As I'm sure many of you are already aware, Did You Know Gaming (who have been doing some really great investigative work lately) recently put out a video on canceled Sonic games. The whole thing's worth a watch, but I have to bring it up here specifically because they talk about the plans for Sonic Chronicles 2 with a LOT of new info directly from the lead designer.

The section on how the story of Sonic Chronicles 2 would have went starts at 9:45. It's very interesting! He outlines the whole plot, including the fact that they were going to end with ANOTHER obvious plot hook for a sequel in the hopes that they or some other studio could keep the Sonic Chronicles series going indefinitely. Sonic Team even claimed they were interested in using Chronicles characters like Shade in other games. It's crazy to imagine a timeline where this might have become a pillar of the franchise.

I refuse to mourn the loss of the sequel, though, because y'all saw me stream the original. It was miserable. And with the original game selling and reviewing decently well, they would have had little reason to go back to the drawing board and overhaul that game's bizarrely hateful design.

Of course, DYKG also had to talk about the reason why the game was canceled. I was dreading this because of how often people tend to get the basic facts of the Penders cases wrong or downplay the obvious Archie Knuckles inspiration in Chronicles. But no, they did their homework! And they got the details right in part because, well... they asked Penders for comment directly. And he sent them back a MASSIVE wall of text about the whole ordeal, including some fascinating details that I don't believe I've heard before!

You can go to 15:19 in the video and scrub through to read the many, MANY screencaps of their emails from Ken, but here are the most interesting and/or hilarious tidbits to me:

#1: Perjury!

As we already knew, Ken claimed that the incomplete, photocopied contract Archie presented in court was a forgery, and that he had never signed a work for hire contract.

The judge obviously knew that one side had to be lying here, and thus was more than willing to present the case to a jury to let them decide the truth... and send whoever was deemed the liar to jail for perjury. (The judge apparently looked Ken directly in the eye when he said this, which... well, make of that what you will.)

Archie's lawyers knew that they didn't have a completely airtight case and obviously did not want to go to jail. So they decided to settle instead of going to trial in front of a jury.

(I will reiterate that Archie's arguments not working out is overall a GOOD thing, because we really do not want to set a legal precedent where corporations can "lose" a contract for a creator, make up a story about what was on the contract, and then have that hold up in court. They gotta get that shit in writing. And they didn't. They fucked up!)

#2: Sega was threatening to revoke the Sonic license!

As we knew, Sega wanted nothing to do with the comic copyright lawsuit. To them, it was Archie's job as licensee to deal with their freelancers. (Y'all watch Succession? You know how Logan loves lackeys who will eat shit for him without him having to even hear about the problem? Yeah.) And, in fact, according to Ken, Sega gave Archie an ultimatum: if they wanted their license to make Sonic comics renewed, they were gonna have to deal with Ken on their own, and cover all the costs.

Yeah, uh, this kinda makes me think that Sega being pissed about the ongoing Scott Fulop copyright case in 2016 may have been a bigger factor in Archie Sonic's cancellation than I previously thought. There was a lot going on at the time that could have contributed, but, y'know.

Anyway, Archie sued Ken for "damaging their business" largely because Sega was threatening to take away the Sonic IP. But because Archie couldn't ask Sega for help and they couldn't produce an original contract, they had to settle.

There's another detail I find funny here, though. Ken WANTED Sega to get involved in the comic copyright case, thinking that Sega would strongarm Archie into paying him the millions of dollars he wanted for "using his work without permission" so that they could be done with it. I mean, sure. I guess Sega wouldn't have cared about Archie's finances, but still. I'm not so sure that would've worked out for him.

#3: Shade!

Yes, Penders still claims he legally owns Shade, and under advice from his lawyer still intends to put out an NFT of her to put his claim to the test. Yes, it's incredible that he still hasn't put out the damn NFT. It only needs to be one image, which he already drew! The market has collapsed!

Anyway, building an argument off the legal concept of estoppel, he says that if Sega continues to not do anything about his claims that he owns Shade then, in the eyes of the court, they'll be forfeiting their claims to Shade altogether. But they aren't going to do anything because they never wanted any part in the copyright battles in the first place, and to them Chronicles is a long dead asset not worth fighting over. Why bother trying to use Shade again and giving Ken a reason to take them back to court when they can just move on? It's not like this franchise is short on characters. And so Ken can say that Shade and Julie-Su are literally the same character, and if he owns Julie-Su then therefore he also owns Shade.

Our copyright system is, indeed, a nightmare. Chronicles should have been halfway to the public domain by now.

#4: Sega's oversight on the Archie comics!

Ken says that in his first year on the series Sega only requested some dialogue changes here and there through the editor. They never requested huge script changes, and also never spoke to Ken directly. After that first year, they stopped asking for dialogue changes altogether, and Ken "had a free hand to do pretty much whatever he wanted." Yeah, no surprise there.

He does, however, say that Archie's original deal with Sega stated that they weren't allowed to create ANY new Sonic characters without informing Sega. They would've needed to make a contract every single time to get Sega's approval and make it absolutely crystal clear that Sega owned the whole cast. And then Archie just... didn't do that! And didn't tell any of the freelance creatives not to come up with new characters! Had Archie followed this rule, the trajectory of the comics would have been completely different, but there also never would've been a copyright battle in the first place.

What a shitshow. Truly.

I'm just going to call this post Major Lorne Expressing Emotions

Yeah, okay, I will admit to a weakness for Lorne looking stern, and you know, like he's not going to take any shit. But! He's got range, right? Other emotions that show up on his face in ways that aren't 'stern'. So, let's appreciate them.

Let's start with this favourite: Stressed out, sleepy, hallucinating, Lorne. His hair is a bit messy! His jaw's slightly askew! He's not gonna let go of his certainty that his CO is actually a replicator. It's a good look for him, I'm never going to pretend otherwise.

Ahh, this one's just...disappointment. In himself. It's okay, Major, we can't hit our targets 100% of the time. Not even you! Don't worry. There'll be other chances to shoot a dart out of the sky! Like, probably too many chances. Honestly, you'll get blase about it. You'll be all, 'Oh, ho-hum, another dart shot down, that's life in the Pegasus Galaxy, I wonder what they're serving for dinner tonight, I hope it's those noodle things.' Trust me, Major. Things will get better. (Or worse, I guess, depending on how we feel about the whole 'there are so many freaking Wraith to get shot down' reality)

Time for some fun! Look! It's the rare Major Lorne smile of true amusement. He tried to keep it back. Tried to be all professional and serious and whatnot, because clearly, this is a serious situation. But also. It's so fucking funny. And listen, even a serious, stern Major sometimes has to laugh. A lot. In public.

Let's go with more amusement. Laughter is a good look on him. Let's appreciate it, and appreciate that it isn't all stern and focussed out here in the Pegasus Galaxy. Sometimes you get to laugh with friends! In space!

I'm just gonna label this one longing. Sure, sure, we could also say 'Ready to take his cue from his CO', or possibly 'OMG when are we going to get this show on the road?' but those are boring, so longing it is.

Also longing? Or possibly exasperation? Perhaps both?

Haha! Happy! Yay, your CO didn't die from breaking up in a planet's atmosphere! Everyone's a winner today. Including us, because of the grin. Also, the spacesuit. Spacesuit grin. I'm digging it. Nothing says sexy like a bulky orange suit, right? 100%.

For the final pic today, I present you with dubious. Good call, Major! Dubiousness is totally warranted here. Great instincts! You're adjusting to the Pegasus Galaxy really well! Nice eyebrow work, too, it really sells the whole thing.

(screencaps by @carsonsweebabyturtles, @dedkake, and @hero-in-waiting - if I've missed crediting anyone, please let me know and I'll add you)

Gah see the one thing I can't do with the EDAs, and it drives me up the wall nuts, no matter how much I do agree that they are meant to be books and that's the point of them, that they only metatextually and even thematically work as books, and obscure forgotten books at that - the one thing is, I can't make vids. Gifsets either. God, you have no idea how much I wish I could vid this series.

So many things, so many astonishing visuals and cinematic parallels, so much I want to string together in a coherent form and I can't, I just can't. Like, the actual factual thing that caused me to fucking Mandela-effect myself into misremembering the series as a 90s tv show in the first place was imagining a fanvid about Fitz's fashion sense set to Macklemore's Thriftshop, of all fucking things, BUT. While yes, obviously that would be a work of unrivaled genius, it's not just that. Over the years it's become this endless want, this constantly seeing gifsets and screencaps and vids, vids, above all else, vids, of all the different moments there are.

There is (of-fucking-course) a blog (at least one, but maybe many more) dedicated exclusively to making gifsets of every time destiel touch each other in all contexts. Of fucking course there is. I scream with envy over this because like. That could be us, if only the EDAs had any footage at all, but it's a goddamn (brilliant, daft, exceedingly stupid) BOOK SERIES instead. Every time Eight/Fitz touch? Fitz is in fifty books and they are both extremely touchy; you could absolutely dedicate an entire fucking tumblr blog to making a gifset of each of those moments; you'd be making gifs for fucking years.

I want to bestow upon them the highest honor I could give: a fanvid about their insane nutso relationship set to Vienna Teng's Never Look Away. I want a Sam vid set to Marina's Oh No! I want an Eight vid to the Indigo Girls' Galileo. I can see all these so so clearly and I want to share them with the world. I want a gifset of thematic uses of the color red in Sam's early books episodes books. I want to hear Sail on Sailor and know how the fuck the diagetically composed Dr Who theme would actually sound on violin or acoustic guitar, with its unspeakably tender lyrics. I want someone's painstakingly color-corrected, digitally restored, hi-res slo-mo shot of Fitz in his princess fairy tale wedding dress flying around on a jetpack.

Like they are books and they're supposed to be books and it's significant to what the silly things are trying to say, and also quite frankly there is no way in hell any doctor who ever, even now, could pull off even half the shit they got away with via the infinite budget of the page, and they certainly could not have made say, YIT in the 90s and have it look anything but silly and cheap when it needed to look real, BUT. I wish I could see it. I wish I could make the vids I see playing in my head when I reread these silly, edgy, annoyingly smug, painfully earnest, wildly creative and visually stunning FUCKING books.

I'm really going to miss SWM despite the sad ending. The actors really did a great job with what they had and could do. I knew the accident was going to hurt me, and that it would be a OE, but I did not expect it to be more like a BE. More about that later. At least we got a whole episode of happy boys before all the shit hit the fan.

This scene really touched me. Su Yu pushes Wu Bi to achieve his dreams and is there to support him all the way. We also get another hint of what Wu Bi's time capsule wish is. My guess is that he wished for he, Su Yu and Doudou to always be together. Normally it's Wu Bi who is always saying he doesn't want to be separated from Su Yu, but this time, it's Su Yu telling Wu Bi not to leave him, pulling on Wu Bi's heartstrings. 🥹

Why does Wu Bi have a picture of his and Su Yu's epic bike ride framed? Did his mother draw that? Did he get the idea from her? Wu Bi, I have so many questions...

Su Yu wrote a wish card for Wu Bi too. 🥹 I am not ok. 😭

One last shout out to the shipper girl. She knows. 🤭 I'm glad they didn't write her as a crazy person, inserting herself into Wu Bi and Su Yu's relationship and doing a bunch of weird stuff to get them together.

Arghhhh the foreshadowing! When Su Yu said that, my heart filled with dread even though I already knew what was coming. No. They're going to ride their bike together forever ok. 😭

Wu Bi is so completely smitten with Su Yu. It's all heart eyes, all the time. They are so cute. Was this the reward Su Yu was talking about? I thought it would be something 🔞, but taking Wu Bi on a date might motivate him even more. I mean what kind of equestrian center has prince charming equestrian outfits? 🤭 I think they look great, but this totally looks like a date (Doudou is just there to make it look less gay).

Wait a minute... that's not what the director demonstrated! I wanted to see that peck on the lips! Please tell me they shot two versions and we'll see the uncut version later. 🙏

Psycho alert! 🚨 Mo Yi was hella creepy here. I was a bit scared he would actually hurt Su Yu. You can feel all the resentment he has for Su Yu. First his ex-gf wanted to be with Su Yu rather than him. Second, Wu Bi has chosen Su Yu over him and is acting like a little bitch towards him. Not defending him, but I honestly don't think Mo Yi would have felt such hatred and resentment if Wu Bi hadn't started being really rude and bratty towards him after falling in love with Su Yu.

The ultimate sacrifice. 😭 Wu Bi knew there was no way to stop the car safely so he chose to protect Su Yu by crashing the car on the driver's side. Even though I knew the accident was going to happen, it still hurt so much. Wu Bi will always protect Su Yu no matter what. I read some comments scolding Su Yu for sleeping even though he knew something was wrong with the car. My interpretation is that Su Yu wasn't sleeping, he was worried too, but he trusted Wu Bi completely, and Wu Bi told him to rest because he can handle it, so he did. The level of trust and confidence you need to have in your partner for that is just...

I didn't notice this the first time watching because I was too busy wailing, but Wu Bi hugged Su Yu to protect him. FUCK. 😭😭😭😭 For all the unreasonable jealousy and temper tantrums, Wu Bi really is the best boy.

This is so painful, I can't screencap bloody Wu Bi anymore. It killed me that Wu Bi woke up for a second to stare into Su Yu's eyes when Doudou called to complete their OT3, only to fall into a comma again.

Argh this ending! Is Wu Bi alive or dead? I didn't notice that the doctor nods a little when speaking to Su Yu the first time around. Doctors usually only nod when the operation was successful, so I guess Wu Bi is alive but what about the empty house? Only Wu Bi's stuff is still there, meaning that everyone left him? How is this not a BE? 😭

Of course this makes sense as a set up for a season 2 but I feel like they still could have given us a conclusion. Something like Wu Bi lives, but Su Yu left because he knew Mo Yi was crazy and he wanted to protect Wu Bi. Then the new season would be about how the boys find their way back to each other. It wasn't necessary to leave viewers hanging and heartbroken. 😢 And with 24 episodes of 30+ minutes runtime, I felt the team had enough time to tell a complete story. It shouldn't matter that book 1 of the novel ended like the series because the drama should stand on its own outside of the novel. Besides, wouldn't it have been safer just to film the whole thing at once to avoid the risk of not being allowed to film part 2?

There's a lot of doubt that S2 will actually happen, but someone asked Mo Yi's actor if there will be a 2nd season and he said that there should be. I'm not going to get my hopes up too much before there is official news that everyone is shooting again to spare myself any disappointment, but of course I am hoping for a second season. In the meantime, I hope cjd will release the uncut version of the series that she teased about before. I really do love this series so much even though I was disappointed with the ending. I'll have to treat SWM like MODC and skip the end. SWM only has 22 episodes. Yup. 🤡

tonight I am attempting to seriously watch episode 2 and have some thoughtful commentary but I get to the end when Joo-won and Dong-sik are walking down to the grocery and all I can focus on in Joo-won walking like 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️ i think you described it like he has an ironing board strapped to his back and I just had to share this screencap that I got perfectly capturing this phenomenon 😂

YESSSSSSSSSS! This is the content I signed up for!!!! We, as a community, do not shit on Joo Won enough for his fucking weird walk!!!! 😩😩😩

There's no swagger. His hips do not sway. His shoulders don't move. His arms are dangling and swinging about the place like mad. His muscles seem rigid, but his joints are loose. He walks like he's constantly clenching his arsehole (which makes total sense)

Joo Won walks around like he's never known the endorphins of a great orgasm. (or maybe he's worried about the butt plug falling out???)

I don't have that many screenshots of his walk, but I will share with you what I have, 'cause he's hilarious 😂

(jfc joo won, let the old man fuck you already, you're embarrassing me)

But once Joo Won does let Dong SIk... you know... he starts to walk more like a normal person🤦‍♀️

Wanna know why?????? Cause he copies Dong Sik's mannerisms

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ he's literally copying everything Dong Sik is doing 👀

(for anyone who wants to read more on Joo Won being a copycat)

SILLY MAN! Yeo Jin Goo has some questions he needs to answer asap! He really went out there and made Joo Won as unfuckable as possible and I respect him so much for it! (maybe that's the true story of BE. Dong Sik wasn't insane, but he was crazy for wanting to sleep with Joo Won)

Thank you for sending this to me!!!!!! It's made my morning so much better; I really appreciate you! 😊😊

this is so random but look: i was re-watching eclipse and everytime jasper appeared on screen all i could think about was Cillian Murphy Energy and how he got 65x hotter than he already is (jasper not cillian) and why the fuck jasper stans never talked about this.

LMFAO wait are you saying jasper stans don't talk enough about how good he looks in eclipse???? I mean I feel like it’s just common knowledge at this point. he was pretty much a standing lamp in the first two films (y'know, alice's occasional arm candy that got a little bitey sometimes) and then in eclipse.... ugh. chefs kiss. we get it all baby.... the better wig... the actual lines of dialogue... the fucked up backstory... the fight training... and don't even get me STARTED on the fight oh my god

I saw eclipse at a midnight premiere back in 2010 and when he fucking punched THROUGH that guy I think I literally screamed. I was BESIDE myself. 17 yr old baby shan was inconsolable. nothing mattered to me more than watching this bitch tear people apart.

personally, I find it more attractive that he's just a fucked up rat man. a rehabilitated feral dog. I just *clenches fist* love any character that is fucked up. I love to stan someone who has committed atrocities. I need them to be cancellable on so many levels. I need them to have violated the geneva convention. if a character doesn't have a body count (non-sexual) or a controversial past (or present) then like? boooooring. i'm bored.

but yeah no mainly I don't think people talk about it because to us its like, A Truth Universally Acknowledged, y'know? also shoutout to david slade. he really really gave us shit like this:

and this

and this:

and honorable mention to these two screencaps that live rent free in my brain. that is all have a nice day <3

Yeah, what's with the formality, Lavenza, remember when I took you to a maid cafe and then defended you from the feral maid that wanted to eat you? We're pals now.

Congratulations to Lavenza for the greatest line read since Mitsuru's "I'M GOING TO EXECUTE YOU ALL." I fucking cackled.

Okay so. I'm flipping through these screencaps again in hopes of collating all the info and summarizing. Hang on.

Mementos is back. Why? Because don't worry about it. (The game basically shrugs on this one, lmao.)

Maruki has a persona and it is able to affect real people, not just cognitions. The power is called Actualization, and is basically him taking someone's desires and making them real by altering cognition.

It should be impossible for an individual to use their power like this on a massive scale, but the death of Yarblegarble left a power vacuum in Mementos, and Maruki slotted himself into place there. So he has godlike powers in the same way Yahtzee did.

Akechi points out that the Thieves had the masses' attention and worship, that's how they defeated Cuphead, so why did that influence shift to Maruki? Turns out Maruki has been consciously or not shifting the cognition of the Thieves through his therapizing, so subconsciously everyone wanted the easy out that Maruki was supplying. yeah sure whatever, that's not more of an ass pull than the Mementos thing

All this only became possible when the Cognitive World and the Real World merged in the finale. Now, the worlds are trying to separate, but Maruki is interferring. They need to finish separating, or the Cognitive World will supplant the Real World and there will be no escape from Maruki's control. We got about a month before things are set in stone.

Okay summing that up actually helped me grok wtf is going on, awesome.

Anyway, back into the Palace, and Sumire gets another persona awakening on top of her original one.

I mean good for her?

I'm really torn on Sumire. Like, as a plot catalyst she's fantastic. But she's been the weakest of the cast for the entire game and I still struggle to care about her outside how crunchy her situation is.

BIG SHRUG.

Blah blah, seems like Maruki has a bunch of data trunk lines running to Mementos, so we gotta go see wtf is up in there.

also i got to see Ann's bedroom/flat and oh my god that's so many clothes that's my nightmare. I mean its super cute but wow.

Good to know she's a Derse dreamer tho.

Her new persona pops and oh my god this is the most scene kid thing I have ever seen, WOW. the mismatched tights, the bubblegum, the double belt. I can hear Paramore playing when I look at this.

Also Lavenza visits Reverie and falls asleep TWICE in one visit. This girl needs a fucking nap, wow.

Anyway, plot. Mementos has a bunch of Maruki's data cables running through it. I do love the shift from fantastical science to the cold reality of surveillance in Maruki's methods.

BASICALLY its complicated, but Maruki is watching over Mementos. To give everyone the perfect life they want, he catches people in Mementos and changes their cognition from there. Without the surveillance, he wouldn't know who to help and how.

So I guess his perfect dream of just fixing the world is more complex than he thought. Sure, he has all of human cognition on tap here, but he still has to handle each case individually with the info he gleans from Mementos. There's still many people who don't have their happy psience yet and that is going to take time to fix.

I do appreciate a lack of subtlety. I hope the intention with Maruki is to inspire some discomfort and reflection in players as they contend with his motives and methods, but also, gamers can be dumb so yes, please just insert a room that looks like it'd fit in The Stanley Parable into this whole narrative to make sure people understand this whole thing is fucked.

Akechi as the repeated voice of "yo this shit sucks" is a lot of fun. When the guy who murdered a bunch of people for his evil dad is calling out your bullshit, that's worth paying attention to.

That said, this random NPC actually says the thesis of this entire story right here. It is here for those who are looking for it.

That leaves the final question. Okay but why tho?

This is a doozy.

*deep breath* Here we go. Here it is. Rock bottom. We know it's Kiyo. It was obviously Kiyo and every ounce of deliberation only further cemented how obviously Kiyo it was. But why?

What was it that drove him to murder? Was it Angie's authoritarian rules? Was it the destruction of the Flashback Light, depriving everyone of a chance to learn more about their missing past? Was it her monopolization of the Necronomicon? Her growing cult of influence over the community?

Even the Director's at a total loss for what happened here. And she wrote his character.

"Please tell me this has something to do with the actual plot I wrote for this chapter. I am so fucking confused right now."

There were so many interesting reasons why someone might kill Angie. She managed to make an enemy out of practically everyone in the roster. So what was it that moved Kiyo's hand?

By purest of coincidence, she happened to walk in on him while he was setting up the murder. It's literally the exact same explanation that 2-3 already used for Hiyoko's death. 3-3 is so dedicated to being unsatisfying that it's now recycling plot points in place of the myriad interesting reasons that could be used for Angie's death.

Wow. That sucks. But at least he had a good reason for killing Tenko, then? Right?

...

He did it because he's a genderfluid mentally ill serial killer. He has DID and gender, and it drives him to kill people. Also he used to fuck his sister when she was alive; They are very unambiguous about that in scenes I will not screencap.

That's.

THAT'S the motive. He did it because he's crazy. And gender. And gender crazy. That's it. That is the full explanation for what happened to Angie and Tenko.

Holy. Fuck.

Hoooooooooo.

...

I am willing to cut Kodaka some slack for Chihiro. Some. Not a lot, but some. Kodaka fucked up with Chihiro. He screwed up writing a trans character so hard he wound up writing what is effectively an allegorical transmasc story out of a female-presenting AMAB.

But it doesn't feel malicious. Chihiro wasn't a joke. Chihiro was grossly mishandled, but not for the purpose of ridicule. In fact, the franchise has a strong reverence for Chihiro and his creations, even in the sequels. This is a character that Kodaka seems proud of.

I am willing to cut Kodaka some slack for Toko/Jack. Some. Not a lot, but some. Toko/Jack is a joke. The punchline is that the serial murderer never kills a single goddamn person in the entire game. That's hilarious, but doesn't require her to be a gross DID stereotype.

And, much like Chihiro, this is a character who's beloved by her franchise. Toko got to costar in her own spinoff game, even, that examines her character in greater detail and works her into a healthy, sustainable relationship with another human being. It's great!

...

But Kiyo?

Kiyo is utterly inexcusable.

I have, at multiple points, expressed the opinion that Kodaka burned out on Danganronpa. DR3 was his attempt to hastily wrap it all up and close the book, and V3 was his attempt to torch the franchise so he could finally be done with it.

3-3 is Exhibit A in that argument. After starting out so promising, after offering so many interesting hooks, this case went south so far that it ultimately devolved into Kodaka screaming furious slurs at the screen. I can think of no possible reason why this would have happened, other than to lash out.

It's notable that in his immediate next game after finally freeing himself from the yoke of Danganronpa, Kodaka would deliver the best LGBT character he's ever created. He can write better than this. Screaming furious slurs at the screen was a choice he made.

Whatever the reason, however this happened, I want to say that this is the worst thing Kodaka has ever written.

I can't, in good conscience, because I've played Ultra Despair Girls and when it's good, it's great, but hoooooly shit the missteps.

But I can, in good conscience, say this is the worst case of any core Danganronpa title.

For the ask game: 1, 3, 4 and 5 👀👀

1. the character everyone gets wrong

okay so obviously kon. do i even need to say that one? that's a gimme on this blog i think so actually i'm gonna go for a second option and also say bart. he is also such a victim of the pendulum of wrong opinions (one incorrect fanon idea gains traction; people react by going entirely too far the other way). he isn't a complete idiot with the mentality of a toddler, but he's not a super genius that everyone just unfairly dunks on either. like, he's incredibly smart, but he is incredibly bad at applying his smarts without a very specific sort of guidance (which is also why he's not a good leader or strategist).

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

i shan't screencap but MAN are there so many contenders lskdjflkds

a) every single post that says kon (or any other character often shipped with a bat, but i'm a kon blog so that's the main one for me) would ever be afraid of any of the other bats, particularly jason and bruce. PARTICULARLY jason gets me. like. at least kon has been shown to generally respect bruce but JASON??? don't make me laugh.

b) someone making jokes about the titans calling dick a loser with no self-respect for going back to his abusive father. i generally dont like when bruce is written as an abusive parent but the idea of specifically going with that version of bruce just to crack really fucking mean jokes about dick being abused by a parent? HUGE yikes from me scoob, blocked op and blacklisted their url for that one <3

c) every single anon who tried to persuade me that no no geoff made some points with the 50-50 retcon :|

i'm CERTAIN there's more i just have a shit memory and it's better that way sdfjkjsdkj

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

god i block people all the time. this morning i blocked someone on ao3 bc they were leaving comments on sotm where they picked out like... 7-10 sentences to highlight per chapter but ONLY ones about dick jason and tim. which is impressive. because of how it's a kon fic. but by the third comment of this i got mildly annoyed so bam block button my bestie it is

5. worst discord server and why

i am in no fandom discords unless you count the small friend gc type and it will in fact remain that way <3 in the words of bilbo baggins, i don't know half of you half as well as i should like, and i like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. or something like that.

"choose violence" ask game

Survivor! Finale!!!

Still grieving Cere...but I found her lightsaber! Finally I can return to my favorite lightsaber layout with Tapal’s and Cere's emitters!

Okay time to go kick Bode's ass.

Ah, sneaky infiltration time!! I'm sure no one noticed the big non-Empire ship just parked out here.

MAN it sucks that it didn't let me change Cal's hair up when he had the ISB uniform on. This is NOT a military-appropriate haircut!!

Weird place for an apartment at the end of a wide hallway?

Oh....a baby....hello!!!

Mookie...

OH SHIT!

Love Cal. Fully called this man a monster to his face in front of his daughter. He would give loud annoying gifts to kids who's parents annoy him.

Also??? Bode???? Why are you suddenly so stupid????? It's a whole PLANET dude! With like one and a half ways to get to it! And you want to JUST have you and Kata there??? How safe is Kata gonna be if you get hurt and there's no one else on the ENTIRE PLANET?????

Fine! Run bitch!

Wait huh.

Embrace

Embrace Cal’s WHAT??????

OH

OKAY

That was uhhhhh. I'm just gonna try and avoid that as much as possible.

SHIT I accidentally went Dark Mode

I DID IT AGAIN WHY WOULD THEY JUST REPLACE SLOW

Love Cal and Merrin talking it out to the sound of crunching bones

This is fine! It's all good!

Hop back to Koboh and it's FINE

HA I KNEW THIS PLACE WAS SUSPICIOUSLY ARENA-SHAPED!

Nasty Cal UNLOCKED

Huh. This is an elevator. Okay then.

Zee....still annoyed by her.

...and then I put Cal in a green outfit, stopped playing for the night, and didn't touch the game for several weeks

Realized the green outfit was NOT as cute as I thought it was. This red lighting in the menu is fucking with me

To Tanalorr!!!

Sidenote: Love when BD goes backpack mode with the bomber jacket bc the metal on the back looks like lil handles for his tiny feet

"GREEZY DOES IT BABY" I want that on a mug

Oh man Tanalorr is pretty....the water is reminding me a bit too much of the Pool Rooms tho

This game can't condition me to destroy every plant that sparkled and then do this.

Like why would they do that. Do you know how many times I shmacked a plant for nothing

BODE STOP BEING STUPID!! EVEN TOUR DAUGHTER THINKS YOU'RE BEING STUPID!!

Oh this fight is. Woof.

Ohhhhhhkay turns out if we don't get Nasty then Cal just has his skull bashed in to death. Got it. Embrace the Nastiness or die

Got myself a Drink after attempt number 3. Surely alcohol will help me play video game good.

Attempt 4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Nine attempts later and Bode really just made Cal kill him in front of his kid like that. Fully attempted to strangle two people to death in front of his very young child, was given ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO SURRENDER, then proceeded to not do that. I'm sure Kata is feeling so safe as a result of your decisions, Bode. Rip you and your bara tiddies tho ig.

The entire scene of Cal standing at Cere's funeral pyre...non-stop tears. What the fuck man.

And now I'm sure they definitely won't make Cal "23-years-old,-should-be-at-the-club" Kestis raise a kid. Because that would be dumb. Right? Right? Not gonna make the kid who is still very seriously struggling with his own trauma suddenly be responsible for another kid, right?

So super cool how Greez gets another kid and Kata is like Cal's non-force-sensitive baby sister, right? Greez is gonna teach Kata how to cook, she's gonna be great at it. One big happy family.

Right?

Welp, guess I'm gonna run around some more! I'm gonna take SO many nice screencaps! And probably replay jfo. And cry.

Revenge porn and not in the context of bunny boiling.

I spent most of 2022 trying not to die. March was the rampup to chemo and radiation that ran for five weeks, followed by round two chemo that ran from the end of May through August. I spent September through mid-October recuperating until I broke my shoulder, then had the colon resection, lymphectomy, hysterectomy, ileostomy, and uretal resection in mid-November.

I was a fucking mess. The pain was off the scale. I went home taking 10mg of oxycodone every four hours. It was the end of December that I was declared in remission and celebrated by standing up to take a shower. During all this time, I remember one communication from @cyberwitch85 aka @cordeliaperry about a server and privacy at some point. I don't remember if it was via Discord or DM. At no time did anyone tell me there were issues with her and Drac. Drac did tell me via email that there was a new server and I was invited. I went now and then, but most of what I did was sleep. I did not know that there was Shit Disturbing going on until February of 2023 when this crossed my dash.

I do not ever want anyone to forget that @cyberwitch85 aka @cordeliaperry (aka who knows how many other names she may have) nuked her blog, but screencaps are forever. Threatening someone with releasing their nudes to 'ruin [their] fandom life' is revenge porn, and illegal damn near everywhere.

Hold on tight, this is going to be a long and bumpy ride.

So, in early November, CW enters bunny-boiler mode with Jade.

Then this happens, with Cyber finding a new target and oh everything was just for funsies, dontchaknow. @cyber-glitch85 and @thralaniweek are Cyber as well. Please note, at some point Drac stopped talking to most of his fandom acquaintances.

Fast forward to this year. Totes believable, yes?

Then we got THIS funny shit - screencaps below. How do I know it's This Silly Bitch? Are there that many server mods running around pulling revenge porn shit?

And the comments.

Followed by this unanswered ask.

And then this golden turd - don't know if there were deleted replies in this one.

Followed by Jade saying 'fuck this noise.'

Jade decides she is too old for this shit and posts the whole damn thing. Cyber in typical Cyber fashion, deletes her replies. I am eternally grateful to the people who told me to screencap everything with this silly bitch.

Here are the replies she deleted.

Finally, we get this:

And also we get this from OTNF.

With some folks able to smell what's cooking. It looks like Cyber deleted her replies on this one, too.

In short, bunny-boiling narc goes batshit: threatens revenge porn.

That's it. Full stop. That's the post. Knowing a lot of people were afraid to be exposed in other ways because she collected their information after soliciting their trust as detailed here:

The thing is that narcs specialize in being likeable, trustworthy, leaders. Then they slowly squeeze the air out of everyone around them. I didn't know the extent of that silly bitch's fuckery until March/April and every time I find out more, it just pisses me off.

Revenge porn - she threatened someone with revenge porn. It's right there.

And yes, unfortunately there's more.

Oz Rewatch 3: S1E08: A Game of Checkers

Heads up I'm wine drunk right now so I'll skip the polished article with the screencaps LOL. Rudimentary/live watch notes:

Sister: [Schillinger] didn’t say “a better man”, he said “a different man”

Tim: "I have an eyewitness…”

Sister: it was me!

Tim: Me!

Random thought: If Diane had quit in McManu's office, Schillinger probably would’ve had no choices to get Beecher killed, probably would’ve gotten paroled, and probably half of the Beecher/Schillinger plots would’ve been avoided

Nowakowski said Oz is off route 7a… which means Oz might be somewhere along NY-7 which starts in Pennsylvania goes north to Binghamton, and northeast passing north over Albany and then up into Vermont

Guy who starts the riot is wearing the same shirt as Jaime Velez?

One of the Muslims totally pushed someone off the control area when the riot started?? lol

Hill putting the towel on Dobbs like it’s a little blanket…. apply pressure, dude!!

Eddie: (saying some bullshit to Miguel)

Sister: Shut up, Eddie!

Diane: Shut up, Eddie.

Why does Devlin seemingly have nothing else to do but fuck with Oz?

Adebisi stole two sandwiches before the food went out to everyone else lol

Said is so full of shit… with the “wake up the nation” shit like if his goal is prison abolition, he’s better off using McManus because his idea of prison reform might be impotent but at least he has connections (to a Senator, for example) that Said could benefit from. McManus’s execution of ideas suck major ass; if Said is supposed to be (presumably) a community organiser, then surely he could work with McManus to create programs in Em City that would actually benefit prisoners. After those actually succeed, then more could be done in terms of making steps toward taking power away from the very act of incarceration/dealing with issues that lead to imprisonment. The very presence of Devlin in the show suggests that Said’s method of a spectacular destruction wouldn’t ultimately lead to change. Devlin got elected by the public on a stance of being harsh on crime. And given the amount of shit he gets away going forward in the show, I feel like there wouldn’t have been that much outrage from the public there was another Attica situation, because I am almost certain Devlin would’ve found a way to spin it. Ultimately, every time I watch the scene between McManus and Said, I’m reminded of how ineffective Said is as an activist in the show. He doesn’t actually really have many particular beliefs in the show when all is said and done; he’s a celebrity, first and foremost. The things he does are performative in many ways, such as when he refused the pardon for Ramadan. Yes, he would’ve been used a political point for Devlin, but his criticism of the administration would’ve been far more powerful if he had been on the outside, helping prisoners through his connections as a public figure. I mean for fuck’s sake, even Beecher did more for the inmates in Oz just by going back to do pro bono legal consulting with them after he was released! I suppose a lot of it can be chalked up to the fact that the writer(s) of the show probably don’t have a great wealth of knowledge of the tradition of thought that Said seems like he’s supposed to subscribe to, but I always get the sense that there is a huge gap between Said’s actions and the things he supposedly stands for. It's just sort of disappointing how little he ultimately accomplishes/how little the show ultimately allows him to accomplish. Maybe the secret of the show is that Said is a dumbass. I means maybe that's no secret, though, either. He starts the show incredibly arrogant and SORT of grows. But I guess he had more issues than he thought going in or maybe it's a comment on his core personality that he was in prison in the first place (for blowing up a warehouse or whatever). Petty shit. Maybe that was the hint that he ,was never going to do great things or think long term enough to accomplish lasting change. Possibly the only thing he ended up doing that really mattered (and maybe I'm forgetting things, so feel free to remind me if so) was helping to inspire Omar to get his shit together, even if Omar eventually got killed anyway.

All in all, Sister found the season finale underwhelming…

Sister hoped someone would die (Adebisi)

How did Adebisi go into withdrawal so quickly??

4, 6, 16!

4.) Which has the most “you” in it, however you’d define that?

I think it's definitely April 6th, for a whole lot of reasons- I talked about this a little yesterday, but it's very much a fic that (even though I didn't know it at the time) was me Dissecting a lot of things- but on a less introspective note, I think it also has the most "me" in it simply because I gave up making it a fic comprised only of words Very Quickly. I've always struggled with the actual act of putting words down on the page, so writing April 6th as not only chapters but also text exchanges, social media posts, polaroid images, a twine game with illustrations, etc really let me tell the story in a way that feels more ME? I'm a kind of all over the place person and it's a kind of all over the place fic, but because of that I think it's very much the kind of thing that has My Voice all over it and I'm still really proud of it!

6.) Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?

God, I think there are two tied for the top and both of them are horror concepts 😭i LOVE horror and i LOVE good horror writing but i struggle so hard with catching the FEELING of horror in text alone? The first one was a fic about Giorno attempting to use GER to bring Bruno back from the dead that I got 90% of the way through and then just COULD NOT get the ending to hit right- nothing felt like it hit hard enough!

The other was a KiraBoss fic that was ESSENTIALLY consensual snuff rp- diavolo is still deathlooped and kira is a ghost haunting his home in morioh, and every night they play out scenes where Kira hunts Diavolo through the house and kills him, only for a twist at the end to reveal this is an elaborate game they play and they're both Super into it. I still REALLY love the concept but the actual pacing and atmosphere of the horror segment with Diavolo being hunted and murdered just... never felt sufficiently horror-y.... so it will linger in my mind forever i suppose!

16.) 3 favorite comments ever received on fanfic.

god, there are So many that I would say, it's honestly been wild getting so many heartfelt and in depth comments on my work? like holy shit i made something that people are Having Feelings about. I made something and it gave people emotions and they're reacting to it and it's really actually reaching people emotionally? holy fuck?

then there's this one which made me fucking HEEHOO when it hit back to back (context is kinda hard to explain without spoilers, but giorno Does Some Fuckshit and then the immediate next chapter changes course):

and lastly, this one which ONLY exists in screencap form for reasons that will become apparent-

but honestly i could go on and on, it's kinda insane and special to me that people have said anything sincere and heartfelt or funny and witty or ANYTHING about my work?

(also bonus points: i. i literally keep a compilation of every time someone has said my fic made them cry. this is actually an outdated version but the current one is on a different device so.)

I've come to truly despise homestuck more and more with each passing year

I've just never "got" it, like ever. Over the years I've had so many people tell me how great it is and that I should read it, and at least twice a year every year since about 2012, I had attempted to read it; but no matter what people suggested as to how I should read it, it was just so fucking boring, every single time an absolute slog.

It felt really painful whenever I came to the realisation that I wasn't connecting with it, like somehow if I was just able to grapple with it, then maybe I'd understand my peers and friends who do like it a little better, and maybe they would be able to stand being around me.

I'm sure someone will screencap this and show all their friends to make fun of me for being so melodramatic or foolish as to think people would like me if I just liked this thing that all my peers seem to like.

What turned this sadness to frustration was that after all these years of trying to understand it or connect with it, all my peers who read it and are fans of it suddenly tell me it was never worth the effort and that it sucks shit (considering how many homestuck fans I've known who seem to take "this series fucking sucks" as an ironic compliment, I can't actually tell if they really feel that way or if it's they're being Wicked and Ironic)

All that effort poured in just to be told I wasted my time.. it sucks, it fucking sucks. I genuinely feel nothing but a feeling of rage coming over me when I see it mentioned, like just genuine burning rage. I hate it so much.

11-24-2022

AWW SHIT WE GOT ONE LIKE ON THE LAST POST (as of when I type this) YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS-

TODAYS REVEIW: '9u' by Jenny-Jen on Diviantart.com Disclaimer: (to my knowladge) this story is UNFINISHED but DAMN it it worth the read! DO NOT BE AN ASSHOLE AND PESTER THIS PERSON FOR MORE CHAPTERS/BOOKS, AS A WRITER MYSELF I CAN CONFIRM THIS IS PRETTY IRRITATING AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE MORE ART/WRITING/ETC. It's not often that I come across a fanfiction that has such an impact on me that I can't stop thinking about it for months after reading it. It's for this reason I don't even read that many fanfictions. I'm not gonna keep going if I'm not hooked in the first few sentences. I thought this story was so good, it could be considered the (unofficial) sequel to the movie. This one is SO unique to me for a number of reasons.

One: THE ARTWORK!

((this is NOT the beginning, this is the 3rd part of Chapter 3. This was one of my favorite pictures lol)) I FUCKING LOVE when a story is multi-media. Every chapter but the Prologue has a picture that goes with it and I fucking love that. The art is extremely good too!!! It looks like screencaps from a 2d animation. Two: THE STORY The Story begins just before 9 wakes up as The Scientist gives something very important to a friend of his, something that shapes the rest of the story. Time skip to after the end of the movie, 9,7,3, and 4 are now alone in their world and now need to figure out what to do. Following an unforeseen tragedy, a specific sequence of events leads them to something they had no idea was even possible: Other Stitchpunks. The storyline is solid, the concepts of the characters and how they came to be MAKES SENSE, and it's a very entertaining story from start to finish. The other Stitchpunks where very unique to me. They felt like they belonged in the story and their designs were unique because they weren't trying to be extra unique (there is nothing wrong with strange looking stitchpunks, but in the context of this story, the OCs featured fit just right) Extra bits: *I LOVE the designs of the new Stitchpunks. They where all very interesting and felt like they where actually part of the world, not just randomly thrown in. *The designs of the enemies where very interesting too. *I thought it was neat to explore the world from their pov, especially when they weren't the only species in the room (this'll make sense if you read the story) *Having one of the main enemies be one of their kind made it extra interesting *Exploring how the talisman works was a nice touch as well as adding the fact that there where quite a few trials and errors to making Stitchpunks. *The story did not overly focus on romance while still having some which I liked (especially because fanfiction is often romantic in nature) and I loved all the unique relationships between the characters, ESPECIALLY because not all of them had romantic relationships. (there are so many more types of love than just romance damn it!) *There where PLEANTY of action/fight scenes and they where very descriptive!!! *Even the 'slow' parts of the story did a great job at establishing the world and the characters and the plot. Needless to say I was entertained all the way through. *It was so fun to see all the characters interact with each other while still staying in character! So, if you wanna check it out, I totally recommend it!! Here's a link to the Prologue:

Also, p.s., 22 was one of my MANY favorite characters and I feel like had this been a movie/animation, I could totally see him being voiced by Eric Ladin (the guy who does the voice for Elis in L4D2)

So yesterday was the first day I worked on my new fic since... idk two months ago? I’m not even sure now. I had been writing down little scenes or ideas for scenes for it as they came to me (and so I DIDN'T FORGET THEMMMM) but this is the first time I've opened the document in forever...

*checks the version history*

Oh my god, OCTOBER 😫😫😫 holy shit.

But anyway, to try and get back into it - because I HONESTLY forget how to write fiction when I haven't written it for a while - I decided to kind of read through it, edit a little, take notes, look for things that need to be fixed and find spots where these new scenes need to go, and oh my GOD.

First, I fucking MISSED writing, omg. Not to get all Ateez/Halazia on everyone, but:

I think it's mostly a function of: if you've been some kind of artist for most of your life and encounter a period of not being able to create anything for months and your brain just sort of gets like, "Let's see how many breakdowns we can have until we literally die from it." And I'm aware that sounds FUCKING dramatic, but omg....... I had so many breakdowns because all I did was work or think about work. And I wasn't even working full time, that's the thing that kills me. I was working part time hours, had part time benefits, and yet SOMEHOW my job took up my entire week. Like... HOW? HOW? HOW?

how.

Like, I had originally intended to write while I was at that job and slowly (but safely) segue from fanfic writing into writing original fiction (and getting paid for it), and I was so busy that I couldn't even do that.

Capitalism kills creativity, that's the takeaway.

Anyway,

So yesterday I spent all day working on my fic (the first half of it, it's a double y/n fic, remember) and got 45 chapters worked on, and today I spent all day working and got 32 chapters worked on (I accidentally started writing when I wasn't meant to be doing that yet... whoops). It was SO NICE to spend all day on something I actually cared about for a change and didn’t cause me mental anguish. I forgot how that felt and I honestly missed it. I can probably finish working on this half tomorrow. Then I need to compile and decide where all the new scenes are going in (and there might be a small continuity error between it and the second half, so I need to fix that) and then at least ONE of the halves will be done...

...but I can't post it, because both halves will be uploading at the same time, so I need the other half done too 🤣🤣🤣...

...And then I need to make the text screencaps, the twitter screencaps, and the ig screencaps, so like...

I'm getting closer at least?

(Also both halves of the fic have like 116 chapters-- at least unless I change anything and they end up with more ���😬😬 ...halp)