American Football LP1 (FFXIV version)

This was my first major project with my barding practice. I had already arranged "Never Meant" when I started playing FFXIV and "Honestly?" around the beginning of last year; however roughly a year ago I started working on "The Summer Ends" out of boredom and got the idea to do the entire album.

I did most of the other songs within a week or so (if you were early for the art party at LunarCon last year you might have caught me playing them near one of the party locations), and about two months later I finished "But the Regrets Are Killing Me". The last song, "I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional", took the longest to realize: the original song is by far the least FFXIV-friendly out of all of them, and I went through several revisions before finally arriving at the current version in January of this year. Ultimately, however, it's probably the one which I'm the most proud of, as it's far less of a straight transcription than the others and it really forced me to get creative about making it work within FFXIV's limitations.

The next step was to record the video. I spent a long time thinking about how to go about doing it but ultimately I settled on one of the half-submerged buildings in Il Mheg as the location and positioning Phoebe and the camera in a way that would mimic the original album's cover as much as possible Originally I was going to do it in one take and with some friends emoting beside me; however I soon realized that wouldn't work out so well and ended up recording the songs separately and later splicing them together. I then recorded the trumpet parts at the beach near my FC house in Mist; looking back, this might not have been the greatest idea, as I later discovered (and as you can see in the video) that the trumpet recordings don't actually line up with the lute recordings all that well.

Overall I think this was a really fun experience for me and definitely the most ambitious thing I've done within FFXIV to date. I'm currently trying to one-up it with some original music projects: an EP centered around Phoebe herself (among other things) that I'm in the planning stages of, and a full-length themed around the wind-elemental Twelve deities (Llymlaen and Oschon) that I will start working on in earnest whenever 6.5 and its accompanying Alliance Raid is released. As fun as it was to pay tribute to one of my favorite albums, I feel like working on original material would allow me to avoid some of the constraints that come with working with that of others, such as accuracy (I did take some creative liberties with the songs here e.g. some of the chord progressions in "The One With the Wurlitzer"). But still yeah; finally doing a larger scale project with barding after having worked within this practice for over a year felt really good, and I look forward to doing more of it in the future.

make teleshopping great again ♪

Me: *financially independent and uncomfortable accepting monetary help*

Also me: *fiercely anti-captalist and anti-rich people*

Still me: *staring wistfully at @theidiotwhowritesthings's sugar daddy!Joel Miller AU* I want one

(disclaimer: I am not saying this from a place of hostility to geese)

how did 3-year old you survive feeding geese :( when I was 4 I was feeding ducks and geese (which I was about the same height as at the time) at a local pond and they chased me and tried to bite me until my parents picked me up and ran. I didn't try to scare them and I was a generally quiet child, do I just have Bad Vibes to them or something? or is it something to do with their past experiences/socialization as Pond Ducks/Geese? nowadays whenever a goose or swan so much as starts staring at me I'm like "ok time to go :)"

Without knowing more about the situation, I can't say what particular thing you did, but I can say that geese don't chase people for no reason at all. It's possible you got too close rather than letting them come to you, it's possible you were just plain too close to their nesting site, it's possible you performed a movement that (in goose) suggested your desire to start a dispute. It's possible you were feeding them from your hands and they associated your hands with food, and were simply looking for more food, or attempting to chase you away from the food.

And to be clear, I'm definitely not advocating for people letting small children feed geese, honestly no one should be feeding wild animals, mostly because it familiarizes wildlife with humans and that can be bad, but also because it opens too many opportunities for humans to do the wrong things and end up hurt or scared. As a 4yo, it wasn't your responsibility to know how to interact with geese- it was your parents' job to monitor your actions, the actions and reactions of the geese, and remove you from the situation before it became a problem (or not put you in that position in the first place). The geese are blameless for acting like geese and you are blameless by reason of being 4 years old.

I ALSO want to be clear that being SCARED of something DOES NOT equal HATING something. Hate can stem from fear, and fear can stem from hate, but they are not the same thing. There are PLENTY of people, for example, who are terrified of spiders but who will either remove them from a place with a cup and paper, or fetch someone to do so, to prevent a spider from dying for the crime of being small. You (general) can be afraid of something and still treat it with respect. You do not have to hate the things you are afraid of.

That fic from Akutagawa's pov that remarked how although Dazai had left a bomb under Chuuya's car, at least that showed he had thought about him before going, while he never cared enough to spare a thought for Akutagawa.

Just watched Nimona

The fact this movie never got a theater release because of Blue Sky's closure and Disney deciding to nix it once acquired will forever break my heart holy shit.

Like up front it is BEAUTIFULLY animated, the writing is tight as hell, the story is genuinely moving and amazing. By that alone it deserved to be in theaters.

*deep breath*

But BOY HOWDY am I SALTY AS FUCK that a animated movie that is accessible to kids, especially queer kids, got knocked out of the process to reach theaters when

IT JUST CASUALLY HAS A INTERRACIAL GAY COUPLE WITH A (metaphorically) ADOPTED (literally) TRANS CHILD AS THE 3 MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE MOVIE THE FUCKING HELL WE COULD'VE HAD ALL THIS PERFECTLY DONE QUEER MEDIA ON THE BIG SCREEN AS A COHERENT AMAZING STORY FUC-

I feel like i never really blended in this dorm the way i expected to and this was another reason why i decided to move (besides the fact it was more than hour away from uni and it was starting to become so hard doing anything) BUT of course today when my request was accepted the woman at the reception (who also happens to have my name) said it was a pity i was leaving and the cleaning lady also told me so and suddenly everyone is sad AND I'M SAD TOO. Like i've wanted this for six months and it's my last night here and suddenly i don't wanna go even though i know i gotta do it and it's the best decision 😭

Solo Victory Noah AU, where Noah is in Team Victory, instead of DJ... Noah later ends up becoming the final Team Victory Contestant... Alejandro keeps trying to sabotage Noah, but Noah always outsmarts all the sabotages... Noah ends up in the Final 3, with Alejandro and Heather... Owen is super-duper proud of Noah! 🏆

I've actually been toying with an AU where Noah ends up on Victory instead of CIRRRRH, watches what's happening to his team with thinly veiled annoyance, eventually grows sick and tired of sleeping in Economy (he's not at all concerned for the people he's watched be manipulated and/or his own position in the competition, why do you ask?) and manages to make it to the merge through the power of sheer spite despite being a one-man-team.

It's... not a very fleshed out idea, mind you, and I usually only ponder over it to make myself laugh at different scenarios where Alejandro is desperately trying to get Noah- the surprise one man army that no one saw coming- eliminated, and Noah managing to either outplay him at his own game or twist the circumstances to his favour in a very Looney Tunes-like fashion.

Because Alejandro would see the continued existence of Team Victory as a personal slight, so he'd put an increasing amount of time and effort into getting Noah eliminated if only to prove that he can. And Noah's just smart enough and finally motivated enough (initially by spite, turned vengeance, turned pure amusement) to spin Alejandro's schemes on their head every time. They're literally the Road Runner and Wile. E. Coyote.

It usually ends up with Team Chris or Team Amazon heading to an elimination ceremony, only for it to be a "surprise reward challenge" or something similar.

(Of course, they'd go through a "Alejandro tries to sweet talk Noah into an alliance" stage, like Alejandro does with DJ in canon, but Noah's switched on to Alejandro's true colours since he's literally watched him eliminate the rest of his team. Maybe Noah plays into Heather's offered alliance instead? Again, I haven't really thought too much on this silly AU.

After Chris doesn't allow Noah to join Team CIRRRRH, and Noah himself refuses Alejandro's offered alliance, it turns into Alejandro driving himself crazy trying and failing to eliminate Noah.)

The main draw of the idea, for me at least, is Noah not making it to the final three though. Because (in my mind) Noah doesn't even really want to be back in the competition- he just kind of went along with the crowd for the Celeb Manhunt bus chase, and inadvertently bagged himself a spot on World Tour. He's under no delusions that he'll ever win the million, but floating his way to the merge would at least make up for the embarrassment of being voted out first from the Gophers his short run in Island.

So he makes it to the merge after playing a glorified game of cat-and-mouse (Tom and Jerry Style) with Alejandro. He's got a hypercompetent Archvillain gunning for his elimination, and now that the teams are null and void, alliances are the name of the game. So what does Noah do?

He gets himself eliminated, just to take the satisfaction of doing so away from Alejandro. Probably through a technicality or something too, like Izzy's departure from the competition, to save himself the shame effort of jumping out of the jet.

That's mostly because I really like the idea of Noah reaching the merge, thinking "I've reached the goal I've set for myself. Might as well quit whilst I'm ahead!" and just-

Leaving.

(Which is ironic, because he's spent the last ~8 challenges actually trying to remain in the competition, and now he's just. Giving up. Drawing a line in the sand. "This is as far as I go.")

It's a shame that the London challenge happens pre-merge, because the idea of Duncan being forced back into the competition and the jet taking off before anyone realises that they're missing Noah- who snuck away into the city and is having a great time using Chris' debit card (of which he memorised during his time as Chris' assistant) to live it up bourgeoisie style in London- is fuelling me.

Realistically though, he'd probably sneak off in China during the eating challenge- because why would he stick around when Owen's gone? It wouldn't be hard for him to throw the eating challenge at the first round and then just. Not sit as the loser's table. Maybe he knows enough Mandarin to get by, and manages to stowaway himself back home to his family and beloved golden lab.

Meanwhile, Alejandro is seething.

Owen is really proud of his little buddy for making the merge, and a little disappointed in Noah for 'giving up', but when Noah expresses that he didn't have anything to stay for after Owen's departure, his disappointment turns to sentimentality.

Something something Bruce love Gotham because it's his home, jason loves Gotham because it's in his soul, Duke loves Gotham because it's his family, Steph loves Gotham on purpose

ok we did some cooking here

AFK Arena - Forbidden Family Odyssey AU !

Premise:

The Invasion upon Gavus and Eugene's family home proved... semi-successful. Eugene had been captured, and Liberta was acquired quickly by the Goddess, Morgana, but Gavus managed to escape with Lucilla. 10 years later, imprisoned, Eugene catches wind of a suspicious lack of guards. Using his wits, and some of his power, Eugene broke out and began his run for home.

Unluckily... He runs right into a Commander Dawn and the kid's Adventurer companion, and that's only the START of his bad luck on this journey. Let's hope that this journey home doesn't take a ridiculously long time! (It does.) (Horrendously so.)

--

So !!! AU time !!!

Eugene (and somewhat Liberta) - Odysseus's role

Gavus - Penelope

Lucilla - Telemachus

The idea is that Eugene and Liberta were both taken when Conrad and Morgana made an... oh-so "civil" visit to the family home. Liberta, who has no memories unsealed because he never fought Lucilla, is taking the company of soldiers back home with the Adventurer he befriended when they run into Eugene. After a brief fight, Liberta and the Adventurer put 2 and 2 together and realize this is the same Eugene from the diary, and they propose to help him get home (much to the issue of .... literally every soldier there but that comes up later<3)

Essentially, this AU will focus on four-ish storylines... sort of?:

Eugene's story on getting home, his journey back to his family and all the perils it will have.

Liberta's story on finding out who he is, because Lucilla never fought Liberta, undoing the seal is taking a long ass time. He will be named "Commander Dawn" until a certain point in this AU

Gavus's story on protecting Lucilla, since the Hypogeans didn't really stop after they didn't get their Weapon.

Lucilla's story on finding out where her brother and father are, since she wants to see her papa happy again, and he's always looking mournfully at a red diary.

Will I make a fanfic ??? Possibly !!! It's sitting in my mind a lot and I have a bit of the story figured out, but I also might just leave this as a Tumblr-only AU where I just occasionally post content for it instead depending on where my whims take me.

Now, there is a whole lot more planned out for this AU [just not... indetail bUT I HAVE BARE BONES] so if you have any questions, I am more than happy to answer!

take this concept eugene art as compensation for ur time

thank you!

You know sometimes I think that the reason I stopped being on the sokai ship online is that the reasons why I think the ship is nice are so separate and different from how I see most people interpreting the characters and wanting the ship to be that it just loses all appeal to me.

THE BITCH IS BACK, BABES !!

Heroism in TFATWS

Let's establish one thing which is that the show operates in a superhero trope, which means there are good guys and bad guys, and the good guys always win. This is not to say that characters are morally clean-cut between good/bad. The Flag Smashers acted out of good intentions; Walker did want to do good things when he took over the mantle. But that doesn't mean they aren't the bad guys in the story, because a person is not only judged by their intentions but also the means and the ends of those intentions.

Sam and Bucky are the heroes in the story, they beat the bad guys (the Flag Smashers) and saved the world. That's how the story ends. That's how all the superhero stories end.

But the show isn't quite that simple, not in the sense that it deals with moral greys, no. Rather, the show really fucks up the boundaries between good/bad, right/wrong, and by extension, the heroism of the show.

Let's say Karli has some vague cosmopolitan worldview, and let's say that's better than the state system so Sam is justified to sympathize with her cause, and sam is rightfully asking the governments to be better. What's the actual, feasible way to achieve Karli's vision? Nice speeches notwithstanding, Sam isn't offering a solution. States aren't going to abandon the system that made them a state just because some hero dressed in an American flag descends from the sky and tells them to. Forced displacement and/or re-settlement happen because the population distribution is screwed, especially in Western Europe where Karli is from. Those states simply do not have the capacity, spatially and financially, to accommodate all the people while the others would be faced with devastating labour shortages. Statecraft is not just about morals, some IR scholars would even argue it's never about morals, you have to do the rationalist calculation. (also sam's speech to the politicians is so.........wrong. it sounds like a 16-year-old wanna-be socialist who spends too much time on leftist tiktok)

Here's the thing, you can agree with the political ideology or not, because it's not about whether it's right or wrong. It's about Sam being a hero who comes from a heavy political background, who represents a set of values that is meant to transcend a single country, advocating that ideology whilst being completely naive about it.

Steve embodies a similar idealism that makes him a hero, but not a leader. He's a leader because he can lead, he assesses the situation, sets a goal, and gives out tasks to achieve that goal. In the show, Sam is not demonstrating effective leadership, although not entirely his fault.

When you have the 'hero' indiscriminatorily endorsing the villain's philosophy, it doesn't mean the hero is empathetic, it means the hero is fucking bullshit. What makes a hero isn't merely stopping bad guys, it's also offering a better alternative even when the villain kinda makes sense. Superheroes are supposed to offer moral lessons through their heroism, which often takes place as they defeat evil. Without that, they're just dudes stopping fights, not heroes fighting for causes. The only moral lesson Sam offers is 'hey maybe radicalization is bad', which is completely ignored by both Karli and Zemo.

Sam's sympathy towards Karli is even more absurd. Even if he agrees with her cause, she's an unrepentant killer. 'Don't call them terrorists.' really, Sam? What would you call them? Just bc the Soviets fought the N@zis doesn't mean they were the good guys.

Furthermore, we see the contrast between her and the other flag smashers. They were invisible victims while her body was gently carried by Sam as phones and cameras were recording. In a show where they tried to make sense of racism, the stark contrast between Karli and the rest of the group happens to be mostly PoC is kinda hilarious.

The problem isn't Sam. It's the terrible horrible writing. You can't take a Watsonian take when it's so obviously a Doylist problem. The show claims to be a lot of things it got wrong is just pathetic.

What about Bucky? His arc is pretty detached from the main storyline and he basically did nothing significant in the show so I don't even know what they want to convey about his heroism. He was literally just running around punching people (not even very good at it too) while being blamed for things he wasn't responsible for. He only told Karli that killing was bad. What a novel lesson. Again, there is nothing from the good guy.

Who is the hero then?

Zemo is the true anti-hero of the show. Throughout the show, Sam and Bucky - the good guys - oppose killing in general, but their method is proven ineffectual and in the end, all Flag Smashers are killed with a majority of them killed after they were lawfully arrested. The Flag Smashers were terrorists, they were the villains, therefore narratively, this makes Zemo's end goal - killing all supersoldiers, in this case, the Flag Smashers - right. His ideology - the desire to become superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideas; supersoldiers cannot be allowed to exist - is positively reflected in the story. His success inevitably justifies his ideology, which stands in contrast to both Sam and Karli. I'm not saying what he did was heroic, but from a storytelling perspective, Zemo is the 'hero' who ultimately eliminated the evil in this superhero trope.

The result is that Sam, the supposed hero of the show, has done nothing. He didn't stop the bad guys, he didn't offer an effective alternative to Karli (or Zemo) practically and ideologically, while Zemo did all that. What does it say about heroism and the idealism that comes with it? That it's nice to talk about but useless when a real battle takes place? That end does justify means? Because that's not what Cap trilogy conveys.

also that scene in utrh when bludhaven is blowing up in the background and bruce wants to go to check on dick, and jason yells: "no! you're not leaving! not now! not this time!" not this time?

.

Sorry but am I the only one that thought that episode…sucked? Like it was straight up bad. Horrible pacing, no wrap up of all the random characters and plot lines they’ve thrown around all season (the tuskegee airmen, Westgates spying, literally all the guys beside like the main 4). (Seriously it makes me so mad that the three redtails got all of 5 seconds of screen time, almost no lines. Literally what was the point of introducing them other than to pretend the show was iNcLuSiVe) Even at the end of BoB and the Pacific you get a much better idea of what happened to all the remaining guys. In this they’re like what happened to DeMarco or Hambone or Brady or (insert character here) we don’t know! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The concentration camp scene felt shoehorned in compared to how it was done in BoB. Unless that actually happened to Rosie (which i haven’t heard anything about) but it was just like.. ok? It all felt so rushed and emotionless to me. Maybe I’ve just fallen out of love with MoTA but it’s been downhill for me since episode 6 or so.

i already made a little (read: long) post-finale write-up here, where i talk about the use of the tuskegee airmen, l'sandra, and overall editing/pacing issues i felt the show had. but i don't agree with the notion that adding the redtails was in any way insincere or trying to halfass being "iNcLuSiVe", i just think they suffer from this show's obvious time constraints. and to summarize what i wrote in my linked post, there's a limit to what white writers/directors/producers can do when creating a story about black people. there are some stories i'd feel uncomfortable with them telling on their own, truth be told. dee rees wasn't the sole nonwhite director, but she Was the only black one. i think she did her job well given the limitations and i appreciate that they let her direct those episodes, rather than leaving it up to a team of white people trying their best to tell a black story.

the worst i can say about the finale is that it didn't feel like That strong of finale, tho i wouldn't go as far to say it "sucked" or call it "straight up bad". i liked it plenty, it's just the weakest of the hbo war finales imo.

as for the concentration camp scene, artistic license was taken with both shows. unlike what's seen in the BoB, easy company wasn't the first to arrive at kaufering, and there's 0 mention of the all-japanese american 552nd who helped them liberate it). similarly, rosie rosenthal did assist in liberating those camps, though it would've been after the events shown this episode. idk if he saw one in that up-close way seen in this episode, but he could've (i should research this when i have time). plus, it would've felt weird Not having him acknowledge them at all. "shoe-horned" is an odd term to use here imo, as both scenes more-or-less center a jewish character (BoB's liebgott and MotA's rosie). the former show has survivors the characters can help, the latter shows no one left to help. the former has all of easy company there, the latter has rosie there all alone. rosie's scene felt deeply personal in that way. at the end of the day, both scenes are communicating different things. that doesn't make one better than the other when they aren't trying to be identical. (disclaimer, i'm not jewish, so i'd be interesting hearing from the perspective of someone who wrt whether or not they felt it was "shoe-horned")

i can understand if you've disliked the show post-episode 6 (and episode 6 was a very strong episode i'm ngl). eps 7 and 8 were weaker in many ways, even to me, so i get it. everyone's entitled to their own opinion (i'd be a hypocrite saying otherwise). just understand that this blog is run by someone who overall enjoys this show despite its flaws! basically, i encourage you to take this energy and make your own posts.