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oh-boy-me · 3 years

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Obey Me! Card Planning Tips

Hello! This game causes us all a lot of pain and suffering, but I’m MANAGING (?), so I thought I’d give what I’d consider some tips to maybe make things feel slightly more possible for you :)

I’ll split it into three parts and put it all under a read more.

Team Strength Calculation

Team Preparation

General Tips for Resources and Daily DP

Part 1: Team Strength Calculation

Each stage has 2 sins tied to it, as you’ve probably noticed. In chapters 1-20, the stats of these two sins are boosted for ALL cards (character and support) by 15%.*

In chapters 1-20, your team’s strength is calculated with the following formula:

Strength = 1.15(AttributeSin1Total) + 1.15(AS2Total) + Other5SinsTotal

For example, let’s look at Lesson 10-20, which is a Gluttony/Lust battle. My team is composed of Pandas Mean Profit (Greed), A Special Ceremony (Lust), and Colorful Panic (Pride). And I’m using zero support cards just so I only have to add up 3 numbers.

Strength = 1.15(24338) + 1.15(34921) + 122736 = 190884**

Keep in mind that the buffs only apply to the attribute sin scores. If the battle is Gluttony/Lust, the Pride scores will stay at their base values. This is the case for all lessons up through chapter 20, both normal and hard mode.

However, from Lesson 21 onwards, there are two changes. One, there is a primary sin and a secondary sin for each battle, marked by which icon is bigger in the preparation screen. (There always has been, but now it matters which is which.) In boss battles, both are primary. Second, the buffs have changed drastically.

Every card has its main sin, obviously, and its strength in that sin is the strongest. However, they still have strength in the other 6 sins as well. There are two non-main sins that a card is very strong in, two that it is average in, and two that it is terrible in.

The percent increase is now dependent on how good a card is in the battle's two attribute sins. (Remember that these buffs still only affect that sin, not the card’s total strength.)

If a card is the same sin as the battle’s primary sin, that sin gets a 160% buff

If a card is the same sin as the battle’s secondary sin, that sin gets a 90% buff

If a card’s second or third best sin is the battle’s primary sin, that sin gets a 30% buff

If a card’s second or third best sin is the battle’s secondary sin, that sin gets a 10% buff

Any sins lower than third best no longer get a buff

I’m not going to make a formula this time because it’s too long and situational. But let’s look at that same 3-card team again, this time with Lesson 21-5, a Lust/Gluttony stage in that order.

Pandas Mean Profit has an average Lust score, so it gets no bonus. Its Gluttony is its 3rd best sin, so that gets a 10% buff (10752 > 11827)

A Special Ceremony is a Lust card, so its Lust gets a 160% buff (17308 > 45000). Its Gluttony sucks, though, so that doesn’t get a bonus.

Colorful Panic has Lust as its second best sin, so it gets a 30% buff (10423 > 13549). Gluttony is its third best, so that gets a 10% buff too (9866 > 10852).

With the new system, the team’s Lust score has skyrocketed from 40158 to 65739. However, its Gluttony score dropped from 27987 to 26399.

This means that the sins of your cards suddenly matter more in battle. (And honestly I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I know people complain that it makes it harder, but. If my Comedy team in A3! is made entirely of Action/Drama cards with poor Comedy, I shouldn’t expect that team to do well. Idk why people think that shouldn’t apply to Obey Me.) Which brings us to part 2.

By the way, colored glow sticks raise the card’s total strength by 10%, and rainbow glow sticks raise it by 30%.

* It’s actually like 14.99% but it’s effectively the same. The “slightly under but so close that I’m just rounding for significant figures” thing will be consistent for all of these buffs.

** The actual in-game strength is 190881, 3 points off due to the .99% thing.

Part 2: Team Preparation

I’m so sorry. But someone has to say it. Are you listening? Great.

URs aren’t automatically better than SSRs. Honestly, they never were. They ESPECIALLY aren’t now. You’re not losing the battle because you’re using SSRs. You’re losing the battle because you’re throwing Wrath cards at a Sloth opponent.

Morning Voice is an Envy SSR card. My copy of the card is only level 10, and in a Lesson 21+ Envy battle, its Envy score is 6866.

What is my Level 90 UR Colorful Panic’s Envy score in the same battle?

3489.

Colorful Panic is a higher rarity and 80 levels higher. It has worse Envy. Why? Because Envy is its worst sin.

Obviously you aren’t going to be using a level 10 card in a battle, so for a more realistic standpoint, my copy of Resentment Runs Deep (SSR Envy) has 46108 Envy in the same battle. That’s 13x better than the UR.

I’ll repeat it one more time before I move on. The sin scores of a card are far more important than the rarity of the card. A random SR card of the right sin is better than a UR with no sin bonus. The most impressive thing about a UR is how hard it is to get one.

Anyway, what does this mean? Is it hopeless?

Well, if you wanted to binge all three seasons within the first month of playing, yes. But let’s assume that’s not the case. (Side note, but the feeling that our cards are never good enough is definitely exacerbated by the aggressive speed at which they release new lessons combined with the fandom’s apparent allergy to spoiler warnings, but that’s a point for another post maybe.)

Remember that having URs isn’t actually all that important. Now remember the sheer amount of SSRs they release since they also aggressively release events. Also remember that with every 10-pull, you’ll get at least one SSR+. (Also remember to never do single pulls; they're not worth it at all.) If you’re really struggling with a lot of battles, here’s how you can improve your scores while focusing on as few cards as possible.

Open an Excel document or Google Sheets page and make a chart that looks something like this:

[Image Description: An 8x8 Excel sheet. The columns are labelled with each of the seven deadly sins, and the rows are labelled Cards 1 through 3 and Support 1 through 3, with a blank row in between. The rest of the sheet is blank.]

Now choose a card you want to use. Doesn’t matter why you want to use it, maybe you like how it looks, maybe you worked really hard to get it, maybe you like its ability, maybe it’s just your current strongest card. I don’t care. For my chart I’m gonna use Pandas Mean Profit because it’s really pretty and I got it from the 100-pull pity reward.

Look at your card’s top 3 sins and put them into the chart. For the character cards, note who the card is, because you can’t double up. For reference later, also note whether it’s 1st, 2nd or 3rd best. (Be sure to do this through Contacts and not a battle so there are no buffs skewing the scores.)

Once that’s in, choose another card you like for a different sin and input that card’s top 3 sins. Envy is still completely empty, so I’ll put Resentment Runs Deep in next. It’s an SSR, but I really love the Refresh Team ability. Do this for one character card and one support card of each sin at first, if you can. It doesn’t matter what level they are right now. Then fill in whatever blanks you have with cards that specialize in that sin.

If a sin comes up more than 3 times, keep whichever ones are strongest in that sin without overlapping characters. Play around with it until you get something that works for you. Keep note of the sins you’re lacking cards for.

[Image Description: The same Excel Sheet as before, except filled in with various Obey Me card names. The cells in rows 2 through 4 are color coded to match the character of the card. Each cell marks in parentheses how strong the card is in the sin of the column it’s in from 1 to 3.]

Mine looks like this. This chart isn’t perfect (if you look, none of my cards had Envy as a good non-main sin, and Pandas and Bunny have too much overlap for the same character), but it works as a rushed example. I used the cell colors to mark the characters.

Are these the teams you should be using for each battle? No, obviously not. First off there’s no single-sin battle, and second off the game will still build the teams for you.

BUT, this greatly lowers the amount of cards you need to pour resources into. Instead of 42 cards, with this chart I only have to focus on 18 cards in order to be guaranteed that all my cards get at least a SLIGHT boost in each battle. The best-case scenario would drop it down to 14 cards.

Later on, once you’ve managed the cards on your chart, the next thing to do would be to find main sin cards to replace those that are only third best in their sin. On mine I’d definitely focus on a Gluttony character card next, but in general Sloth is the one you want to be the most proactive about.

That should help you get through at least Season 2. Season 3 is admittedly where the difficulty actually IS ridiculous, but Season 2 really isn’t as hard as we’ve been saying. It just requires more planning than “the first three URs I ever got.”

I do still apologize for the resources and Grimm it’ll take, though :’)

Part 3: General Tips for Resources and Daily DP

This section is just some extra tidbits to help you have the resources to get cards and upgrade them.

[Image Description: The “hard to swallow pills” meme. The pills read “You don’t need every single card and unless you’re a whale eventually you’re going to have to prioritize some events and ignore others or you’ll never have the resources to improve the cards you already have.”]

However, events ARE good for farming Grimm, so it’s not the end of the world if you want every SSR. The only issue will come up when you need hard mode items and never have any AP, but it’s manageable.

If you’re going to log in more than once throughout the day, you can do the 2-1 job distribution. If not, do three jobs with one character each so you get the daily task done

To save money for leveling up your good cards, complete the devil tree daily mission with N-rank cards.

Use vouchers over DP whenever you can (and use Raven to get vouchers). The 99 DP level-up sale IS worth it if you can afford it, because that’s like 50% off a 10-pull once you do two.

I’m not certain, but I THINK skill level also influences how often an ability activates? I feel like my Lv 10 SSR cards activate often but my Lv 1 URs never do. So if you’re relying on an ability, the permanent SSRs might be worth looking at over limited time cards.

Anyway, I hope this helps at all in our mutual suffering.

#obey me #gameplay talk

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koreanmadeingreece · 3 years

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Why, why, why (7,8)

University student!Yuta x reader

Genre: slight enemies to lovers au, a bit of angst, a lot of fluff, and several mixups

Summary: You just got into uni and decided to move in with your childhood friend!Taeyong at the city where you are going to study. As you’re about to start your new, adult life, you meet his friends, and you realize that not everyone likes you. Nakamoto Yuta in particular almost seems like he hates you.

A/N: In this fic, Jonghyun from NU’EST appears for a while (just to avoid confusion). ALSO I’M AN IDIOT AND I DIDN’T POST AGAIN SOOOO HERE ARE TWO CHAPTERS AHAHAHH HELP.

Warnings: n/a (just a liiiittle bit of making out but seriously nothing, also several fu and shi words hahah)

Word count: 2.6K

Parts 7 and 8/11 (I think) First / Previous / Next

Taglist: @melitadala @chxotickpoptrash @aiforyuu @fineapplehoe (let me know if you’d like to be tagged!)

You had classes, and you also had work to do. You had to spend the next week or two studying for a bit, sometimes stealing some time to see Jonghyun, but other than that, you had developed the habit of going to your local coffee shop with Chan, BamBam, and Yugyeom to study. You spent most of your afternoons like that, as the professors had already started giving you more homework than you could handle. Sometimes you’d stop by Jonghyun’s work and he’d give you your favorite coffee, which you gladly accepted.

You still hadn’t seen Yuta after that night. Maybe you’d run across him at uni or you’d see him leaving your house at night when you came back, but nothing solid. Every time you’d see him, he’d wave at you, which was still progress, but you had to see him. You wanted to talk to him, and you had to make it happen. So, one day, you met him at the entrance of your apartment building.

“Oh, hey, you were with Taeyong?”

“Yeah, he wanted me to help him with some choreos he had to practice.” He answered.

“Oh god, poor neighbors!” you said with a dramatic voice and he laughed. “Good, you’re warming up to me!” you couldn’t help but say.

“Yeah, you can say that.” He said, but you could see he still felt kind of awkward.

“So, do you want to go out with me tomorrow?” you asked.

“Yeah, what time do you get off class?”

“Uh, around 6. Does that work for you?”

“Yeah, maybe I can come pick you up?” he asked. During the entire conversation, you couldn’t help but think how awkward he seemed. He wasn’t stiff or moody like when you’d first met him. He had warmed up to you, and you were happy to enjoy the progress you’d made. You couldn’t wait to tell Taeyong all about this.

“Yeah, that would be nice,” you said, and went for a bold move. Yes, you usually were a hugger, but with this one you could never know. So, you just went for it. He didn’t see it coming of course, and his entire body stiffened for a few seconds, until he finally let loose and hugged you back. It was only for a moment, but you felt close to him in a way. “Goodnight, Yuta.”

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

~ ☼ ~

As you went inside your apartment, you immediately started yelling to Taeyong. “Hey, you’re not going to believe what just happened. Where are you, I need to tell you what Yuta and I just said,” you shouted, when you saw the balcony door open, and someone enter. You saw Taeyong, but also that he wasn’t alone. He clearly gave you the shut-up look, which you didn’t understand at first, but soon realized it was necessary, as a second figure entered the apartment.

“Jonghyun, hi!” fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. “When did you get here?”

“Hi, Y/N. I got here a few minutes ago. You usually come back around this hour, so I thought I’d surprise you. If you’re too tired, I can always leave, but I knew you had a lot of work to do these days and I just wanted to cheer you up,” he said.

You paused, not knowing what to do. Had he seen everything that just went down between Yuta and you? “Oh my god, you’re so sweet! Yes, I’d love it if you stayed, if Taeyong doesn’t mind of course.”

“Don’t mind me, I was just going to stay and dance for a while anyway,” Taeyong reassured you, still giving you that intense look.

“Then, that’s great! Oh, and I saw Yuta too. He was here a few minutes ago. You barely missed him.”

“Oh, well, it’s alright. He’s usually with Taeyong so I can greet him another day,” you replied. “Why don’t you go to my room for a second and I’ll be right there.” He nodded and left the living room.

“Ok, what’s going on?” Taeyong asked you.

“That’s what I was coming to tell you!” you whispered. “I’ll go out with Yuta tomorrow to reconcile and I really don’t know how you guys didn’t see everything from the balcony. I lost my shit when I saw you there!”

“That’s why I’ve been looking at you like that! I saw everything! But he didn’t. He was sitting on the opposite side of the table, don’t worry. I kept talking to him so that he couldn’t hear anything either, but that means I had no clue what you said. I just saw him like that and then you hugged him and what in the absolute fuck is going on, Y/N?” you knew Taeyong was infuriated but also extremely confused, but you didn’t know what to tell him either.

“I don’t know, he was just so nice and accepting today. He even offered to pick me up tomorrow from uni! So, I just…hugged him? Does that make any sense?” you wondered.

“No, but we won’t talk about this right now. You have a man inside your room!”

Fuck. He was right. You left your stuff in the living room and went inside, only to find Jonghyun looking through stuff on your desk.

“I promise I wasn’t snooping,” he laughed.

“I know. There’s nothing to find anyway, really. I mean, besides some embarrassing photos of school parties I guess.” You joked around, not knowing what to do in a situation like this.

“Well, you’ll show me those one day.” He smirked. “Should we put some music on?”

“Yeah, feel free to put whatever you want.” He took out his phone and found a chill playlist. “You like Dean, I see.”

“You know him? Ah, none of my friends listen to him.” He exclaimed.

“Yeah, he’s one of my favorite singers.” You smiled. You couldn’t help but think how good he looked, awkwardly looking at the stuff in your room. This was your space, and he was fully aware of it. Sometimes you admired how much of a gentleman he was, but that night, you had to blow off some steam. Especially with the way he was dressed that night, you couldn’t resist. He was wearing a grey shirt with a black t-shirt underneath, and tight black pants. This classic but stunning look drove you crazy, and your desire to kiss him grew stronger. In the end, you approached him, pressing your lips against his, driving him closer to the bed.

“Agressive, aren’t we today?” he broke the kiss only for a second, then dove right back.

“Only for the right reasons,” you said, and gently pushed him onto the bed. You climbed on top of him, kissing him all over his neck. You didn’t know what had gotten into you that night, but he was more than eager to follow. He gently slided his hands below the hem of your shirt, slowly lifting it over your hands, revealing your bra. You knew where this was going, and with your emotional state at that moment you had no clue if it was the best time for it. You pushed away those thoughts and started unbuttoning his shirt, then took off his t-shirt as well, leaving him shirtless in your room. The sight of him was angelic, the way his body was pressed so close to you was euphoric, yet all you could think about was the demon inside your head – Yuta.

You mentally slapped yourself and brought your mind back to the moment you were currently living, which was a shirtless Jonghyun right underneath you.

“Wait, Y/N, as much as I love seeing you shirtless, we have to stop,” he said. “We’ve known each other for a few weeks, and also, Taeyong is in the next room!” he laughed.

“You’re right,” you chuckled. You didn’t know if you wanted to ignore his comment and continue what you were doing or take this as an excuse to not do anything that night. You were confused as hell. You laid down next to him and wrapped your hand around his stomach, taking the time to relax and cuddle for a while until he had to go. He had class the next day, and so did you.

Well, for you it was more than just class. You had to mentally prepare yourself to spend the afternoon with Yuta.

When Jonghyun left, you were one hundred percent ready to text everything to Chan. You immediately took your phone and sat on the couch. It was already past 10:30, and Taeyong was feeling a bit tired, so he headed to bed.

You: HELP. I’m going out with Yuta tomorrow. Also I found Jonghyun here when I came back and right after I hugged Yuta at the entrance. He didn’t see it bc he was with Taeyong but after that we made out and all I could think about is tomorrow.

Chan: Wait.

Chan: Hold on.

Chan: I’ll just ignore the very sweet fact that Jonghyun came to surprise you and focus on the fact that you were making out with him and thinking about Yuta.

Chan: Y/N, what the fuck.

You: I have no clue.

You: I don’t know what’s going on. I think that in my effort to reconcile with him things got a bit…messy? Idk. Now I’m more interested in being in good terms with him rather than my own boyfriend? That doesn’t even make any sense.

Chan: You do realize this is seriously messed up, right?

You: Yeah, I mean

You: Wait, doorbell

Chan: Wait

Chan: No

Chan: Y/N you’d better come straight back and fill me in!

You looked through the peephole and saw Yuta again. What was he doing there that late? You opened the door and saw the flustered look on his face when he saw it was you.

“Hi. What’s going on?”

“Uh, I forgot my charger and I don’t have a second one and I’d be without a phone if I didn’t come get it. Sorry about that.”

“Oh, come in. Where did you leave it? I hope it’s not in Taeyong’s room because he’s already asleep,” you joked.

“No, it’s right here on the coffee table. Thanks.” He grabbed it and turned around to leave, but you had a different idea in mind. Not even knowing what had gotten into you, you immediately stopped him.

“Hey, um, if you don’t have an early class tomorrow morning, you can stay for a while. Taeyong’s asleep but we can hang out if you’re up for it,” you suggested.

Shocked at your suggestion, Yuta stood close to the door for a few seconds, unsure of what to do. “Are you sure?”

“I mean, I don’t have an early class tomorrow and I can’t sleep yet anyway. Only if you’re ok with it of course.” You were calmer than ever. You knew this could end up being very wrong, with either one of you getting brutally stabbed after a huge fight, but you were willing to take the risk. “But we should go outside if we don’t want to wake Taeyong up.”

“Sure.”

You grabbed your phone and sent Chan a quick text.

You: Yuta’s here. We’re going to hang out. Crap. I’ll tell you later.

Chan: Wtf Y/N come back

Chan: No don’t leave me like this!

Chan: Fuck I need the details and you’re giving them to me tomorrow in class

Read

You followed him outside and sat next to him, facing the road. You had to admit that Taeyong had found you a house with a great balcony view. You grabbed your jacket and brought him one of Taeyong’s, as it was late, and it had started getting cold.

“Thanks,” he said and put it on. It fit surprisingly well with his other clothes, a black tank top and grey sweatpants. He seemed oddly attractive even in this simple clothing that he probably didn’t even realize anyone would see when he left his house to come back to yours.

“It looks good on you. You should steal it from Taeyong. He’ll probably let you have it anyway.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, the man’s ready to do whatever you say. He really loves you, you know.” You reassured him.

“No, do you think I’m attractive?” he asked, and you honestly didn’t know what to say. He was attractive as hell, but it wasn’t really the best way to phrase it.

“Yeah, I do.” You paused and saw a smirk form on his lips, even though he tried to hide it. You liked the feeling of making him smile, so you decided to keep it up. “I think I’d have hit on you if we hadn’t been fighting when we first met.” It was kind of a bold move, and you knew it. But there wasn’t anything stopping you, since he knew you had a boyfriend, and you had already told him that you found him attractive.

“Wait, really?” He turned to you wide-eyed.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“And you’re saying this so casually?”

“I guess so. I’m usually not that bold, but you were the one who asked.” You paused. “I could lie to you next time, maybe tell you that you’re barely noticeable. And you know it’s not true.”

“Well, if you put it that way,” he chuckled.

“And the jacket definitely helps. You should steal it. You put up with Taeyong’s craziness, so you deserve it.”

“That’s true. You can’t believe how nuts he was the first two years. Now he has more homework and more difficult practice sessions, so it’s not like he has the energy to be like he was when he first got here. Sometimes I thought he’d explode,” he said.

“I know exactly what you mean. You should’ve seen him in his last year of high school. He was barely manageable. His mom was going crazy, and my mom practically put everything away when he stayed over.”

“It sounds like you had a lot of fun though.”

“Yeah, those were quite memorable times. We were both very young though.” You smiled, as you had gotten nostalgic after bringing back all those memories.

“You’re still young. It’s your first year of uni, Y/N.” He laughed.

“True, but you’re only two years older than me. You’re not that much older.”

He was about to second guess you and get all defensive towards you, but at the last minute he just agreed. “You’re right.”

At about that point, both of you had stopped staring at the road and had started looking at each other. The conversation had dragged you both into a light-headed state that you couldn’t exactly describe, but it was a pleasant feeling that you didn’t want to let go.

After a few seconds of silence, you heard him say the words that would change everything. “Everyone deserves to be young and foolish every once in a while.”

With those words, you started leaning closer and closer to each other, unable to pull away. Your lips were merely a few centimeters apart from each other when the balcony door opened.

“What are you guys doing up so late?” Taeyong was barely awake, wrapped up in a blanket, but he was staring at you.

“Oh hi, Taeyong, I thought you had gone to bed!” you exclaimed.

“Yeah, I just wanted some water. I’ll go right back to sleep. You should sleep too, guys. It’s almost 12,” he said, and went right back in. You realized he hadn’t seen or heard whatever was going on between Yuta and you, which was definitely a relief, but now you had to face Yuta.

“Uh, he’s right. I have to go.” He immediately got up and grabbed his stuff, leaving you speechless on the balcony. After staying like that for a few minutes, you realized he had forgotten his charger again, and this time he was definitely not coming back to get it.

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fanguuuhhhrl · 4 years

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Im kinda obsessed with I-Land right now. I love 23 boys and if possible i would like them all to debut but the elimination is in 30 minutes so im going to post my top 12 picks before it airs (kind of in order, kind of not, im biased, this is based on an unsure mixture of skill and personality, could change but most likely not):

1. Sunoo- BITCH!!! WTH!!! I JUST LOOK AT HIM AND MY SEROTONIN LEVELS BURST THROUGH THE ROOF!! He is a puppy!! He is amazing. If you didnt know anyone yet and you put all 23 boys in a line up. He will draw your attention with his sunshine smile :)))) he is so heartwarming. Most people be like "i have no filter" but they just be mean, but this guy is different, he literally has no ability to hide what he thinks but it never comes off as anything negative. He says "Me! I can do it!" but it's just endearing and never comes across as trying to show off. He says "there was a little bit of friction" and when the members look at himshocked, he looks at them shocked too.... theres no dull moment when he's in frame. It's so amazing how pure a person can be. But know that i am not just rooting for personality but for talent. his voice... His Voice!!! Vocally geonu and heeseung really slayed the butterfly performance but if you ask me, "save me" had a more emotional attack. His facial expression is just brimming of feelings. His voice is so raw. Also You know that part in save me where he transitions from head voice into chest voice really smooth??? You'll know what im saying if you see it. thats so fucking satisfying that i had to replay it so much. I definitely replayed the save me performance more times honeslty. And the way he dances!!! It might not be That refined yet but that's the charm... it's so raw and full of emotions... so like him. I can see myself stanning this group long term if he debuts with them.

2. Jungwon- tf i love this boy so much. his visuals already stood out to me when they were entering i-land, then his voice stood out to me in the first challenge... he did that hard ass choreography without any audible changes to his voice that i had to rewind that multiple times (more than the editor already did) then the moment i saw him dance the center in episode 4??? BOY???? BOY!!!! that was my breaking point... i can't believe im saying this about men but i already knew i would die for him... plus he is so sweet :((( his eyes are just so naturally cute but i was so shocked in the last challenge when he was able to pull off that fierce ass look.... i am devastated... im about the same age but my parental instincts are at work here. plus SPOILER ALERT to those who plan to watch he won first place in both the first and last challenge can everybody say jungwon ace

3. Geonu- my feelings for him are much like jungwon :((( except theres more parental instincts... and i say this despite being younger than him but whatever age is just a vibe... HE IS SO LIDDOL :((( i want to be his mom :(( at first, personality wise, it's hard to notice him bc he's a little calm and laidback... but its the little things that draw you to him :((( his glasses and hoodies just seem a little bit big on him and that just makes me smile for some reason... he cries silently when people are sent to the ground and he gets along well with the people... i noticed him first together with jungwon in the first i land challenge because they had the most stable performance. but i've never been more attached to him than when he sang butterfly (favorite bts song anyone??)... i honestly thought they could debut then and there and i wouldnt bat an eye... also it's so funny that the one thing i identified him with during the early episodes was the fact that whenever the camera pans to him, he just has the dead eye stare and parted lips (think: pokerface but confused) especially with the huge ass glasses but in the end the poker face thing that stuck to me became the thing that worked against him i cri

4. Jay- hold on folks this is going to be a long one. Jay has such a powerful personality that at first made me hesitant about liking him... idk he just seemed like the guy i would not vibe with in real life, but the longer time passed, the more he became one of my favorites and i root for him now like crazy. at first it was funny when they kept rejecting him for the vocal parts, but the more it went on, i was so sure that if it was me, i would have cried and dropped then and there, but it was so amazing watching him push through that and he didnt even lie about how he felt. his unique determination is such a breath of fresh air, a little heartwarming and oh so inspiring. i honestly learned a lot from just watching him. the time he went to the ground was so crucial to his development as a person, leader and performer. it was so mindblowing when he became the leader at the ground and even adapted heeseung's teaching methods. you know that meme "improvise, adapt, overcome?" he is the exact personification of that. what i loved about him the most is that even with his steely determination, he didnt enforce or project that on the other grounders, he just shared it with them. he understands when they need rest, encouragement or massages. he was such a caring leader. Skill wise- i can't say anything. He already proved himself so many times. Great dancer and potential vocalist. The mnet specials also show how much sweeter he is than the show shows him to be. He takes care of everyone, and has more of mother duck than street gang vibes (and he knows how to cook!!). And at the end, while he seems to be mostly self- oriented about debuting, he ends up spending most of his time teaching others and helping them improve. I just love him. Debut Jay 2k20!!!

5. Sunghoon- tf this guy is so cool and laidback that i didnt even pay much attention to him during the early parts but he just keeps crawling into my heart because so many members love him so damn much??? and he just goes along with them?? they want me to do triple axel while average people can't even do a single axel on a trampoline?? ok imma give them a double axel tho. jake is challenging me to arm flexing? yeah why not? k wants me to dance?? yeah lemme just spin 50 times. jay wants to shower together?? weird but im not strongly against the idea. ej wants to scare people? count me in. someone needs a hand to hold?? ok here's my warm hand to the rescue... everyone just wants to be his friend that he birthed my favorite sunoo scene "im cuter than him [jake]" and he was just like "yeah ok i guess so" sksjsk sunoo is that how you ask someone to be your friend jshdk??? and can i just say? as a figure skating fan, he has automatic +52536 points... and when the judges said he's the most natural performer out of them??? i vibed with that hard.. he dances well so naturally and he takes your attention without even seeming like he's trying to. that dance performance with k and jungwon?? i thought at first that his energy wouldnt catch up but damn boy my eyes were just trackingnhim the entire time unintentionallu that i had to rewind and he was just as great as all of them... with the additional benefit of being a stunt boy!! and though it might seem effortless, we saw that he practiced so hard for it. overall a 100/100 boy with a naturally charismatic personality that bleeds into his performance... as a fellow 02 liner i would also like to apply as his bestfriend thank you

6. Heesung- what can i say except he's a perfect boy ok thats it why are you still reading... jk... ok lets talk about him... skill wise?? I cried during the butterfly performance. i marvel at his vocal stability. his voice is so crystal clear. his dancing is so clean. his skills are superb but most of all, theyre already so refined. there's nothing more i could ask for. personaloty wise... i also have a lot to say... despite his celebrity status, it's awesome how he can make the other trainees comfortable with him. he's kind and soft and lovely.

but because i am me, i have to overanalyze people so idk skip this if you dont like that. for someone who's experienced being an academic achiever... i sure do vibe with his personality a lot... you know when there's a group activity and you're so sure you can lead it well but you don't want to? half because you dont want to come off as a show off and half bc you genuinely still have self-doubts, and you're scared of falling short of expectations. Also, you feel that if it all fails, you'll be responsible so you have to feel that everyone approves you before you can take leadership and show your entire thing. And the moment you feel validated and take the reins, you start unconsciously projecting your perfectionist attitude on people??? yeah... i love that despite being an almost perfect person he still has issues most people can find relatable and that, in addition to the talent makes me want to root from him. (im also going to take a stab and guess that his mbti is probs ixxp) i'll be honest tho, because its like 100 percent sure now that he'll debut, im not super attached to him??? i love him tho but he's just not in any danger so i can just let my support for him chill. i think amidst this, bc most of the trainees depend a lot on him, i mostly hope for him to take care of his mental health

7. Daniel- awww danielll... i went into i-land not knowing anyone's ages so i had a brief whiplash feeling when someone said daniel is 15... it's because he's so emotionally mature?? like he's such a supportive and caring person that it barely struck me the that he might be the youngest?? he already caught my attention when they performed "any song" bc they just seemed like they were having fun and doing their best without the pressure of whether they would win ir not, and for me that attitude is something you'd see from more experienced performers. and during the second ep when he just felt the need to comfort everyone bc he's got such a high score?? i loved that an i was so bummed out when they eliminated him. the save me performance was definitely a cherry on top that i just had to love him more than i already do... he may be young but he's as ready to debut as everyone else.

8. Jake- jake is just one of the people who showcased so much growth between ep 1 and ep 2. he already had the right attitude when they performed crown and he just had to improve skills and stage presence, and improved he did. despite being one of the trainees with the shortest training time, he was the one teaching the others by the end it just supports my theory that he might have been an ace as well if he just had the same amount of training as everyone else. im also truly in love with his mischievous antics. he seemed like an introvert to me at first but he came out of his shell and i love that. also i just crave more moments of him and sunghoon's friendship (they both seemed like introverts who found someone they could be extroverts with in each other) i am 👌this close to storming i land and demand that they let me join their merry little band of 2002 children

9. Niki- dance skills= 100 he's just so good it's unreal... it's insane... everytime he's on screen i hear boss musicand i cant even imagine him being younger than anyone, let alone taki. i get why some people dislike him but honestly i think it's just because they don't see him as a child... but he is. i was honestly a bit mad for him when they kept guilt tripping him into leading all of them, and i understood his tjought process when he thought he just kept failing everyone and when he thought things just kept backfiring on him. he is held on such a high pedestal and i dont think he deserves that kind of burden. as for me, it would just be a waste of talent to let him go. his attitude could still improve, as we'd seen when he eventually volunteered to help everyone. i also felt bad when he said that he's scared he might not be voted bc some people dont base on skills and i love him and i just want him to kmow that he's loved

10. Taki- what the hell can i even say?? he's the kindest softest boy ever. he tries to see the good in people and is very hardworking... he listens to people well and actually follow them, so he improves a lot... he knows people think he's cute and he tries and tries and tries to look fierce if the song calls for it... he is amazing

11. K- i really can't say anything, he really stands out during performances. also very pro at dancing. his choreography??? *chef's kiss* and i think the younger trainees depend a lot on him, besides heesung and so he's good at keeping the team together.

12. EJ- im really hesitant about the last person to be the twelfth i lander because it could almost be anyone and i wouldnt be too bummed out bc theyre almost all equally talented... the thing with ej tho is he already gets along well with the i landers and has harmony with other members. (plus see above: im a sucker for the 2002 line) i think its a tiny bit unfair to base it on this bc the others didnt even get a chance to show what they can bring to the group so im torn.

bonus: i wouldnt feel too bad if it were jaebeom (he has great voice, the producers think he's not too stand out bc he's weak at dance, but the i land is already so full of people whose expertise is dancing, so i think there should be someone who's specialty is singing), kyungmin (i really appreciated how hard he worked during the last test and it actually paid off, i honestly noticed him there even if he was always at the back. i also loved his determination and i was so touched when he and jaebeom were talking and he said "there's really nothing to do but believe in the impossible right?" it's just that the i landers were already ahead of him in terms of skills so he failed the votings) and hanbin (i've watched his cover videos and he's really good at dancing and stage projection. like i was honestly wondering why it wasnt showing in the performances :((( and he hadnt even had too much screentime to actually See what he's capable of.

#idk anymore #do you have the same rankings and reasons as me??#iland #lets talk #iland sunoo #iland jungwon #iland geonu #iland daniel #iland heeseung #iland sunghoon #iland jake #iland k #iland jay #iland niki #iland taki #iland ej

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jjkfire · 4 years

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>:0 tumblr fjdjjsndissk i was just saying wowowow i’m amazed how on top of being a fic writer u also work with data in a i assume money related field? like your writing and ideas are so fleshed out !!!! it’s so good !! i’m an engineer and i’ve occasionally thought abt starting writing myself but i don’t ever feel like i’ll have the time to come up with such fleshed out stories but like you are writing goals girl!!! keep up the great work bby

STEM fam, I know what you mean about not having the time hahaha. to be very honest, I only wrote in college when I was trying to procrastinate. I'd be like should I write my lab report or write a fic? and I would choose to write a fic and later on panic and try to finish my lab report... but by then i would only have like 1/5th of the time I originally budgeted hahahaha.

about being able to write stories, that comes with practice! you just have to start 😊 maybe your first story won't be the best but we all start somewhere!!! i mean, i think you can defo see the progress in my writing from courage -> escape -> to all my other fics. the beauty of writing is that 100 words can move you just as much as 10000 words. so, just start! when you start, you’re doing better than all the other people who are too afraid to do so. you’ll already be one step closer. also, askjdhskjahdkja thank you for all the kind words (”: you’re so sweet!

haha i don't work in the finance world but I defo love to invest/trade in the stock market lol. if any of you are American... you do not understand how lucky you are. legit can become a millionaire overnight bc of tesla 🙃 but i digress! there’s so much opportunity in the stock market!!!

>>> incoming finance ramble <<<

first of all, I cannot stress this enough. you should try to learn the basics of investing & trading and there are like a bazillion youtube videos at your disposal! you can make good money and safely too! it's a skill you can use for the rest of your life. like genuinely. so, number one on the list, you have to get a long term portfolio. the average annual return of the S&P500 is 7%. idk what your bank is giving you but i sure as hell can bet it’s not even remotely close to 7%. buying etfs like VOO are very typical set it and forget it type things. [look up bogleheads 3 fund portfolio! it’s a very famous investing strategy].

year to date, famous stocks are up by a lot. microsoft is up ~54%, apple is up~93% and you don’t even wanna know what the number is for tesla....... nvm i’ll tell you... it’s up ~542%, yes, five hundred and forty two percent. no, that isn’t a typo. and this is all even after they all went through the wringer back in the march covid crash.

you can google this stuff, but 100% your money will grow more in the stock market vs the bank, as long as you don’t panic (very important!) and you leave it for 20-30 years, and invest diligently (& intelligently). not to mention, you get dividends too. [but only put into the stock market what is rational for your situation. if you’re genuinely living paycheck to paycheck, don’t do it. get your 6 month emergency savings first.]

yeah and i hear you, you’re like 20-30 years? i want money now!!! good news, there’s options trading! tons of people think it takes a lot of money but two weeks ago you could've legitimately bought Wal-Mart calls for $14 a pop and then sell em 6 days later for $211. that's $197 profit for the cost of $14. patience is the game!!! don’t let fomo get you. and dont be stewpid. do your due diligence! it’s just so worth spending a few hours on youtube learning this stuff for FREE and then making money out of it... i mean are you ever gonna get a better deal????

i know this sounds like some mlm type shit and i literally don’t know how else to say this but if you take the time to learn it properly, you will defo make money. i made money doing debit spreads on nvidia and beyond meat just last week. not like thousands and thousands but hey, if there’s an extra 50 for me every week, i’ll take it! if you’re not american, find out if your local stock market is worth getting into. i have money in the stock market back home too. bro youtube has the answers for everything, i swear. [oh and watch out for capital gains tax! make sure you report it right!]

also, i’m a big believer in personal finance. just know your shit. do cash back/points with credit cards. NEVER be late in paying your credit card bill. NEVER! the interest on late payments will haunt you. look at your budget every month. and yes, if you really wanna know where your money goes, record every single transaction in a giant excel spreadsheet. i do it every end of the month. you’ll realize where you can cut back on spending (i save >50% of my income every month! and i live in a high COL (cost of living) city. so, it’s doable!) also, start thinking about retirement. i know, you’re (probably) young... but start thinking about it and do something about it! the earlier you start, the more bougie your life can be when you’re retired. if you’re american, take the 401k match. just. TAKE IT!!! it’s free money. if retirement plans work differently in your country (it probably does)... just do what is necessary. in malaysia, it’s automatic but the interest is so good! y’all just have to know that it’s for your future. oh and if you’ve got debts, pay off the high interest ones first no matter what. that shit will suck you dry.

personal finance. learn it. love it. don’t let the system play you. there’s money to be made in the stock market, especially now! there isn’t a better time to start learning. you can always paper trade before you put real money in. hehe sorry about the personal finance lecture but i just wished more people would get into it!!! older you will thank younger you for it!

#learn how to handle your finances early!!!#start investing early :3 #anon #replies #misc

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jeremiahgrey · 4 years

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JEREMIAH GREY ##STATS&BIO

Basic Information

Full Name: jeremiah grey

Nickname(s): jay

Age: twenty-four

Date of Birth: march 23, 1995

Zodiac Sign: aries

Hometown: las vegas, nevada

Current Location: san francisco, california

Ethnicity: his mother is caucasian, his father is african american

Nationality: american

Gender: cis male

Pronouns: he/him

Orientation: heterosexual

Physical Appearance

Face Claim: justice smith

Hair Colour: dark brown

Eye Colour: dark brown

Height: 5′10″ (178 cm)

Weight: 149 lbs (68 kg)

Health

Physical Ailments: none

Neurological Conditions: borderline personality disorder

Allergies: none

Sleeping Habits: varies, depending on level of anxiety/current state of mind.

Eating Habits: varies. tends to snack frequently, rather than eat large meals.

Exercise Habits: goes for a run 1-2 times a day.

Emotional Stability: it varies, but overall about a 5 or 6.

Sociability: likes to be alone, or in the company of 1-5 other people. but he doesn’t fear public places or crowds and doesn’t have social anxiety (typically). just a preference.

Addictions: cigarettes, usually stress related.

Drug Use: none that he consumes habitually. he’s experimented with psychedelics and marijuana, but it’s just a once in while type thing.

Alcohol Use: about once or twice a week on average.

Personality

Positive Traits: adaptable, adventurous, amusing, charming, determined, quick witted, resourceful, tough

Negative Traits: detached, finicky, moody, obsessive, quick tempered, stubborn, unstable

Hobbies: swimming, running, conspiracy theories, hiking, visiting abandoned towns/buildings & old cemeteries, people watching

Habits: smoking, whistling, biting the skin around his nails, fiddling with objects or his clothing, tapping his foot

BIO:

TRIGGER WARNINGS: CHILDHOOD ABUSE, SELF HARM & SUICIDE IS BRIEFLY MENTIONED, MENTAL HEALTH

Jeremiah grew up in Las Vegas

His father left him and his mother when Jeremiah was 12. He had been verbally and physically abusive to both of them up until his departure.

The trauma stuck with Jeremiah and later led to him being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder

When he was in middle school he would have “episodes” of social and mental withdrawal. They would last a few hours typically, and without the clinical resources to diagnose it, he would always refer to it as being “trapped in himself”

Being trapped meant he was disassociating. He would basically just “blank out.” An inability to focus on one thing, just racing thoughts that he couldn’t keep track of or characterize. Often times he would have to physically escape as well, isolating from other people. A lot of the time he had urges to self harm, or even suicidal fantasies.

His personality for the most part was bubbly and charismatic, he was adventurous and always starting a new hobby or interest. And then he would become “trapped” in his mind.

His inability to characterize his mental illness, and his childhood trauma, culminated in a short temper.

He was suspended from school in his junior year for getting into a fist fight. He was sent to mandatory counseling sessions, where he was formally diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder.

For a few years he faded in and out, never quite having a quick fix or remedy when he felt trapped or angry. And he refused medication, or any forms of continued therapy.

His senior year of school he just couldn’t put up with it anymore. The bouts of aggression, being labelled a freak, the lost sense of loneliness that accompanied being “trapped.”

Every time he’d have an “episode” he would journal. An attempt at collecting and manifesting the racing thoughts. He would smoke a cigarette, hold his breath, count to ten, and write everything he possibly could. Then he would go for a run.

It worked, at least a little bit. It made him feel more in control. A way to cope. And whenever he feels it coming on, he has to get away, and chase that ability of control. He doesn’t always have to write, but he needs to do something. Go to the top of a building and yell his thoughts, or to a creek to throw rocks and count out his feelings. It’s not a one hundred percent fix, and he still has outbursts that mimic rage. But he can clench his fists and disappear and try to deal with it.

He moved to San Francisco when he was twenty one. Just to get out on his own, face the world. His mom had a new boyfriend, someone better than his father. And he felt okay leaving her, finding himself.

Today he’s still the same guy with borderline personality disorder, but it’s not a ghost that unwittingly haunts him. He just lets it happen, redefines it. Yeah, a bit unstable, but he doesn’t fear it anymore. Of course, he still has the traumatic threads of his pasts that still weave into his character from time to time. But he feels more free than he’s ever felt before. He has an apartment, and a job, and a different outlook on his mental health. It doesn’t feel like he’s trapped anymore, it’s just a burst of inward thinking that he can channel into something recognizable and bearable.

Jeremiah works as a delivery guy for the businesses on Carroway Street.

FAST FACTS / HEADCANONS / PERSONALITY:

Goofy and lovable, unless he’s in a “mood.” Sometimes he may seem a bit odd or scatter-brained, jumping from topic to topic in conversation.

Likes memorizing random facts, and sprinkles them in when talking to people. He doesn’t naturally have a very good memory, so he tries to purposefully improve on that.

Often comes up with nicknames for people.

Sometimes he’ll just say some cryptic, vague shit. Something ominous or nonsensical. This is just him thinking out loud usually.

The way he interacts with people is usually pretty vibe based. If someones a dick, he’s a dick. If someones acting tough, he’ll probably try to get under their skin or irritate them a bit. He’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind, and usually the thought of “filtering” himself isn’t even present. It doesn’t feel controversial to him to say some of the things he says. He doesn’t think of himself as bold or brash, but he’s come to learn over his entire lifetime that it’s the reason he’s so often branded as a freak or a weirdo.

ALSO just because he doesn’t “filter” himself in conversations, doesn’t automatically mean he’s an asshole, or saying rude things constantly. A lot of the times he will say stupidly sweet things that the average person would find cringy or awkward to say to another human being so brazenly.

He’s also pretty good at reading people, just he’s not very good at acting accordingly and appropriately?? I guess? Like he can pick up on vibes, but that probably won’t change the fact that he’s gonna say what he’s going to say.

And lastly (I promise this is the end and I’m sorry this got rambly oops) he’s kind of stubborn and can be bossy, like once he gets something in his head like THAT’S IT, he’s doing it and he wants you to do it. And you can call him bull-headed or balky but he’s just going to insist he’s passionate and determined. And it’s probably annoying to the people around him but he doesn’t really care honestly he’ll probably just rant and rave and somehow convince whoever he’s with because he has a sort of cheeky charm about him. but also he’s a pain in the ass sometimes i guess.

PLAYLIST:

coming soon

WANTED PLOTS/CONNECTIONS:

any of these can be platonic or romantic, depending on how we develop them!!!

a friend that he can just “shoot the shit” with. someone who will go on little adventures with and sit in the woods with or sit on the beach with and listen to music. they never pry about his mood swings and they give him space and stuff?

someone who works at jukebox records and doesn’t mind when he loiters around all day and recommends music to him, and sometimes they’ll sit at one of the listening booth things at the store and listen to each others recommendations together.

a drinking/karaoke buddy

someone he met when he first moved to san fran (3 years ago), and maybe he’s told them about his past and his mental illness and his coping mechanisms and they’re good at recognizing the signs and they kinda help him out and let him vent and they’re just supportive and understanding. but also respect when he just needs to be alone or escape, but checks up on him cause < 3 < 3

a neighbor (in his apartment, and im assuming he lives in the calloway apartments i guess) but they started off as enemies kinda? like maybe one of them would blast music and then the other would bang on the walls and be mad and leave little passive aggressive notes telling them to stop being annoying. but maybe the loud music stopped or something?? and then the other person was like “whoa are they okay?” so then they started leaving notes that were caring and supportive and maybe little gifts or knick knacks or food for them, or little scavenger hunts, and then they just kinda started hanging out one day. IDK, this can be discussed more in depth/particular in dm’s i guess. this would be cutesy i feel!!!

an ex girlfriend or ex fwb. but it didn’t work out because they couldn’t really deal with jeremiah’s mood swings or his need to disappear sometimes, and how vague he would be about it. or maybe they suggested he should go to therapy or a support group, and since he is such a stubborn little pain in the butt he just became distant and felt judged and went cold on them. maybe there’s still some lingering feelings there, either positive or negative. we can discuss the particulars in dm!!!

someone with mental health issues, that he met at a support group when he first came to san fran. but jeremiah stopped attending the meetings after only a few. this relationship could be a lot of different things! maybe it’s hostile/confrontational, because they have differing viewpoints on how to treat mental illness. it could be supportive. or maybe it’s like a secret?? like maybe this other person was at the support group for reasons that they’ve never told anyone, and like, jeremiah can be their trusted friend or confidante.

NOTE: if there are any connections that aren’t mentioned here, but you feel like would really suit my muse, please feel free to message me!!!!!! with anything!!!!!!!

#info #jukeboxintro

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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Tbh, my policy on pirating is pretty simple. I honestly dont give a fuck one way or another w/movies, TV shows and even comic books, bc the former two have managed to account for pirating in the way they pad their expenses and tbqh they dont really hurt for it. And with comic books, okay if you pirate indie or creator owned content you kinda suck, not gonna lie, you have NO idea the kind of effort and upfront costs that go into producing comic books without Marvel or DC backing you up, not until you actually try it. Its obscene. Especially if you’re not able to do all the art AND story AND inking/lettering/coloring yourself, and have to either pay other members of your self-assembled creative team upfront or on the backend.

And this includes comic books published by Image (at least the ones without big name creators attached), because contrary to popular belief, Image has nothing to do with assembling the creative teams of most of their creator owned books, and they certainly don’t pay them any kind of wages or salaries. The way Image is set up is creators basically submit a complete first issue, all the art, inking, lettering, coloring, everything already done, to see if they’re interested in publishing.

(Technically, you only have to submit the first eight pages in order to get a response, and theoretically its possible that Image has in the past greenlit books based on the first eight pages of the book, which then allows the creators some leverage in convincing the entirety of their creative team to put in the upfront work to complete the rest of the first issue still without payment, but at least trusting now that their work will see publication, but like, this doesn’t really happen much from anything I’ve ever seen or heard or experienced).

Anyway, point being, Image takes submissions and then greenlights the books they see as potentially profitable, but again....they in no way ever pay creators themselves. Creators only make money via the actual sales of their books, once published and distributed by Image...and only AFTER Image takes their cut, which is a flat fee deducted from the sales of individual issues. Its actually a good thing in some ways, that they only take a flat fee (their cut is for publishing and distribution costs, Image NEVER owns any part of the intellectual property they publish, unless they’re part of their ‘shared Image universe’ which tbh is just like, publisher Erik Larsen’s little sandbox for him and his friends and who even cares, those books suck, Savage Dragon is lame, Erik, and everyone knows Shadowhawk was a blatant rip-off of Darkhawk, and look, I love Darkhawk with all my New Warriors fanboying heart, but of all the characters in the world to rip-off, who the fuck considers Darkhawk worth being derivative of? So weird. BUT I DIGRESS. ANYWAY.)

So in some senses the fact that they only ever take a flat rate is good, because in the rare cases of runaway books that really take off, the way Invincible and The Walking Dead were back when Robert Kirkman was still a no-name indie creator, like...the creator has the potential to make BANK. Which is exactly what Kirkman did, and why he’s now every-fucking-where, ruining all our other faves like who the fuck thought HIM producing a Chronicles of Amber show was a good idea, ewww. He’s gonna dial up the incest to 100, isn’t he? Sigh. UGH WHOOPS ANOTHER DIGRESSION, LOL YOU SEE WHY MY ADHD MEDS ARE ESSENTIAL, I ASSUME.

Ahem.

BUT in most cases, the fact that Image takes a flat fee off the top is like....shitty, because the last I heard - and tbf, this was years ago so its probably not the same anymore, but that means it could be worse - it was something like $2000 per issue. Which means the vast majority of indie creators you’ve never heard of before or after they published a six issue mini or whatever through Image never saw a cent. I’ve never heard of Image putting anyone in debt, like that’s not how they work at least - if your book doesn’t even make up to $2000, its not like you owe them for the remainder, but again, you just....never make a cent off it. So like....the reason a fuckton of Image books never make it past issue #6, if they even make it that far, is that the creators literally just can’t afford to keep producing out of pocket, financing the actual creative production costs of each issue themselves without making any profit on the backend, if they’re not ending up selling more than $2000 worth of issues once on the shelves, physical or digital).

So don’t fucking pirate Image comic books, plz. Just don’t do it. Unless they’re Erik Larsen’s. Pirate away, who gives a fuck, I hate that guy. LOLOLOL I’m such a petty asshole, ugh. Whatever. I blame my childhood.

ANYWAY. As I was saying, I don’t really give a shit about pirating from Marvel or DC, which maybe is bad of me because its not like those creators necessarily make bank either, unless they’re one of Marvel/DC’s faves and like, have their pick of titles at any given moment. But the way most of them are paid is Marvel and DC pay their creators actual salaries based on rates per page, and then Marvel/DC keep all the actual royalties themselves. The only exceptions to this are when issues sell more than 50,000 copies - that’s 50,000 individual copies of physical or digital issues, not $50,000 worth of sales like with Image. Once a creative team’s book sells more than 50,000 copies of a single issue however, THEN they start getting a cut of the royalties, as like a bonus incentive type thingie. But tbh, its pretty rare in today’s market for a book to move that many issues monthly, and only the top sellers of both companies end up in that rarefied air....and most of those books’ creative teams are the favored writers/artists anyway, the ones who have a degree of job security and never tend to lack for titles to shift to after ending a run on one book. Sooooo, they’re kinda the reverse of the creators who could actually use a cut of their books’ back end profits, but whatever.

So like I said, fuck Marvel and DC, like...corporately or whatever. Of course there’s no doubt that pirating has some definite correlation to how few books are able to move 50,000 issues monthly, but both companies have always been notoriously shitty to creators, and that’s not pirating’s fault, and less pirating honestly isn’t going to change that b/c the ones to benefit from less pirating first and foremost are still going to be the same ones who aren’t really that hurt by it currently....loooooooong before the lower rung creators start to see an uptick in profits as a result. And let’s be real, if Marvel & DC suddenly started seeing a surge in profits due to a marked reduction in piracy, they’d find some excuse to shift payment structures around again in order to still keep a lion’s share of the new profits while cutting the lower rung creators (read: new/just starting out/niche/lacking leverage creators) out of seeing much additional profits. Because the problem with creators making money off Marvel and DC IPs isn’t really pirating, its Marvel and DC not wanting to share the money made off their IPs, even with the people most responsible for those IPs generating revenue.

That’s the part of the pirating convo that most people miss, IMO....a rising tide just DOESN’T lift all boats, if one or two boats in particular are specially designed to make the most of any tiny uptick in a rising tide while all the other boats are made of the leftover shoddy materials and are undermanned or understaffed or whatever and can’t actually DO anything productive with any of the lift generated by the rising tide.

And if that made no sense, eh, idk, don’t blame me. Its not my metaphor.

ANYWAY. So that’s why I don’t really give a shit about pirated movies or TV shows or Marvel or DC books, though I do still think you suck if you pirate indie content including lesser known Image creators. You guys have srsly no idea how much harder indie comic book creators have to work compared to like, any other medium. It makes me wanna cry. Its ridiculous. It would take too long to explain just WHY its so much more of an ordeal/effort to produce indie comic book content than just about any other form of indie content save like, running an entire webshow with one or two people wearing all the hats while funding everything out of pocket and overseeing everything production wise and also being a key creator involved in creating the actual content.

BUT as I was saying in the last post, pirating novels is an ENTIRELY different thing, and I have vastly more opinions there than I do with other mediums. Because the publishing industry was designed to exploit and capitalize off the intellectual properties of INDIVIDUALS, unlike all those other mediums that are inherently collaborative and thus usually involve the combined efforts of several to dozens of people.

So at the end of the day, individual authors will ALWAYS suffer more from pirating, looooooong before publishing companies ever feel a ding in their profits. Because they designed it that way. Specifically SO that they, the big companies, would be protected. Its set up so that individual creatives, the authors, NEED publishing companies more than publishers need any singular author. Obviously the rise of indie publishing has changed this somewhat, but not as much as you might think.....because the thing is, indie authors are really only successful and profitable by the grace of Amazon. By the fact that Amazon can afford to pay authors 70 percent royalties on any sale as opposed to traditionally published authors who are lucky to get a ten to fifteen percent royalty rate on sales, with them not even seeing a cent of those royalties until AFTER their advance has already been paid back, if they ever even sell enough to make that happen at all.

And so like....its a very dangerous, precarious, and not at all trustworthy situation that allows for indie authors to CURRENTLY be profitable in ways or to degrees that a lot of traditionally published authors can’t be.

But that’s only because Amazon is taking a loss on most of the books they publish, due to this payment model. Because Amazon CAN. They can afford it. They make enough from all their other departments and revenue streams to buttress those losses. And Amazon has been using this, and using indie authors, to leverage traditional publishers into giving up more and more of THEIR profits from THEIR books, by giving Amazon even steeper discounts on the books they distribute to them, to be sold to consumers by Amazon.

And again, like I said before, its the individual creators, the bottom rung authors, who take the hits here first and in the biggest ways, because it remains true that the publishers have designed their payment structures so as to use the profits of individual authors to compensate for their own dip in profits.

And Amazon isn’t doing any of this for the little guy’s benefit. They don’t care about giving indie authors a leg up, an alternative to tradition publishers. They only care about CURRENTLY making indie authors need traditional publishers less than trad publishers need them, for a change.....but ONLY so that Amazon can rake in the increase in profits first and foremost.

Because here’s the kicker. The thing I worry too many indie authors and readers don’t account for.

INDIE AUTHORS STILL NEED AMAZON MORE THAN AMAZON NEEDS THEM.

Amazon is VOLUNTARILY taking losses on their book sales, and have been almost from the start. Because they don’t NEED that department in particular to be profitable for them NOW. They’ve been angling for a long time to get as close to an actual monopoly on the book market as is possible under current free market laws. So the thing is....unlike traditional publishers....Amazon doesn’t need ANY indie authors OR sales. Like, AT ALL. They could shut down their entire indie book model tomorrow, and not really be any worse off for it.

And the second Amazon doesn’t need indie authors even as LEVERAGE to pry more profits out of traditional publishers....you better believe that 70 percent royalty rate is going to vanish literally overnight. Because there’s absolutely nothing in Amazon’s business model or legal obligations to indie authors that requires they maintain it, or protects indie authors from having it suddenly dropped to a five percent royalty rate at Amazon’s whim.

So the second the scales tip far enough that Amazon decides they really don’t need or want to milk anything else out of traditional publishers, they’ve gotten as much of a price cut or a monopoly as they’re going to get or want to get without forcing publishers (and by extension their own ready made product that Amazon then distributes) out of business.....Amazon is going to quite happily STOP taking a loss on the sales of all these indie titles, and say well, we don’t need you as much now, so we’re gonna just give you ten percent royalties, take it or leave it. Its not like you have any better options at this point.

So whether traditionally published or indie published, pirating books hurts individual creators in very real, tangible ways that creators in other mediums aren’t affected, or are supplemented or buttressed against.

I say all this not to guilt anyone, but simply to provide information. Because there’s always so much discourse going back and forth around legality of pirating and ethics of pirating and so much stuff that’s not even consequential or relevant if people don’t even understand the MECHANICS of how pirating affects various mediums. So they can then make INFORMED choices on how they feel about pirating certain content versus other content.

As I was saying at the start of all of this....I have my own personal stance on pirating, and I don’t expect it or need it to be anyone else’s personal model. Like I said, I don’t really care about other mediums, and when it comes to novels, I’m against it as much as possible, but with caveats. Lots of people, including authors, describe novels as luxury items, and as such say that nobody’s justified in taking one for their own personal entertainment just because they WANT it. I differ from that POV because I honestly don’t consider books a luxury. I consider them to be absofuckinglutely as essential to the survival and THRIVING of the human condition as food or rest. Far more so than TV or movies, which not everyone has access to, or finds as easily accessible. Bottom line.....I fall in the category of arguing that its not enough just to survive. People have to have reason to survive, to live. Things to look forward to. Things to enjoy. Feeding the human spirit, as cheesy or whatthefuckever as that sounds, is every bit as essential as feeding the body. I would not have survived my childhood without books. I would not have survived my twenties without books. Hell, I would not have survived this YEAR without books.

So, even as an author myself, and yes, I have written stuff that’s been pirated (I made a fairly decent living for a couple years as a self-published indie author of m/m erotica and m/m erotic romance short stories, novellas and novels, and those particular genres/markets get the SHIT pirated out of them. So trust me, I am VERY much putting my money where my mouth is on this subject).

But yes, even as an author myself, I have zero problem with people pirating stuff because they honestly, truly legit can not afford it otherwise. Its not a lost sale. If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money. It doesn’t mean you still don’t need, let alone deserve, to have something to take your mind off your poverty, your stresses, your issues. And even if you technically have the money to afford a book, I’m well aware that doesn’t always mean you ACTUALLY have the money to afford it in any meaningful way. If you have five bucks to spend for the day, and a choice between a book and a bagel, or like, an actual sandwich and drink, that’s not a fucking choice that ANYONE should have to make. Use that five dollars to buy yourself a fucking sandwich and just pirate the book, I say. You can pay it forward when you get the chance. You find yourself with more money at a later point, by all means, go back and buy a legit copy of that book, your money’s still good then, and having had that book to enjoy at an earlier, more stressful time in your life might very well have contributed in even the tiniest of ways to you getting to a place where you had better finances and more spending money.

Yes, obviously, I am a big fan and proponent of libraries, and I think you should always go there first, if possible, to get your free literary content. Libraries are great, and they have a LOT more content, and more of a range of content, then a lot of people realize.

I am however aware that libraries are not necessarily practical for everyone. Sometimes you just plain can’t get to one, you have transportation or mobility issues or live in a household where your reading habits or interests are frowned upon or even penalized, because sometimes, parents are awful. Sometimes libraries just don’t have the content you’re looking for. Content is subjective, depends on staff, geography, community. LGBTQ+ kids shouldn’t have to risk being seen looking through the LGBTQ+ section of the library or checking out a book, if they’re not out at home or school or in their community. By all means, I would much rather a kid in that situation pirate the fuck out of their comforting, soul-sustaining LGBTQ+ themed books than risk upsetting a currently safe and secure status quo. Again, just pay it forward when and if you can, at a later date. And so on and so forward.

BUT, again, there’s caveats there, because with books, I consider it a case by case basis, and the case in question is the individual consumer. The above scenarios IMO are based entirely on the genuine, sincere situation of not being able to afford a book in any practical way, and not having a library as a valid option for getting that or any book.

This is an entirely different situation from HAVING the spending money, and being perfectly capable of dropping five bucks on a book versus five bucks on one of those much-talked-about-in-pirating-convos Starbucks’ lattes that you don’t NEED any more than anyone supposedly NEEDS to read a particular book.

If you CAN afford to pay full price for a book without dipping into funds intended for other practical necessities or hurting or even inconveniencing you in any meaningful way, if you CHOOSE to pirate a book you can access or download through legal channels with just as much ease as you can pirate it...(again, I’m aware that due to bullshit territory laws, not all content is legally available in all areas at all times, and this isn’t what I’m talking about).

I’m talking about if you’re NOT in a bad - not just slightly uncomfortable - but BAD, financially tight, thrifty, constantly stressed situation where its honestly a Sophie’s fucking Choice trying to decide if you’re gonna shell out your money for the sequel you’ve been waiting on pins and needles for for a fucking year and its been the only thing getting you through some days....or if you’re gonna like, eat today....

THAT’S when I have no patience for your piracy, specifically. Not when it comes to novels and the bottom lines of individual, hard-working authors, most of whom have to spend their lunch hours or come home after work to soak their blood, sweat and tears into the manuscript that becomes the book you just pirated. I know what I said about indie comic book creators having it so much more fucking tough than anyone else knows or realizes, but that doesn’t mean that midlist and lower than that authors don’t work DAMN fucking hard on their product, even after working forty hour weeks at some minimum wage job that’s every bit as soul-crushing as the worst job you’ve ever held.

And you’re not a fucking rebel or revolutionary if you’re taking money out of THEIR pocket, when you don’t need it yourself, just because you can. You’re not sticking it to the man, or teaching greedy capitalist publishing pigs the error of their ways. They don’t care, and you’re just being a dick.

Entitlement isn’t always a bad thing, I believe, because we ARE all entitled to certain things. A broke, disabled person with transportation issues and disability benefits that aren’t even enough to cover their actual living expenses is IMO every bit as ENTITLED as anyone else to a nice, stress-free, enjoyable read they picked out because it was precisely what they were looking for and not because it was the only thing out of ten available options that looked halfway decent. I will never ever judge or condemn or disparage someone for pirating in a scenario even REMOTELY close to that.

But that doesn’t mean that gratuitous entitlement doesn’t always exist, and isn’t obnoxious as fuuuuuuuuuuck. You’re not entitled to whatever you want, whenever you want, for as little as you feel like paying for it, just because you WANT it. And just because you can GET it, consequence free. If THAT’S the defining motivation or influence behind pirating the debut novel of a single mom working sixty hours a week to support her kids PLUS hanging onto her dreams and pounding out her novel over the course of a year and a half on her lunch hour.....then yeah, you fucking suck, and you know it, you whiny little shit who identifies with this paragraph and goes "who me? YOU DONT KNOW MY LIFE!” Yeah, I do. We all know someone like you. You’re not special.

Just like I know that author profile I just described there was not grabbed out of my ass, but describes someone very real and not at all embellished, and she’s not even the author I know in the most stressful scenario-whilst-writing. She certainly wouldn’t even consider herself in the Top Ten. And her publisher passed on the option for her sophomore novel, because her much-pirated book never made back the $25,000 advance she was paid over the course of three installments, which meant after taxes, she got an extra $10,000 bucks spread out among three eight month intervals, or just under two years.

So yeah. That’s where I fall. Soundly in the same camp I fall in most things: Actions have consequences, and you should always make an effort to be informed on what those consequences are before deciding whether or not you take action.

Let’s be real, no one’s effectively policing whether or not every individual consumer on the web pirates casually, extensively, or religiously, if at all. Its not likely EVER going to be an issue for you. That someone can actually keep you from pirating because you’re genuinely afraid of legal consequences.

But you shouldn’t need the threat of legal consequences, the question of can I get away with this or not, to police your own actions.

And at the risk of giving anyone whiplash, I for sure don’t give a fuck about the legality of taking away from the bottom line of massive, multi-million dollar corporate interests if I can get away with it. I’m just as entitled to keeping my five bucks that I worked DAMN FUCKING HARD FOR, as the people most likely to see that money even though they didn’t log a single actual hour on producing the content they’re charging five bucks for, IMO. I’m perfectly aware there’s a shit ton of people who’d call that rationale self-serving bullshit and hypocritical, but bite my lily-white Irish ass, I don’t give a fuck. I’m comfortable with my own morality.

But part of the reason I’m comfortable with my own morality, is that it tells me that even though there are times when I think I’m entitled to certain things I can’t necessarily afford, there are also times when I know I’m NOT entitled to things I may just not WANT to afford. Any time you’re able to justify ALWAYS having things your way without it ever costing you any kind of concession, I think that’s usually a good sign it might be time to stop and take a second look at yourself. Nobody gets to have everything their own way, to their best liking, all of the time.

But the flip side of that coin IMO, is that nobody should be penalized to NEVER having anything their own way, to their liking, ANY of the time. And if that’s the situation you’re in at some point in your life, and pirating’s the only available option to giving yourself a break from your regular monotony or currently-shitty-reality? Like, who the fuck am I to tell you not to pirate that feel good book or movie that has the chance to let you go to bed later with an actual smile on your face for a change? Who the fuck is anybody to tell you that?

*Shrugs*

There’s my two cents: The Ten Volume and Unnecessarily Long Saga.

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fleetwooded · 5 years

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talk about music!!!!!! gimme the whole top ten, then i also want 22, 44, and 88!!

THANK YOU FOR ENABLING ME STEPH!!! this ended up predictably long-winded, so here is the list, and you can click through to read how i feel about all these songs if you want to. if you’re on mobile, and have to scroll through, i’m so sorry.

1. why, fleetwood mac2. from the dining table, harry styles3. home, one direction4. animal, troye sivan5. i’m yours, pixie geldof6. ambitions, donkeyboy7. bring it on home to me, sam cooke8. bad (live), U29. american tune, paul simon10. 1950, king princess

22. everywhere, fleetwood mac44. trouble, lindsey buckingham88. border, years & years

ask me about my favourite music of the year!

1. why, fleetwood mac - this is ZERO PERCENT a surprise, i think i’ve fallen asleep to this song every night for the past three years. it is one of my favourite fleetwood songs even though it’s a real niche one - the final track off mystery to me, which is uhhh not one of their more popular albums. but a) i am very fond of the awkward post-peter green pre-lindsey/stevie albums, b) christine mcvie gets paid DUST by everyone, but she is an incredible songwriter with an incredible voice, and really held the band afloat during that era, and c) this song is so gentle and beautiful and i could never ever get tired of listening to it. i’m obsessed with the extended guitar opening, which keeps you waiting for the piano to kick in for ages and makes you instinctively listen more closely to the guitar throughout the whole song. also the lyric well, my heart will rise up with the morning sun / and the hurt I feel will simply melt away is such a beautiful and clearly expressed sentiment. and when those strings come out from the back of the arrangement just before the last stanza!! ugh i love this song.

2. from the dining table, harry styles - honestly this is only so high up because it is one of the other two songs on my sleep playlist and therefore gets played every day lmao. i will say that this is pretty much the only song of his where the studio version is better than the live version, and therefore the only one i regularly listen to after going to his concert bc i don’t resentfully compare it to the live experience. that harmony on the third maybe someday you’ll call me and tell me that you’re sorry too and the strings in that whole section make the entire song worth it.

3. home, one direction - lol i always say that my favourite 1d song is walking in the wind, but it’s really this one. i was in a very small, l*arry-free corner of the fandom when this came out, so it never had those associations for me, and i just think it’s a very warm and beautiful song and i DO NOT understand why it was not on the album. i also used to listen to it every morning back when i had to walk to work at 4:30am (in the winter! when it was pitch black and i lived in a not-so-great area!), and it was very very comforting to me, so listening to it always sparks that feeling of comfort, like being wrapped up tight in a warm blanket.

4. animal, troye sivan - the last song on my sleep playlist, and one of the best songs off his new album imo. my favourite kind of song is the kind where you can put on big headphones, get on a bus or train, close your eyes, press play, and just have an experience. it’s unquantifiable! everyone’s mileage will vary! you either feel it, or you don’t! but i really really feel it with this one, especially on the second verse. it’s such a stripped back song, but has this rich sonic landscape that just pulls you in if you let it.

5. i’m yours, pixie geldof - ugh, this album was such a huge and exciting discovery for me this year. i had no idea she made music until i heard woman go wild on one of nick grimshaw’s insta stories and looked it up, and then i listened to her album over and over and over again for months and developed a massive, useless celebrity crush on her. it’s a little bit derivative, definitely nothing groundbreaking, but so perfectly matched to my sensibilities and so endlessly listenable. i also find it very satisfying to hear something and instantly know it’s going to be your new favourite thing, and then get to prove yourself right. i usually listen to the album all the way through, so i don’t think about the specific songs too much, but if i had to pick a favourite, it would be this one!

6. ambitions, donkeyboy - i’m pretty sure i found this song because it was referenced in a fic lmao? if that is the case, a million thank yous to whoever wrote that, because i never would have come across it otherwise. it’s a collaboration between a 2000s norwegian synthpop band and a girl whose only other resume builder was finishing in seventh place on norwegian idol. but it is a BOP, and a bop with a strong emotional drive, which is the best kind. the lyric I can't tolerate / the feelings that I feel when I feel is another one i spend the whole song waiting for.

7. bring it on home to me, sam cooke - another song i have been listening to for years and years and never tire of. when my best friend moved out of her parents’ house, she said that the only reason she wanted her own place was so she could sit in her living room and play this song on a turntable. she did play it, often, because she only owned a few records for the longest time, so listening to it always brings me back to curling up on her couch and talking and talking while she made me dinner in her tiny and dark but beautiful home.

8. bad (live), U2 - god i love this song. i think i have talked about it on here before, so i won’t go on and on, but i LOVE this song. tbh i have never actually listened to the album version of this song, and maybe it is just as good, but i really love live albums - when they can capture the spirit and energy and RISK of a live concert, they feel so electric. anything could go wrong at any moment when music is being played live, or it could go SO right, and the artist and crowd could feed off each other’s energy until the whole venue feels alive, and the music could take on a whole new artistic life. idk what exactly it is, but i feel all that potential in this song. it’s eight glorious minutes of that electricity, and every time you think it’s peaked, it just keeps going and reaches new heights. my favourite is the bit where bono just belts out the words desperation, dislocation, separation, condemnation, isolation, desolation, isolation, let it go like a cry out into the universe. i think about it so often. sometimes i also want to just stand in front of a crowd and yell ISOLATION, DESOLATION. i feel that live music can often feel like a purging, or a cleansing, or a transformation - like singing about these feelings of profound misery or pain or anger with a crowd of people who also feel those feelings can reshape them into something joyful and exultant instead.

9. american tune, paul simon - damn, this really was a melancholic year!! this is another of my go-to comfort songs when i am feeling those lost feelings. i listened to it a lot in the winter, and again this fall, and related a little too much to the bits about being so far away from home. it’s got this sense of deep weariness in its lyrics and structure that i like listening to when i am very tired and want to commiserate. the drums leading up to the and I dreamed I was dying are my favourite musical moment, but my favourite lyric is the ending, with: tomorrow's going to be another working day / and I'm trying to get some rest / that's all I'm trying to get some rest.

10. 1950, king princess - honestly, introducing me and the world to king princess is the best thing harry did all year. first of all, it’s truly remarkable how much cultural power he has - not that this song wouldn’t have been successful without him, but literally every write-up and interview mentions him tweeting the lyrics as a mark of approval that propelled her into the public eye. it’s also just an incredibly well crafted song, and i’m endlessly impressed by her talent. to write and perform a song like this at her age is no small feat, and i’m very glad she’s ended up getting the attention she has. i got to see her live this summer with my sister and a few of our friends, and she was every bit as commanding and magnetic as i would have imagined.

22. everywhere, fleetwood mac - another all time favourite!! at my work this summer, my boss was a very cool woman who played in a very cool all-female punk band. we got along tremendously, except for that she had NO patience for me constantly playing what she referred to as “mom rock.” this one is the only fleetwood mac song she liked, so i would just play it over and over and we would delight in that shimmery little intro. when i was closing, i would put it on just as the sun went down enough to shine right through the big windows at the front of the store, and it feels good to know that i am going to listen to it years from now and remember that summer and that sun.

44. trouble, lindsey buckingham - my fave song of his, except maybe never going back again. i really like this whole album, but this song is another one i just want to burrow inside because it feels so rich and dense. i feel like i have nothing to say about him that hasn’t already been said - he’s a massively underrated guitarist, and a great songwriter, and i just love listening to him play.

88. border, years & years - a fantastic song off a fantastic album. i’m ngl i was a little disappointed by their sophomore album, so i just kept listening to this one. also brings me back to great memories of seeing them live and the catharsis of yelling my heart, it will start to shine / and I will be alright with a whole crowd of people. live music is magic!!

if anyone made it here, thank you for reading. i love year-in-reviews. it feels good to take stock of a year and try to put all the little moments and periods of time in order and make some sense out of them. i also love music, and it feels good to sit down and listen to my most listened to songs with new ears and try to remember or figure out why i listened to them so often. it’s been a long, hard, tumultuous year, but my relationship with music has really flourished, and stuff like this feels like nurturing that love.

#if anyone went and read all that: you are such a trouper thank you so much #1000-directions

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bellaciaobitch · 6 years

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i love your fics so so much !! ❤️ i hope (like, if by chance) you make some au fics wherein raquel isn't a police and sergio isn't the professor and the story doesn't revolve around robbery and all those money heist and perhaps they could be like 2 CEOs from 2 rival companies etc ? :) idk it just looks nice but that's just me, no pressure :)) (too embarrassed to reveal my identity sorry 👌😂)

you know what’s really crazy? I wrote something like that a few weeks ago! But it was slightly different, they were both lawyers working in the same big company, competing hard to impress their boss and get on top of their career. So I had to change a little bit to fit in your request but I think it turned out great. Let me know if you like it! [Warning: improper language and a little bit of smut.]

***

Taking Control

The clicking of the heels was a familiar sound to Raquel at that point, even if she hated hard those uncomfortable shoes. She walked quickly down the path to the great ballroom, still smoothing her black leather skirt glued to her body, mentally cursing herself for being late for an occasion as important as the cocktail party of the national congress of lawyers and judges of Spain.

The place would be full of sponsors and the right partnership combined with a good marketing plan could leverage the profits of her law firm by more than sixty percent. She was confident that her team was made up of the best professionals in Madrid, and that almost all contracts they closed were rewarded with positive results and the clients’ satisfaction. She was also sure that she was one of the most competent lawyers in the city and that her hard work building the company out of nowhere deserved more recognition. And Rachel was not the sort of woman who would rest until she got what she wanted.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” she muttered, stopping on the steps that led to the entrance to adjust the left shoe that was slicing her heel. Then she took a deep breath and counted down five seconds, incorporating the successful executive Raquel Murillo: the unbreakable woman with no flaws, determined gaze, sexy smile and perfect posture. She walked slowly through the entrance and gave her name to the receptionist who wished her goodnight as she entered the place.

She took a drink from a waiter’s plate to disguise her eyes scanning the room from the dance floor to the bar in the opposite corner. Watched the guests one by one until spotted a circle of executives with expensive tuxedos, chattering around a particular man. She could distinguish some publicists, representatives from various companies, journalists and, at the center, recognized Judge Prieto, the most famous in Spain. He was the hero of the people, with many cases settled, outlaws dutifully sent to prison and the public opinion always playing in his favor. The perfect target of the night. If Raquel had that man as an ally, she would never have to worry about reputation again. She ran her hands through her hair and rubbed her lips together to strengthen the lipstick, ready for the attack, before being abruptly cut off.

“Careful, Raquel, if you stare too much, they may think you are desperate,” the voice whispered behind her ear in a seductive way and Rachel jumped, almost spitting the Martini back into the glass. She turned her body already with a scowl to face the owner of the voice she had already identified only by it’s sarcastic tone. There, standing with his chest inflated and an annoying smile on his lips, Sérgio Marquina watched her with a glass in one hand and the other in his pocket.

Rachel hated him. She hated him more than she hated shoes, makeup, and tight clothing. She hated more than all the prejudice that she suffered in the law business for being a woman. She hated him since they first met, three years ago in a congress similar to that one. She loathed every little detail on his angular face: the black squared glasses that fitted his eyes and gave him an air of arrogance, his messy hair and the thick beard that framed his cheekbones and jawline. And she didn’t really need to see him with less clothes to know that she would also despise his defined, muscular body that the meticulously lined gray suit concealed. She hated his intelligence, his cunning and his damn office that competed directly with hers. If someone asked her, Raquel would never admit she kind of found Sergio attractive, especially because she had grown so used to loathing everything about him that she barely noticed that her hands were sweating as he approached.

“Fuck you, Marquina,” she swore, giving him a deadly look.

“Hey, where are your manners?” He asked, opening another wry smile.

“For you, buried 6 feet under”

“Well, good evening to you too, Murillo. I came to make you an invitation. To sit at the same table as those guys you were staring at like a dog looking for a piece of meat” he said gesturing to the group of men behind Raquel “but if you keep treating me like that, I’ll have take it back. ”

“Keep it” Rachel replied, finishing her martini in one swallow and turning her back on him again “I do not need you”

“Oh, of course you don’t” Sergio said, again too close to her ear, their cheeks almost touching. “But you need them. And we can certainly split the partnership equally and the two companies will win. ”

Raquel was about to refuse but something in her instinct tingled. He was right, her firm needed the publicity that Prieto would bring. It was a rather attractive invitation, but coming from Sergio, there was always something else. She knew he was always planning everything. Raquel raised an eyebrow, and bited the inner side of her cheek, still watching the executives but not really paying much attention to them.

“What do you want?”

“Well, what makes you think I want something?” Raquel heard Sergio laugh and rolled her eyes before turning to face him again. “I just need a favor, which won’t be a big deal for you”

“Sergio Marquina needing favors?” she asked sarcastically “Don’t make me laugh”

“One help for another” he rebuked, adjusting his glasses on his nose.

“Spit it out, then”

“Follow me.”

Raquel frowned as Sérgio turned around and opened way across the crowd. She was always an impatient woman and her goodwill with surprises was almost none but she followed him anyway, sneaking around the dancefloor, avoiding people who danced and laughed together. When she finally found him, he had stopped behind an old little man with bald head and a jacket slightly too big for his body.

“Dad,” he patted the man’s shoulder to catch his attention and waited for her to stop by his side. “This is the woman I told you about. Raquel Murillo, my fiancé”

Raquel didn’t have time to protest, - or to say anything at all - , let alone to ask what was happening. Mr. Marquina gave a sincere and affectionate smile that wrinkled around his eyes and reached out to greet her.

“Hello, sweetheart, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you!”

“F-finally?” She replied grinning awkwardly but her eyes were still wide.

“Oh, yes! Sergio told me everything about you. You know, I might have been making too much pressure on him to have kids, but I am honest when I say that my greatest interest is for him do be happy with his family”

“Kids?!” Rachel choked on her saliva, completely shocked and finally could look at Sérgio, who seemed extremely calm by her side, playing the perfect part. She should have known something was up, he really was a man of planning.

“Come on, Dad, don’t be hasty. We’re still … talking … about the children subject,” he answered, slipping a lopsided arm around her waist and rebuking her angry glare with a fake smile. But, Mr. Marquina did not notice the tension in the air. Instead, he let out a loud laugh and patted his son’s shoulder.

“Okay, right” he said, catching up the air and looking back to Raquel. “Good lord, sweetheart, you’re beautiful! My son chose well! Why don’t you sit down here and we can talk better?”

“I would love to, but …” she was ready to politely refuse, trying not to be rude to the kind gentleman when the executives who were once around Prieto sat at the table where Sergio’s father was, each with a girlfriend or a wife hanging on their arms.

And Raquel understood. He was Joaquin Marquina, the great businessman who gave his name to the renowned law firm and retired recently, letting the millionaire company for his son’s care. The man was famous in the business and it was clear that he needed a perfect family to maintain the appearance. He needed his son to find a wife soon and give him perfect little grandchildren who would grown up spoiled to be the future heirs to his legacy. Of course, Sergio was not the family type of man so he was unable to care about all his father’s blabber. He just wanted a distraction while he would pose with the other important man in the room. So he had to drag his archenemy to his unfair play, transforming her from ‘Raquel Murillo, the successful lawyer’ to 'his girlfriend’.

Even so, Rachel sat down next to Mr. Marquina and talked to him for what seemed like hours. She did it not for Sergio but for his father, who seemed a very decent man and didn’t deserve the manipulative son he had. She felt her blood boil even more when she realized that Sergio simply forgot about her existence and was too busy talking to Prieto about bills and past judgments. That was his plan. Reduce her to nothing. Make her lie, pretend and waste her time with his problems while himself enjoyed the company of the greatest judge in Spain.

When she could no longer hear his annoying laugh without screaming in rage, Raquel excused herself, explaining that she needed to go to the restroom. She walked away from the party, the music and the people, because she needed a quiet place to light up a cigarette and smoke down her anger. She looked at a clock set on one of the walls and saw that it was past midnight. Soon everyone would leave and she had lost her chance again. She couldn’t believe how she was dumb for trusting him and promised herself that she would never forgive him for making her feel so small and so insignificant. By then, tears were brimming her eyes and she walked faster through the corridors of the mansion so no one would see her blurred makeup.

“Hey.” Sergio pulled her arm before she could even reach the back door.

“Don’t touch me,” she said releasing herself from his hand. “You’re very good, you know that? A very good manipulative asswhole. You played me like an idiot again, in front of all those people just to have Prieto all for you ”

“Oh, I did?” He looked offended “you eat shit? I didn’t do anything on purpose, just had to get rid of my father and wanted to play a joke. I’m sorry if you were not able to get out of the situation on your own”

“Oh my god, Sergio, you play so dirty. And you still have the dumb-ass face to think you can fool me. You’re a daddy’s little boy who controls absolutely everything to get what you want, even if it means stepping on someone else”

“Well at least I’m nice with people. You’re a heartless monster…”

“Shut up, you are not in position to…”

“… you think that you can boss people around but the truth is, no one can stand you …”

“I said, shut the fuck up.”

“Why do you think your ex-husband left you, anyway?”

“SHUT UP” Raquel screamed and the slap she gave him next echoed through the desert corridor.

Sergio’s cheek turned red immediately and he flew his hand to his face with his brows furroed, trying to understand what just happened. They stared into each other’s eyes for a few seconds, and the air filled with hatred and tension. Sergio wanted to retaliate in some way, torture her, hurt her, tear her into million pieces. But when he heard his father’s voice calling him from afar, the only thing he could think of doing to hide their arguing was to kiss her.

So he pressed his lips on hers and held her steady until she stopped fighting in his arms. The plan was to let her go as soon as his father saw the two of them together and left, so he stopped kissing her, feeling guilty for his attitude even if he wanted to continue.“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t-” but he couldn’t say more because her lips where on his again, as Raquel threw her arms around his neck.

It was like a game. An intense tug of war in which the two tried to show who was more overwhelming. She deepened the kiss first, intertwining his tongue in hers voraciously, as if trying to prove something. He, on the other hand, sucked her bottom lip so avidly that he almost drew blood.

Neither of them thought long before they started to slide their hands through the other’s body. When Sergio lifted Raquel up and she tangled her legs on his hips she knew they were going too far but couldn’t bring herself to care. He carried her to the nearest private room, and she slipped her tongue from his mouth to his jawline, his earlobe, then his neck.

She sank her teeth in his jugular and could feel him growling beneath his breath, an erection pulsing under his pants. Raquel smiled proudly when he responded her teasing with slamming her body against a wall, not minding if she would hit her head. But then she found herself unzipping his pants and ripping his expensive shirt open without much delicacy, destroying a button or two in the process. Sergio eyed her with a mix of lust and defiance when he pulled up her skirt and grabbed her ass, feeling her nails dig even more into the bare skin of his shoulders.

Raquel wanted to torture him slowly, to hear him moan in pain, to give him enough pleasure that would make him beg for more. She wanted to turn him inside out only to analyze every inch of his beautiful, cold brain. But more than all this together, she wanted to release the latent desire that pulsed between her legs at that moment.

“Fuck,” she gasped when he kissed her neck, pulling her panties aside and sliding one finger inside her. That moment she realized she had lost it. She wasn’t quite sure what: maybe her sanity, her control, her reputation or their little game. But for a woman who was always trying to win, losing had never felt so good. “I fucking hate you.”

#la casa de papel #money heist #raquel y el profesor #raquel murillo #sergio marquina #raquel x profesor #raquel x professor #au #iwritestuff

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incarnateirony · 6 years

Text

Ratings for Dummies

An explanation kit to those having to deal with people who spew mindless garbage about higher or lower viewers on a given week.

I'm going to begin this with a challenge: if you've been copy-pasted this as a default retort for doing the above, I dare you to read all of it. If you're 100% confident in your opinion, and educated on your reasoning beyond a random corner of the internet number set pulled out of your butt and recited ad nauseum, you should be able to postulate a reply instead of "UR STUPID." - Anything else, you either have to internalize a debate about how often you've made yourself look like a complete jackoff to the fandom and TPTB, or just knowing and willfully spread disinformation. You are encouraged to cross-search ratings talk when I start busting out techie terms - because contrary to how the fandom likes to fling ratings around, there is in fact a science to this.

Let's start with

What are raw viewers worth?

Jack shit.

I mean if one ep had 80,000 more people watching it-

It still doesn't mean jack shit.

That doesn't make sense.

Okay so here's where we get into some real-world talk.

If you think for a second, for a moment's glance, that the entirety of any TV show's following are like us, in the deep end of the fandom, humping press releases and tracking character appearances, tuning in for any time someone breathes a character's name, you have an incredibly distorted version of reality to begin with.

But you said some characters have base loyalty...

Character loyalty does have impact, to some measure. For example, between seasons 11-12-13 Castiel maintained a 72,000-74,000 character exclusive draw per episodes that featured him (which IS a base allure of roughly 0.028 to 0.035 depending on the viewership night). And no, that doesn't mean only 70K~ people are fans of his. That means there's 70K~ people that are humping promos with dedication enough to know and tune in only for his presence. Now, you don't have to be a math wizard to know that this is about 4% of routine audience being dedicated explicitly and only to Castiel (1.7-8 million base viewership / 74k = 23~; 100/23 - you get the point.)

So yes. Character loyalty impacts numbers. We can't really give J2 exclusive numbers, because, well, J2 are in every episode - ergo we can't really determine their independent draw, especially minding that for example Castiel is himself expected in half episodes, other recurring characters in quarters of episodes and so on ad infinitum, and we have very little measure of how well the show will handle with only them.

Oh, wait, we do. It was season 7. Keep that in mind. We'll get back to this point.

But this is where that ends. Because a lot of the viewers are just that: interested in the full dynamic of a show. Many are what you'd call casual viewers, but many casual viewers are also dedicated in their own standards. Swathes of people who have watched the show since the dawn of time have never poked into social media. They never looked into show or fandom politics. They simply tune in and enjoy the complete picture.

This is what your real core demographic is. I've seen fans talk about "We're the core dem-" STFU. Really. Get over yourselves. At the peak that movement had 400 heads to it and since then most have utterly quit the show or idled out. There's roughly 200 active at this point. So I want you to realize what a piss in the bucket that is. We can get into the absolutely failed Tombstone boycott as a perfect example later on. But for now, we need to get to how ratings /actually/ work.

Well then, is it demos that matter?

To some extent, yes, but that's a microcosm in a much more complex macrocosm, and to get to that, first you need to understand the values of the "True" and "Plus" systems, what they are, and why they exist. To do this, you need to understand

The death of network television

When Supernatural first started in 2005, we had an entirely different entertainment landscape. Cell phones were bricks without internet (as even reflected in early show), most people were on dialup and if lucky, lowgrade DSL we'd laugh at modernly; there was no streaming, DVR was a pricy alternate feature on top of already pricy cable less than half of american homes had. Rabbit ears were still a very real thing until 2009 when the Digital Television Relay transition took effect. 2005-2009 was a transition point into cable being considered common and, even after this period, a large portion of the population still didn't have it and it was basically mandated at a certain point and stations everywhere had to flip across. This may be shocking to anyone under the age of 30, but /not everybody had cable when SPN started./ In fact, only a minority did.

Why is this important? Because the death of network television is important before I even get to explaining the "Plus" system and why it /exists./

Cable and Sat TV's been around for a while. Back in the old days, people got these giant assed antennas installed on top of their house that looked like you were trying to catch alien transmissions. But this was by no means a standard. Even still, even long before SPN was a thing, Nielsen and other interested parties took interest in tracking the decline of television, but it /really/ started ramping up around 2009 because of the transition.

But if you didn't have cable? If you weren't a lucky sod or early converter? You had six, maybe eight local stations. WB/CW (2006) was one of them. You generally got Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, WB, CW... and maybe one other rando and a few locals. Welcome to television. So, lo and behold, when people turned on their TV, they only had... 6, 8 choices? Goooo figure. These stations - ALL of them - had MUCH HIGHER RATINGS.

Notice the “today” is a chart that ended in 2011. Now have fun wading through the rest.

Does anyone remember Kripke talking about being in the Bubble and being unsure the show was going to make it until Misha Collins tanked in? This isn't about stanning Misha (I am not nor have I ever been a Misha stan, I am a TPTB stan and ALL related individuals) - this is about explaining just where Kripke's head was at. That's because as the show progressed, it started losing value. We're gonna get to ratings later, but know that CW was not going to syndicate until it reached 88 episodes, and by late season 3... it didn't look like they were going to get there. At a glance, looking at numbers and demos both, it looked like the show... marginally recovered, tada, happy day. But there is a picture far, far deeper than this.

Okay so that’s just news but...

Do you see these charts? These are just... several I whipped up off a quick google search regarding network television. Notice the one showing network shares drops off dead at 2012; and if any of you, whatsoever, realize anything it's that in these last five years, we've had a truly digital boom. Everyone has a cell phone with internet. Everyone has cable, DVR, high speed internet. In the US, at least. It's a very, very, VERY small population that doesn't anymore. As a result And just in case for some reason you're unaware of that, here have a CHART and another CHART. And take notice that Amazon, Hulu, and other major streaming services do NOT report ratings. They make the studio money, yes, and they're very happy and aware of that, but you'll never see it reflect in viewers or demos. But despite this, at least until the 2012 cutoff, seems like CW’s share stayed pretty level, didn’t it? But... where is it going?

Oh, IDK.

Now if for any reason you think this has zero impact or ramifications in ratings across the board on major networks, let's try this: Simpsons. Totally different genres, viewership types, right? Here's a bundle of charts. I even overlapped them within the year brackets for the visually impaired.

You can try it with the time period for anything. Check out WWE. Check out anything out in the US this long. Overlay. Start feeling embarassed.

QED: Ratings literally everywhere have gone down. And that's what the "Plus" factor in ratings is for.

Okay you keep talking about "Plus" so WTF IS PLUS

Plus isn't exactly what the industry calls it, but it's become a widely acknowledged tag for the general public. "Plus" is a factor that people-that-aren't-dumb-and-work-in-TV are fully aware of and, I promise, with all of those charts in mind, completely expect. It's a lot simpler to just call it Plus.

A18-49+ (or "Plus" for short) is a stab at a "fair" measurement of historical TV ratings in a world where Live + Same Day broadcast ratings and renewal standards are constantly on the decline. To create a fair measurement for entertainment programming, a 30 year ratings buff came up with the rating for the average moment of primetime entertainment programming on the big four broadcasters in each season starting with 2001-02, as "league average."

A18-49+ takes a show's average rating for a season, divides it by the "league average" for that season, and multiplies by 100. That means a show with a 100 A18-49+ did exactly the "league average" for entertainment programming. The bigger, the better.

You can read more from the creator here: http://www.spottedratings.com/p/a18-49-index.html

Keep in mind this individual has no affiliation with SPN or the CW, doesn't give two flying FUCKS about your fandom drama or ships, and has been studying ratings since before most of the squawkers here popped out of their mother. The others, you may have been in school at the time. That said, before you start screaming any of the trivializing "bias" horse shit you can feel free to go argue with that sysop and look like a righteous jackass to them too, or you can deal with the fact that someone, somewhere, is far, far more aware of what they're talking about than you are.

Now that we have that handled,

So... demos don't mean anything?

No, they do. They're an important microcosm in a very vast macrocosm that's eternally expanding. Demos show us our "percent share" of people watching actual television on any given day and time. Even on shitty days where SPN is panning a flat 0.50, that means one in two hundred people with their TVs on in america are watching, basically. It's a little more complicated than that, but this is gonna be long enough.

However, demos can be impacted by just... high TV viewing nights. Let's say a TV show has a highly dedicated cult fandom and then, I dunno, the Olympics click on. Even if that show retains every base line fan, unless it has something like a ratings draw character that rakes in more than their average viewers, the demo is going to faceplant even if they happen to get MORE viewers. Why? Because 5 bazillion new people just tuned into the Olympics that usually wouldn't even watch TV and now our percentiles are fucked up.

To some extent, those of us that are versed in the mechanics of the TV world can kind of speculate what's going to slag viewership on a given night.

Holidays, olympics, etc. If you air a TV episode on Christmas when a million people around the US all decide to tune into the fucking hallmark channel to watch a fake fireplace with fake puppies running around, suddenly everything goes to hell. And so on. There's other more detailed nuances than this, of course, but these are the ones that make sense without pages of extra exposition.

That said, a demo can flux up and down even on the exact same number of viewers. Sometimes, a demo can be below an episode even though it had more viewers. Demo matters more than raw viewers because it shows the general retention better than raw heavy traffic does, since there can just be a lazy damn day in America by some fluke and boom, heavy general click-on. Viewership, in the end, means about as much as a fart in the wind. Demos give us localized views within the structure of a few seasonal periods. Demos of surrounding years can be relatively contiguous, but while hundreds of station options expand, streaming becomes more prevalent and more, the core networks, as seen on the above charts, seem to be dying demographically.

I promise it's not that the Simpsons or WWE have become 1/3 as entertaining as before, and neither has SPN. The simple fact of it is: people have diversified options in what, and how to view.

So back to base: The Plus factor is a simple algorithm to determine that. Networks take it into account too, that's why they're still making money, and still airing things that, in theory, have 1/2 or 1/3 the ratings they had a handful of years ago. Because in reality: that's simply not true. And anyone that continues to recite this shows they have no idea what they're talking about. Then there's "True," which is ratings adjusted for timeslot and station, as CW has its own formula if you look up "Plus,"

Okay fine but SPN started at a 2.5 demo in season 1 and has a 0.6 demo now and you can't even-

Okay first of all, hold the phone, S1-3 stan, because we've got some enlightenment here.

Literally any new show in that era (due to the limited options thing) got a wealth of attention. Did you know that by midseason demo had already dropped to 1.7 and share had dropped from 6 to 4? It only broke 2.0 one other time that season, dropping as low as 1.3 in the penultimate episode, with the finale marking in at 1.6. Supernatural lost an entire viewership percentile over the course of only its first season, and the average was a 1.9. (Source: http://www.spottedratings.com/2011/12/spotvault-supernatural-cw-2005-06.html )

Season 2 fared no better, starting at 1.7 and never returning to it, declining to 1.2 by the finale with a 29% loss on year to year. However, later on, I'm going to break out the "Plus" metric and show why... this was actually okay. For now, it looks rough on S1-3 stans, but hang in there! Plus will shine for you on this. Just wait until we do raw demo breakdown. Just hang onto the average being 1.38. (Source: http://www.spottedratings.com/2011/12/spotvault-supernatural-cw-2006-07.html )

Supernatural returned in season 3 at 1.2, where it left off, bouncing between and staying... just about stable there. Even on season average (1.2) (Source: http://www.spottedratings.com/2011/12/spotvault-supernatural-cw-2007-08.html )

As I recently went through the skull busting agony of finding "the first episode of March" for all seasons to show a thematic trend, I'm going to give you "first episode of March" (not withstanding S3 which was off until end of April) with Plus values as pulled from this same site. All the way through the end of "Kripke's vision." S1: 3/30/06 37 S2: 3/15/07 37 (+0%) S3: 4/24/08* 30 (-19%) S4: 3/12/09 33 (+10%) S5: 3/25/10 39 (+19%) Literally, arbitrary date/episode number you can go back and cross reference for air times. Go ahead, prove I'm wrong. And if you want, and are willing to give a few days for me to pull up the independent Plus values on all of these seasons (or do so yourself) - go and check. Try to /not/ be so transparent as to lurch for the initial surge wave of S1 that we've already covered the horrific slashing of. This is clearly where we equalized.

So what's up with S2 having the same "Plus" value as S1, when S2 had a drop? Well, check the seasons, the S1 March ep and S2 ep basically got the same viewership on that specific episode, and no major changes happened. Tada! Cool. So what happened in S3? We flatlined.

What was the bottom of S2's barrel on ratings became our average point. Simple enough. Be it demos, audience, or "Plus," S3 kinda waffled - while still in the grey area of syndication that Kripke was worrying about (88 episodes.) So moving into S4, you see the +10 value. Things were /starting/ to update but not wildly at this point. Season started at 1.7, which we hadn't seen in a while, then danced around and landed at an average of 1.3; still a higher demo than S3, but I mean, not staggeringly so.

But here's where those plusses get fun.

As above, in 2009, digital conversion became mandated. You could either buy an expensive converter box to keep watching regular TV, have NO TV, or go to cable. By then, portions of friends had gotten basic cable, most people cracked and went to table, but not all yet. Some still scrabbled for rabbit ears. Even still, on all above graphs and charts, you'll notice the decline setting forward. S5 hit with a starter demo of 1.4, balancing routinely to 1.22, lending it between S 4 and S 2 - so what gives on it being ranked ABOVE both of them? (+19% over S4, +29% over S3, +10% over S1-2) - BECAUSE EVERYBODY HAD CABLE OR NO TV.

That's right, diversity was almost thrust upon the general audience, but at that point, cable was still a fairly small universe compared to now. Streaming still wasn't a thing. Lo and behold, even though S5's season average was on par between 3 and 5, the value was ranked above - as the true death of broadcast television began... and miraculously, SPN pretty much kept its viewerbase while other stations started dropping like flies in 2009.

---

Still reading? Probably not the people this needs to reach, but it'll educate those that do truly WANT to know.

Ah... season 6. I have so many things to say about season 6-7. First of all I do feel like Sera Gamble was kind of thrown under a bus; S3 had the writer's strike, S4 Manners was pulling out due to DYING, then S5 Kripke and head author Carver both bounced like DEUCES and left Gamble scrambling with a tied off storyline and a now-syndicated show demanding more.

Despite S4-5 pulling out and bearing through the decline of network TV, season 6, in pure demos, didn't do that well. Started at 1.3, ended at 0.8, and on top of that got boned over onto Fridays too. TLDR season average was 0.99. There's a lot of factors in this drop - from some original audience being appeased by Swan Song, the schedule change, and other people just not liking the new production and direction, but the thing is? It still held. It was S7 that fell through the goddamn floor. S1: 3/30/06 37 S2: 3/15/07 37 (+0%) S3: 4/24/08* 30 (-19%) S4: 3/12/09 33 (+10%) S5: 3/25/10 39 (+19%) S6: 3/04/11 39 (+0%) [Moved to Friday] S7: 3/16/12 30 (-24%) So before anybody starts crying about Born Again Identity being the lowest rated as DA PROOF that Cas wasn't wanted back, you need to look at that. LOOK AT IT. That was the episode before he came back, with no warning nor ad at that point indicating he would. S7 fell to an average of 0.73, or in demo talk, about a 26.5% demo loss. Plus rounds off 2.5 of that as standard network losses over that period. But the fact of it, by every demographic, at this point, the last two seasons had lost us HALF of the season 4-5 stable demographic that resisted the digital conversion period.

There's a reason Gamble doesn't work there anymore.

So let's talk more about demos, and how they're often flagrantly abused in the name of hate.

Let's look at season 8. Season 8's recovery may have seemed meager. It rode low on the aftermath of S7 and started at only 0.8, but routinely stabilized at 1.0, including the back end of the season, leaving us a 0.92. Here's the Plus value share, S6: 3/04/11 39 (+0%) [Moved to Friday] S7: 3/16/12 30 (-24%) S8: 3/20/13 47 (+58%) S9: 3/04/14 48 (+2%)

You notice anything here? Mainly that they projected a 50% annual incline of data usage back then? You know, people who worked in it? Or how about the one that showed the projections were spot on when the chart was made afterward? How about a report on how many TV networks branched on cable around then? Or defaulting back to those cripplingly flatlining charts? Broadcast TV is dead, Jim. But somehow, despite only recovering to just-under the ratings of S6 (roughly 28%~ recovery demo-wise), it counted as a +58% increase. Again, it's not me, it's them. [points at the 30 year ratings experts] Network TV declined, but SPN bounced back.

As you can see, S9 held the sharing line, but that's also because SPN had updated.

Updated how? Oh, let's see... Supernatural had been loaded for binge watch on Netflix. DVR and SD started popularizing and becoming mainstream. S9 stabilized us back at a 1.0 raw demographic despite these tumultuous changes in television. Back to Plus, S8: 3/20/13 47 (+58%) S9: 3/04/14 48 (+2%) S10: 3/18/15 36 (-33%) S11: 3/23/16 44 (+22%) So here's where it looks like it gets dicey. Season 10 started at a 1.1 share, which we really hadn't seen since... well, Kripke era. It hovered around the 1.0 line until midseason. I also have my feelings about the back-end of S10's handling, and by the sounds of interviews and panels, so did the cast and crew, but someone pitched a direction, we meandered, ratings drifted. 0.1>0.9>0.8>0.7>0.6. Even the finale didn't bank better than 0.7, and our average dropped at 0.8. Fun fact though, that -33% on the first episode of March? One of the lowest rated episodes on the season, notwithstanding the horrible choice of killing off Charlie. But by then, viewership had floundered. Even still, at our LOWEST episodes on the season, we're holding the network share ABOVE the S9 gains... as once again digital around us booms.

Don't believe me? Check. You can forward and backtrack everything I'm saying on these seasons. (Source: http://www.spottedratings.com/2014/10/spotvault-supernatural-cw-2014-15.html )

Curiously after midseason, on the bottom chart, you can literally SEE the perpetual decline on every metric. You can LITERALLY look at it as it started dropping viewers to competition.

Ultimately, S11 led in about where you'd expect, a small tick above S10's ending, because... premieres. Duh. 0.9. TLDR ratings at a glance teeter tottered around 0.71 on demographic. Our demo went down 0.1 ... but our Plus went up 22%? And better, our Plus went up 22% on one of the LOWEST RATED episodes OF season 11? And the better part of the extended charts (http://www.spottedratings.com/2015/10/spotvault-supernatural-cw-2015-16.html) are green instead of red?!?! What black magic is this?

The black magic is called being in the year 2016. How many of your US friends didn't have highspeed internet? How accessible was CW app which wasn't connecting in yet? How many people buy from Amazon, Hulu, or other streaming sources that don't report ratings but just feed in direct profits?

DING DING DING, EUREKA. Maybe this has clicked on a light in a few skulls. We'll touch briefly on S12-13.

Look, I'm not a S12 fan. I fucking hated S12. But I have the brains enough to know that this 0.6 it has? The population doesn't. There's a reason TPTB is holding on and it's not ThE DeStIEL aGENdaaaaa. It's not SaMEraSUre. So let's talk. S12. Led in at 0.8 from S11, hit .6 pretty immediately spare for like 12x12 and a few other flukes, rode the perfect 0.6 average line. But where is our Plus? S11: 3/23/16 44 (+22%) S12: 3/02/17 49 (+11%)

That's right. Despite our average going down 0.1 at a glance to people who don't understand how The Internet works, our Plus values increased 11%. Because guess what? IT WAS 2017 AND EVERYTHING IS FREAKING DIGITAL. So how about we do the time warp to the current, and realize we're in 2018, and not back in 2005-land where cell phones were mythic ideas that you were excited if you could play 2-tone space invaders on.

Those were first eps of March, right? Enjoy the first week of March, this year (13x14) (http://www.spottedratings.com/2018/03/spotted-ratings-thursday-3118.html#more)

See the buttons for Raw and Plus?

First of all let me disclaimer this. At the point I'm writing this piece, true-true finals haven't been tallied in and the main page for it hasn't been made in archive yet with true finals. These are prelims. I'm writing this before TVSF or any of the big websites people like to bounce to as casuals thinking they're ITK about ratings go to look at, release anything. Both this page and TVSF say 0.6 at this point. I can promise the final is going to be (or be close to, such as within a 0.01~) 0.56; Why? Because this same site also releases unrounded prelims, and both this page, TVSF, and almost any page does a round-up. Unrounded prelims were 0.558. We got 0.56.(Adjustments can and do happen but, at the point of this post, we’re not getting railed by a lot of pre-emptions and prelims have generally been within 0.01; the specific accuracy of fast track national unrounded prelims can vary such as with a large pre-empt.)

But do yourself a favor. Check the Plus. Season 13: 3/1/2018 - episode 13x14 - 56. A 14% increase in network share at current and, even if this drops a few points with a 0.56 adjustment, no doubt at least a 10% increase. So let's do some math: S1: 3/30/06 37 S2: 3/15/07 37 (+0%) S3: 4/24/08* 30 (-19%) S4: 3/12/09 33 (+10%) S5: 3/25/10 39 (+19%) S6: 3/04/11 39 (+0%) [Moved to Friday] S7: 3/16/12 30 (-24%) S8: 3/20/13 47 (+58%) S9: 3/04/14 48 (+2%) S10: 3/18/15 36 (-33%) (earlier episodes would give us nearer to -20% but we're being nice to antis.) S11: 3/23/16 44 (+22%) S12: 3/02/17 49 (+11%) S13: 3/01/18 56 (+14%) You... you do realize that in terms of broadcast television, this means that S13 is performing, functionally, 51% better than S1-2 did at origin and as much as 86% better than season 3?

You... you do realize that, right?

So while someone sits here, screaming, "WHY HAVEN'T TPTB LISTENED TO US?" maybe stop and realize that it is because you are WRONG to the point of being utterly incoherent to anyone that knows how this works. The seasons railed for are the lowest performance, the attempt to go back TOWARDS those demands in early S7 threw the show BACK into that early trashcan, and all steps made by the eras that a certain very small, noisy sect of haters screech about have in fact redeemed the show, first in regaining MASSIVELY exodused demo, then stabilizing it across other mediums and still climbing compared to all competition.

Now I will rub SOME salt in the wound. Tombstone. You know that one that all the haters rioted, hashtagged a #mysupernatural boycott during to prove they weren't watching, ended up having a GIANT ratings jack?

Yeah. Its Plus value was 69. Or, summarily, sizably above two times the network value of early seasons. And had a 20% increase over Year to Year in the same slot. And a 40% increase on "true year to year" from even S12.(http://www.spottedratings.com/2017/11/spotted-ratings-thursday-111617.html) Don't believe me? Ask the dishes. Click plus.

The simple fact of it is: the people that scream the show is "dying" are wrong in every field imaginable. The show is, and will continue to be, one of CW's forever strong horses as long as J2 WANT. But the fact of it is - they don't want it as much anymore.

Not because of "Jared mistreatment" by the crew; but because this is now 13 years in which the world around them has changed - quite literally - right down to the evolution of cellphones as we've spoken - while they've started families. And maybe, just maybe, some of them are tired of their friends and family being harangued in the name of tinhatting or hating certain characters. And maybe, just maybe, they're heading on 40 and want to try other things in life. And maybe, just maybe, we should respect that instead of turning it into other reasons to shriek at people and just prove the point. Cuz the entire ratings screaming? That's gone. It's done.

----

Now this is already a titanic post. I'm not going to cover my own ratings projections mechanics in the same thing. I've talked it in bits and pieces over social media, but really mapping out the entire image of it, and its reliance on a mix of outter-world issues, episodical formats, calendar scheduling, hiatuses, and of course fan favorites and ratings characters yes - that's it's own thing. So to those who have been worried - CW will literally continue it, "as long as ratings hold out." One thing that hasn't occured to the shriekers is that this has been the verse since the dawn of time. Even with demos seeming to fraction on themselves until you run this kind of analysis. Why is that? Because ratings have been holding out. They always have. CW will never have another horse in the race like Supernatural. Flash is close - it tries, but it's not as age and time worn and we have no proof, beyond it surviving another decade, that it will hold out like SPN has. If it does, Good On It. But CW really only has two considerations: J2(and to some extent M)'s desires, and any well-beyond-SPN fiscal issues (such as the TW/ATT fiasco that could bone a lot of their projects). That's it. SPN is fine. SPN is fantastic. SPN is more than 50% better off than when it started.

Again, at some point I'll break down the mechanics I use to generate my demo projections at another point. Those that pay attention know I'm eerily accurate; and these things go beyond simply "who is in the episode," though that be part of it - there's so many complicated things that I'd have to explain piece by piece. So, some day, I'll get to that. Until then, you see I know what I'm talking about and see that I'm right week in-and-out, so...

TLDR to people yelling about ratings to bash people: Shut the fuck up about ratings until you understand it. Or quietly squii over when something looks good. But don't sit here trying to use it to bludgeon other wings down or worse, harass TPTB or try to agenda push on them when one specific bracket of ratings seem to look good to your cause, because odds are, you look like a giant freaking asshat.

TLDR2 for people who love the show in its current state: S13 is doing 51% better than S1-2 and Tombstone did 2times+ better respectively and you should be really happy about that. (Edit: Brainfried, it was a late post I was finishing. S13 is doing 86% better than S3, Tombstone did 2x better than all of them. Crossed my wires at 2 AM.)

This has been a public service announcement AND The More You Know.

(Edit: For those still finding this fresh, an addendum post has been created:

https://intelligentshipper.tumblr.com/post/171566934275/ratings-for-dummies-vol-2 )

#Supernatural #ratings #death of primetime TV #mine

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theowlsmask · 6 years

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The other boy band of IP

So, since I got some notes on my last post about boy bands within IP and people were so nice about it. I would like to share my findings about 91%

CNK:

They have 7 members (I’m assuming) and only 4 made it onto Idol Producer. And well ... none made it to top 9 however Lou Zibo and Li Rang both made it to the top 35. Someone found a video of a song called Nine’s (Not sure if it’s theirs) and it’s a practice video. Rang just recently came out with a song called 24 and I think 3 more. (His weibo ... I couldn’t found anywhere else to hear it). They also made a statement but it’s in chinese and what I think it’s about is receiving gifts but I could be wrong since I can’t read it.

Catchers:

They have 5 members (assuming ... just assume I’m assuming everything). All 5 ended up on Idol producer however only the twins (Zhu Yuntian and Yunyi) made it to the top 60. They have a music video called Dangerous. I feel like there isn’t much information so I’ll tell you this. Ying Zhiyue is currently in school in Korea ... How do I know this you ask. THAT FREAKING BOY LIKES TO DO INSTAGRAM LIVE DURING CLASS.

Trainee18:

How do I explain this ... This is Banana culture’s group. 5 made it to the top 35+ and 2 are currently in Nine Percent. They have a music video called Rock The Show. Also if you enter Trainee18 in Youtube there’s a lot of dance covers. I don’t know what the rest of the boys are currently during. I know the well-known ones have done some advertising recently.

Awaken F: (side note ... It’s really bugging me that i didn’t do this alphabetically)

This Is OACA, Okay I know it’s OT5 but I’m not 100% sure if Uncle (Li Junyi) is joining this group or not (I don’t think so). 3 of OT5 made it to top 60 so did Junyi. Mubo made it to top 35. Fen made it to top 20. They are currently in a small show called Awakening. They just came out with a music video. Side note: since Uncle is in the same company I’ll mention this. He finally came out with his song 100 dreams. Boge and Fen also do a lot of advertising by themselves since they are popular.

MR-X:

They have 6 members. Only half made it to top 60. Li Xikan is the only one who made it to the top 20. The have a music video called U&I. Xikan, Mingjun, and Zheng have been advertising and doing interviews.

Oner:

They are the four sons of Qin’s. BC221. Half made it into the top 20. They announced in August will be their official debut, They currently have two songs. The emo one and the bop. They do have an official youtube channel called QINS ENTERTAINMENT. (If you search it should come right up) There is also one where they sub videos called ONER Subs. This group has been everywhere. In magazines and multiple interviews. Side note: super excited for this debut since I’m in love with yueyue.

BBT:

Has or had 4 members (I think). This is Wang Ziyi’s group and he’s the only one to make it to top 60 and is now in Nine Percent. This group actually has songs on Spotify like Mr.Lee (mv link and they have more music videos). BBT’s weibo has been active recently so I think they will continue without Ziyi for now. Side not: I think this group was suppose to be like Qins where their main goal wasn’t for them to make it into nine percent but to increase their popularity but Ziyi was the only one to gain popularity.

ZOOM:

I think this group has 9 member but only 5 made it and 4 made it to top 60. Yong Feitong made it the farthest, They have a music video. Their official weibo has been dead since Idol Producer so idk. The boys just post normal stuff but 4 of them been on something called itsbobby. That’s all I could dig up at the moment.

Cosmos:

They have 7 members (I think) and only 2 made it to Idol Producer. Xu Heni and Chen Siqi who made it to the top 60. They have a music video. Honestly, that’s all I have on them. It says they have 3 songs.

Honorable mentions:

Qian Zhenghao’s company did announce he was doing a solo career and that’s about it. There are some covers on Youtube from him like City of Stars.

Zhu Xingjie aka Huba does have a lot of songs out by himself. All you have to do is search J.Zen on Youtube and I’ll link one song

I think that’s it. It’s 2am right now so there is a likely chance I missed something. Like always just say something and I’ll add it or I’ll look it up myself for you if you want. (But it will take me some time) I didn’t look up on the others only the ones I knew about or the ones people mentioned in my last post.

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sassysavagesanha · 6 years

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Get to know me tag????

Tagged by @blueberrybins sorry this took ten million years I had it started as a draft right when you tagged me I just never got around to finishing it bc life got busy but its done now!

1) 5 favorite groups? why must you hurt me this way??

Astro

Seventeen

Day6

B1A4

Nine Percent/UNB/Weki Meki/a billion others don’t make me choose

2) Top 5 on your bias list? (no particular order)

Jeonghan

Dowoon

Sanha

Chen Linong

Sandeul

3) Ult Bias group and why you love them?

Astro!

These dorks will always have a special place in my heart because they were the first kpop group I ever got into. They pulled me in with their lovely voices, chipper songs, awkward acting (tbc anyone?), and lovable personalities. Honestly they are all such hardworking people and they put everything they have into creating content for their fans and thinking about us everyday. I guess the main thing I love about them is how genuine they are in everything that they do. Also they are huge memes

4) Ult Bias and why you love them?

Jeonghan!

I debated a lot about my answer to this (some may even say I debated too much) but I eventually came to the realization, that while I still love Sanha with my whole heart, I don’t have quiet the same attraction to him that I do to Jeonghan. Sanha is like my child and I want to love, protect, and see him grow into a wonderful young man, but Jeonghan is already a grown adult.

But enough about Sanha this is about Jeonghan. Honestly where do I begin? I’ll be honest but what first drew me to Jeonghan was his hair. It was an eye catching look and really made him stand out in a group full of talented people. That said, I’m still really happy with his short hair and I am convinced that he can not have a bad hair style because everything looks good on him. But he is more than just his hair. He is an incredibly smart and innovative person when he wants to be and I just love that the majority of when he wants to act on those traits is to mess with his members. Its the way he shows he cares about them and its so cool that he wants to share his love by making people smile. This is gonna get too long so I’m gonna stop, but just know that I also love his voice, style, and that he is a deeply layered person.

5) Favorite Kpop Meme

6) Favorite pic of your ult? (I dare you to only pick one)

I really like this picture becasue this was one of my favorite hair styles, Pretty U is my favorite Seventeen song, and I just really like this shot with the umbrella

7) Favorite Kpop MVs

Spring Day - BTS

Only One - UNB

Hi, Hello/I’m Serious - Day6 (just all of every day6 tbh)

What’s Happening? - B1A4

Rain - KNK

Flame of Love - Taemin

8) 10 Favorite Kpop songs? ( no particular order because that is ha r d )

Pretty U - Seventeen

Lie - Astro

Goodbye - 2NE1

Wind - FT Island

Re-bye - AKMU

Beautiful Target - B1A4

I Need Someone - Day6

My I - Jun & The8

Sorry - The Rose

Hot Potato - N.Flying

9) Favorite Kpop crack video?

Either https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxL0gDskL84 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV6KKnJ8jTs because both of them never fail to make me laugh

10) Favorite content creator(s) within the fandom?

tbh i’ve been absent from tumblr for so long idk who even does what anymore so @snibnoom @jinwoostro @vonseal I guess? You all make content right?

11) What fandoms would you say you’re an active member of?

Pretty active member of Aroha, but I’ve been hyping up Nine Percent and UNB a lot lately too...

12) Take your top 3 biases- fmk

....I hate this

F - Dowoon

M- Jeonghan

K- Sanha

I really want to marry Jeonghan, and I don’t want to do the sex with Sanha (or any of them really) so I married Jeonghan and killed Sanha and Dowoon got fuck by default

13) If you could be best friends with any idol, who would you choose?

So many to choose from! Tbh I’d have to go with Sei or Sandeul for very different reasons. I choose Sei because Sei and I share a similar personality and she is someone that I could see sharing a quiet moment with but also having fun when we felt like it. I choose Sandeul because it would never be a dull moment with him and I would love to hear him sing in person.

14) If you could date any idol, who?

Tbh I don’t really look at an idol and go “wow I would date them!” most of the time I just don’t see us working out or I would much rather be friends than have any personal relationship with them. That said, essentially the only person in all of kpop that I can see myself having even a slightly successful relationship with is Joshua.

15) What’s one Kpop album you think everyone should have listened to?

Sunrise and Moonrise both by Day6 because Day6 can’t make a bad song and I can’t choose between those two albums.

16) Are you a soft or a hard stan?

I am the softest stan. Just give me soft couch cuddles and butterfly kisses and leave the hard stuff to other people.

17) An idol that makes you go into soft mode?

DOWOON, Kijoong, Sanha, NONGNONG, Guanlin

18) An idol that makes you want to smash the empire state building with one single punch?

Jun (Svt) becasue that boi is rude and soft at the same time and I can’t handle it

19) Favorite vocalist?

SANDEUL I mean have you heard him sing?????

20) Favorite Rapper?

Most of my favorite songs are ballads or lack in significant rap portions so I’m just gonna say Young K just for his rap in Hunt because I don’t really have a strong opinion

21) Favorite dancer?

Euijin or Feeldog all of performance unit

22) Things you have in common with your ult?

We both tease the people we love as a sign of affection and we both like to sleep

23) The most beautiful trait any idol can have?

A thoughtful personality with a dash of playfulness

24) Songs that will always make you jam along?

Voodoo Doll - Vixx

Damdadi - Golden Child

I.P.U - Wanna One

Just Do It - BSS

Mind Control - Top Secret

Jelly - Hotshot

Hero - Monsta X

Ei Ei - Idol Producer

What’s Happening? - B1A4

O Sole Mio - SF9

Don’t Tease Me! - SPEED

Black Suit - Super Junior

How People Move - AKMU

I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend - Weki Meki

I’m just gonna stop myself here, but just know that there’s about ten million more I didn’t mention

25) Your worst wrecker?

JUN

26) Any kpop concerts you’ve been to?

I wish fam

27) Favorite choreo?

No F.U.N - Seventeen because umbrellas and suits and kingsman

28) Favorite live performance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KiW1Xuxa7k or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEE0pPXoSdQ because the duality

29) Favorite debut mv?

Feeling/Sense - UNB

30) Recommend a rookie group

UNB PLEASE GIVE THEM LOVE AND SUPPORT AND STAN ALL THE GROUPS THEY COME FROM

31.) A kpop song you could listen to every day for the rest of your life?

Solo Day - B1A4

32) Tag some cute mutuals you’d like to get to know better (and to do this challenge)!

@mingews @parkminhyuk @jinjinxed @binnieheart @assstro @sanhatation tbh i’m just tagging random usernames at this point so hi! do this if you want to or don’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#tag #hecken long i'm sorry

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