Well, it's like I knew. Not hard to guess, really.

Gather round, Citytv (for this exercise we are pretending that they want to learn) and Hudson and Rex folks, because I'm about to tell you what you need to show in a season premiere. Now, you may think that because I've never done tv in my life I'm not qualified to give that advice, but as an audience I've consumed tons of it, and sadly for you, 90% of it were crime shows. And since I don't see anyone from either Citytv or Hudson and Rex knowing what you need to show in a premiere either (like, in any season), let me be the one to tell you.

DO:

Have action packed episodes. Chases, runs, car chases, fires, shootings, terrorists (in St. John's? Well, people are crazy), general mayhem and chaos. It's a crime show. I mean, I don't expect them to happen all at the same time, but from what I saw in the season promo, some of these do happen in later episodes. Were there any shots from the premiere included in the season promo, by the way? Because that was actually action packed.

Have your characters display emotions! Which also makes your actors show that they are indeed actors. These are the kind of episodes that make me reconsider my entire stance on AI.

Set up a season arc. Plant tidbits that will lead somewhere eventually. Revolutionary idea, I know.

Show character bonds. It doesn't have to be Charah. Charlie's "Here comes the team" or something like that is followed by an episode of how much not like a team they operate. Singular and isolated. Absurd. And while in the final scene, they seem to be all boarding the ship, in the end we only see Charlie and Rex in the shot?

DO NOT:

Make the episode a "Visit Newfoundland" spot. No one cares to see that in the season premiere. It's a nice place and if I could throw that much money on a single trip, I'd be there in an instant, but put it somewhere other than the premiere that we've been expecting for more than five months.

Make your episode vastly different from what the rest of the season is going to be like. Unless this is meant to warn me that we're going to spend the rest of the season on a boat searching for missing people. That's a general issue with this show's premiere episodes, and I'm struggling to understand why they do it. It sets up false expectations for the entire season.

Neglect your characters in the first fucking episode of the season. I think the whales had more sreentime than Sarah. Also, I'd love to know what happened to Karma, although understandably, that wasn't an episode where you had to involved a coroner.

Now, I'm unsure of this, so I apologize if I'm wrong, but I think they even used shots of Charlie from S3 for the shots where he comes out of the water. If you have him wearing the diver suit, have him dive. If he doesn't want to dive or the water is like five degrees, don't replace that with old shots. Just do something different.

Anyway, I feel that while a lot of things they did fell flat, that doesn't really discourage me from watching the rest of the season because they've always pulled this kind of shit in the premiere. In a show like Hudson and Rex, you just have to weigh the good and bad episodes in the end and only from that you can conclude whether it was a good or bad season. They are all single episodes after all, it's not like you can judge whether an arc is good or bad because there's usually no arc.

Biggest win: I spent a bit of time whining about it, so I'll just say that Charlie's hair is fine. For now lol. I still don't get what the hell they did to him in the promo photos. Citytv, I've got a few upscalers and editing software to recommend to you.

Twisted Wonderland Personality Swap AU

Thanks so much for the support on my previous posts, it really means a lot to me. Because of that, I've decided to continue writing for this AU and keep you all updated! I'll also be using this post to answer some of your questions. (In this AU the Housewardens and Vice-Housewardens switched personalities)

I went ahead and made some doodles for Ruggie, Leona, Jamil and Kalim (Ruggie with Leona's eyes scares me tbh)

Questions/explanations/clarifications:

-I didn't change the characters' backstories (unless specifically stated). Riddle still has a horrible mom, Trey's family still owns a bakery, Leona is still second prince, Ruggie is still dirt-poor, etc.

-What changed is how the characters reacted to their respective trauma I guess, which resulted in their personalities changing.

-Their personalities are not exact copies of eachother. For example, Riddle isn't just Trey but with red hair. He's very similar to Trey, yes, but they have a few differences in their personalities too.

-I'll explain how the characters became the way they are over time. Plus, it's also fun to think about it yourself, right?

-I've already worked out Heartslabyul, Savanaclaw, Octavinelle and Scarabia.

-I'm planning on doing every dorm, but I play on the English server so I haven't finished book 6 yet.

-Yes, I'm planning on having the Vices + Kalim overblot, and to do that I'll be using their already canonically established backstories.

-I am NOT a professional artist, nor do I have ANY experience with drawing comics, but just know that I'm passionate about this little project and will work hard to make it as good as possible.

-I'm busy with school (I'm busy in general lol), so I don't have a lot of time to work on this AU- I've been sick for the past 4 days, which is why I could post so much.

-If you have literally any questions, just ask. I love to read you guys' reactions!

Characters:

Jamil wears his hair in a loose braid in this AU, since I don't think he has the patience to braid his hair the way he originally does and his hair is kinda connected to his personality. Jamil is much more optimistic and positive, and he's always supportive. People seem to naturally like him, which annoys Kalim. Jamil always tries to look at things from a positive perspective, trying to make the best out of his situation, though it's not that bad for him, because Jamil genuinely thinks that Kalim is amazing. When he got an invitation to NRC he INSISTED that Kalim come as well. Jamil always wants to throw feasts, and if his master allows it, he'll disappear in the kitchen to cook enough food to feed 3 entire dorms for a week. Jamil frequently tries to get Kalim to relax, because he just wants him to be happy, but Kalim then reminds him that they're at NRC to study. (I already talked about Kalim in a previous post but I'll copy paste it here too)

In this AU, Kalim is much stricter, much more focused and MUCH more responsible. He studies rigorously and insisted on actually working hard to earn his position as Housewarden instead of his family buying the position for him. He’s very sharp, quite intelligent, and is annoyed by his naïve servant and his carefree attitude, who keeps following him around.

Leona is a menace, playful, optimistic and cunning, but he also puts a lot of work into his dorm and school. He knows he has to work had to achieve his goals and he knows that he has a lot of responsibilities. He values hard work.

Ruggie is the complete opposite to Leona though. He is lazy, quick to irritate, and forces lower-classmen to do his work for him because he just wants to sleep. Ruggie is a terrible student, never showing up for class or duties and never putting in any effort. He feels like no matter what he does or how hard he works, he'll never make any changes and his life won't ever get better anyways, especially with a high-and-mighty prince as his Housewarden. He thinks that nothing he does is of any use , so why bother at all, right?

Thanks for reading this word vomit, reblogging would be appreciated lol

I know wives and gf talk isn't for everyone so asks under a cut - and I hate the term 'wag' so I'll start tagging these 'f1partnertalk' for those who want to bl!

right??? and the fact that in his Australia tourism type video with her he refers to her as his 'partner' which to me is both him being socially minded but also respect bc by that time they'd been together 3 and a bit years!

and exactly !! on the one hand he's not using her as a status thing of 'look I have a gf' but he's also made the very smart decision (and I think this was the Webbers influence) of not having her be a secret or a mystery. her acc going private is pretty normal for F1 gfs who aren't using their profile for business but the fact that he casually reminds people about her and that she'll like certain content posted about her or them is enough to stop anyone thinking she's 'fake' or whatever. there were some feeble attempts to claim they were broken up just bc she didn't go to many races but when folks pointed out she was in final year of uni for a very difficult degree it died down.

gotta say though - and this isn't in reply to you it's an aside about comments I see - I find the straight people thing of jumping to theories about marriage for long term relationships SO weird. it's like there's this ticking time bomb for het relationships lol. it's esp weird since they're so young and his career requires him to be so selfish (his and Lando's words) that I'm like how do ppl see that and leap to them marrying buying a house and planning kids when they not only don't live together yet they also spend most of the year apart??? sure they're super mature and stable for their age but who I am now and who I was during hs and college has been so incredibly different! I couldn't imagine making that huge a commitment esp if I had an all consuming career like Oscar does. I just hope those comments (however well meaning) don't reach them bc that feels crazy over-stepping and would be so awkward to read.

these asks I felt like went together really well lol

(this is the post anon refers to) oh anon. idk if you've seen them but have a look through here to enjoy Oscar's 8-year little crush on Lando and I think it's safe to say that Lily will at least have had an inkling about it.

and the thing is that being physical just isn't Oscar's way even with Lily which if Lando was at all hmmmm about then he'll have seen that pretty early on. as anon listed above, Oscar shows his affection for people by including them when he talks about his life (which Lando also gets!) also acts of service and signs of respect (which Lando also gets!)

this is me projecting here but idk the way Oscar talks about the boarding school guys he's still friends with and his friends back in Oz but doesn't post about them or have them to many races just makes me think that Oscar decided very early on to just avoid the distraction of sharing himself on social media apart from memes? he's never wanted to establish any kind of online persona and he got really solid a levels as a backup in engineering if F1 didn't work out so he's never planned to be a public person anyway.

where I'm going w that is that Lando will absolutely by now have learned all of this about Oscar. Oscar will like and respond to content about Lando but most of what Lando gets from him will be the acts of service and signs of respect. which is exactly what Oscar does with Lily, his family, Mark, etc. Oscar's own content will be about generically positive stuff re McLaren and the occasional funny post (like P1,P2,P6?). but the people he considers his most inner circle will stay largely off the map. which lbr is what Lando himself does with a lot of his closest friends! especially since his fame began to grow he's stopped posting a lot of those people and we only hear them bc he mentions seeing them. Lando is Oscar's little long harbored 'crush' and Lily is his long term gf. I feel like if that's obvious to us then it def will be for Lando :)

so we can count ourselves incredibly lucky that Lando being Oscar's teammate means we get as much of a window in on them as we do <3

ofmd fans! you might like amazon prime's "a league of their own"

!!! MASSIVE DISCLAIMER BEFORE I GO ON !!!: our flag means death is often described as a lighthearted show. homophobia isn't really a big theme. this is very different from a league of their own, since it's about the experiences of queer women and queer woc in the 1940s. there's quite a bit of homophobia, transphobia, and racism shown on screen, much more than our flag means death.

i'm making this post because i'm tired of lesbians and other sapphics having to watch show after show get cancelled. currently, a league of their own (which is based on a movie from the 90s) is getting bombed with negative reviews because of homophobes saying that they made it woke. so, please, i ask that you read below the cut because this could be another new favorite show for you, and we need the views and positive reviews to keep it afloat.

the reason i'm targeting this post towards fans of ofmd is because as i was watching the first episode of aloto, i kept thinking of it.

it starts with carson shaw (played by abbi jacobson), a married woman, running from home to become a professional baseball player. when she arrives at tryouts, she meets greta gill (played by d'arcy carden, who i'm sure most of you know as janet from the good place). now, without spoiling much i'll tell you; they are very explicitly gay. VERY.

at tryouts, they cross paths with max chapman (played by chante adams), who isn't even considered for the team despite her amazing pitch just because she's black. despite the setback, she's determined to make her dream of playing ball work no matter what anyone says or does to try to stop her.

the show follows both the women's baseball team and max. max has such a beautiful story of self-discovery alongside trying to achieve her dream. carson also has her own story of self-discovery with greta.

there are also 3 butches in the main cast (which i've seen many people excited about) and latinas (including a cuban girl that only speaks spanish, which made me happy as a cuban-american ex-softball player!!!)

oh, and there's also a trans man!

amazon prime marketed this show as if it was just about the baseball, when it was actually a show about the queer experience in the 1940s. reminds me of how, going into our flag means death, we thought it was a silly pirate comedy because HBO never promoted it as a romcom.

please consider watching it. if you're hesitant, watch the first episode and i promise it'll have you hooked. we need this representation. we need more seasons. for me personally, this show is extremely important to me. it's my first time seeing myself on screen and actually feeling like i'm understood as a lesbian. i'm really picky with how couples are written, and they feel so natural. max's experience also hit me so hard, so i can't even begin to imagine what it would be like for a black lesbian to see.

i know it might seem silly to make this post and ask for people to give this show a chance, but i don't think i can handle seeing it go early. and lesbians have been losing shows left and right ya know. and we all know the ofmd fandom is massive (rightfully so). plus, i think you'll be happy to see a show centered on women.

please do keep in mind what i said in the disclaimer though. this show focuses in on homophobia often. don't watch if you can't handle it. always prioritize your mental health.

https://www.tumblr.com/darklinaforever/743924324268982272/mina-murray?source=share

My little post on Mina. Because I'm tired of everyone saying that the 1992 film version doesn't fit into the strong female character box just because it's not a carbon copy of the original version of the novel and that she doesn't have the purest morals in the world, in addition to being in love with Dracula. Honestly, that seems misogynistic. Thinking that to be strong, a strong female character must conform to a very specific model, be morally irreproachable and above all not be in love with a bad guy. Otherwise she is not strong and has no nuance, and is an apparently misogynistic character, that goes without saying...

Honestly, this is really starting to annoy me on a very high level.

Not to mention another crappy argument that Mina is just horny for a guy she's known for 2 days, which would make her look ridiculous. A guy who, I remind you, is none other than her husband from a past life, who resurfaces as she spends time with him. Dracula is no stranger to her in this version of the story.

You will tell me if you agree with my position. Regardless, I don't think 1992's Mina is a female character who isn't strong and is apparently misogynistic. This is bullshit.

Afterwards, people are free to prefer the book version and find the Mina in the film less successful than her original counterpart. No problem there. I would even say that there is a great deal of truth in that.

But to say that Mina from the 1992 film has no aspect of a strong female character is simply bad faith in my eyes.

I have never read the book, so the only knowledge I have of Mina is from the 1992 movie. Personally I love the movie and think Mina is a interesting character. She is the whole reason Dracula gave up in the end isn't it(its been a while since I've seen the movie)? I think people forget that characters are not ment to be role models. Characters are just ment to be characters. Flawed interesting characters. Strong in their own ways. But not role models. Mina is flawed and thats what I like about her. She does horrible things too but in the end she listens to her conscience. As much as she loves Dracula (and loves how he helped her explore her sexuality) and wishes they could be together, they can't because of all the bad things. Doesn't take away the tragedy of losing each other again. And thats the point. Dracula the movie is a gothic horror/gothic romance movie based on the original gothic horror.

What annoys me more is when people try to bring morality and logic into something that is clearly fiction. Also when people try to dunk on the female falls for a monster trope. It always leads us back to abuse and women being horny(wow come up with that yourself 😑🙄, never try to look deeper) . Honestly do you think straight men would have the balls to fall for a monster type females(that looked, acted and stayed a monster)? And we all know why! *cough misogyny cough* *cough men only seeing women as objects and not people with flaws cough* if a women can see the flaws/darkness in man by using the moster symbolism but still love them anyway why can't men(straight men)?

(Don't like don't read. Post hate and I'll block you)

While it is an understandable mistake to make, Jesus' association with individuals did not necessarily convey an approval of their behavior. While there are some positive aspects to the lgbtq community and they have been rather mistreated in the past, I question prudence of associating with a group so focused on sexuality when the early church fathers debated whether any sexually was appropriate at all. I would also question whether witchcraft and polytheism would be appropriate in a monotheistic religions setting or whether devotion to pagan gods that regularly engaged in sexual violence is really compatible with being a follower of someone like Jesus. 

I would proposed that those who have less than accurate and less than charitable views of queer folks maybe not be lumped in with christofascism because that is more the domain of movements and groups like The Iron Guard in Romania, you know that insane death cult.  perhaps you've completed a negative attitude towards promiscuous sexual activity with that of you know murdering Jewish people for no reason. Which was of course what you know the Iron Guard did.

I am unfamiliar with Catholic theology being taught in the way that you describe, perhaps you may be mistaken as to the Catholic character of the theology education you received? Where did you receive this education from, if I may ask?

Hi! TW rape, abuse, and conversion therapy

So, pointing out that Jesus spent time with specific people isn't inherently a sign that he approved of them, but it IS a sign that he disapproved of the abuse and and mistreatment of those people. I don't know about you, but if I thought someone deserved to be tortured and mistreated for who they are I wouldn't spend time with them. My apologies if the point was unclear, but I assure you it wasn't born out of an misunderstanding.

My current beliefs and spiritual practices are born of a very, very long journey and most of it is born of my own religious trauma as a queer person, as well as someone who was physically and sexually abused under the excuse of Christianity. The full story is one that I would need much more then this response to answer, and tbh I've been incredibly sick all day and probably don't have the energy to go down that road (Lupus sucks, do not recommend). Suffice it to say I don't expect other people to understand or approve of how I express my beliefs and how I practice Catholicism, and that's ok. I understand where your questions and concerns come from, but I've found a practice that brings me peace and brings me closer to God without granting me permission to mistreat others. There are a lot of examples of how people and societies have blended Christianity with their native faiths, some examples being Hoodoo (which I won't go into further because it has a lot to do with generational trauma that I, as a white person, don't feel qualified to explain) and Appalachian Mountain Folk Magic. Also, just to be completely clear, I didn't learn how to blend those two paths at university, and I don't think I ever said I did.

I think that the example you gave of Christofascism (which isn't a point I brought up, just pointing that out. But since you brought it up Im going to address it) is a great one, but it doesn't negate how the Catholic church has gone out of its way to silence and condemn other practices and cultures. My friend @baelpenrose would be able to break that particular argument down for you further.

My biggest issue with the post that started this whole thing was that it made an unfounded correlation between being queer and abusing kids; the implications were that even exposing kids to or educating them about the LGBTQA+ community is inherently abusive and that's not true. We've suffered so much at the hands of the church and hearing someone claim that I'm a child molester for being around kids is crazy. To say that we've been "rather" mistreated in the past is a gross understatement; I'll remind you that up until terrifyingly recently we were hardly considered people. I think your statement about conflating "promiscuous sexual activity" with the murder of Jewish people is really misguided and gross, though I don't think it was intentional, and it exhibits a certain amount of ignorance about queer people in general. It seems to convey that being queer makes you a slut or whore by default, and if we take the context of the original post into play here it implies that makes those people inherently dangerous to children. I'd once again like to remind you I never made the correlation between that and Christofascism.

The Catholic church has caused more trauma and damage to children then queer people ever have, and when people deny or apologize for that it makes my blood boil.

Hope I managed to address most of what you brought up, like I said my body's fighting me a bit today. Thanks for bringing at least a somewhat civil and intelligent argument on board.

AI Art is Not That Bad

You know, I would love to become a bestselling author.

I would love for even tens of people to read my book, and think it's great. Good, even. A Normal Book. Because "normal" pretty much just means, "real".

And I think a lot of people don't understand what art and writing are about. Maybe I don't, either, but I'm going to lay out why I think I do (at least in this particular discussion about AI).

I want to start by drawing your attention to the fact that I'm a straight white Christian male writing on Tumblr. I disagree with probably most people on here about most of their views. I stick around for two reasons: Tumblr always has felt like the UI is most conducive to my workflow, and I like seeing some of the art that's on here.

I'm a firm believer that society's erasure and ostracization of The Arts is incredibly short-sighted, and our elevation of the STEM fields is practically shameful. I like to wander the halls from time to time without seeing a multitude of comments expressing negativity toward The Arts.

The thing is, this sort of Profit-first mindset is infectious.

That's usually at the heart of STEM versus A; this idea that the only things worth doing are things that will bring you recognition and support you monetarily.

As a side note: As a husband, and a father of two small children, I cannot emphasize enough that there is a definite need for me to support my family financially; my wife presently is a full-time homemaker, and, regardless of who is working [for money], someone needs to. No one is disputing here that Having Money is Important.

To lead back into STEM versus A, however, there is a certain toxic mindset that if your chosen pursuits don't support you/your family, then:

You shouldn't have a family. This is primarily the sort of "A man builds a house, and then invites his wife to come live with him." as though everyone can afford a house, and as though you need to have all your shit together prior to even courting/dating someone.

You shouldn't pursue your passions. This is often bundled with the idea that you shouldn't have a family, as expressed in the sentiment, "Don't marry that guy; he's only an artist [and not a very good one at that]."

And let's be real here; any art worth making is going to take time, and time spent on art is often time spent away from other pursuits. I have a unique position as a night shift guard in that I can write during work hours (or pretty much anything, so long as I can lug it in and it isn't disruptive to my actual paid work). This is kind of a double-edged sword, because I'm not working on my story right now; I'm writing an angry post about AI.

Now, you may be asking at this point why and how this relates to AI. I haven't really addressed it much, except to remind you at odd points that this somehow does relate.

The only reason you care about AI is that you're afraid that it's going to decrease your profits.

You have lost sight of what art is, and why you do it.

You've convinced yourself that people need to pay you for your art, and, since you spent a long time on it, pay you a lot.

You think that your art is yours, and you can dictate how other people use it.

You've convinced yourself that people that make AI art and writing are stealing, and that makes them lesser people than you.

You think that writing a prompt into ChatGPT doesn't make you an artist, or a writer; it makes you a thief.

Why do you paint?

Why do you draw?

Why do you write?

Why do you sculpt?

Would you paint, draw, write, or sculpt if no one ever told you they liked it, or paid you for it?

Hi. I write stories. I got one published, and maybe sometime I will turn a profit. I'm working on a book.

When I finish my book, I am going to copyright it, print several copies of it, and put several of them in Little Free Libraries. That's the plan, anyway. It will probably, all told, cost around $3000. Maybe I'll get that back, maybe not.

Maybe eventually I will find a job where I can write. Maybe I'll get stuck in a job where I have to skulk around with my keyboard and write in the back shadows like the muddy little goblin I am.

I write because I enjoy it, but I also write because I have to. I could just...not write, but part of me would start dying.

So really, I don't give a flying fuck if AI is stealing my writing. It's so peripheral. Why do you care?

If you're concerned that your art is being stolen and repackaged, then get better.

A couple years ago, you were whining because customers didn't want to buy your overpriced bullshit.

Now you're whining because those same customers went somewhere and got what they wanted without you.

If it took you "fucking hours" to make, maybe you need to Streamline Your Operation instead of charging obscene prices for a pretty little paperweight.

You can't just ignore market trends if you're putting your art up for sale on the market. Basic economics tells us that lower prices moves inventory faster, and generates more net income. Basic factory efficiency studies tell us that certain streamlining techniques make more products faster.

Should you do that with oil painting? I dunno, maybe? You're the painter; you figure out what works and what doesn't.

If you're charging money for your art, why aren't you getting the most money you can for the least amount of work? No, seriously. That's not a bad thing. That's EFFICIENCY, and it doesn't mean your art has to suffer.

Let me say that another way:

If you are selling your art, it is a product. If you can afford to spend hours and hours on your art, you can afford to either spend several hours figuring out how to make your art more efficiently, or hire a consultant to work with you to streamline your workspace. Streamlining production simply means taking out impediments to your work.

Typically, removing impediments lessens the time and effort needed to produce the same thing. Not a lesser thing, the same thing.

Look.

The point is, if you're going to call yourself a professional, act like one.

If (and that's a big "IF" when it comes to AI) you are met with opposition, and you sit down and cry like a baby every time, you don't get to call yourself a professional.

A professional knows their craft well enough that, when push comes to shove, they know where they need to be mutable, and where they need to stand their ground.

A professional accepts criticisms from potential customers graciously, and incorporates that into their future work.

A professional looks at trends, analyzes what is causing those trends, and makes adjustments to their business model accordingly if necessary.

A professional does not engage in fearmongering.

A professional does not engage in hate speech.

A professional does not engage in backbiting.

A professional does not produce garbage.

I am, frankly, ashamed to call myself a writer, or an artist, because of some of the insane, asinine things my fellow artists and writers have said with regards to AI.

Beep, boop, I am a bot. This action was performed automatically. I am a meat machine masquerading as a goblin pretending to be a man. This message was generated with the help of some AI chat service (I'm too lazy to look one up, and definitely didn't use AI to write this). If you write gibberish to try to confuse AI, you aren't a writer. No, seriously, that's bullshit, it's lazy, and you have better things to do.

Y'know I was watching this video and it's made me think so much about so much shit tbh. It's kinda sad, not gonna lie. Like I get it- I've been in fandom for years, I know the drill, coping with memes has been a staple of fandom for ages- I was there for danganronpa, I was there for AOT, for CSM and many more.

This is kind of an insane rant so don't feel forced to keep reading. I just need to put this out there.

But the thing is, for a good while now, since a couple of years ago, I've been in this position where I... don't really see the appeal? Like yes, of course, the memes are funny. I laugh at them- I laugh at fraudkuna and at jogoat and at everything else because it's silly and goofy. But when I'm done laughing and I really think about it it kinda depresses me. How must the author feel? Seeing the people wreck and vandalize and humilliate some of the highest, most dramatic and cathartic moments of their most important work ever. How must that feel? The thing is, this isn't a question- you know how that feels. It feels bad. Akutami is lucky that he doesn't see the clownshow people are making of their show overseas, but when I see this I can't help but be reminded of a tale as old as time-artists that made drawings and those drawings became memes against the artist's will. We've seen it recently with the dancing lizard- The person who made it stated recently that the trend of redrawing Toothless over their 3D art caused them to get so depressed they switched from 3D to anime. (The tweet where they said this is sadly deleted, but if you look up "ka92 lizard" on twitter you can find some evidence, like this tweet.)

I don't like it. I don't like it because yes, I get that you're coping with the sadness the things happening in JJK are causing you- I know it's hard, I know you were very invested and I know this feels like the author may be straight up laughing in your face- but, in memeing the things happening in JJK, you strip them of everything- their shock value, their meaning, their significance, their relevance to their stories. You're no longer gonna remember that time Gojo died valiantly to protect everyone, you're gonna remember Fraudtoru Gojo and Fraudkuna and the King of Frauds and Nah I'd Win and Stand Proud, you're strong- and did I mention I'm NOT into JJK and yet I know every single one of these by hand?

I was into JJK. Nobara was my favorite character- watched Season 1 of the show and started reading the manga, saw her die, and I lost interest. And I was thinking of giving it another shot but this wave of shitposting has singlehandedly taken away my willingness too. Congratulations- now I know every single detail of this thing through stale, goofy memes that take away everything from the scenes they ridiculize and turn them into a mockery of themselves- because I've seen these memes, even if I read the manga and got caught up with everything, I wouldn't be able to experience it the way the author intended. Because when I see gojo dying or anytime Sukuna comes up or anything, I'll be reminded of these things.

I guess that's what all this comes down to. Respecting author intent. I feel like that has kinda been lost to everyone in recent years- when Marco died in AOT, back in 2013, you didn't see this phenomenon happen; people were sad, and sure some people were joking about it to cope but it never got to this level- people still let themselves be affected by the event, they let the incident get to them and touch them and they engaged genuinely with it. Are you really engaging genuinely with JJK if all you do is post goofy memes about what's happening and laughing? Is it really reaching you? Are you giving the story the chance to touch you or are you using your usual wall of irony to stop even something you willingly chose to engage with from changing and affecting you?

I read Umineko no Naku Koro Ni in 2018, and it changed my life. It meant so much to me that I refused, actively, to engage in fandom, I refused to look at any memes; it was my experience and it changed me as a person in ways I simply cannot describe without making this post any longer than it already is. It wasn't after about three years after that that I allowed myself to be, I guess, more light-hearted about it. And of course, you're well in your right to call me dramatic and to tell me that I'm over-dramatizing something that really isn't that big of a deal (and maybe I am, who knows), but even still after that there were very few memes that I really found funny. Because most of the memes everyone was making about it were ridiculizing some of the most horrible, hard-hitting parts of the story. And it was, and still is, my belief, that they took away the meaning, significance- the wheight of those moments just to make fun of them. And... I guess, at a core level, I felt like I never would like something like that to be done to my creations, so I didn't feel comfortable engaging with such content.

I'd like to make something clear- I'm not criticising YOU, JJK fan that loves the memes and lives for them and is nontheless still enjoying their experience reading JJK. If doing that is fun and enjoyable to you, go ahead- the JJK meme explosion has also given birth to many artists, I've seen animations about things happening in the manga that are so beautiful and stunning. But I guess my question is- are the memes allowing you to find new perspectives, new ways to interpret the story, are they deepening your understanding and connection to it, or are they making it more shallow, more blurry, weakening it?

Sorry for the long post- and again, I hope it's clear that I do not want to insult or berate anyone. This is just MY opinion. You can engage with the media you consume however way you choose. But please always bear in mind: is it genuine? Is it full of love?

That is all.

Day 1 of my sort of self-care journey

Nov. 14-2023, Tuesday.

Here is a photo I saved to my pinterest that reminds me of me:

This reminds me of myself because, well, the quote describes me very well. To prove this: I went to my brother's college choir concert recently where they sang many different kinds of songs and I cried or at least teared up to just about all of them. Even further proof: every time I watch The Greatest Showman, I cry. Because I love the music in it and the story line and the relationship that the characters build with one another. It's beautiful.

So, now that you have the vibe that kind of sets the tone for this, "series," if you want to call it that, we can get started. ;)

Now, the title of this may be a little misleading. I honestly didn't know what else to put as the title. This isn't going to be me doing these types of writings for a month or so and at the end of the month I'm going to be so much better than what I was. No. I believe that self care, self love, just SELF STUFF, takes a long time to figure out.

But then again, maybe the title is more accurate to this series than I think it is. I'm not really going to set a "time" of when I'm going to necessarily stop these. Maybe I could have a sort of, monthly "look how far I've come" posts. Really, I'm doing this because I think it might help me. My mental health. My lack of self love. The good stuff.

Because, truth is, I haven't been doing the best. But that's okay. Because that's life. And as long as I don't stay in this struggle and I try to better myself, that's all that matters. Not saying that the struggles I or anyone go through are worthless. No. NO, NO. They are definitely NOT worthless. The struggles we go through are what shape who you are today. And I think a lot of it depends on how you handled those struggles, too. So, here's me trying to handle my struggles *better.*

Another pinterest photo that kind of gives the vibe I'm going for. :)

Oh and yes, yes there will be many photos from pinterest that I simply just *like* or photos that I took from my days. Hope you like them. :)

Heck, I don't really know what I'm doing with this. But I know that writing down some version of my thoughts and getting them out there, somewhere, helps in some way. And besides, I am absolutely, positively, head over heels in love with writing. ;) But really, it's probably just going to be me giving little updates of what I did throughout my days, maybe I'll use it as motivation to do more self-care things. Like mindful journaling. Which I have not done in a long while. I first started mindful journaling sometime during the time I was still in high school. I want to say during my Junior year (11th grade), since that was my hardest year in high school. I remember it helping my thoughts get unscrambled a little bit.

I would find things like these on pinterest and answer them. :)

And, heck, why not, to start this whole series out, I'll answer them.

3 things I'm grateful for today - 1. My lil' burst of motivation to START this, to want to have a better mindset. 2. Romcom movies like Set it Up to help my mood. 3. And of course, comfort books like Smile by Raina Telgemeier to provide, well, comfort.

Incredible thing to remember - This feeling. This want that I have to better myself. I want to take care of my mental health, I want to be happy, and I'm going to take this step in doing so. <3

Something I learned - It is much easier to let yourself be angry at yourself and at the people around you rather than admit that you might be growing in different ways or in a different direction than them.

Feelings towards my goals - Well, since I took the initiative to start this cute lil' series, pretty good, I think. I think that doing these writings, even if it only reaches one person or just myself, will help.

Wake up and show up tomorrow - I want tomorrow to be a better day than what today was. I don't want to dwell on things that don't need to consume my thoughts or feelings. I want to "show up" with a kind of *fresh optimism.*

So, there we are. I think that that's a good start to this. :)

I may not do a daily writing like this, but I think I will aim for at least three times a week. And if I write everyday one week and the next only three, so be it. Progress is progress.

One last goodbye-pinterest photo that makes me think of optimism and freedom. :)

Until next time,

Thalia <3

P.S. Another reason why I felt like starting something like this is because of the other wonderful people on here, posting similar things, and inspiring me. :)

My Predictions Masterpost, Pre-2x06

This is an update on all my predictions after episodes 4 and 5! Here are the compilations from before the season and before 2x04.

In new material are this ad and two BTS videos. There is too much information to make it all make sense *exhaling Spongebob meme*.

Once again, I'm sure I missed some brilliant theories from other people because I'm so darn busy, and now the latest I've been with these 🫢

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR 2x04-2x05.

I'll sum up what I got right and wrong in my previous masterpost, excluding any between-ep adjustments, which will only pop up in my reaction videos when those are eventually ready to post 🤭

Episode 4: Fun and Games

What I got right: The episode starts with the headbut, and in the in-between Stede tells the crew it was accidental. He runs into Ed at Anne and Mary's — Ed intends not to stay on the Revenge, but with Anne and Mary. Anne kisses Stede in the room where they have their conversation, which isn't the same room as the dinner. The look Anne gives is to an interruption; she is seemingly both being for real and trying to evoke a reaction: jealousy. Ed smokes with Mary sitting next to him. The crew wouldn't let Ed stick around in a position of power. The rest of Light Shirt Era is in the next ep!

What I got wrong: Ed walks out of the sea in his gravy basket dream sequence. He goes to Anne and Mary to stay with them. The four split into duos to talk after Ed causes some havoc at dinner. Ed steps down as captain partly in recognition of the harm done to the crew; this and them not wanting him to be in control plays out towards the end. Izzy's prosthetic is from Anne and Mary's stuff, picked up by Stede.

Episode 5: The Curse of The Seafaring Life

What I got right: Stede demands Ed's respect as his captain, and brings up the training idea to Izzy. They train on the deck and raid a ship relatedly to the training, where Stede picks up the coat, fights, and tells Izzy he did a punch, as demonstrated on him earlier.

What I got wrong: Ed and Stede are not made up. Ed's scoff about respecting Captain Stede is what prompts his training. Izzy agrees because he realizes now that Stede could become a captain he would respect, or because he feels like he owes it to the crew — it's not that deep, he was just flattered into it. The candle-cutting scene is a demonstration for training purposes. The raid is for practice — it was more of a diagnostic. Oluwande, Jim and Archie wear dumpling necklaces after the crew allies with Zheng — I guess they did steal those, just off-screen, or Roach got inspired! It just doesn't seem like a coincidence.

The Rest:

What I got wrong:

These shots are a reaction to the comeback of Ed's beard:

Red Shirt Era happens at the very end.

Thus, my handy-dandy chart was wrong, and I'm kicking off the predictions section with the new and improved version they hinge on:

Since Ed is very probably changing back and forth once, I'm not firmly set on him not doing it more.

Episode 6: TBA

This ep covers the first two sections of the chart.

Stede and Ed go to a beautiful market and encounter two kids to whom Ed prolly does offer knives. Is that a rainbow flag? 😭

Stede's top probably changes with the setting, so I think Green Shirt Era will begin the next time we see Stede on the Revenge. In that case, the conversation aboard happens earlier. I thought maybe Ed was back in black because nobody enforces what he does on land, but if the conversation is happening early on, he must have already been allowed to change back 🤔

I assume the conversation is about their plans to or for when they make landfall. They might get all the decoration for the performance at this market; that might even be the reason they go. Except for the lil banners, which remind me of the shipmade flags and paper snowflakes around a classroom, so the crew probably made one each 🤗

I thought it would be the talent show, or — gasp! — Pete and Lucius's wedding, but some article referred to an "impromptu performance," so I guess it's kind of its own thing. Wee John and Izzy do drag, which I figure just comes about naturally, and Izzy sings, which I could see people cheering him on to do.

Maybe in the housekeeping conversation, we learn about a new first mate? I was explaining at the start of a reaction that I would bet on Oluwande, one of the crew members who repeatedly guided Stede, notably in early season 1, but is also just an all-around practical, caring person, to an extent that he was unanimously elected captain in the season 1 finale. I also have live footage of getting the idea that Stede could make Izzy first mate, but I don't think so; nor that Izzy would want it, just like I picked up the idea that he wouldn't want to captain after what happened last time from naranja-petrificada.

Speaking of, after 2x05, because Izzy was not coping in a sustainable way, I thought he might eventually reach a breaking point, but... I sort of feel like he's had a considerable amount of focus this season, so I expect that he would sooner gradually change his approach, or something would prompt him to, than that he would have an intense reaction eventually. This could be connected to the performance: after all, "maybe sometimes, it can be an expression of ourselves"! The conversation with Ed on the deck from a BTS video might happen before they make landfall, then, also because there's just so much happening once we get back to the Republic of Pirates.

The show happens here because it's the same episode as the Edward Low storyline. That's advertised after 2x05, like 2x04 was after 2x03; it probably only lasts an episode, so needs to make way for the final boss; and it's Pre-Earring. I maintain that this is where Stede screams, and the concert might serve to introduce Chekhov's fireworks, a "surprise tool" that might be involved in a later, overarching conflict-related explosion — check out the top right corner.

There's apparently a publication that reports on things like Ed beating Ned's record — Pirate Times, or The Swashbuckler, or The Hook and Eyepatch; I could do this forever — presumably the one Ed set out to beat in 2x01. Ned doesn't give me the impression of raiding much, but he does have victims, plus Ed strikes me even less as setting out to beat a record of violent acts, so my bet is on amount or density of raids.

I was still leaning towards a possible Gentlebeard sex scene — Chekhov's orgasms — at the end of episode 7, despite the fact that if the in-bed conversation is their morning after, I wouldn't expect the show to keep the wound on Stede's chest until late 2x07 or early 2x08. Alas, I did see a fanart piece of what seems like that same scene, and the comments sound like they didn't take it slow and that caused a problem. Because I think the tone switch of their first sex scene right after the Ned situation would be hard to pull off, I would guess that Ed and Stede sneak off towards the end of the concert, and their distraction makes it possible for Ned to attack.

Side note — I totally did not think the person reading the newspaper and the conductor were the same. I also have actually heard of Edward Low as a kid, retaining only that he was a particularly cruel pirate.

I would be uneasy to delve much into the problem, but I think the solution might come without external help. One of my favourite parts of the show so far has been the lighthouse fuckery, because it was such a creative and adventurous scene, and maybe this will be an opportunity for the crew to execute a similarly cool solution. They're all dressed for a visually stunning scene as it is 😄 I don't think they would circle back to the show after the attack, so it probably comes first, and something else helps the crew end the ep on a positive note.

But then, a scheming Banes might reappear, because I figure he will at the end of the episode before he starts antagonizing. The "gentlemen" conversation seems too monumental to me now, like something he might say right before a big mission, so maybe not that. Plus, I don't expect his nose prosthetics to change back and forth, so he would be wearing the white and blue one first.

The Rest:

There is a lot happening after this point, so much that I'm puzzled how it all fits 😅 On one hand, it feels wrong to expect too much of it to be in episode 7, but on the other, I think significant scenes in 2x08 might not have been shown anywhere to avoid spoiling the suicide mission, so I would leave more space in the finale.

I suppose we open with a morning scene (I'm gonna lose it) where Ed, who might be in Stede's robe (...oof 😭) jinxes them into the upcoming fatally dangerous situation 😅

And they're like, "what's the plan for today? (let's spend time together)" and all head to the Republic of Pirates. Alternatively, this conversation fits into the end of the previous episode, and is appropriately followed by Banes being like... yeah, no, I want to put you all in a not-even-near death situation.

It looks like they go to the bar on three separate occasions: one with nothing out of the ordinary, one soon after where Ed can easily observe that something's different, and one with the soldiers. Perhaps Ed will talk to Jackie while Stede impersonates Buttons to the locals ("I'm a seagull!") first, then they'll go on their dine and dash date, and return to find that the patrons might try to kill Stede this time around! To make things confusing, Stede doesn't have his earring when he talks to the same people outside... I guess he departs to find his new friends after the change in atmosphere, and with Ed already alone outside after seeing him out, he talks to Izzy, who comes out of the bar. That sounds wrong, though: it feels like Ed stands outside before going in for the first time, so that's the alternative, and maybe Stede just enters first. Ed observes a small boat, and we see him admire a view at another point, so maybe he just tells Stede to go ahead so he can take that moment.

Stede's new rejection by the community explains the angry bottle-smasher when the group hangs out on the steps. Anyway, they're on Stede's side in the end, and might also be the ones to suggest he get an earring! I imagine with their backing, Stede goes to the bar to appeal to... Jackie? ("We've been through Hell together.") "We" in this case does not refer to Stede and the group, 'cause I assume they just met, nor Stede and Jackie; it's probably the Revenge crew.

That is, however, the third time he would be going to the bar in one ep, so I'll chuck in an alternative: Ed and Stede run into hostility the first time around, Stede meets some locals and wins them over, then that group heads to the bar together.

But what did Stede do to fall out of favor? I would guess word got around that Banes is up to something, especially because it looks to me like he might be seeking allies on the inside. The phrase "Zheng's recruiting" followed by two shots that may very well be from the same scene of Zheng across from Banes sparked the thought.

Meanwhile, yeah, Oluwande and Jim find out that Zheng is recruiting. Zheng and Olu's conversation and the indoor and outdoor fights have similar lighting, so it seems like they happen around the same time. Perhaps the same one altercation stumbles outside? Then Jackie's explodes, and I guess I have to replace my "the crew does it" theory with that Banes is behind it, out of revenge. Chaos ensues:

If I have the order right, which... no, this would be a reasonable end to the ep!

I straight-up don't know when to place Ed going down some stairs, because it doesn't look like it's towards Jackie's.

Stede does have the earring, so it must be after all of the above. And he might find a minute around here to tell someone being a failure is not so bad.

There's the beach battle and the run-in with soldiers at the bar, and I think they happen in that order for a couple reasons. Firstly, Ed crinkles a brow and says "who's your friend?" or so when Zheng calls out to them on the beach, and secondly, the trio shows up to find soldiers together, so it seems like they've already teamed up, which happens near the beach. The soldiers must be set up in the woods by that point and attack them...? I'm really not convinced on that order though; my heart says it's the opposite 🤷‍♀️🤪 But my brain did win the Anne-doesn't-kiss-Stede-at-dinner round.

I think the battle somehow integrates Ed coming out of the water in his black getup again, and I say "somehow" because he's dry after. Maybe that's an intentional 1x08 callback? 🤭 Ed and Stede fight, run to each other, have some super romantic interaction (goodbye), then help out Zheng.

I guess... they chill on the sand, talk of teaming up, then the crew catches up and they admire the local terrain.

From the time of day and the building's visibility earlier, it really seems like afterwards is when Ed and Stede hang out at this dilapidated house that might have some greater meaning, and, damn, if this ain't the place for Stede to say "if we die...," but they haven't even talked about the suicide mission yet, so... no?

Alternatively, it's so meaningful for some reason that they actually come back here after their planning. I have no ideas, though! I doubt it's Ed's childhood home because it raises such difficult memories, and surely Stede didn't hang out near the Republic of Pirates as a child. In any case, I'd say this will be kinda like the beach scene in 1x09. This would be another reasonable end to the ep!

Now. If the soldiers in the bar come after, but the bar has been exploded, plus Banes talks to Izzy in a different place, with a different prosthetic nose than he does with Zheng, and wouldn't have been allowed into Jackie's anyway… What if all this happens in this different place? Look who it is in the top right corner. It makes sense for Izzy to say that Banes doesn't understand piracy, and maybe was unsuccessful in his piracy goals because of it, if he's turning down collaborating with him. It's also an interesting reverse to Izzy plotting against the crew of the Revenge in collaboration with a leader of the king's soldiers at Jackie's. Also, Is That Not A Beard on Ed? Inexplicable.

Jackie — who, again, has had her place exploded — Zheng, Auntie, and the Revenge crew plan the suicide mission, which entails everyone — definitely Ed, Stede if that's him kneeling in the pic below, Izzy, Frenchie and Lucius, and I gather Oluwande and the Swede — pretending to be soldiers. They infiltrate Banes's people, and ultimately need to flee the scene.

Shortly before that is another reasonable time for Stede to give his last day on Earth speech. I'm not sure when Ed says that it feels like a storm is coming, but I think it has to do with the overarching threat as opposed to Edward Low... maybe before the explosion, as I suggested before, or before they get attacked on the beach.

Phew, that's all! I'll be back before the season f*nale 😭 In other words, in less than nine hours 😳

Top 3 Lists - Pokemon Scarlet

Hey, all. I figured it's about time to post another one of these! I really enjoyed Pokemon Scarlet, so I thought it would be fun to list off some of my favorites in a Top 3 post-- both pokemon and characters. The game certainly has plenty of both!

Top 3 Ancient Paradox Pokemon

First up, my favorite ancient pokemon. I feel as though these choices are pretty basic/what most people probably choose, but oh well, I can't really help they happen to be my favorites too. I would die for Koraidon, he is the bestest boy in the world and my precious son.

I've never been a huge fan of Mismagius (especially now knowing we could have had the infinitely more creepy Kurstraw/Pangshi), but I think Flutter Mane reboots the design in a wonderful way, which is surprising and refreshing. I've grown very fond of her.

To my amusement, I have the same feelings about Roaring Moon; I have always disliked Salamence's design, but Roaring Moon is a massive improvement on the design, which is so exciting to see. The colors are great, the feathers are an excellent addition, the long talons remind me of a bird of prey, and the whole thing has such a foreboding presence that normal Salamence's ugly shapes always lacked. The choice to lean into Mence's Mega design was smart, because they retained all the good of that design and discarded the rest. Plus, what a badass name.

I only just now noticed all my favorite choices here have feathers. Well, I suppose it makes sense, with our recent suspicion that many dinosaurs had feathers!

Top 3 Regional Form/New Evolutions/Convergent Species

I'm lumping all of these into the same category, since there isn't a huge number for any of those categories alone. When I first saw Toedscool out in the wild, I was deeply confused about what I was seeing, and when I poked it, it turned into a Ditto-- and somehow my brain concluded it must have been Ditto screwing up its attempt at imitating a Tentacool. 😂 But no, Toedscool is truly its own thing, as unsettling and strange as it is. I absolutely hated how it moved, it creeped me out. I've decided I like it for that reason. (Toedscruel is likewise unsettling and interesting, but it's not on my list because I hate TUBE MOUTHS argghh)

Farigiraf is definitely on my list. I have always loved Girafarig, and its evolution has been long, long overdue, so it's incredibly exciting to see it finally get the love it deserves. They did an excellent job with the evolution, too, it's fun and silly and cool all at once.

Finally, for my regional form choice, I'm definitely choosing Paldean Tauros. I know everyone is all excited about Wooper and Clodsire, but I was never a Wooper fan. (Sorry, Rika 💔) I'm just super excited that Tauros got such an awesome redesign, especially the Blaze breed. The changes are minor but so effective. Maybe I'm just a sucker for black-colored pokemon. This is like the shiny design Tauros always deserved and never had.

Top 3 New General Pokemon

This really is a tough choice to make, because Scar/Vio has a LOT of new pokemon to choose from. But I think I've finally narrowed it down to these lads. Klawf is the perfect example of a simple but elegant design. Sometimes "a big crab" is enough to be enjoyable because, well, I like crabs. What can I say, I know what I like.

Grafaiai is the very definition of "skrunkly," so there's no way I can resist putting him on the list. Aye-ayes are fascinating little freaks and it's great to have a pokemon based off them, put I enjoy the inspiration they also drew from lemurs. It's also great to have a poison pokemon taking up the traditional position of "early game normal-type rodent pokemon." Poison pokes are just cool. The association with spray paint and urban art is also really fun.

If any of you know me, you'll know I of course consider bug types to be my favorite pokemon type. But that doesn't automatically mean I'll put new bugs as my favorites. Rabsca really does deserve to be on the list, though; at least in terms of design. A dung-beetle pokemon has been long overdue, and the sacred associations with this species is lovingly referred to in this design. For those unaware, dung beetles are included in Egyptian mythology, and the beetle rolling a ball of dung was compared to their sun god rolling the sun along its path in the sky.

HMs

It's so tough to choose just three so I wanted to include a few Honorable Mentions here; I've loved Frigate birds since I was a wee lass so it's cool to see Kilowattrel; Charcadet's evolutions are badass (especially Ceruledge) and I am very fond of them despite the fact I typically don't like humanoid pokemon; and I'm very pleased that the very first Grass/Fire pokemon (finally!!) ended up really cool. (And that it ended up being a pepper, like so many of us guessed Grass/Fire would be)

Top Team Star Bosses

I'm not gonna to lie, I did not enjoy the Team Star storyline much in this game. I felt it was the weakest of the three main story threads. (I enjoyed the brief post-game storyline with Penny & Team Star more than the main part of their story, in fact) That said, these would be my favorites of the bunch. Ortega's design just looks delightful, such a snazzy dandy, and Atticus' devotion to The Bit is admirable (and tbh who doesn't love a D&D nerd?) Giacomo is forgettable and is there because I needed a third choice, lmao (sorry, didn't like the team star girls much)

Top 3 Gym Leaders

Grusha is definitely my top Gym Leader pick. His character is fascinating, especially the events the game only only hints at (it seems strongly implied he met with a nasty snowboarding accident and had to stop the sport, losing his dream and being stuck with just his gym leader job, which he seems rather bitter about). It's a shame they didn't pursue his character storyline further with one of the Academy side-stories (in the way they fleshed out Brassius more). I feel like he could have had a storyline with the nurse (Miriam), and that would have been much better then Miriam's actual side-story which felt rather randomly shoehorned in there (and fan pandering, to be entirely honest). Oh well. At any rate, I find Grusha the most interesting gym leader by far.

Larry is great. They had a clear idea in mind for his character and they executed it well. He apparently is a big hit with fans too. Good for him, he deserves it.

I chose Bassius as my third option because of his involvement in the side-storyline with him and Hassel. He's a rather forgettable character if you only know him from his gym, but his interactions with Hassel were great and fleshed him out a lot more-- made me actually care about him. Honestly I think it's great they let these two men have a strong bond with each other and Hassel even get choked up and cries about it. That's sending a very positive message about men letting themselves feel and express positive emotions! Yes, Hassel's crying is written slightly for comedy (haha look at this man cry), but I think it's also done with genuine affection (it's ok for guys to cry and love each other, even your professor does!). So that's really cool. (The exact nature of their relationship is something fans speculate on, but whether they are close friends or they're something romantic, I think it's cool regardless!)

Top 3 Elites/Champions

My bias here is going to be clear, but holy shit I love Rika and Nemona.

Rika, because . . . I mean, LOOK at her. She's hot, she's professional, but she's a total dork and a goober too. She's a sore loser but she's a total sweetheart to Poppy, and GAH, I love her so much. A lot of great details with her. She's by far my favorite Elite.

Nemona is literally my favorite rival charatcer of the entire franchise other than N. I could blather about her endlessly. Let's just say this bubbly, energetic, earnest, friendly, wonderful girl who hyperfixates on pokemon battling and sincerely wants to see you grow and thrive is perfect in every day. 🥺

Hassel is here too, lol. (In all seriousness he's great too, a wonderful mentor figure and a man of passion. Even if his haircut is a bit weird asfhjkl)

Hi, ya'll! I'll start to post things from my Insta on Tumblr now, which are mainly just Genshin Ocs. I'm posting them here cuz I want to give some more info on them and I don't think anybody is gonna read an Instagram description this long lmao.

Btw I'm sorry if the Sumeru and Liyue outfits aren't culturally accurate, I couldn't find any inspo on Google so I tried to improvised!

Anyways, first we have the newest one I made! Triboulet the Jester!

Triboulet is a 5* Hydro Polerarm user from Fontaine! The Fontaine vision shape is a fanmade design by i-kant_even on r/Genshin_Impact on Reddit. Credits to them!

I never made a child character before, so I decided to finally make one today and I absolutely LOVE her!

Her personality is similar to Diona's, although Tribuolet doesn't actually wanna destroy anything. She's just a little tiny gremlin! She's pretty arrogant and causes trouble wherever she goes. I haven't thought of anything else about her since I just made her today.

There's also a little backstory for her name! I found it interesting that the Harbingers are named after characters from an Italian show (or drama? Can't remember, something like that.) so I wanted to give her a name that's from a French show, book, or anything else. Then I found... Triboulet... The Jester who slapped the buttocks of King Francis I of France insulted the Queen, and lived to tell the story- and that's when I knew, that must be her name.

Next upp!!!!

Jiangguo! A 4* Geo User from Liyue Weapon is still undecided!

Just like Triboulet, I just made her today so I don't have much info on her. She's actually just been sitting in my drafts since 23rd January 2023, so her outift isn't very good. I tried to make it better but I just failed, and the geo effects are horrible too, I know. But I couldn't make it any better! Sorryyyyyyy!!! Oh btw her name means berry, because she reminded me of berries because of her hair.

I imagined her as a calm and collected person, like Zhongli or Kazuha. She can make people smile easily and she's positive no matter the situation! And that's bassicly all info I have on her-

Okay, now one of my favorites!

Fuyu Enfamia, 5* Dendro Catalyst user from Inazuma! Fuyu means winter in Japanese (I think). I found that out AFTER I named her lmao- this is why I always check on Google before the names are official-

Before I found out Fuyu means winter, all of the purplish blue parts were pink, but then I changed it to fit a bit.

Fuyu's personality is similar to Yoimiya's and Itto's, and it seems like she quite literally ALWAYS has a wide smile on her face, to the point you might think she's insane (She's not, she just ain't traumatized.)

She's also kind of a recent character, so she also doesn't have much info.

Meet the Butler! Rio Ortiz 🐶

After Sariel, here's the next suitor :

MC's closet friend plus her butler during her time as Belle

Arm of coat : Beagle

First impression of him : he's kinda cute and cheerful ... Wait ... unrequited love? Wow this can be very interesting!

His voice actor is Mineta Hiromu, who is also the host for Ikepri live show and stage actor for Rio

He's the first man to appear in the story, claimed to have just left his new job with the reason "just want to devote his life to MC."

MC say, 3 years ago, he was found by MC lying unconscious on the ground in rainy day. Rio lost his memory, but he is grateful to MC who saved him. Rio really devoted his life to her. And maybe bc they've been together for a long time, Rio fell in love with MC.

Who doesn't fall in love with a girl that kind and beautiful as MC? The Princes who have only known MC for a month already can fall in love with her, then what about Rio who has been with her for 3 years!?

Sadly, Mc only saw Rio as a friend. Rio, who is always outspoken about his feelings, is not taken seriously by MC. Even though it's sad, Rio still stand by her side. He values MC happiness more than anything

When MC become the Belle, Rio also become her personal butler. At first he looks like an ordinary butler, but in some people's views, Rio can be more dangerous than that

The cheerful Rio will be different if someone dare to hurts MC. And he doesn't care who it is, including the princes. Nokto had experienced it😅 Ah, i also remembered there's a group of men who tried to annoy MC then after they run, Rio secretly .... 😌

So Rio is sort of yandere boy here with no heterochromia lol. I guess MC doesn't aware since she only sees Rio as a harmless person. Although he really loves MC, Rio always accepts the fact that MC loves someone else. Mc's happiness is his happiness, so he will support their relationship. Man, this is the saddest part :') I can't imagine being in Rio's position, 3 years of having crush and she's/he's right in front of you, but in fact the person you like is someone else's mate ( ；∀；) dude, hang in there, let me hug you (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ

This remind me of Inuchiyo or Comte. But Rio is different case since he has repeatedly confessed his love! In comics or dramas, Rio will be said to have 'second male lead syndrome'. Many fans will choose him as a nice person and really loves MC than MLs which is more difficult to reach, but yeah that will never happen :')

At least let me shout to MC "don't you see him!? Don't you see him that is always near you!?" 🤧

Even the townspeople say (this is Clavis when he searching more info about MC) that no one knows MC better than Rio (Rio just like a final boss lol). As a loyal dog, ofc Rio will 'growl' when anyone wants to know about MC through him, moreover is Clavis who asks that

Rio was still shrouded in mystery. Maybe it's because he lost his memory so MC never brought up his origins. What confuses me quite a bit is Rio's skill, one of them he can be MC partner when she learns to dance, Rio have the same knowledge as what MC learn, he's good at fighting and he's also quick at grasped the situation. I mean, he's literally not an ordinary person here 😶

There's a possibility that Rio has got his memory but he doesn't want to tell it. Because on Nokto's route, Rio looks reluctant to be in Benitoite even though he himself wants to accompany MC there. Then now comes the 1st prince of Benitoite, Silvio, who has a dog crest like Rio 👀

Could Rio be the lost prince? The physical resemblance between siblings doesn't seem to apply in this game lol so there's a possibility about this

Rio is not recommended to anyone who doesn't like yanderes type or a chatty one like him. I'm the example 🤣

The person who is closest to Rio is Luke. They immediately became close friends in court (and maybe because of many similarities between them too). In Chevalier's route, they once wanted to break through the opposing army to save MC who've being kidnapped lol. Nokto also has a quite unique relationship with Rio. They feel the same sync as people who cover their true face. Don't forget Rio's boss too, Sariel, who is considered a very nice boss by Rio (Sariel frowns hearing this). Isn't he afraid of Sariel? Oh of course! But surely he's even more scared if he has to imagine his life without MC Ó╭╮Ò

For the others, Rio get along well with them. And they also see Rio as " a loyal dog who can talk about his master all day long" lol Rio respect them too as long as they being nice to mc

And that's the last for now! I'll updated after get more info about the new 3 princes ✨

Then, maybe I'll just back posting memes🤔 I actually wanted to post my art (I'm not sure it can be called as art) but nothing ever finished 😅

Oh yeah i just remembered! After you pick the suitor story, you have to full the romantic&dramatic bar (I forget what it's called, but is clearly similar to the system in ikesen) in order to read the epilogue. So you have to choose the correct answer to get the bar full, unless you have the items!

For now there is only the jp walkthrough, but it's very easy to follow.

Alright, Please enjoy Ikemen Prince wholeheartedly!

What did you think about ladynoir in strike back? I've seen quite a common take going around saying that we never got to see Adrien's feelings be validated or that he never was given time by the narrative to address the feelings which was left unaddressed in kuro neko too and that he shouldn't be put in a position by the narrative where he couldn't think of himself first.

Okay, I think this is a very loaded question, and at the end of the day, the Ladynoir conflict was (is) a complicated beast which will require a lot of work, communication, and practical solutions to tangible problems, and we as a fandom and audience cannot know exactly what those are. There's also the fact of the matter that there were several problems to be solved at the end of Strikeback, and the Ladynoir conflict was only one of them.

I'll start first with this rant that's kinda been building in me since Kuro Neko came out. In the aftermath of that episode, the only thing I remember is how many takes there were that were something along the lines of: "I hope that isn't the end of the Ladynoir conflict." And this is such a complicated thing, because on one hand, I don't think Ladynoir would be able to thrive as partners if they left off where they ended Kuro Neko and never worked more on their relationship. On the other hand, a lot of these takes were supported by bad-faith assumptions that Thomas Astruc and the rest of the writing team were not smart enough to see that there's still problems left unsolved. "I hope that isn't the end of the Ladynoir conflict, and I'm worried it will be because I don't have faith in the writing team."

This echoes a sentiment that sort of existed toward the beginning of the season, which was "I hope Chat gets time to shine (because I don't have faith that the writing team sees that he's being sidelined and believe that what they're doing is accidental)." This sentiment reached its peak around Guiltrip's release, which, in fairness, Guiltrip released way earlier than it should have. Before Mega Leech, which I definitely think would have maybe changed some fandom reception (though admittedly I don't have too much hope). But both of these ideas boil down to believing that the writing team does not see the emotional implications of what they're writing. In essence, the idea that this show is only good on accident, which is untrue, point blank.

Back to the point at hand, though, there were a lot of people who were upset at the idea that Kuro Neko could be the end of the Ladynoir conflict. They wanted something more explosive and felt robbed because they didn't get it.

My question: Why do so many people want them to make each other feel bad before they can get better? Why do so many people want to see Chat yell at Ladybug, especially when Adrien had just moments before witnessed her having a panic attack? Why is it not good enough for both of them to recognize their unhealthy patterns of behavior and interaction, and to correct those?

Why must they be punished for what they've done wrong before they can move on?

And for the record, like Kuro Neko, we haven't seen the end of it. The finale left off on a cliffhanger, and there's a good chance that S5 will pick up immediately from where S4 left off. There is still plenty of time for Ladynoir to have a conversation about what happened and more verbally acknowledge things.

That said, there is some truth to the fact that Chat left off returning to doing everything for Ladybug. He's staked his self worth on being needed, and so much of his arc in S4 was from the belief that he is no longer needed. The S4 finale showed him how needed he is, but there's still a fundamental issue in that he's staking his self worth on external validation.

And you wanna know what?

He can put that aside for a moment for the good of Paris.

I'm again reminded of Kuro Neko, and this post I made when the first trailer from Gloob dropped. In that moment, Ladybug was assuring the Parisian public that everything was fine, and she needed to put aside Chat's feelings for the good of everyone. And you wanna know what? In the moment, if Adrien is deciding that the good of the entire world is more important than the good of himself — and right now, the good of the entire world is pretty dependent on how well Ladybug is doing — then I'm not gonna call that bad writing. There were other crises to be solved. You can't blame Marinette for that.

I'm just done assuming that this show isn't gonna be good. I'm done assuming that it'll handle a plotline poorly, like everyone thought with sentiAdrien back in the days of Mega Leech and now most people seem more or less on board with it. I'm done assuming that the show won't give full emotional arcs to all of the characters, like many people thought about Adrien back when Guiltrip and Optigami released. I'm done assuming that the show won't properly put an end to the Ladynoir conflict, like people were doing back when Kuro Neko came out. And I won't assume that Adrien won't get a full recovery from S4 based on the end of Strikeback, I won't assume that the show isn't gonna acknowledge what Luka learned in Wishmaker, I won't assume that Chloé will get the Fox Miraculous.

It's bad faith, at best, and these assumptions damn near never play out, so what's the point of making them?

Thoughts and Reaction to Guiltrip!

Alright, so this one is a bit more of a serious one for me. But I'll be going in order of the episode so the more serious talk will be a bit further down! First thing we get is this lovely moment:

I've already addressed it in a post, but I'll say it again here. Guiltrip is episode 11, several episodes take place before Guiltrip that we haven't seen yet, so this is awhile after Marinette and Luka broke up. We also know that Marinette has always had feelings for Adrien, even when she was with Luka. Luka always knew that fact too. None of this is new and is to be expected, obviously, when Love Square is endgame. But! I also want to point out here that this is just a soft look. Very gentle, very common. I see people looking at each other both in real life and in other shows all the time. A look that says "I adore you". And I think it's sweet! Very subtle, but enough. Something's wrong with Rose. We never get told (in this episode anyway) what it is, but it's a chronic illness that's a worry in Rose's life, ever since she was young. I feel really bad for Juleka, knowing that her friend's been struggling with an illness, and whenever something happens she has to worry about it alone. Also that really sucks when you try to cheer somebody up and make a joke, that because you were mislead about a situation you end up making things worse. Poor Marinette. :c Adrien when he realizes he's bumped into someone (and the pink bubbles to remind us of Marinette's feelings for him):

Adrien when he realizes just who it was he bumped into!:

Scroll up now and look at how Marinette was looking at Adrien earlier that day. It's the exact same look. Yet, something feels different from usual to me, idk. But continuing on. Marinette gets slightly jumbled with her words, but manages to give herself a kick and says nope not now! Good for her! You can't expect to change overnight, but she's working on it.

She looks to the side, gathering her surroundings for a split second and she misses the top step. I'd like to say that this is just a joke for the show but well, this kind of thing has happened to me a lot because I'm that much of a klutz so I feel for her here. (On Halloween I forgot that there was another step as I was walking down as I wasn't paying attention. I couldn't walk on my foot for 2 weeks. It's a serious problem, guys. Really. xDD) Marinette had told Adrien she's concerned it was something she said that upset Juleka and Adrien tells her while sometimes she doesn't make sense, what she says is never mean. This scene reminds me of when Ladybug's worried about something and Chat Noir's there to keep her grounded and remind her of how things really are. I very much appreciate seeing such a scene with Adrienette! Makes the Love Square much more rounded. Also the way he stops her and says let him go talk to her to try to help the situation and any possible misunderstandings from taking place. ;-;

Can I just say... oh my gosh. He went from determined, to hearing Marinette trying to comfort her, to looking with confidence "This girl is amazing." and the whole Ladynoir vibe I'm getting from this scene makes me happy. The thing that's unrealistic about this scene though is you expect to tell me that 8 kids went down those stairs and came up behind them and Marinette, Adrien, and Juleka didn't hear? XD Now here's where the serious comes in. Rose is hospitalized with an illness we don't know about, but has been a long-term thing that has Juleka really worried a lot. That must be so stressful :c I'm going to be honest and say I never really saw Julerose romantically. Like I can see how people do, but to me, I could see that their bond was really unique. It didn't really fit completely in the "BFF" category either. But if felt like there was more to them that I didn't really understand. I think the best example off the top of my head was during Zombizou, when Rose was going to help Chloe after she slid down Chat's stick and she went too fast for him to catch her. Juleka seemed especially worried and concerned for her. Rose never seemed to get concerned about Juleka in the same way Juleka was about Rose. Juleka's always been more protective and worried and it was always one of those things that made me go "hmm, interesting". Now this episode finally explains why and I'm honestly super glad for it. Because this kind of a relationship is not a common one in media, especially kids media. Partially because having such serious illnesses in young people is not particularly common, and having someone who's so caring and protective of that person is even less common. And most people probably don't realize how amazing it is to have health problems and then have someone in their life who acts like Juleka does for Rose. I had a life-threatening illness as a kid, one that still affects me greatly today. When in school, my friends knew about it without me having to say anything unfortunately, and while they didn't usually treat me differently, sometimes they were pretty ignorant and didn't understand why I wasn't "normal" like them. They asked questions that were harder ones to answer, and tended to forget my answers. I got a lot of "I know you have X problem but I still don't see why you can't..." as well as thinking I was lying if I said I wasn't well and couldn't go to a party, and that was hard to deal with, being limited in what you can do which makes you different and being judged for things out of your control. So seeing these kids who only know something's wrong with her, but are willing to do so much to make her life better and happier, not judging her at all, wanting to take care of her no questions asked was really heart-warming for me. I only had one friend during that time that was anything close to this. I never had to explain anything to him if I didn't want to. He never asked me personal questions I didn't want to answer. And he seemed to know what he could do to make things for me easier if I was having a hard time without me ever saying so. And this is another reminder to me that this show is aimed at kids. To show kids that they'll likely encounter someone around their age that's going through something serious like a health problem, and what that kid needs most is kindness and not to be made to feel like they're even more different from the other kids than they already feel. The way they handled that aspect of it for such a short, limited intro to it, I think they did good. I discussed this next bit with a friend. She mentioned it first, the trope where those with chronic or serious illnesses are usually an "inspiration". With this episode, you kind of get the feeling that because Rose's been through so much, she's therefore a really positive and bubbly person and it kind of gives off the vibe that if you don't view things the way she does, then you're not doing it right. "What matters isn't the problem, but how you handle it." While I agree with this, and that when you come out of or regularly deal with

such hard times, automatically trying to see the world better and brighter can easily happen, but it's not exactly realistic either, at least not to the extent Rose and other people the media has portrayed. For one, I think you have to have always been more of that kind of person from the start to realistically be so positive. As my friend said and I agree, positivity is just who Rose is, she's not who she is just for the sake of a trope. But honestly, when you've gone through something so difficult, and if life continues to throw you more difficulties on top of it, being positive so much can sometimes turn into a negative and be harmful too. When you've been through a lot, it's important to allow yourself to feel the negative too because it's part of dealing with such problems. And if you've been through a lot in life and you haven't come out of it being all sunshine and rainbows, always looking on the brighter side of things, that's perfectly okay. Life's hard and tends not to work out how we'd like, or even for the better sometimes. If being positive and hopeful after struggling is hard to do, you're not bad or wrong for feeling that way, everybody handles things differently. c: ANYWAY, moving on to the rest of the episode! Juleka being all irritated and worried that the class was going to expose her spilling Rose's secret xD While the situation isn't ideal, it's nice that this is the most involved she's seemed with everyone in the entire duration of the show. But Rose knows something's up, and I love that she talks to her about it and realizes that she should've told everyone herself instead of Juleka being the only one who knew. Which has been such a burden on her. (Oh no, what if this is a reflection of Alya knowing Marinette's Ladybug later on? I'm hoping not.) Ugh these children and how much they care about Rose! These kids are the absolute best. But then they kind of ruin it a little with going overboard. Which, frankly, I think is just ignorance of her situation really. I mean, we don't know what exactly is wrong with Rose. Just that she ends up in the hospital. If they knew about her condition, what causes her to get sick, what to look out for, etc, they'd be much more informed and much less likely to be frantic whenever something's not perfectly "normal" with her. All of these kids are going to be overprotective parents someday, aren't they?

Okay so like... are Adrien and Marinette going to question at all how Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up immediately after Juleka was akumatized, and no damage had happened outside of the school for it to be known to the public? Literally the only ones that could've possibly known were the class to have shown up that fast. ??? I am confusion. "I can't help my best friend face his father." "No, Nino..." Two things: The fact that THIS is what he's feeling guilty about? My poor Nino! Dx I just love him, he really doesn't get enough love and appreciation imo. Also, um, isn't Ladybug like right by Chat? Didn't she hear that? What? Idk but I feel like we're really missing something here. Usually we get things that are kind of hints, that make us wonder if they know right, but this? This is a bit too blaring-in-your-face, and there's two major things so close together. Really strange. Chat about to use Cataclysm on himself. Good grief that was not expected. Chat Blanc threatened to destroy himself along with everything else. Now Chat Noir while affected with negative emotions from an akuma almost Cataclysmed himself. This show really is getting deep and dark isn't it. o.o Also is there something Adrien needs to work out with someone...? Daizzi and Rose saying the other's so cute, ugh they're both so cute! And Pigella's costume and transformation is so adorable omg. Okay so Pigella's power allows people to see their biggest wish, the thing that'd make them the most happy and feel positive emotions. I know some people probably think "That's it?" Considering that Shadow Moth preys on people's negative emotions, such a power is actually extremely useful facing Shadow Moth. (And let's not forget, that while that's her power, she has the ability to fight and make a difference just from being transformed too) BUT AWWW Juleka's wish! And her face when Pigella said it aloud. ;-; Am I the only one wondering if Pigella may someday use her power on Shadow Moth and that's how they learn his motive? I'm so impressed with how Rose knew how to handle everything. She knew she can't slip up with Juleka. She knew to sneak away to detransform and come back as Rose. She knew to subtly give the Miraculous back so nobody would ever know she had it. Even Chat Noir had no idea! I don't know why, I'm just so very proud of that. "She doesn't need a Miraculous to be a superhero." She really has the characteristics of one, and I can't wait to see more of Pigella. Also I'm really wondering. This scene here:

All the kids that are part of that friend group are there...except Marinette and Adrien, of course. Alya knows why Marinette isn't there. But is she wondering about why Adrien isn't there too? LOL Marinette being like "I'm taking your pillow back, sorry! Gotta wait for it like everyone else." and the boys being like LE GASP. Marinette's right, she's not fragile! The fact Rose jokes with her and makes everyone laugh, and Chloe saying "Hey, why doesn't everyone laugh when I say something like that?!" Adrien: Because in your case, it's never a joke. Chloe: Hm, that's true. Which is super funny, especially how he just so casually says it. But also it really shows again how Chloe wants to be liked. She wishes the kids would laugh when she makes comments, but it's because they're said in a serious/obnoxious way, instead of making light of something like in Rose's case here, that they don't. I know she talked about it with Ladybug in an episode, but it again shows that that's what she'd like. All that needs to happen is someone helping her get there. Maybe Zoe and Luka will somehow help with that later on. Anyway, this was a really great episode! I feel like some things might not make quite as much sense as they should if we got it in order, but what can you do when Gloob has to air them? Even a friend of mine who's been doing what she can to avoid spoilers, still got spoiled. She's having to delete tumblr to avoid future spoilers because people can't help themselves and tag things properly. So thanks Gloob. :P All we wanted was the episodes in order. We've waited this long for S4, we can wait a bit longer. But they gotta make money I guess. I'm glad other countries are trying their best to keep it in order anyway. c: Guiltrip also has some really great Adrienette moments, and covered a more serious topic which was really interesting and shows how much the show's changing. Especially with some of the choice of camera angles and movements! Like the zoom-in on the door with Adrien and Marinette, the boys LE GASP scene. Very cool artistic choices! Looking forward to the episodes that come before this one to try to help fill in some of the gaps! And apologies to those that frequently read these posts from me, I started writing it up late and couldn't finish so you get it the day after instead. xD

7 instant reframing - aka The Olaf nose syndrom

Even though I relate to enneagram nine a lot, I relate just as much to enneagram seven. The reason why I don't consider it is because I'm not highly energetic or social. 

Your recent post about the re-framing describes me to a T. It's a quality I like about myself because whenever I'm faced with an unfortunate situation, and with the help of my Ne, my mind instantly presents me with an alternative way to look at it and challenges me to why it isn't just as valid or even more valid than the original perspective. 

I'll give you a very recent example and then ask you a question. It was my birthday a couple of days ago. It started 'wrong' with me waking up super late and losing the precious morning hours. I was feeling extremely tired and my body ached. I couldn't catch the movie I wanted to watch at the cinema, and the bigger, newer mall I was planning to go to was already busy (I only go to early movie screenings and only go shopping right after stores open because I enjoy it more). I was waiting for my late birthday lunch order and the reframing happened. 

1. I woke up late yes, but isn't it wonderful that my body got more rest today!? (I'm an insomniac and rarely get a good night sleep) 

2. My body ached and I wasn't feeling my physical best yes, but it's because I've been going on walks since the new year as it's one of my goals to be more fit in 2022. Isn't it wonderful that I stuck to that January habit so far? And the aches mean something is starting to shift in my body, and what better birthday gift to give myself than a proof that I am starting to take care of myself? In fact, there's no better way to honor the start of a new decade of my life!

3. I missed the movie screening yes, but now I get to watch it in my bedroom that I've decorated myself the night before, with my favorite homemade snacks that won't cost me a fortune, wearing comfy pajamas, and not feeling dehydrated because I don't have to skip liquids to avoid public toilets! 

4. I went to the smaller mall instead of the bigger one to avoid crowds yes, but it's because I did, that I found a studio Ghibli book I've been wanting for a while in a store that only has a branch in that mall!

5. This isn't the lunch I had in mind or the time I wanted to have it, but my god isn't it so wonderful that it was a spur of the moment thing? like a surprise? A birthday surprise! Now I can have a lighter dinner like chicken ramen soup to keep warm in this cold weather. 

Then my Ne went on and on about how maybe my thirtieth birthday was never supposed to be planned by me, because someone, somewhere had other plans in mind. and that maybe it was a metaphor about life and fate - How we're not always given what we want but always what we need, and that it's something we should trust and have faith in because we'll never understand the inner works of it. And I also started thinking that that someone somewhere was teaching me a lesson. I'm very idealistic overall and though I've worked though it, it is still keeping me stuck in some areas of life because I'm not willing to compromise. I thought maybe what happened that day is showing me that whichever way things go, even if it ended up in the route that's faaaaar away from where I was expecting it to be, things will be just fine in the end and I won't be sad about it at all. Maybe all this time I just believed that I will be sad but I have no proof that I will. Because let me tell you, I did 5% of what I wanted to do that birthday, but I went to bed feeling extremely lucky and grateful regardless. 

My question to you is: Do some people around you get annoyed by your tendency to be positive about things and think you're acting like a child who can't face reality? And do you overall avoid people who are more realistic and not as positive as you are because you feel like they dim your life by constantly reminding you of the negatives?  

P.s: I called it the Olaf nose syndrome because he loved the tiny little nose he was originally given, then when the carrot was pushed further in he loved it even more, and I bet whatever changes was made to it he would've thought it was the best things ever lol 

LOL, the Olaf thing is cute.

I am not as good at re-framing as you are, because I'm a core 6, so it's a constant daily battle with me to bounce between negativity and optimism, expecting the worst and telling myself it'll all be fine; but I do overall maintain an optimistic, give-people-the-benefit-of-the-doubt attitude. I caught myself re-framing this morning when I told my parents someone I tried to connect to as a friend hadn't worked out, but that it was fine -- I can learn to be by myself, and be stronger for it without having friends my own age to hang out with. It's all good, I don't need human companionship at all. ;) If anything, I tend to head down the road of negativity and then swerve back into the optimism lane because I can't stand excessive negativity.

YES, I find it EXTREMELY hard to be around negative people. They try to bring me down and that annoys me, and being a 6, I then have to be the opposite of whatever they are -- so if they're negative, I look for the bright side, and if they're too irrational / focused on unrealistic things, I try to bring them back down to earth with 'realism.' I like to be around fun people who help me see the bright side, because socializing for me is meant to be positive experience (my 7 wing just wants to have a good time); I hate socializing that turns negative, pessimistic, or bleak, that focuses on what's wrong in the world, etc., because that's not what I signed up for when I agreed to lunch.

I would say for me personally, those around me get annoyed by my pessimism more than my optimism, and my "mood swings." :P I've never been called a child who can't face reality; just a person who doesn't want to face its hardships and horrors.