#This is mostly constructive but I am. just a bit annoyed XD | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

if-confessions · 11 months

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hi, just wanted to ask if you have an opinion on one star ratings on itch.io in general? i understand supporting authors, and i don't support mean comments on reviews. but it also feels dishonest to keep your opinion to yourself only when you have a negative view of a game. It seems like (in the cog-ish community on tumblr) sharing an opinion less than good for an if is frowned upon

i understand authors write for fun, and sometimes aren't looking for constructive criticism. but if the last part were completely the case, there IS an option on itch.io to just... disable reviews and ratings. opening yourself up to getting stellar 5 star reviews means opening yourself up to less than happy reviews as well

but, let me know what you think. you seem very insightful for these things!

Insightful XD you are too kind, Anon. I usually have some mild takes...

Long post ahead. TLDR:

use all stars available, it's there for a reason

reviews are good to get more information out of a rating

constructive =/= mean

don't want to deal with it, disable ratings

-------------------------------------------------

==> The whole range of stars in ratings should be used.

So, this is my current itch rating distribution:

As you can see, it is currently a bit skewed to the top. But that's because I tend to forget to rate a game after I play it*, and mostly because I am currently reviewing games and I wanted to start with games I know I've enjoyed in the past**. And also because I haven't played a lot of games recently... *which I only do in the first place if I actually finish a game, or gave it a fair shot. And you can't rate the game during the voting period of a ranked jam **the ones I didn't really enjoy may not be on itch either...

Even then, I am still personally in favour of using the full range of stars on itch by creating your own metrics to base your ratings* on. Not every game is worth a 5-stars and less-than-good games should not automatically get a 1-star. There are 5 stars for a reason! Use them! *My rating metric on itch is based on my enjoyment of the game/how entertained the game has been to me.

To me, ratings are part of the game making experience. They are a way to judge whether it is well received or not. And even if it doesn't feel good to receive a 1-star*, it is important to remember that not everyone will enjoy what you make, and they are still allowed to express that (what's the point of ratings otherwise...). *it's a bit like a rite of passage to get one :P

==> Itch Reviews... are not really reviews.

Even if they call it reviews, they are more small comments on ratings. Itch reviews are not visible on the game page, only in the ratings list of the game on the author side, and in the feed of the reviewer*. It cannot be perused by itch users wanting to know more about what players thought about the game. *if the reviewer doesn't remove it from their activity. Also sometimes visible in the global feed

They are more like personal messages from the player to the creator, rather than what you'd expect of reviews (opinion publicly visible*). This can be great for creators who want to hoard those private messages and keep it for themselves, or hide the more critical comments. But it might sometimes leads to getting irrelevant or less-then-nice messages**. And the most annoying part: you can't reply to them to correct some things, or ask for further details. *I guess you have the comment section where you could post a proper review? **itch allows you to report abusive and spam comments.

That's why I kind of prefer the system of the IFDB: your reviews and ratings are public, you can comment on reviews or indicate whether the review had been useful to you. And because it is much smaller than itch, reports are handled faster.

==> Still you should leave some comments with your rating.

Ratings give creators some sort of an indicator about the reception of the game, but, since ratings are highly subjective and everyone have different personal metrics when rating, they can't tell what when right and what didn't, how well or how poorly the game is being experiences... Only words can do that.

So I personally believe we should leave some comments with our ratings, whether it is good or bad, from full novelette-length reviews* to a few sentences. If it is criticism, then it should be shown constructively; if it is praise, it should be explicative. This will give the author some concrete elements to focus on to fix issues or continuing the project. *maybe don't do that on itch...

Here are some examples of comments I got with ratings of CRWL : only gotten 6 total, which is 5% of all ratings

ngl that second one stung (I think cried for an hour...) but nothing was false about it. It definitely needed a re-write and I was being a bit dramatic. It might have been a bit harsh, but it is a good example of a constructive comment

I know itch will never enforce it, but I do think leaving a sentence or two of constructive comment on lower ratings should be a bit more of the norm. Being constructive doesn't mean it is overly negative or mean, it should target elements that do not work and explain why it doesn't (and maybe how it could).

Sidenote: this is not a place to request things or changes from the game/creator, obviously.

==> If you don't want any 1-star ever, don't enable ratings.

Getting a 1-star rating or a bad reviews might usually be a rite of passage when putting your stuff out there, but you don't have to suffer through them if you don't want to.

Itch allows you to disable ratings and reviews (and even comments) for a reason*. Enabling it is a bit of a gamble, you don't know how people will rate and what they will say about the game. It could be a flood of stellar reviews or a barrage of terrible ones, or a bit of both, or... nothing. If you don't feel like you could handle getting some low ratings or more negative comments (like the middle one screenshotted above), then I would advise you to disable them. *it will also affect the visibility of your game in the browsing section if you are worried about that

I personally think it helped me build a thicker skin and grow as a creator* and a person. Getting long reviews** about how how my game wasn't working and why felt to me like the reviewer respected me enough to give my game a fair shot and explain their reasoning behind their view. I know I don't have to agree with everything, and I don't have to take every piece of criticism on board, but they all have made me think about my games differently. *probably more the IFDB reviews than the ratings here, because they were more constructive and explicative. **Damnit, can't link it. It was a review for this game, but locked in the forum because the reviewer had submitted a game too.

#confession time #if-confessions #reviews and ratings

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gallavictorious · 3 years

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I was delighted to be tagged by Our Lady of Words and Joy @howlinchickhowl Cheers, dear!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Earlier today it was 40. Now it’s 39. WHAT GIVES? Did someone eat a story? Which one? I am so confused.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

137 098. At least that hasn’t changed...

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Highs, and Your Lows (i will weather them)

This Time (We'll Be Fine)

Teenage Tales

To Keep Your Gentle Heart

Captive Look

Huh. Would you look at that. All Gallavich stuff!

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Eh. Well. Listen, I always want and mean to respond to comments, because as a commenter I always love a response from the author, but I am procrastinator supreme so a lot of the time I just... don't. Not for a great long while at least. Then, two years AFTER you left a comment, you might get an e-mail notification about me responding. It's horrible, really, because I keep the comments in my heart and treasure them so much and the lovely people taking the time to leave a few words on my silly stories really do deserve better.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Life, Still to Come has the one main character Jim Moriarty killing himself and his lover Sebastian Moran after he's diagnosed with incurable brain cancer, so I guess that's pretty angsty? The tone of the fic, however, is... kinda soft and peaceful, really. It doesn't feel so very sad, I think.

For Gallavich, I've got Chapter 7 of my ficlet collection Highs, and Your Lows (i will weather them). It's an Wild West AU kind of deal, where Ian Gallagher is visited by the ghost of the young fiend Mickey Milkovich after his dad beats him to death. That one is sad, but there's the glimmer of a promise that they might meet again one day, in a better world.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

My fics mostly end on a happy note, and I have a hard time pinning down which is the happiest. Hm. I'm gonna say Pressure or possibly Foreign Country, if only because the happy endings there are offered in contrast to the otherwise angsty story and so seems all the happier for it.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I have, once. Well, started one, really. Notes Regarding the End of the World is a crossover between Sherlock BBC and Mark Lawrence's The Broken Empire trilogy. I still feel there's a bunch of potential there, but I'm very hesitant I'll ever finish it.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not to my recollection, no. Back when I posted my SW fic on the Jedi Council forums you might receive critical comments at times, but no hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not really, no. I'm not very interested in reading it, and so see very little point in writing it. There's been a few semi-explicit depictions of sexual acts – most notably in Claim – and I'm not averse to writing kink fic, even if they don't typically include actual sex when I do. For instance, I did The Ways We Bend and Break and Mend for X-Men, and the whole point was Charles first whipping Erik and then cuddling him – except in the end it turned into a character study with lots of emotions, and I think any attempts to write smut would be like that for me. Accidental character drama. XD

I might have a Gallavich thing for kinktober that is likely to be pretty explicit and kinda messed up. We'll see.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so. There have been a few instances of stuff popping up bearing a strong resemblance to things I've written, but there's also been times when I realize that things I have written bear a (very much unintentional) strong resemblance to other stuff that predates them, so I really think that's the nature of the beast. In any big fandom, the same ideas are likely to occur to multiple people, and we are all, often unconsciously, inspired by the same things and by each other.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, to Chinese and Russian.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Pathoftheranger and I co-wrote (How to Break the) Alibi Armistice, which was fun!

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I'm a creature of ever-changing affections, so I'm not so good with ”all-time favourite” and to be honest, I mostly tend to have favourite characters and ship them with everything in sight... Currently it's all about Gallavich but pretty much all ships including Jim Moriarty is forever gold to me (though MorMor is The Best. Or is it Sheriarty? Or maybe Mormorlock? Or Moriadlock? Or Johmlock – notice the 'm'?). Cherik's a big one too!

Ask me again in six months and my answer might well have changed!

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

The aforementioned Notes Regarding the End of the World. And I have this superlong Star Wars fic I started writing when I was 16 and wrote for years and years and then just... stopped writing, when I was maybe 20 pages from the end? It's currently at 180k words. This one I DO have some hope that I will go back and finish one day, although it's likely to be a jarring experience since I'm very much not 16 years old any more and my ideas about writing and the characters and everything have shifted quite a bit.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I do pretty well with the short format, I think. And with dialogue? Finding the voice of the characters (some more than others, certainly). Writing in my native Swedish, I think I'm pretty good at offering decent prose – I'd like to think I have a fairly developed ear for the flow of the text, and the melody of it? But when writing in English, that gets quite a bit harder. This really annoys me, because I'm rather preoccupied with the stylish elements of writing – though I've found that a lot of people seem happy enough to overlook clunky writing as long as they find the story otherwise engaging, which is a huge blessing for me. I believe I can build a decent plot, but since I can't write anyting longer than a few K these days there's no telling, is there?

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Primarily getting any writing done at all. Mostly, I stare at a blank page and despair and then I give up. This is why I no longer write long fic. I also tend to reuse favorite phrases or themes far too often. And there are so many subclauses... Proofreading happens to other people (I'd like it to happen to me too, but I'm terrible with it). I'm not good at accepting constructive criticism, even when I ask for it. I will often favour style over efficiency, and I'll stubbornly refuse to admit that this can be a problem.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

This question makes me feel like I ought to have developed thoughts on this, but I don't so much... I don't mind it? I've used it. Uh. It's a good idea to do a bit of research and not just rely on Google translate for it? If you don't like it, don't use it. Those are my thoughts.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Star Wars. <3

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Buffy/Angel/Spike. The Book of All Hours. Heroes. Maybe something based on The Coldfire Trilogy... ? Oh, and the Bible. I'm sure there are others.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I really don't have one. There are a few I'm particularly happy with, but no one that truly stands out... That said, I was quite chuffed with how the first ficlet in Or Else Into the Light, my (tiny) collection of Anakin redemption one-shots, turned out. And Claim. I’m very pleased with Claim.

Tagging @dreamylyfe-x @fiona-fififi @pathoftheranger @abundanceofnots and @captainjowl

#tag games

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pride-and-flags-47 · 4 years

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Nonbinary November!

Sooo, @letters-to-lgbt-kids made 22 questions for november, nonbinary themed, and i decided to participate on that!

1. Which labels do you use?

I use aromantic, ace and maybe quoi-fictoromantic? And for gender i use trans, transmasculine, nonbinary, solarian, demigender and demiboy

2. What are your pronouns?

He/him and they/them!

3. How old were you when you came out to yourself as nonbinary?

Well, i initially though I was a demigirl in 2017, but as the label nonbinary itself was actually in this october

4. What's one thing you'd like to tell your younger self?

"I know it sucks people picking on you, but please don't give up. Continue being you, and constructing your little worlds. And keep drawing!"

5. Is there a myth about nonbinary people that annoys you the most?

Not really a myth but the belief that every nonbinary person is afab and androgynous/masculine looking

6. Is there a nonbinary celebrity you look up to?

I don't know many celebrities but i think Jacob Tobia? And cisturbed on instagram

7. If you're out, how did you come out?

I'm only out on Tumblr and amino and to my online friends :'3. And i just went like "btw, i am a guy now, and my name now is Alec"

8. Is there a gender-related pun you like?

I like a lot of them but i can't remember any now X'D

9. Do you have friends who identify as nonbinary?

Yes!

10. Do you have a favorite LGBT character?

In the moment it's Double Trouble (you freaking great bastard XD), and Kris also. And i kinda self insert into Kris a lot XD

11. lgbt, lgbt+, lgbtqa+...which one you usually use?

I mostly use lgbt for praticality, but i also use lgbt+ and very few times i use lgbtqiap+

12. How do you explain the term nonbinary to people who have no idea of what it means?

It's a gender not entirely male/female, or completely removed from these two gender, or a gender that fluctuates and varies, more than one gender, or lack of gender. Basically, not totally on/out of the male/female binary

13. Tell us a fun fact about yourself

I am a very heavy sleeper and i sleep very easily XD i have like five alarms to wake me up on week days

14. How did you find your name?

I have an oc called Alec that i created not much before i discovered i was a demiboy instead of a demigirl. And i was like "his name would be kinda the male version of my name" and i went with it XD also i really like this name and it is short and begins with A, which are two things i wanted to maintain on my new name

15. If you're in a relationship, How did your partner react to your coming out?

I never dated in my life

16. Do you prefer partner, datemate, significant other, or something else?

If i ever get into something like a QPR, maybe these three, or boyfriend, not really sure about this last one

17. A piece of advice for questioning kids?

Take your time, it's okay to take a while to figure things out. And please try to stay safe :'3

18. Which flags do you use?

These ones! These are just for the genders and pronouns though.

The last two flags (he/him pronouns and they/them pronouns) were made by @the-gender-collector-emself

19. Any tips for bad days?

Try to take a break, and do anything that makes you feel happy and safe. And maybe talk and vent to some friends

20. Do you have a favorite nonbinary blog on Tumblr?

I don't know, i follow a lof of nonbinary blogs here but i can't remember any :'3

21. Feminine, masculine, androgynous - or none of those things?

Masculine! But a bit more androgynous masculine.

22. What are your three favorite things about yourself?

1. My sense of humour

2. My capacity to care about the minimal but important things that no one else seems to care about

3. My creativity :3

#alec talks #nonbinary november #non binary

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scarlettlawyer · 5 years

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Part 3 of my commentary of @renegadewangs‘s fic series Phantoms & Mirages!

Part 1 | Part 2

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 17

How was this man supposed to impersonate a man who was impersonating him in turn, if he didn’t even have a firm grasp of his own personality and mannerisms?

THIS IS SO DELIGHTFULLY CONVOLUTED I’M LOVING IT. Absolutely living for this.

The dialogue between Randy and Domestique in the flashback is so well-constructed, the layers of SUBTEXT – this fic. Is good.

“That’s not the point,” [Randy] ended up muttering. If anything, not knowing himself only strengthened the point. “For all you know, I could be a dangerous criminal.”

Hot damn, this line.

He supposed he could tolerate Domestique’s presence for a bit longer.

And then they got hitched. Sdkjnsdknldslkn

Running late? What were they running late for? Were Domestique and the Phantom supposed to be on some sort of schedule? Bobby knew he couldn’t question it without rousing suspicion, but that made the curiosity so much more needling.

I got so curious over this too. XD.

ASKNJASDNKLADJL GOD IT IS SUCH A SHAME THAT HE’S NOT ACTUALLY TALKING TO THE REAL PHANTOM HERE. TELL HIM OFF. It’s What He Deserves. Okay but this line is still so funny. Poor Domestique.

“Watch your mouth, LaSoote. There could be children listening in.” Nailed it.

HAHAHAAA I’D FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS.

Domestique’s face twitched into some sort of disgusted expression. Or perhaps it was frustration; Bobby found it hard to tell.

Ah. Ahh. It never really occurred to me before how awkward and awful this situation is for Domestique. Ouch. Because for all he knows that’s the phantom… Who is impersonating his “dead” ex-husband… Who he is in the process of GRIEVING. Like I’d naturally felt bad for Domestique when it became clear he was in mourning but… Never fully hit me how awkward the phantom aspect is. Or, in fact, would have been in any previous instance where the phantom is Bobby and speaking to Domestique, because that was his husband’s former identity, and then his ex-husband. Yeesh. YOU MADE AND ADDED YET ANOTHER CHARACTER TO YOUR STORY FOR THE PHANTOM TO ROYALLY SCREW OVER. As if he hadn’t done that to enough people already. XD

Although there would of course have been quite the distinction between Randy and the Bobby that the phantom was portraying, which would help a little bit for it to be a little less weird… Domestique might have been able to glean things about what Bobby used to be like from interacting with the phantom… Gah, gaah, I’m thinking so much about this now and getting more eager to read Tracking Ghosts to see what information it has to tell me, what light it has to shed. XD

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 18

Your writing style is just, so brilliant. The way you introduce us gradually to different pieces of the puzzle when it comes to Domestique and Bobby’s relationship, and what it was like for Domestique… Keeping the reader curious and wondering, sometimes guessing at the full picture ahead of time and being greatly wrong about it.

THIS FLASHBACK. IS SO DIFFERENT TO READ THE SECOND TIME AROUND. AAAAH.

I really didn’t like Domestique the first time I read it and now I’m just. OUCH.

It hadn’t been the first time Domestique had lost his patience, but never this bad. Never with this much force.

So here we are, the… Hmm. When I first read this, I took this “it hadn’t been the first time” as a kind of confirmation of the phantom’s words regarding beatings, but… “never this bad. Never with this much force”. The crux of it depends on what “lost his patience” actually refers to here. I’d initially taken that as the euphemism for inflicting violence on Randy. But now, I’m like… what if it’s meant more literally? Is it possible this is actually the first time Domestique struck Randy? Or had he done it before, simply with “less force”? …No, the “force” comment, to me, implies that Randy had actually been hit by Domestique before. Just… less severely.

It’s a single punch Domestique dishes out, and it’s implied here to be the worst that Bobby had suffered at his hand. That’s a clear contrast to the more severe domestic abuse that I had been imagining. Of course, we as the reader had come to know that Domestique and Randy had actually shared something, and that Randy clearly cared greatly for Domestique, but this had not caused me to question my assumptions too much. Because there are still “good times” or “honeymoon phases” in otherwise abusive relationships.

But the phantom is far from trustworthy, and he said those things to Blackquill with the specific intent to bother him and to get him to leave. Blackquill himself draws attention to their untrustworthiness and how they were supposed to bother him. He very, VERY easily could have been exaggerating, both intentionally and unintentionally going by his comment about how his “intel wasn’t what it used to be at that point.”

“Randy! You’ve made your point! I get it! I don’t know what else to say, please just stop!”

The first time around, I read this line as quite dismissive, as if he’s saying “oh yeah sure as if you’re gonna really leave, you made your point GEEZ now come back here as you’re inevitably gonna do anyway”, and got the impression that perhaps Randy has tried/threatened to leave before but didn’t, which is why I thought Domestique was not really taking him seriously. I had picked up on the desperation that seemed to be present, but figured that Randy had never gotten this close to leaving before, which caused Domestique to actually start getting worried and want to put an end to it.

He remembered all the times he’d felt like the walls were closing in- like he was back in that cellar and death was all around him- and Domestique had come to soothe him. To tell him he was safe.

The first time around, reading this line had given me a bit of pause, if only because of this line, that Domestique says earlier:

“Did you have another breakdown or something? Are you pissy because you had another one of your crying fits and I wasn’t there to hold you until it passed?”

Which had made me very, very annoyed to say the LEAST and just naturally gave me the impression of someone who is VERY dismissive and neglectful, but furthermore, put in context with Randy’s perspective and his suffering, seemed just downright cruel. Like, it makes it sound like soothing Randy was nothing but a chore whenever he was “forced” to do it.

So my reaction to finding out that, huh, Domestique actually had held Randy and soothed him and actively cared for him when he broke down in the past was at least one point in Domestique’s favour. I was like:

But he wasn’t safe. Not until the Phantom was stopped.

HMM. I do kinda wonder… how he knew to refer to the phantom with this moniker at this point. This was something I also noticed the first time around, and dismissed as a potential mistake. Unless it’s not meant to be specifically from Randy’s POV and more a general narrative perspective thing… WAIT, actually. I think maybe it was supposed to be, yeah, general-narrative-perspective in the present tense

“I know for a fact that you can’t.” Domestique grinned, but it was nothing like the boyish grins that Bobby remembered. “Or how about you speak a few words of Japanese? Or French? Bobby was lousy at French, but the Phantom? He speaks at least fifty languages fluently. Probably more.”

Me: [spits out my juice]

PHANTOM… PHANTOM WHAT?!

WHEN I FIRST READ THIS… I JUST HAD TO STOP AND BE LIKE… EXCUSE ME?! EXCUSE ME? YOU CANNOT JUST THROW IN SUCH AN ABSURD FIGURE AND EXPECT IT TO FLY!

Me: I KNOW THE PHANTOM IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING BUT THERE’S A THING CALLED BELIEVABILITY.

I kid you not, my willing suspension of disbelief snapped in half at the time. XDDD THAT’S JUST… SO MANY LANGUAGES… “FLUENTLY”?! PROBABLY MORE?!?!?!?!

Thirty languages probably would have caused the exact same reaction within me. Fifty was just so far above even that, I-

Like, at most I’d probably have capped the amount of languages the phantom could speak fluently at around 25-28 at most. Throw in a couple more that he has somewhat of a grasp on but can’t speak fluently, MAYBE. That I could take in stride. If I had to pick a number myself, I’d be comfortable at around fifteen.

But we’re also talking about the version of me that had (COMPLETELY unfair!) doubts and misgivings about how you’d chosen to write the phantom’s character and position him in the story up until this point. So, let’s give this a fair assessment.

It just so happens that I do remember reading about a real life man who was actually able to speak around fifty languages, so it is possible. But I’m not sure if he could have been called fluent at all of those, and if I recall, it was also what his career was kinda centred around, and he really just had a natural talent for it (as you’d expect).

There’s also the fact that, if parts of the brain are not taken up and busy processing and feeling emotion, it lends those parts of the brain to be able to be commandeered for other purposes. I don’t doubt that someone could really pull off unprecedented language learning ability if the parts of their brain that should be focused on emotion were instead focused on language learning instead. Furthermore, the mere fact that one doesn’t have any real emotions to be distracted by allows one to focus on learning languages skilfully. These two things could certainly feed into each other to allow a very powerful capacity for learning and retaining languages.

The first point may not really apply to this phantom to the full possible extent due to the bone sliver, which is mostly said to have damaged the phantom’s brain in the area where it counts RE: emotions. That means the relevant damaged/blocked parts cannot be commandeered for language learning instead. HOWEVER, I am willing to accept that the bone sliver further prevents the emotional-processing parts of the phantom’s brain from taking up more space that they should be taking up. That extra (unblocked/undamaged) space could certainly be claimed by other skills such as language learning, allowing the phantom to still have a much bigger part of his brain dedicated to language than the average human’s.

Another point to consider is the phantom’s age and how much time he’s had to claim himself such a high amount of languages. Well, he’s 37 at this point, if I remember right, and if I really think it through and consider him picking up different languages over time when playing different roles or in different circumstances… The fifty number kind of checks out, I guess, depending on how you play it. I still don’t know about “fluently”, but you could have a claim to speaking fifty languages or even a bit more than that at that age.

My other concern is the phantom’s career, based on replacing people and portraying them as accurately as possible. If someone speaks a certain language fluently, being also able to speak that language fluently is absolutely essential. Or it’s WAY too easy to have your cover blown – I mean, I know I don’t need to tell you this XD. I figured that yes, the phantom would know a whole bunch of different languages, but would have a very important need to stick to a certain set of languages he was best at for the people he was impersonating. It’s just really, really hard to speak a language as if it was your native one when you only started to learn it when you were like, 25. Even if you’ve known it for ten years, imo.

But it’s also worthwhile to consider that if the phantom impersonates someone who can speak multiple languages, he would need to speak all of the relevant languages. There’s just a whole lot of ways the phantom could pick up languages over time, and a whole lot of reasons he would need to. I suppose in any “free” time he had, he also may continue learning different languages as well, as it’s a great advantage for his career. Always honing his skills. Like, might as well get a certain language out of the way and have it learned in advance if you might need it later, or it will serve you later on, right?

And then you have little child phantom from under the International School of Languages picking things up there. That’s another important consideration – at least SOME of those languages NEED to be learned early, in one’s formative years, for it to be more believable. Well, Phantoms & Mirages comes back and ticks that box! Now, I did appreciate the narrative circling around and addressing that, although even then I was like “hmm… it’s not necessarily enough, I mean, you need to be able to practice to get better.” But now I realise: yeah, even if what child phantom picked up from listening in on classes wasn’t a whole lot, it was still enough. And it’s not like that’s the only way he learned languages, either. He had his whole life ahead of him at that point, and so many opportunities and different circumstances where he would learn a whole manner and range of them.

Something else to consider is I think my definition of “fluent” is simply too stringent. I’d always used it kinda interchangeably with “like a native speaker”, but I’ve been coming to realise that’s a little naive. I didn’t even know until quite recently (within the past two years or so) that there was some lack of clarity regarding the term and different people had different opinions. But this definition: “able to express oneself easily and articulately.” Can easily occur at levels well below sounding just like a native speaker. So once we take that into account as well, the “fifty or more languages” once again becomes more believable.

So when, finally, I come back, having put it all into context and giving it a more fair assessment, I can… get on board! XD More in the “gee Meowzy, I really don’t know for certain… but you seem to know what you’re doing, so I’ll take your word for it!” XD.

Besides, I can also see the phantom impersonating someone who speaks a given language slightly better than he does. It’s somewhat of a risk, but hell, taking on a new persona always is. There’s plenty of minor non-language stuff that could trip him up, so a slight language disparity isn’t that unique of a risk. And upon taking on the persona, the phantom would constantly be able to bring his speaking abilities for it ever closer to the stolen identity’s and would probably rapidly be able to make up most of the gap and close it, until whatever’s left is not what anyone would really notice. Guess the main thing that bugged me is the notion that he’d be able to impersonate anyone who could speak any of those languages as their native tongue, although that’s not necessarily the case. Well it doesn’t matter – I know that you know what you’re doing! XD

Now it’s honestly a shame that I refused to accept this figure the first time around because honest to goodness I probably would have been cheering if I did, like, that’s my fave character! Right there! 50 languages and counting! Isn’t he amazing?! xD #PHANTOMFANPRIDE

Past Me: author you CANNOT just pull ANY high-sounding and impressive-sounding number and slap it in that’s not how it works… is it?

Back then I really DID NOT know WHAT to make of the phantom in this fic. Such a seemingly unattainable number felt at the time to strip them further of their character and made them feel WAY less grounded in the otherwise very grounded story I was reading.

(Past Me, we keep butting heads an awful lot, and as a recurring theme hopefully it won’t go on for too much longer ;D)

But then I also thought, okay, okay. Maybe Domestique’s estimate is actually inaccurate and/or way exaggerated. Maybe he’s genuinely under this misconception and/or intentionally exaggerating to further have Bobby lose his cool. Kinda begs the question, how would Domestique be able to know this rough figure anyway. The narrative seemed to be implying his estimate was accurate, though, but I was prepared to accept Domestique possibly being mistaken and then move on. (I was ready to slam the “death of the author” button for interpretation of this one sentence back then, if you will).

…Whew, guess who just went on a roughly 1,500 word tangent over a single sentence, derailing and going into depth on a topic completely separate from the chapter’s focus? This person! Well that’s just how I roll.

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 19

The dynamic between Bobby and Domestique in this chapter is so awesome to read… Domestique kissing Bobby while he still has the gun, losing control… I was really like, this is one heckin’ fic! Even though I still strongly disliked Domestique for his treatment of Bobby – Randy – just because I could hardly stand the character didn’t detract in the slightest from how cool this was to read and how invested I suddenly was in this wack dynamic between them as this scene went down.

He couldn’t quite keep the satisfied smirk from his face as he peered down at his former husband, now a pathetic, whining heap on the floor. “You’re under arrest, baby. In justice we trust.” The words left him before he could fully process what he’d just said. It didn’t matter. For the first time in over a year, it felt right.

“…You know what I just realized?” “What?” “It’s Valentine’s Day.”

YEAH I’D NOTICED THE LISTED DATE OF RECENT CHAPTERS (albeit like, I was a little slow on the uptake but I’d noticed it well before this scene) and I was like “Huh! Is anyone going to comment on this at all?” Well, why did I even have to wonder??? XD

You write such wholesome, happy and pure Blackbright… bless you. I’m not even at all invested in the ship normally and I’m like “awwwww!”

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 20

If that wasn’t already substantial improvement, Bobby had followed through on his resolve and sought out a therapist, but what with waiting lists and initial testing, it’d be a while before he could begin to receive true counseling.

If the cast of this fic series wasn’t already substantial and intertwined enough, Bobby had followed through on his resolve and sought out a therapist who would later become a major character, but what with the complicated plot threads still lying ahead, it’d be a while before said character could begin to receive true focus and finally make an appearance in the actual story itself beyond mere references.

“With. I was working with the Phantom. Me and him go back a couple years, but if I was working for him, I wouldn’t have busted his ass out of prison. More trouble than it was worth.” A moment of silence as those words sank in. Of course the Phantom hadn’t employed Domestique and his cohort to free him- how could he? He’d been in solitary confinement.

THIIIIS, this! The fact that the characters straight-up assumed – and therefore the narrative implied – that it was a clear-cut case of the phantom being in charge and ordering around underlings who were working for him, had struck me as rather odd. It was a further reason why I couldn’t fully get on board with the phantom in this fic so far when I first read it, because it further drove home the disconnect I’d been feeling. The notion just seemed… off. After all, Dual Destinies does nothing to imply it, and I’d never really seen any phantom fans headcanon it. But there was nothing from canon that outright discounts the possibility, so I’d just kind of accepted what the narrative had been proposing as, an interesting take that merely did not readily fit into my image of the phantom. But then this correction happens and I’m like, oh, okay, huh...! A nudge in the direction of alignment, if you will.

Oh whoa, HAT-1 bomb was Domestique’s? I didn’t realise (remember) he and the phantom went that far back… INTRIGUING!

So now, we finally have the reveal of Domestique staying back late, working on the bomb for Randy’s sake, and that he really, truly did love Bobby, that they could have been happy etc.

That is angsty and had some impact on me accordingly, although my thoughts were still “okay, but you were still abusive towards Randy. This certainly puts your actions in context and causes them to make more sense, but you still did that, so I can’t exactly bring myself to feel too sad about the fact that things didn’t work out between the two of you. I’m still glad that Randy managed to escape that awful situation, even though the whole thing is SUPER sucky from Domestique’s POV.”

The notion that they could have been happy – and indeed, once Domestique was no longer under the pressure of making the bomb, they could be – also came up a little short for me because I’m like: the way things worked out was actually for the best in this case. Domestique was not necessarily a good influence on Randy either, and Randy as an identity is one I still very much feel it was necessary for Bobby to shed on his path to healing. The relationship that Bobby shares with Blackquill is much healthier and happier. It’s what Bobby moreso needs. And because this is a Blackbright fic – Blackbright being the endgame, it’s like, sure, Domestique and Randy could have worked things out, but then we wouldn’t have Blackbright, would we? ;D

But I’m realising I was still just being a LITTLE too harsh on Domestique – I was so focused on continuing to paint him in my mind as a more clear-cut abuser to stop and realise that yes, Domestique inflicted a small(?) amount of violence on Randy and that’s not really excusable despite Domestique’s reasons, but outside of those instances he was never actually “abusing” Randy, was not ever trying to be intentionally cruel or dismissive etc. He loved Randy. He DID care about Randy. He wanted the two of them to share a happy marriage with each other. And they did have a whole heap of wonderful times together! Bobby’s positive behaviour towards Domestique was present in the narrative for a reason, and it was hardly anything akin to the holdovers of abuse as I might have believed before.

Oh and also, at this point I was kinda… slightly confused about how some of Domestique’s actions added up. This is actually one of the things I sent to my friend at the time on the matter:

Now keep in mind – I knew that if Domestique wasn’t willing to obey, the phantom would have killed him, and Domestique was fully aware of this – that’s why he fell into line. What confused me at the time is that Domestique spent time with Bobby before the phantom had infiltrated the apartment, so why didn’t he make any attempt at warning Bobby or trying to save him? There’s a chance that they would have been able to run off together and lie low, because Domestique was planning to retire anyway, and I thought that maybe, Domestique would be willing to put his life on the line if it meant it would save Bobby’s – if there was even a chance they could both successfully evade the phantom. That, coupled with me misinterpreting that line about carrying Bobby’s body being suspicious that Domestique said to the phantom, caused me to think that perhaps Domestique did have some kind of odd additional allegiance to the phantom for him to follow the orders how he did.

But looking back now, I realise there were flaws in my thinking. The phantom would’ve probably had the apartment under surveillance, so how could they escape without being noticed? Perhaps Domestique hadn’t actually known Bobby might get killed before it was too late, because what reason would the phantom have to tell him everything ahead of time? Another huge thing is that Domestique and Bobby were getting along really well, fuelling my “running off together” idea. But the thing is, Randy had still divorced Domestique. Domestique still would have been sore over that, and there was no real guarantee of any proper reconciliation between them. And at the end of the day, going against the phantom is just way too risky and kind of tempting death to come to one’s way. I guess I misjudged and Domestique’s need for self-preservation (and also commonsense in light of these facts) was more powerful than the love he felt for Bobby. And the fact that, well, escape would just be so difficult and implausible.

Oh, and Blackquill too. He would have made it all the more difficult. Domestique probably would have just wanted to escape with Bobby but Bobby would want to warn Blackquill too and it would just turn into an even bigger mess. And how’d they be able to leave without Blackquill noticing, anyway?

So yeah, I think I actually have answered my own questions on this one! The phantom would have thought through all of the possibilities and made sure to have Domestique fully trapped.

Chasing Phantoms, Chapter 21

Caught in the netherworld between life and death, sanity and insanity, the Phantom was once again a figure outside of anyone’s reach.

I love this sentence so much.

Also, FIRST PHANTOM POV SEGMENT CHAPTER. A-HO!

Just picture, me back then, scooting closer to the hypothetical TV Screen, going, OK, I’m listening, I’m listening…

Me to some hypothetical other person present: Haha yeah so hands down this is an awesome fic, brilliantly written, fantastic characterisation, you know? Just kind of a shame that it happens to be my fave which the author seems to be the weakest at writing for, but – WAIT SHUT UP HE’S ONSCREEN.

he found that he didn’t like that scent.

An opinion. 👀 “It was not a pleasant scent” sounds more neutral, but. Opinion! :D

Lang rubbed at his forehead for a moment before speaking. “We lost the Phantom this morning.”

There is more than one way to read this sentence. The intended reading is kinda obvious, but it didn’t stop my brain from momentarily going “uh, he died??” XD I mean, the guy IS supposed to be in a coma after a suicidal leap from an apartment building, so y’know!

“This is absurd! How do you lose a coma patient? Did someone move him?” “He got up and walked out, actually.”

WHAT AN ABSOLUTE LEGEND!!!!!!!!!! OMG. AND THIS EXCHANGE IS SO FUNNY.

SIMON SPUTTERING SOMEWHAT AS WELL JUST MAKES IT BECAUSE YEAH, YOU WOULD JUST FALTER UPON HEARING THIS.

Then, in the next segment of the chapter, when it flipped back to the phantom’s perspective and it became clear we were actually going to get the escape from his POV, I was kinda like “wait, what?”. I mean, I definitely wasn’t complaining, but I was a little bit puzzled by that narrative choice. After all – Lang had essentially already outlined the most likely means the phantom used to escape, which would have answered any questions the reader may have had regarding the matter. So to get to read of the breakout from the phantom’s POV as he goes through essentially those same steps is, from a purely information-gleaning perspective, somewhat redundant. What could possibly be achieved by doing this? I had actually expected the finer details to be left up to the reader’s imagination – which itself is a nice little shortcut writing-wise, too.

But it’s so cool. It’s so cool. Right? Could it possibly be? Is it possible that the author is providing more phantom for the sake of phantom? Could they be acknowledging how interesting, how fascinating of a character they are? :D

Lipstick that he had to apply with extreme care, because his fingers wouldn’t stop shaking no matter how hard he tried to keep them still.

I’m such a sucker for phantom-in-a-weakened-state, and this detail reminds me of when their fingers also wouldn’t stop shaking in a scene in Just Fake It, but they had to just persist with what they were doing. :D

He contemplated high-heeled shoes for a moment, only to discard the notion. He was having enough trouble walking as it was.

I’M SCREAMING.

No, not him. Her. Until he was out of there, he was a she and she was a simple nurse who needed to leave the clinic in order to get something from her car.

This was one bit where I was like [quiet sigh] “and that’s why they/them phantom is so great, y’know? Very seamless, where you don’t need to bother switching between he and she pronouns for situations like this – instead you get to have one set of pronouns that remain consistent regardless of disguise when the narrative makes reference to them. And you can switch from they/them to more gendered pronouns accordingly if need be, too!” (But I’ll return to this at a later post.) But! Gosh, I was over the moon, I was like, wow! Wow! Maybe, just maybe, this author knows their stuff and can write a brilliant phantom! You had my attention.

Chasing Phantoms, Epilogue

Phoenix and Apollo had apparently caused a bit of a collision in their hurry.

Amazing! XD The Wright Anything Agency dorks… gotta love ‘em.

The world was far too grand for two people to have a chance encounter unless someone would will for them to meet.

WAIT IS THIS MEANT TO BE SOME KIND OF LEANING-ON-THE-FOURTH-WALL? ASDJKDKJ. YOU WILL FOR THEM TO MEET, MEOWZY. YOU DO.

Or wait. Someone wills for them to meet in-narrative too! To place Bobby in the same cell! Ahhh!

Oh, what a good ending that keeps the reader eager to read on…!

OH YEAH AND IF THE PHANTOM ESCAPES ON THE SAME DAY LANG TELLS BLACKQUILL THEN HE BROKE OUT ON MY BIRTHDAY. march 16

#tumblr sincerely didn't seem to want me to post this #so I added even more chapter commentaries in making it even longer #hah.#long post #so many thoughts D:#Phantoms and Mirages

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mrm64 · 3 years

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hello! i know it's a bad idea to engage in any shipping discourse but for the sake of constructive criticism, i asked an sns shipper if she thinks there's atleast potential in ss if ever sakura had that capacity to stand up to sasuke and if she wasn't as much fixated on him during shipuuden and the war arc. i even brought up the wasted opportunity of sasuke vs sakura that was shown in the game. the sns shipper gave a very structured and well-versed answer and i do agree with some of her points. i'm not even anti-sns and i understand the support this ship gets. but this person really hates sakura. so her answer to my question if ss has potential is straight up NO. hate is an understatement. she explicitly said she DETESTS sakura and ss xD. granted, her hatred is valid since sakura's writing is very flawed and inconsistent. what i didn't like was when she said why am i trying to change sakura's personality (her standing up to sasuke whether physically or verbally) when "she's constantly on heat when he's around". gosh, i really wanted to retaliate here and say it's called freakin character development. i mean, that's what she's mainly hated for right? the fact that she's obsessed and a pushover when it comes to sasuke. having that change especially during the war arc doesn't mean she's out of character, it means development. but gah, sakura haters are really hard to argue with so i just stayed silent.

to briefly summarize, her main point of argumentation is that sakura was toxic to both naruto and sasuke. sasuke's relationship with naruto is more defined than whatever he had with sakura. she brought up ss's pt.1 moments and said that sasuke would do the same to naruto, if not even better. as for naruto's case, sakura was a mean bitch and was so unfair to him throughout the series. simply put, even if sns has questionable elements, they are more organic and healthy than sasusaku.

this got me thinking. between sasunarusasu and sasusaku, despite both having toxic elements, i think the reason why there are relatively more sns shippers is because there's balance. compared to sakura, sasuke has shown more consideration towards naruto and we all know naruto cares for sasuke just as much and he isn't afraid to stand up to this guy.

idk what i'm even trying to ask here. i guess i'm just ranting lol. i've always seen your comments in youtube vids defending sakura and ss and i know you have an extensive knowledge of the naruto manga in general. you could only imagine how shocked i am when i found out you're a male. it's really rare to find someone like you. :)

anyways, i just feel so disappointed and pressed lmao. ss shippers couldn't catch a break from haters. like yea, some of us know it has shit writing in the canon and explanations regarding their relationship in the series is very limited. i already accepted the fact that they are underdeveloped and was borderline toxic. but then, between kishimoto's pitiful inability to write female characters properly and SP's biased treatment towards sasusaku plus the manga's main narrative focusing on naruto and sasuke, i just feel like it's kinda unfair for antis to shit on ss shippers when in reality, most of us just hold onto it because of nostalgia. most sasusaku shippers came to be when they were very young. i even found comments saying they started shipping them when they were 6 or 7. in my case, i was 12 lol.

it's kinda unfair since sns has the upperhand bcoz the series is mainly about them. naruhina has retcons and SP and what does ss have? small pt.1 moments, headcanons, fanons and to top it off SP's biased ass shitting on it. the ss fandom isn't perfect and has its fair share of immature stans as well, but i'm still glad that didn't stop authors and artists from making content. ss has got some of the best fanfictions, fanarts and doujinshis. i just wished antis won't attack them as much.

anyways, i'm not even asking a specific question. i just ranted. i just needed to get this out of my system. sorry for that 😅

Hey! It's been a long while since I got asks like this lol! Once tumblr went all anti-nsfw a few years ago, we all kinda migrated to Twitter for our SS/Anime cravings tbh but I'm glad and flattered you decided to ask me on my thoughts! :)

I won't write long as again, tbh, I'm kinda retired from debating/arguing with antis on things of SS/Naruto/Etc (unless I'm simply too triggered to let it go lol. You've already probably seen my long Sakura video so I won't go too much into details of what I already covered with Sakura's character. But to answer you, I'll keep it to the point.

It's ok of course to say Kishi's writing is flawed, I mean he is human and we know Naruto has holes. Every manga/story does of course. When it comes to SS, I personally bring it to this: Sasuke and Naruto's relationship is NOT Sasuke and Sakura's relationship. And that's (imo) ok. Sasuke and Naruto obviously have a bond only they have. Both lonely and orphaned, rivals with each other, haters to brother, you know it all. But Sakura is different. She's simply a normal, head-strong and caring girl. Kishi wanted to write a normal girl, and he did a darn well good job, because just like normal girls (or people in general), they're imperfect. That's why she first appealed to me.

Anyway, to the point, SS is pretty easy to follow. Sakura likes Sasuke....what's the problem? Where's the toxicity, lol. Sure she fangirls over him as a 12 year old girl, but again, Sakura is normal. Most girls I knew that age did the same thing. Most BOYS I knew were super...*cough* ready to be with girls (*cough cough*, puberty, everyone, *cough*). Sasuke is cool and confident. Sakura lacked confidence, so naturally she was drawn to Sasuke. Sasuke at first found her annoying (as he did with Naruto too) but as the became a team, she bonded. SS' bond is NOT NSN's bond. SS's bond is built upon a simply caring basis. Sakura always cared for Sasuke, and Sasuke always was protective of Sakura. Forest of Death, Sand Invasion, etc...add in the angst of Shippuden (nobody can tell me one was better than the other during Shippuden, Sasuke was 'bout to axe everyone while in darkness lol), blank period bonding, and then Boruto. There it is in SIMPLE terms.

As far as "standing up" to Sasuke...not sure where this person is coming from....again, NSN is NOT SS....Sakura has stood up to Sasuke at times. In the FOD where she indirectly called him a coward, when she pleaded with him to not fight in the Prelims and threatened to tell the proctors of the curse mark, trying to stop him from leaving Konoha., etc. If she was a "doormat", she would have said "Ok Sauske, you do whatever you want, it's all ok my love!" That was chapter 3 Sakura. A LOT of haters can't move beyond that chapter tbh...moving on. The main thing is, she wasn't STRONG enough to stop him by FORCE. She wasn't written to. Sure I woulda liked some angsty moments of them fighting, TRUST ME, you already know. But Kishi wanted the fighting to mostly be between Naruto and Sasuke, as most battle Shonen go. It's Goku and Vegeta, Deku and Bakugou, you name it. She was written to LOVE him unconditionally. And despite Kishi's misses here and here, it's clear as day to many people that they do indeed, love each other. Sarada is a product of years of redemption, forgiveness, and understanding between SS (which is....literally some of the themes of Naruto....Zabuza...Haku...Gaara...Pein...Obito....list goes on...).

And of course Naruto and Sasuke's relationship got more spotlight. They're essentially the Shonen "duo" like I explained before with Goku and Vegeta. It's a common tope which can be a bit annoying imo since other characters get shafted, but they're gonna be seen more by the public. At the end of the day, Kishi modeled NSN after his relationship with his BROTHER....that was one of Naruto's main story plots. AGAIN, OF COURSE it's gonna be pushed and seem like it's more "balanced"...it's a battle Shonen, not a love story lol. The love stuff is sprinkled in. This isn't a Shojo. If it was, SS would be the main focus (or...I guess NSN if Kishi WANTED to go that route).

So to finish off, you're right with the SP thing. But it can't be helped. If people wanna say NSN has more "development", let them. At the end of the day, they're shown more to the viewers because they're the Goku and Vegeta of Naruto. They push the narrative, not a romance. They're Kishi's go-to boys. They're the essential main character and rival. It's nothing new. But you know what else? They're. NOT. A. COUPLE. SasuSaku is, and again, romance is SPRINKLED in. It's N O T a Shojo and not the main focus. Honestly...the arguments that NSN shipper used are a bit weak knowing full well that SNS represent Kishi's brother and himself.

I mean...tldr, I could just say "Kishi and his bro are Naruto and Sasuke. SO nah bro, NSN has no romantic development. I wasn't meant to lol."

Typed longer than I thought, but I hope this helped! At the end of the day, ship SS in peace. We have an amazing fandom for the most part with wonderful content and we ain't stopping anytime soon :)

#my posts

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