#tl;drs are important y'all

[leonardalphachurch]

Finally, some actual information.

There has been an email sent out to FIRST members and a post on Reddit informing people about how Red vs. Blue: Restoration will be released.

TL;DR: Season 19 will be coming out in 2024. There will be seven episodes, released both as a weekly series exclusively for FIRST members and as a full movie, available for purchase on the same day the first episode comes out. It is not said if/when episodes will be released to the public.

Full transcript under the cut because reading screenshots sucks:

A post on r/roosterteeth by lokigatrt:

We have important news about Red vs. Blue: Restoration!

Hey everyone, Alok from the Marketing team at Rooster Teeth here! I got a couple updates about Red vs. Blue: Restoration for y'all.

Restoration is the Final Season of Red vs. Blue! That’s right, the internet’s longest-running web series is coming to a close after 20 incredible years. We’re holding nothing back! Burnie Burns is back to write the season, with Matt Hullum stepping back into the Director’s chair for the epic conclusion of everyone’s favorite Blood Gulch residents.

While we initially announced Restoration was releasing this Fall, we had to push back the launch to 2024. We’re taking that extra time to make the release as awesome as we can. We’re also excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, which allows us to release Restoration as a feature-length film AND episodic season!

Red vs. Blue: Restoration will be available for purchase digitally as a film, and the season will be released episodically on Rooster Teeth exclusively for FIRST Patrons. The premiere episode will come out the same day as the movie release, and the show will continue to release weekly for a grand total of seven episodes. Red vs. Blue has always been possible because of the support from FIRST. There will be extra benefits to watching for FIRST patrons, like bonus content and behind-the-scenes perspectives of making the final season. For more information about becoming a FIRST Patron, click here.

We couldn’t have made it to 20 years of Red vs. Blue without the incredible support from YOU, our community, so thank you. Red vs. Blue: Restoration is a love letter to the show, its cast of characters, everyone working behind the scenes, and most importantly, the fans who have supported the show for all these years. We cannot overstate how excited we are for everyone to finally see what the team has been working on, and we’re looking forward to sharing this story with you next year.

#rooster teeth #red vs blue #rvb #rvb news

[missingn000]

a note about tpg's hiatus

hi everyone!! i've missed y'all <33 i want to share a quick note on tpg's hiatus, and how long it will last.

first and foremost, the tl;dr: i will not abandon tpg. the story remains incredibly important to me, and this hiatus is only that: a hiatus. i will return eventually, and while i am not exactly sure when "eventually" is, i hope to begin updating again soon.

now the long explanation. tpg's hiatus has lasted much, much longer than i expected. it wasn't until i took a break that i realized how mentally and emotionally drained i was after writing 600k+ in 2 years, along with being an engineering master's student then starting a job in aerospace. especially after writing sukuna's backstory (75k+ words in one month), my brain was utterly fried. all in all, it's been a lot.

as some of you may know, i started watching one piece in september. and i love it! it's an incredibly fun, well-written feel-good series. it's been a refreshing mental break to engage with a new series, especially since jjk canon has been so disappointing in both content and writing quality. 

if you check my ao3, you'll notice i took a break from jjk with other series in the past: namely dr. stone, sxf, and natsume yuujinchou. this is necessary for me to remain creative and explore narrative themes that i bring back to tpg when i return to it. but by the time my recent hiatus started, it had been well over a year since i engaged with any other series than jjk, and it was starting to take its toll on me. i'm almost caught up on one piece now, which means i'll be able to focus on tpg again soon.

when i return from tpg's hiatus, updates may be slower. releasing 15k+ word chapters every 2-4 weeks was incredibly mentally taxing and required much of my time and focus to constantly be on the story. it wasn't healthy, and other areas of my life were impacted negatively. it can be easy to forget that i'm a real person with real-life responsibilities writing this story in my spare time for free -- even i sometimes forgot this. 

another note on why taking a break has been so necessary is my mental health. when season 2 released and toji + satosugu was animated, the fandom exploded and tpg's readership drastically increased. while this meant an influx of amazing love and support, i also started to receive rude and hateful comments and messages.

don't get me wrong: not everyone has to like tpg. that's totally fine! but as a very sensitive person, receiving hate took a huge toll on my mental health and motivation, and i have needed time to recover from it. i've been doing better mentally lately, and have taken some measures to reduce unkind interactions. i'm working on becoming less sensitive in the meantime so i can handle it better if/when it happens again.

since i've been feeling guilty about not posting jjk content, i haven't been on tumblr quite as much, but i'm still around online on both discord and instagram. mutuals can request my priv @chiidoriii on IG, and my discord is @MissingN000 -- just shoot me a message with who you are when you request! i'll still post fic updates on both new stories as well as tpg content and previews on tumblr, so please stick around :)

thank you so much for your patience with me! i love you all so much, and truly appreciate your support. love, chi <333

[snow-lavender]

now that we're a week out from the finale, i'm feeling settled enough to make my sappy post. TL;DR is: fable has been incredibly important to me, and i think it's a story that's important to have out there. to the community and cast, you've made something beautiful and helped me more than you could know.

so here we go-

i started watching fable in the summer of 2022, to kill time in between summer courses (and thank fuck for that, cause my brain desperately needed to have some fun after 5 hours a day of doing psych stats by hand.) i was originally pulled in by vo'lete, as dissecting a conlang is really fun to me. it became basically the only media i consumed, as 2022/2023 was the fourth year of my BA and i was crazy busy. and then the characters pulled me in further with their earnestness and their devotion to redemption and compassion.

i think one of the theses of fable is "people always deserve happiness. doing awful things doesn't erase your ability to change." and i think the simplicity and love of that take hit really close to home. in the era of modern fandom where bad actors try to make everything black and white, it's an important point to make.

i started making shitposts on tumblr, started enaging with stories from an analysis standpoint again, and found a lot of joy in the community here. i don't have the words for what that means to me, so i'll just default to you guys are great <3

then mid-august happened

those of you who frequent rin's streams might have caught bits and pieces of this, but basically, i had a fall and my knee became royally fucked beyond belief. it can only be fixed with a surgery that's not very common. the pain was (and still is) debilitating to the point that i had to drop out of my second degree, and couldn't walk more than like, a block every few days. my life, my dreams, my future all got put on hold. i was in a new city with no supports, no friends, and no way to leave my apartment. fable went from the only media i consumed to the only thing i did, period.

the fandom became the only people i talked to regularly, other than my family, as online relationships were the only ones possible to maintain. in fableblr and in rin's chat i've found people who i really click with, people whose company i enjoy and who enjoy mine. when i was lying in bed, feeling so alone and less than human, having people on the internet go "i know who you are and you are making an impact," quite frankly, kept me sane. i know i don't talk to people super often, but know that seeing you in my notifs brings me so much joy, and i'd love to talk to you more.

to assuage any worries- i'm doing a bit better now. i've moved back in with my parents so i have human contact and people who can make up for the things i can't do. i have a new doctor who is taking the severity of my condition very seriously and is fighting to get me treated asap. i'll be okay.

so yeah. fable has been super important to me, and will remain so! for me it's a story with so much joy and deep feelings and rediscovery of passions and just. fun. it's been so much fun. and i'm not letting go of that fun any time soon. i'm gonna keep making and watching and enjoying.

to sage, corn, and cob- you guys are great, i cherish every time we get to talk. i hope that it's okay that i count you among my friends

to my other mutuals and people who are here frequently- recognizing you in my notes is such a joy and i hope to get to know you better. y'all are cool and i'm glad you think i'm funny

to rin- thank you for nurturing your little community and creating a space where i have so much fun. also thank you for putting up with my constant setting off of automod

to beck- thank you for making a story that explores sisterhood in all its ugliness and beauty, that shows how even families full of love can fuck up, that holds space for loneliness and loss and joy and fear and new beginnings

to the rest of the cast- thank you for making a story with so many varied and yet connected points, characters and world. with so much love in it. you've truly done something special here and its impact will not be forgotten

to all of you- thank you for knowing my name. thank you for breathing life and joy into these stories. i can't wait to see what else we make. <3

#fable smp #just a heads up this does get into slightly venty territory so. yeah.

[casualbluebirdmentality]

Leon's immortality predates the Cup of Life, y'all. he's just Like That

I'm assuming people have probably talked abt this already but if they have, I haven't seen it (i'm relatively new here), so I'm bringing it up myself lol.

(It's important to note here that in the end credits starting from s2e2, Rupert Young has always been referred to as playing Sir Leon, so it is the same character.)

Remember s2e13 The Last Dragonlord, when Arthur asks his knights who among them are willing to ride out with him to fight this big-ass dragon, and Leon is the first to volunteer? And they then show Leon, with Arthur and the others, as they ride out to fight Kilgharrah in that weird-ass square field?

...And then Kilgharrah one-shots literally everyone except for Arthur & Merlin???? And when the two return, they're just like, "yeah all the other knights died valiantly defending the kingdom, very sad" ???????

Personally, I believe this only leaves us with two (2) options:

The writers just straight up Forgot (or maybe ignored) that Leon was one of the knights that died, and just kept writing him in bc he was a well-liked character,

Or,

2. They're therefore implying that, canonically, when Arthur&Merlin got back to Camelot and said that all the knights were dead, they were just straight-up wrong. Which means that Leon had to just... find his own way home, I guess, after having been freshly charbroiled by a fucking dragon.

Merthur: None of the other knights made it, even Leon :(

Leon, covered in burns, wheezing on the ground in that big-ass field: QUIT TELLING PEOPLE I'M DEAD

Merthur: sometimes we can still hear his voice :(

The wiki says that "many believed he'd been killed" when he "was injured by the great dragon," but that "this was ultimately disproven by his return in Series 3"...

...which I believe falls squarely into #2 listed above lmao. He wasn't dead, just injured. They just fucking left him there.

TL;DR: yes, he's immortal, but it's not even from the cup. he's just Built Different

#he needs medical attention Arthur #he's got a million third-degree burns Arthur #even if he were dead why tf would you just Leave His Body In A Field #ARTHUR #Sir Leon #sir leon the long suffering #bbcm #bbc merlin #merlin #arthur pendragon #bbc arthur #...........if it sounds like a lot of this is copied from a specific reddit comment from the merlin subreddit #technically it is but #it's my own comment lol #i was talking abt this w someone there and realized i should just make a post abt it #merlin emrys #merlin bbc #potential prompts casualbluebirdmentality #as in: a one-shot of This Whole-Ass Tomfoolery from leon's pov #oh the stories he could tell

[sadiewayne]

are you more or less likely to like the percy jackson show if you have adhd?

TL;DR at the bottom

this whole idea came about because i was seeing people complain about the pacing of the show and i was so confused because i thought the pacing was perfect and then i thought maybe it's because i have adhd and so of course i would think the pacing was great and so i ran a poll to look at the results and here are those results

important things to note

a) i have adhd (diagnosed)

b) i study a stem degree

ok here we go

short answer

statistically no, but i disagree (i'll get to it)

longer answer

i did a poll comparing if you have adhd and if you like the show, these were the results (and here so you can see how i wanted people to answer)

(yes i voted, my opinion also counts)(and yes, there are flaws in the design but i only had 12 options and this was mainly about adhd)

and idk about you but looking at those numbers i can see a few things

number 1: most people like the show, 87.8% in fact

and if you take out the people that didn't care, it's 92.9% of people who did care aka a lot

quick stats rundown

for everyone with adhd (thats the first 6 options) 3% didn't like the show

for those with other neurodiversities and not adhd, it was 12%

yeah, thats 4 times higher (it works out at a whole 2 people but again, limits of the poll)

ANYWAY, i ran some statistical tests (don't stress, i don't understand them either, i will not be focussing on them)

first, chi squared (compares expected values for each option with the actual values i got)

yeah that number is small, like very small, like 2.8 quintillionths

but i ran it in R and got a very different number

and oh lookie here that's a p-value about 0.05 and so we must accept the null hypothesis (basically that yeah, that's expected)

which makes NO SENSE but whatever, the computer tells me it's that

enough of chi-squared, i also ran a z-test (i googled what to do and apparently this was the right test, idk what it does ngl)

i didn't run this one in R bc i have no idea how to do that

but the p-value is again, about 0.05 and so accept that there is no significant difference

BUT I DISAGREE

ok i don't disagree with the stats but i disagree that there isn't a difference

it doesn't take a genius to see the difference

3% of people with adhd didn't like the show but 12% of other nd's did like-

come on that has to mean something

so i ran a chi squared test on just the adhd data and...

1.9 octillionths

wha-

so did it in R and got a warning saying it probably wasn't accurate (it's probably the 0) so i ran fishers exact test (idk man thats what i was told to run by the internet) and got this...

so errrrrr yeah

apparently the same goes for the adhd data to which i can kind of get but also dont when

0.6% of people didn't like the show and were diagnosed as an adult but 1.2% didn't like the show and were self-diagnosed, with almost the same number of votes (it works out as a 1 person difference)

and no one who was diagnosed as a child disliked it like WHAT?!?!?!

also no neurotypicals disliked it, love y'all for that /gen

idk, i think the sample size is too small to run accurate tests, that or im doing it wrong which is a very high probability

so whilst statistically, the answer is no, i'm seeing a pattern emerge

but i am a scientist so i cannot say yes or no which SUCKS bc i see a pattern and i want to know MORE but tumblr doesn't have a great mechanism for polls so i can't ask all the questions i want to

TL;DR

the stats say there's no significant difference and so i must concur even if i don't want to

the show was amazing and i'm very excited for season 2 for reasons i don't want to spoil for people who haven't read the book (but go read the books they are just as good)

#i had too much fun with this #percy jackson #percy series #percy pjo #percyjackson #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo series #pjo fandom #pjo #pjo tv show #percy jackson show #adhd #neurodivergent #poll #polls #fandom polls #tumblr poll #tumblr polls #stats #poll stats #statistics #fandom #fandom things

[izziessogay]

I know my famed days on this site have passed, but let me explain to y'all who still don't get it:

people aren't being mad about ofmd getting cancelled, because they want their favourite media to go on forever until it turns shit. people are heartbroken. the show depicted queerness in a genuine and real way that didn't focus on straight people or explaining queerness to a straight audience. it might have been confusing to straight viewers, because not everything was spelled out. a feeling that a lot of queers have growing up with straight media. ofmd was important because it showed queer community and feelings that weren't just a simple romance, similar to how real life queer spaces look. showing kids or people who haven't discovered themselves that queerness isn't a lonely life among straights where you'll never be fully understood is incredibly necessary.

lastly it feels especially malicious to cancel this show because it was popular and dearly loved. it wasn't cancelled because it wasn't profitable (which I still don't think is a valid reason to cancel a show), but because it showed a genuineness that made the mainstream uncomfortable. I don't think shows need to last forever, but the creators have clearly expressed that they had more of the story to tell, and to silence that is truly heartbreaking

as a lesbian I've experienced this heartbreak so many times, since the only queer shows that are allowed to last center themselves around (white) gay men in a non queer environment. (and I am genuinely happy for that, it's a big step for medial representation regardless, yet the accurate depiction of the variety that is queerness and queer community seems to be missing most of the times)

tl;dr: queers are grieving our flag means death for very valid reasons and not just because their favourite show ended. be gentle and understanding.

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd s3 #ofmd cancelled #lesbian #gay #bi #trans #nonbinary #ace #queer #lgbtq #our flag means death cancelled

[s0larpuppypunk]

One thing I fucking hate about militant/moralist vegans is that,,,,, y'all never seem to ever talk/care about the fact that a LOT of vegan food is ALSO farmed in really horrible ways that fuck over the environment and displace native ecosystems. Like,,,, meat or no meat, things being plants doesn't immediately make it harmless.

Eating animals isn't inherently evil either, we are a naturally omnivorous species. And I don't think we should use indigenous people as "gotchas", but it's important they're included in these conversations and we acknowledge that, as a species, we've been safely and sustainably feeding off of animals for longer than capitalism has existed. ALSO THERE ARE A LOT OF DISABLED PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT HAVE ILLNESSES THAT CAUSE DIETARY RESTRICTIONS THAT MEAN THEY CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT ANIMAL PRODUCTS, DEMONIZING THEM, TALKING OVER THEM, OR DISMISSING THEM OR CLAIMING "There are alternatives, I know better than you, you're lazy/evil for not doing *insert bullshit*" IS AN ACT OF ECOFASCIST EUGENICS. SHUT TF UP.

TL;DR: It doesn't matter if it's animals or plants, I think we can all agree that industrialized farming, no matter what it is, is pretty fucking awful overall. And ANYTHING can be "vegan" if it's farmed and cultivated ethically. Also, people who's diets are core to their cultures and health/survival do not deserve to be attacked, if y'all do that shit, you don't care about anything. You're just an indoctrinated ecofascist POS.

#Solarpunk #ecology #environmentalism #sustainability #nature #vegan critical #personal farming #disability

[aspecpolls]

I just wanna add something that might be obvious but is going unsaid by many people after the aplphobic ask: It's okay to not have/want friendships and/or any other kind of relationship. There's too much focus on “but a-specs can feel this and/or have this kind of relationship too” and while it's appreciated that y'all know that, it's important to remember that we a-specs don't need to compensate with “at least a-specs can feel/do this”, instead it helps to focus on “it's okay to not feel/do this just like it's okay to feel/do this”. Let's make our community less about compensating for our “lacks” and more about accepting that our feelings, actions and the lack thereof are okay.

(TL;DR: Instead of defending us apl-specs with “But they can have friends”, try “No one is obligated to have friends! It's okay to not want of have friendships and/or platonic relationships! If one does or doesn't, it doesn't change their worth!” which helps much more fight against platonormativity, will include apls independently of where they are in the spectrum and regardless of their relationship-stance, as well as normalize that alloplatonics also are included and don't need to have friends either.)

Absolutely!

#not a poll #asks #anon

[eartheats]

small ooc post!!

//mostly just bc of amy's (@professor-amaryllis) lil soft reboot--a few things interconnected to that on ren's end will be getting some soft rewrites too! i just. do not have the spoons rn to clear out anything non-canon, but some small things

The important one--Ren's last name is Amaryllis! They would introduce themselves with pride with it. Isobe is the name they've discarded.

As a result, they've known Amy since their shut-in phase days. The parent thing has been rewritten to have happened earlier in life for them, and they pridefully call Amy their dad.

Bouton's backstory is. Getting a small rehaul, with this considered. There's personal reasons involved here too I'd rather not get into, but the tl;dr is that Ren adopted him from Amy.

//That should cover it! ty for y'all patience <3

#ooc post #lore update

[sadfruittheatre-rp]

((Good Lord it has been a million billion years since I've been on this account for more than a few seconds, but I've gotten a few stray notifications here and there and I suppose I ought to acknowledge the people that have missed me and the handful of new people that have followed me despite my absence. To my friends, I've missed you guys a ton, and to the new people, thank you for taking interest in my stinky little boy even though I haven't been here to write him!

My disappearance has been for a multitude of reasons. Life has been seriously kicking my ass. Health issues, money issues, interpersonal issues, you name it.

The very last thing has also created a bit of an issue wherein I have had to retcon a whole bunch of things about my OCs because half of the important characters in their lives no longer exist. More info on that and what it means is over here, but I will eventually properly update profiles and such.

Tl;dr tho, What this means for y'all is honestly not much compared to what it means for me. The broad strokes of Bragi's past are still largely the same, it's just a lot of the specifics have changed (and honestly still have yet to be fully specified). His personality is still just as silly and full of hubris as ever, he's a bit less traumatized by life now-- but maybe we can change that--

It's hard to say if I will come back in full, I have been on discord lately and RP there has been way less energy lol. If I do come back here, it will probably be in a more reduced capacity, but I might see about testing the waters a bit and see how I feel.

I do want to pop back in at least a little more though just to check in, I've definitely missed some of y'all 😭

Or if you want to DM me for my discord, I think I would be okay with that, if I know you well enough and haven't given it out already lol))

#out of stickers #((I'm not dead and neither is Bragi-- he just had to go into witness protection for a while I guess lol)) #((I don't know who all might see this at 4:00 a.m. my time but hey-))

[sometimesraven]

for y'all saying Star Beast would've been torn apart if it was a Chibnall era episode: true!

however

Chibnall would never have been brave enough to make the entire plot revolve around being trans (or if he did, it would be shallow and sketched over) and that, I think, is why he was such a stand-out writer in his bad-ness

Doctor Who is cheesy and corny and sometimes downright bad, but the important thing is that it's brave and it's kind and Chibnall barely touched the surface of that.

I'm one of RTD's number 1 critics. I hate some of the shit he's written and I resent what he did with Ten towards the end of his tenure and anyone who knows me knows that I believe End of Time was the single worst regeneration story ever written.

But Chibnall wrote some absolutely unforgivable centrist-ass shit. The most cowardly, 'safe' writing.

And don't get me wrong, it wasn't all his fault! The director also sucked! The actors looked like they had no idea what they were doing half the time! Chibnall's era had no idea what to do with its characters for most of the episodes! RTD has many many flaws but at least his characters feel like people.

IDK I love Thirteen but Chibnall is an objectively bad writer, at least in the Whoniverse. His shitty signature is evident in the Torchwood episodes he wrote, too. I think it ultimately boiled down to love -- the love for DW and everything it stood for just wasn't there in Chibnall's writing compared to RTD and Moffat.

tl;dr Star Beast absolutely had a lot of the flaws people hate in Chibnall's writing, but what objectively sets it apart is the heart and bravery of the message

#dw spoilers #doctor who #chibnall critical #< tagging for people to blacklist #I know what it's like to see untagged hate for someone you love #I'll be tagging RTD critical stuff from now on too #to be fair #i COULD leave it untagged out of spite for the decade y'all did that shit to me with Moffat but i won't #dw

[something-pithy]

Heyo, glittercats and kittens! So chapters 6 and 7 of an echo, a stain are up! And starting this week, I'm going to start including story notes along with the link.

I'm a note writer lol. Part of how I even begin to keep track of all the wildness of writing something longer than a grocery list is to write about it before I start writing it, if that makes sense lol. Character sketches, ideas about why certain things are happening, backstory, setting details, etc.

I'm pretty verbal about my writing process because -- well,  I like writing about writing a lot, and also, I think it improves both the work and how I get there. Anything might end up here -- character sketches, ideas about why certain things are happening, backstory, setting details, etc. I don't really wanna be leaving like eighteen thousand words of notes on every chapter, so here we are!

Sometimes I think they might add some interesting context for readers, sometimes it's information that I think is important but it's too much for the notes section on the story itself, and sometimes it's just so I have a document of my progress for this story. So here are my notes for chapter 7! ---

Chapter 7's title is from "Come to Me" by Bjork, which is definitely one of my Astarion / Tav falling in love themes for when I'm up in these flashbacks, back before Astarion Ascended (and he still had a soul loool).

The notes from previous chapters had promised a Shadowheart & Tav conversation in this chapter. This is not the Shadowheart & Tav chapter I promised, but it is the one that continued to demand to be written until I capitulated. 

And also, honestly, the one that's going to benefit that other chapter that was supposed to be 7 and the story as a whole in the long run, so I hope you like it! 

I was getting really stuck with my original plan, and so I just started writing -- well, this. And the chapter after this. And possibly the one after that. Loooool there is a LOT going on at this point in these kids' lives.

The original plan is still 100% happening, but I think I needed to 

1. explore the foundations of who these people have become (by these people of course I mean Tav and Astarion, but also friendship is magic, so our beautiful OG friendgroup babies) 

2. what the relationships between them look like and 

3. some clues, at least, as to how they got there. 

(tl;dr we're purposefully time-jumping, and I'm having fun with it, so I hope you will, too!)

But never fear, Shadowheart and Tav will of course be chatting when we return to the story's present. And it won't be in just one chapter.

OR

hey y'all, we're gonna be doing some purposeful (and hopefully at least coherently executed) flashing back and jumping forward (or up! or laterally! OR WHATEVER) in/on/around this story's timeline!

Final note, but an important one, on Tav's identity: 

I tried to keep Tav ambiguous for the first few chapters because I know that sometimes a really detailed and specific-looking or backstoried Tav can make people disengage from the story because they don't relate to the identifying details provided. (also, it's me, I'm people, or at least one of the people lol)

But at the end of the day, as soon as I started even thinking about writing a BG3 fic, I started really digging into and developing this Tav, who does reflect the dialogue, action, and relationship choices I've made in my current playthrough of the game with her, yes. But in having spent / continuing to spend some time thinking and writing about who this Tav is.  I'm not going to lay them all out here, but I think when you want to play in a sandbox as fucking ginormous and intricately, infinitesimally detailed as Faerun / The Forgotten Realms / DnD,  a little story/character-relevant contextual frontloading can help readers have as much fun with it as the writer does. 

Also, and I'm just going to say it, Tav is a queer, first-generation Baldurian child of two immigrants. She's the Faerun / Baldur's Gate equivalent of a BIPOC, with parents who were born in places very different both from Baldur's Gate and each other's home cities / kingdoms. Also, she's mixed-heritage elf (sun, moon, sea -- yeah, I'm that guy, come at me bro loooool). All this context is key to who Tav is as a person, as a creator, as an adventurer, and just in general.

I want anyone to be able to read Tav and be able to understand who she is, if not be able to relate to some small part of her -- but in my mind, people like Tav are essential to the story of a place like Baldur's Gate, and I really enjoy exploring what that looks like.

I'm having fun with it, so I hope you will, too!

#ascended astarion #astarion fic #astarion x tav #bg3 fic #bard!tav #slow burn #redemption arc: now nontoxic! ... i think? #manipulative astarion #yandere astarion #tav's insight proficiency tho #banter #the companion gang is there too #how do i even tag this

[drbtinglecannon]

It's actually really disappointing people are genuinely angry/upset about Hunter's haircut

Y'all. It's the exact same scenario as Amity changing hers

It was a style their abusers forced on them to mimic a specific person, so by changing it they get to take their autonomy back

The other thing with Amity's cut is it was symbolic of her cutting her abuser out of her life; between the new color relating to her passion (abomination) & purposely keeping some of the brown rather than it just grew in over time (her father's hair color), it was some cool foreshadowing that Amity was going to cut Odalia out of her life, like she did the green out of her hair, but that Alador was gonna stay. I wrote a post about this months ago after COTH aired

Hunter's cut is the same symbolism. He only had that style because he was modeled after Caleb, and because Belos genuinely never saw a single GG as their own person, they were all just Caleb to him. Yeah, I would've liked to see the headcanons of him dying it red for Flapjack, but him changing the style itself is still symbolic of him no longer being modeled after Caleb, and literally cutting away the last of Belos' influence on him.

I'll admit I found Amity's new cut weird when we first saw it but I was fully behind the idea of her completely changing it after we saw it was modeled after her abusive mom. Now when I rewatch S1 the old style looks weird to me bc I'm so used to the current one (and the meaning behind the old style really sours the look of it for me which is a shame cuz I loved the green when we first met her)

Hunter's new cut might look weird (esp since it's just in a poster rn) but again, I'm fully behind the idea of him completely changing it after everything we've seen since Hollow Mind. We won't have nearly as much time with it as we had with Amity's new look, but I'm sure the "it looks weird bc it's different" feeling will fade just as fast as it did for Amity, especially when you remember the meaning behind the old one.

TL;DR even if you think the specific style of Hunter's new cut looks weird, 1. It's because it's brand new you'll get used to it, 2. The meaning behind the cut is more important than "his old style looked better"

#toh #toh spoilers #the owl house season 3 #toh hunter #amity blight #the symbolism of cutting abusers out & taking back autonomy matters more than if its hot or not y'all. hes 16 let him have an awkward cut #im kinda flabbergasted to see the angry & entitled demands it be changed back or changed to something better. like. dana has already been #treated so poorly by execs this entire time & now fans are crying their fav got a haircut & demanding she change it? fucking come on #tc posts #the hair noodle being a thing Flapjack & him had is kinda the same how i feel about darius using little prince anymore. yeah it was their #thing but they can get a new thing that isnt related back to belos in anyway & its ok to allow that kinda change! #toh meta #i saw someone mad about the haircut & the gloves like! do you want your traumtized fav to heal or not pal?

[themswritinwords]

ALSO I'm once again going to be a panelist, presenter, and moderator at the LTUE Symposium in February!

LTUE is one of the most affordable writers'/creatives' conferences out there (extra discounts for if you're a student) while still giving you a massive bang for your buck. They have eight different 'tracks' for presentations and panels (writing, world building, art, TMA, academics, books, gaming, and professional development), but you can attend literally whichever sessions, panels, or presentations you want, so you can mix and match interests and professional goals.

It's super educational and I highly recommend it to anyone trying to go pro with their creative works, but it's also fun. Like obscene amounts of fun. It's all the best of a convention while also providing genuine professional opportunities. People come in cosplay, Sunday Best, and/or street clothes; I was on a panel last year next to an author with electric purple hair and a real silver fairy tiara whilst I was wearing a t-shirt with a sunglasses possum on it, and the guy on the other side of us was in a full suit and bowtie. There was a life-size Springtrap cosplay out in the main lobby. I pitched for the first time ever to 3 actual literary agents and got 3 requests. I got personal career advice from a 25+ year industry pro. A 12 year old with a "future author" pin asked me questions on my presentation and took notes, and so did an octogenarian in rainbow suspenders. I was taught how to write a professional query letter-- that has a 16% positive response rate, where standard is ~10%-- by a former lawyer in a pirate hat.

It's good vibes only, man.

But you'll also find professional agents, editors, artists, authors, directors, game devs and so on. It's a huge geek-fest that puts people at all levels of the professional world on equal footing. They've even got gaming events and filking circles.

In short, it's networking, fun, hyperfocus material, and professional-level education in equal measure.

I seriously can't say enough good things about it (and not just because I'm involved). There's something for every type of creator/creative out there, 11/10 highly recommend.

Anyway, here's what I'll be up to as a guest during all three days under the read more. (tl;dr conclusion, if you plan to attend and want to meet up, message me!)

Thursday

Original presentation (academics track): Folklore of the American South. An overview of myths, monsters, and old wives' tales from the rich storytelling heritage of the Southern States. AKA I finally have a platform to yell about my cultural heritage and by golly am I gonna yell about it! 10 am (yes it's a bit early, but I swear it'll be worth it! Y'all know you wanna hear about the Rougarou the destiny-determining powers of cornbread!)

Friday

Panelist: Shellshocked: Writing PTSD. Injecting realism into and dispelling myths surrounding characters with PTSD. AKA how flashbacks do and do not work, how to avoid making your character a caricature, and how to be sensitive so you don't use peoples' actual lived experiences as a sensationalist, reductionist cash grab. 10 am.

Panelist: Life After Coming Out. How to feature queer characters in more than just coming-out plots. AKA OwnVoices is not an excuse to exclude the reality of queer people in your built universes; don't write a story that's not yours to tell, but for the love of all things holy there's more stories to tell about queer folks than just The Big Realization! 11 am. (whew mercy, they gonna have me hoofin it all across that hotel RIP my ankles and my asthma)

Panelist: Fat Doesn't Mean Unfit. What it says on the tin. AKA a bunch of chubby folks are gonna demolish your fatphobia and why that's an important and good thing. Also I have a degree in health so I will be demolishing that fatphobia scientifically. 5 pm.

Saturday

Moderator: Dining Throughout History. A panel about how food, meals, and feeding communities did and did not work throughout history. AKA ancient Romans absolutely DID have takeout on the regular, and you're not a failure for not making 3 square meals a day at home with all-fresh all-natural ingredients. I mean, your characters aren't failures.... Yeah. That. 9 am.

Panelist: Nonnormative Relationships and You. The whats, whys, and hows of all the different non-romantic/nonsexual relationships your characters can find themselves in. AKA no shade to the romance crowd, but can we please stop forcing characters to kiss just because they're in physical or emotional proximity??? 11 am.

Moderator/Facilitator: Do-It-Yourself Medical Care: Hands-On First Aid. Come learn how to effectively injure and care for your characters by actually doing it! The caring part, not the injury part. We do not condone irl violence in the Marriott and as mod I will be obligated to fight you if you attempt to injure another participant. I can tell you right now as a both a stress crying asthmatic and the parent of a toddler with professional experience handling and subduing dangerous animals, it will be highly embarrassing for everyone involved. I seriously cannot tell you how excited I am for this one! It's me and four other authors who are also trained in medicine/health, so we're working hard to make this an informative and relevant experiential learning opportunity. They're only giving us 45 minutes, unfortunately, but we're already coordinating to try and pack in the most opportunities and most interesting exercises possible. It's gonna be so fun!! 1 pm, do not be late, we can only fit so many people and training dummies into the room!

Moderator: A Brighter Future: Solarpunk Fiction. A panel discussing the Solarpunk genre, why it's relevant, the ways conflict and worldbuilding would be different in a Solarpunk setting, etc. AKA a bunch of neohippies walked into a bar professional panel and decided to rant about sustainable living. 3 pm.

The rest of the time I'll be flitting around attending panels and presentations, checking out the art show and vendors room, socializing/networking, generally vibing, and maybe getting in a few pitch sessions. If you want to meet up, shoot me a message! I'm always open to Friending, and I know all the good places to grab lunch.

#writing #writing conferences #irl #ltue #ltue 2024 #creative writing #writeblr

[dangitjm]

January Update

TL;DR Look forward to February! Expect anything, both ER and non-ER content, from me.

For those of y'all on tumblr who follow me to also watch the longer videos that I put out on Youtube, I wanted to give you an update. You are probably no stranger to me going long periods of time in between uploads. And I've even recently come out with some videos this past month if you're curious and Youtube hasn't notified you of them--do give the channel a quick revisit if you'd like to see them. Furthermore, when February comes around, you can expect me to be making noise of some kind; I have more than a few long-form ramblings that I can bug y'all with as do I want to further experiment with some newer ideas for Elden Ring and beyond.

But it's the "beyond" that's got me wondering. Leveling with y'all for a bit; I have firmly decided that I want to continue making and editing videos in some capacity for the foreseeable future, but that is going to mean that I will branch out and away from got me lucky with the algorithm in the first place: "SoulsBorne Invasion" content. I've realized, both now and perhaps a long time ago, that I've never felt the 'urge' to pursue weekly or daily content in the same way that you see many Soulstubers attempting to do over the past two years that Elden Ring has been out. But if I were to make more regular content, I know what I would do. I would make videos on games or topics that I find fun or thought-provoking, but these same videos, SoulsBorne Invasion fans might not find immediately appealing at first glance.

To repeat, I like to make videos on ideas that I find genuinely engaging, unique, or even absurd if the time comes for it. I didn't think I'd even be interested in making a few videos about the Rocket Racing mode in Fortnite, for instance, but here I am. What's important to me is that I like to share ideas with other people to share in the fun, to get feedback, to pass information, or to simply say 'why not?' But I'm also no fool to the ways of the Youtube algorithm. Y'all have probably seen this too, not every channel or online personality that has attempted to branch out has led to success. For me, I couldn't care less. I will let the lot of you know if I decide to take "making a living off of content" a serious decision, but for right now, I just like rambling and sharing videos. That's what I'm going to try and stick to. If you would like to see more of my spontaneous videos, I would love to have y'all. I do try to regularly check any comments or replies as I can. If you have any questions or concerns, let me know. I hope your January's are going well and safe enough. I hope to see you in February!

#dangitjm

[just-emerald-star]

I've been hooked on My Adventures With Superman for 3 weeks now and you know what, I now know why.

This is the first superhero/action media I've been obsessed with in a long while.

To be clear, I've been obsessed with The Spider-Verse films thus far and the MCU's last hold on me was WandaVision. But outside of those, not much else has caught my attention. And I finally understand why.

I'm fed up with cinematic universes.

There's a reason my relationship with the MCU broke off post WandaVision. After that show, I pretty much lost interest in having to watch what's next cuz shared universe lol and how they'll try really hard to convince you to see all the films & TV shows just so you can keep up with the universe.

Between the fact that I'm a broke bitch, movies being expensive and having spent 10+ years keeping up with ALMOST every fucking film the MCU has offered...I may be a bit burnt out ngl.

Combine that with my immense disappointment in how Young Justice S3 turned out or whatever the fuck the DCEU ended up being as of it's recent offerings and you just have me facepalming repeatedly for the past couple of years.

The studios wanna keep making these interconnected films but keep forgetting the most important part when creating their 10+ films & TV shows: They're all reliant on what's coming rather than what's in front of them.

There are exceptions but not by much. Regardless, I'm genuinely tired of hearing about plans for a rebooted universe or how the MCU plans on giving us more shows & movies but can't be bothered to pay their workers fairly and rush their CGI artists to near death.

Which brings me back to My Adventures With Superman (or MAWS as I'll be calling it going forward cuz long title lol.) This show was the first time an action/superhero show has me hooked. Action shows used to be my shit and I'd obsess over them. Young Justice was the last show to hype me up. And sadly that show fell into mediocrity as well due to it's inability to know when plots should end and having too many characters on screen.

MAWS however is solely focused on Superman characters and has a much smaller cast as a result. It's not focused on expanding any bigger universe but instead focus on Supes' beginnings and how he becomes the great man of steel who protects Metropolis. For once I don't worry about anything beyond what's being established in said show's plots.

I can't wait to see what's coming next at the moment cuz I know the season finale will tie up most of the plots established while leaving us hanging with what's coming for S2. And honestly, that's all I really want. More self-contained media that isn't reliant on having a shared universe.

"But what about the DCAU back in the day???"

All those shows worked and ended up coming together for Justice League quite nicely cuz EACH SHOW WAS MOSTLY SELF-CONTAINED AND FOCUSED ON ITS CORE CHARACTERS FIRST. They weren't entirely worried about Justice League. Even then, the crossovers were solid cuz they were often one-offs and damn good ones as well.

If they choose to have MAWS be the start of some DCAU reset, I'd be down for that but I'm also ok with just having self-contained superhero projects from here on out. I am completely burnt out from shared universes and the severe case of FOMO I get when I choose to save money.

TL;DR Go watch MAWS and support this lovely cartoon. Superman is back y'all and he's amazing (so are Lois & Jimmy too.)

If you made it this far, I shall leave you with this meme-worthy pic of my son Jimmy from MAWS. Enjoy <3

#my adventures with superman #some thoughts #need to vent