#or one of those people selling apartments that aren't that good

[batfamscreaming]

Listen. We direly must uncouple Hyrule from the fantasy of medieval Europe. If Hylia's power and the power of sages are believed to be passed down by bloodlines, that means the Hylian Royal family has a vested interest in controlling the bloodline, but also in keeping it healthy. Do you know about Royal European bloodlines? Yeah you can trace them back 1000 years, but everyone has hemophilia.

Controlling the bloodline means hapsburg style not marrying any other royal families because then that royal family has a legal stake in your land. Hyrule royal family has magical powers? Everybody wants to marry into that. Everyone wants a piece of magic power.

So you marry people who are already invested in Hyrule, which someone is saying "nobility who own the various lands in hyrule", but even if you keep a pretty close eye on shit and arrange marriages as far apart as possible, after a few generations, people are gonna start running out of gene pool space. The Hapsburgs lasted 500-700 years before the Spanish ones were literally were unable to conceive anymore and the other Hapsburgs finally married out.

We have to keep this up not just for 10k years, but indefinitely. So that's not going to work.

I'm not saying that the hyrulian royal family didn't marry nobles at all, but I am saying that it is super fucking common for them to marry like. Just a dude.

Maybe other kingdoms surrounding Hyrule are trying to make political marriages, but hyrulian princesses are basically forbidden from marrying foreign princes, and instead are encouraged to chat up the local blacksmith for example, or perhaps the nice young lad at the market selling flowers. The servant with the nice smile.

Does this lead to a big power imbalance? Yes. But it also has a weird fun side effect that a lot of prince and princess consorts know how common Hylians live and can provide input in ruling. It means the hyrulian people feel a little closer to the monarchy and may be more inclined to trust them, not just because of religious reasons but because they can see people like themselves in the royal family here and there.

Obviously if a royal starts courting someone way below them in social standing it's not easy, there's a lot that goes into literacy and schooling all of a sudden, and political training and manners, and then after starting all that good luck if they fucking break up. But it does make a very very strange, relaxed royal family for a very very strange kingdom fraught with blessings.

It also means that the bloodline has spread.

There's the line to the throne, of course, but most of the time if there are multiple heirs some of them simply never are used. They also cant marry out of the kingdom of course, to maintain control of the bloodline, but if the queen can marry a commoner, well... surely so can her sibling. And those children are even less likely to be used for the throne than their royal parent. I suppose this could make up a lot of nobility, but not all of it.

A lot of semi-royals end up bringing a dowry to commoner families and spreading that money in the community they settle down in. Their kids marry locals and so on and so forth until there's any number of people who have a connection to the royal line without even really knowing about it. After all, most regular folk aren't deeply involved in genealogy. Four generations back is plenty. And it's not like spares and their kids settle down all the time, it's just one or two a generation and the kids from others become not much bigger a deal than fun gossip.

Because no one is thinking about it, it seems strange and miraculous sometimes, how the kingdom of Hyrule remains prosperous and wealthy with a royal family that are strange and unformal but mostly hale, as if their blood is magical.

And yet, people are still surprised when it seems like their heroes come from nothing.

As if the whole kingdom shares a blessing.

#i dont like the bloodline thing but i just thinj if you use it you should use it RIGHT #legend of zelda #loz #beatext #worldbuilding #we can build a fire

[etoilesombre]

hi! this is maybe very out of the blue, but - i'm reading 'our feast is but beginning' on ao3, and in a comment on part one you write something about the urca gold being a cursed symbol and that it makes zero economical sense. idk really what i am asking but maybe - do you have posts on hand that deal with that? or would you write down some of your thoughts on that? it sounds really interesting! thanks (:

OOOH I'm so excited to talk about this -- it is actually going to come up more in the final chapter of that series, and it comes up as a major plot point in longfic, because I think its a really great example of how in some ways Black Sails is Just a Story. Which is also to say: none of what I'm saying here is a criticism of the show. The Urca Gold is Pirate Treasure writ large, it serves its function in the narrative, we don't actually need to think about the real world implications of stealing it.

But IF, for instance, you were a fanfic writer and kind of a history and econ nerd, and inclined to 'well actually' stuff, then you might see a couple problems with the gold as a solution for a free and independent Nassau. I think of them basically as problems of scale and form.

Let's talk about scale first. Basically, if you are going to steal and not die, you have to make a few calculations.

If you can steal something big, run away and live anonymously ever after, good for you! No problems. (This was Silver's initial plan. He was smart.)

If, however, you are going to steal openly, and maintain some sort of defended home base (see: bandits, organized crime, pirates) you have to ensure it is not worthwhile for people to come get their stuff back. This is why, as a pirate, it behooves you to have a reputation for extreme violence, and also a remote hideout. Merchant ships have insurance, the right people quietly profit from the fencing of pirated goods; nobody actually wants to die, so piracy is cost of doing business, and the world carries on.

The Urca gold is in a completely different class of stealing. This isn't holding up a truck; it isn't robbing the bank. It's robbing the Federal Reserve. Five million Spanish dollars, in today's money (yes, there are issues thinking of it this way, but the point holds) equals somewhere around 250-300 million US dollars.* There is simply no way that it is not worth Spain's (or England's) time and resources to go get it back. The cache they were fighting over at the end was one share and it was enough to cause all that trouble. The full amount would be worth sending a good chunk of your navy for, and the fact that this did not happen immediately requires some suspension of disbelief. Anyway.

Flint's theory seems to be that it's enough money to allow the pirates to defend Nassau against that threat, and basically establish themselves as a rich colony the empires won't fuck with. This is treated by the show like a reasonably serious proposition. So why does it fall apart? You can buy anything with that kind of money, can't you?

Now we get to the problem of form. Gold is only useful if you can exchange it for stuff you need. This is a problem for the pirates on two different fronts, defense specifically and trade in general.

In terms of defense, the pirates would need, very quickly, enough ships and guns to fight at least one imperial navy. But only the major powers were capable of manufacturing those ships and guns. Even if the pirates bought up all they could in terms of well-armed merchant ships/found a corrupt governor or two to buy guns and powder from, it would always be a losing battle because no matter how much money you throw at them, the powers that make warships are absolutely not selling you any. Why would they, when they can use them to come take the gold instead?

So, if the pirates aren't going to live long once they have this gold, can they at least spend their last months being filthy rich and enjoying themselves?

Not really.

We see Jack's crew members getting huge shares, everyone else on the island taking payment to help with defense when the time comes, as well as Jack paying laborers exorbitant amounts. So there's plenty to go around right?

This is how inflation happens. If we all suddenly have twice as much gold, but there is no more actual physical stuff, almost instantly the stuff will cost twice as much. This problem at least theoretically could be corrected by increasing trade. [Also, realistically, people would leave. But let's say they're staying for belief in the pirate republic reasons.] Because in the wider economy of trade in the Atlantic money is still valued normally, you can just import what you need.

And, maybe. This is more plausible than the rest.

But that sort of correction takes time, and given the whole 'war with civilization' situation, there can't be legitimate and sanctioned trade. It's pretty hard to get enough illegitimate goods in for an economy to prosper --- especially because if you're relying on black market trade during wartime, notoriously there ends up being price gouging and then you're back to square one with inflation.

In conclusion: the show does not get bogged down by this, as it shouldn't. It's fine. But yeah, the gold is fake and makes no sense, and Flint and Jack especially are borderline delusional about what it can achieve for them.

*This is actually not as impressive as I wanted it to be, once I started looking up reference points, eg, how much outstanding student debt is there? how much money does besos have? how much is defense spending? Did y'all know we should fight capitalism and eat the rich?

#they all would have been better off if it had been a tenth as much money #this is also making me think about the scale of revolution issues #killing some magistrates is fine and useful #sacking boston is for real a bad plan #black sails #anon ask #i'm having a great time thank you for the ask I love these #ps new chapter will be out soon! #maybe a week or two

[cipheramnesia]

Greener Grass (2019) doesn't beg comparison to other films and filmmakers as much as demand it, and it does so in the way of many unique works of art - not so much because of being derivative, but more because it inspires the same sense of disquiet and upset, hits on the same dark touchstones, as others have. We want something to articulate what exactly this experience is like, and there are few enough artists working in the same sandbox that the first response is something like "it's John Waters meets David Lynch."

As comparisons go, it's no detrimental. The less you know going in, the better, but those two names together I think evoke the mixture of highly stylized, deep running dread that characterizes Greener Grass. It's also a movie which invites an inventory of all the surreal directions it goes, but that kind of list feels shallow. Lots of media is filled with strange events, but not very many works sell it quite the same. Still, the opening of the movie, much like the basic comparison, immediately tells you what to expect in tone. Suburban mom Jill, baby on her lap, perfect pink barbie clothes, watches her son fall on the soccer field. Her face twitches and struggles behind a wide, blank smile that will remain in place for the majority of the film as she watches him laying in the grass, moving his limbs sluggishly, as if she is staring at a dying fish. She turns to Lisa, next to her, in perfect blue barbie clothes, and asks if Lisa wants her baby. Neither woman deviates from the blank smile, they both speak almost like actors struggling to keep in character, their faces twitch, everything about them undercuts their dialog their expressions, the mood of the bright sunny scene and cheerful sitcom score, and Lisa decides she will take the baby.

Everything about the scene screams about something terrible being wrong, both in obvious and subtle ways, and that's much of the movie itself. Greener Grass on its surface is about the comfortable lie of the suburbs and the upper middle class of the USA, but deeper down, it's about the surface in general, not just about how hard and sad life is for rich white women. While the movie is utilizing that imagery and those tropes specifically, it's to a larger purpose speaking to isolation and privilege, masking and social roles we use, toxic masculinity and microaggressions. The plot, such as it is, may be one woman slowly falling apart, but the meaning of the movie is much broader and more intriguing - and most importantly speaks to the world beyond only what's pretty and expensive and empty. All the characters are in a barbie dreamland, in barbie dream houses, but no matter where they go the reality of people who aren't neurotypical or white or able bodied or wealthy or straight is inescapable. The strangeness and dread that lurks under blank smiles never lets the viewer relax into comfortable satire or simplistic center left reassurance of one Bad Oppressor and one Good Oppressed. It's a movie constantly screaming, through clenched teeth, how all of us are being forced into this performance, the pretty lie, that claims everything about the USA is perfect and happy. It's an amazing work of art, highly recommend checking it out while it's still free on Tubi, or anywhere good movies can be pirated.

#horror movies #long post

[dollsonmain]

For people that missed it (@giraffeseatingcake), because it's on my mind again, the Tina Dollyhair thing to the best of my ability to remember which we all know is not great and of course I didn't keep links to everything. I could probably find them again but you know, I don't want to. Google it yourself.

I don't know why I started looking into it again. Maybe someone mentioned Tina's supposed death somewhere, or maybe someone mentioned Ida taking over and it got me curious. I don't remember.

Anyway, we never found a public death notice or obit for Tina and that makes sense since obits aren't posted unless a family member pays for one to be printed. I didn't know that before.

What I did find was mention of Heidi with a different last name. IIRC it was through public records, I started noticing clusters of names that were showing up together often across different public record aggregation websites. Tina Amuntula/Kristina Amuntulla/Kristina Miller, Heidi Amuntulla/Heidi with a different name, and Steve Amuntula/Amuntullah who also has a different first name but I've forgotten it. He goes by Steve publicly in the US.

There was also some sort of hint that Heidi was in television or the movies in some capacity which made me wonder if there was an IMDB profile for her. There was! Then I looked her up on wiki and found that Heidi OTHERNAME was also named Heidi Amuntullah.

Also checking the ownership history of DollyHair showed that Steve's other name was registered as owner for some time.

Going around and around in circles with public residential and business records put the whole family together.

That was the first time I'd had anything even close to proof that Tina's Sister Heidi actually existed.

How this led to finding out that Tina apparently really did die is that searching about Heidi and Steve Amuntullah brought up a series of documents about a court case brought against the two of them by Melanie Chan.

I did keep a link to one of the documents but not everything else tying this document to Tina Dollyhair because of course.

Anyway, it's here:

In that document it says:

The FAC alleges that Plaintiff’s landlord, Kristina Miller, passed away in August 2020. (FAC ;41.) Defendants being decedent landlord’s father and sister are inferred to be heirs or successors-in-interest to decedent landlord.

Melanie Chan was suing the Amuntullas for wrongful eviction after Tina died, saying they didn't give her enough warning to be able to find another place to live before changing the locks on her. Heidi and Steve took ownership of Tina's house and wanted to sell it. It's recorded either in this document or some of the others that Tina was letting Melanie live in her upstairs for rent without any sort of official lease.

That's basically it.

Tina really died in 2020 (not any of those other times she said she died before), Heidi does exist and both Heidi (Tina's sister) and Steve (their father) took ownership of Tina's house, kicked out her unofficial renter, got sued for it, won the lawsuit, and sold the property.

As for Ida claiming to not know the family or not knowing any of the drama behind the DollyHair shop, she's mentioned in that document, too.

Plaintiff’s reliance upon the allegations regarding “Ida,” an employee of Heidi, is uncertain to allege a trespass in that it is only alleged that Ida entered the “house” and not specifically her “upstairs guest apartment.”

It could be a different Ida.

She could have somehow not known, I guess. It's possible she worked for Heidi without knowing anything about Tina or DollyHair and Heidi was like "Hey, you want this business because I don't...."

So, it's possible.

Either way, I do hope DollyHair as a company can build a new, better reputation with good customer service and not shorting people on their hair orders, now. They do have some hair colors that aren't available elsewhere and DollyHair has the widest selection of fibers as far as I know.

[fabrickind]

How do you become a professional cosplayer? Thnx :)

Hello there!

Short answer is: you don't lmao

Long answer is: it's complicated and incredibly difficult, and depends on what you mean by "professional."

If you mean "someone who judges contests and/or gets invited to cons," the VAST majority of those aren't professionals. They may or may not get an appearance fee, even, depending on the con. (Note to cosplayers: don't let cons take advantage of you by not paying you for your work for them! Always get per diem, travel, and hotel at BARE minimum, and preferably also an appearance fee.) This isn't that hard to do, but you need to have a portfolio that backs up why you would be a good guest, and a good reason why you'd be a good guest. It's just a matter of emailing and/or applying to cons. I've only guested once, but if you want tips, I can give them.

However, based on the phrasing, I'm assuming you are a newer cosplayer who isn't ready for that yet. I assume this because if you've been around a while, you know that this isn't a question. Not "this isn't a question you ask" (as in, we don't talk about it in polite society), but that this isn't really a *thing* in the way that people outside of the cosplay community seem to think it is.

(Side note: I remember this question being asked for at least 15, 20 years online lmao it's easier to make money cosplaying now than it was then, but it's still incredibly difficult to make a living wage and fully support yourself on cosplay.)

There are professional cosplayers out there, as in, people who make the majority or all of their income from cosplay. They tend to be few and far between, and one of the open secrets of the community is that some people who try to make a go at it are supported by a partner or family with money.

But! There are ways to make money as a cosplayer. It's difficult and unlikely, especially with how saturated the market is, but there are ways.

This is all from a USA perspective, which I assume you're from or at least a similar culture, since you're asking me and not, say, someone living in Japan.

Do commissions. This works once you have a high enough skill level to have a client base that wants to pay you for those skills. It's difficult to both get enough commissions and finish enough commissions to have a living wage, though, so it's really only recommended if you are fast at it and/or are okay with it being a side gig.

Start a business selling resources. Patterns, 3D models, resin kits, etc. You'll be operating on thin margins, there's competition out there, and you'll need to be good and fast at these things, but some business prowess, skill, and a bit of luck, and people have done it. Some people also sell tutorials and such, but I don't know how much they make.

Sell prints. This is going to be the hardest of these to make a living wage on. You can couple this with other things on this list to add supplemental income. Basically, sell pictures of yourself online and at cons, start a Patreon, become a booth babe (there isn't enough in the way of "official cosplayer" jobs to make a living on, and usually you aren't paid much and still have to make the costume), etc. This bullet point usually goes with the next two.

Become an influencer. Confession: I don't know quite how this works, but your money would be coming from sponsorships, paid posts, youtube ad revenue, etc. This is also a lot of work, and you would basically be hustling 24/7. Think of the direction you would want to take this and what specific thing you would offer that sets you apart, and.....figure out how to become an influencer lmao. idk if there are cosplay influencers that make a full living off of it since it's a somewhat newer field and far from what I do, but the margin of success is also pretty small, I'd imagine.

Sex work. This is even further from what I know about, so I have NO idea how much money you would make or how to get into it. I'm sure there are guides online. You can do anything from the extremely soft (think gravure modeling: sexy clothes, lingerie, sexy poses, light nudity) to harder stuff (depicting sex acts, whether solo or with toys or partners, catering to fetishes in addition to cosplay, camming, etc.). This is going to be difficult as well and while all of these are not for everyone, this one especially. (Honestly not my thing at all but so much respect for people who can handle it.) You'll want to keep yourself safe online for SURE if you go into this, and it will require stricter safety measures than the rest of these (which also require strict safety measures). Also think long and hard about whether you want the stigma following you: unfortunately, our society still stigmatizes sex work, and you can lose jobs, friends, etc. if people find out, and it'll be hard to physically get and keep your money because of banks and credit card processors not accepting sex work money. This isn't to say "don't do it" but it's something to really think about and look into. IDK where to get advice on the cosplay specific side of this, but Slate's How to Do It column has had a few letters about sex work generally over the years -- here's a few -- and usually Stoya points the letter writer to further resources. (Also tends to be only cosplay adjacent from what I've seen? You'll be dressing up but won't be wearing much in the way of costumes lmao)

There might be more ways that I can't think of, but these are the main ones you will encounter. Again, being a professional cosplayer isn't really like....a thing. Most people who have done it have had a long and difficult career of carving out space for themselves and finding income streams. There really isn't something, at least here, that is having someone pay you to exist in cosplay, unfortunately.

I'm also assuming you aren't talking about costuming generally as a career, which is a whole different ballpark. Actually, that might be something to look into as a career to fund your cosplay hobby (and possible cosplay side gig) if you are interested. Otherwise, enjoy it as a hobby, slowly build a business if you think you are up to it, and see where it takes you. :]

I hope that helps! Good luck

#professional cosplay #cosplay help #cosplay advice #cosplay tips #anon #fabrickind gives solicited advice #i don't meant to be discouraging! #but also like......it's not easy #and you aren't going to find openings for “cosplayer” on indeed #you need to create an income stream #and realistically? won't get anywhere #but you might and that's the fun of it!

[atopvisenyashill]

since falling into my hotd brainrot ive been reminded of one of my gripes which is this misunderstanding that daenerys lived in "abject poverty" (to use the language from an ask you got not that long ago) before her introduction and this is just... not true?

That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window. After Ser Willem had died, the servants had stolen what little money they had left, and soon after they had been put out of the big house. Dany had cried when the red door closed behind them forever."

people living in abject poverty don't have access to servants or their own rooms. does this mean their time here would equal the upbringing viserys and daenerys would have had in the red keep? absolutely not. for one thing, daenerys wasn't tutored by a maester or septa which is pretty standard for most noble children of a similar standing, let alone a princess.

They had wandered since then, from Braavos to Myr, from Myr to Tyrosh, and on to Qohor and Volantis and Lys, never staying long in any one place. Her brother would not allow it. The Usurper's hired knives were close behind them, he insisted, though Dany had never seen one.

they would have needed coin for those ships.

At first the magisters and archons and merchant princes were pleased to welcome the last Targaryens to their homes and tables, but as the years passed and the Usurper continued to sit upon the Iron Throne, doors closed and their lives grew meaner. Years past they had been forced to sell their last few treasures, and now even the coin they had gotten from Mother's crown had gone. 

what happened with ser willem was absolutely terrible but this idea that daenerys and viserys were living on the streets is inaccurate when their targaryen name is what allowed them to live with the likes of magisters and merchant princes. nor was this something that happened overnight, as indicated by the "years past". they also had "treasures" (meaning jewels) which again no person living in abject poverty would have. those treasures were a lifeline for them but it was a lifeline that a character like nettles never has.

Her brother Viserys had once feasted the captains of the Golden Company, in hopes they might take up his cause. They ate his food and heard his pleas and laughed at him. Dany had only been a little girl, but she remembered. "I have sellswords too."

people living in abject poverty don't feast captains.

it just irks me because when you compare it to the details of nettles' life, it feels wrong to me to believe that both these girls lived in abject poverty. that was nettles. that being said though, that doesn't mean daenerys had an easy time living in exile with viserys. he was a monster to her and she deserves sympathy for that. but while daenerys and nettles' upbringings were similarly tragic (orphaned etc), they were still worlds apart in their differing levels of privilege. it also irks me when they try to use this to compare daenerys to sansa (funny how its often just sansa and not the other starks)

yeah those are all definitely good points. as you say, I don't want to discount that Daenerys had an incredibly stressful childhood (to say the least), much more stressful than The Average Noble by far because she and viserys were actively thinking about and worrying over where their next meal will come from, how to keep a roof over their heads, and they aren't learning jack shit because they don't have a maester, a guardian, a parent, or a single person in all of Essos looking out for them. but it's also like. first of all, we have two canon characters that actually do experience real poverty, the first being davos though he doesn't experience it on page and the second being arya - she's actively avoiding capitalizing on the stark name so she's actually living the life someone who is born poor would live.

and one thing about dany's life - which i've touched on before re: noble girls getting sold in marriages in what a previous anon referred to as slavery - but her last name and the class she was born into if not the class she lived in cannot be disentangled from the life she lived. i pointed it out there that for example, if poor jeyne poole found some dragon eggs in the crypts, used ramsay's dead body to hatch them, and started burning shit down, she's just not amassing the sort of following dany would because she doesn't have the name. and you can see that directly with Nettles, as you point out - despite everyone seeing clearly that Nettles manages to claim Sheepstealer, has a strong bond with her dragon, because she's lowborn and Not White (and not even an acceptable Not White, like dornish, but some ~random brown girl~ from nowhere with no claim to any specific heritage in canon) she's still seen as a temptress, a whore, a witch, all because she claimed a dragon and had some old married dude following her around. dany and viserys regularly trade away their jewels, hype up their titles and heritage, in an attempt to gain basic necessities and this is certainly a marked difference from the way other nobles have lived and important but arya, gendry, hot pie, lommy - they don't get that. lommy just gets killed. and he's not even running his mouth the way viserys is in vaes dothrak. he's just a dumb kid whose leg is broken and asks to be carried and he's murdered for it. hot pie is a normal ass kid who has to learn how to defend himself because it's literally life or death while dany regularly has some sort of guard protecting her.

and again - it's not to say dany doesn't experience a lot of trauma and instability that other nobles will never face that gives her an understanding of violence and war that others don't have. but just like you can't say she was truly "sold" as a slave to drogo because her class is tied to the concept of these nobly born child brides, it's not exactly true that she lives in abject poverty either. it's something a lot more complex than that.

#i'm sorry to start dany discoursing again i'm clearing out my asks #anti daenerys targaryen #i was gonna link to that child bride post but i'm lazy. if u kno u kno alsdkjf #asks #anons

[animehouse-moe]

Zom 100 - Bucket List of The Dead Episode 1: Akira of The Dead

I'll lay my cards on the table right from the start: I haven't read Zom 100, and at this current moment I have no real intention or interest in doing so. Why might I be watching the anime then? Well because it's BUGS FILMS first anime, that's why. They've done production assistance on series like Komi (due to staff overlap at the time), and have parted themselves out for key animation here and there, but this is their very first lead and solo production. Of course I'm going to see how it is. And how is it? Well, it's a grab bag of insanity handpicked from the minds of the creative team behind this adaptation, crafted with surprising expertise, and delivered in a very polished package to the eyes of viewers. So yeah, very good, and very much plenty to talk about!

I think one of the most interesting things off the bat is how strong the direction is through this first episode. Kawagoe Kazuki (who's first direction credits were for Komi) brings the heat through this first episode as the lead and episode director, as well as storyboarder. Back to why the direction is interesting though, initially you might think "oh, widescreen because it's a movie, and it just has a more muted color palette", but that's not the case. It's a bit of a two in one, where the widescreen indicates that we're looking through Akira's eyes, and the lack of color is a reflection of their outlook. It's well done, but I also think they could do a bit more to really explore the idea, but in its current state it's still really solid.

While not as important as the widescreen effect and use of color, the transitions boarded by Kazuki themself are very creative and blend incredibly well with the episode. Just one of those things that adds some real nice flair and style that can help tie the bleaker/more plain moments together with the more showy ones through the latter half of the episode.

What you can (sort of) see through these gifs though is another important piece that I think is well done through the episode: the "zombification" of Akira himself. More sluggish and unresponsive, coupled with heavy and off balance movements. The entire concept of the gradient and Akira's descent into depression and exhaustion is very well depicted. Towards the end of his backstory though is arguably the best pieces for his despair, just really well done animation and direction that sells that zombie side of his character.

Also, just a little side piece. Following this scene we return with Akira to his room where we see on the news the beginnings of the zombie outbreak. But actually, the episode spoils the fun a few seconds in advance with the ambulance that passes by Akira's apartment. Just a really neat little detail to show that the outbreak isn't just a single point that's currently starting, but rather it's already expanded to a network that continues to grow.

Anyways, the next topic of the post: depth!. I mean, you can see it in the above still as well, a lot of scenes are well layered with their content. Not all of them will have detailed parts that are all moving, but they will provide the context that there is a greater world that exists outside of Akira's vision (though this does fade as his exhaustion and depression grow).

Also, people aren't explicitly required to provide depth or layers to a scene, it's just that they're the easiest examples to provide. These solo shots manage the same effect, for example.

Coincidentally, this is also where the episode picks up! Flashes of color appear, Akira regains his energy, and a horde of zombies claw at his heels. I was very surprised with this latter half, and I mean very. They use some really sneaky tactics to make the best of the moment. Have a zombie that's going to make a lunge for Akira? They're in 2D. Have a zombie in the background that's going to just zombie about? Make em 3D. The heavy visuals effects coupled with the more "rough" art style allow them to blend in really well unless you're looking right at them.

For example (though it may be hard to tell because of compression and size, so best to open the image in a new tab), take a look at this still and see if you notice anything. That's correct! The first two zombies in the row are 2D (because they lunge at Akira), while the rest in the line are 3D. Really smart workflow that's further bolstered by direction that does its best to mask the 3D zombies.

For a purely 2D affair though, this incredible short cut from Akira fleeing up the stairs. I'm endlessly impressed with how solid BUGS' work is through this first episode.

As you can tell, this second half/latter third brings an insane amount of energy to make up for how devoid of it Akira was through his backstory. It's really great work, and the flow of the action through Akira's chase sequence is really impressive. They do a great job with interacting with the environment while providing a cramped feel through the apartment complex alongside some "right behind you" tension. All of which leads to this moment, essentially the perfect personification of this half of the episode.

Just completely out there and ridiculous work that's strung together by loose threads to create a bigger picture that completely captivates viewers. Does it have to make sense? Definitely not. Does it have to look cool? Absolutely.

I could share a lot more about the episode past this point, but I'll limit myself to this last piece: the tone changes. It's not longer Akira's life or death situation that feels very tight and narrow, it's his escape towards freedom that gives him plenty of space (which is shown in these shots). It's a somewhat subtle difference, but provides a massive gap in feel for viewers.

Well, when you extract it from the chase sequence at large, it's pretty obvious: there's hardly any zombies in frame with Akira.

And so we cruise into the end of the episode with a fight sequence here, and a chase sequence there, leaving off with Akira on his own and making his bucket list of things to do. There's lots more to chat about in regards to direction with things like the first person views and the really impressive blending of 2D and static/3D environments, but I think the point has gotten across that Kazuki's direction, and BUGS FILMS work as a studio, is incredibly expressive, dynamic, and punchy, leaving viewers with quite the promise for this season at large.

My only real concern is if the source material for Zom 100 can continue to deliver ridiculous ideas in spades for BUGS to convert on. I'm rather confident in their ability as a studio since they've worked as a third part/assistant on a number of series, so I'm just really hoping that the creative vision can hold the momentum given to it through this first episode.

#zom 100: zombie ni naru made ni shitai 100 no koto #zom 100: bucket list of the dead #bugs films #zombie anime #anime recommendation #anime review #anime and manga #ゾン100～ゾンビになるまでにしたい100のこと～ #anime #horror anime #comedy anime

[dodger-chan]

15 mutuals, 15 questions

tagged by @flowercrowngods Thanks for thinking of me.

1. are you named after anyone?

Yes. My mother's grandmother (first name) and my father's aunt (middle name).

2. when was the last time you cried?

The last time I specifically remember was a couple of years ago when I saw Hadestown. I'm very bad at crying; when I realize I need to I have to sort of trick myself into doing it.

3. do you have kids?

Nope. And not looking to.

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

Pretty much all the time in person. I try to be more careful about it online since tone can be harder to read.

5. what sports do you play/have you played?

I really don't do/have never done competitive athletics.

I do bike a lot. Twenty mile rides most weekends when the weather cooperates. Bike trainer in the apartment for daily cardio.

6. what’s the first thing you notice about people?

Their presence? Actually, around my apartment building the first thing I tend to observe is if they have a dog. My building is full of dogs and it is fantastic, if allergy inducing.

7. what’s your eye colour?

Hazel

8. scary movies or happy endings?

I think most of my favorite movies have happy endings, so probably that one. I care more that the ending is earned than that it's happy, though.

9. any special talents?

I can memorize long strings of (what seem to me) nonsense syllables and repeat them as though they have meaning. The only practical use I've had for this talent/skill was in high school drama club. I played a character who spoke almost entirely in a fictional language and I got the role solely because no one else could make the babble sound like lines. If I were a good singer, I could maybe use this skill for opera, but alas, I sing like a cat being murdered.

10. where were you born?

Los Angeles, California.

11. what are your hobbies?

Reading. Yarn crafts, like knitting and crochet. More reading. Writing.

12. do you have pets?

Not at the moment. Well, a spouse. It's a bit like having a cat in that he mostly looks after himself and likes sit on my lap when I'm trying to write. But unlike a cat he doesn't give me hives or trigger an asthma attack.

13. how tall are you?

5'0" (152.4 cm, for those of you who aren't American)

14. favourite subject at school?

Math. Always math. Best math classes: linear algebra, logic and proof, statistical theory (that class was so difficult, but I use what I learned there all the time)

15. dream job?

I used to work as a library page. Just putting books on the shelf, in the correct order, for 20 hours a week. If I'm selling my time for money, that's the labor I really enjoy

tagging: You know, I'm not sure I have fifteen mutuals. So I'll just tag some people I haven't seen these from. @counting-dollars-counting-stars @greenlikethesea @threewaywithdelusion @rosethevoid @sthound @sharpbutsoft @motsimages

#tag game

[sukimas]

🔥pokemon?

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

Alola sucks as a region. This is mostly unrelated to the quality of the games themselves (except for me; I really, really care about exploration). But Hawai'i is incredibly rich and diverse with all kinds of wonderful environments to explore, such that every new route could be completely unique. They did that with Kalos, and that's France! But instead, it feels like practically everything is just walking along a dirt path with some grass on the side. I feel like I'm in Kanto again; why, exactly, do I have the impression that I'm in the suburbs of Tokyo rather than in the tropics? Hoenn provides a much better island-type experience than Alola does, and it had the restrictions of the GBA to deal with; the only reason I can think of for Alola being, physically, so boring is simple development time restrictions.

There's also basically no exploration- a much steeper dropoff than the dropoff between BW2 and XY, actually, where XY has plenty of exploration but mostly you have to seek it out, but BW2 has a good deal of mandated exploration. The complete lack of a Victory Road is so obviously not a plot thing, it's a poor game design thing. And in general, there are no "places to go". Surf is useful in like 1 or 2 places, and there's nothing interesting to find there; there's 1 or 2 caves with mid items in them; the Vast Poni Canyon is what would be an earlygame cave in any earlier Pokemon game. Every time I went to a new island I was always hoping that I'd get to see some awesome new environments, but it was always fucking grass and dirt paths again. Barely even in a different color sometimes.

There are a couple interesting set pieces, especially on Ula'ula; Po Town and Ula'ula Meadow are pretty. However, there's still not a lot to do in either of those places, despite their better aesthetic appeal than the rest of the game, and compared to Akala or Melemele, you really don't spend a lot of time on Ula'ula at all.

This isn't even getting into the towns and cities; there's absolutely nothing to do in them. After Lumiose in XY and the faithfully recreated (and somewhat added to) cities in ORAS, you really feel the absence of anything interesting to explore. The shops, of course, sell generally kind of awful clothing; I promise there is tropical stuff you can sell that does not look ungodly, and I should know- one of my colleagues wears intentionally loud Hawaiian shirts every day from April to October, and has a tie-dyed lab coat. But let's get back to the cities. They generally don't have anything differentiating them from each other besides the aesthetic! There's not anything notable that you can do in Heahea that you can't do in Konikoni, and nothing notable that you can do in Konikoni that you can't do in Heahea. This started to be a problem in XY to an extent; there are places like Anistar, for example, that kind of just exist to be set pieces. But there also aren't really any interesting people to interact with in the cities, either. You don't have to have a bunch of sidequests- god knows I certainly don't give much of a damn about sidequests- but let me get an item or two, have interestingly decorated houses, have a place I can go with a nice view, have someone tell me a legend. That's really all I ask for.

Sun and Moon have a lot to like outside of the region- the Pokemon are really cute, and the characters are, well, they're OK for Pokemon I guess. The island trials are also a fun spin on the gym challenges. But overall, when I play Pokemon to be immersed in a world, Alola is really the place where the idea of that world began to fall apart for me. I thought for a while that it was just me getting older and jaded, but I played Legends Arceus, and while I have a lot of gripes with that game's gameplay, I can safely say Nope! The world there immersed me. Different areas had plenty of different things to do, and the one town was excellently developed. Alola and its successors just aren't very immersive regions.

#ask game #long post

[rallamajoop]

1. Have you seen the re6 promo campaign, the butcher shop one? I think it was in London. There are some photos, and while I think it's kinda cool to get any sort of creative campaign to promote a video game, I felt majorly grossed out by it. Which was likely the intent lol, but I also felt it was pretty misleading? Like, it implied that there was cannibalism involved in the plot. 2. Would you ever like to get another resident evil co-op game? And if so, what would you like it to be - the characters, the plot, the time line, etc.

So, I don't know if I've managed to be too subtle about the fact I think RE + co-op was always a terrible idea the last, er, every time I've ever mentioned it, but, well, I think RE + co-op is a terrible idea. I have never even played an RE co-op game (I'm very open about the fact my opinions on RE5&6 come entirely from watching cutscene compilations and let's plays) and the fact they are co-op is among the reasons I don't want to play them. I'm just not interested in co-op experiences, they're too contrary to what I'm generally looking for in games.

It's questionable whether horror + co-op + narrative is ever a good mix. It's hard to do atmosphere with multiple different players alternately screaming, laughing and ribbing each other, and co-op is too good at generating its own narratives via player interactions to gel with a strong narrative horror experience. I've heard of online multiplayer games working in horror settings ‒ scenarios where you're basically playing as the ubiquitous team of cannon fodder from every other horror film, whose job is mostly to get picked off one by one. But I honestly can't think of a single example of a co-op game with a strong narrative where the co-op is more than an awkwardly tacked-on gimmick. I mean, by all means, send me counter-examples here if you know of any, but the best I've got is, "well, I hear the Portal 2 co-op campaign was actually pretty good, but me and my sister couldn't get it working even back when we were still living together, so we never actually played it."

This is not to say that narrative + co-op is necessarily an unworkable combination. The one genuinely interesting thing I've ever heard of being done in a co-op/horror experience is that one sequence in Dead Space 3 which one player character spends hallucinating, so the two players are seeing very different things. And I'm sure there's way more that could be done with asymmetric gameplay experiences, not just in the sense of giving characters different weapons (or whatever else you're all about to tell me they totally did in that one RE Revelations game), but actively splitting them up, letting decisions made by one player affect the experiences of the other, building trust issues directly into the narrative ‒ you can't tell me there aren't possibilities there.

But the trouble with all those kinds of ideas is that they depend on someone building co-op in as a core part of the whole design, rather than an optional extra, and the audience for an experience that needs exactly two people to work (rather than one person, who can play without having to synchronise with anyone else's schedule, or a variable group of however many of your friends are free today for online multiplayer) doesn't easily justify the amount of extra work that'd require. Add in all the extra issues with local vs remote co-op, and whether the whole conceit falls apart if your two players talk to each other about bits the other guy isn't meant to have seen, and you can see why games like this don't get made. And even if they did, I don't know why you'd try to retrofit that many new ideas into a Resident Evil game, other than for cheap name recognition. I mean, you might as well try to sell me a Final Fantasy as a single player action game [insert sad laughter here].

As for the RE6 promo campaign, no I hadn't heard of it, and now that I've looked it up, my thoughts are, "oh, a pop-up butcher selling cuts of meat constructed to look like human body parts? Yeah, sure, that seems pretty on-brand." A few fake body parts are not going to seriously gross me out (what made RE6 genuinely unpleasant for me was a mix of misery porn, toxic masculinity, and the random injection of bouncing-titty-monsters in the middle of yet more misery porn). Nothing really misleading about it either: RE has zombies, and zombies eat people. It's a publicity stunt, not a game trailer ‒ it's only there to get your attention in the broadest way they can come up with to grab some headlines (but if you wanna talk about real misleading advertising in game advertisements, that's a rabbit hole that probably goes all the way to China). But I'm guessing they probably weren't even really selling that shit, so you can always feel misled on that front if you like.

#asks #Resident Evil #Resident Evil 5 #Resident Evil 6

[20dollarlolita]

I've started digitizing my own embroidery designs. I've read that the underfill properties can effect puckering. Do you have any tips for how to minimize puckering while making your own designs?

I'll tell y'all how I cheat at underlay!

So here's a close-up of a project I'm working on. I'm using MySewnet's spiral fill here, which does not auto-digitize underlay. If you look at my components column on the left, you'll see two cross hatch fills with no outer lines.

What I do for things that will probably need an underlay--and I only know this because I've tested with this and seen what does and doesn't work--is just duplicate the shape I made, turn off the outer line, and then set it to a running stitch crosshatch fill at 4mm long stitches 2-4mm apart. Is this the proper way to do it? Probably not. Does it work just as well? Probably not 100% as well, but everyone who knows how to do underlay properly is selling those tutorials for like $800, so I just do my thing here.

As for puckering, I generally don't notice that it's going to happen until it's started stitching out. I just keep pieces of 3mm cut-away stabilizer (generally that's the heavy end of what's called "CutAway Medium" by most brands) the size of my hoop on hand. When I notice puckering, I slide the cut-away under the hoop and let the machine keep going. Once I'm done with the part that looks like it wants to pucker, I take the hoop off and trim the extra cut-away away. Pinking shears are nice for this, because there's less of a chance of the stabilizer burning through if the lines aren't long straight lines. Again, is this the correct way to do things? Probably not! But it works. My embroidery machine is a Viking, and that means that I spend time after every stitch out trimming all the damn bobbin jump threads that for some reason HV and Pfaff machines just don't cut. They say it cuts down on jams, but all the other brands cut bobbin threads and I don't even need to fucking turn off jump cuts when doing text on them, now do i?

Unfortunately, most of the people who made tutorials on embroidery software are people who are in the business of selling tutorials on embroidery software, so I've had to learn a lot by just giving things a shot and seeing if it ends up all right. So, my main advice is that, while Floriani Wash'n'Gone Tacky and offbrand Wash'N'Gone Tacky are very different stabilizers, Floriani Cut-Away and random offbrand 2mm cut away backing from Amazon are pretty similar. so I recommend getting some less expensive materials and just start running tests, make mistakes, get messy.

I find that I'm really drawn to one fill in MySewnet that looks great on the screen, but is a bitch to stitch out. I had to make a file that was just that fill in a circle with the text THIS IS WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE under it, and stitch that out. I keep it by my computer so that, when I'm digitizing, I can remember that it's really not a good fill. If you're getting into embroidery digitizing, I'd recommend making a pattern that's just like five or six fills and five or six different line styles that you like. Things can look different on the screen and on the fabric, and having the physical thing can remind you of how it stitched out. I also recommend watching the machine stitch those, so that you can track "this thing eats needles and you should fear it" fills and "this stitches out super fast and looks pretty" line styles.

Also, I can't believe I did machine embroidery for over a year before anyone taught me to open the design in the stitch editor, remove all jump cuts, and then auto-add the jump cuts back in. The computer will auto-add much better jump cuts in the stitch editor than they did in the digitizer, and it smooths things so much, and no one told me this secret for over a year and I'm a little annoyed by this. Two clicks to take a design from 105 jump cuts to 41. Holy bats.

#machine embroidery

[anxiously-sidequesting]

I think I've burned through 500K gold at this point and about 20k Crowns trying to stockpile furniture packs. And I'm still trying to figure out ways to get more. And this is just on the ONE ACCOUNT I can afford to do this with. I have I think four accounts at this point but the other three don't have the sort of literal cash crops like my main does so :( Sidenote: Current wizzy folks will never know the joys of OLLLD Double Gardening Benefits that would let you over the course of a couple months turn one or two Tear Jewel Blossoms into a literal cash crop that drops tapestries at ever elder that you can sell for 2500 gold a piece. If you timed it right you could get TWO elder harvests in one weekend, each time, you double your seeds. I started with 1 Tear Blossom, before the removed that benefit, I had about 150 or so. My Life Main gave up on saving the spiral years ago, he's just vibing being a farmer and a real estate investor now.

Sidenote 2: I wish you could actually have other wizards live in your house too. Like, share houses. My meticulously built apartments need tenants, my lakeside cabins need vacationers, my restaurant needs patrons, my library needs bookwyrms, and so on and so on...

I'm building all these houses and nobody ever gets to appreciate them because they aren't "Good" enough to rate on castle tours, I'm sorry my underwater hotel and resort isn't good enough for these people, look, I worked with what I was given, just consider all those leaks in the wall as INDOOR PLUMBING....

You're doing so much better than I am because there's only like a chair and a fountain in whatever house I got and it's been like that for 5 years LMAOOOO. I WISH I had the energy to decorate my house into something nice fr

#also YES ON THE SHARED HOUSES #LET US HAVE ROOMMATES #hope your amazing houses one day has a tour and good rating 😔👊✨✨✨ #asks #shanie-the-komania-toyaddict

[swiftcry]

Thrift Shops aren't the problem, convienance is.

Woke up last night remembering some post bitching about how thrift shops suck now because they are all full of crappy shein fast fashion garbage and for some reason placing the blame on the shop and saying it has something to do with them being for profit. Which is both illogical and blatantly dosen't understand how thrift shops work. I worked for Savers years ago; I wasn't a sorter but a floor associate. But they made sure we knew how the process worked because people would ask us questions. So lets say you donate a shirt; it gets checked over by the sorters to see if its good enough to go on the sales floor- that is if it has any tears, stains, etc. If it is good enough, it gets a price tag and goes out onto the floor. If it isn't good enough, it either goes in the trash or into the send out bin. Basically items that are not good enough for americans to buy but are still technically wearable get sent off to 3rd world countries as donations. Because in some places a pair of shoes, even a worn pair, is still a pair of shoes. High value items are tagged and at least at savers placed in a special area near the registers. I know that goodwill has like an auction site for their high value items- so they definately send theirs out. But like one time a bridal shop closed and we had like 30 wedding dress samples all in that spot. In order to have enough merchandise, because sometimes donations are slow, savers ships the sorters unsorted pallets of donations from elsewhere to go through. Admittedly I don't remember where those come from. Items usually took a couple days to a week to get from the donation bin to the sales floor.

What does this tell us? Well the obvious actually, everything in the store is donated for the most part by the local population. They aren't picking out the namebrand items and sending them who knows where- in order to make money savers needs to sell those just the same. What this means is that people are donating more fast fashion items then they are donating name brand items. Why? Convienance. Who buys fast fashion items? 2 types of people generally. 1. Poor people who cannot afford name brand clothing who will likely wear the items until they fall apart. 2. Moderately wealthy people who want to be fashionable in the short term or even only want to wear an item once and want the items fast and cheap. They cannot afford the real garments the clothing is based on or cannot be bothered to look for them since SHEIN seemingly has it all and for cheap the number two person is our problem. They buy an excess of cheap clothing bc it is so cheap and after wearing it once or twice donate it all.

in the past this type of person would have purchased long term use clothing from brick and mortar stores or name brand websites; they owned fewer outfits and what they donated was well made and either didn’t fit them or despite being used was well enough made it didn’t matter.

Which is where we get to the other ugly part of a shirts lifespan. So let’s say you buy a shirt on Amazon. You realize you don’t like it- so you return it. In the old days that might have required proving why you don’t want it or going through some hoops. Now it’s easy as a click of a button and you just have to go to your local kohls or staples who deal with everything for you. It’s become wildly convenient- so that where in the past it might have been so inconvenient that you donate the shirt instead. See I work at staples now. I see so many consumerist returns I want to go and live in the woods. Yesterday I had a woman return 10 nearly identical yellow skirts because she wants one of a particular shade. Those 10 skirts go back to the Amazon warehouse where they will be place in a palette and sold and auction; entirely skipping the thrift store level. That shirt you returned will never make it to the thrift shop.

and the name brand stores in order to compete with Amazon follow suit with easy returns- the parent company that owns old navy/banana republic/gap/fabletics literally made its own type of returns service called express returns in order to compete. Staples processes these too so I see them. So much perfectly good clothing gets returned with it. One woman told me she bought it just for a baby shower photo shoot thing and because it’s so easy to return it’s no big deal.

and I’m sure you’ve noticed that name brand items are also being cheaper and less good quality. In some cases that’s because they realized that people will buy crap so they can make crap. In other cases it’s in order to compete. Depends on the brand. fast fashion items notably usually can’t be returned or it’s a hassle but bc they are so cheap, a lot of people don’t care leading to them being in thrift shops.

The presense of fast fashion items in thrift shops is a symptom of a suffering economy that has been pushed to the edge by a “now now now” mindset. And it sucks ass.

#thirfting #long post #savers #thrift shop #Fast fashion

[rahleeyah]

So my mom was the best cook/baker like. Ever. Just magic in the kitchen and always trying new things and every time she brought food somewhere everybody always ate every last bit of it and raved about it. It brought her a lot of joy, the actual act of cooking and baking, and feeding people, sharing with people and making them happy. Everybody who ever met her has a favorite dish of hers, something she made that they may have only had once but that was completely unforgettable.

It's a high bar for me and my sister when we go to extended family gatherings. We can fucking cook, we learned from the best and we're a killer team in the kitchen, but like. No one is gonna be as good as the GOAT. And we feel a little bit of pressure, to make sure that whatever we bring is good. Partly bc for a long long time our family brought the Good Shit and we want to still provide that, but partly bc we don't want pity. We don't want anyone to even think "oh those poor girls" and tut over a subpar plate of meatballs. Bringing really good food is like a very quiet way of saying we're doing ok. We're strong. We haven't fallen apart. It matters that the food is good. If the food isn't good it means we aren't good.

We let my dad make requests for what we brought to Christmas. The three of us actually had a really nice - bittersweet, but nice - moment on Friday, going through my mom's recipes and picking things out. It was good to touch her things, to see her handwriting again, to talk about her. But my father asked for shrimp creole. This man picked one of the most cumbersome recipes he could have asked for - spices they only sell at one specific store in town, 3 pounds of shrimp to shell and devein, make your own stock, bake the rice, etc, while balancing 3 other recipes cooking at the same time - but like. Me and my sister are both stubborn as hell. He wants shrimp creole he's gonna get shrimp creole. And it's gonna be good, damn it.

And it was. Everybody said so, and ate plenty of it - and plenty of the Hawaiian meatballs, and the pesto pasta salad I made special for my niece, tho my coconut cake wasn't a big hit bc apparently a lot of people don't like coconut 🙄 - and that felt good. It just feels like. You know, we fuck up. We make mistakes. We're not perfect. Me and my sister, we're not up to a lot of people's standards, and we're used to being judged. But by god we can cook. There's lots of things we can't do, but this we can do. We can show up on time, and we can feed people, care for people, be there for people. And bring home empty bowls after.

And I think that would've made mama happy, but more than anything I think she'd just be happy we're getting along so well. I think she'd be glad to know we're still a team. A better team now than she probably ever dreamed we would be. That's the best part of all of it, honestly. Not just knowing that we did a good job, but that we did it together. Like not to be sappy but my sister and I have come a long way together and I'm grateful for that.

#trauma patience

[trinketfairy]

I'm having an autism moment but the quality control decline at Jellycat makes me feel very autistically frustrated.

Some points:

Prices are getting higher while quality is decreasing. We've seen it, Jellycat has acknowledged and commented on it, and we know that JC isn't the only one who's guilty of this. But what frustrates me a lot is knowing that, despite JC's comments on their quality control and their promises to "do better," they haven't really been sticking with their word. I feel like there's been a consistent uptick in posts on the Jellycatplush subreddit of people complaining about quality even after they made their statement in January of this year and for good reason- their final products just aren't meeting the price tags anymore.

I suppose some of this has to do with the increase in popularity they said they had experienced in 2022 that they struggled to keep up with, and I imagine they're trying to keep up with the demand by loosening quality control to get more product out, but I think they're really shooting themselves in their feet for this because JC was once revered for their quality. I know I myself have said in the past that I thought the price of their products were totally worth it because I truly believed that the quality lived up to those price tags. Nowadays I can't say the same thing about them anymore.

What sucks further though is the fact that all of this product is just going to waste now. Many people have said that they were so disappointed with what they got (especially when you consider how much money they have to fork out per plush these days) that they ended up returning it to JC, which ultimately ends up being tossed in some landfill somewhere. Polyester and plastic fabric isn't exactly the definition of environmentally friendly!

Ultimately, these factories are going out of their ways to produce subpar products under what I imagine are more strict codes to get more product out, which end up being returned by the buyers because they're so disappointed in the quality control and thrown into the garbage. Or if they're not returned by the owner, then they'll still probably end up there anyway because they're defective and not as likely to last as long.

What I think should be done instead is offering discounts on defective products- within reason of course, nobody's going to want to pay any amount of money for a plush that's practically falling apart, but minor defects I could see selling fine enough because A) customers won't have to pay the full amount for a subpar product, and B) they also will know exactly what they're getting and not being set up for disappointment. I'd love to buy defective jellies, so long as I'm not paying the price of a high quality one!

But understandably, I think the above point could have a bad affliction on their reputation as a company, that they'd have defective plush to sell in the first place, which is why I don't think they do it. They've already built their image on being a higher-end plush brand, so I feel like advertising products that exist to be defective would be bad publicity.

Side note: I fear for the safety of the literal babies chewing on their toys if their quality continues to dwindle. There are specific safety protocols that toy manufacturers need to adhere to in order to produce toys for babies- the 3+ age rating exists for a reason! I don't think it's quite gotten to that point yet, but it's in the realm of possibility if JC continues down the road they're on.

I could end this by saying something about the effects of late stage capitalism on product quality control and, eventually, environmentalism and safety, but I don't imagine anyone is following a blog about children's toys to hear political commentary which is understandable so I'll save it for now.

#journal #Partially inspired by that one Reddit post I saw earlier about someone wanting to sell secondhand defective jellies at a discount

[1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt]

Things That Happened the Day my Family Went to the Drive-In on June 4th 1982 to see The Wrath of Khan Open:

This is hands down one of my all time favorite family Trek-related stories that I've now heard many times.

It is bonkers, so in-character with how chaotic my family is, and I think Trekkies will appreciate it.

This tale was told to me first by mom and dad when we re-watched Wrath of Khan together.

They went to see it in their car at a drive-in theater in 1982 (two of us sisters had not been born at this point so it was mom, dad, my two sisters (10 and 2 at the time) and my sister's best friend.

- Mom was frantic that day and YELLING that they were going to be late. According to dad, she was freaking out over the new Star Trek movie and how it would sell out fast; you couldn't buy the tickets in advance. She was losing her beak trying to herd the children to get there early.

-They were literally the first ones there. They were early even, and "your mother was just freakin' out about Spock again", as dad so often said. (Aren't we all?)

-Dad was waiting to go through the entrance gate with the car at the kiosk for a while. It had the barrier gate that would raise and let people through 1 car at a time.

-They weren't letting people through as it was still early. Dad was notoriously cheap, so he turned the car off to save gas as people lined up behind them. They got snacks and the line was huge by the time they returned.

-When the time came to start letting people through, inexplicably, they could not find the keys to start the car.

I repeat.

They could not. Find. The keys. 🔑

-They were parked at the front of the line of the only entrance, and nobody could get around them. On the opening of The Wrath of Khan with a line of eager Trekkies waiting behind them. People who'd waited 2 years and 6 months since TMP dropped for this.

And my family lost the f**king keys and blocked the entrance.

-My whole family had to jump out of the vehicle and tear the thing apart like an impromptu drug bust while simultaneously trying to wrangle my toddler sister.

-Furious, frustrated Trekkies blew their horns and yelled "COME ON!"-"WHAT'S THE HOLD UP!"-"IT'S STARTING!" Because my family was going to make them late for THE DEBUT OF THE WRATH OF KHAN. Social anxiety nightmare, anyone?

-Shenanigans🤡

Stress🥴🤯

-My mother reported feelings of "being so mortified that I wished I was dead."☠ A soul leaving body kind of horror.

-My 10 year old sister's best friend finally found them.

-The keys had somehow fallen and wedged into the tiny space between the seat and the console. Oh my f**king God.

-The lineup started cheering, clapping and whooping when my absolutely shamed family got back in the car, got the damn thing started, and finally got the line rolling for The Wrath of (i)Khan(ic).

-Once everybody got their spots, most folks got out and sat on a blanket or the hood of the car because it was summer.

-An entire row of Hell's Angels bikers pulled up right in front of my family's car and my dad was like: "Perfect. What else." *sarcasm*

-Turns out those bikers were Trekkies who meant business when they turned up. They were very respectful.

-At the end when (40 year old spoiler alert) Spock was dying, the crowd was apparently bawling, including the Hell's Angels.

-My favourite part of the story: Mom said that she noticed while everyone was crying about Kirk and Spock talking through the divider and the death scene, she saw some of the bikers using their beards to dab away their tears as they cried.

I feel like that moment is too good not to honour as a comic or something in the future.

Anyway, that's mom and dad's official account of going to the drive-in on June 4th, 1982 to see The Wrath of Khan when it opened:

-How my family got there first and early, only to almost ruin it for everyone.

-Also, unexpectedly tender bikers cried into their beards over Kirk and Spock.

-My mother was "just freakin' out about Spock again" in 1982, according to dad, and she still is. That is all.

#star trek #oc #octrekmeta #octrek #tos #spock #kirk #kirk/spock #spirk #star trek tos #jim kirk #star trek twok #star trek ii: the wrath of khan #star trek ii #star trek the wrath of khan #trekkie family #trekkie #trekkies #story time #i cant stop laughing why are we like this we almost ruined it all #drive in #kirk x spock #kirkxspock #long ass post