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avarindigenous · 2 years

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the trouble with education (or, how to discuss racism in fandom spaces when you’re the only one who sees it)

picture this:

you’re scrolling through your dash, or your timeline, or your FYP, and you come across a post that makes a joke. it’s a common kind of joke, for your fandom, poking fun at the canonical power differential between different fantasy races, or the cultural differences. maybe it‘s about how the elves look at humans the way we IRL readers look at cute baby animals. maybe it’s about how a character is an adorable himbo who can’t read and has to be taught, because they come from a preliterate society.

you now have a dilemma on your hands.

see, jokes about how sweet or funny or immature the “primitive” or less-powerful race is sound cute and harmless, but what they’re really saying is that these people are like children compared to the “civilized” or “adult” onlookers. the power differential isn’t just about how there are multiple ways to approach problems, or about how people of varying ability levels can work together to reach a goal or learn from one another. now it’s about how they’re like little babies.

jokes about how Character X is a big dumb fighter who can’t read are just as complicated. there’s an implication that reading is superior to, or more necessary than, oral tradition. there’s an implication that illiteracy = lower intelligence, and that a character who doesn’t have that skillset must be taught, and it will be just like that scene from Beauty and the Beast where Belle teaches the Beast how to read Shakespeare. that was sweet, and charming, and heartwarming, so clearly this is the same, right?

but, of course, if you point this out on a cute fluff post, or a shitpost, you now become the problem. odds are, the white person (and it’s almost always a white person) who made the joke in the first place wasn’t thinking about racism. they were thinking about Disney movies, or the way we look at kittens playing with their littermates, or romantic comedies where opposites attract, or any number of other things. the idea that this isn’t actually about any of those things and it’s actually about racism will now be an unwelcome intruder into their happy little world, and it will be your fault.

you could ask “why is it my responsibility to educate people?” and keep scrolling, and this would be fair. it isn’t your responsibility to educate people, really. if someone hasn’t done the work to understand why these comments and jokes are frustrating, why do you owe it to them?

but if the jokes keep spreading, and start making real impacts, and people don’t realize how racist they are and how hostile the space now feels, what can you do? nothing about these kinds of posts is immediately, visibly racist to your average white person, or even to every POC who sees them. and different people will have different opinions - you might be offended, but others might not.

so you consider saying something, and then stop. adding on to a joke post with serious commentary about racism is something white people get away with because they’re almost always listened to more than us, especially on the Internet and in fandom spaces. besides, if you make that commentary, you’ll get accused of posting for clout, of reading into it too much, of ruining everyone’s fun.

how, then, do you talk about how frustrating these comments are, without setting yourself up as the enemy of fun and shitposting?

well, in my case, I wrote this.

being antiracist isn’t as simple as unlearning currently-relevant racist stereotypes, or becoming aware of the systemic inequalities and doing nothing else. you have to educate yourself on the history and origins of particular tropes, the reasons why certain things are seen as funny and the ways they can come across to fans of color. if I’m talking Tolkien - and this is primarily a blog about being indigenous and responding to Tolkien’s racism - then that means understanding that jokes about how the Elves see Men as sweet baby animals, or jokes about Éowyn being a dumb herbo who can’t read, are rooted in benign-seeming preconceptions about what civilization looks like and what ways of knowing are valuable that are themselves Western-centric and prejudiced.

at the end of the day, this is a complicated, nuanced, serious endeavor. and talking about it is hard, because most of the people doing the reblogging have no idea that they’re perpetuating hurtful tropes.

I just wish it wasn’t quite so ubiquitous.

#lord of the rings #silmarillion #racism in tolkien #fandom racism

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the-francakes · 1 year

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Welcome to tumblr now what...

Hi, I wrote this up for my cousin because she’s never used any platform, but since a lot of twitter users are coming to tumblr, I thought I would share as someone that has been here... way too long. This blog might only be a year old, but i lived through tumblarity. both times. ugh.

cause i will use this interchangeably and forget to clarify, tumblr dash (short for dashboard) is more or less the same as twitter feed.

likes - these are a thumbs up. A nice little ‘hey this post is cool!’ or ‘i agree with this post.’ users can elect in settings to have their likes visibly on their page, meaning when you go to their actual tumblr, theres a link to liked posts. however, i have always disabled this in the same vein that none of you will ever see my ao3 history. if you get a like, you’ll get notified, but that’s all it really does in the grand scheme of things.

reblogs - if theres a post you want to share, reblog it. reblogging it puts it on the dash (feed) of anyone that follows you. tumblr does have a setting to see popular posts, ‘in your orbit,’ or ‘for you’ as in things it thinks you may like. it has a setting for recommended posts into your feed. i, and mostly everyone i know, disable these features and rely solely on their dash. so assume if you’re reblogging this post, you’re sharing it to make sure the people that follow you also see it. if no one reblogs this post, then only the 150 people that follow me will see it and it will die. which is totally cool. im rambling all over this shit and forgot what capital letters are. its probably half wrong anyways.

some people will say always reblog instead of like. i think its give or take. it depends on what you like, what you want to share, you’re weird taste in shit you want people to know about and not know. if you reblog, you will make sure more people see something wonderful and its a really lovely and free way to help writers, artists, etc. spread their art.

commenting on a reblog - its not necessary. I probably do it once in a blue moon these days. adding a comment in your reblog is like jumping into the conversation. usually i reserve this for things that are important and want others to build on as well. or continue the shitpost cause i like to think im funny sometimes. if its something like my bullshit commentary that really does not apply to anything in the post or i dont want spread on everyone’s dash as they go on to reblog it, i write it in the tags. for example, please reblog this and add anything i missed that helps you navigate tumblr. write in the tag if you think its bullshit and i should delete.

replies - replies were made because when they didn’t exist, people would have ‘dash conversations’ by reblogging one post over and over and over and over again. it would be a post of 50+ posts of two people having a conversation and about things like is it red or blood orange. this was especially awful in rp when sometimes posts would only be a few sentences asking ‘hey whats up how are you.’ so use a reply if you want to tell the original poster something, but youre not adding onto the post. a good reply to this post would be a ‘thanks for posting this’ but a good reblog with a comment would be ‘i agree, but also you forgot this important bit!’

something different than twitter (i think???) - your replies do not just show up on someone’s dash. they have to click the little word bubble on the post to read them.

tagging - tagging someone with an @ will give them a notification that you mentioned them in your post. you can also tag in replies. you don’t need to tag the original poster in a reply because they will get a notif that says ‘___ replied to your post.’ my brain is fuzzy here, but i believe if you put a reply on a post that is a reblog, both the current poster/reblogger and the original poster will get notifs. i only say this cause some people get annoyed by too much tagging, but as someone that doesnt give a shit, just always tag me. tumblr eats shit or doesnt work sometimes, so just blow up my notifs.

asks/submit - some people enable you to ask or submit posts. when they answer the ask or approve the submission, it will end up as a post on their dash. if the ask is not anon, they can also reply privately. a lot of people do not allow anons these days because while tumblr is one of the better social medias ive encountered, there are still some assholes that like to send hate anons. and i will say this for the people skimming this - ASKS GET EATEN. aka they disappear from asks boxes or don’t even show up. if someone says they didn’t get it, there’s probably like an 80% chance they are not lying. there’s a 20% chance they are and don’t want to answer it but like that’s their choice too.

messaging - for the new kids, this is DMing. for the cool kids in back, this feature was enabled cause aol took aim away from us. this caused a huge panic of how do we privately talk to our friends since while replies are okay for convos, anyone can see them and tbh can get cumbersome for longer communication. i use this feature a lot to send my friends posts that i need to make sure they see. maybe its not my sort of content id reblog, but i know for a sure thing they will love it, so im passing it along for them to reblog, laugh at, tell me im an asshole cause its a meme making fun of them, etc.

ask games - sometimes people reblog posts that say SEND ME A NUMBER and theres a list of numbered questions. as i grew up here in roleplay, i was taught it was good tumblr etiquette to always send numbers to the person you reblogged from. I was also taught just to send numbers if you see them cause you’re cultivating friendships here and maybe you don’t know the person, but TRUST ME, they will love and appreciate you took the time to get to know them just a little. its not hard to send 1-5 and then fuck off but it will give them something fun to do and maybe make their entire day so.. send the numbers.

WHAT YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO: who interacts with your posts a lot. do you see the same username liking your things? does the person reply a lot. FOLLOW THEM! reply to their posts! fangirl from afar and send a shy ask saying hi i love you. propose on the dash. answer their questions. become FRIENDS. we’re all the weird kids here so don’t worry, we love you already.

WHAT NOT TO DO: NEVER STEAL POSTS OR CONTENT. this means, you see a pretty piece of art- reblog it. do not right click, copy link to image, and make your own post. love a passage someone wrote? see a HILARIOUS joke? do not copy and paste it into your own post. If you feel in someway you NEED to do this, contact the original poster, ask permission and how they want to be credited. you might have to link to their tumblr, you might have to link to their tumblr, ig, ao3, website, mom’s best friends snapchat, whatever... you listen to how they want to be credited and respect it. and if they say no? go reblog it and sit down. this is the same how you would never copy and paste someone’s tweet and say it as your own. or would you???? is that a thing??? maybe i shouldn’t be helping you come here...

ALSO, JUST LIKE AO3, NOTES MEAN NOTHING. a lot of notes does not mean its a great post. Something can have 500 notes and its two friends shitposting ‘hi’ back and forth in the replies 250 times each. and yes, this has happened before and will happen again because this is a hellscape.

crabs/april fools/tumblarity/fonts and colors/xkit - you know how in YOU they have those like seven totems of living in LA? same concept except when you understand it all, you’re cursed to live here forever. you’re welcome.

--- --- ---

please expand, add to this, tell me im wrong, tell me to get off tiktok cause i need to stop yelling at children to let me love my favorite ships idc what canon says.

the good news is, if you think you’re doing it wrong, then youre using tumblr right. people might say don’t use it like a diary, but you bet ill write a long ass post venting about my depression and/or that my sock has a hole in the toe. people say posts have to have content and length... brevity is the soul of wit or whatever and i love a good shitpost and i will reblog a post that is legit ‘wish i could pet a dog today.’

#tumblr #twitter #don't forget to feed your horse

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pan-magi · 10 months

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Heads up that I won't have much to post for a while. I'm moving! Back home for a bit while I'm figuring stuff out (like not being broke). Before, when I mentioned my slow activity I left for a few years. Don't worry, I'm not planning on doing that. I have a backlog of... shitpost ideas, which I will post when I have time. If I have the sudden urge and energy to get some of my longer text posts done then I'll try to do them. Any edits and gifs though will be on the back burner for a while.

(That's the gist of it. If you want a mental health discussion and my general thought process on tumblr, read more if curious. It's more of the vein of "tumblr is an addictive website for me" than "this site is destructive and damning." jsyk)

I know I have it in my blog description that the blog is semi-archived. I have been doing my best though to at least post somewhat regularly. The rate for posting may not be fast per number of posts but for me working on them it is very time and energy consuming (yay executive dysfunction and undiagnosed ADHD woo). It doesn't help either not using Photoshop anymore making gifs is lot less streamlined (get all my necessary screenshots frame by frame and organize them -> edit each individually -> put them together with final edits to make a gif. All in 3 separate programs). My wallet appreciates the decision at least.

The thing is I put that in the description not for the lack of time I have to do stuff but the opposite. I have a lot of empty time to fill. Tumblr is one of the few social media sites I actually use and even with the ability to curate your dash (maybe in part because of it), it is easy for tumblr to be addictive without noticing it. That's with me not bothering with the app. I do check a lot with the mobile browser though. I knew with my attention span and how I tend to do or not get things done that being consistently active would not be the best for me personally. Not bad, per say, but not great.

I love you all. It's been great to see a few of my older followers still interact with my posts from time to time. It's nice to see new ones and the Magi fandom in general getting new people coming in, maybe just for the tumblr side or maybe new altogether, when the series has been complete for years. When I say tumblr is not good for me, I don't mean you. Lots of love for everyone /platonically, my aroace ass wants to clarify and add on a giant thank you for no aphobic hate by anyone here either. I would not have trusted to come out on tumblr even if I had my identity figured out when I was active before.

I do want to keep people satisfied. Analytics shouldn't matter on this hellsite, and they don't, not really. I don't care about what the number is but seeing any notes on my posts is a quick dopamine rush. "Yay, I made someone smile." If I have a free moment, I'm like "I should check tumblr," or "I should work on post for blog." I enjoy what I make and enjoy doing it. However, it's become more attempting to be active and getting something out there despite saying I will manage juggling all sorts of different stuff better. I'm not doing other recreational stuff I want to do. I'm behind on games, movies, books, creative shit outside of tumblr, watching Magi for at least the fifth time... If I have a free moment I'm "work on tumblr post."

It's dumb. I should be able to manage shit better. Again, ADHD. Or maybe it's something else. IDFK.

All this to say that I'm taking the excuse of moving to force myself out of the tumblr sphere. I won't have the time or energy to get larger time-consuming posts done. I might as well focus on something else when I have the opportunity.

I am not planning on disappearing. I do like it here. Stayed too long at the spa though and need to get out and get cool, fresh air. I have short, borderline/actual shitposts I want to get done, as mentioned up top. One may be up in the next week. Who knows though? I don't. What I do know is that if I post something over the summer it will be because it is something I want to get done, when I want it to get done. No rushing myself pointlessly. It will be little things though. Bigger edits and gifs aren't hard yet tedious and draining when I'll be buried in boxes and working on home repairs for the immediate future.

Everyone take care of yourselves out there. If you read all this, thanks! Now, I've spent over an hour working on this when it was supposed to take me 15-20 minutes, and I need to sleep lol.

#update post #long post #idk if i will wake up in several hours and be like ahh i shared too much #and edit and delay it for another day or so #it's happened more times than i can count honestly #most of my posts go on queue for the day after i finish them #to stop any last minute regrets and second guessing to get out there haha #update: yup lmao but only sleep-deprived mistakes #have enough time to still post today too

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leseigneurdufeu · 1 year

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I posted 2,679 times in 2022

That's 2,679 more posts than 2021!

265 posts created (10%)

2,414 posts reblogged (90%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tzarina-alexandra

@idontliketomatoesleavemealone

@supreme-leader-stoat

@lady-merian

@cecisrandomreblogging

I tagged 1,906 of my posts in 2022

Only 29% of my posts had no tags

#goncharov - 354 posts

#dracula daily - 93 posts

#discourse - 85 posts

#shitpost - 83 posts

#writing - 70 posts

#politics - 56 posts

#pb choices - 49 posts

#dracula - 42 posts

#religion - 34 posts

#history - 33 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#anyway i find it really weird that anon is like “yeah it's about the negativity” and then goes “actually it's because i don't agree with yo

My Top Posts in 2022:

adding to my list of people I block on sight: people who post (gifs, meta, meme, i don’t care) on rings of power and tag it lotr and tolkien (and not rings of power at all, making it impossible to filter the tag)

54 notes - Posted October 13, 2022

One thing I didn’t notice the other times I watched PotC is that when Elizabeth fell, NOrrington’s first reflexe is to try and jump after her, only to be stopped by his men because “the rocks, sir! it’s a miracle she missed them”. He tried to jump after her. He would have risked his life to save her (from this height he could have killed himself even without hitting the rocks, and he’s a sea man, he knows that kind of things).

And that only cements my shipping of Norrington and Elizabeth, even if I only ship them lowkeyly because once the story is really started, once she’s tasted the sea and the adventure, she couldn’t have been happy with anyone else than Will, but... if that had not been a supernatural pirate movie... yeah, Swannorrington shipper.

73 notes - Posted September 30, 2022

me, reading Dracula Daily vicariously through memes: “so Arthur and Jonathan are on a fishing trip, Jack and Quincey are brokebacking and Mina just bansheed the brides then Van Helsing took a nap in Dracula’s coffin?”

the people who actually read it:

317 notes - Posted November 5, 2022

“I wish I had been on Tumblr for the Superwholock period” “I wish I had seen the Mishapocalypse” “I wish I had gone through Tumblr’s history” shut up I’ve been here for six months and I’ve gone through Dracula Daily 2022, the Twitter Refugees Wave and The Goncharov Renaissance, history is constantly making itself. You’re a little fifteen years old french girl hiding in the parisian underground during an aerian raid in 1941 and complaining that you wish you had lived the first world war because it seems exiting and people are still talking about it. Look around little french girl History is on the making

368 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

What if there was a scale from animality to intellectual superiority in which the animals always fight to deal with their problems while the intellectual superiors always find a pacificist way.

And everyone thought it was like a coin, one or the other so to say. But then the aliens discover humans, who are able to deal with their problems in a pacific way but also will throw hands if they deem it necessary and aliens are forced to revise their whole system of classification from a coin to a scale.

388 notes - Posted October 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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thesefleetingthoughts · 7 months

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So I was scrolling threw my favorite post amd i came across yours about how Penny might be in Jaune sword and I think there is somthing that give the theory even more sense: after jaune did what Penny tell him to do his sword break, this is the first time it happend not only on screen but also for Jaune as we see him suprise to see his sword break.

What if when Penny gave her aura to Jaune's sword it made it more vornable?

Also why is Winter needed to bring Penny her memory back? Why would Penny lose them in the first place? It is her soul which (as we see with Ozpin) contain her memories, the only one we need is Pietro to give his last aura (and life) because with the sword break Penny lose some part of her aura

(While I wouldn't mind and actually would love for Winter to play part in Penny returne, any senerio when Winter need to give her aura to Penny would end with Penny getting the maiden power which take away the freedom she want, she need to come back without it to be fully free)

I'll answer in sections.

1) Jaune's sword breaking is symbolism for him taking the life of an innocent person, opposed to fighting soulless beings (grimm). It's emphasized by the fact the break happens on the bloodied side of the blade rather than lower. I don't think it has anything to do with what Penny did or didn't do to the sword itself.

2) While I did write it like that, Winter being necessary for the memory bit is not a definitive element of the theory. In some scenarios she does have the memories, in others not, I chose to include it because it was the version that fit this specific theory the most in my opinion. I try to pick elements that make the most sense in canon so it doesn't look like a shitpost but a proper theory haha. The reason why the memories would go to her is explained in length in the theory post you read so I recommend reading it again. But basically because of how the maiden power transfer works - you cannot give the maiden powers without giving out your aura, as we've seen with Cinder/Amber, Fria/Penny. So inevitably to become the Maiden, Winter would have to inherit the passed-down aura of the former holder, Penny, and the memories that come naturally with it. Enter Jaune and the whole trick explained in the theory post (that I invite you to read again I don't want to rewrite everything here xD ) 3) "any senerio when Winter need to give her aura to Penny would end with Penny getting the maiden power which take away the freedom she want, she need to come back without it to be fully free" -> I'm not trying to be mean or condescending but I have to say it, to be honest and frank with you. You're entitled to your own opinion and that's not a question anymore but a proper fact you want others to accept. I personally don't agree with this and think she can be free while having half the powers, too. I'm not going to mold my own opinions on yours just to make you happy. A lot of people have already told you this in different manners I believe, but please don't try to push your own views on others. We're all very open to discussion and theories but saying "she needs to" as if it was an absolute truth isn't the way to go about this.

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queenlua · 5 years

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“The way I figure it, if I can’t be respected, I can at least be well-informed.”

— Sylvain Jose Gautier

— also, me, when someone asks why i spend so much time reading shitposts

#is reading shitposts part of your job in OSS development?#kind of!#do i relish it far too much #and read more of the shitposts than is actually necessary?#absolutely fam #in general sylvain is this amalgam of like Every Dude I Knew In College tbh #three houses

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biggest-gaudiest-patronuses · 3 years

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welcome new followers! here's some info to get started

this blog posts a lot! for filtering purposes, here are my COMMON TAGS:

#gaudy quotes, posts that include my more outlandish remarks

#gaudy fanart (bc for some reason my amazing artist followers sometimes use their impressive talents to draw my silly little internet persona)

#long post (usually humorous but require some scrolling)

#not a shitpost for posts that don't have a punchline (but you may find interesting or helpful)

#clown tw or #another good clown post, most of which are not good posts :)

#another good vampire post (most of which actually are good posts)

#ocean tw and #whale tw (the ocean makes me anxious and i am generous enough to spread that anxiety around)

#actuallyautistic, bc I'm autistic and sometimes I post about that. similarly, #mental health for posts about self-care, ADHD, depression, anxiety, etc.

#serious post (for posts that include more serious topics)

#tw [topic] for common trigger warnings, such as 'tw insect' or 'tw body horror' or 'tw trauma'. I use a lot of these, feel free to make requests! I try to be consistent, but please remind me if I forget something.

#harassment tw (I occasionally post about my experiences with being the target of an online smear campaign, and my thoughts on harassment culture)

#not OSHA compliant for images you probably don't want showing up on your screen at work or school. rarely necessary, but useful for filtering things like baboon butts etc.

#sexual humor most of my jokes are clean, but a few of them use bawdy humor. please filter appropriately!

And here is some GENERAL INFO:

Hi! You can call me Gaudy or Gaud (pronounced 'god,' which is a complete coincidence I am not responsible for, these things just seem to happen to me). I'm they/them.

this blog has a huge archive of shitposts, bizarre facts & random positivity, enjoy! There are almost 45 thousand original posts & articles here, if you are looking for the mental & emotional equivalent of being swallowed by quicksand and simultaneously engulfed by a rock slide <3

here are some old favorites to get you started: The Dollar Post, The Nickel Post, Twitter vs Tumblr, Boy’s Night, Make This Creepy, and some various random others etcetera, no wait here have some more!!! wait i lied here’s more

I also do some creative humor/horror writing, including: Clown Meat Deli Dream, the April Fool’s Saga of the Door, and Don’t Touch the Pink Stuff

yes I am responsible for the Grinch x Tony the Tiger Fanfic

please point out any typos!

(Here’s where my name comes from btw. at this point I can't really afford to change it, or it wouldn't still be a harry potter reference.)

I love reading your comments, feel free to interact on anything I post! (just be respectful to others and use common sense about netiquette)

i’m disabled & unemployed, so my online content is my main source of income, and I spend full-time hours on it. to keep this blog free of ads & sponsors, I rely on reader support. there is never any obligation to donate! but please be aware that some of my posts will include paypal or ko-fi links, which I will try to keep unintrusive. i am just trying to make a very modest living doing something i love and value; this is my detailed response to criticism over 'demanding money to tell jokes'

if you enjoy & want to support my content, $2+ monthly ko-fi support makes the biggest difference, since that is steady income I can depend on even during slow periods or illness. I also rely on your comments, reblogs, feedback, and suggestions!

i hope this blog will brighten your day! my goal is to make you laugh while helping you discover things you don’t know, about the world and possibly yourself. i hope you will enjoy your time here, and learn more facts than you could ever possibly want to know about blue whales!

#let me know what tags I forgot and I'll add them to the list

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finding-the-daylight · 4 years

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Friendly reminder that while Midnight Sun will be out soon and we’re all looking forward to the memes and shitposts, there are far more important things going on in the world.

Right now, I want to highlight the Quileute Move to Higher Ground project. This cause is imperative to the Twilight fandom in particular, because we consume content which contains the use of the Quileute name and misappropriation of their culture without financial compensation (in an ideal world, nothing would’ve been done without their permission and smeyer would’ve paid them millions and this project wouldn’t even be necessary, but sadly we live in a very broken world and the situation is what it is). In more or less words, their culture was stolen and misused for the creation of the Twilight saga.

Please consider donating if you are able to, even if it’s just a few dollars! If you are unable to donate, the very least you can do is read about their actual culture, learn about it, and help to educate others who have been misinformed/only get their info from the Twilight series. It would be great if everyone got involved to the fullest extent of their abilities to provide support where it’s needed and to show that real people mean so much more to us as a fandom than some stupid fictional books.

Here is the link to donate: Move to Higher Ground Project Info

Here is the link to cultural info: Culture and Traditions

P.S; Please do NOT buy Midnight Sun. If you must read a physical copy of the book, consider borrowing it from your local library or buying a used copy a few weeks or months from now. If you buy the book directly, you’re showing support to smeyer, the editor(s), and the publisher(s) who all approved the total misappropriation and misuse of the Quileute name and culture. If you already pre-ordered the book, please consider making a donation of equal or greater value to the Move To Higher Ground Project.

#Twilight #The Twilight Saga #The Twilight Series #The Twilight renaissance #Twilight renaissance #Midnight Sun

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frumfrumfroo · 4 years

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What do you think about the takes the Fisrt order or imperium represent "nazism" or at least a fascist system? Lindsay ellis once said that maybe Disney didnt put an ideology for the First order because then it would be very obvious it stands for an old fascist system and buying Stormtrooper merchandise as well as Palpatime or anything would be viewed as strange.

Okay, first, the only comment on the Empire relating to a real political system Lucas has ever made was that it represented his disgust with American Imperialism. So.

Second, the idea that anyone should be concerned about people buying merchandise for the fictional evil empire is deeply stupid. This is the Victorian Gentleman of the internet once again raising the spectre of ‘hysteria’ and fundamentally failing to understand how people interact with fiction and what the difference is between fiction and reality.

The First Order (and the Empire, of which the FO is just an expy) has no ideology because it’s not meant to stand in for any actual political system or be a realistic depiction of any real regime. It is not a comment on systems of government and it is not meant to be in any but the most broad imaginable ethical sense. Actual politics are not the point. The point is good vs evil. The iconography invoking various totalitarian regimes is there to tell you that they’re bad guys bent on oppression, it’s a visual shorthand which conveys everything you need to know to grasp the conflict at hand. What’s being reinforced about the Empire/FO in these motifs is its mass conformity and total submission to an authoritarian strong man, the repression of individual agency and responsibility. As ever, this is a metaphor about fear and selfishness. Fear allows the Empire to come to power, fear sustains it; fear and complacency. These are universals meant to provide the external threat to show the impact of our characters’ choices.

Because, again, SW is a story about individuals and their individual journey to ethical adulthood. Everything that happens in the war plot is in service of that interior journey. The world of SW is a metaphor.

If people want to have an adult conversation about fascist symbolism and problematic attitudes towards the history of oppressive regimes in Hollywood cinema, they should consider interrogating how the Nazis have been reduced to a generic, dehumanised bogeyman whose only necessary quality is vaguely defined evilness.

The social Darwinistic values and ‘scientific’ racism of Nazi ideology are not an incidental feature. That is what Nazism is. Blowing up planets with a giant space laser as a show of force because you’re a Saturday morning cartoon villain is not comparable on any level to even the idea of the Holocaust never mind the reality, and people invoking such comparisons ought to be fucking ashamed of themselves. I shouldn’t have to explain why pointing to any and all extremely generic villainy and saying ‘they are literal Nazis, enjoying this action-adventure film makes you a literal Nazi apologist!!!!!’ is far more offensive than cosplaying a Stormtrooper or shitposting to r/EmpireDidNothingWrong will ever be.

And I know this shit is hypocrisy all the way down, because if there were legitimate moral concerns about the people who buy a Darth Vader action figure thinking he’s someone to literally emulate in real life instead of a fun pretend power fantasy, these same people would object just as strongly to merchandise of any given superhero and most of the ‘heroic’ sw characters.

People with genuinely regressive politics who want to read the story to support their worldview do not see themselves as the villains. They see themselves as the heroes. Even the actual literal Nazis painted themselves as valiant underdogs rebelling against an enemy which was both impossibly entrenched and strong, running the world, but also weak because their beliefs and people are inherently inferior. That is scapegoating 101. That is the authoritarian playbook.

Identifying with villains who are presented as villains instead of uncritically accepting the hero as an avatar actually requires the modicum of narrative sophistication and self-awareness necessary to realise you’re being told a story that isn’t real and has a subjective pov in the first place.

#writing #fandom #I'm sorry if I'm snippy but I'm actually so tired of this conversation #it's just more of the same 'I have the critical ability of a sea cucumber and will take everything PAINFULLY LITERALLY #but also I will completely ignore all nuance and context that comes with invoking reality #while being horribly HORRIBLY insensitive about REAL ACTUAL HUMANS in order to score points on fictional characters'#the OT is really more heavily WWI/Soviety type imagery than anything else #TFA is where they lay on some thick nazi vibes #and whether that's a crass or careless invocation of history is a discussion one can have if one so desires #but it does not make the FO literal nazis and pretending it does is- to understate it wildly- unhelpful #the crutch of invoking nazis in American cinema is actually worth criticising (see Joss Whedon's precious hackery in AA #another in his long list of offences in 'lol he bad' villain writing where villains aren't characters but strawmen)#but the idea that enjoying movie villains somehow equals to promoting or condoning actual fascism is just ludicrous #and then some anorak chimes in with 'the Empire was racist against non-human aliens in the books' like that makes the slightest difference #they The Bad Guys they're not fucking nazis please do not throw around serious words to win internet arguments about fairy tales #and pretend that makes you a righteous crusader for good #Hydra are actually meant to be Nazis and cosplaying as them is still not going to lead to the Fourth Reich #because that's not how it works

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potterscar · 3 years

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tag game :)

I was tagged in this tag game literally like a month ago by @andromedaa-tonks BUT I'm finally doing it. don’t worry I'm doing a read more break bc I know 99% of people could probably not care any less

why did you choose your url?

for some reason I really didn't want a url with any underscores or dashes so I decided on potterscar bc I figured no one else would have it and I was right lols

any sideblogs?

kinda? I just recently became a member of @/dailyhpgifs.

how long have you been on tumblr?

bro literally so long dude. I wanna say my first ever blog was in 2012 or 2013 where I just reblogged whatever I want. then, this blog actually started in 2014 as a 5sos blog lol and I stopped using it around 2015 or early 2016. so, when I came back to Tumblr in like early 2021, I had around 100 inactive 5sos blog followers lol. I started posting my own original content about a month ago :)

do you have a queue tag?

yes! I used to just reblog like everything all at once and I felt like my followers weren't seeing all the content I was reblogging, so I decided to make my queue “queue who must not be named” so hopefully creators are able to get more exposure from my blog than before. it posts 10 times a day, but sometimes I reblog things randomly or usually reblog my mutuals hp content as soon as I see it.

why did you start this blog?

well 5sos originally lol. I've always been a huge hp fan (I've read the books 10 times and I'm currently on my 11th. anyway, hp brings me a lot of happiness and after starting college last year, life got pretty rough for me. this blog and creating my own hp gifs has been a really nice escape.

why did you choose your icon?

I had a random harry icon until recently, but hermione is my fav and I wanted to make a header/icon set a few days ago so I took a pic of hermione and made it kind of greenish to match my theme and new header.

why did you choose your header?

I really wanted to make one of the paper rip gif headers and I figured I could make the greens in that scene really stand out which is what I was going for.

what’s your post with the most notes?

this set of harry and luna and this one of Fred and George are tied rn

how many mutuals do you have?

I don't know, probably like 10-20?

how many followers do you have?

as of when I'm writing this I have 640. I know its not a ton or anything but to me it feels like a lot lol.

how many people do you follow?

i follow 79 accounts.

have you ever made a shitpost?

everything I posted on that cursed 5sos blog when I was 14 was horrible but its definitely been deleted.

how often do you use tumblr a day?

probably like 2 ish hours.

did you ever get into a fight with another blog?

oh for sure on the 5sos blog

how do you feel about the “you need to reblog this” posts?

most of the time I feel like the content is necessary but I don't think guilt tripping is the way to go.

do you like tag games?

this is my first one lols so I guess so.

do you like ask games?

I like them more than tag games.

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

like all of them lol.

do you have a crush on a mutual?

again, all of them ;)

definitely no one read this but it was fun hehe. I tag @fidellius @hpottah @jjnora @rcwenaclaw and anyone else who wants to do it

#tag game #not hp

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mitigatedchaos · 3 years

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Review: SAC_2045

(~3,700 words, 15 minutes)

This post will contain some minor spoilers for SAC_2045.

Summary: You may have thought SAC_2045 was a poor entry in the Ghost in the Shell franchise - actually, it's just intended for younger audiences.

Previously: Standalone Complex 202045:1-4 (superseded)

-☆☆☆-

And what did you think of the remaining episodes of GitS:SAC_2045?

[ @irradiate-space ]

Standalone Complex

There's a certain indescribable feeling associated with Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex as a work, an artistic touch related to the director associated with it, independent of other considerations. SAC_2045 has it, which isn't too surprising since Kenji Kamiyama is back.

SAC_2045 is Standalone Complex. For a brief moment, while watching it, I inhabited my pre-2016 personality and outlook. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Since the arrival of streaming I've tended to bingewatch series, but on the first run-through I decided not to bingewatch this one.

If you approach this show as season 4 of Standalone Complex (Solid State Society being season 3), it's underwhelming. Now, viewing it again, it's become obvious that a conventional season 4 of Standalone Complex was never the intent of SAC_2045 to begin with.

For those of you who have delayed until now, the English dub has been uploaded - it released without one due to the pandemic. They bring back a number of the voice actors from the excellent Standalone Complex dub, though having already watched it with subtitles, I didn't feel the need to confirm the dub's quality.

Sustainable War

To properly describe a new theory of war is the same thing as to invent it. While the idea of war as a for-profit industry has been kicked around for some time, it's generally assumed that this is a kind of parasitic relationship on the part of the war-making industry.

As time goes on, warfare becomes more abstract (partly because warfare happens where it can happen), much like society itself is becoming more abstract as information moves more quickly and humanity gains access to more energy.[1] In SAC_2045, "Sustainable War" is part of the context of the world and its current issues, but we aren't really told how it works - if it's similar to contemporary information warfare and a blurring of the lines between state and non-state actors, it's bound to be quite confusing.

I believe my earlier assessment of "Sustainable War" is correct. The key feature of sustainable war, the reason they say it's safe if you leave it to the experts, is likely that it involves AIs constantly forecasting against each other and moving units around with few direct confrontations. The goal would be to lock in a victory without having to fire a shot, except for small skirmishes that don't escalate to major incidents (due to the AI forecasting).

The presence of armed separatist movements even in Japan may also indicate that the ruling institutional bodies are engaged in a kind of Post-International Politics,[2] which treats all international relations as fundamentally existing between subnational entities - however, I believe that later information suggests this wasn't their original intent.

What makes it "sustainable"? Since if done correctly, very little is actually physically destroyed, the cost is less than conventional warfare, and thus the war can continue indefinitely. Why does it threaten humanity with destruction? Because there's an awful lot of military hardware waiting for someone to actually pull the trigger.

Season 1: Ep. 2

So what is the intent of the series' creators? I think they may be telling us through this dialogue between Togusa and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki in episode 2.

Aramaki: Seems time has toughened you up. Togusa: Is that supposed to be a compliment? Aramaki: It is if you want it to be. Togusa: Then thanks for the kind words. “I made the right decision by choosing this line of work over my marriage.” That’s what you’re saying? Aramaki: Perhaps. [...] Togusa: They're bringing back Section 9? [...] Aramaki: But my takeaway from the proposal is this: The PM's reason for the urgent reforming of Section 9 takes priority over his personal motives. I believe his true objective is meeting the Americans' demands for the dispatch of special resources. Togusa: So it's as the Liberals feared? An American-born Prime Minister would be no more than an American puppet? Aramaki: I've yet to meet him in person, so I can't really say. But this is an opportunity to have the Major and the rest of you undertake a major operation for me once more. Togusa: What sort of op? Aramaki: Over the past few years, I have searched for an answer on how to deal with a society in turmoil. I'd like you people to lay the groundwork that will help the next generation find that answer. Togusa: I don't know what a man in my position can contribute, but I'll humbly offer whatever assistance I can.

Those of us who cried, Kamiyama, tell us the future once more! based on Standalone Complex's prophetic analysis of a memetic crime wave were bound to be disappointed. SAC_2045 is less rooted in the near future than in the now - cyberbullying, endless war amidst historic prosperity, employment suppressed by automation, savings eaten up by the complex machinations of finance, and a breakdown of national borders? That's today.

Those of us who hoped for a Ghost in the Shell: Unicorn, a psychically overpowering work that synthesizes the full body of Ghost in the Shell into a single coherent form to elevate us to a higher level of understanding, should have tempered our expectations. To reach each new philosophical level is more difficult than the last - to achieve that with Ghost in the Shell of all things would have required a multidisciplinary genius near the limits of current understanding.

Kenji Kamiyama is just an anime director. And anyhow, Gundam Unicorn was a book before it was an animated series. And who among us even knew we'd have to write a book before 2015? Ghost in the Shell was well-understood enough, so I instead wrote 25,000 words worth of hypothetical country and became a blogger, like the infamous Scott Alexander.[3]

If we approach SAC_2045 from the lens that it's a humbler work designed for younger audiences, however, some of the creative decisions make more sense.

Purin

Just how old is Purin, the MIT grad who joins the team later on? If I had to guess, that's '23歳' on that profile she provides, and Ishikawa notes that she 'skipped a few grades' on her way to a PhD. But she acts like someone a lot younger. She's enthusiastic and we're assured she's intelligent, but seems to be lacking social training. For example, she makes the mistake of assembling an era-accurate music player for Batou combined with a playlist after consulting the Tachikomas to find out what he listens to. There are two ways to take this.

The first is that she's intended as a relateable character for someone who would make this class of mistake. It's the sort of mistake I might have made at age 13-14, meaning that the show would probably be aimed at someone that age or lower. Overly enthusiastic, doesn't understand romantic relationships, impulsive, poor reading of boundaries / poor modelling of others outside of certain domains, impulsive in a way that causes social screw-ups? Yeah that could certainly apply to an ADHD kid of about that age.

And all of a sudden the tone of the first five episodes with the gun-fighting, the literal Agent Smith, the decision to place the focus in America, and even the mystery of the series being much simpler than Standalone Complex 2nd Gig's plot regarding Asian refugees in Japan make a lot more sense. This is Ghost in the Shell for kids!

Wow, I didn't think that could be done!

...is what I should say, except that around the time I acquired the ability to futurist shitpost, and I used that ability to predict that it would.

Purin II

The second reading is that the youth of the future are fucked up. She probably has some tricked out modifications, both cybernetic and genetic. Now usually you would tell someone to try to become a well-rounded human being. But...

The global economy has crashed. Batou mistakes her for a robot - creatures that look like pretty young women are a dime a dozen. In the dating market, she would be competing with full sensory immersion VR pornography on the one hand, and at the upper end of society where cybernetics are more widely available, likely women with a similar appearance but decades more experience and professional standing.

Note that in the original Standalone Complex, the team take down an 80-year-old Russian spy with the full prosthetic body of a 20-year-old. Full cyborgs aren't common then, nor are they in SAC_2045 (though cyberbrains are ubiquitous), but if the economy recovers that may change, and the sector she's trying to get in to (full-time salaried government rather than marginal private employment it would seem) is going to be very tough to enter either way.

So Purin may have to be over-optimized even to just appear on the screen. In fact, she says,

"Just so I could work at Section 9, I moved most of my sentimental memories to external storage."

Youch! It's no wonder she's socially maladjusted. Just how much of her social learning (in particular key events necessary to rebuild logical inferences on the boundaries of behavior on the fly) has she locked away?

Purin III

But you know who Purin looks like? Notorious internet personality, Gamer Girl Bath Water seller, and IRL video game character Belle Delphine.[4]

Or rather, it's the other way around - 2D animation compresses real detail into suggestive abstraction, letting your mind fill in the rest. Going from those impossible 2D shapes to 3 dimensions creates strange results, like training your machine learning algorithm on the salient features of a cat's face, applying it to human shape, and putting pink hair on the result. Belle Delphine adopts that otherworldly kind of appearance as part of her act.

Technically, this a stylistic choice. Within the framework of SAC_2045, this is what "a 23-year-old female" looks like.

Purin is in fact so non-threatening that her big red coat obscures her figure. I'm gonna go with younger audience. Now if only I could remember what pronoun she uses.[5/☆]

Motoko

With a full prosthetic body, outward signs of human-like aging are almost an artistic expression, much like in a world with cheap tissue engineering, visible scars are a choice.

When she was first introduced in the original Ghost in the Shell manga, we don't know how old Motoko Kusanagi is. It was once said that her name is analogous to "Jane Excalibur," which in English would be an obvious alias. In the first movie (from 1995), she's cool, almost cold and robotic.

In the original Standalone Complex, Motoko has a more mature personality than in the manga, but she has a clearly adult look by the standards of anime. Seriously, check out this fantastic character design (combat suit), although admittedly the better-known "leather jacket and bathing suit" design is more ridiculous, fashion-wise.[6] (Fortunately, she gets pants in her much more stylish second season outfit.)

ARISE starts off with a young Motoko Kusanagi in a chaotic post-war period before the Section 9 we know was assembled. This shows in her character design, but it really shows in her personality. This was actually why I had joked about an even earlier Ghost in the Shell.

There is a sense in which the 2017 live-action movie's Motoko is even younger. Scarlett Johansson is a killer cyborg with amnesia. She doesn't even have one day of formal combat training.

Motoko 2045

Ilya Kuvshinov designed SAC_2045's Motoko Kusanagi.

Yes, that Ilya Kuvshinov. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a teenager that hardboiled assassins Saitou and Ishikawa in the background have been hired to bodyguard.

Despite this, Atsuko Tanaka has resumed her role as Motoko's voice actress. Standalone Complex's Motoko looked 25 and felt mid-30s. SAC_2045's Motoko looks 16 and has the voice and attitude of 40.

This may make more sense than you might think.

Through Whose Eyes?

Throughout much of Ghost in the Shell as a franchise, Togusa, the only non-cyborg on the team, who is pulled from a police department instead of a military background, tends to be character used to help the people of our time relate to the future. He's the guy that doesn't know the things we also don't know, so in explaining concepts to Togusa they're explained to the audience.

In SAC_2045, most of the team are off doing cool cyborg things in America. Aramaki (whose in-world function is to create the bureaucratic environment within which Section 9 operates) tasks Togusa with finding them. The original Standalone Complex first aired in 2003. It's been 17 years since it was created - a similar situation to finding someone that reached adulthood who was born after 9/11. And during this time, Togusa's life has changed - the family man is now separated from his wife. And the world has changed - Togusa is now working for a private security firm. Togusa's role in the first five episodes isn't to guide the new viewers.

His purpose is to guide or stand-in for the old viewers.

The New Viewers

"Do you still hold a grudge against the Major and the others for leaving you behind?"

For the original viewers, SAC_2045 is your world, too. Togusa is there. Togusa is you.

The new viewers are Purin. Enthusiastic and smart but awkward and not confident in their skills. How could they measure up to these much more talented and experienced characters? (Also consider who is going to watch any sort of Ghost in the Shell - it's probably going to be a moderately bright and introverted kid, who is the kind of person that may be more comfortable socializing with people outside of their age band.)

But Motoko is visually separated from the rest of Section 9. Batou, Saitou, Ishikawa, Boma... they all have a much more adult look in keeping with their appearance in previous versions of Ghost in the Shell. What gives?

Batou is sort of a cool adult male figure - this is actually a pretty natural use of the character and his sense of humor as previously established in other Ghost in the Shell properties. We especially see this come through in 「PIE IN THE SKY - First Bank Robbery」 episode, with the old folks and the 21st century bank robbery.

Motoko's difference in appearance is because she's acting as a bridge between the two. The new viewer (as represented by Purin) is supposed to grow into being like Motoko as they gain confidence and experience. (The characters aren't each limited to a single role, of course.)

But SAC_2045 is still a work that's shared between two groups, similar to how the excellent Into the Spiderverse features both the teenage Miles Morales and an older Peter Parker that has lost his way, with the loss of the vibrant young adult Peter Parker being what starts the plot going.

The Last Quarter

With this framework, the rest of the work should express its nature as targeted at a younger audience itself. Watch the last few episodes through this lens and you'll see how much sense it makes. One takes place at a school. Even the bizarre 3D style that resembles recent video games makes more sense. If we take Togusa's earlier conversation with Aramaki as a discussion of SAC_2045 itself, later on there's even a sort of acknowledgement that Ghost in the Shell is a difficult work for someone of a young age.

So with that context in mind, does it work?

Standalone Complex

If I remember correctly, years ago, when I was perhaps 15 or 16, I was watching a tiny CRT television some time after midnight, and I saw the thirteenth episode of the original Standalone Complex - NOT EQUAL. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was immediately taken by it. And, from what I remember, I immediately understood it.

It was as though it were made just for me.[7]

To me, Ghost in the Shell is like a textbook. I thought that as a creator who has reached a place where I am able to be involved in that kind of work, I'm in a position where I have to convey its contents to a younger audience. Well, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I figured it would be my way of giving back to Ghost in the Shell. I thought that I needed to accept the baton and offer Ghost in the Shell to a young audience, to the same degree that Ghost in the Shell raised me to be who I am.

- Tow Ubukata, in a 2015 interview, regarding ARISE

For many people, Ghost in the Shell is a profound influence. I felt that it lifted me to a new level of understanding.

SAC_2045

But what about SAC_2045?

I can't view Ghost in the Shell with new eyes. When I first saw it, I wasn't the kind of person that casually memes futuristic ethical dilemmas as a means of practicing politics.

Compared to the anime I watched back when I was 13, would I have watched SAC_2045? Yes. Is it more philosophically and politically sophisticated? Yes. Would I have found it memorable? I think so.

Would a 13-year these days watch it? That's difficult to assess. I bet someone who does data science for Netflix could tell us, if they wanted. I'm sure Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are considering the same thing.

2017

How does it stack up compared to the rest of the franchise?

For most enthusiasts it's going to be one of the weaker entries, though it certainly does a better job explaining itself than ARISE.

Compare it to 2017's live action movie, however, and I think we'll find it isn't the weakest. The reason is that the writers of Ghost in the Shell (2017) decided to tell a story about bodily consent in which becoming a cyborg is a form of trauma. On some level this may have been a reasonable decision, but they didn't commit to the concept sufficiently fully to execute it well enough to carry the movie - and simultaneously, they dumbed down parts of the regular Ghost in the Shell material for American audiences. As a result the movie flopped both financially and artistically - except for the visuals.

In fact, I wrote a sequence of posts (1, 2, 3, 4) on how to rewrite the live action movie as an actual Ghost in the Shell property. I feel no need to do so for SAC_2045 - and I can't even think of what changes would need to be made.

I look forward to the second season.

-☆☆☆-

[1] It's short, but that's a concept in this post. "Advanced by Left-Wing theorists, Ninth Generation warfare sees all acts as existing on a spectrum of political violence. Most acts of ninth generation warfare consist of extreme pranks."

[2] If we accept the idea of "Fifth-Generation Warfare" as motivated by a desire to prevent the enemy from using their conventional military assets, then a corresponding theory of international politics would involve preventing enemy factions within foreign governments from taking control of those governments' institutions - effectively treating all countries as in continuous level of conflict analogous to a soft civil war.

[3] There is a kind of technique to this, but in my case I substituted ADHD for raw IQ and conscientiousness, which is part of why my posts are so much shorter than, for instance, Moldbug's. In any case, technically, Scott's blog posts on the matter amount to roughly a mere 11,600 words, and the book of the black forest amounts to approximately 26,000 words (which I'm told is entertaining reading), but I'm sure if we go looking we can find an additional 15,000 words worth of worldbuilding from a man known for writing 16,000 word blog posts.

[4] Would it be more of a legal liability to sell regular water with GGBW branding, or actual GGBW that could prove to be a potential health hazard?

[5/☆] There's some future strand lurking beneath the surface here that I can't quite put into words; a culturally divergent moe meltdown where an appearance this ridiculous becomes normalized among some sub-population. To quote the Funko Pop Hatred post,

There are questions about the anatomy of anime people and their internal organs, and particularly about what sort of impact-dampening alien meta-material their softer bits are made out of, but at least homo sapiens gokuensis looks like it’s a branch off a similar starting hominid! Whatever transhuman engineering company was responsible for manufacturing the creatures in the typical harem anime has some weird ideas about human beings, but we’re clearly in their ancient lineage somewhere.

Under Late Safetyism, everyone is a declawed catgirl.

Anyhow, I don't want to alarm you, but I can't guarantee that this won't be the future somewhere. Both Purin and Belle Delphine resemble Xiaoice, "The AI Girlfriend Seducing China's Lonely Men." (2020)

[6] Motoko's ridiculous outfits are a major flex on the non-cyborgs, who aren't indifferent to ambient temperature and whose natural bodies may have unflattering features. Similarly wild fashions can exist in places like Second Life, a 3D digital platform with mostly user-uploaded content. Presumably they're also a flex on every Japanese salaryman who still has to dress like a normal guy.

[7] "It's as though it were made just for me" is also how I feel about the original game Mirror's Edge. Its follow-up, Catalyst, is also a personal favorite of mine.

#miti does media #longpost #flagpost #ghost in the shell #sac_2045 #standalone complex #review

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thetomorrowshow · 4 years

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Mutually Beneficial Ch. xxxi

First - Previous - Next - Chapter list

Recommended listening: Hozier - In The Woods Somewhere

Tw: Light body horror(?), ANGST, my poor boy

Logan was prepared this time, and made no noise with the momentary blackening of his sight. It was a moment before he heard anything.

“This isn't it. This won't help you get him. You're wasting precious time.”

This was their only lead. If what the voice said was correct, how much time would have been wasted on this needlessly? They had already spent nearly—no, it was early morning—they had already spent eight days and 54 minutes on this. What could they have been doing in that time, besides the rather fruitless research Logan had done trying to figure out what was wrong with Virgil the last time they saw him.

As Logan tried to reason with himself, he realized he felt . . . weird. Somewhat . . . fuzzy. It was increasingly difficult to gather his own thoughts. He grew tired just thinking about thinking. Why was he touching this chain? His eyes slipped closed as he accepted that he should be sleeping. Resting so that he could have the brainpower to find . . . to find Virgil.

A hand squeezed his.

Patton? It couldn't be anyone else. Virgil wasn't here, and Roman . . . Roman wouldn't touch him. But why was Patton holding his hand? Thinking of Patton brought back a memory. He remembered how scared Patton was of . . . of these chains, these chains that . . . lied. They lied. If it told him that this wasn't it, then this was it.

“F-falsehood,” he muttered. The chain dissolved.

Logan blinked blearily. The room—too fast—came into focus. Roman was in front of him, closer than he expected. And a sweaty hand was in his—why? He slowly released it. He felt . . . odd. Not a good odd, either. Logan felt like his head was full of cotton—a sensation that he hated with a passion Logic had no right feeling. He looked behind himself—the hand he'd let go of belonged to Patton, and he rather felt he should have guessed that. As they made eye contact, Patton's eyes brimmed with tears.

“Are you okay?” Patton asked, too-loud. Logan blinked again, then shook his head: not in way of answering, but in an attempt to clear it. It helped marginally, surprisingly.

“How—” Logan's voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again. “What happened?”

“After you touched the chain, you sorta went limp,” Patton explained to him. “We tried saying your name, but you didn't even move.”

Logan looked at the chest. A single yellow chain was wrapped around it, twinkling innocently.

“Lo?”

Logan looked back at Patton.

“This is gonna sound silly, but do you know where you are right now?”

It did sound silly, Logan acknowledged, but as he glanced around the room, Logan felt his head clear even more.

“Yes. I am in our living room. I am on the floor, as is Roman, while you are on the couch. I—” he hesitated. “I am not entirely certain as to what we were doing before this point.” It was starting to come back, just everything was so—so—

“Do you want to do a grounding exercise?” Roman asked. “You know, five things you can see, four things you can hear?”

“While that may be beneficial, I don't believe it will be necessary.” Logan shook his head again and was pleased to feel it clear even more. He'd been—touching the chains. And—

His heart rate picked up. These chains lied. They were protective measures taken by Deceit to keep whatever was in this chest safe. The lie. The most recent lie proved his theory correct.

This isn't it.

This was, most assuredly, it.

His strength renewed, Logan spoke again. “I am going to cause the final chain to dissipate.” He silenced the noises of protest with a hand. “I do not know how long I was unresponsive—”

“Three or four minutes,” Roman supplied.

“—But I believe I will be, for lack of a better phrase, 'out of it' for a longer length of time,” said Logan. “As I was fully conscious for the dissipation of the first chain, and semi-conscious for the dissolution of the second chain, it is possible to conclude that I will lose consciousness totally while attempting to loosen the final chain.”

Logan made eye contact with both Sides. The room was heavy with the utter seriousness he spoke with.

“I could do it,” offered Patton. Logan shook his head.

“It is already clear that you find these chains emotionally detrimental,” Logan said. “I will be fine.” With that, Logan gathered every semblance of courage he could find in his wearying body and wrapped both hands around the single chain.

This time, when his vision went black, it stayed that way. Logan generally had no trouble with the dark, but this different. It irked him that a small cry escaped his throat. This darkness was truly odd, though—it obscured not only his vision, but his ability to physically feel anything, and if the other Sides were saying anything to him, he couldn't hear them.

His world flipped unexpectedly, and Logan found himself biting his lip to keep his dinner down. Was he moving? Had he fallen over? There was no way to tell. There was just dark.

Dark. So dark it was utterly fathomless. There was nothing but the dark. No feelings, no presence but the dark. Then, words—still dark, just different. As he read them, they echoed in his ears.

You don't think they actually like you, do you?

He just had to say one word, Logan recalled. He simply had to disprove this, and in order to do that, he had to remember how much Roman and Patton cared about him.

They did care about him, right?

Of course not. Roman won't even talk to you. Haven't you noticed how he's been avoiding you? And Patton doesn't trust you, otherwise he would have let you come with him.

The voice, which had been so silky before, was harsh and unforgiving. Logan winced. Did it have to sound so accurate? He'd be lying if he tried to say that he hadn't thought those exact things, even just today.

You're Logic, so they have to keep you around. They don't want to. You’re annoying. Why do you think they don't care when you're left out? Just like the trial. They were glad, even, to not have you there.

“You're right,” Logan choked out. He hadn't even realized he was crying until he spoke.

Shut up. They can't see you cry, they'll be embarrassed by you. You'll make them feel awkward!

“They'd like a new Logic, wouldn't they?” whispered Logan. He could see it happening, in this darkness. Fading away. Losing all purpose. Being replaced. The dark filled his mouth when he spoke, tendrils crept into his nostrils. His eyes began to itch and burn, and he suspected it had little to do with the tears streaming down his face. The dark . . . the dark would help him fade, wouldn't it?

They'd love a new Logic. Anything would be better than you.

“They hate me.” More dark seeped into his mouth.

They hate you.

Logan couldn't see at all anymore, couldn't see the depths of darkness, couldn't see the words. However, he felt a shift. He blinked his burning eyes several times, and for a moment, saw.

Patton, eyes pained, staring straight at him. His hands were gripped around Logan's, and a tear rolled down his face as Patton whispered a single word.

“Falsehood.”

Another shift. Logan couldn't see, but the darkness wasn't so overwhelming, more . . . flat. Something—something disgustingly gooey—was dripping down his chin from his lips. He tried to swallow—clear his throat. It was then that he realized he couldn't breathe, was choking on whatever was so gooey and slimy.

The last thing Logan registered before he passed out was arms wrapping around him.

Taglist (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @i-can-get-extra-with-my-ships @stop-it-anxiety @shitpost-sides @bl00scl00s @charakitcat @ainsleyf @sandersstuffsblog @ginnyfox617 @enragedbees @minty4green @eggy-boyo @escalatingtoofast @hayden-going-insane @piixelations @supersoftsupersleep @crowsmadreadful @hpdmmdundtl @thenewlarislynn @mooniecoockie @eden607 @sanderssidesweirdo @cali-the-dreamer @thedukeofdeodorant-main @hankaa-aaaa @atlasistryingherbest @arcticfrostdoesthings @awkward-and-artistic @wants-to-be-bad-but-is-soft @xionbean

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cwmoonglum · 3 years

Text

The Atomic Death of the Moon

20/05/07 – The Moon is on Fire. Atomic death pours from the skies. Sneaking onto the family computer at 7.30am per my orders, I find my email inbox flooded with furious diplomatic cables. My real life friend, fresh from holding Stalinist show trials of those who objected to a recently ratified treaty, is facing fresh calls to resign. In the parlance of the day; the moon is closed.

In 2007, adolescence was being revolutionised by access to an internet much more anarchic than today's. Youtube was only two years old, music was something to be downloaded illegally via megaupload and imageboards proliferated. Within a year 'Anonymous' would announce its opposition to Scientology in the much touted Project Chanology; a celebrated mainstream debut that often overshadows its precursor events. Anonymous – a loose alliance of mainly teenagers drawn from across the constellation of imageboards – had been conducting 'raids' for years prior to Chanology. From the occupation of Habbo Hotel with offensive statements and racial caricatures to the scripting of endlessly self-replicating cubes and storms of horse dicks that would crash Second Life servers, the absurd and often cruel humour of the group was stamped across the internet. Anonymous were the degraded Situationists of the commercialising internet, squeezing jouissance from the newly colliding social groups of odd hobbyists, lonely eccentrics and baffled normies.

youtube

With widening internet access yet many people connecting via low powered computers, a market emerged for browser games. In these, roleplaying and metagaming were as compelling as in narrative games. One such game that persists today,Cyber Nations, found itself targeted by Anonymous. A political simulation game where players controlled their own nations, the gameplay was itself was fairly monotonous, but the wider system of alliance forming resulted in elaborate treaties, wars and diplomacy that was truly gripping. On Cyber Nations, Anonymous went under the banner of /b/ (named for the 'random' board on, amongst others, 4chan), and spent 7 months growing itself. With a loose governing structure, /b/ existed mostly on the sidelines before it was dragged into Great War III, a multi-faction conflict that was to have been non-nuclear. However, two rogue actors within /b/ launched nuclear weapons, causing both the mass of members to follow suit and the nominal leader of the alliance, Furseiseki, to disband it. Now pariahs, /b/ spammed the Cyber Nations forums with all manner of shock images to disrupt the game, culminating in a DDoS attack and hack where the home page was defaced and the game's source code stolen. Cyber Nations was down for a number of days, and upon restart my own nation, designated as part of /b/, was stomped into the ground by furious players. The 'disbandment' section on /b/'s official channels read 'many lulz were had, but now we're off TO THE MOON.' Opened to public beta in February 2007, Lunar Wars was a political simulation game that took the broad strokes of Cyber Nations and refined them. Developed by Alessandro Bassi ('Sandro') as a way to teach himself web development, it swiftly attracted players, and offered a new theatre for Anonymous following the dissolution of /b/. I joined up as a junior diplomat for the Elitist Lunar Superstructure on 18/04/07.

The ELS was more disciplined than /b/ from the start. Allied nations were assigned squads to cooperate and trade within, and all announcements were handled through the ELS forum and emailed to members. A greasemonkey script (in 2007, we all used Firefox) was thrown together to assist players. Guides on increasing power quickly were disseminated. Notably two of the admin/developers for the game, skaladis and owl, were ELS members and the recruitment drive across various imageboards was persistent. The IRC channel was anarchic as usual, but diplomats and the leadership convened within a private channel to guide policy. Eph, the alliance leader, designated myself and select others to open lines of communication with smaller groups within the game. Of course, enemies from the days of Cyber Nations had come to the moon. It seems strange now that 4chan is so identified with reactionary politics, but in these games Anonymous enjoyed bullying the sad little men who named their nations things like 'Wolf Reich ov Iron' and roleplayed as Nazis in their alliances. In Great War III, /b/ had been opposed to Nordreich ('German Nationalists'), and FAN (Federation of Armed Nations), and these groups reemerged on the moon. Leftwing alliances like the Red and Black Block or Union of Lunar Socialist States (ULSS) tried to combat the Nazis on the moon, but the appeal of roleplaying internecine Left political conflicts was limited. To actually wield power capable of slapping down the fascists often meant joining with apolitical, carnivalesque groups like Anonymous. As fun as dunking on fascist cosplay was, however, the real enemy was FARK.

In the ecosystem of the 2007 internet, imageboards were not the only hangout. There were also humour sites like YTMND (You're the Man Now Dog), Something Awful and FARK. The content filtered through to everyone, but allegiance to any one site was performatively over the top. It was as good an excuse as any for enmity.

As a junior diplomat for ELS, I handled treaties with various smaller alliances, most notably the aforementioned ULSS which had been captured by my friend in early May 2007. The tension was mounting palpably across the lunar community as treaties were signed and mutual defence agreements entered into. Something like the network of alliances that ensured the nightmare of World War I was formed, overseen entirely by spotty teenagers and shitposting idiots. Notably GOONS, formed by SomethingAwful forum members, had joined with ELS; FARK was left out in the cold, and allied with FAN. On the night of 19th May 2007 as I stretched my allowed time on the family computer, diplomatic channels became frantic as spies within IRC channels let FARK/FAN know of a planned attack, per ELS internal communications;

GOONS is likely to be attacking FAN within 48 hours. We will receive target lists of anyone GOONS has trouble with. Do not fire counter offensives on FAN unless necessary (problematic targets, etc.)

FARK retaliated by launching the SHIT HITS THE FAN war, beginning perhaps ten minutes after my parents told me to turn the computer off and go to bed. Tossing and turning, I considered diplomatic avenues to strengthen the ELS cause. However as I finally fell into an uneasy sleep the metagame overtook the roleplaying.

For a while now Sandro had been teasing the existence of Galava, a new, more complex browser game with a medieval setting that further developed the gameplay of Lunar Wars. Given that the moon had only been open for a few short months, the kids who had wasted the back half of their school year building alliances on it were grumbling that Lunar Wars was being abandoned before it had even exited beta. The two ELS-allied admin/developers, skaladis and owl were similarly irritated. According to a post by Arciel, head admin of the Lunar Wars forums;

owl had not only given herself nukes; she had given herself and ELS members 9001 nukes each, in reference to a meme. The balance of the game was completely upended; by the time I awoke and booted up the dusty Dell in the spare room Sandro had locked the game. In private conference, Eph and the leadership decided to disband ELS. I was appointed interim Chief Ambassador for the continuity faction, but within a scant few hours I had come around to the joke. Emails continued to go out to rally the faction, but Anonymous' attention, and my own, was shifting elsewhere. The next time I encountered the group, the kids who shut down Habbo Hotel were going up against Scientology.

My friend lost his leadership position in the ULSS after the coup he helped lead was put down. He's involved in actual Leftist politics now, though he's not a Stalinist. In October 2007 Galava was released, and I received an email via the ELS list;

I didn't join. The internet got less wild, more scary. Megaupload was taken down in 2012 and Anonymous initiated a DDoS attack on Universal Music Group. 'Youtuber' became a job, and 4chan birthed the alt right. Both Galava and Lunar Wars continued until October 2009. For me and many others, though, it ended in the atomic fire of 9001 hacked nukes. Anything else was epilogue. The tribute page for Lunar Wars sums it up perfectly;

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lyricposting · 3 years

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ty’s fanmix yourself: 2021 edition!

tracklist and “very necessary commentary” under the cut

a song you grew up on - real good thing by the newsboys (this tells you all you need to know about my life before i had the internet lmao)

a song you’ve forgotten how much you love - rolling girl by wowaka ft. hatsune miku (yes i had a vocaloid phase, except i can’t really say it was a phase, because i’ve eagerly awaited tanjiro taidana’s every upload for almost 2 years now. so.)

a song that reminds you of your best friend - blood sweat and tears by bts (*dad voice* “i have 3 best friends actually” ...but i’m never going to forget the day ren showered me with everything about bts for pretty much 8 straight hours that was a wild, but 10/10, experience)

a song that you’re constantly caught singing/humming - danse macabre by saint saëns (i interpreted this as “the most recent song you’ve had stuck in your head for more than a day” bc i always just sing what i’ve been listening to, and what i’m listening to is always different)

a song that reminds you of your greatest achievement or strength - absolute lithops effect by the mountain goats (just. copy/paste the entire lyrics right here. this song Sees me.)

a song that reminds you of your first love - behind blue eyes by the who (the only song that reminds me of my first real romantic love that’s a super strong association but won’t make me get emotional in a way i don’t want when i hear it)

a song that makes you feel like a badass - destroya by my chemical romance (my emo only gets more obvious from here but this song goes so hard!!!! also, i didn’t want to put a live recording on the playlist, but the rock en seine 2011 performance and the 2019 reunion show performance absolutely scramble my brain... i have SO many thoughts... )

a song that reminds you of somewhere - ode to sleep by twenty one pilots (reminds me of the communal showers my first year of college lmao)

a song that inspires you - this is america by childish gambino (clarification: “inspires” as in “makes me very aware of my personal and our collective need to be better, makes me righteously angry and a little bit uncomfortable,” not “inspires” like quotes on a picture of a landscape.)

your favorite cover of a song - smalltown boy by orville peck (the original already had a place deep in my heart and to hear one of my current favorite musicians, who is also gay, cover it and make it so personal to himself... i need to lie down)

a song that wakes you up - thiskidsnotalright by awolnation (starts out by yelling FUCK! and the chorus goes hard, what more do you need?)

a song by someone of your nationality or ethnicity - taco bell lot lizards by billy cobb (the lyrics read like a shitpost and the actual sound is amazing i can’t help it i unironically love this song)

a good song for bad days - please, please, please let me get what i want by the smiths (i wasn’t sure if “good” meant “makes you feel better” or “allows you to wallow” but as you can see, i picked the second option as always. good for any kind of bad situation imo)

your favorite song - all i want is nothing by frnkiero andthe cellabration (current favorite bc all time favorite is an impossible ask. stomachaches is the cd in my car rn and i’ve been on a “desperately wanting” kick lately for some reason, which this fits perfectly)

a song that really hits home - smoke breaks by daddy and the long legs (listen i’ve never smoked and i never will but i heard this song for the first time on a playlist a friend sent me that they titled “inexplicable transmasc moods” and with that context???? so many mixed emotions)

#own post #my incurable playlist curation hobby #wow ik this is a fanmix yourself but my everything is really showing on this one #yes i also did this in 2019 and 2017 what about it

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gelo-p · 4 years

Text

Cycling Seasons, Fresh Skies: Memories

I knew from a long time ago that if I’d ever go for a T10, this would be it. When the event was finally getting closer, early estimates told me I was 900 flames short; I’d have to buy stars for this event.

(WARNING: A rather image-heavy post)

Perhaps the moment I honestly considered T10 instead of settling for T100.

Definitely the moment I knew there was no turning back. :)))

Believe me, this was not the only purchase I made for this event.

I needed a better Challenge Live team, so I knew getting a 4* Happy Ran is required, to complete my Happy Afterglow team. I’ve never gotten any 4* Ran before, so thank god the 4* Exchange Ticket had the perfect timing.

“WAIT. YOU WERE USING A HAPPY TEAM ALL THIS TIME???”

Yep. ^^ Well, my Multi Live team was Powerful Afterglow-based, but had only 2 4-stars, sooo I knew it wouldn’t cut it.

There she is <3

I’ve always stopped at Skill Level 4, but I really had to pull out all the stops. Ran is my first Skill Level 5 member. ^^ (everyone in my CL team also received the level 5 upgrade)

Alright, let’s do this! Hey Hey Hoh~!

The event has finally begun! I initially found it amusing seeing all sorts of titles being shown off. This one in particular stood out to me. XD

(Looking back, that Sinz person would later turn out to be a serious T10 contender. I think they changed their name to Pyokun after some time)

Here’s a screenshot of a rare T5 GeLö-P. I really wanted to share this with you guys, but I figured I’d jinx myself by revealing publicly what I was trying to do. :>

(I will doubt the existence of God Almighty, but believe in being jinxed. Life is weird sometimes.)

Well, that’s the Grand Room for ya’. Meta songs all the way~

How do you even react to that?

With this. :)))

NEXT YOU’LL SAY FUEEEEE

Home Street...

Home Street.......

HEY HEY HOH~!

The moment I ran out of large energy drinks, and had to start spending stars. </3 Small energy drinks were still reserved for moments I can afford to wait out the 30-minute refill timer.

The 5 Horsemen of the Apocalypse

My first time doing the “recover waaaaay more than 10 flames” thing

Huhehe huhehe huhehe...

I too would like some of those Afterglow pins. T_T

Baby Shak my as-

Aaaand we have a dodger, ladies and gentlemen. XD

I think this guy needs to be banned.

Home Street? Pssh, that was so yesterday. Jumpin’ is the shit now.

Ganbatte, P5.

Himari~

My 2nd encounter with Ghostkillers (who later become T12..?). He chose Senbonzakura the first time, so when he did it again, I thought I’d save it for posterity. ^^

The “I too would like to live dangerously” gang 8-)

The first time I switched away from my dua T100 titles. I figured I’d stop trying to “scare” the competition.

First time tracking T10 scores. This would later prove to be very useful in seeing if my projection will hold (although I shifted to tracking T3 - T12).

Taking a break, so I watched ads for free flames. :)))))

Moca, Ran, GeLö-P, and a weird name. Huh. Okay.

Kyu~Mai * Flower was released! Played this one on Hard.

...this one I played on Expert...

...and thank fuck I got it first try, because oh boy I’m not playing that beat map again. >_<

“Ban me if you can” ?? Why??

Aaaaand this motherfucker right here was cheating and inflating his score. I personally reported him to the game admins over on twitter, and they’ve informed me that they were already aware of this idiot. Saw him just once more after this.

Yes. That’s 91 million, 798 thousand, 346.

I actually encountered them once before this, but didn’t notice anything off about their score (was already dazed at that time). And then a discussion started over at reddit, so when I met him again, I took screenshots.

Ganbatte :))

Had time for a quick hey hey hoh spam ^^

Which day was this..? Anyway I came up with my brilliant pun. Read the comment, see if you can figure it out. :3

MocaRan and YukiLisa. Sigh. I don’t think we can be friends, P5.

:)))

Told you, Ghostkillers only pick Senbonzakura XD

Tomoe’s Birthday! ^^

Even the game won’t let you have a GF, P5. XD

HEATHCLIFF STOP PICKING BABY SHARK

(almost sure they’re famous in the competitive scene... I don’t know them tho LOL)

I woke up one morning to find there was no internet.

FUCK ME

I knew mobile data was going to result to multiple disconnects, but thank fuck I had lots of challenge points to spare. I passed the time productively, and by the time I was done, internet was back. Whew.

Rank update: currently T8. ^^

More of Ghostkillers x Senbonzakura and JFC that name tho P2

Shitpost comment XD

First time seeing 2 other T10 contenders in the same room: Itsuki and Ghostkillers.

Probably the point where I started spamming Tokimeki Poporon instead of Home Street.

Also there’s a looot of interesting names in Bandori.

As a YukiRan / MocaLisa shipper (well more of SayoLisa nowadays), it is my job to destroy players 1, 3, and 5. >:(

Wallet: IT’S NOT POSSIBLE

Me: NO, IT’S NECESSARY

...aaaaaand I immediately threw away 10k stars hoping for Megane Ran, but got shit. (This would later force me to make 2 more purchases XD Seriously though, I could have saved a lot of money with a better star purchase plan)

I got Loli Rinko tho. <3

Which day was this...? I think this was the moment I knew Ghostkillers has given up. I was laughing my ass off reading the comments. I think everyone of us was half-dead at this point. XD

And so we’re down to the final 11.

I’ve started considering the possibility at this point that I might be the final one to bow out.

OMG I CAN’T SEE PLAYER 2

BUSHIDO~!

I was feeling the despair at this point, and thus started singing Komm Susser Tod

I do mini-sprints in the morning, so I’m T6 here. I usually fall back down to ~T9 in the afternoon.

I usually level up once per event. I started this event from Rank 193. :)))

(well it was technically 192, but I was like 2 games away from leveling up)

There are no experts in this room :v

Jumpin = NO FEVER, but picks meta song anyway. Okay. :v

Hey! All Random!

Game: DID SOMEONE ASK FOR A META SONG

I have a lot of friend requests at this point (probably from people seeing me on the T10 list), but I don’t have enough space to accept them all :((

Bread-themed profile!

Poppin’ Party, Puff n’ Pastry... get it?

Itsuki started spamming BOF at this point.

Doki doki~

HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME~ ♪ ♫

P1 is an IRL friend :))) I’d later tease her about how slow she is picking songs LOL

Some Initial D reference for overtaking :P Of course I was badly falling behind at this point (T9 is hella dangerous), but I had no choice but to continue to believe in the math (and that early overtaking is a bad choice).

“Early moves lets your opponents recover from mental shock.” - Ryosuke Takahashi, Initial D 3rd Stage

No seriously, that’s exactly what I was thinking of. And also “Not yet, not yet, now” from Ford v Ferrari.

P1 & P5 get married already...

FINAL NIGHT.

I’m down to T11, and everybody else already did 2.3M-sprints some hours earlier, and have considerably slowed down.

I, on the other, was about to go to sleep. Yes, I, the current T11, was about to let the others pull away. All I could do was believe in the Math at that point, because let me tell you-

I had 105k challenge points left. That’s 3.4M event points I had yet to sprint.

This was during the final morning, 9 hours before event ended. When I woke up that morning, my heart was pounding like crazy. What if everybody has pulled ahead?

When I finally checked, most of the T10′s were still in the 17M-range. Itsuki was on T10, and he was only 500k away. I knew at that point that my chances were pretty good; however, I shut up about it, set my comment to “Now Playing: Running in the 90′s”, and got to work.

There was nothing else I could to but consume all the CP I had left. No more tracking. A literal 5-hour non-stop sprint to 19.2M points. If they can still catch up even after they’ve already expended their CP yesterday, then maybe I don’t deserve this T10 after all.

All I need to do was beat one of them. It was me or them.

Holy shi-

I wasn’t out of the woods yet, had to make sure at least one of them didn’t overtake me. Of course that was more up to them, since I didn’t have any strength left (my thumb stopped working at that point, no seriously, it’s still not working properly even today). I also didn’t have any significant stars left.

I managed to sneak in a few songs, but that was it. I was done. The others managed to close the gap, but I stayed in T6.

And then the event was over.

I fucking did it.

------

I would later learn that this was the bloodiest (Challenge Live) event in the history of ENdori. In one redditor’s words, I “ ...sure picked a hell of a time to go for it.”

I had no choice. This is Megane Ran we’re talking about. <3

I had some idea tbh, because I managed to read a tweet in the middle of the event, that “this was one lit T10″. Apparently we were on track to beat the previous record-holder, which was Sayo’s Umbrella event.

I’m... really glad to have been part of this event. I feel so darn proud of myself. >:3

But I couldn’t have done it without the help of the Grand Room. Seriously, I only played in the Grand Room.

Remember this?

I don’t have (competitive) friends. :))) So thank you, all. *bow*

I’d like to thank IRL-friend otearaisu over at twitter for putting up with my excessive score projection updates. XD I have a really detailed excel sheet to check if I was on track or not, and whenever there were developments, I’d always tell him about it, even in the dead of the night. XD

------

Would I ever do this again? Probably not. This was the only event that I knew I really wanted to go for, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Maybe I’ll get a couple of T100′s in the future, but that’s it. ^^

See you in the lobby~

#bandori #bang dream #cycling seasons fresh skies #garupa #event

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