#I'm no massive fan of westerns anyway
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#the idol system is such a fascinating and scary thing to me#like hearing shit over the years it's like how does anyone survive it?#(i'm staying away from all the anti-blackness of kpop & their fandoms rn so just the system)#((that was more for me bc my brain wants to go in that direction bc hooooooo. it's the main reason i cannot vibe w more than a few songs#over the last almost 15 years cause like knowing.... anyway))#like i just got groundfloored w a group rn via jbrekkie shoutout michelle like literally their debut is 24 hrs from now i've rabbitholed#since i heard their snippet on her vid and like the way ppl talk about it already like... as an outsider it's like alriiiight here we goo#they're (mgmt) pipelining another group of ppl let's be sure to support it! streamstreamvote!! oo it looks like their taking the toy/doll#route w these girls super aesthetic let's goo. & like......????? and ppl are already rabid about it. it's wild. and like this is the system#this is it. they make groups and then tease and the people who follow the conglomerate see it and are waiting to#be fed another x amount of folks doing formations and looking cute/hot open wide and consume#(like ik some (or a lot) of those accnts are bots/plants to pad the release and gain traction against algos but like also real folks too)#like not to discredit their vocal work (&dancing though some (alot) of these grps are not nearly as lit w 'dancing' as folks hype em up to#be Frfr. good movers/formations/camera motion & body rolls do not a dancer/good choreo make) but it's really secondary for a lot of#folks atp it's so strange & fascinating. and like i dug the song that's why i'm here so no knock against that but just the factory of it al#it's so damn WILD to me. but at the same time let's be real here. same dish different kitchen for a lot of western pop#they're just more transparent about it and have streamlined finding their popstars & having the public be great w it#it's just... i think it would be less strange if stan culture wasn't a thing or at least more mild than it is now#if it wasn't blown up to this unfathomably massive ever-churning industry by people in literal droves#idk idk i have a lot of thoughts on kpop it's truly a very interesting thing and to have been aware of it and into it to#an extent a while before the sonic boom in the west is an incredibly wild thing to look back on#like i wanna follow this (mostly cause i wanna hear the whole song) but also v curious but also like man the system is bad for many#reasons & here's another batch on the conveyor belt. idk :/#like as long as the participants are happy and healthy and being actually taken care of and not advantage of then great but#yk. the music industry at large is horrible (and esp to women) so like. god ide wanna think about the disparities btwn girl & boy groups#(like to start are they not referred to as 'male groups' on the reg but 'girl groups' more often than 'female'? always w the infantalizing#like given girl group has way more ring than female group but the words still conjure up different things it's just how language works#but boy group idk if i've ever really heard someone use that? and there's been a long time battle w the reclamation of 'boy band'#like it's still dirty for a lot of folks but anyway v western context but there's a large fanbase here so many fans speak as such#this is what we call our own pop groups etc. and it's just interesting and sad idk anyway it's just... huuuhhh a lot.) ok gn lol
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I enjoy quite a few YouTubers and Twitch streamers, and these are the ones I've followed that have spoken up about Palestine:
Hasan Piker is a Twitch streamer and political pundit who has been covering Gaza and raising money for medical aid for Palestine since Day 1. He raised a million US dollars divided among these orgs all the way back in October and has not stopped centering Palestinian voices since then. Of all Western influencers, he's the biggest voice in raising awareness and support for the people in Gaza and Palestine as a whole.
Thomas "Tomska" Ridgewell (of ASDFmovie fame) called his MP in the UK to call for a ceasefire months ago. Though it may seem like a comparatively small act, I highlight it because he did it very early on, and publicly called for a ceasefire in a video in November.
"I'm not neutral because my country is standing in support of one side of it [...] For all I know my taxes, my money is being spent on the bombs that are being dropped on the people in Gaza. So I'm not neutral. For all I know I'm entirely complicit [...] It just feels like we're being told to look away, [...] close your eyes and stick your fingers in your ears and when you turn back the situation won't be complicated anymore because Gaza will be gone."
His full statement is at the end of his video "Last Month I Said Goodbye" if you're interested.
More recently:
Now I don't follow Dan & Phil, but I strongly believe that them raising money for the PCRF was a tipping point for certain other creators finally going public with their own pushes for relief in Gaza. And maybe it's just a coincidence, but nonetheless it's a big deal.
Jacksepticeye quietly donated $10000 to a fan-run relief effort that would divide proceeds between the PCRF and E-Sims for Gaza. When the fan announced it, he then went on to publicly post about the horrors of Gaza and retweeted how to provide aid and resources.
During his yearly Thankmas event, he also raised millions for the World Central Kitchen, which is currently providing food in Gaza (depending on what relief can get through the crossing being blocked by Israeli protestors).
Of the "big" YouTubers, he's always been the most candid about his beliefs, so I always liked him regardless, and his actions have been heartening but thankfully not surprising.
And tomorrow, Drawfee is doing a charity stream for PCRF! Support them if you can. Their previous charity stream for Pride and Trans rights raised over $108000 for the Stonewall Community Foundation in 2023.
I love Drawfee in particular. This was heartening to see today.
Anyway, I genuinely hope this pushes more creators to finally speak out. Even if it's late, it's always better late than never, and their influence is massive.
#YouTubers#influencers#twitch streamers#Hasan Piker#tomska#dan and phil#jacksepticeye#drawfee#Palestine
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Favorite Historical Architectural Styles
Since I've done my favorite historical fashions, I thought it would be fun to do historical architectural styles too. I want to write more about architecture too, but I've started thinking should I do a separate blog for architecture and architectural history or should I just do it all here? I think it would be better in a way that I wouldn't have to worry if anything I want to write is too far from the actual topic of the blog, but then again, there is a lot of overlap, especially when it comes to Arts and Crafts movement (which I'm currently writing my thesis about and which I definitely will talk a lot about), and also I would have to manage yet another blog.
Anyway, I'll again do this from oldest to newest. I will limit myself to western styles (except when we get to Modernism all styles are very international), even though there's a lot of non-western styles I enjoy, but it's what I know most about.
Perpendicular Gothic
I love Gothic architecture in general and the several first entries will be my favorite sub-styles of it. I love the the way Gothic Cathedrals try and so often succeed to feel like forests. I love how the structural elements are used to create the aesthetic. I love the organic visual elements. I love that it's such a unique style in Western architecture. And I love the amazing craftsmanship that went into it.
I'm particularly a fan of English Gothic because of it's insanely beautiful and complex ribbed vaults. From English Gothic my favorite though is the Perpendicular style, which was basically the English late Gothic. It's characteristics can be seen in the second pic. It has the stretched arch and the very flowing and organic traceries. I do include here the rest of English Gothic too, since even though the Perpendicular style is my favorite of them, all if it is still one of my Gothic favorites.
German Late Gothic
As it's becoming clear I love Late Gothic architecture in general the most, and in the geographical axis I also love German Gothic. Early and High Gothic were mainly divided into French and English styles and the French style dominated in the continent, just being altered a little to the local building traditions outside of France, but during late Gothic it diverged much more strongly into different styles.
German Gothic also has beautiful complex faulting (though less insane than English) and it also has that same pursuit of massive height French Gothic has. Those combined with that Late Gothic's more streamlined flowing and organic aesthetic, some of the German Late Gothic cathedrals really sell that feeling of standing in a forest.
Finnish "Gothic"
I have a soft spot for the Finnish Medieval stone churches, which are not nearly as sophisticated or detailed as the other European counterparts, but still made with beautiful craftsmanship and they have some cool own features. It's very far from the European Gothic traditions, as you can see, but that's still the influence, hence Gothic in scare quotes. I love the simple outward appearance with the exposed thick stone walls, the details of the gable that worked as the calling card for the building master and the very steep roof. Like everywhere at the time, the roof in these has wooden structure, which is frankly super cool. It was not a simple engineering problem to make a roof that steep and massive at the time, but the structure works so well there's 600 year old roofs with the original logs still working perfectly well. I also really love the original medieval murals in them, which were painted over during the Reformation (you can't have color in a Lutheran church damn it), but thankfully some of them have been restored from under the paint.
Finnish "Renaissance" Log Churches
Renaissance also didn't land in Finland similarly as it did rest of the Europe. When Renaissance was going on in Europe, they still were building those "Gothic" churches here. These log churches were based on Scandinavian version of the Renaissance church, but they didn't really look like Renaissance churches, and were kinda it's own thing continuing a lot of the aesthetics from those Gothic churches. This is a highly specific style, but I just think they are so cool and pretty? Like they really made a CUPOLA out of log.
Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts Movement didn't have exactly a style, rather a design philosophy that was more important than specific style. There's of course a lot of stylistic similarities in the works of the different members of the Movement, because they had overlapping sources of inspiration and were influenced by each other, so we can think of it as a style. I could, have and will talk about them for hours, but briefly now: It was a moment in latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century and their goals were reviving craftsmanship skills and professions, socialism, opposing industrialism and abolishing the hierarchy between fine arts and applied arts. They were very much influenced by Medievalism and Gothic art and architecture, though unlike Gothic Revivalist, they took more from the guiding principles than the aesthetics. They basically started Modernism and lay ground to all the Modernist architecture's main principles, like form follows function.
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau was directly influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement and was the first mainstream Modernist style. I especially love the more toned down Finnish Art Nouveau, or Jugend as it's called here, but I do love the style more broadly too. I'm not that into those almost Baroque style versions of it though, with barely any straight lines. I love the round doors, the stylized floral patterns and the use of light.
Organic architecture
This has to be my favorite modernist/post-modernist (?) style. It's direct successor of Arts and Crafts movement and it's also more of a design principle than a unified style. There is some stylistic similarities, but it is stylistically very diverse philosophy. It was most prominent during the 20th century, but it always stayed in the sidelines, though there are still architects who might be considered practicing organic architecture. Organic architecture is all about living in harmony with nature, taking inspiration from it, designing the building to fit the building spot and the surroundings, extra care taken in to preserve the nature already there, and using local natural materials when possible. My favorite architects are Raili and Reima Pietilä, who were most prominent organic architects in Finland. (I almost moved into apartment designed by them, but it was in pretty bad condition, so it wouldn't have unfortunately been worth the price.)
Brutalism
I know it's not for everyone and it's not easy to make it work but when it works, it really does. It was born in 1950s during the reconstruction era. Brutalism is not just concrete though. The point is to show the raw materials and the structural elements. Technically a lot of Gothic and Arts and Crafts architecture is then brutalist. Timber frame architecture? Also brutalist. I'm only half joking, of course the style itself is also very bare and, well, brutal, but I love it for the same reasons. I really love bare textures of materials and exposing the materials of the structural elements. And I do actually really like the texture of concrete. Though I will say concrete is destroying our world and we should use it as little as possible. But we should also protect old buildings and keep using them rather than built new ones, so I feel fine admiring the old brutalist buildings. The best brutalist buildings combine materials very intentionally and make works of art with the light.
Bonus - Favorite contemporary architecture: Traditional methods
As we're living in the post-modern times, there's not really unified and specifiable styles or architectural ideologies anymore. They all kinda flow into each other and architects don't organize themselves into clear groups based on style and design philosophy. So it's hard to put into words the style I like in contemporary architecture. There's been growing interest in studying traditional structures and methods, learn from their sustainability and incorporate them into contemporary architecture. They are techniques that have been developed through trial and error on the span of centuries, so we really don't have to reinvent the wheel here. Traditional methods of a given area have also been developed for that area and it's climate, from the materials available there, so they also push us to use local materials. Typically these traditional structures are very simple, often made from solid material, which makes them easier to built without construction error (a huge problem in modern structures), and easier to fix and maintain, when inevitably there is issues. Also they are beautiful, definitely more so that steel and glass. I love solid brick structures, log structures, timber frames, natural stone, rammed earth and all of them, especially when these beautiful materials are left bare.
#architecture#architectural history#historical architecture#history#art history#modern architecture#gothic architecture#brutalism#arts and crafts movement#art nouveau
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Fandom Salt so I'm putting it beneath a cut.
Every day I see a new post lambasting everyone that doesn't think the Jedi are 1000% correct in everything they do because 'attachment is just about being possessive' but no one ever clarifies how precisely this translates into things like 'children should never ever know their parents or they might get attached.' That's the whole reason they thought Anakin was too old!
Coincidentally this also gets in the way of 'you can always leave the Jedi' because yes, you can, but good luck because you have been raised in a temple since infancy and have no idea how to live outside of it and you may well have exactly zero connections to help you learn. There is more than one way to make it difficult to leave!
(There is also how, if the Jedi Council had their way multiple people who had been saved through the Clone Wars would have been left to die because of the Greater Good. Plo Koon and the Wolfpack among them.)
The Jedi have positives and negatives, and people having different interpretations of what those are in a massive franchise that has both canon and legends diversions through hundreds of writers (who do not all agree with each other) is not about anyone Not Being A Real Fan of Star Wars.
Also criticism of the Jedi's choices, role in the Republic, and even how their philosophy is portrayed is not criticism of non Western regions because the Jedi are not fucking real and their Buddhist elements are what's perceived by a white American man that grew up Methodist. Please engage with these religions beyond how they relate to fictional space monks.
Anyway I don't actually hate the Jedi and in fact quite like them because 95% of them are in fact good people trying their best but I do hate how I keep running into posts that are essentially THE JEDI ORDER IS PERFECT IN EVERY WAY AND IF YOU DISAGREE YOU ARE FALLING FOR SITH PROPAGANDA. It's a topic that never ever seems to allow for nuance and that's why I get regularly frustrated about it. Especially as a fan of clones who has A Lot of thoughts about how the Jedi have helped and failed them.
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A year ago before jimin's album release when everyone was hoping for xyz Collabs on jimin's album i was wishing that let it be an album all about him without any collab or feature be it any member or any other artists. Not like i wouldn't have liked it if it had Collabs and all because it's his album he decides, I'm no one to demand anything from him, never did but just wished that it would be good if it's just him.
Reason being ever since i have joined this fandom as a jm fan i always see his antis calling him leech, attention seeker, fanservice king, then when chapt2 started every members' solos were like "Look no one wants to work with him, he's jobless, no one will work with him if it's not for BTS, others have so many activities what does jm have? He's jobless" etc etc. It wasn't just a small number of group but every single members' solos said the same thing about him while dragging him daily cause he was inactive as he was busy preparing his album. Jimin says "Silence is Golden. Don't waste time" so he always works in silence, he's pretty much inactive from past few years comapred to his self from debut. You will hardly find him posting and telling us about what he's doing, he comes once in a while and just says he's working and that's that. so what i wanted was jimin to release an album that's just about him and show how he's capable of getting big achivements as a solo artist. Thing is all his solo songs from BTS's albums are successful so that does tell his impact but yeah i was wishing for only jm album.
He did debut with an album just full of him, he achieved all the success all big achievements on his own as a solo artist. His promotion period was of just 9 days yet he achieved things many armys thought won't be possible without having a western Collab with big artists (i do remember all the things they said before and during face, i do remember all the laughing).
Funny thing is even now many call him "fandom favourite" and he was benefiting off of ship, but you ask them how and you're blocked lol. Anyways, I'm proud of all his achievements and his hardwork. He got #1 on hot 100 and became the first ever korean soloist to do that with a solo song, only k soloist who made it to #1 on artists 100, went #1 on Spotify which was first time since dynamite, got 1B streams, did all this with a korean solo song with 9 days of promo. People don't get how massive these achievements are. People hate on him yet they wish to get same achivements for their fav and when they can't they call it fraudulent.
So when in future you come to accuse him of nasty things and call him leech, attention seeker or "he's using xyz member" do look at his solo achivements and then we can talk.
P.S. as usual if anyone reads it sorry for the all the mistakes cause it ain't my first language (nor second 😂)
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Rossy got fired from stardom??????????
LMAOOOO I was just about to post "lmao Rossy got fired" and then I saw this yeah apparently he got fired after the show last night. I never got around to writing that post about the management issues so I guess I'l try and summarize some relevant points before people panic
Okay so Rossy was off of booking since some time last year. We don't know for sure but my guess is that All Star Grand Queendom was his last show as booker, based on the belt going to Tam apparently being his decision and the timing of when stuff started to fall apart very shortly after that.
He was highly critical of the last president (who had been booking) once that guy got fired - and the issues with him were more than just booking. This was the stuff Giulia talked about. Like the schedule he booked was way too grueling on the wrestlers with non-stop big matches & shows back to back to back, and he would book matches just out of the blue without paying any attention to the stories the wrestlers were trying to tell, where Rossy's style was to just let the wrestlers throw out story threads themselves and then book what he thought would sell out of what they wanted to do. He also just was an idiot and didn't seem to think particularly highly of wrestling in the first place, pushing tons and tons of product tie-ins and advertising shit and the fucking NFT shit and. Yeah he sucked
However despite being highly critical of the last guy once he was gone, Rossy also said he didn't comment on the decisions he was making. He also may have been the one who decided who won or lost in the period before the new president came in, but from what's been made public at least, as soon as he came in he took over, so Stardom since whenever that was like the start of December has been the new president in charge.
So what I'm trying to say is, at least creatively, this probably isn't actually a huge change for Stardom compared to the past roughly a year of the product. People freaking out that the booker is just suddenly gone, he apparently hasn't been the booker for a while already now anyway. If you didn't notice a change in booking twice last year you probably won't notice this either.
So, yeah, Rossy did get fired. Bye bitch, it would be nice if this meant Sonny is on the way out too. Rossy is absolutely fucking not the guy who saved joshi wrestling or whatever the fuck narrative he & a lot of western wrestling media have been trying to present him as for years now. This probably isn't going to lead to a massive shift in Stardom's booking compared to what it's already been for months, and just as a fan we have no way of knowing what else this is going to impact, because it's hard to tell how much influence he even had for the past year, which was admittedly bad but more recently imo showing signs of turning around.
I think it's worth pointing out that one of the things that drove me off of both Reddit and Twitter wrestling fandom is that whenever shit like this happens everybody's gotta be a fucking insider or whatever and we don't. Know. Anything. But further than that it's not our fucking problem. We don't work for Bushiroad and we don't know anybody involved. We don't NEED to worry about what this means for The Business or whatever the fuck because that doesn't matter to us. I care about the roster being treated well and the product being one I am enjoying, and Rossy already couldn't prevent both of those things from not happening last year, so obviously he's not gonna be the difference maker.
My concern if I have one though is mostly the roster. If people are loyal enough to him to start jumping ship that would really suck. If the rumours that are already going around that he was poaching people for a potential NXT Japan pan out in any way that would REALLY suck. Even if the entire roster went I'm not going to watch a WWE product or even a show that isn't women in every match. So I guess as ever all we can do is wait and see.
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u make sports seem cool. what team do u support? i wanna support it too 😭
thank you!! i am just out here enjoying the ups and downs of (mostly) men hitting things
i go to WCL (west coast collegiate baseball) games during the summer when it isn't too hot. my mom's work usually has employee events and sometimes we get season tickets. i will not say which one because their stadium is literally like right next to my house
there's two WHL (western hockey league, kids 16-20) teams close-ish (95+ minutes away) to me, one i've gone to see a handful of times but with the snow and it getting dark really early now it's hard (and they traded the goalie i imprinted on 😫). the tri city americans and wenatchee wild are so 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽 they're my babies
i try to watch every toronto maple leafs game i can. unfortunately they are the cringefail NHL (national hockey league, north american men's professional) team i imprinted on. sometimes i will watch a vancouver canucks or seattle kraken game if i'm feeling up for it. kailer yamamoto on the kraken is a semi-local to me and he is 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽 so baby
my cat likes the montreal canadiens! she has a collar in their colors we listen to analysis podcasts in french while we fall asleep and when i get ready for work and sometimes i pirate games in french
i have been a seattle mariners fan since i was old enough to speak. they are the definition of dogshit cringefail poverty franchise but i love them anyway 🫶🏽 the coffee shop my queer support group met up in has a massive photo of ichiro suzuki in it. he is why the 2024 NHL winter classic meant so much to me. i have posts i will link (here) (2) (3) (4) in just a sec explaining why safeco field chanting joey daccord's name made me cry hysterically for over two hours
i'm not super into football because i was born on superbowl sunday (popped out 3 minutes after kickoff, baby) and i haven't really been into professional basketball
i am kind of rooting for all pwhl (professional women's hockey league) teams but cait is a minnesota fan. i like new york because corinne schroeder and alex carpenter but also toronto because emma maltais and carly jackson and sarah nurse and renata fast it's a hard life out here loving women
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Since Kinnikuman is getting a new series, I've had some concerns. The property is understandably a product of its time, and it's chocked full of outdated stereotypes and unsettling imagery (Brocken Jr. and Geronimo's messy heritage comes to mind), which is one of the reasons why it was never fully localized in the west, to begin with. So I'd wonder if they'll ever try to fix those problems or consider possibly hiring sensitivity readers for their works. Sadly, I doubt it would ever happen; but I honestly wish the authors could work around some of their cast to adapt to current times. What do you think should happen?
I think the old work should stand.
It was a product of its time and culture, and it's been edited as necessary by the authors over time (current volumes have been censored accordingly, and the worst has already been removed). The manga is problematic, but I agree with companies like Warner Brothers and Disney; better to keep things as a record of the past than to remove them or change them. That being said:
A new anime needs to make changes.
The issue I have answering this is more 'do I talk about ideal changes for us in the West' or 'realistic and needed changes for Japan'. I think really it's two different questions, so I'll talk about what I think should happen - and will probably happen - for Japan. That is to say . . . not much. I don't think much is needed.
It's easy to remove Nazi symbols from Brocken, and his current design lacks those symbols anyway. They can easily just remove references to him being a Nazi, and instead he can just be a 'soldier'. Kinnikuman Great can go back to his original red design. Ramenman cannibalising a person can just go back to the original gore (or a broken back). The "Roots" arc can be generally edited or left out.
I think if people have a problem with how nationalities and ethnicities are depicted, and we're talking about Japanese modern standards of racial sensitivity . . . they might be disappointed. For the culture in which it's written, I think it's been pretty great with diversity and representation. We have a black man as a hero. We have a native American as a really inspirational character. We have Americans and Russians shown in positive lights. We have people of all sorts coming together under the banner of 'friendship'.
I think Geronimo is still going to have his headdress and go "owahahaha" in battle, and Ramenman is still going to have stereotypical eyes like a South Park character, and . . . while I don't agree with it, I think we just have to accept that it's a Japanese anime, and that for a Japanese anime (bar the situation regarding female characters), it's going to be pretty ideal.
Now, in terms of the West . . .
I think the best option is to leave the animation exactly as it stands (unless they somehow did keep the swastikas and such), and edit the dialogue in the dub to make it more appropriate. The "owahahaha" cry can be something else. The inappropriate jokes or comments can be made more palatable. The references to Nazis (if left in) can be changed to comments about soldiers.
Now, don't get me wrong, this raises a whole other debate about whether to be true to the source and whether this would be censorship . . . personally, I'm a massive fan of Hetalia and Ultimate Muscle, so I wouldn't even an object to a total script change (so long as it kept true to characters and story), but I think it's the best option to avoid overly being offensive. Let's face it, though, there's not much anime out there that's perfect with different ethnicities and nationalities, and none of them get changed for the west.
That's not to say it's right, but it's also not to say it's wrong. I don't really feel comfortable judging Japan by Western standards, and - even then - I remember things being acceptable in Spain (as one example) that would never be acceptable in Britain, so even 'the West' is an extremely vague and not too useful term.
tl;dr I think designs can be tweaked, and - keeping close to the manga, and not the original anime - a lot of the worst will be absent anyway, especially if they stick to the edited manga. If I'm going to be completely honest, I think if people get offended by Ramenman and Geronimo, they probably are better off reading/watching a different source than lamenting what could/should be in a perfect world. It's not so much a product of its time, but also its country, and I think we all get a bit too sensitive in modern day. Brocken is a whole can of worms, but the rest just . . . is. I'd personally keep it as it stands.
#kinnikuman#anime#ultimate muscle#I want to stress that people obviously have the right to be offended and I don't judge them#and that the manga is problematic as anything#but just that I personally don't think extensive changes are needed#now if it were being rewritten from scratch? I'd make loads of changes#but the manga already exists and is already written#speaking for myself - and only myself - I'm fine with a lot of what's in there and don't think much needs to be removed or changed
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"books-are-my-life-stuff: This is the news I talked about regarding Rika's popularity (especially among women): https://twitter.com/nise_shi/status/1611027146809683968 I forgot where Arven was ranked but I think he's among top 10 or so. I'm glad that Nemona has fans who genuinely like her in western community too. I thought only some JP fanartists that I follow who like her, because people's hate comments about her reminded me so much of the massive Hop haters back then, I don't like that.
Like, all my knowledge about Nemona is from the event and the ScarVi trailer, even from those alone without playing the game just yet she's already my most favorite so far. Hope I can get around to play ScarVi someday…
But yeah, it makes sense. I'm still optimistic about Rika and Arven being added considering their popularity, they can be the Anni pairs or post-Anni."
HAH! Okay that's funny. #1 most datable woman, per women. That actually tracks really hard. Though I'm always at least slightly wary of the distinction between these kind of "voted most datable" and "actually super popular." It is a good endorsement though.
I don't know for sure, and shouldn't talk like I know since I actively avoid community half the time, but Nemona seems wildly popular with a particular subsection of really pissy fans. But if Reddit's recent activity this month is any indication, a lot of people joined up and the stated reason for a good number was Nemona. We are flooded with new player questions, and while pre-anniversary always accounts for a bit of that, the Nemona push seems to be doing some heavy lifting. Which is nice because she's great. I vouch for the game, but also it's still buggy as hell and will never be patched so like...I dunno, maybe just watch a playthrough of story beats? Or like...just Area Zero. That's the meat anyway.
I certainly won't complain if it is Arven and Rika. Rika in particular does have the added draw of the masses fucking loving Clodsire. That would be a hell of a Master Fair, even if I don't suspect it.
"I forgot about Oleana because I didn't pull for her, sorry. But yeah she's pretty good, though if I had her I would probably use her more as a support/utility/backup DPS than a main damage-dealer."
It's easy to forget, I don't really like considering Oleana unless I have to. But yeah, 1/5 she does do really well as utility support. She was a very effective pair, just not a favorite trainer. Do it for Garbodor though, you know?
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Bro cyberpunk is my favorite genre of anything, EVER. I’m trembling even imagining the power you’d have with writing something cyberpunk-y. You could go like OG cyberpunk, like retrofuturistic/steelpunk/formicapunk, or take it more towards cyberpunk/nanopunk and I’d still eat that shit up like a woman starved at a royal banquet. Both directions would go wonderfully with a noirpunk/cybernoir storyline or undertone. I myself am writing a cyberpunk story rn (it’s not exactly fan fiction so idk what to call it) and even just imagining a cyberpunk world through your lense of prose is making me vibrate violently. I devour anything and everything even remotely related to this genre. Obviously no pressure for you to write it, and I don’t mean to infodump in your inbox but please just know if you actually write a techno-punk flavored ANYTHING I will worship it like it’s my Bible
Noirpunk/cybernoir is honestly such a fave of mine, so I'm really leaning toward something in that direction.
I sorttttt of have a story mapped out already? (But it's mostly just random thoughts that came about from too many midnight musings after gorging myself on clips of Akira and old nostalgia hits of GitS, and the loose Cyberpunk/cassette-punk/space noir/space western genre abomination that is Cowboy Bebop.)
And no worries at all! I'm always down to talk -punk anyway (especially cyberpunk), and I welcome any and all advice about this, or suggestions because it's such a massive thing, right? Like, there's tonnes of directions it could go, it's almost overwhelming 😅
My biggest blank, atm, is the design of the characters. I haven't quite decided if it would be a reader-insert or an oc (which gives me tonnes of flexibility with upgraded parts/cyborg leanings, but. It's also an OC 😬 and I am notoriously bad at them).
I'm def writing something, though! It might not be a full dive, but I'll have a taster soon enough to lay the groundwork, and then branch out from that point!
Thank you so much!!! I rambled a lot in this, omggg!! But cyberpunk is a favourite of mine, so reading this, and all the lovely things you said, made me so happy!! 🖤
#ahhhhhhh#i talk too much#im surprised that isnt a tag of mine already#thank you for this!! seriously!!!!#i rambled so much about my excitement about Cyberpunk#but your kind words have absolutely made my entire night and im so ready to jump into this!
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Hey! Hope you’re doing good! Cuz um the notes and inbox of yours has been interesting lately-Anyways
I wondered how you would write if Steven Universe had not been canceled and got a different ending, since being a former SU fan and got to the good side of the fandom lately and started to do my own little rewrite of the lore and ending + planning to do a hnk and SU crossover story too
I also think Volleyball needs more attention too as the lore for her is very interesting and missing ALOT, and tbh she + her and pearl’s fusion/relationship are the only reasons that I like after losing interest in the show and it’s downfall
That’s all thank you! (Oh and English isn’t my first language so sorry about the grammar mistakes here)
Okay, I really don't think you're gonna be happy with my response because I actually like the ending to Steven Universe.
I'm dead serious. As a Steven Universe fan, you're probably already aware of this, but Rebecca Sugar basically made a deal with Cartoon Network where the only way she'd be able to include Ruby and Sapphire's wedding in the show (which was, to my knowledge, the first gay wedding in western children's animation) was if she wrapped up the series in six episodes afterward. Considering that restriction that was put on her by the studio, I think it's nothing short of a minor miracle that the ending turned out as well as it did. In my mind, the ending achieved its most important goal, which was to complete Steven's arc and resolve his doubts and fears about his own identity and how it relates to his mother.
However, I do agree that six episodes is really not enough time to cover everything the story wanted in satisfying way.
So, my fix is pretty simple. I would make the wedding the season five finale and then devote all of season 6 to Steven living on Homeworld.
How it would work in my mind is that the last episode of season 5 devotes more time to the actually wedding before it's interrupted by the diamonds. Hell, maybe there'd be a few episodes before that covering wedding planning, which is always a really stressful time and has the potential for good comedy and good stories. It would also function as a breather after the drama of "A Single Pale Rose" and its fallout.
The last episode of season 5 would be mostly lighthearted, but it would take a serious turn when it's interrupted by the Diamonds' invasion. The Diamonds' invasion would not be resolved within the episode. Instead, it would be the cliffhanger for season 6.
Season 6 opens with a two-parter devoted to the invasion. Steven and the Crystal Gems know that they don't have the resources or manpower to fight off a massive attack from Homeworld, but Steven has a plan: Get to the Diamonds and show them that he's got Pink Diamond's gem. Nobody likes this plan, and they think Steven is basically suicidal for wanting to deliver himself to the Diamonds on a silver platter, but it's the only one they've got.
So, the Crystal Gems split into two teams. One is devoted to getting Steven to the Diamonds' ship, the other is devoted to fight off the Homeworld forces on the ground.
At some point, however, the group fighting notices that the Homeworld forces are lighter than they should be, and they quickly realize why: The Diamonds' main goal is actually to awaken the Cluster. The soldiers on the ground are just a distraction.
So no, there's a ticking time clock for Steven to get to the Diamonds before the process is complete and the Cluster wakes up.
I'm also imagining a scene where Steven thinks he's too late and the Cluster starts to emerge, only for the result to be the same as it is in canon: The Cluster actually joins the fight with the Crystal Gems and reenters dormancy once the Homeworld forces are given off.
Afterward, Steven would reach the Diamonds and show them who he is.
The Diamond's reaction would be the same as it is in canon. They think Steven is Pink Diamond and decide to take him back to Homeworld. But now, we have a whole season before the end of the show. That means more time to develop Steven's relationship with the Diamonds, more time to get to know Homeworld, and more time to explore the Crystal Gems' reactions to being back on the planet they rebelled against so long ago, not to mention the culture shock of seeing how it's changed over the thousands of years since they last saw it, and more time to flesh out the Diamonds' redemption arc. In the show, it really seems like the Diamonds mostly changed their ways because Steven told them to, which is kind of funny but not completely satisfying. I'd like more time to see the Diamonds really realize the weight of their actions, and I'd like the show to be able to fully explore how Blue and Yellow Diamonds' insecurities and their position skewed their perception and crippled their empathy.
One other thing, I'd also like to see Lapis and Bismuth realize that Bismuth was the one who poofed Lapis during the war, which ultimately led to her getting trapped in the mirror. They seemed like they were building toward that reveal in the show, but they never got around to it, probably because of the time constraint put on them by Cartoon Network. Perhaps Lapis sees Bismuth fighting during the Diamonds' invasion and gets a war flashback that makes her realize Bismuth was the one who attacked. Bismuth, in general, has a lot of potential in this hypothetical season 6. Her redemption also felt like it was rushed, and seeing her struggle to make up for what she did to Lapis in the past while the Diamonds struggle with their newfound empathy would be pretty narratively rich.
So, yeah, that's what I'd do. Honestly, I don't think that whatever I could come up with would be as good as whatever Rebecca Sugar's plan was before her vision got truncated to six episodes, but the reality of being a television writer is that you often have to work within studio restrictions. In this case, the restrictions were placed for a completely bullshit reason, but under the circumstances, I think Rebecca and the rest of the team did the best they could.
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i think a lot of westerners AND easterners ship jaehyun with taeyong. it's a massively huge ship till this day, even with, i dare say, almost no valuable content/candy. and moments like the BTS clip where taeyong has his hands around jaehyun's neck seem so awkward to look at (because jaehyun looks closed off) but people eat it up lol. or when taeyong climbed into bed with jaehyun and jaehyun moved away from him making it impossible for taeyong to cuddle him. anyway, the signs are there but people see what they wanna see.
side note: i think taeyong's affection for jaehyun comes from a fraternal "younger bro" place.
and like you said, doyoung has an "image" that doesn't appeal easily to a lot of people. him being seeing as a pain in the ass, to put it bluntly. anyway i loved doyoung before i loved jaehyun so maybe im not the norm. but im westerner and doyoung appeals to me, even if he seems brash or irritated, i think it's endearing. plus he's just super talented and i value vocal prowess. i love his voice, it's my favorite in 127.
and i think there are great depictions of jaedo in the english language side of ao3, you just gotta look carefully. i know browsing through the tag can be exhausting though. but some even mimic the real life dynamic you presented in this blog, even in aus. its interesting seeing these elements played in a different scenario.
Believe me I know what I'm saying, I went through the whole JaeDo tag on AO3 from 2016 till today and regularly check new additions. There were good enough fics in the past, but the last year or year and a half... I'm still perplexed one of the most IC was in an old ABO fic, lol.
Yes, most Jae's fans ship him with Taeyong. They both share the same attractive traits (the frontmen, the aces, the visuals). And Jaehyun gets the role of the stoic protective type. That's why the lack of reciprocation works, JaeYong fans don't expect him to be all googly-eyed, he just needs to smile at Taeyong and be jealous of him (which in most "cases" is him looking at Do or being jealous over him, heh). In Russia people would rather ship Jaehyun with WinWin than Doyoung.
Same can be applied to JaeWoo. Jaehyun doesn't need to show plenty of affection, him being nice towards Woo and Woo's shipping commentary are enough.
I can't say I get the aversion to "brash" Doyoung. What's with the universal love for antagonists, including cannibals, serial killers and sociopaths. Since when sassy and ambitious are not attractive traits? Chaotic types are also popular.
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Seeing all this TS chart manipulation stuff and how BTS were treated in comparison, I get why army are so deranged when it comes to fighting for their men. They really do keep getting treated like shit just because they're a Korean boy group. The fact that they haven't had a single Grammy nom for an album blows my mind and I'm always so confused how most of their songs aren't charting higher on the billboard 100 considering how massive the fanbase is and how crazy they are about streaming, they can never compete with the radio play western artists get.
i mean i would never justify the amount of harassment stans do for anything like yeah some stuff the guys put up with is unfair but they're still multimillionaires at the end of the day. no one should be shooting that hard for them or any celebrity.
anyways to your other point yeah it's shitty that billboard added stricter guidelines to the radio play requirement to their hot 100 after investigating bts like that completely fucked them over and it's why their shit doesn't chart as high as it used to anymore. us radios just aren't going to play them as often as western artists like you said.
as for the grammy thing they're about to be nominated for 3 years straight so clearly the industry knows the music is good but it's a lost cause. i think that after this year the members have made peace with the fact that they're never getting one, so army should accept it too.
and tbh no other artist right now could get tens of millions people to wake up in the middle of the night to watch a concert, i feel like that says way more than whatever all this other stuff could idk.
so yeah i'm not really one of those fans who cares about their favs winning all the awards or dominating everything. i think people use those things as a measure of validation for their interests but i personally just like what i like and i don't care what other people think of it.
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Artist Interview: Lila Starless (Ardente, Dragonkeep, Fog Kingdom)
Today we're doing something a bit different. I've actually had the privilege to speak directly (through Instagram DMs lol) with Lila Starless, the french multi-instrumentalist and creative powerhouse behind about two dozen different projects spanning the genres of black metal, dungeon synth, and quite a bit in between. I am a massive fan of her works, and have actually reviewed one of their releases here before (Forgotten Passage Demo 2019) and intend to review more in the future. The interview starts a bit suddenly, that's because we agreed to do it previously and had already hashed out our plan for it. If it seems awkward at all, it's because I have no social skills 👍.
Anyways, enjoy!
Begin interview
SU: hey!
LS: hi
SU: alright first off, how did you get started making music?
LS: i started with music lessons on the piano many years ago but didn't understand them at all. it wasn't until i started playing the guitar that i took a real interest in playing and making music. i had a teacher for a few years at the beginning, a great one even, and he didn't really teach me much traditional western music theory and such. he just wanted me to have a good time. but, spending a lot of time on the guitar i got familiar with certain structures that seemed to always "make sense". my first released tracks were on the keyboard in 2018, i "translated" (if that makes sense) the fret structures that i liked to the keys and this is basically how i started making my own music.
SU: that's very interesting. were there any particular artists or bands that were influencial to you at first? what drew you specifically to black metal/dungeon synth?
LS: absolutely. nothing out of the ordinary but i started listening to such things with artists from the old Norwegian scene, at least as far as black metal goes. i got into dungeon synth a little later, the album Taur-nu-Fuin by Thangorodrim was my introduction to it... or maybe it was Rise of the Specter. either way i still have a sweet spot for both of these. then, Depressive Silence, Mortiis... etc. as i said, nothing unheard of. i cannot tell you exactly what drew me to those genres. i was a teenager checking out random metal CDs at the library, one day i heard "I Am the Black Wizards" (the demo version) and it just changed my life. this track remains as one of my favorites of all times. nowadays, i can tell you that making and listening to such music, to me, is important because of the raw emotion that is often present in some of my favorite albums in both genres.
SU: so would you say music that is mostly about emotional expression for you? does that play into how you make your own?
LS: not necesarilly emotional, but about expression, as all art is really, so i don't really know where i'm going with this. i guess the unfiltered, raw nature of it is important to me, not always but often. of course, it's not always direct or explicit either, for example some dungeon synth is themed around other worlds, places, times... but, as Sargeburt of An Old Sad Ghost brilliantly puts it, at the end of the day it is music for prisoners... metaphorically. it definitely plays a big part in my music, at least. i cannot say i've never made music with no real substance, but nowadays everything i make reflects something very real that i experience or experienced, in some way or another. i could not do it any differently now i think.
SU: how did you develop your style? i feel like i can just about always tell when a project involves you, even if i don't know going into a first listen, you have a very distinctive style of songwriting, and a unique aesthetic.
LS: haha, damn... i don't know how i can answer this! you are not the first person to tell me this, and honestly i kind of see what you mean, but ultimately it's just like every other person who "creates" something... i like certain things, and i heavily borrow from them, so it becomes a mix of slightly less good versions of said things, but in the process you make something that somehow feels like your own. i guess that's what happened here as well... i don't have a real answer to give you. the one thing i can tell you is that sometimes actually learning how to play things that i like really helped me to get a different perspective and incorporate something fresh into the mix.
SU: that's definitely a real answer! now, a final question, what can we expect from you in the future?
LS: the way i make/release stuff is fairly chaotic so overall i don't really know. several releases under different projects, of course, most notably Ardente's first full length album, a few splits... but on a wider scale, i would like to branch out a little bit. i like ambient music, and shoegaze too, so maybe something like this? i'd like to release more music that's not under a specific project too. i'd like to play live more, but i need to be better prepared in the future.
SU: alright! that's very exciting. thank you so much for doing this interview, i hope you have a wonderful rest of your day
LS: thanks a lot for having me! you as well. it's been a pleasure.
End interview
So yeah this is super exciting!!! I'm hoping to do more interviews in the future, and if there are any specific artists yall'd be interested in, let me know! (also lmk if theres any ways i can conduct interviews better. i've never done this before, and i would appreciate feedback on my questions and overall approach/presence in the interview)
Here are some relevant links below:
youtube
(Linking this demo as it was my personal introduction to their music)
#youtube#music#metal music#dungeon synth#black metal#raw black metal#interview#musician interview#metal interview#musician#keller synth#dark ambient#ambient#shoegaze#long post
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like I think people have been saying for months, the full breadth of the songs on jungkook’s album will be what’s really telling. I fully expect that bts’ future title tracks will be very gp/western friendly, or at least 1/2 of the title tracks of any one album will be that. That’s how they’re going to keep attracting new fans and get up the charts. But it’s not like they’re going to produce an album of Dynamites, or other songs that they haven’t written and have little meaning. There’s no reason to - they have millions of fans and the gp won’t listen to their b-sides anyways. I don’t care if jungkook has another seven-esque title track, since that’s been par for the course recently and I’m fully expecting it, but I would find a full album of meaningless English easy pop pretty disappointing bc (1) I don’t think it’s a necessary or even particularly helpful part of meeting his goals to make the entire album like that and (2) it just starts getting further and further away from the foundation of artistry. If bts hadn’t put out Be, I think the fandom would have felt a lot more unsettled about the english trilogy. I only really get the point of getting more people to listen to you if you have something to say once they dive in
now, after that very long paragraph, I was wondering what your thoughts are on the theory that jungkook is being pushed out there to gain fans and draw them into bts in 2025? I’m not saying that he doesn’t want it himself - it’s clear that he does - but do you foresee a mass of gp listeners of jungkook being drawn into bts? To me seven is pretty passive listener friendly so idk if I see that
Hmm... the thing is, if JK's album really is all in English, there's a good chance he isn't involved in writing the lyrics at all, and working with the Seven team I have little hopes for good lyricism. Even Layover, with Korean lyrics, isn't a strong album in that regard - clichéd love lyrics don't tell me anything. Unless there's something specific that Jungkook wants to talk about, there's no guarantee that the lyrics in his album will be based on his experiences or relatable or meaningful in any way. He likes romantic songs, so atp I'm expecting songs about sex, breakups and falling in love. Maybe a fan song if we're lucky? Jungkook's album is not a BTS album. BTS, and Jungkook included, write meaningful lyrics for the group - that's in BTS's DNA. But Jungkook, the soloist, and not the BTS member, may not feel that meaningful lyrics are necessary, or think that vague romantic lyrics are universal enough - they certainly appeal to a lot of people. And the entire album will be GP friendly imo, but it won't all be pop like Seven - perhaps RnB, a ballad, and maybe one harder song like SMF Pt. 2, which Jungkook really likes? All of it depends on the producers JK works with tbh.
If Jungkook was being pushed, wouldn't him and the members see through that attempt? Plus, BTS seem to have a good relationship with their staff. Jungkook wouldn't let himself be pushed to do something he doesn't want imo, and the members wouldn't either. The most streamed kpop songs that came out in 2022 and 2023 are Jungkook's, he performed at the World Cup, he's always trending and breaking records, Seven is a massive hit, he's going to perform at a big festival, his CK campaign was huge, the number 1, 4 and 9 songs currently on BTS's Spotify profile are Jungkook's, etc. Of course he's going to attract new fans, or even keep casual fans interested in the group (and all members will do so, for that matter), but I doubt he's going to let himself be used and pushed to do something he doesn't want to do - that's not what chapter 2 is about, and Jungkook trusts Army. If his choices end up aligning with what Hybe wants, all the better then. I think BTS all became brand ambassadors to have an easy and consistent stream of revenue and exposure, and precisely to keep the pressure off of their music, allowing them to do whatever they want. Maybe Bang Pd or someone else had hopes that Seven would be a huge hit, especially since BTS haven't had one since 2021. But, like you said, Jungkook chose Seven because he wanted to. Isn't one of the goals of a company to attract new fans in general? I don't know if they've chosen Jungkook for anything. They shouldn't limit themselves to one person. And that would imply giving Jungkook all their high profile projects but every member's done high profile stuff. Jungkook promoted more in the West because Seven's that kind of song. It would be hard to promote More, Wild Flower, Slow Dancing and Haegeum on US radio shows. Only LC and The Astronaut would work somewhat, but I still think LC isn't that radio friendly.
So, yeah, I don't think Jungkook's being pushed. The goal in chapter 2 is to maximize profit and increase/maintain BTS's popularity while respecting their choices, because, clearly, they're being given free reign (within reason I guess), and if the higher-ups want JK to make more songs like Seven and to promote a certain way, they'll have to settle with whatever Jungkook chooses to do. All members have the option to go down JK's route anyway. Obviously, JK's choices make it way easier to boost BTS's popularity with the GP, and reaching the GP has also been one of JK's goals with his solo career, but that's a bonus. At this point, I think promoting the members individually and separately from BTS should be the goal, or a goal. Hybe knows that. They're in a vulnerable position if they're too dependent on BTS. Boosting the members' individual popularity and not depending too much on any of the members is the best strategy. You never know if someone gets injured and can't perform for a year (knock on wood).
Anyway, about Seven attracting new fans, the song doesn't stand out much, it's true, but there are always people who choose to check Jungkook out - either because they recognize his name or BTS's, or because they really like his voice or song - and some of them will end up listening to other JK or BTS songs and enjoy them. Plus, JK's CK campaigns and the Seven MV are stan attractors and will draw in potential fans who discover Jungkook through Seven.
Thanks for the ask!
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Errol Flynn as Wade Hatton in Dodge City [Michael Curtiz, 1939]
#errol flynn#not pictured: livvie's amazing outfits#that's another post#dodge city#I swear michael curtiz decided errol's left side was his best side#just to fuck with my desire to make symmetrical gifsets 82 years later#it would be so like him#so here's a pro tip I am trying to internalise right now#YOU DON'T HAVE TO WATCH EVERYTHING#I've had five unwatched errol films sitting around for years#look I have tried to watch dive bomber three times and I just cannot be arsed#also I don't like fred mcmurray#and it is OK to NEVER WATCH IT#did I watch robin hood again more than once in the last few years?#yes yes I did#so dodge city is ok and obvs looks amaze and errol and livvie are great#it could be 30 mins shorter#I'm no massive fan of westerns anyway#it's well made etc etc#but I didn't miss out a great deal#apart from errol in a variety of excellent shirts#so although I don't make new years resolutions#I"ve already gone through my epic to watch folder#and deleted some shit#and I feel light as a quaver#floaty light#this is also while deciding I WILL watch the Classics I have Never Seen#let's see how that goes#my wee gifs
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