#it's still readable so I'm not complaining tbh

[raayllum]

Opinion about the first episode of season 4?

My first watch it did feel a little clunky, but I think that's also bc 1) as a super fan I'd seen all the clips released already and 2) had read the SDCC twitter thread, so nothing about the episode was a surprise in terms of like, scene by scene stuff. 4x01 in particular hinges on two mis-directs where what we think may be conflict (Sunfire ambush, 'plot against the king'") only for them to both be happier things. Which is why I think Callum's plotline ending badly (aka sadly) is important because otherwise it's too much of a positive note.

AKA I've watched the episode 3 times since and it 100% worked for me (which is also how it worked for S3 feeling a little fast the first time I saw it, but I was also hyped up on so much adrenaline and very little sleep and - shockingly - that makes a difference, I know). I've seen people complain about the tone but I think people tend to have nostalgia perfection goggles on for things they love and compared TDP to (largely ATLA, which had "Zuko angrily visiting Iroh in prison" and "Aang throwing a secret dance party" intercut immediately with one another) and it's like - TDP has always done a very good job at balancing its tone, same as ATLA, but it does feel hypocritical to watch fans of both not realize what they're "excusing" just cause they're used to it vs being hard on TDP.

This goes for TDP too since besides 1x01, this is probably the most packed premiere episode we've had. 2x01 was very exposition heavy when it came to magic and not much else actually happened in it, and like... 3 things happen in 3x01 and the most important stuff is all near the end of the episode, basically? So while 4x01 is absolutely doing the heavy work of catching us up and doing set up for the season, I think it does that difficult job as well as it reasonably can, tbh. Again: I don't mind people complaining, but the complaints gotta be grounded in merit, y'know? (That said: soft blocking people with negativity in the tags because I'm not about that with this show and never will be).

I have also been tickled pink by all the more casual reviewers / watchers who was surprised at Callum's behaviour with Soren and his lack of patience for bullshit now, since not only is it exactly how I thought he'd be post-timeskip and TTM, I thought it was exactly how he'd behave post-a speculative timeskip back in January 2020 with excerpts like this from "If Time Is Money" - so fucking satisfying, man:

She could perfectly picture the haughty look on Runaan’s face as he said, in a rather bored voice, as though whatever conversation that was about to be had was pointless. Runaan wasn’t necessarily a proud individual, but he had little patience for what he deemed illusions of youth or other perceived wastes of time. “Listen, boy—” “No, you listen,” Callum said, fair more sternly. Sterner than Tiadrin would have thought possible, given the softness he generally carried. “We’re never going to like each other, for obvious reasons. I think I have a far better one, as yours is based in prejudice, and mine is based on the fact you literally murdered my father, but that’s not the point. The point is that while I don’t care what you say about me, as I’ve heard far worse from other elves like you, Rayla does and you are still her father and she deserves to have you in her life and to have a good relationship with you. So when she’s not around, you can say whatever you want, even to my face. I don’t care and I don’t plan on rising to it anyway. But when she is around, you keep that shit to yourself, because it’s only going to upset her, and she’s been through more than enough.” Runaan’s face was stiff and barely readable, when Tiadrin stole a look. It was only because she knew him so well that she could tell he was at least a little gobsmacked, and so, quite frankly, was she.  The prince’s tone left no room for debate, as she carefully watched Runaan try and scrounge up anything to say at all. 

Adored all the Viren and Callum parallels since I've also thought since S2 that S4 would ramp it up majorly and it's super gratifying / interesting / exciting to watch that come to fruition. I also loved the Janaya proposal and thought it was super sweet. I gotta adjust to some of the small animation changes (I think possibly character / face silhouette line work and being even more fluid than before) but I love the flexing, updated character designs, and all the little microexpressions.

I'm so pumped for the rest of the season, it's going to be unreal (and just like, 2.5 days away now)!

#thanks for asking #reviews #mine #lmao #s4 #4x01 #fandom nonsense #ever so slightly #darkwolfgoddess #and listen i have my own biases #i think 1x07's highlight as an episode besides human rayla is the scene where callum and ezran #are sitting around looking cute as hell with lil cups in their hands #this is My show and i'm gonna appreciate it as such #s4 spoilers #tdp #tdp spoilers #the dragon prince #fic: if time is money #characterization

[tonyglowheart]

I was wondering if you knew if an English translation of the novel (on which The Untamed is based) exists and where one could find such a translation?

Hello anon! There is, exactly one (1) full EN translation of the novel The Untamed (Chen Qing Ling) is based on. The original is called Mo Dao Zu Shi, which the novel fan translator has translated as “Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” (I think the donghua/animated cartoon’s official EN translation is Founder of Diabolism? Which is also... kind of eh for me lol. This is something I’ve talked about with a friend, we’re still trying to wrangle out a translation we’re both happy with rip).

Here’s the link: https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/novels/grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation/

Note: I thiiink I remember the scanlator adding trigger warnings to chapters? so watch for that. The novel (and many of the other adaptations) has a lot more horror elements than CQL added, for one thing, and for another, canon WangXian are kinky lil bruhs so yeah lol. I at first found the explicit stuff not really to my taste, but like (a) I’ve come to terms with it more now and honestly, good for them ig lol, (b) honestly I also think it’s partly because I personally struggle with their translation in general. I think... honestly, the translation level isn’t quite where I’d ideally want it to be.. but I mean I guess ofc it’s easy for me to say that since I’m not the one doing the translating work :’). (I have it in my mind that I want to one day go through and do a revision/translation on my own, but like that’s a huge undertaking and CN isn’t easy to translate to EN anyway :’) so mostly I just make posts about CQL since that’s... easier to break down :’) one day...)

#like... I'm not trying to trash-talk the translators bc honestly kudos to them #translating is a huge undertaking #but tbh I find the translation level a bit... lower than what I'd want it to be at #and I think that's part of the reason I struggled with it in terms of readability #but I mean yeah yeah it's easy for me to complain since I wasn't the one translating it :') #but I think it's just I've read other TL's of MXTX works now and I think there is a gap in EN/tl sophistication between those and ExR's MDZ #and that...frustrates me a bit lol bc my Chinese reading is SO slow so I can't just read the CN #it's super interesting to me bc ppl I know who've read the originals I think often say MDZS has the strongest writing out of the three mxtx #but like... tbh I wouldn't be able to tell that from the existing tl :') #mmmmm here I go skirting the line of fandom etiquette rip :') #AGAIN: I'M NOT HATING ON THE TRANSLATOR D8 kudos to them still!!! #but also I'm like. :/ re: the language sophistication :') #Anonymous #asks answered

[linthm]

hi I'm asking because I'm curious tbh, what do you do differently with your themes that makes them more accessible? what makes a theme accessible in general?

generally i just adopt a common sense approach to what i make, like... i test my themes on actual blogs before releasing them so if i think certain design choices detract from navigability then i nix them right there. it sorta depends on the theme and the look i’m going for? but i do have a list of things i stick to at all times

things like colors (all colors imo, but at least the text-related ones) should be customizable. you don’t know that your default color choices look good or soothing to other people.

(dark text on light bg is considered most readable as a standard practice, but the rising prevalence of dark modes in apps shows that a lot of people prefer the opposite. but, again, not all - discord removing their light theme as an april fool’s joke screwed over a lot of people who needed the light theme for readability reasons)

fonts and font sizes should be customizable. i can’t stress this enough. literally 50% of what i’m complaining about when i say that a lot of themes are inaccessible is that they use some godforsaken 8 pt pixel font - impossible to read, and can’t be changed without going into the actual HTML, which not everyone is comfortable with or can navigate

the posts themselves should be formatted with care because tumblr’s default styling for blockquotes and such is just... horrible. i hate super narrow post widths for tumblr themes because if the blockquotes aren’t styled a certain way then even a post with like, 4-5 comments on it will bunch up until there’s just one letter on each line. it’s ridiculous. the unnested captions people prefer these days do a better job, but the documentation for that on the official tumblr variables page is still really shoddy and it’s clear they don’t intend for theme makers to be able to properly use them so. honestly using this website is a daily battle

infinite scroll is bad like... it’s just really bad and i hate how many themes have it. i know it exists on all social media feeds because you’re going to waste a lot more time scrolling down an endless feed than if you had to switch pages at intervals. predatory design that cares more about #engagement than anything else is depressingly prevalent. but just from an archiving standpoint, if someone is going down your blog looking for content, then infinite scroll makes it a nightmare to remember where you left off - and bad code can result in it just murdering your browser if you go deep enough

images in photo posts and such should have alt-text fields so screen readers can describe them if they’re captioned

on that note, a lot of newer HTML5 tags are designed to play nice with assistive tech and browsers as a whole, so using proper “figure” “figcaption” “article” “nav” etc tags is important for reasons other than divitis looking bad

flashing images/graphics/colors/text in a theme are all bad, both because they can cause seizures and because they distract from content. i have fading/blinking effects in some of my themes, but i keep the transitions slow and allow for the animation to be disabled (both thru customization options and as a javascript toggle for visitors)

tiny cursors are a blight and i don’t know who came up with them but they suck in particular

all iconified navigation (such as when you have a house icon to signify “go back to the index page”) should have tooltips that say what they do in plain text. iconography is not universally intuitive and there’s a lot of context we tend to take for granted

there’s probably other stuff tbh like. this is just off the top of my head and it’s by no means comprehensive or even like... high-effort? there’s a lot more that could be done if specializing accessibility features for specific disabilities (legally blind people have different needs than sighted people who can’t read small text, for starters) but this is just a For General Audiences kind of deal

#tuts #anon #asks

[haikyuu-imagines-and-others]

Okay, so obviously Haikyuu is not real/a Manga, but isn't it our aim as a writer to depict headcanons/scenarios as real/relatable as possible? The Haikyuu universe isn't very far off reality too (meaning, the universe is pretty close to real life, unlike one piece for example). I love your writing too, and I'm not complaining about anything being "fantasy", I'm just wondering if that makes it wrong to point out things like that and to suggest to make it a little more realistic? :o

Well… my aim as a writer is to make Haikyuu ( a fictional thing ) seem not so fictional…. BUT you all have to continue to remember

1. These are high school boys - how they’re portrayed through Tumblr makes them see much older. There is not a single high school boy I’ve met that has got their shit together as everyone makes Kuroo/Daichi/Iwaizumi seem lol It’s just by growth milestone standards pretty much improbable

2. They are not experienced at ALL - Hinata, Kageyama, Tsukki (EVERYONE’S FAV), Yams, Lev, Inuoka, and a couple more… they’re all young boys! like… 15? Maybe 16? So the idea of these boys being good at sex (aka Tsukki specifically) is honestly kind of “improbable” to think about… bc they’re Young Boys - and each has a different head canon of mine of when they’d lose their virginity let alone be any type of “Experienced” at sex

Sidenote: I know the manga first started in 2012… Meaning even if they were 15 at first creation they’d be 21 now… that’s fine and dandy… but your requests are for specific scenes/plots where they may or may not be 15-21+

3. Dicks in Fiction are much bigger than dicks in real life - Not every man is going to have a huge dick…. Especially still growing boys! And dick sizes varies in every single region (sometimes stereotypes DO surprise you)… But our audience doesn’t want that. they want big monstrous, anatomically incorrect dicks to fill them lol … as I writer, I write to please my readers.. not be super correct on every little thing I do - if they wanna get torn apart by a beast (which I don’t write about btw don’t ask me to lol gross) then who am I to say “THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!” like a few anons have told me about the many sessions of sex I write about??

4. I am inexperienced - I have not had sex. I’ve not given head or received. Nor do I have a particular need to feel that. Honestly, the idea of anyone having sex with me is gross. Nasty, no thanks. But! I do watch my fair share of porn lol I still have that part of me… That being said - I do not know what everything that I write about feels like! so if my writing seems super dramatic, or super underplayed… it’s bc I don’t know what it feels like in the least…

Tbh at this point I think I’m mostly an unfeeling robot lol so yeah ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Overall.. My writing serves 2 purposes.. one more than the other really…

To make ME happy - a creative outlet I’ve chosen due to my love for the anime/manga

and to make YOU all happy - a creative way to read your fantasies come to readable life

Sadly, my writing doesn’t always make everyone who reads it happy!

For example! I liked the Noya/Reader/Enno piece I posted this past week! I think it came out pretty nice! Sure, there are a few flaws, and sure I’m sure it doesn’t make sense in some places - but I like it. It made me happy to write it and post it… That’s the dissonance between reader and writers preferences.

and that’s FINE. I’m okay with that, honestly!! I know not everyone is going to like my young, virgin fingers typing out their lewd, kinky, specific fantasies! And that’s their choice and I respect it!

But to say some things are impossible because of xx…. doesn’t make sense… Just tell me why you think it’s impossible, and we can chat about it or we can come to an agreement/disagreement! But don’t immediately brush it off as “Impossible”….

That’s just childish… 

Okay! I’m done with that rant lol… I feel like I may have gone overboard and I may or may not get some backlash for saying all this… but I feel like I needed to say it… or at least most of it… 

TL;DR: My writing is mainly about self fulfillment and secondly about quality/accuracy :)

Overall, I really thank you, anon, for allowing me to think about this on a deeper level than was probably necessary lol 

I’m sure Aachan may have a few things to say, as well, but that’s up to her if she wants to reblog and give her own input!!! I’m all for it though lol I’d love to hear her thoughts, as well!

Anyway! Thanks for poking my brain today, love! No hard feelings whatsoever! Hope you have a wonderful day!

-Admin Satori

#chitty chitty chat chat #my thoughts #admin talks #I have so much more to say too #some kind of rude #and some kind of stereotypical #but mostly correct #and if you feel like I'm wrong #I'd love to hear your thoughts #I'd love to read your comments #I'd love to hear anything about what you have to say #because I know #I am human #I make mistakes #and that's okay #that's life #thats fine #but the only way for me to learn is for someone to tell me I'm wrong #and I can't learn that unless someone comes forward #like this anon #they did really well #I'm proud of this anon for asking me this stuff #I appreciate being asked about my opinion #and in a weird way #why I write #this was a fun thinking process at the very least #and at the most it really set my boundaries and thoughts out for you all to see and #well.. #judge if you want lol #I don't really mind