So wait, what do you mean died ONCE. Doesn't that apply to everyone?

This still wasn't enough to get me super invested in it though, it just didn't seem like something that would appeal to me that much. So a couple years go by, I don't think about it all that much, and then of course, TFS hits the scene and drops DBZ Abridged. So you know. As a shithead middle schooler with a shithead sense of humor I thought it was the best damn thing since sliced bread. (My biggest character flaw is that I still think a lot of Season 1 is genuinely funny)

And that was really the extent of my interaction with the franchise for the next several years. Say what you will about DBZA but they did manage to put it all together such that someone who had a nonexistent concept of what the original context was could grok it with not a lot of effort. Some time in high school, I think I was around 15, I decided to bite the bullet and read all the manga, as much to increase the funny factor of DBZA as sheerly for the sake of being able to say I had. Stick it to the other weebs, y'know. Now they can't say I didn't know anything about good anime. This was unfortunately at a time when all that was available online were dirty poor-quality scans and questionable translations, but read it I did. I went 'yep, that sure is about what I expected', and proceeded to get on with my life. GT came and went, I looked up and saw Battle of Gods coming out and went 'oh hey that's still a thing huh', kinda was peripherally aware of all the divisiveness of Super as it was happening, didn't really pay it much attention, just stuck to DBZA and quite a lot of wiki-ing.

And then, this time of year about three years ago now, in the middle of conversation with @prophecydungeon, Dragon Ball somehow came up. Something to do with 'Even though I'm not hugely into DBZ's story or whatever Toriyama does have some great character designs' (yes I was referring to Vegeta and Future Trunks at the time, no i will not stop being predictable, yes i am a parody of myself). They eventually brought up the DBS Broly movie and said, and i quote: 'that was a solid 1.5h of unbelievably fun and wacky animation'. Having seen the Gogeta vs Broly part of it on twitter and been like 'damn that animation's kinda off the hook actually, good for them good for them', my response was to be like. Oh word? I've got a spare hour and a half to kill, sure, fuck it, why not, time to watch DBS Broly.

I think that movie was precision crafted to hit me in the hyperfixation, if we're being honest. Opening on a solid 20 minutes of Lore and Worldbuilding and then having most of the rest of the runtime being mindless slobberknocker fun by way of some of the hardest animation flexes ever? I was done for.

In summation. I have been aware of Dragon Ball for a lot of my life, in that its presence was pervasive and enduring as I grew up. I may have been late to the game of actually wholeheartedly enjoying it, but enjoy it I do. Dragon Ball is the roots of a vast tree of anime, and in reading it I began to understand why that is. I respect it for that, and I love it for that. My current fixation may have shifted, but as far as time devoted to one individual thing goes... it took me a year and a half to watch my way through all of the anime and read all of the manga. ALL of it. So there's something good in there, I'd say.

#rip to a legend #text from the mod #tangentially related: i am not actually dead #it's just that between school and my job and the pirate brainrot #(the previous four months of which was feverishly consumed with a 16k word project) #i have had neither time nor impetus to make dragon ball funnies #there is also the fact that my stupid autism brain is still fuming over the website changes #that have fucked up the Aesthetique of the text posts and made them much more annoying to get in a usable form #thus adding steps to what was a simple and comfortable process #and aforementioned idiot dumb brain has not stopped pitching a bitch fit over the inconvenience. #i know it's a stupid hangup. believe me i am fully aware. but there is so little i can do about it #so i am sorry about my long absence. i really truly am. #especially to the asks that have been chillin in my inbox for all this time now #it's just that they're interesting questions that deserve me giving 100% of my brainpower to them ya feel #i want to devote appropriate attention to these little funnies and not phone it in or half ass it LOL