#its not really that weird of a trend because it kind of makes sense but also doesnt

[mrs-monaghan]

Give me your theories Shaz. You said you feel something is coming. What change in Jikook behavior do u see and where do you think it leads? I attributed the uptick in jikookery due to Face being out and promos over, so Jimin is just more available and less anxious maybe. Maybe both the album and Seven’s success offered a sense of relief and reinforced their importance/influence to the company. I find JK’s foray into TikTok interesting and wonder why now? Is it about content control? They will enlist by the end of the year so what do you think will happen between then and now? Anyway you said you were nervous and I wondered if u feared something negative was going to happen?

No..nothing negative.

Warning: rambling ahead. 😁

What do we know about JK? 🤔 By his own admission he is a mix of all the members. And we have seen this with our own eyes. That includes being extremely humble and kind and so so thoughtful.

Excuse me for a second while I

Okay so what was I saying? Right. JK is a humble dude. There is no two ways about it. Which is why, if you're any good with reading body language cues you will notice JK laughs alot during this. Everytime he would say something cocky, a laugh would follow

Because he doesn't do this. He doesn't talk like this. Its out of his comfort zone. But thing is, I believe him. I believe he wants to be big...huge...massive. Like his dick 🍆

🤣😂

Sorry. I had to. 🤭🤭

Jimin wants this too btw. Dude was made for pop. Cue this wonderful FACE breakdown by Boracity magazine

So even if JK becomes this huge popstar he won't be the only one. And as we speak there's artists who go back and forth so he won't be the first or only and I'm sure even he knows this. But like afore mentioned I believe he wants to do this. To be this.

I have a point guys. I promise. And that point is No one can touch you when you are at the top.

So for me it is weird that Jikook went from being so quiet to being... not so much. While before I attributed them laying low to MS, that doesn't make sense anymore. MS is blooming and yet here were are, with JK flirting with Jimin while naked. So that can't be it.

So I'm left to explore the other option which is sasaengs or people who downright want to expose their rlship in I'll intentioned ways. All the JK stalking that's been happening and the break in at 9/1. I think due to this they stopped hanging out publicly in daylight.

But we've established laying low wasn't something JK was happy with and he fought against that.

Can we for a second appreciate how Jimin flew to NY to be there for JK and they've somehow managed to make it feel like we imagined all of it??? Like, they're both acting as if they didn't trend for several days over this. 😂😂 JK has come live multiple times since, has been getting asks about it but its been 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗 from him. This is so funny to me 😂🤭

Anyway, do you guys understand what I'm trying to say?

They will enlist by the end of the year so what do you think will happen between then and now?

Idk. I really don't. But i feel like it's already began 😳

#ask shaz #bts ask #jikook theories #jikook theory #jikook #jimin and jungkook #kookmin #minkook #jungkook #jimin #jimin face #jungkook seven

[understandingbimbos]

So. There's a few things I need to address. My documentation and study of bimbos began as a personal project. I only started a blog because I was putting a ridiculous amount of work and thought into this and figured it should be shared (and still, there's SO much I haven't shared yet...). And that's part of why this blog isn't so well managed, not consistent, and very informal. I write every post with the assumption whoever reading will have some familiarity with the fetish and that was kind of a mistake when dealing with subject matter as delicate as this and if I want to be able to attract literally any other audience. But the blog is here now so its kind of a moot point. I won't be rewriting posts. I want to kill myself every day, its astonishing I can write anything. Anyway, recently I discovered an adult performer named Celestina Blooms, in particular, this video:

We share a lot of the same thoughts. And her criticisms of BimboTok are a lot better articulated. Here are some of things she's said that stood out to me (paraphrased):

"As an actual political movement, the Gen Z bimbo isn't actually very helpful beyond being satire because there are contradictions."

"It makes no sense to be expected to have every single decision in your life, in every area of your life, be a form of activism."

"If you don't spend enough time watching all their videos to completely get the point it looks like they're satirizing the ideologies they're preaching."

"They're kind of taking this thing and being like 'Hey! This thing is leftist because I'm leftist and I said so!' when the thing is still something very tied to a lot of systems of oppression."

"I think there's an issue with saying that being feminine is feminist."

"Because there are so many minors on TikTok they'll come across this trend and see the cute aesthetic and cute clothes, and for good measure, the ideologies a lot of them agree with and be like 'Fuck yes! Sign me up!' and before you know it they're dressing like a bimbo, calling themselves a 'bimbo', and all this stuff while not even being aware of this whole other world of bimbofication as a fetish and unknowingly calling attention to themselves."

She also brings up Pink Bimbo Academy in this video (not by name, and if you somehow see this Celestina, sorry for blowing up your spot!). I bring this up because PBA actually reached out to me like two weeks ago. We had an extremely brief conversation. He lost all interest as soon as he realized my blog isn't primarily about real life bimbos and, like Celestina, I don't believe bimbos are really a real life thing. This is the reason for my last text post (now pinned).

Up until this point I didn't realize Pink Bimbo Academy was a guy, or extremely weird. He's one of those bimbo enthusiasts that genuinely believes every woman should be a bimbo, unless they're trans that is, because according to him a bimbo can't have a penis or possess any "masculine" qualities. He seems to view bimbofication less as a fetish and more of a means to an end. To him, bimbos are the peak of femininity and bimbofication only helps women to become more of who they're "biologically" meant to be. He has entire rants against feminism up on his website and aspires to create an actual real-life bimbo finishing school, like he's a super villain or some shit, like the antagonist of every school-set bimbofication story come to life. And unfortunately, he's basically the resource for bimbofication online. I have to assume not everyone that follows his guides reads all his posts and FAQ but its more than disappointing to have a transphobe be one of the main vanguards of this fetish today.

Anyway, I can't recommend Celestina's video enough. Its a bit long but all worth watching and has made the prospect of writing this book exciting again. I would suggest this video of hers too:

Post-script: After over an hour of writing all of this I realized I actually did something extremely stupid here. Celestina follows me on here, possibly one of the first people to follow me. I kept wondering why one of her icons looked so familiar and it took me until literally just now to figure it out. I hope she doesn't mind the plug, because you all should follow her too!

@celestinablooms Twitter Instagram

#understandingbimbos #bimbotxt #bimb0fication #bimboization #b1mbo #bimboism #bimbohood #bimboification #bimtheory #bimbo theory #bimbification #bimboz #bimbofied #bimbocore #bimbo experience #plastic surgery fetishism #bimbo life #bimbo girl #Youtube #pink bimbo academy #celestina blooms

[steelthroat]

*Bust through the wall like the Cool-aid man* Did somebody say worldbuilding?

Cybertronian architecture has always been an interest of mine and sadly we never really get a proper look at its cities aside from ‘futuristic looking towers’ and the shapes are cool! But it’s also kinda boring. Unfortunately I severely lack knowledge in the field of architecture and have been using canon and fanon to create a general ~vibe~ but I do have some consistent ones.

Vos: Towers have holes to maximize airflow. No sharp edges and small over the top decorations like in Russian artistry. It might seem like a weird combo but I swear it Seekers = Russia just makes sense

Praxis: Asian inspired in almost all aspects but architecture, follows Korea philosophy of architecture mostly. Their buildings would flow a natural floor plan meant to balance out “energies” (I swear this is based of a real Asian philosophy but I cannot for the life of me remember what it’s call). You could probably get close with calling them Green urbanization because they include their singing crystals in everything 

Nyon: I don’t have any particular culture but it’s definitely super cramped together with tons of back alley and steep stairs. Scrap metal sheets protects against the acid rain and most roads are bumpy cobblestone, alt modes don’t see a lot of action here unless you’re a beast former. Bonus is cool parkour! I wanna say it’s like the Underground from Arcane but less sketchy people

Smaller noteworthy details include:

-Tarn having long strips of road with essential shops (Midwest mining towns)

-Polyhex has geometric engravings on the side of buildings. It’s also connected to water/liquid transportation somehow, canals, the Rust Sea, whatever it’s got ports and liquid.

-Helix, Antihelix, or any city with -Helix has roundabouts and a grid pattern

-The more “touristy” areas of Kaon Gladiator pits look Roman but the local places where regular people live are all American/New England Post-Industrial

I could go into so much detail about this stuff and my understanding is that the basics of design are pretty similar across cybertron where meeting the purpose and necessary accessibility requirements are top priority. However, Layout plans will vary depending on the majority frame class and style will be more distinct the more disconnected from Iacon they are (I’m using Iacon as the trend setting “ground zero” so to speak).

This message is all that I needed as I woke up, screw morning coffee, I don't even like coffee!!!

*smooch*

I super duper like these ideas!!! I was reading and googling the whole time ahahdhfh

Yes it is a little bit boring that every Cybertronian city is down "the same way" and especially after the idw continuity where the lore is thick and we learn that the culture varies from city to city I can't believe that there are the same architectural styles... like we have varying styles from region to region (Italy) and we're all humans, imagine a place where some people drive, some people fly and some other do weird things ahahdh.

Another thing that interests me is the artistic expression of the inhabitants of those cities, an Iaconian (Iaconi? Iaconist? Ia-whatever???) would never create the same kind of art as a Kaonian (Kaonite? Kaoni????) artist.

It's like when there where romanticism and neoclassicism at the same time and varying from where the artist came from they would lean more towards one instead of the other (this is an oversimplification but I hope I'mmaking myself clear)

Also the message behind the art:

Iacon is so fkn neoclassical in my head it's unbelievable, so attached to the past "the golden age" the "true art" amd the idealistic beauty

Kaon could NEVER embrace those ideals, Tarn and Nyon and Rodion neither.

So just like the art would drastically change, the architecture would follow the lead... also because different frame types and some cities like Vod tend to have a majority of its inhabitant with a specific frame/alt-mode

If I may headcannon even more I'd say that the richer parts of the cities resemble Iacon because of its hegemony.

Why not make laws about architecture excusing them with something like "this kind of building is dangerous to xyz" or "it reminds of x traumatic age"?

Lol Cybertonians have fought for AGES and if we take a look at the Restoration age where they changed even the interior design to destroy anything that reminded people of Napoleon... I'd say that this could work for Cybertron too. Who doesn't love a little bit of historical revisionism -_-

Why not make hostile architecture against specific frame types and castes?? If someone tells me that there's a fictional discriminatory and dystopic society I WANT TO FEEL IT.

#transformers #maccadam #steel rambles #steel answers #babe wake up new tag just dropped #I will keep rambling about this fear not

[chaoticbuggybitchboy]

I want to know :3

:D

My favorite poem is Antigonish by Hughes Mearns! It’s featured in the Magnus Archives and it is lodged in my brain forever. I’ll probably make it its own dedicated post but it talks about a man who isn’t there, with the writer wishing that the man who isn’t there would go away. It’s a lovely little poem and especially as someone whose psychosis manifests primarily as delusions, I simply Vibe with a poem about something you know isn’t there but terrorizes you anyways.

And yeah! I have taste -> color synesthesia!! For the first 10 or so years of my life I thought you could teach colors to (color)blind people using foods. It’s kind of a weird thing to try and talk about because really the main way I know that my experience of the world is different from most people’s is that language just not built for the way I experience taste. I’ve thought of trying to do some sort of art based on my synesthesia but ive never been able to figure out exactly how since it’s really difficult for me to separate taste and the colors. I also experience ‘shrimp colors’ that don’t exist in a way humans can visually experience. Like orange and green at the same time, but not grey or speckled; the color simply does not exist.

There’s also almost no correlation between visualcolors and tastecolors. Por ejemplo, carrots (orange food) taste like a desaturated forest green. The only real trends are that the more artificial a food is, the more likely it is to match color wise; and that water will lighten and desaturate things.

Also it’s difficult for me to sort of quantify since I have no other frame of reference, but it does have a lot of effects on my life. Since color tends to overwhelm any ‘normal taste’, that’s what most of my favorite (and least favorite) foods are based on. I dislike carrots because it’s unpredictable whether they’re green or brown and I don’t like that neither of those are orange. My two favorite foods are grape koolaid (it’s so purple and I like purple; I also never water it down because then it’s Purple and I can also taste sour) and salt & vinegar chips (the vinegar covers any colors).

Water is always white or a very very light grey. This does affect what water I will drink because I avoid drinking water that’s sort of tinted warm colors. Doesn’t vibe right.

And the way I describe foods is almost always color based, since that’s the main way I experience it. This has deeply confused and mildly frustrated anyone trying to learn anything applicable to their own experience of food. I have no idea what other people taste, especially since colors tend to overshadow anything else. I’m pretty sure I experience spiciness and saltiness normally though.

And as mentioned earlier, it seriously impacts my sensory issues. Tastes are doubled (I guess?) and any after taste lingers for ages. If the water im drinking is significantly tinted it builds up in my mouth and is Bad (I had to pause writing this to refill my water bottle with my house filtered water instead of the water fountain from my school since that water is reddish and my water is only very faintly teal). Also since all taste is doubled-ish I am basically always aware of the fact that my mouth has a taste and a color. Which kinda sucks.

Also I think this is an adhd thing but I have a hard time describing colors unless I’m actively tasting something because I have a word based brain and the colors are something that completely upends the English language’s way of describing the senses. That’s sort of why I always describe it as being a one way link and say “taste to color synesthesia” rather than “taste color synesthesia”, because I don’t taste anything when I see colors, I just experience colors when I taste something. I think if it went both ways I would be a very different person and would likely have meltdowns much more often but that’s pure speculation.

I thiiiink that’s everything I can think of right now, but yeah! Synesthesia! I think I heard the word about four-ish years ago now and literally nothing has clicked for me faster than that did. It took me less time to start identifying with synesthesia than it did for me to identify with any lgbtq+ label. Every time I think about the fact that ‘tasting colors’ is something that people say to mean they’re loopy or high or something and not that they can literally taste colors I have to do a double take. It’s such a seemingly tiny little thing but it’s so fundamental to my experience of the world that I cannot even imagine anything different. What does koolaid taste like if not Color? I don’t know, because all I can taste is Color.

#chaoticbuggybitchboy #info dump #synesthete #synesthesia #text post #infodump #antigonish #ask #someone did ask!!! #someone asked

[oddygaul]

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, and also just Scott Pilgrim

-footage from Rebuild of Scott Pilgrim

I watched Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, then realized it had been nearly 15 years since I actually read the comics, so then I re-read all of those. I wish I had just done it in the right order to begin with, because doing it this way really scrambled my thoughts about both works. In my defense, how was I to know Takes Off is actually a sequel? What am I supposed to do, read things?

I was pleased to find that the original Scott Pilgrim honestly holds up pretty well. Takes Off is clearly such a reflective work that I was expecting to find the original story a lot more problematic than I had in high school, but… for the most part, it really knows what it’s doing. Yeah, a lot of the characters are shitbirds, but they’re meant to be shitbirds. The entire point of the book is showing us flawed people who intermittently make shitty decisions, and giving them a chance to grow, reflect, and treat the people around them better.

So generally, I still really liked Scott Pilgrim. All the goofy-ass character art and the surreal, unexplained quasi-fantasy Canada bits that made it tick back then still work. This time around, I really appreciated the writing and dialogue for not only its bevy of solid jokes, but for how fucking weird it is. In the past decade or so, I think a lot of ‘quirky’ humor has homogenized somewhat into a particular tone. Call it Whedonization or globalization or internet brain or whatever you want, but it can sometimes feel like anything aiming to be comedic hits a lot of the same beats.

The Scott Pilgrim comics, however, are a weird time capsule and their own vibe entirely. These fuckers just talk like aliens sometimes. They say random stuff, but it’s not *holds up spork* random, it’s “shit sorry I was kind of half listening but I think the thing I’m about to say is relevant” random. It’s less big swings to try and land a punchline, and more of two people letting loose a stream of consciousness at each other, lending a sense of constant confusion to the proceedings. It’s absolute nonsense sometimes, and I was way into it.

This ties into a slight shift in my read on Scott as a character, too. I always just saw him as a huge asshole - and that led to my biggest issue with the movie, which was that Cera plays him way too meek and doesn’t suck nearly enough. Reading the comics again, though, while Scott absolutely does suck, he’s just so fucking head empty that I warmed up to him a bit more. He’s still an asshole that doesn’t take responsibility for how his actions affect others, absolutely, but also god damn he’s so dumb that it softens the blow sometimes.

There were some little details about characters I’d forgotten that I really love - like the fact that Scott is actually a really good cook, but does it purely through intuition without knowing what anything’s called.

Art-wise, I liked it a lot more than I remembered, too; it definitely starts out a bit rough, but there’s a lot of charm to the characters and their weird gremlin mouths. I also laughed at some of the manga inspiration I didn’t pick up on before; everyone’s got big anime eyes, sure, but the grey screentone Clip Studio pattern fills? The hiring of assistants to do polished background work as the author gets into the later volumes? Ahh, classic.

Takes Off was a lot of fun, too. I gather that a lot of the internet fandom is upset it wasn’t a straight retelling of the original story with killer animation, but man, you gotta let creators create what speaks to them. Bryan Lee O’Malley started Scott Pilgrim twenty years ago. He’s been both married and divorced since then. Surely he’s gone through as much growth and change as we all would in such a timespan - how could you expect someone to just re-tread the exact same ground on such a personal story?

I find it interesting how prevalent this trend has become in the past decade or so - a creator or creative team returning to an old work - seemingly out of necessity, as the IP has become such a juggernaut that it’ll happen with or without them - and refusing to just tell the story again by the numbers. Anno’s Rebuild of Evangelion is the closest spiritually to this, but even recent ‘remakes’/reboots like Final Fantasy VII and God of War 2018 have followed the same path - creators ruminating on the strengths and weaknesses of older work from a more distant lens to create something new. They all seem to have arrived at this methodology independently, too (O’Malley said he only watched the Rebuilds once Takes Off was written and well underway); it’s not about chasing the trend of an altered remake, it seems to just be a natural desire to reckon with the past this way.

Because of this, one of the reasons I really wish I watched the show after re-reading the comics is to have a better sense of the evolution, and the change in tone and message. Due to watching Takes Off while having only a hazy recollection of the original, I made a lot of assumptions about how the original work must have portrayed things, to explain what Takes Off’s themes were a rejection of: that by giving Ramona more agency, she’s less of a damsel in distress/prize to be won, and isn’t defined by her body count… when in fact, neither of those are really the case to begin with. Ramona has plenty of agency in Scott Pilgrim, she fights as much as Scott does, and really is only defined by her body count as narrative framework, not judged in-universe by the other characters* **.

*I think some of these misconceptions may have come from having rewatched the movie more recently than I read the comics, as the movie (if I remember correctly, which this entire blog has established I likely don’t) does tend to treat Ramona as more of an passive object. Her subservience to Gideon in the real world (rather than in her subspace mind prison) comes to mind.

**Also, you could argue that the framework of the story itself being ‘guy fight’s girl’s evil exes in order to earn the right to date her’ is inherently placing importance on Ramona’s body count and someone’s romantic eligibility/desirability being defined by that but like… man that just is clearly not the vibe imo

If anything, I think the real lack that the show was trying to make up for wasn’t Ramona’s lack of agency, exactly, but a lack of screentime. Takes Off simply spends more time inside Ramona’s head, letting us see things from her perspective, and understanding the reasons for why she is the way she is and why she does the things she does. In some volumes of the book, she’s aloof almost to the point of feeling like a trope; it’s clear (especially later on) that there’s a reason for the way she acts, but the story just doesn’t necessarily communicate it very well. In the show, with Scott sidelined, we get to spend a lot of time with Ramona, understanding her thoughts and feelings, which is certainly a welcome change.

Anyway, intentions of the changes aside, I wouldn’t trade Takes Off for a straight remake in a thousand years; the sense of utter surprise I felt while watching the story take a hard left turn was exhilarating***. Plus, if the reason you love a series is the characters you’ve developed a bond with, what could be better than canonized fan fiction written by the original creator, showing your favorite characters interacting in new and novel ways? How could one not be excited to see Gideon and Lucas bro out and watch anime together? How could one not be thrilled to see Wallace Wells enact further chaos upon the whole province? More than righting storytelling wrongs, Takes Off is making space to tell more stories and round out everyone’s favorite supporting characters in a franchise that, due to the inherent density of its plot and setup, simply hasn’t had the real estate to develop all of them and let them breathe.

***Having just played through NieR recently, I almost felt like the show had scanned me, detected I had gotten Scott Pilgrim Ending A before, and was throwing some NG+ bonus content at me lmao

As far as the production goes, I was impressed overall, but thought it did suffer from some awkward timing and pacing issues. It’s stiff competition when your inevitable point of comparison is an Edgar Wright movie - even other live-action movies can seem stiff and slow compared to his frenetic pacing and constant cuts - but it still felt remarkably low energy at times, especially in the back half. Now, this is a problem you see a lot in anime dubs; English and Japanese are two very different languages, with different cadences and construction. Since a cast is typically required to dub over already existing animation, the translated dialogue often ends up being elongated and unnatural when it should be a quick back and forth, or hurried where it should have a little more breathing room. Given, though, that Takes Off was not only recorded in English before Japanese, but actually recorded before animation then animated to the dialogue (exceedingly uncommon), I was surprised the show still had this issue.

Regardless, the boarding in the first 4 episodes or so manages to be bombastic enough that this isn’t a problem; there’s a lot of wild camera angles and perspective shifts that keep things dynamic even when the dialogue itself isn’t moving too quickly. The animation highlight for me personally was the fight in the video store between Ramona and Roxy; great idea, incredible execution.

While Science Saru is the main production studio, I was intrigued to spy a bunch of other studios listed in the credits - WIT, Shaft, Ufotable, Trigger - but upon some further research it looks like they were just doing inbetween work.

Also the music includes slapped - I was jamming hard to Kidnapped by Neptune and Konya wa Hurricane, and then that United States of Whatever drop? unreal.

#will's media thoughts / virtual brain repository #shows #comics #scott pilgrim takes off #scott pilgrim

[maddiviner]

How would one perhaps cast a glamourbomb?

Note: This article describes some stuff people did in the past. It’s not safe or wise to do that kind of thing nowadays, if it ever truly was. I don’t recommend engaging in these activities, but wanted to answer this anyways. The word itself made me nostalgic, but conflicted? Yeah.

Glamourbombs, at least as I know the term, aren’t spells in the traditional sense. They are (were, more like) magical performance pieces. They touch the “mundane” world with some sort of occult interjection. This was (perhaps thankfully) most common in places where the veil between “mundane” and “weird” was already thin: libraries, universities after midnight, anime conventions, places like that. While I don’t doubt people still do this today, the trend was at its peak around the turn of the century.

At the time, I was in middle school. As the Millennium (holy f**king s**t! its Y2K!) approached, the apocalypticism wasn’t just limited to the Christian kids. Those of us who weren’t Christian or just came from more secular families still saw things like hysteria about Y2K glitches and especially climate change. A lot of that was pretty scary to us, especially considering some of our more fundamentalist-minded neighbors were saying the world was going to end and “Jesus was coming back.”

It wasn’t so much that we believed them. We just knew, even as kids, that the scientists weren’t lying about the climate data. We also knew that people were acting really irrationally, whatever their reasons. This fit in well with the notion that some big change was coming. Maybe it wasn’t the Christian apocalypse, but could it be something? Plenty of adults seemed to think so, too.

Online, and in our own (burgeoning) occult spaces, we had our own spin on things. Allegedly, by glamourbombing, we were helping, in some small way, to enchant this increasingly hostile mundane world. Because, as teens and tweens growing up on White Wolf, Captain Planet and Square Enix, we clearly knew what was best for reality!

We had every right to (at least try to) impose it on the rest of the world at every chance. Right? Right?

We’d all read at least two books on witchcraft from Barnes and Noble, too.

In some scenarios of glamourbombing, the point was just to make people going about their day pause for a few seconds, think “Hmm? Cool!” and go on about their lives, hopefully in a better mood. These were usually simple things like flyers seeking a “LOST UNICORN,” a notice that you’re entering a “PIXIE-FREE ZONE,” silly things like that. You still see stuff like this today and (if it’s well-designed) it makes people smile and nothing more.

Other glamourbombs had more complexity. They (sometimes) included a bit of magical technique - an active hypersigil, for example.

When pen drives grew in popularity, they became common tools for glamourbombing, with people filling the drives with “magical” material and leaving them (usually conspicuously) somewhere, like a library.

These hypersigils might take the form of experimental music MP3s, animated loops, even actual .EXE files (supposedly). I don’t know whether anyone was bold or foolish enough to click on something like that, of course.

I was barely in my teens, and definitely still sorting things out when it came both to my personal beliefs and perspective on wider community issues like this. Even then, though, I knew not to click any weird .EXE files.

The larger problem, in case you couldn’t tell?

A lot of this straight-up ignores issues like bystander consent from a magical perspective and, y’know, the problems that can arise from leaving weird/unexpected things in public places.

Also? In case you’re not keeping track, I’m talking about the 2000s here. Early 2000s. As in directly after 9/11. Not exactly a wonderful time to be running around acting weird in public and dumping strange packages. Not a safe or wise thing to be doing. Some people got a tag on that early on and quit such shenanigans.

In the summer of 2003, I attended a summer program for “gifted” 🙄 kids where I took the course focused on Greek mythology. The motley pack of metaphysically-inclined nerds I met there thought glamourbombing was tragically cool, of course. We had all kinds of ideas about “Lost Pegasus” flyers and other Greek mythology-themed things. Thankfully nothing that would’ve been too harmful. We ended up being too shy and busy with schoolwork to actually do any of it.

Sadly, later on, there were some attempts by groups (some of which I’d call cult-like) to recruit using this kind of thing. I won’t name anything that’d put me on anyone’s radar (hopefully), but I remember reading about some of it.

One particularly unpleasant and notorious use of this technique occurred on the west coast in the late 2000s when a cult set up an “art installation” in public featuring a live rat in a maze and some other random detritus. The rat didn’t freeze to death despite cold temperatures, thankfully.

Incidents like that (which was, of course, reported as a bomb scare) probably helped to put a stop to the glamourbombing trend. After all, if you’re (supposedly) after some kind of mind-liberating mass reenchantment of reality, well, nothing could be worse than the whole bomb squad showing up, right?

As the digital age crept on, I think people started to reevaluate attention’s role as a commodity. It’s really easy to get attention if you want it, as things like the “rat in a maze” exhibit (which made the papers) show.

You can’t control what kind of attention you’ll get, though, and you can’t say for certain that what you’re doing won’t have unintended consequences for other people. With that in mind, something like glamourbombing doesn’t seem very responsible, especially right now.

I guess the concept isn’t irredeemable. As recently as 2018, I was posting on Facebook looking for someone to help me slay the green dragon that sometimes lands in the field near the Taco Bell by the highway.

Little pranks and jokes like that can brighten everyone’s mood sometimes. There’s certain contexts, though (my Facebook feed, for example) where it might be appropriate, and others where it wouldn’t.

And the full-on concept of a glamourbomb, designed to “spread magic in the mundane'' with an active sigil of some sort, etc? Hard pass. Doesn’t seem ethical to me nowadays.

And, of course, it’s generally a bad idea to do anything that might be mistaken for a bomb threat.

#witchcraft #magic #occult #chaos magic #witch #witchblr #sigil #hypersigil #glamourbomb #early 2000s #eliza.txt #new occult #postmodern #millennium #tw animal neglect #tw bomb

[masonscig]

Writer Rant: Am I the only one who finds it kind of strange how many people are complaining about how the detective didn't have a choice but to join the agency? Like I totally get thinking its too soon (I personally expected it in book 4 at least, so I have no issue with the opinion it should have happened later in the series) but there's been multiple posts I've seen of people saying they're upset that choice was forced upon them/the 'no' option didn't work, and I'm kind of wondering what they expected? Idk I feel like there's this growing trend in the IF/COG community where people are mad that they can't go completely against the status quo of the story, but like...there's a difference between taking away choices for the protag/taking control out of the players hands and some plots just *needing* to happen in order for the story to proceed as intended, especially when they relate directly to the protag and their environment and not a mostly offscreen situation like the aftermath of whether Sanja survives/the treaty is signed in Book 2.

The detective being a full time agent is a major development and would effect most if not every agency/station related scene going forward - if saying no was a legitimate option that carried over as a major choice, Mishka would basically have to write a second version of each subsequent book to account for the differences until they finally join. Not allowing that to be an option isn't taking away the players choice because it was *never* a choice to begin with, its a set part of the plot already. I get the frustration of it maybe not being the most in character, but the author in me wants to scream that it's not on the author to adapt their story to fit each OC every time, especially when that OC is made to intentionally break what 'should' be happening. For all the legitimate criticism about book 3 that I've seen, this is the one that I genuinely Do Not Understand unless there's just a lot of folks in the fandom without experience writing longer, connective works, because they either don't recognize or respect just *how much* would have to change going forward based on that one call.

i completely get where you're coming from, i really do, but i have to disagree with some points here

i think that the reason people are upset is because mis/hka has like. stripped the agency (haha no pun intended) from the mc but it doesn't quite feel as intentional as she wanted it to be – (idk if i'm explaining correctly bc it makes sense in my head) let's say you're playing with an mc that has little to no agency points, they've fucked up majorly at every stat check (murphy got away, sanja died, falk didn't sign the treaty, falk was hostile, fucked up at the auction), and they're scared of supernaturals? in what world would that qualify the mc for an agency position?

if you're thinking "okay well, maybe it's because the agency is trying to keep a close watch on the mc" – okay, well, mis/hka isn't going to flesh out the idea of the agency being evil or even explicitly morally grey. she's said herself in asks before that the agency are the "good guys" (i don't feel like looking for it lmao if you do, godspeed. there's a lot of asks to sift through) – so the choice just doesn't make sense unless she's been playing the absolute longest con and they'll be revealed to be the true antagonists in the end.

if they are, i'll record myself a jean jacket with no sauce :) xoxo

but like others have said before, mis/hka is writing this series as a utopia of sorts – the mc is a fucking cop, working for a federal agency. and they're presented as the good guys. that alone means that any weird things that they do are going to be pushed aside and blamed on an "individual" rather than the "structure" itself, if that makes sense. (an option available towards the end of book 3 depending on what route you're on is being able to erase bobby's memories if they find out about supernaturals. a cop? possibly forcibly suppressing a journalist? yeah. no thought put into that option.)

what i'm getting at is, she's stripping the choice to join the agency from the mc's who don't want it, and similarly, from what she's shown us, it's not going to amount to anything, because she doesn't seem to criticize any of the systems she's established in a larger sense outside of the mc's dialogue. so if that doesn't matter, then what are the mc's working towards? <- this is a rhetorical question, food for thought if you will LMAO

sorry this is all over the place, but to tie it all back together, i think that yes, if your oc doesn't fit the universe, i completely agree – you can't blame the author for not fulfilling every fantasy you have about the series – but similarly, i think that if mis/hka is giving us the option to make mc's who are untrustworthy of the agency, it's her job to follow through with that to some degree. and that means not just pandering to mcs that love their job, love being a cop, love supernaturals, love the agency, always pass stat checks, etc.

all of my thoughts are based on things she's said about her own story, and how i think that contradicts some ideas she may be unintentionally setting up.

but again, i totally get where ur coming from – branching stories are difficult, i just think that if you're going to offer options in a story, then choices should matter, and they feel like they don't in b3. i get that things need to happen in order for the story to progress, but some of these choices the mc is able to make feels like dead ends? like it's not going anywhere

#sorry for the very long ramble – it's unedited i was just typing out my feelings and it turned into a big thing #this has been the point of the story i've been most interested to see how it plays out even moreso than the romances #bc like. if the c*ps and f*deral agents are good people then. what is the future of this story gonna hold LMAO #again this is unedited just word vomit LMAO #asks #twc book 3 #twc book 3 spoilers #twc b3 spoilers #long post

[ffelii]

I cannot be.... the first to put chia seeds in tea and absolutely love it... right?

Every time I bring it up to someone they find it weird but I love it! Mayb its just my recent interest in finding ways to meet nutritional needs while still getting the kinds of foods n flavors I love, so Im trying a lot of random shit

But there's no way putting chia seeds in tea is a weird or new thing. It makes so much sense to me.

I got the idea from the weird weight loss trend on tiktok for "chia seed water" which was all kinds of gross and please don't take health or weight loss tips from tiktok lol

But I saw that and figured it would make way more sense to put them in tea! The issue w having them in water was just that it gave the water a really gross taste lmao but tea and whatever you add to it completely solves that issue

Ive just been looking for ways to get enough fiber in my day-to-day, because tbh I dont like veggies very much. I don't think I'll ever get to a point where I eat enough veggies to be hitting whatever a healthy amount of fiber is in a day. But I do love fruit, apples especially, so there's that.

Anyways, point is: there's a lot of fiber you can get from adding chia seeds to your tea or smoothies or yk people usually will put em in pudding!

I really like the added texture, especially in my tea, its kinda like teeny tiny boba! Because when the seeds soak, they expand a little and get this squishy and clear outer layer (kinda like bubble fruit in Rain World, which I thought was a neat comparison)

I usually only put like a small tablespoon in some normal ass green tea w honey and its lovely. I like it a lot and I think everyone should give it a try :)

#rambling #also I know very little about nutrition n shit so feel free to lmk if im doing something wrong or unhealthy here #i love learning more about how to keep my body happy and healthy in ways I can still enjoy!! #feli thoughts #tea #nutrition #weight loss #? i guess #tiktok #rain world

[mrangeldevil]

apparently my thing is internet culture now sooo fuck it heres some more of my thoughts

emoticons vs the 2020s... complete lack of emoticons

emoticons are an extremely vital part of internet culture, ever since computers were even a thing! the first substantiated instance of an emoticon was used on a forum back in 1982, featuring the :-) face

now its not that theyre completely phased out, thatd be very hard to do as everyone almost universally uses :), :D or :-) to communicate happiness; but the use of them and their variations were much more heavily used until the 2020s. nowadays its pretty rare to see someone use XD, O-O or the accursed owo; but why is that? if we’ve used these emoticons for so long then why in the world did most people stop using them?

well, i have a personal theory. there is no pure evidence other than trends ive noticed as the internet has progressed, so take this with a grain of salt.

i think its because of cringe culture. emoticons were heavily associated with geeks and, in particular, scene culture and during the mid-late 2010s seeing cringe compilations of kids who participated in nerd culture was a gateway to cyberbullying and as the internet grew, it switched from being an escape for geeks & nerds to every day life where they are bullied for their interests and hobbies. on top of that, when 2020 hit everyone was in a deep depression and many parts of the internet were and are just people yelling or fighting eachother.

its a bit hard to notice over here on tumblr but if you just check out whats happening on other sites, its all constant infighting and cyberbullying people who dont fit the “status quo” which has resulted in many people dropping emoticons as a whole because emoticons are meant to be silly & fun and are heavily associated with geek culture which doesnt fit at all with the kind of mentality most people online have anymore.

i remember reading some type of article or retrospective about how different the mentalities of the 2000s-2010s vs the 2020s were and this is a pretty good example: back in the early 2010s, the buzzwords were YOLO, epic, awesome and swag, all words pertaining to fun and joy, whereas the current buzzwords of 2022 are gaslighting, infodumping (it isnt negative in itself but a lot of people use it as a synonym for venting nowadays) and grooming. stark difference isnt it? and emoticons like @-@ really dont fit the grim tone the 2020s seem to be stuck in for the time being.

now, luckily, emoticons seem to be receiving a revival via the scene revival (which makes sense since emoticons are vital to scene) and, in a weird way i think the revival of emoticons shows an improvement of the internet’s outlook. emoticons are meant to show your emotions, and a lot of people have been stuck feeling emotionally stunted due to how depressing this decade has started so seeing people use them once again is a good thing. it means that people are learning how to have fun again and a very good way to help improve moral and making you happy might just be a funny little face on a computer screen

maybe im overanalyzing it but hey, try out using some emoticons, it might just make you feel a little happier about yourself ^-^

#linguistics #internet linguistics #internet culture #emoticons

[scuopsie]

rant time!

kpop reaction content isn't exactly new (at least as far as I know) but it does seem to have kind of boomed in the last... two-three years I think. I remember there being only a handful of relevant kpop reaction content creators on youtube, some more popular that the others, but still there weren't a ton of them around. and I guess it makes sense because kpop itself has gotten much more popular and widely known outside of just [REDACTED] and among a wider age range I'd say.

but nowadays if you look up “X group - Y title track reaction” you will find tens, if not hundreds of reaction videos (especially if its a well known group) ranging from channels with hundreds of thousand subs to small account with a couple of hundred views on their reaction videos. and I just find that so weird.

like... especially for channels that do reactions as their main (and only) content, I find it extremely difficult to believe that after a certain point there is any authenticity behind these reactions. these big reaction channels are out there reacting to damn near every relevant kpop group's comebacks (and there are a LOT of them) and every single reaction is generally positive and often very enthusiastic.

aside from the fact that logically and statistically it's impossible for someone to like every title track being released, even if they're all objectively good (which they're not), because no one likes every genre and every style of music, there is basically no creativity involved in creating this type of content which makes it very dull both for the creator and the consumer after a while.

on top of that, this type of content has created a really toxic environment around expressing opinions and criticism toward kpop groups and kpop music. I just came across a video from one of these bigger (while also being newer) creators talking about how she's not happy with the content she's been making for the past year. she said that it's extremely overwhelming trying to keep up with every comeback when everyone expects you to react to their fave's CB and after a while sitting and reacting to music videos becomes repetitive especially when you're not even allowed to truly be yourself and express your opinions. she said she can't even talk about having a bias in a group because she would get tons of hate comments and dms about ppl bashing her for not having a different bias. I can't imagine how people would react to a reaction video creator saying she doesn't like a comeback or even a certain element in the song/mv.

I used to love kpop reaction videos back when I had just discovered them and they were not as big. like I genuinely get the appeal. seeing someone who's not a teenage girl (which is what stereotypically the general public thinks kpop stans are) is pretty validating. and back then there were like 'vocal coach reacts' or 'producer reacts' etc. seeing the reaction of "experts" analyzing different parts of a song/mv was really interesting for someone like me with zero knowledge of any of the technical stuff. and I also understand that they do contribute to promoting groups and comebacks to a certain degree. but it has just gone too far, in my opinion.

idk maybe I’ve just gotten old and lost the will to enjoy the small things that used to bring me joy but I genuinely don't enjoy reaction videos anymore. most of those older 'exerpts' (except for two I think) aren't active anymore (I'm guessing at least to some degree bc stans didn't want to hear that their fave was not that legendary of a vocalist or their fave song wasn't as layered and complex as they thought it was) and instead there are just random people reacting to kpop and some of them you can just tell that all their reactions are completely faked out. Youtubers are jumping on this trend bc it’s easy (in terms of not having any kind of real substance) and gets u good views if you’re a little charming and funny.

TL;DR : everything is fake and authenticity is dead. kdjfdjf I'm mostly joking but in the end, as per usual with my rants of this kind, I don't have a specific point or a solution. I'm just starting a conversation. so if any of you have something to add or just want to chat about this send me an ask!! (plz don't reply in the comments because I want this to be on my dash so everyone else can read too.)

#I believe the only technical reactors that arent new are PD and reacttorhek #iirc Dre used to be the biggest reacting channel but idk if hes not active anymore or just not relevant #there are a few ‘dancer reacts’ that are new and i didnt find any of their reactions that fun to watch. they didnt anything to the convo. #idk how new ben (birb) is but i used to like his reactions back when he would pause a lot and make longer comments. new hes making very- #short reactions and barely rewinds/pauses for comments. #i dont watch reacttorhek anymore at first bc they werent doing reactions to my faves anymore so there wasn’t anything for me to watch #but then I discovered that they have a doc where they’ve made a list of groups/songs they wouldn’t be reacting to #i think the explanation was that the producer has to choose songs that are complex enough and are worth their artists reacting to #which made sense but seeing the songs/groups they are reacting to (granted i dont stan any of them) it seems like they’re actually mostly- #-reacting to the most popular groups and not necessarily the groups/cbs that deserves the attention #like it makes sense for them to be picky bc they’re a huge team and cant be mass producing tons of videos like some of these solo reactors #but it seems like instead of picking actually musically complex and interesting songs from lesser known/underrated groups theyre just- #-picking groups that will bring the most views. #i just scrolled thru their channel and nearly all the videos were reactions of popular 4th gen gps #essentially the only reactor i still enjoy watching to some degree is PD #But i still cant get over the fact that none of these reactors ever have anything other than praise to say abt evey song they react to #even I dont like EVERY song my bias group releases #so even when i watch a reaction of a song/mv i DO LIKE i dont know if the person is being genuine abt liking it #okay i think I’m done 🤔 #niki screaming into the void #long post

[horizon-verizon]

Hi just recently started following you and finished watching the show,I love your posts thank you for sharing them!

As for the green dress debacle,I don't know I think it's worse than anyone thinks because if you just came into this show,the scene holds no significance whatsoever?

It's not even a establishing moment,you wouldn't even notice it if not for the color change and those two extras giving exposition in the most lazy way ever?

I am just not a fan idk.

Many things in this show make no sense because the context is changed and there is obvious bias towards one side and the one side they biased on are the villians.

Seriously this show should just be called misery,who watched this and actually came out rooting for anyone?

A whole bunch of the decisions make no sense,like a short headcount here:

Aegon is pathetic and entitled and supposedly plays a big role in here but half of the time you forget he is there,Heleana is a weirdo who is supposedly a dreamer and what she is completely fine with the fucked shit that is gonna go down and happen to her and her family?

Not to even mention the icky implications of her being autistic and that somehow being connected to that trend of only autistic people have special powers and also giving autistic traits to someone who has such a terrible fate in canon,and for what?

Aemond is a psycho with a brother/mother/sister/inferiority complex and daddy issues that the plot continues to justify because he was bullied?

Daeron isn't even there.

Alicent might as well not be there for all the fucking nothing she did. And she is a hypocrite who peddles the system because she gains from it.And despises everyone who isn't as miserable as her?Like really?

Also considering the age they all are supposed to be how is everyone still so political inept and naive?

This show is just weird,like it goes out of its way to demonize anyone with active agency and praises anyone who rolls with the system and this is supposed be realistic?

What kind of political agenda is this?

They went out of their way to take all the agency from Alicent because the evil stepmother trope is apparently sexist?

Yeah because evil woman don't exist right?

We are all saints and man are ruining everything.

Ugh.

Any time Rhaenyra makes a decision she is a evil whore that is controlled by her passions and any time Alicent continues her impressive impression of a doormat,oh gee she is suffering for everyone we should praise her,what a good woman/wife/mother.

Supposedly this is feminist.

Seriously I get the feeling that the show is trying villianize the Targaryens but is only popular because of them?

You know the writers just hate them because the favorites of the people they go out of their way to demonize and the ones they like they literally completely rewrote.

I am baffled.

Thank fuck for the decent cast.

@shokos-lazy-life, thank you for reading them!

I recommend alinahams, sweetestpopcorn, xenonwitch, azureflight, la-pheacienne, theblackqveen, mononijikayu, rhaenyragendereuphoria, jackoshadows, the-king-andthe-lionheart, thelustybraavosimaid, hamliet, darklinaforever, lady-corrine, and ozymalek for more in-depth analyses of the ASoIaF novels, AWoIaF, and F&B and the fandom. (If I pinged you, I tried not to, I'm sorry!)

"Not to even mention the icky implications of her being autistic and that somehow being connected to that trend of only autistic people have special powers and also giving autistic traits to someone who has such a terrible fate in canon,and for what?" I never considered that. But it is making these two separate things parallel like in more-faith-based views of the world that demonized or othered disability. Great catch!

Yeah, this show would be nothing without such amazing actors like Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Tom Glynn Carney, etc, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, etc. There's too many. HBO relies on great actors to make up for their writers' terrible and misogynist scripts. It is known.

I mean, the costumes and hair....*shivers.

#asoiaf asks to me #hotd critical #hotd #hotd comment #hotd writing #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #hbo and asoiaf

[adrianasunderworld]

I absolutely adore the idea of Yuu going to White Ash Institute to get away from NRC's chaos, but my mind couldn't help but go to a more angsty place :') so enjoy my 1 am ramble Yuu practically LEAPS at the opportunity to get away from the crap she's been through at NRC and, honestly, I don't blame her. Would it KILL the boys to just give her a second of peace? Really? After all she's done for all of them? So Yuu zips off to WAI first chance she gets. Her classmates there are friendly, her classes feel easy without Ace and Deuce to distract her all day, and the Headmage actually does her job. Everything finally feels calm for once. Too calm, honestly. Once the fear and excitement of moving to a new school wears off, Yuu starts to notice a strange hollowness she hadn't felt at NRC. A gap between her and her peers that wasn't there before. Some girls chat about current trends or celebrity gossip. Others prefer to talk about TV shows, movies, or books. Even in class they reference history that Yuu's never heard about or talk about holidays/celebrations that they all grew up with. Even things like spots and music is wildly different from what Yuu knows and loves. Yuu is suddenly faced with the fact that she's not from this world. This isn't her place, this isn't her life, this isn't her home. She's an outsider in every sense of the word. The other girls try not to comment on it, but it's clear to everyone that there's a definite gap between Yuu and the rest of the student body, especially to poor Yuu who feels almost abandoned at some points. Some girls try to help Yuu bridge that gap in what little way they can, but there's only so much that can be done for something like this. And as much as I want to put my faith in WAI, I know high school girls well enough to know that some of the girls are probably making Yuu's life even worse with gossip or drama that makes the other students want to steer totally clear of Yuu. At NRC, there was always some sort of chaos or crisis that Yuu was facing with the boys that kept Yuu busy. She never had time to think about her place in this world, and through the chaos she at least felt like there was something there between her and her classmates. But at White Ash Institute Yuu finally has to face the isolating truth that she never really belonged in this world to begin with, and maybe never will. After all, It's not like you can just magic away that alienating feeling or study away that kind of isolation.

You right you right. I think Miss Yuu going to White Ash as its own arc would end, as these things tend to do, with Yuu realizing Night Raven is where she belongs. White Ash is too peaceful and normal, and Yuu is anything but. It's like when someone spends their whole life at war and they don't know what to do when that war is over. No one expects anything of her at White Ash. No one needs her help. No one asks anything of her. Yuu is so accustomed to doing everything that she doesn't know what's next.

She can try to fit in. Her new friends do their best to make her feel welcome and wanted. To distract from the home sickness. But then they excitedly talk about going to the movies for the final installment of some beloved franchise. Swooning over actors she's never heard of. And Yuu is once again reminded that she is a stranger in a strange land. At least at NRC she knew where she stood. Her place in the student body as the prefect of Ramshackle was unquestionable. It was a weird sense of stability. At White Ash she was another student. A girl with no home to go back too.

Also yes, Cristalería does not tolerate bullying. But that just means the particularly mean White Ash girls are a special brand of discreet and sneaky. Cristalería can't exactly punish what only looks like a bad attitude. Or a rumor with no clear source because conveniently no one knows where they heard it first. And as the only magic less girl who was at an all boys school? The gossips love Yuu.

Now it's a matter of whether or not Yuu is willing to stick out her time at White Ash or if Night Raven will have her back.

#twisted wonderland #miss yuu #the white ash intitute #twst yuu

[powderblueblood]

hello, i hope you are well and having a nice day! you recently made this post (https://www.tumblr.com/powderblueblood/743847014582943744/any-additional-thoughts-on-fandom-and-writing-i) about fandom and writing and i wanted to say that i agree with lots of it and, if u didn't mind, share some of my thoughts about ur thoughts, if that's okay with you, because you brought up some points that i agree with a lot but never bothered to put into words.

firstly, omg dialogue is sooooo crazyyyy its the hardest part for me to write personally (in personal projects, i haven't really used this blog for writing yet) but also the most satisfying. i love the feeling of writing something that i feel a real person, and a specific kind of real person would say, and it's definitely the most interesting for me to read, especially in fanfiction because it's where fun relationships between characters can be explored, but t's also the trickiest because it takes me out of the story very quickly if i don't like the way it's written, both in fanfic and original works as well.

also, while i don't really mind shy readers or badass/snarky and sharp readers, my favourite is but reserved and cautious readers a lot.......like.....they aren't shy.....they are suspicious......they are friendly because that's the polite thing to do but they're not gonna freak it with randos who are weirdly hush hush about what they get up to in their free time. also yeah trying to get a middle schooler to think ur cool is the kind of herculean task that humbles you to the ground and i do think it's a little strange sometimes how quickly a very tight knit group of friends would accept a stranger in their midst, as established with max in s2

and yes omg more characters of colour PLEASE, and for stranger things specifically, imo, i want to just say about the show (which i'm not really watching anymore due to various reason amongst boycotting), i was always sort of put off by how they handled their non-white characters, specifically women of colour like kali, who i think is the only notable woc other than erica, and the way the showrunners handled her character rubs me the wrong way, esp as a desi girl. i also think it would be fun to just write like explicitly characters of colour, both oc and y/n/readers, Black readers, Asian readers, Desi readers, Hispanic readers, that are involved with their specific cultures and backgrounds instead of like, very generalised readers that still do, frankly, tend to come off as white, because of that non-specificity and the unfortunate reality that a lot of "blankness" does tend to get filled up by white norms (i really hope that made sense im so sorry if it didn't)

tbh i also don't really see haringrove because billy freaks me the hell out, but omg....what you said about steddie being any two guy syndrome.......tysm for giving me a word for it, i never knew how to put it other than like, not just that i *personally* don't think they had very good chemistry (not saying their not good actors, just that i don't think they had chemistry), but also i did not see it making thematic sense for either of them and their individual character arcs, as well as a little bit of "get the girl out of the way"-ness that a lot of these specific ships (specific as in the trend of any two guy-ness that can arise in fandom at times) tend to have.

also i never thought about it before, but yeah, having a best friend date your ex that you guys broke off on sort of bad, or at least awkward terms, would be a stressful experience to have to ANYONE in that dynamic. i think i like the idea of nancy and her issues with that, but i think exploring robin and the side of oops i like by bff's ex would be fun and the sort of hurt and weirdness that that could bring to a friendship that has been so far very positive and supporting for both steve and robin.

i am so so so sorry for the disjointed nature of this ask as well as its length, you just brought up some points well worthy of discussion and i wanted to talk to you about it. i'm sorry you feel alienated that's not a fun thing to experience, but if it's worth anything, i think it's nice that a (slightly) older person is still passionate and stuff about something i'm interested in. i feel like especially when your a teen it gets easy to imagine that people in their thirties, forties, fifties have lost all the sort of spark and passion that youthfulness is known for when that's not true! it just changes and evolves and maybe you discover new stuff (me rn as i'm sort of over st and not planning on watching s5 and am largely participatory based on joe keery/djo and maya hawke and caleb laughlin and sadie sink) or re-discover things you'd forgotten about, but idk, i hope i'm able to dedicate some time to my hobbies and such as i grow older which can get tough because of life. happy to hear your thoughts and excited to hear back if you choose to respond. have a pleasant day <3!

sanjana love, I hope you don’t mind me posting this but I think there’s some lovely and valuable bits here and I’m glad some of what I was yappin about resonated with you! big love to you pal

#powder room talk #procrastinationprincesses

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Orb

Anonymous:

Vriska, by the way? Is that like, the real Vriska?

BB: Yeah.

MM: Are you guys like, friends with her or something?

BA:

CC: What the hell is your problem?

MM:

TG: What the hell is your problem?

CC: Why would you even say a thing like that?

MM: Why not?

CL:

LL:

FB: Everyone settle down. We're getting off track here.

BA: Vriska is actually a really interesting case, I think. She's about the closest thing the fandom has to an anticharacter.

BA: Not in the sense that she's just "a nice person," not in the sense that she's my "favorite" or something.

BA: She's an anticharacter in the "hostile to the story" sense of the term.

FC:

AA: Are you going to elaborate, or what?

BA: Hostile to the story, I'm saying. The way her character has been used. The way she has been wrenched from her initial function in the story (revealed in Act 5, in the Scratch) and returned to her original function, in A5A2.

BA: The "Scratch meta" plotline is, at its core, about how nothing ever works out. How power fantasies get spun and dashed. How authors will write a story that seems amazing, at first, but then you realize they can't keep it going, and eventually they break it off.

TG: Like with Jasprosesprite^2, you mean?

BA: Yes, and, with Vriska. You can't make a hero out of her. You can't have her save the day. The only thing that can happen, when she's unleashed, when you give her power, is that she ends up ruining the story.

BB: That's the story, isn't it?

BA: And that's how it is with fandom: the fans, like Vriska, wanting to change things, wanting to put them back the way they were. I could point to individual stories I've written, where I've tried, in a tongue-in-cheek way, to force the narrative to do the kind of things Vriska is about to do.

BA: But that isn't even really the point. Vriska is about the larger trend, I think. Because, just like Vriska, she keeps barging in and trying to change things, and then . . . then they never get changed.

FB: But it's different in fanfiction.

AA: Magnus was full of stuff like that. Things that "couldn't happen," but . . .

FC: And we liked it, or we wouldn't have been reading it, right?

MM: That's kind of what I was saying. That the whole point of "Scratch meta" is this . . . annoyance with the way things don't turn out. With the way that all the author's strengths end up being things that seem like weaknesses, from the outside, and vice versa.

TT: But that's a hypocritical bargain, no? We wouldn't be reading it, if we didn't like it, and if we did like it, why are we complaining? Why don't we just write it ourselves?

FC: Closer to the original meaning of "Scratch meta," these days. It used to be about stuff like, "can time travel really work?" And so on. We've moved on from that. Now it's about . . . taking the limits of power, and trying to beyond them.

WM: So you see, there's this . . . tension.

BA: A tension between, you know, my new, possibly pretentious, way of looking at things. And old ways.

BA: And what I mean is, there's old ways and then there's old ways. Because there are old ways which I don't like.

BA: And there's one way I hate in particular, the way I'm calling old ways. The way I'm talking about now, which is, like, this popularity.

BA: And, at least in the fanfics I've been reading, there's this weird split.

AA: Uh, split?

BA: Sure, sure. Look, the popularity contest. That's . . . not life.

AA: Is that what you're saying?

BA: But that's exactly what we're doing. The vast majority of fanfics are scrabbling around for popularity like it's the oxygen we're all gasping for. You're all doing it.

BF: Well, maybe not all of us, but . . . yeah, we have to concede that, just going from the number of popular fics.

BA: And why do we do it? What do we gain from this popularity? We are all playing a little game that we made up ourselves. And we get high points for making up our own private rules, and then we get to bask in the glory of those high points, and I can't say that the other popular fics are the anti-Vriskaes of Homestuck, or whatever, but I can say that the most popular fics tend to be the ones where the audience can most clearly picture the characters "as they should be, according to our fanon."

AA: So? Who cares? Fiction is for our enjoyment. Do we have to like a story, to create a story?

MM: I've said before, the hardest trick with A6 isn't that it's not the same as A1-5. It's going to be different, and that's just fine. The hardest trick is that it has to be what everyone wants to read.

CC: Nobody has to read A6.

MM: Of course. But if you're me, and you live on fanfics, then you have to read it, at least a bit. Or else you don't know what people want. And then you can't write anything anyone will want to read.

TF: Or, if you're me, you try to make fanfics that seem like an old friend, something that will just go on forever, and readers will just come to it, and like it, and leave, and come back. And the readers will be, you know, just people who want to read, and all the popularity scores will just be, like, people reading more, and then liking it and going on, and less reading, and liking it. And that's good, because . . . well, I guess that's all I have to say.

BC: But you can't do that if you don't have a job, right? A full-time job? Or a college scholarship? I mean, you're here, with the rest of us, Arquiusprite, but some of us actually, you know, earn enough money to be able to just . . . spend all day on Homestuck fanfics. That's how I'm able to write

#original fiction

[sivavakkiyar]

there’s a whole trend of music theory videos on YouTube that analyze and generally use video game music to explore it. I haven’t watched many of them at all, but it is interesting that as far as I can see no one’s ever done one on Chrono Cross—-a few on Trigger, which makes sense—-and I think that’s because analyzing that music presents some unique challenges for that type of analysis and what the audience wants. Cross’ music has of course a lot of wonderful harmonic moves and some of my favorite melodies, a lot of surprising rhythmic choices (the kind of stuff where it’s ‘in a weird time signature’ but you’ll never notice because it’s so naturalistic, doesn’t call attention to itself). But really it’s the problem of the arrangement and orchestration that’s the issue: Cross’ music draws very intimately, also naturalistically, on a surprising amount of musical traditions from around the world—-off the top of my head, various Celtic musics, Fado is a strong one, Italian prog specifically, kulintang and gamelan, traditional Japanese music, jazz, Africanist rhythms and melodies, and brings them into a point where they meet in a unique style. It’s really what gives that mess of a game a sense of existing as a place; it’s extremely hard to describe and analyze, still utterly unique despite its popularity and influence

#yasunori mitsuda

[brightbeautifulthings]

The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman & Mark H. Harris

"Black horror's triumph is its ability to reflect more deeply on the ways in which Black history has been and continues to be Black horror. Black horror points a finger at evil because those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, just like those who forget the rules of horror are just plain doomed. When the twenty-four hour news cycle moves on to some Insta-influencer, and names like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Atatiana Jefferson, and Botham Jean become fading memories for some, Black horror steps up to remind us that, like the vengeful dolls in Tales from the Hood, the past is never 'history.'"

Year Read: 2023

Rating: 4/5

Thoughts: It took me all damn year to read this book, through no fault of its own. I received an invitation from the publishers to read it through NetGalley, got about a third of the way through, and decided I couldn't take the kind of notes I wanted on my Kindle. By the time my ordered copy arrived, enough time had passed that it seemed best just to start over. Then cue the Great Summer Reading Slump of 2023! I refused to start over again, and it still took me until December to finish. May I reflect on this before I decide to accept nonfiction again, even if it is about horror. But then, as my favorite professor always liked to say, "Struggling is productive."

This is all no reflection on the book itself, which is an in-depth look at the history of Black horror cinema. I'm an avid horror fan, and I still learned a hell of a lot, including where to fill in the gaps in my viewing (although… I'm still probably going to skip Spider Baby (1967), sorry. Even my boyfriend, Lon Chaney Jr., can't make that sound appealing). Seriously, adding films to my watch list was some of the most fun of this book, and I've already started chipping away at those by continuing with The Purge series. I gave up after having lukewarm feelings about the first, but in a weird twist, the series actually gets so much better. I'm planning to watch Event Horizon (1997) and Spiral (2021) at some point too, among others.

The writers are incredibly knowledgeable about the topics, one a scholar in the field and the other having had a hand in a number of popular culture projects centered on horror film. I think this combination is what really sets this book apart from others of its kind and gives it a more unique voice. The two of them balance the in-depth theoretical and social commentary with witty, sardonic asides. Horror has a long history of going hand in hand with comedy (horror hosts like Svengoolie are case in point), and they go well together here. Despite the fears in the acknowledgements section that the book comes over "too complainy," I didn't get that impression in any sense. A critique by definition should be critical, and it is. It spares no feelings in calling out the hugely racist film industry which, despite major strides forward, still has a long way to go. However, it's also clear throughout that the writers really love the genre, and there are points of borderline gushing over films like Get Out (2017), which had a revolutionizing effect on social-political horror in general and Black horror specifically.

The chapters are neatly broken up by Top Lists on various topics, from Frequent Dier Awards and Terrible Hip-Hop Theme Songs From Horror Movies to 10 Horror Movies About Black-White Race Relations Not Named Get Out. These work better than the sometimes long lists of films inserted into paragraphs, and are often quite funny. The first half of the book is very strong on the history of Black horror film, even to the point of feeling a bit repetitive at times, which I think is a byproduct of the essay-ish/doctoral thesis quality of some of the chapters. (We can credit academia with a lot of things, but being concise is rarely one of them.) It expertly links Black horror trends with long-held racial stereotypes and charts the often dismal numbers of Black actors, actresses, writers, and directors in horror film, and the (again, often dismal) quality of that representation.

The second half dips into the intersection of Black women and Black LGBTQ+ representation, and it's not quite as comprehensive there. In part, this is because there just isn't as much rep out there to write about, but my sense is that this is more like an overview of these topics. A dedicated scholar could spend an entire book delving into each one of those and still have more to write. The final chapter pulls together a moving rumination on how Black horror, like most media, is ultimately a reflection of the world we live in. Any minor quibbles aside, this is extremely well-done and a must-read for anyone with an interest in the history of horror film.

#book review #the black guy dies first #the black guy dies first: black horror cinema from fodder to oscar #robin r. means coleman #mark h. harris #nonfiction #horror #black horror #netgalley #gallery books #simon and schuster #saga press #4/5 #rating: 4/5 #2023