#this isn't even going into like. drives and links and etc etc

[madeimpact]

I think Sora should be given a gun, for funsies

❝ Funny you should say that! ❞

Wh. Who taught him how to do that.

#this isn't even the only formchange where he gets a gun #it's just the only one i could easily find an image of for demonstrative purposes on the wiki JSHFLAKJSGH #❛ ic: sora. #❛ inbox: sora. #this isn't even going into like. drives and links and etc etc #this boy has too many surprises up his sleeve #when you set someone like sora loose to learn the keyblade on his own he comes up with some wacky shit #❛ general: anon.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hello I am going on a holiday to Eryri next month & I like to read up about an area before going there... do u have any reading or documentary or podcast recs? I'm particularly interested in the ecology & minority language activism & like. Peoples history & rural lives! I know this is stuff u know about in Wales but idk if north Wales is ur region! Míle buiochas ón Eireann!

Fáilte go dtí an Bhreatain Bheag! Or croeso i Gymru. Exciting! Keep an eye on the notes for others chiming in with good recs for documentaries and the like, I'm going to just give a super quick guide

Okay, pronunciation guide for place names and that is here in written form and here in video form. I cannot recommend strongly enough that you try to use the Welsh place names rather than the English translations. Duolingo is flawed but serviceable if you want to hear and learn some basic phrases. If you can at least throw out a 'bore da' to people you pass/shopkeepers, you'll be very well liked. You don't need to be fluent by any means, but Making An Effort is seen as, like, the nicest and politest and most wonderful thing in Wales, and particularly in regions like Eryri.

Because! It's one of the biggest remaining Welsh language strongholds. If you look at language maps over time in Wales, a pattern emerges:

And the current (2021) figures show this:

And you are going to this bit:

So you're heading into the Welshest bit in all of Wales! And the bit with the strongest and longest history of Welsh, too.

Which also means there's a lot of activism-related stuff in that area. It's probably worth you reading up on the history of Tryweryn (which was a bit further east, but sets the scene well); there was also a BIG thing a couple of decades ago where activists would burn down English-owned holiday homes (while they were empty in winter, not, like, with the English in them). This is because, in addition to the usual issues with the social impacts of holiday homes (driving up prices meaning locals can't live there, eroding communities, etc), holiday homes in Welsh language heartlands are a significant and tangible threat to the language. Even today, the issue of holiday homes is an extremely touchy subject, as is the issue of (mostly-English) people moving into the area because "It's so pretty!!!" and then not learning the language.

(Yet another reason they will love you if you Make An Effort)

Historically speaking, you'll be in a chunk of the country that was the ancestral seat of the last kings of Wales (Gwynedd). The final one, Llywelyn ein Llyw Olaf, was ambushed and murdered in 1282, which was the beginning of the end for fighting off English rule. In fact, Owain Glyndŵr later crowned himself king of Wales for about two years, but weirdly, no one acknowledges this as real kingship for some reason - if you google his name, he's always listed as a soldier or military commander, which really opens up a whole "Who gets to say when someone is royalty" debate, but he did actually claim descent from the House of Aberffraw anyway, so ultimately it still links back to Llywelyn.

Ecology! Temperate alpine. There actually isn't a global scientific distinction between hill and mountain, but most countries set an arbitrary height standard. This means it varies from country to country depending on how tall their topology is. Wales, however, bucks this trend, and instead decides based on what is formally referred to as 'land use' and colloquially referred to as 'Vibes'. If it's a hill, it's tamed - if it's a mountain, it's wild. This means Eryri is fairly short by the standards of tedious foreigners who regard mountains as a sort of geological dick waving competition, but it's in fact a whole mountain range; it's also older than Saturn's rings. And, crucially, it's very much sufficiently above sea level to have an alpine ecosystem.

There are three endemic (i.e. not occurring anywhere else in the world) species in Eryri, to whit:

The Snowdon lily. A small and delicate flower growing in protected and inaccessible spots on yr Wyddfa (formally known as Snowdon). Excessively vulnerable to trampling, so the national park keeps sections where it grows fenced off.

The Snowdon beetle. RAINBOW BEETLE.

The gwyniad. A sub-species of whitefish until recently exclusively found in Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), trapped there after the ice age and now developing its own genetic profile distinct from other whitefish. Some dickhead in the 80s introduced the ruffe to the lake for fishing, and the ruffe eats the gwyniad's eggs, so they've now transplanted eggs to Llyn Arenig Fawr nearby as a conservation measure.

There's also feral goats. And Welsh mountain ponies. Ooh, and, red kites - in the UK red kites were so heavily persecuted they eventually fell to just 7 breeding pairs in Wales. We established a protected zone and hired Nepalese Gurkhas to guard the nests and thus saved it from extirpation so successfully they later translocated Welsh birds to other spots in the UK. It's a big conservation success story, and now red kites are considered to be the national bird of Wales. They have a very distinctive silhouette, too, look for the forked tail.

Oh, and, we have a unique habitat type called ffridd, which you see a lot of in Eryri.

Final wildlife pictures to close:

Anyway - have a great time! Enjoy muchly.

#asks #wales! #closed for cleaning on mondays #long post

[mysticheathenn]

Why Are You Ugly? Your Traits, Habits, Etc...

Hi, Hexlings!

This pick-a-card is really just for fun. Please don't take most of what is here seriously unless it resonates. This is just to show some of your features or traits that others deem unattractive. Again this is meant to be fun and not a dig at you..unless you like shit like that then by all means do you.

This is a general reading, remember to take what resonates and leave what does not. This reading does not supplement your need to seek professional help.

Take your time when choosing your pile. Ask yourself the question and choose the picture that you can’t stop looking at. Listen to your intuition.

Pile l:

Tarot: 5 of Swords, 5 of Cups / Strength (reversed), 2 of Swords

Pile l others find you "ugly" because you are a coward who lack direction in their life. The phrase from the movie Clueless "You're a virgin who can't drive" just popped into my head. Not only that but you like to cry wolf while also not doing anything with your life. Ex. "I'm so lazy, a fatass, etc" but then you continue to scroll on TikTok and not apply yourself in areas of your life you want to change. You may also like to point fingers at other people whenever something doesn't happen the way you want it to go and blame everyone else except for the matter for what it is, sometimes yourself.

Oracle: Talent/Dreams (Reversed), Life Purpose The TikTok meme "You are looking so cute doing ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING GET YOUR ASS UP. GET YOUR ASS UP." For those who don't know the meme here is the link to the original video: http://tinyurl.com/3fa4xth2

Pile ll:

Tarot: 3 of Swords / The Magician / 6 of Swords (All Reversed), 5 of Pentacles.

The only thing you like to let go of is money pile ll. Anything else in your life you like to hold onto especially toxic people and grudges and sometimes for no dam reason. Someone could step on your 5-year-old shoes and say sorry but because they stepped on your shoe you're out for revenge...okay maybe some of you may not be that petty but you still like to hold grudges and then wonder why no one or barely anyone is in your life...it's because you let people go for breathing wrong pile ll. Someone says your name in a tone you aren't familiar with, blocked. Someone didn't bring you food even though you said you weren't hungry, block. Again maybe not this crazy for some of you but you get it. You may have also been attracted a bit to pile one because you also don't like to do sh*t with your life and when you do decide to do sh*t with your life if it doesn't happen fast enough for you, you give up as if everything is supposed to bend you to your will when, where, and how you want it.

Oracle: Prosperity/Love (reversed), Trust

There's a lyric to a song that I can't think of but the song part that is playing in my head is "That's why you believe in lies..."...I wish I knew the song but that is the only part of it that keeps playing with no melody in my head. Learn to trust...not only yourself but others and love yourself. Let love in your life without treating everything like a checklist or transaction. Also, stop overspending, pick up a Financial literacy book or course and learn how to save, plan, and budget your money properly.

Pile lll:

Tarot: Death, 8 of Wands, The Fool, Knight of Wands

Pile lll your trait that others may deem "ugly/unappealing" isn't so much of a bad thing. you were probably told when you were younger that you always were "Acting fast" or if not people as an adult tell you all the time that you are always on the move as if you are on the run. You can't sit still maybe you have or deal with ADHD. Every time you get a new idea, or opportunity, or you see something that could possibly get you ahead in life you are on it and you never think about whether this is the right move for you? Is this opportunity legit? or anything else substantial that you need to make sure that you land safely, if not safely at least have a parachute when you jump. You may also move from job to job similar to pile ll anytime you see even a milligram of bullsh*t you are out of there. "Miller when you are done running and want to make a home, make it with me." Book Quote from the book Caught Up by Liz Tomforde (love that book) it's about a female who is always on the run and she does a favor for her dad and nanny one of his teammate's son and when they start falling for each other he says that to her. I am getting this is more so from your higher self pile lll. When you are done running from your past, inner thoughts, poverty, chasing gimmicks, and temporary people go back to yourself and actually see what exactly do you want to do, what is your purpose, what is something you can build for your life that is stable and secure than these fleeting moments you keep trying to create for yourself. Some of you may be either in situationships that you hate or like to have a lot of flings only to feel lonely afterward.

Oracle: Boundaries, Life Purpose, Compassion

This goes back to the quote in your reading pile lll. Stop running from yourself and the things you really want vs the things you chase.... I may do a reading on this let me know if you want that or not. Either way show yourself more compassion and place boundaries on yourself not others. You have no problem in that department for a lot of you but others you need boundaries for yourself and others.

REMEMBER THIS IS MEANT TO BE A FUN READING AND NOT AN ATTACK.

Thank you to everyone who are subscribed to my Patreon and those who like and reblog my pick-a-card readings. I always appreciate you. I hope you enjoyed this reading.

Until next time, stay safe and blessed.

#tarotcommunity #tarotblr #pick a card #tarot cards #witchblr #pac tarot #pick a pile #pac reading #tarot reading #pick a photo #pick a picture

[dynamic-swap-au-archive]

I'd like to offer gorillaz fans (and Potential gorillaz fans) another resource that I've spent over a year creating and perfecting.

The Gorillaz !

This playlist is, to the best of my ability, Every Single piece of gorillaz content that can be found on youtube in story order.

all of the music videos, all of the indents, all of the interviews, animations, radio shows, news specials, podcasts, audio books, tiktoks, Everything.

on top of that ! I made the decision to include select fan content! because Frankly the gorillaz fandom is unimaginably talented and creative. this includes Fully animating several music videos that were cancelled, but given to us in animatic form, original animations, animatics, and storyboards, fan visualizers and recreations of live visuals, even voice fan dubs for written material like the interviews and novels.

and more than that, with the (incredible) fan content that was available I've Also been able to flesh out the stories of each phase! a decision I made due to the plastic beach, the third album, never getting to finish the story officially (leading to the band breaking up and coming back 7 years later).

I'm so proud of what I've been able to do with it ! and even happier to share the picture I've been able to make as a whole :>

below the cut I'm going to include several other playlists that are based on this one, but made to be more digestible and less intimidating for newcomers ! as well as many other resources to fill in the gaps that this playlist can't ! (namely the written material)

thank you ! and I hope I can share something I love with all of you !

First is the simplest ! all of the music videos in order ! (plus a Few indents, because I can't help myself): [Link]

this obviously means that you lose out on quite a bit of context, as much of who the characters are as People and their relationships together are in the extra material (especially the shorts and interviews). BUT

this is the most Accessible, and also really convenient if you just want to vibe to the music. if you're not sure if you want to commit this kind of time to a cartoon band, consider checking this out! you may find yourself interested enough to learn more, or you may just have a good time and feel satisfied with what you've seen ! either way I'd be honored to have helped :>

Second, the Midpoint between these two extremes !: Phase 1-3 [Link] Phase 4-7 [Link]

these Include extra material like the shorts and animation, but Cuts Out some of the longer content like the podcasts and interviews! you can still get a pretty good idea about what happens in the story of each phase watching this, but it's not bogged down by videos that are hours long.

it'll give you a clearer picture of what's going on, include fun side content, while being less intimidating than the Full playlist. this is what I use to show my friends gorillaz !

alright, so you've got just the music videos and just the short stuff, now lets try just the Long stuff. all of the interviews, radio shows, podcasts, Etc: [Link]

maybe you've used my last playlists and now you'd like to listen to some of those long form videos you missed out on. maybe you just want to listen to these characters talk because it's Nice. either way, it's all here :> (I know, because I had to upload some of them myself)

Pirate Radio: [Link]

it's all here with One technical exception. pirate radio was the serial radio show for plastic beach/phase 3, that gave us insight into murdoc's frame of mind as a character. it Also used copywriten music. the reuploads on youtube cut the music out (likely because they wouldn't be available otherwise), while this google drive has the full unedited audio files if anyone would be interested!

this one may seem redundant, but I promise it isn't. All of the gorillaz albums in order: [Link]

this playlist (for the most part) doesn't Have any visuals, it's Only the music.

likewise, all of the music in the previous playlists are only those songs that Have visuals (official or fan made), which means not all of gorillaz's music is present! which is exactly what this is for :>

you have every album in order, filling in the gaps of what's been missed, As Well As special albums that are Associated with gorillaz, and gorillaz' guest appearances in other people's music !

now we're out of my playlists and into other resources :>

Lobotomy Pop: [Link]

this is a website that's worked for years to preserve and organize Every Single written interview gorillaz has ever done ! it's an invaluable resource and really just very cool.

it also categorizes several other things ! such as listing out all of the personal playlists the gorillaz members have put out over the years, or every profile that's ever been written for the characters ! it's very much so worth checking out as a fan.

Gorillaz Art Archive: [Link]

exactly what is says on the tin ! this is a google drive that's attempting to archive Every Single piece of official gorillaz art that was released from phase 1 in 2001, to phase 5 in 2018. it is Massive and it's such a joy to have access to

The Kong Files: [Link]

if you were wondering why the art archive stopped at 2018, this would be why ! the kong files has much the same goal, but instead picking up at phase 6 and continuing on Theoretically forever ! or at least it's kept up with all of phase 7

that said ! the kong files is attempting to document Everything relating to those phases. so all of the social media, all of the music videos, all of the written text, Everything !

I wouldn't try to Only use this for watching phase 6 and 7, but it's an Excellent resource for everything that could fall between the cracks

Rise of the Ogre on Archive dot Com: [Link]

rise of the ogre was an official novel released at the end of demon days (the second album/phase 2), that covered the entire history of the band up until that point! their backstories, how they met each other, what they'd gotten up to in the 10 years they'd known each other, and the shocking event that happened at the very end of the phase and the band's reaction to it. all leading in to plastic beach, (arguably) the Most story heavy phase of them all.

as I understand it, this novel has been out of print for a very long time and is quite expensive to buy second hand. so ! it's been scanned and uploaded here to the archive! there's actually several more scans available in the gorillaz art archive, but this is the most recent (having been uploaded just earlier this year).

Dawn of the Ogre: [Link]

dawn of the ogre is the fanmade sequel to rise of the ogre, attempting to fill in the gaps of what happened at the end of phase 3, the 7 year gap, and up to the (then) newest point of canon.

this is, of course, unofficial. so this is essentially fancy fanfiction. But it's extremely well done fanfiction that happens to be novel length, attempting to emulate the style of the original novel, and is fully illustrated. along with being available completely for free!

I'd definitely give it a shot, if you're the type of person who's already read rise of the ogre

the gorillaz wiki !: [Link]

I have no clue what the fandom thinks about it, but it was absolutely invaluable both in making my playlist, and becoming a fan at all. with all the work I've done my hope is that people won't need to go digging for themselves, but the Option is certainly always nice !

I'd Especially like to highlight this page [Link] which has transcriptions for all of the pirate radio show episodes !

I feel like there's a lot to find here :>

and of course, my own dynamic swap au archive! [Link]

if you've fallen in love with gorillaz and are desperate for more to sink your teeth into, then I couldn't recommend this enough !

keep in mind that these resources will continue updating ! as new music is created and new fan content is made! I'm keeping my eyes out on a fan project for a fully animated mv right now that I'm sure will make it to my playlists one day :>

#gorillaz #stuart pot #2d gorillaz #murdoc niccals #murdoc gorillaz #russel hobbs #russel gorillaz #noodle gorillaz #guide #it's a shame I Just missed demon day's anniversary #such is life

[aroaceleovaldez]

the show chb logo was also ripped from fandom, like in the past decade all the official chb shirt had the logo without the circle and then the fandom started doing and the show went for it, sorry your tags reminded me of that

[Link to post/tags in question]

Yeah, I know Delphi Strawberry Service has done more circular-based CHB shirt designs for ages, and I've seen the more circular-based designs floating around for awhile. I think Magicbysab's circular-based CHB shirt designs also predate the show design? Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I understand on a level that if they did base it off fandom designs, particularly if they're basing anything on widespread fanon or fandom-based concepts, it can be difficult to pin down credit or may even seen unnecessary. But if they're going to be doing that I feel like at least they could hire like, a fandom consultant of sorts? Instead of just ripping off from the fandom, hire someone from the community who produces that already so at least there's some recognition and acknowledgement of where it originated.

Heck, in some instances if you ask around in the fandom it's not hard to pinpoint who specifically popularized certain concepts! I could talk for ages about Cherryandsisters being a driving force behind photokinesis!Will, or Saberghatz with plague!Will (tbh between the two they spearheaded a ton of early Will/Solangelo fanon), and I swear Drksanctuary alone is behind like 50% of Alabaster fanon, etc etc etc. People in the fandom know these things! Heck, we know ReadRiordan company knows how to do that kind of thing! They commissioned Viria for the official art, and the UK Riordan newsletter reaches out to fans all the time to feature their work (with credit, they're one of the better ones)! Though in Rick's book tours he did showcase Viria's art (at least with credit) without asking before she got commissioned, and during the Tower of Nero book tours they actually straight up stole a solangelo edit from Pervysloth with completely zero credit (link is to my canon url readriordan parody blog).

I think it doesn't help as well that Rick and his editor allegedly use the fandom wiki in place of a series bible. The PJO wiki is notorious for putting inaccurate information or fanon onto pages at random and having no sources. (What I wouldn't give for the PJO wiki to have frequent book/page sources a la Warrior Cats wiki...) There are what, now almost 18 books in the main series alone? Of an extremely renowned best-selling series that's 20 years old and now being adapted for TV? And they STILL don't have a series bible? That's like, step 1 of writing a series. This kind of reliance of the fandom for resources and concepts definitely isn't new for them.

It just feels so bizarre as to what it says about how the ReadRiordan company views the fandom and the creatives within it. I understand that trying to figure out how to give credit to the concept of "CHB shirt design, but circular!" is difficult, if you even can find out who did that first or popularized it. But if you're going to rip things from fandom, at least find somebody to try and credit? Show that you put in even the tiniest amount of effort? And if you get it wrong and people know, they'll correct you and that's that! But ReadRiordan just keeps trying to actively obscure these kinds of things, even with their own media, not ripped from the fandom, which makes it feel all the worse when it gets pointed out. And a lot of the time the whole reason those concepts get popular is because they're filtered through big names in the fandom! The fandom is a community! We know these people! We can point to them and explain exactly what they popularized! Remember how Velinxi popularized long haired Piper with the heart-shaped flyaways? Goodness only knows how many fandom designs are heavily influenced by Viria and Minuiko and Burdge (and Indigonite and Fuocogo and Ikimaru and Thecottonproject and Joker-ace and Sixofclovers and Vikingmera and Saber and Cherry and and and-). If you are in the community this stuff is easy to find. But Rick and the ReadRiordan company clearly being ~5 years behind with fanon pretty obviously tells me that they're not in the community at all, and aren't bothering trying.

#riordanverse #pjo #readriordan #pjo tv crit #rr crit #Anonymous #ask #long post // #sorry i am passionate about fandom history and crediting artists #its late and im too lazy to proofread right now so im just throwing this one out there #apologies if it's nonsensical #anyways Rick and ReadRiordan stop ripping off literally everyone challenge #stares pointedly at Rick blatantly recycling his own writing. its not a fun callback my guy thats just lazy writing #percy making a dam joke to himself in SoN? cute callback #solangelo falling into tartarus scene in TSATS being a direct rip of percabeth in MoA/HoH? what the hell man

[fourswords]

shadow's sacrifice being ultimately selfish in nature—wanting to save the one person who was somewhat kind to him without any strings attached for the first time in his short life—is one of the best things about the whole thing tbh. like here he is coming off the ass end of vio's betrayal and being vaporized by the light of the four sword and begging ganon not to revive him because he's absolutely terrified of the light and ganon ignoring him and dragging him back into it anyway and suddenly he comes face to face with zelda, shaking and sobbing like the world's most pathetic little leaf in a hurricane, and like. the thing about zelda's words to him is that they aren't even. about shadow??? as a person??? to be honest???

she looks at him and says he can be a hero because he's a LINK. because despite her previous hostility with him she sees this warped image of her best friend come crawling out of the dark mirror all hurt and scared and "faint and twisted echo" or not...he still wears the face of her best friend. and because of that i think she IS kind of projecting her own emotions about seeing her friend's face in so much pain. i mean, hell, when the dark cloud takes her, it's LINK she calls for. when she KNOWS that shadow and link aren't the same person. but projection or not, she gave shadow the first truly kind words he ever heard in his life, even if they were less about HIS character and more about link's. so when she calls for link, he answers. and that's what drives him to take on vio's image, to aid the other links, to smash the chair into the dark mirror and kill himself to take vaati down with him.

BUT! one thing i do love is that his ACTUAL acceptance of the light came when green told him that he was one of them. one panel that drives me absolutely rabid is when shadow is still disguised as vio and green finds him and instantly starts fussing over him—asking him if he's hurt, if he's alright, telling him to lean on him, etc., and when green reaches out for his hand shadow reaches back for him with his own trembling hand for just a moment before rejecting the offer ("don't worry about me." in the fan translation/"i... i'm fine." in the viz translation) and redirecting green's attention to the fact that zelda's in danger. but when green (the second person ever to be kind to him without strings attached, even though, as with zelda, it wasn't strictly for HIM at first) looks down at him and smiles and tells him that he's one of them (that he isn't alone), THAT'S when shadow reaches towards the light and accepts it without fear, wholly and completely. THAT'S him reaching back for green's hand—when green looks at him and actually sees HIM, as his own person, and still counts him as one of them anyway, even after everything. and given that shadow is still alive once the links become link as a whole again, no matter how much i think link and shadow would grumble at and argue with each other for shadow's villain spree and vio's betrayal and whatnot, that interaction is always going to be present in their minds. it's gonna be like "congratulations douchebag! now you're stuck with me no matter what! sucks to be you!" on both their ends and zelda is very kindly not going to point out that they're both grinning like morons when they turn away from each other after butting heads for the millionth time. you see my vision

#nobody talks about green and shadow enough. or blue and shadow but i already made that post #fsa #shadow link #<-yeah i'll put this in his main tag. why not. sorry y'all #four swords #txt

[thursdaygirlmp3]

big day for media business girlies now that watcher is trying to go the dropout route - some thoughts below the cut

>big L on the fact that they don't have first mover advantage as a lot of their audience already has crossover with other paid subscriptions for independent productions (eg. Dropout, Nebula etc) and they still have a fairly young audience who don't have enough purchase power to subscribe to multiple services past a certain point. my sense is that the average viewer will put watcher on the chopping block - their output unfortunately simply isn't high enough to justify it as a good deal for most folks

>I do understand why they would make this move given how high their production quality is. one only has to assume that their 11k patreon supporters were not enough to meet their P&L. i'm assuming an 80% conversion of patreon subscribers to watcher subscribers will probably happen

>they've had 2 rounds of funding from what I remember, I'm sure there was some push from the investors also to meet their profit line so they could see returns. if they drop a few business focused interviews (hoping for a colin and samir episode, they're one of the best in the YouTube business news space) I'll have a little more to work with in terms of understanding why they did the damn thing

>bigger L on putting their back catalogue behind a 50$ paywall - a bad move both in a business and viewer satisfaction sense

>the value for subscription looks? okay? it's not tooo bad. but if I had to make a choice, i probably wouldn't want to dish out the money for this singular service. superfans probably won't mind but as someone who has become a moderate-to-casual fan, it's just not worth it for me, even to access a few comfort episodes of their back catalogue. it's YouTube, someone will have it backed up on a drive link somewhere.

>i'm hoping for the best for them because more independent creators being able to properly fund the work they'd like to do is ultimately a good thing, but media and entertainment is very much an economies of scale business - you need be certain you have a very high and dedicated viewership to undertake large projects which cost a lot of money. if they don't have enough supporters immediately they'll be unable to launch at the scale at which they want to, which also means it'll take longer and harder for new viewers to pour in. it's not company-ending stuff, but it's a tough journey and i wish them the best

will probably reblog this with more thoughts as more details come out

#watcher #watcher entertainment #ryan bergara #shane madej #steven lim #youtube

[scoobydoodean]

Do you have siblings, and what order are you in?

How do you view and feel about Sam running away multiple times, and then in 5.16 Sam running away are the only memories he's given? (and do you think angels did that purposefully?)

I am the younger of two and I understand how Sam can run away and how it would only be about getting away from their, but that Dean would feel the brunt of it all. But I can totally imagine my older sibling understanding Dean, but not necessarily Sam's pov.

I also don't think Sam's reasoning is ever fully explained, at least in 5.16, it makes him seem much more selfish and uncaring. I think he assumed Dean was better equipped to handle living with their dad alone simply because he behaved, it just happened to be that Dean and dad were linked - and I don't really know how much they talked about their relationship with their dad till they were older.

I wonder if Dean ever would've considered leaving John and living somewhere near Sam, or even running away with Sam.

I have three siblings. I'm in the middle. Two older siblings and the caboose is 7 years younger than me. So I remember what it's like to be the baby but I also know what it's like to play older sibling to a sibling several years younger than me. My younger brother and I are also very close.

If this was all prompted by my comment the other day that I wasn't looking forward to watching "Dark Side of the Moon", I don't dislike the episode because it shows Sam running off. I do have issues with the episode, but a large part of my distaste for it is that it is generally very depressing. It being depressing in of itself isn't a criticism of the episode—it's supposed to be depressing because it's about total loss of hope and belief for Dean (and then Cas as well losing hope at the end of the episode). It's doing what it's supposed to do in that sense. It's just hard to watch. Unfortunately, a lot of people take the bleakness of it and the idea that Dean is a burden and etc as truth and not manipulation meant to drive him to say "yes", and that also makes me rather sour about it.

I don't care that Sam wanted to go to college, or that he was happy at another family's thanksgiving at one point in his life. The Flagstaff memory bothers me a little because Sam's fond recollection of it, unmarred by any negative associations, clearly suggests he didn't face any consequences for running off once John found him. The fact that he never even into his adult life considered that Dean might have faced consequences does feel rather self-centered, and that's on purpose. I don't care that Sam went to school or that there were points as a kid where he wanted to run off.

I do disagree with the premise that Sam still desires some normal core Thanksgiving. I simply don't think that would be a favorite memory for Sam anymore. Just a few episodes prior to this, in "Swap Meat", Sam sat down with someone else's family for a normal, family dinner and he hated it. He found Gary's parents absolutely obnoxious. He told Gary afterward that he envied his life, only to turn to Dean and say he lied.

SAM I totally lied. That kid's life sucked ass. All that apple-pie, family crap? It's stressful. Trust me – we didn't miss a damn thing.

Or observe earlier in the episode:

DEAN You ever think that you'd want something like that? Wife, rugrats, the whole nine? SAM No, not really my thing anymore.

In fact, it's Dean who envies the normal life in "Swap Meat" and several other episodes (ex: 2.20, 4.19) whereas Sam indicates several times that a normal life is not something he wants (2.02, 2.10, 2.20, 4.08, 4.19, 5.12). In 4.08 and in 2.20, Sam in fact overtly states that he would not go back and choose a normal life now if he could go back. In 3.01, 4.19, and in 5.06, Sam also heavily emphasizes the importance of family within the hunting dynamic. I track a lot of this within the tag #sam the hunter.

I think there is a strong argument to be made that Zachariah ran them through heaven like rats in a maze in 5.16, directing them toward certain memories and not others in order to make Dean believe that Sam doesn't care for him (I have a separate post to make about this in more detail). However, I don't believe Zachariah forced in memories that aren't "greatest hits". I think he just drove them away from any happy memories Sam has with Dean and toward ones where Sam grasped independence from John, misappropriated to make Dean feel Sam doesn't care about Dean or appreciate/recognize his sacrifices (the former is not true, but the latter is in fact true in many cases).

Note though that when Joshua arrives and takes them to heaven's garden:

SAM: This is heaven’s Garden? DEAN: It’s-it’s nice… ish. I guess. JOSHUA: You see what you want to here. For some it’s God’s throne room; for others it’s Eden. You two, I believe it’s the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. You came here on a field trip.

So right there, we have a shared favorite memory, right after (presumably) any potential influence Zachariah had on what memories they were seeing was eliminated.

What primarily irritates me about this episode and many other Dabb/Loflin episodes is their perpetual need to insert the narrative that Sam wants a normal life he explicitly states he does not want over and over and over in everyone else's episodes, while they write Dean as someone who says things like "I mean, we’re supposed to be a team. It’s supposed to be you and me against the world, right?" It implies a sort of desperation vs apathy that, even when contradicted in subtler ways, I just don't find interesting... And yet they seem to harp on the same dramatic "misunderstanding" over and over and over for all eternity. And Dabb continues it after cutting ties with Loflin. In fact he continues to toy with these obnoxious dramatics to the very end of the series in a way I find unbelievably tired and obnoxious and I resent it. He's the same one-trick pony when it comes to his ideas on Dean and Cas conflicts in the later seasons.

As to your last bit there: Dean did consider running off. We see this in "Bad Boys", and in that episode, we also see that Dean doesn't end up abandoning their family because he felt Sam needed him. We hear a similar narrative in regards to John in 1.06 from the mouth of the shifter—that Dean had dreams of his own, but Dean felt that John needed him, so Dean stayed. John echoes this when he says that he was an emotional wreck and Dean took care of him (2.01). We see Dean also taking care of Mary in "Dark Side of the Moon" after she gets off the phone with John, upset. 5.16 casts Dean as someone perpetually sacrificing his own needs for his family, but unappreciated all the while. In fact, Sam doesn't recognize any of his sacrifices. Dean is nothing more than a blood offering on the altar of family. Zachariah intends this narrative and leans into it heavily in the scene where he explicitly manipulates what Sam and Dean are seeing.

MARY: Don’t you walk away from me. I never loved you. You were my burden. I was shackled to you. Look what it got me. The worst was the smell. The pain, well. What can you say about your skin bubbling off? But the smell was so… You know, for a second I thought I’d left a pot roast burning in the oven. But… it was my meat. And then, finally, I was dead. The one silver lining was that at least I was away from you.

Zachariah has Mary speak about Dean being a burden to his family and to her, but it's potentially more layered than "Dean has abandonment issues". What Mary says about being shackled to Dean—being burdened by her child—firmly recollects Dean's claim to Cas in 5.03 that he's chained to his family through responsibility, and that finally being away from Sam is a relief. This fake Mary says death was her escape from similar chains of responsibility to her loved ones. It was the only escape. Burned up and dead but finally free. There's an implication there that Dean can finally escape responsibility in a similar way, and in two episodes, Dean is going to try and escape by saying "Yes".

#5.12 #5.16 #writer disk horse #family chains #mail #dabb disk horse

[daemonhxckergrrl]

Getting Linux-y (for Windows refugees)

a casual users' GUIDE to the basics

Linux ? isn't that for nerds ??

yes. no. we're breaking down stereotypes here !! this post is aimed at casual users who care about freedom + privacy, are sick of the direction Windows is heading, or just curious c:

i'm talking social media, email, web browsing, online shopping, pdfs, document writing, funny meme edits, youtube/netflix/plex, spotify, dvds + cds + mp3s etc.

i'll mention gaming and running specific Windows-only software briefly, but that's outside the casual scope i'm going for d:

Arm thyself ! and decipher !! arcane secrets be upon ye !!

it's key knowledge time !! ^w^

Linux isn't Windows, but it's not completely alien :o

much like Tumblr, one curates their Linux experience. there are flavours of Linux (terminology: distribution/distro) aimed at power users who like to DIY, and there's ones aimed at normal folk that are ready to go. for the sake of this GUIDE i'm recommending Linux Mint:

its interface is similar to Windows,

it's popular as a user-friendly choice

and it has both excellent support and software

(note: i ran Mint for years, and when coming back to Linux i chose it for my gaming pc because it's easy to set up and well-supported)

key information:

Linux doesn't use drive letters :o

your C: drive is / (terminology: root directory)

your personal files (C:\Users\Username) live under /home/username (terminology: home directory)

other drives (internal and USB drives) live under /mnt/drive-label or /media/username/drive-label (terminology: mount point)

Technical Note: all hard drives and SSDs, before they get a mount point, are referred to as /dev/sdX (eg /dev/sda, /dev/sdb etc.) for HDDs and SATA SSDs (partitions are /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 etc.), and /dev/nvmeXn1 (/dev/nvme0n1, /dev/nvme1n1 etc.) for NVMe drives (partitions are /dev/nvme0n1p1, /dev/nvme0n1p2)

however, Mint manages all this for us and stuff just shows up in your File Manager much like they do in Windows Explorer c:

Software is typically managed similar to the way App Stores work; Mint has Software Manager that lets you install common programs

the only wrinkle here is Mint supports both Mint-specific sources and a thing called Flatpak, which is like a universal App Store for all Linux distros

the Update Manager keeps both your core system and your programs up-to-date. unlike Windows, by default it will only update when you tell it to ! no more rebooting into Windows Update and waiting 10 years ^w^

it's possible to have both Linux and Windows on the same laptop (terminology: dual-booting); you choose which one each time you turn your laptop on

the Linux Mint Forums are a good place to ask questions, seek advice, and maybe even offer your own !!

additional places: Official Community Website, community-maintained subreddit, community-maintained Discord Server, Official Troubleshooting Guide

i think that's the basic info taken care of.

Let's start with the preparation, or PRE-paration

for this GUIDE you'll need:

a USB drive (4GB+)

Linux Mint ISO file

Balena Etcher (to put the ISO file on the USB drive)

i recommend reading through the info on the Mint homepage and following their installation guide for good step-by-step guide w/ screenshots ^^'

we're gonna make a 'Live Image' on our USB drive - this means we can testdrive the system before we install it. try before you buy !! wait, it's free -- uhh.. walk before you run ??

Download the ISO file using the above link. i recommend the Cinnamon Edition, unless you have a very old PC, in which case pick XFCE

Download Balena Etcher

Plug in your USB drive and open Etcher

Follow the onscreen prompts to select the ISO file and your USB drive

Alright, let's fire her up ! ^u^

now we have our USB drive it's time to boot it. because Windows is, well, Windows, you may need to disable Fast Boot in order to access the BIOS/UEFI. :c you may also have to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS/UEFI depending on your computer. this is usually found in the Boot, Security, or Authentication tab.

now we're ready !!

Power on your computer and press F1/F2/F6/F10/F12/DEL to access your BIOS or Boot Menu

Select your USB drive

A screen will come up where you can select Linux Mint (or will say Automatic Boot in X seconds)

You shall be greeted by a desktop that looks something like this

have a look around !! there's a menu in the bottom left that has programs and system settings and logout/reboot/shutdown options. the taskbar at the bottom displays icons of running apps (and pinned ones). the bottom right has your clock and system tray w/ network, audio etc.

this is a great time to get a feel for how everything works ! open some programs !! investigate the System Settings. connect to your WiFi (in the system tray next to the sound and clock).

when you're ready, double-click the "Install Linux Mint" icon on the desktop. the installer will walk you through setting everything up. i recommend following the official installation guide's walkthrough as it explains everything from setting your timezone to installing Mint by itself or alongside Windows, with screenshots showing each step. it also has an important section on installing drivers. the slideshow during installation also does a good job at showcasing the available software.

Welcome Screen

after installing and rebooting, a Welcome Screen pops up that offers a nice interface for picking a system theme/colour, installing drivers, and setting up backups etc.

Let's talk software !! :D

Mint comes with some software pre-installed. these are probably the main ones:

Archive Manager (like 7-Zip or WinRAR)

Celluloid (a video player; VLC is available to install if you prefer)

Drawing (an image editor similar to Paint)

Document Viewer (PDF viewer)

Firefox (Tumblr's favourite web browser)

LibreOffice (like MS Office - it even supports MS Office file format !)

Rhythmbox (like Windows Media Player or iTunes)

Software Manager (like the Microsoft Store/App Store; GET OTHER PROGRAMS HERE !)

System Monitor (like Task Manager)

System Settings (like Control Panel)

Terminal (like Powershell/Command Prompt; outside the scope of this post but good to have)

Text Editor (like Notepad)

Timeshift (like System Restore points, or macOS Time Machine)

Web Apps (similar to an old iOS feature - make Netflix.com into an app etc.)

Update Manager (manages updates)

Available in Software Manager:

Audacity

Discord

DOSbox

Dropbox

OBS

Spotify

Transmission (torrent client)

VLC

and much more ! these are all official apps !

How's that checklist ?

i mentioned some casual tasks at the start of this post. let's work through them !

Social Media, Online Shopping, Youtube/Netflix/Plex and general Web Browsing

Difficulty: easy Windows Similarity: identical Method: open Firefox. browse to your_site.com. note: i recommend the web version of Plex as the app can be buggy

Email

Difficulty: easy (webmail), medium (mail client) Windows Similarity: identical (webmail) or similar (mail client) Method: webmail - open Firefox. browse to your_email_site.com. sign in client - open Software Manager. search for Geary (similar to Mac Mail), Evolution (similar to Outlook), or Thunderbird (same as on Windows). click Install. open Geary/Evolution/Thunderbird, follow the first-time setup.

PDFs

Difficulty: easy Windows Similarity: similar Method: open Document Viewer from the application menu. File -> Open, browse for your PDF. OR, open File Browser, browse for your PDF, double-click to open

Document Writing

Difficulty: easy Windows Similarity: similar Method: open LibreOffice Writer from the application menu. on first launch it may ask if you want a traditional (Office 2003) or Ribbon (Office 2007 onwards) layout. use it as you would MS Word. there's also Calc (Excel), Impress (Powerpoint), Draw (Publisher) and Base (Access)

Funny Meme Edits (aka MS Paint level of image editing)

Difficulty: medium Windows Similarity: similar Method: open Drawing from the application menu. File -> Open for your image. the left toolbar provides options to resize, add text, crop etc. pro tip: remember to click the tick button on the bottom right when you do anything !

Spotify

Difficulty: easy Windows Similarity: identical Method: open Software Manager, search for Spotify, click Install. then open it from the application menu.

DVDs

Difficulty: easy Windows Similarity: similar Method: insert your DVD. Mint may ask what you want to do (choose play/open with Celluloid). if it doesn't, then open Celluloid from the application menu, click the + icon in the top left, click "Open Disc" and choose the DVD you inserted.

CDs and MP3s

Difficulty: easy Windows Similarity: similar Method: CDs - insert your CD. Mint may ask what you want to do (choose play/open with Rhythmbox). if it doesn't, then open Rhythmbox from the application menu. it should automatically see your CD. MP3s - double-click your MP3 file.

Gaming and Windows-only programs

i said i'd briefly mention this (probably good bc the post is getting loonnggggggg), so here we go.

gaming on Linux has come a long way. Steam can be installed from Software Manager and supports a few titles natively, as well as the option to run some Windows-only games using compatibility software called Proton. the website ProtonDB is very handy for looking up compatibility for specific games. i'll drop a proper GUIDE on Linux gaming another time.

Windows-only programs. sometimes you need specific software and it only has a Windows version. it happens. there's similar compatibility software that allows eg Photoshop to run, called WINE (Proton is actually based on this). again, this is outside the casual scope of this post, but i'll drop a GUIDE on this too (as i use the same software to manage both my Windows-only programs and my Windows-only games).

Finale !! FINI !! Fuck me that's a lotta words !!

okay, we got to the end ! you should have Linux Mint installed, you should have your basic programs ready to rock (and know where to get more !!), and know where to get help from official Linux Mint sources as well as community-run ones <3

please drop any questions in the notes, or as an ask. i shall tag those asks #DATA_REQUESTS/GUIDES/LINUX in addition to my usual #DATA_REQUEST tag

i'll also provide the following GUIDEs/REPOs as i have time:

Flatpak (that universal App Store i mentioned earlier)

Gaming (including using Proton + Bottles for Windows games)

Windows software (using WINE + Bottles)

and if there are any specific GUIDEs (eg terminal basics, how to configure xyz in System Settings etc.) or REPOs (eg links to other people's GUIDEs, software recs, screenshot galleries etc.) i'm happy to provide those as and when i have the time !! have fun !!~

#daemon.md #GUIDES #GUIDES/LINUX #linux mint #linux #free software #foss #open source #this post is like 5x the length i expected it to be bc brevity ain't my style #oopsie #i know i should provide more screenshots but i'm tired after writing this #so i'll include some in a reblog ??

[thegratefulsouth]

Alright I have just finished Season 1 of TWD DD and I have thoughts and questions and feelings. And energy!

I am very new to this fandom, and while I've done some searches in places, I'll still just apologise in advance for being repetitive and missing stuff. I will miss stuff every time.

I'll get Laurent out of the way, and even though it's all connected for me, the rest is Caryl.

#1 So Laurent. I have questions about his ability to see into the future. He was convinced Daryl would survive the Gladiator battle, he knew they'd all end up back together. Is this a real thing? Is it coincidence in faith? The drawing I don't care about, I'm not sure how involved he is with the manipulations, but he should definitely be able to feel that this is happening with Isabelle, given his empathic nature. So in that case, does he sense there is a reason to go along with her ways, for a future purpose we don't know about yet.

The empathic thing:

Episode 1, he says to Daryl "You're homesick. I see it in your eyes. I feel things. In my stomach. I feel your sadness." Episode 5, he tells Madame Genet that she isn't angry; her heart is broken.

He can distinguish sadness between heartbreak and homesickness- these are very specific feelings. Are there more examples? Not sure when I'll be able to watch it back. Is this significant? Is there a point to this? Is he going to make the match? Is he going to be overwhelmed by Carol's grief and guilt, though hopefully she'll just be happy and relieved when he meets her (hopefully!!).

"Daryl why don't you just kiss Carol like she wants you to?"

What are the rules around this? I don't know how it works.

#2 Second up! The boats. Is there any evidence that any of the boats have any significance? I know they probably just make sense with the location and the storyline, etc. But when Laurent cuts the boat loose, Daryl is losing his most immediate TANGIBLE lifeline to Carol and that is because a BOAT has drifted. A boat.

Okay, and also, I was thinking about this on my long drive to work this morning and I swear to the husks of dust on my Jim Shore Dorothy and Glinda figurine, Spotify threw THIS song I've never heard before at me. Yes, PIRATE song. Pirate song by mehro. But dear god the lyrics.

"Are you ready to let me in?"

"I've been trying to believe what I said is what I need."

This is such a haunting, beautiful song. I'm so thrilled to discover this artist. I'm not immune to dissolving into a puddle on the side of the road when I hear a new song that spins me out. I feel things so intensely. I'm going to do a post just for this song. This song is Caryl to me.

#3 Daryl's longing for Carol in a ramble:

I like the connection between Daryl saying "I have family back home," and Carol in the teaser clip saying Daryl is the only family she has left. It feels like a string, tying them together. Feels like they're on the same damn boat. Emotionally.

I just want to touch on the name dropping Who Are Your Friends scene with Laurent. Even though I have no idea whether this scene is supposed to have any significance or if it's just supposed to be a simple moment of connection for these two. Regardless, it is significant. Every second beyond about a week just is. So to touch on Laurent again, I'm just wondering is it possible that Daryl's a little guarded here, because he knows the kid's intuitive? Does he feel like he needs to be more careful with his emotions? He's already elevated. But he says Connie's name really easily. It's easy for him to say her name and I think that says a lot. He's trying to connect with the kid, so of course Judith and RJ pop up. Daryl got himself started, and there's a very slight gap, while he's thinking before he offers up Ezekiel. That's where he should say Rosita but she's gone, or Aaron (but too much missage? Their bond), Michonne's not there! Oh, Ezekiel! They were starting to get along? They had a hug and everything? I don't know. I like the link between Connie and Ezekiel though. Anyway Daryl has to say Carol because she is his heartbeat, so he manages to get that out and then he stops. No more names.

Laurent says they sound nice and is Daryl's response a little defensive? Even though Laurent's just a kid, he's a little intense. Daryl says, "Yeah, how do you know?"

I think that's interesting. Like he's shared as much as he's comfortable sharing and then he wants to bundle his family back up again. It's painful to talk about Carol because he misses her and he promised her and she cried when he left and she is his soulmate. She's a little too precious and valuable to be spoken about by someone who hasn't even met her.

Alrighty now I need to go find some gifs for that song post.

#caryl #caryl is endgame #caryl positivity

[eulchu]

these past few days i've been seeing really weird rethorics that i think should be cleared up (note: this does not reflect my feelings towards the reality of caiti and george's situation, i'm strictly speaking about the debates that have arisen as a consequence of it)

- "the friends are responsible for it" wrong. in this case, the friends are shitty. they're neglective and they worked a girl into a panic over their preconceived mistrust towards the dteam. caiti is not "the baby of the group". she does not share a considerable age difference with the rest of her group. this was a group of equals partying together, where no one was expected to hold more responsability than the rest. thinking something is "weird" doesn't necessarily equal something feels "off". just because my friends think it's weird that i was hooking up with people significantly older than me doesn't mean the situation felt "off".

it's unfair to expect someone to esentially play babysitter - if it hasn't been previously discussed, and especially when all of you are drunk, and roughly the same age. take care of your friends, always, and keep general tabs on what they're doing, who they're with, and most importantly, where they're going. but to expect to keep such an scrutizing and detailed eye on an equal that has the right to have fun as much as you is unfair and unrealistic. when someone's reaction to something unpleasant is having "no reaction", it's not out of the world to miss it. if you find yourself in a situation where you're the friend, don't berate yourself for missing it. sometimes there's no way of catching it until something has happened, and it doesn't mean you have to live the rest of your days keeping your friend in a tight leash.

sometimes these things happen - every day we stay alive, we take risks. humanity struggles with understanding why some things happen "just because", and we are always ready to conjure a "cause" that will ease our fear of uncertainity. there's ways to minimalize those risks, yes, but life like that would esentially look like living in a bubble - and even then, there's just some things you will never be able to avoid.

- "it's not victim blaming, it's victim accountability" that's not a thing in this context. straight up. victim accountability definitely exists, just not in this case. using the term "victim accountability" in the context of avoiding one-off tragedies that have one active perpetrator (ex. a robbery, sexual assault) as opposed to a tragedy that is considered an accident (ex. a fire, a car crash; in both cases we can all agree there is no actual intent behind the situation) is treacherous and a veil term to soften the blow of calling it victim blaming.

we have to draw a bold line between "should not have left the stove on" to prevent a fire <- fire is not a sentient beinig that has the conscience of wanting to start a fire. fire is not at blame because it doesn't feel blame // "should not have drunk before driving" <- the road you drive on isn't sentient. it can't push you off the road intentionally. if you crash into another car, the person behind the wheel is definitely sentient, but definitely not at blame, since they did not want to crash into someone (in the situation where you did not crash into someone with the intent of crashing into someone else) and "should have known wearing a skirt that short would increase the chances of someone else doing something bad to you" <- your innocuous behavior should not be linked to someone else's misbehavior.

it is not your responsability to measure your behavior to appease to someone's misbehavior. whilst they're still steps you can take to minimize the risk of something happening, someone else's actions will never be your responsability, not even partly. you are not responsible for someon'e elses misconduct. those who have the capacity to misconduct (the intent, the lack of social conscience, etc.), will do it -if not to you, to someone else.

someone else's behavior will never be anyone else's responsability but their own. you may play a part in it, as everyone acts as a reaction to their context (in which everyone is included) but it will never be your responsability. and i need everyone, especially young kids, to understand that.

#tw sa #and i repeat this is NOT about my opinion on the situation at hand but rather the way it's being discussed #using very . not so it rethorics that i would never want someone else to take home and apply to themselves were something to happen to them

[ofduskanddreams]

How I download fics and give them covers before sending them to my Kindle.

Hi all, I've been considering making a post about this for a while and now seems as good a time as any. I'm not an expert, and there is more than one way you can do this; I'm just going to show you my process using "Call It What You Want To" by @separatist-apologist as an example. [This will only work on computers FYI.]

Part One — Getting Started

Download Calibre (it's free.) Calibre for PC. Calibre for Mac. They also have it for Linux but idk if that's still relevant.

Follow the program's setup instructions, and then those for wirelessly connecting Calibre with your Kindle account. Alternatively, you can connect your Kindle/e-reader to your computer with a cable and transfer files manually or download the file to your hard drive and share it another way. I highly recommend taking a few extra minutes to set up the wireless sharing as I think it's far more convenient.

Create a folder in which to store fanfiction downloads so that you can be an organized human.

Part Two — The Fanfiction

Find the fic you want to download on ao3 and click it so that you're on the fic's first page.

Above the box of metadata (ratings, warning, tags, etc.) on the far right click the "download" option. When prompted to select a file type, choose "MOBI."

Note: Though ao3 has an "EPUB" option I've noticed a bug that removes the chapter navigation from the fic when downloading the EPUB directly from ao3. If you enjoy the "x minutes left in this chapter/book" feature on your e-reader, you will want to download "MOBI" and we will be converting it later in Calibre.

Save the file to the folder you created.

Launch Calibre if it isn't already running.

In Calibre, click "add books" on the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Navigate to the folder you saved the fic in, select the fic, then click "open." Calibre will import the MOBI file to your library.

Now as you can see, "Call It What You Want To" already has a cover when we imported it to the library. That is because the cover image is embedded in the fic on the archive. Some fics will already have covers embedded such as this one.

Calibre is not a genius. If there are multiple images in the fic it will usually take the first one and default it to the cover. In the next section, I will go over how to add/change the cover of a fic in Calibre and how I like to create them.

Note: Even if the fic doesn't have embedded images, covers may have been made by readers and linked to the fic either in the notes or related works sections so it's worth checking if a cover already exists. If a fic is popular enough, a Google search of the fic's title + "cover" or "cover art" will show you if there have been covers already created for it.

Part Three — Making The Cover (I use Canva)

On the Canva homepage click "create a design" then select the "custom size" option. Canva does have a book cover template but I've found that it's awkwardly tall compared to the default size for Kindle books so I make my own.

I set the dimensions of the design to be 1024 pixels wide, and 1600 pixels tall, then click "create new design."

This is where you can get creative, make whatever you want. These basic steps are shown in a gif at the bottom of the section:

One: Choose a background image (you'll want to make sure it's a high enough quality that it won't be pixelated.) I used an image I had already uploaded into Canva, but you can use whatever you would like.

Two: On the sidebar, select "elements" and then "rectangle."

Three: Make sure the rectangle covers the whole design, then change the color. I like using the colors from the photo that Canva suggests and then making them a darker shade. Once you have the color that you want, reduce the transparency of the rectangle to anywhere between 40-50%. (This step ensures that the text we put on top of the image is easily legible, play around with it a bit.)

Four: On the sidebar, select "text" and then "add a text box." Then type in the author's username and change the font, the color, and the size until you like it. Repeat the same steps for the fic's title. I like to center the title on the page and put the author toward the bottom but that's just my preference.

Once your cover looks the way you want it to, click "share" at the top right and follow the steps to download the file as a PNG. I usually just save the image to my desktop so I can grab it easily once I'm in Calibre.

Part Four — Adding the Cover in Calibre

In your Calibre library, hover over the fic and right-click. Then hover over "edit metadata" and click "edit metadata individually."

On the "edit metadata" screen, find the section that says "change cover" and click "browse."

When the file upload dialog box appears, navigate to the PNG you just saved from Canva, select it, and click "open." This will add your cover to the fic. You can use these same steps to add any cover image that you've saved to your computer.

Make sure to click "ok" at the bottom of the screen to save your new cover and navigate back to the library page.

Part Five — Converting to EPUB

In your Calibre library, select the fic and then click "convert books" on the toolbar. At the top right of the converting screen, set the "output format" to "EPUB."

Now, the following steps are unnecessary little things I do to make my reading experience more seamless.

Click "Look & Feel" on the left sidebar. Under the "fonts" tab, I embed the "Georgia" font family. I do this because I prefer reading in Georgia which is not a default option on my PaperWhite*. I have my Calibre conversion settings in place to do this automatically. You can embed any font that you have on your computer.

*It might just be me, but when opening a downloaded fic (following the methods in this post) for the first time on my Kindle the font is always weird. The trick to fix it is to go and change the font from whatever is selected (Baskerville in my case) to "publisher's font" and then I've found that switching it back to "Baskerville" on the font selection screen activates the embedded Georgia... even though it will say that it's Baskerville? Idk why this is, I just wanted to let you know how I fix it.

Calibre defaults to a justified text alignment unless you change the default settings. This appears as "original" in the alignment options. The random too-large spaces between words of a justified alignment give me the ick so to make everything left aligned, I stay on the "look & feel" page but move to the "text" tab where I can change the alignment.

Staying on "look & feel," move to the "layout" tab. To ensure even paragraph spacing regardless of how it appeared on the archive, I select both the "remove spaces between paragraphs" and "insert blank line between paragraphs" options.

On this page, you can also change the indent size of the first line of every paragraph (highlighted pink,) and the size of the blank lines Calibre will insert between paragraphs upon conversion (highlighted green.) I set the indent to 0.0 and leave the line size 0.5 which is the default.

The last thing I do is go to "EPUB output" on the left sidebar and check the box labeled "insert inline table of contents." This just means that Calibre will add a table of contents to the beginning of the EPUB. (By default it puts the TOC at the end which I don't like.)

When everything is set as you'd like it, click "ok" on the bottom right and Calibre will convert the MOBI file you downloaded from ao3 to an EPUB containing the settings we just changed. Both file types will appear in your library when you click on the fic and scroll within the right-side window. I usually delete the MOBI format after I have the EPUB because I don't need it any longer.

And you've done it! Now all you have to do is either right-click and share it to your Kindle, or you can "save to disk" and download the EPUB file to transfer to your e-reader by a method of your choosing.

I hope someone finds this marginally helpful. In truth, I was just bored so I made this post but in light of the recent DDoS attacks against ao3, I think everyone should look into downloading their favorites so that you're never left out in the cold again.

Happy fanfic downloading <3

#fanfiction #acotar fanfiction #ao3 #archive of our own #download fanfiction #downloading fanfic #calibre #fanfic #fanfiction cover #how to guides #fanfiction on ao3 #fanfiction on kindle #read fanfiction #fandom things

[ilyastudies]

I saw that you use a tablet, a desktop, and paper notes. How do you conciliate those notes?

Is there a mechanism of making primary notes on one resource and then passing those notes to other while reviewing them?

hi! thanks so much for asking! here are my favorite methods for sharing notes between devices :). i personally have apple devices so i can fairly easily airdrop and sync things between devices, but i also frequently work at the library desktop computers where i can't do that! so here's my tips and tricks for sharing notes between devices

for context: i've been mostly doing digital notetaking recently, but i also like to scan my paper notes as well!

i'm going to be dividing this post into 2 methods! (there will be some overlap). syncing already written notes and syncing notes (in progress) between devices

for already written notes:

the first step i would take is export your notes as a pdf or any other file type. if they're handwritten try going into your notes app (for ios) or downloading a pdf scanner app for your phone! if your notes are digital check the sharing options in your app to see if there's anything about "exporting".

personally, i like to use either discord or notion. i have created a discord server with only myself that i use just for sharing links/files/anything between devices! i like discord because there's apps for pc, mac, tablets, and phones; and even a web app! discord is really nice and fast, and you can make different channels (as pictured below) for organization. as long as your file size isn't too big, you should be fine.

my second app i like to use is notion! notion is such a beast in itself, but i like to use it to upload files and images and links! below are two ways i have used it: to upload pdfs/files, and to upload goodnotes (my notetaking app) links to the pages i'm writing on! similar to discord, notion has apps for all devices, but it also works great just by itself on the website (no app required)! it's really great to access it from all my devices.

another way you could share your notes on different devices is through the cloud! (yes, discord and notion are both through the cloud). google drive, microsoft onedrive, icloud storage, etc. are great tools that you can use to upload files and see on multiple devices. i personally like discord and notion more, just because they're already apps i frequently use, but if you can't get either one cloud-based storage platforms are also a great idea! they definitely have more security than discord or notion, because your files may be at risk of being deleted!

for the purposes of sharing notes to reference on another device when writing an essay, or something of similar vain, i really love discord and/or notion and they both work great!

for syncing notes in real time:

pretty similar to the last one, i would say notion or google docs (or microsoft word on the web i believe has similar functionality, or onenote, anything similar!)

if you want to be writing notes on one device and have them sync up quickly on another - i think any word processing software is the best bet for you.

both notion and google docs you can access them on any device, and/or on their websites too!

google docs is a lot more straightforward, but since notion is so powerful it provides a lot of flexibility for your notes! here's an (old) example of notes i've taken on notion. (i personally really like how easy it is to make columns!)

i hope this helped a little bit! please let me know if you have any more questions :)

also! notetaking is very much an individual thing, if something works for me and doesn't work for you - that's okay! we're all learning and just have to figure out what's best for ourselves.

#to: ilyastudies #from: silverfroot #thanks for the ask! #studying tips #studying #studying aesthetic #studyblr #study motivation #university #studyspo #study blog #study inspo #academia #chaotic academia #study aesthetic #study tips #advice #study advice #study methods #study resources #resource #text post #*

[abarbaricyalp]

do you have any advice for a new writer trying to post on ao3 I want my stories to be noticed (also thanks for not leaving -- so many writers are gone now)

*Looks at my recent hits counts* I'm not sure I'm the best reference for this 😅

I think there are two aspects to getting engagement on fan works:

1: There is the actual work you put into posting your fics. This includes tags, cross posting, and self promotion.

Tags: Make sure you are tagging what is relevant to your fic. AO3 doesn't run on an algorithm, so the way people find your fics is primarily through searches. There is an excellent post on tumblr somewhere that discusses how to accurately tag your work, and I highly suggest starting there! (Post here) Also when tagging, I would suggest considering what YOU would search if you were looking for a fic like this. Quite often, I've found that the tag I was looking for isn't on AO3 yet. Don't be afraid to type in the specific trope or AU you are writing. Look at other tags to get a feel for the structure of the tag, but other than that, have fun.

Also, it may seem counterintuitive, but don't over-tag, by which I mean tagging a bunch of tropes or characters or ships that aren't in your story. It's a fast way to have people disregard your fic instantly, or even mute your name on AO3. Especially in smaller fandoms, I totally get the desire to tag a bigger ship, but it just makes more trouble for you in the long run.

Similarly, on tumblr, keep tags tight. I tend to only tag ship, character (name and superhero name), show/ movie, franchise, and the challenge I'm answering if I am. I know other people tag the actors of the characters. I don't because I know when I go into an actor's tag, I don't want to see fic (of their characters or them either) but that's entirely up to you. But don't tag characters or shows etc that have nothing to do with your fic. This is just courtesy in fandom spaces.

Cross-posting: I admit, I can be kind of bad about cross-posting, but I do find that it helps drive engagement when I do buckle down and get it done. Cross-posting is publishing or promoting a fic on multiple platforms. For instance, I use AO3 AND tumblr. On tumblr fic posts,I link to the AO3 (if there is one, I'm pretty bad about publishing shorter things on here only) And when I publish the fic on AO3, I'm supposed to be linking back to my tumblr. This helps more people see your fic and it grows your community when people are able to follow you on various platforms and spread your fic and kudos around. If you have fan accounts elsewhere and you're comfortable with it, feel free to promote there as well. Also check any discord or group servers you may be on for rules about promoting or channels meant exactly for that.

Self-promoting: this is pretty similar to the above. Because AO3 doesn't have an algorithm, it's kind of up to you to keep interest alive in your fics, especially if you want eyes on it for the first several days afterwards. I know it feels embarrassing to reblog your own fic posts all the time, but it's impossible to tell who may have seen or not seen that you posted a new fic. I don't have any set times for this, personally. I try to catch what I consider active times on tumblr, but that's entirely subjective. It's just trial and error, really. Secondly, don't be embarrassed to recommend your own fics (I'm kind of bad at this) If someone is looking for recs on a specific trope or AU and you know you have just the fic, tell them! Unfortunately, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader when it comes to your own art because no one knows and loves it as much as you do. It feels awkward and I know I get embarrassed if people aren't reccing my fics on their own, but you really are your biggest advocate. Fandom is kind of a popularity contest sometimes 🤷‍♀️ Hype your own self up

2: Now that the technical stuff is done, let's move on to the community aspect of fic posting. (This is not really what you asked for, but i think it's more important sometimes than the actual tags and AO3 procedures) Curating a community and making friends is HUGE as far as readership goes. Especially in smaller fandoms (I assume this is about Sambucky fics/fandom) community is everything. Being a name people recognize and trust is important to regular readership.

Building community: don't be afraid to interact with other writers on this platform or others! The Sambucky fandom has this delightful habit of playfully creating headcanons and ficlets based off of text posts. The Daily Sambucky Fluff Diary project is so much fun and so interactive. I have honestly never been in such a fun, supportive group as the sambucky writers on tumblr. I highly suggest playing in this sandbox and getting familiar with other writers. We hype each other up all the time.

Understanding the rules of play: this is kind of an addendum, but the sambucky fandom is rightfully protective over Sam and his portrayal in fics, as well as Bucky. Reading fics, community interaction posts, and even the rules laid out in various challenges (like the bingos that are hosted at various times) will really help you get a sense of how to respectfully tell stories with Sam and Bucky without being racist, ableist, or disregarding to these characters. Quite often Sam (and Bucky, and especially Sambucky) is only there to prop up other characters. This is something the fandom will (again, rightfully) push back on and avoid. I highly suggest looking at the rules that are laid out in the Sambucky Library's bingo rounds to get an idea of the sandbox rules.

Engagement: the sambucky fandom is small, so we don't really have big organized events like Bangs or Reverse Bangs. However, we do have lots of fun, smaller challenges, namely the bingos! There is also Samtember, the Anniversary Challenge (I don't think that's what we called it) and various prompt week challenges, including an AU week (and we like birthdays here). I highly suggest following @ sambuckylibrary to keep apprised of challenges and prompts. Filling out these prompts when you can and want is a great way to break into the fandom and get engagement with your fics. They are all very low stakes and the reward is new fics, friends, and interaction!

I would also suggest joining a discord server, if that is something you're interested in. (I personally am not in any, but that's because I don't like making new accounts on things, not because I don't want to be part of the fun) This is a great place to interact with other fans, promote your fics, get new recs, and generally reap the fun of fandom in a more condensed space, rather than the entirety of AO3 or tumblr.

One last thing to keep in mind: you've already pointed out that fan fic/art/engagement is decreased in our fandom. This will be reflected in your hits/kudos/comments, especially if you're coming from a bigger fandom. Don't let this discourage you. In fact, I really suggest not looking at stats as much as possible. The wealth of engagement in this fandom will be seen in your relationships and interactions with other fans, not in skyrocketing numbers. Allegedly, Cap4 and Thunderbolts come out in 2025 and our guys look to have an episode in the next season of What-If, but without new content, interest will lag and numerical engagement with it. Just keep this in mind as you begin/ continue your journey into the fandom.

That's a lot of words to say: tag properly, make friends, and have fun ❤️🤍💙❤️🩶🖤🪽🐺

#sambucky #writing #i answer things

[cebwrites]

Curious about your take on NSFW Law headcanons. Is there any link you see him be more into to it?

i'm assuming you meant kink there, and in that case absolutely! i'm working on a larger nsfw alphabet thing for law, but no harm in airing just his kinks out for the moment~ also throwing in some bartolomeo ones just for you, "anon" ;]

Kink HCs (Law, Bartolomeo)

gn reader, nsfw under the cut [kinks include: choking, orgasm control, dirty talk, bondage/shibari, mild pain, mentions of electro-stim, throat fucking, tummy bulges, mirror sex, anal, collars] words: 0.8k

Law

Choking - Law wants a partner who can give as well as they can take, while he's understanding that not everyone would be comfortable with this, he'd prefer it if you could put your hands around his neck every now and again. It doesn't have to be both, just one is fine, but he likes the pressure. He would absolutely NOT be willing to do this with someone who he doesn't have a longstanding established relationship with, though. He will, however, continue to be a brat and praise and/or dirty talk you the whole way through it, depending on how he's feeling.

Orgasm Control - driving his partner to the very brink of ecstasy before pulling back without warning or actively preventing them from reaching it does wonders for his own flaming desire - to watch you beg him for proper release at his order or commanding you to speak properly when asking for permission to finish in you fills the stuff of his wet dreams.

Dirty Talk - unsurprisingly, the smug captain likes to tease his partner, and dirty talk is the best way to do it; especially if you're riding him in any capacity, and Law has full view of whatever the sweet expression you're making. Telling you how well you take him, kissing little comments about how you drive him up the wall as he makes his way between your legs, quietly whispering into your ear about all the things he'd like to do to you if you weren't in public, even, etc - drives him mad.

Bondage - the act of binding a partner with patterns as intricate as shibari or simply trapping their hands over their head against the bed frame with silk is incredibly intimate and not something, again, Law would do with someone he isn't extremely close with. It takes a lot of coaxing and patience, but eventually Law agrees to let you tie him up, too. He doesn't give up that power easily but when he does it's because he trusts you wholly and truly. He'd like to include Kikoku every now and again especially with more intricate styles, the sight of you bound and blindfolded against his sword makes for a pretty picture - Law looks at rope marks after the fact, either on himself or you, fondly; with a knowing smirk.

(additionally, Law is into a nominal amounts of pain but not in excess - a little bit of candle wax, biting, pinching, maybe even some electro-stimulation, but not much more than that)

Bartolomeo

Throat Fucking - his go-to method of relief before an established relationship, if not just jacking off, but if you're ready and willing then who is he to deny such a gift. He's got a hand in your hair and ruts like a dog in heat into your mouth, sometimes he'll have both hands on your head too, for better grip. Barto's loud, he's messy, and he's singing your name to the highest heaven when he empties his load down your throat; the man is on cloud nine. Unfortunately not very thoughtful during these sessions, his instinct is to simply zip up and get on with the rest of his day like he previously would, but he can work on that for you.

Bulge - Bartolomeo's a big man at 7'2 and he's definitely... proportional, to say the least. He loves seeing your tummy stretch and conform to his shape when he's fully sheathed, running his hands over the bump as he and it moves with a huge doofy little grin. (He’s more than happy to look over your shoulder in his lap while he watches the little guy go, but actually being able to see the bulge plus your expressions being reflected in a mirror? God, he might just nut on impact. 6/10 this will make Bartolomeo go at least twice as hard but he might bust just as quickly.)

Anal, giving and receiving - he’s a simple guy with simple needs, you help him and he helps you, no? Bartolomeo’s more than willing to plow your brains into next Tuesday so long as you’d be down to do the same to him. Of course, both of your pleasure (but more importantly yours, to him) is of utmost importance, so he’s lubing the hell out of anything that’s going in anywhere, with LOTS of prep, adjustment time, and a bucket load of praise for agreeing to his (honestly bare minimum) desires in the first place.

Collars - being desired enough to be owned, to want to lay their claim on him visually for others to know and see? Absolutely. Bartolomeo would eagerly get a tattoo of your name across his ass since in his mind it's the same for all intents and purposes, but if you're not that extreme, collars are a nice compromise. Specifically collars outside of the bedroom (although he's definitely wearing them for you during the act too), where Barto can proudly tell whichever unwilling soul who didn't ask about his loving, benevolent, wonderous partner who bestowed such a fantastic gift upon him. Whenever he hears the tag on the collar clink, he's reminded of you and his ears perk up like a good little puppy <3

#cebafterdark #one piece #one piece imagine #bartolomeo one piece #one piece smut #trafalgar law #trafalgar d law x reader #trafalgar d water law #trafalgar one piece #trafalgardwaterlaw #law x you #law x reader #law x y/n #bartolomeo x reader #bartolomeo #bartolomeo x you #op bartolomeo #smut #trafalgar law headcanons #smut headcanons

[theographos]

They all became what everyone said they couldn't be. All except Toby that is...

Once again i'm sharing my Trollhunter propaganda onto my loved ones, and by that I mean trapping them in the same room as me and forcing them to watch the show. (with consent) And this time, it's my bestie who has to go through that. And as I rewatch the show, I think about what I see and compare it to the rest of the franchise.

Jim, despite everyone and himself telling him he couldn't, became the Trollhunter in his very own way.

Claire, despite Morgana saying otherwise, became the new owner of the Shadowstaff in her very own way.

Blinky, despite Vendell and overall the whole Troll market telling him otherwise, became the mentor of a brilliant Trollhunter in his very own way.

AAARRRGGHH!!!, despite the Gumms Gumms and Queen Ursuna saying otherwise, became a fighter for the right cause and left his role as Gunmar's spawn for good. Or in other words, he learned how to be a fighter in his very own way

Toby, despite the plot telling him otherwise, became a hero fitting the common standards of heroism in medias and a hero fitting the Tales of Arcadia's standards.

But wait... Toby's character development doesn't really make sense with the rest of the main characters now, does it ?

No it has nothing to do with the fact that Toby is a "fleshbag"

So I already discussed on how the screenwriters could have given a more interesting role for Toby in another post, but I didn't deeply explained why in terms of storytelling.

First and foremost, no I do not think that Tobias would have been better if he wasn't a human, this post is more because I believe that Aliens and Toby lack "plot important" features (except for the movie) (waiting a whole franchise to give that kind of feature to a character or an important specie in your story isn't something we should acclaim). So I thought of ways to kill one bird with two stone, and give plot-interesting features to both the race and the character. Plus I think it's more interesting to think of solutions that fits the already established universe, and then think of solutions that fits my way of writing stories.

Second of all, yes the human bestfriend of a character can be wonderfully done, like in Teen Wolf for example. From the start we meet Scott McCall, the main character, and his bestfriend Stiles Stilinski. Throughout the whole show they are exposed to supernatural phenomenon, the entirety of the cast becomes linked to the supernatural world either by being hunters or by being a supernatural being. Everyone except Stiles.

And despite being human and a comic relief character, he is relevant to the plot. He is the "detective" of the group, he is always the one noticing strange things and finding a solution to the current threat they're dealing with. He is also incredibly funny, voluntarily or not, and the screenwriters take their sweet times showing how hard the plot is taking a toll on the characters through Stiles. Which means we see him having panic attacks, doubts, nightmares, etc.

And guess what ? He is the fan's favorite character ! In the last season, when Stiles's actor couldn't be more present due to an injury, it showed. You could feel the lack of Stiles in most the scenes, and the bestest parts were the scenes in which he appeared, also because they came up with an excuse to explain why Stiles isn't as much present as before.

But that excuse is so well done that when you see Stiles again, you're not only relieved to see him well, but also very interested because suddenly the plot drives forward so quickly. If you take away Stiles, the plot isn't going anywhere (because he was the one investigating most of the supernatural threats), and even the serie isn't that interesting anymore : it's less funny, less human and even.

Heck, the plot wouldn't even exist without Stiles ! In the beginning of the show Stiles takes the main character in the woods because they're looking for a dead body (dumb teenager idea)(his dad is the sheriff so it's not that weird). And in those woods, the main character ends up lost, gets bitten by a werewolf and the story starts.

So yes, a human bestfriend can be interesting in the story in an emotional point of view, he can be relevant to the plot and have an interesting dynamic within the main group.

Dreamworks isn't good with "bestfriend" characters

Trollhunters is in many ways similar to How to Train your Dragon. While Hiccup is trying to protect dragons following his own morals even if they differs from the rest of his village, Jim is trying to protect trolls following his own morals even if differs with the rules of Trollhunting. Of course both franchise have their own identity, and not everything is similar to the other. But they do share the fact that they're both animated by Dreamworks.

Yet I see one major problem that the HTTYD franchise had who's also present in ToA : The bestfriend character has nothing more than a "helping hand" kind of role. Astrid is interesting and has plot relevance, just like Claire, but they're more the love interest kind of person. Stoik, Valka and sometimes Gobber have plot relevance as Hiccup's parent figures and/or mentor, kind of like Blinky, Strickler and Barbara. I think I could compare AAARRRGGHH!!! with the dragons in some way. He has a link with the main bad guys of the show, just like the dragons (dragons and dragon hunters) he has that loveable side like the dragons and big fighting skills like them. (I'm not saying that AAARRRGGHH!!! is similar to an animal, i'm saying that his role plot-wise is similar in some ways to the role of the dragons in HTTYD)

But when we take a look at Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Fishlegs, even if they have distinctive character traits from one another and some sort of character development in some episodes of the shows, in terms of plot their role are basically "well the main character cannot do everything on his own, plus we need humor". Some episodes are based around them, just like for Toby, but no villains are directly linked to them, no plot points are directly linked to them. They're only in the plot because they are the friends of the one who's relevant to the story, whether it's the dragons, Hiccup or the rest of the Trollhunter team.

Toby, just like Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Fishlegs is a supporting character. Yes he has helped a lot but more because they needed a third hand more than because they needed his specific competences. And no Warhammer isn't what I can call a competence, since Jim's status as a trollhunter works with and without his weapon, and Claire's shadow magic has been awaken by the shadowstaff and even when it ends up being broken into pieces, she is still relevant without her weapon.

Warhammer was something that Toby wanted a lot, couldn't use, so they put a curse on it to kill two bird with one stone. The biggest competence that he had so far in Trollhunter was his dental problems. Without that, they wouldn't have meet Gladys the changeling or they wouldn't have found the Janus order. Because the rest of the time it's just luck. Luck isn't a competence, it's literally just luck.

In terms of a fighting team, Toby doesn't have a distinctive role.

Jim is the front fighter. He is the one that is going to go straight to the enemy.

Claire is the mage, even if she knows how to fight, her main feature in combat scenes is her magic.

AAARRRGGHH!!! is a tank. He is strong and big, and is able to take on bigger enemies and take a lot of damage upon him.

Blinky is a councellor, he might not be the best at fighting but he will be able to come up with a strategy based off his knowledge as an historian, and also serve as some sort of therapist and moral compass, giving back faith and the will to fight to his comrades.

I have a hard time understanding Toby's role is this team (combat-wise) other than "the helping hand". The moral compass is already occupied by Blinky, he is hardly a tank since AAARRRGGHH!!! can take upon the offensive and defensive aspects of that role. He cannot be the "troll-nerd" one who knows everything about troll culture since Claire and Blinky already take upon that role. The best I could come up with is either the one who deals with humans, even if when it happens it's always more or less accidental and he is not comfortable in those situations (or not good, like when they had to exchange the formula with Vendell's staff), or again a helping hand, a sort of plus one in case there are a lot of ennemies or everyone else has a task and that problem must be taken care of right now.

That's why I proposed that he could be a healer. Not a very good one, since that would just make the team invicible (most of the times their difficulty comes from injuries or being tired, if you have a character that can fully help those problems there is not a lot of hardships).

Truthfully I have a hard time thinking of an actual role he could have within the team. Because being the "plus one" is already the role of the Creepslayerz.

It has to fit with the serie's message

Like I said in the introduction a recurring theme for the main characters is that people around them do not believe they are fit to become what they're supposed to be or what they want to be. A some sort "against all odds they managed to become [insert role]" if you'd like.

As I have established before Tobias is more of a "helping hand" kind of role, and no one has ever kept Toby from being a helping hand other than him. (Meanwhile every other main characters in Trollhunters doubt themselves because of everyone telling them to do so.)

The only thing he has been kept from doing by other characters (especially the villain) is to be the hero. He is only a human with nothing else, he can help but he can't make a difference on his own. But if we continue to follow the story's theme, he would need to become a hero in his very own way. To claim that title and to use it in a way that is most definetly his, whether with his own competence or his own moral compass.

Toby doesn't have that, since he became trollhunter after Jim, after Jim proved that humans can be trollhunters. He would only be repeating Jim's story with some differences, but the struggles would be the exact same. Meanwhile Claire is having her very own difficulty because she has her very own role as a hero. Her struggles are similar, but not completely the same.

See, when I talked about alien!toby it was because it was easy to tell yourself that aliens might not recognize Toby as one of their own, which could create some sort of "you want to be like us but you'll never be, you're just a human/too bad at it". It's also easy to imagine Toby having trouble with that part of him, either physically or mentally. After all he always thought he was a human, learning that you're part alien is a whole pre-written identity crisis.

And yes even his sacrifice at the end of RotT doesn't really fit the story's themes. Yes Toby saved the world in his own way, but what I don't like about it is the fact that he is considered a hero because he sacrificed himself.

He is not a hero because of who he is, he is a hero because of what he has lost. This is a one time kind of heroism, because as you might guess you do not come back from the dead every so often. I am not saying that he shouldn't have sacrificed himself, i'm saying that every main character became a hero before trying to sacrifice themselves. You saw a big part of their competences before that, but like I said Toby doesn't have particular competences in the show.

It still fits the theme "don't think, become" of the show, but if we look on the plot from afar it means that Jim had to fight to become a hero, Claire had to fight to become a hero, same for AAARRRGGHH!!!, Blinky had to lead to become a hero and Toby had to die.

This is quite a horrible thought don't you think ? That the only way for one of the main character to be fully recognized as a hero in the plot is to die. It worked in some shows, especially for morally grey characters, but throughout this whole post I showed you how Toby had nothing meaningful given to him, and the only thing he always had was ripped from him.

This is not something carefully planned, it's just that they did not cared.

Nothing in the whole franchise justify the tragedy that is Tobias's character arc. Changelings became heroes, Gumm gumms can be heroes, humans too, except for Toby.

Toby is left with crumbs. No magical ancient weapon, just a warhammer that doesn't even have a story worth mentionning in the show. No cool and original duty, just the one that his bestfriend had and who decided to give it to him to make him happy. A big act of heroism, that only Jim will ever remember because this happened in another timeline.

His role as trollhunter, his warhammer, his role as "protector of arcadia" at the end of Trollhunters, even his dynamic in the group is merely a pat on the head in hopes that it will make him shut up and comply. And while some characters are beautiful tragedies, Tobias is not an intentional one. If it was one, you would have seen it coming. If it truly was meant to be a tragedy, the writers would have dropped signs, they would have portrayed it in a particular way.

Even if they lacked time in the later seasons of Trollhunters and Wizards, they had time in 3Below. They had 2 seasons to give anything to Toby, whether tragical or magical.

But they didn't, so nothing shows that they intentionally did it. I even think that they did realize what they had done at some point, and their only way to arrange things was to make him die so that he could finally be a hero.

A hero that only one character will ever remember in the show, because they couldn't even give him that glory, it had to be reaped away from him in one way or another. Because at the end of RotT, in terms of timeline, it never happened, or at least it didn't happen yet.

In conclusion to all of that, I will repeat what I have said a thousand times in this post : Toby wasn't done justice with this movie. He didn't have the ending he deserved, and his story arc in my opinion isn't really a story arc. It's more like him complying and shutting up about his situation because he was given something that looks shiny, but holds no real importance nor deep meaning (or some twisted meaning).

The writers did not want to include Toby in the plot for most of the franchise, and when they did it was in the only way they knew of : something that looks shiny and cool but is in reality just a way to shut everyone up and move on.

#Not so much of a fun ending for that one #Trying to fix things doesn't erase those said things #if you want a human character in a fantastic story #3below tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia wizards #wizards tales of arcadia #trollhunters tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia #rise of the titans critical #tales of arcadia : rise of the titans #rise of the titans tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia rise of the titans #rise of the titans #toby domzalski #toby domzalski critical #tales of arcadia critical