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iamnotawomanimagod · 22 days

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Did you finish The Tortured Poet's Department? I'm not a swiftie but I'm seeing a lot of mixed reactions.

I did, finally.

There's parts I liked and parts I really disliked. This is going to be a criticism-heavy review, so please scroll on if you don't want me harshing your vibe

First and foremost: Taylor Swift is one of the most popular singer/songwriters of all time. She's "earned" the right to do whatever she wants (not that anyone should really have to do that.) And there is undue pressure on artists, especially female artists, to reinvent themselves every era and bring something totally new to the table. And it's totally fine that Taylor didn't want to play that game. Any of my criticisms aren't going to take away the fact that she's a literal billionaire, selling out huge stadium shows worldwide, and will go down in history for all the work she's already released and the incredibly passionate fanbase she's gathered.

And I think that confidence, while earned, is a huge core of the problem with this album.

Someone needed to say "no" to her. Someone needed to be like "hey, glad you got that out of your system, maybe it doesn't belong on this album though." I feel there is a good album in here, a cohesive and complete piece of work, but there's about 15 songs too many (spread across both sides of the double album.)

My top three complaints are this:

1 - Too long, too much (this includes the lyrics which I'll touch on in a minute)

2 - Doesn't feel like an "album" but a collection of songs

3 - Too reminiscent of aspects of her previous sounds but not in a good way

Too Long, Too Much

I am a pretty casual fan and was already feeling the Taylor Swift Fatigue before TTPD was even announced, so when I woke up to discover 15 more songs than there was the night before, my heart literally dropped and I just felt exhausted. That feeling carried over into my listening and I found myself making edits to her lyrics like "that line would've been more impactful if it ended there" or "that's a bad metaphor and an unnecessary addition."

Like, she needed an editor. She needed someone to go through and make the lyrics less long-winded, and she needed someone to strike about half the songs. I made it through the whole album but I definitely won't be listening that way ever again. That's in part because...

It Doesn't Feel Like An Album

Walk with me on this one. I will cede the point that not every album has to be a beautifully flowing body of work to be "good." I'm okay with an album that plays with a lot of different genres - I think Halsey's Manic is a great example of that working. And if I squint, I can see the overall "theme" Taylor was going for, even if it feels poorly realized. It's one big poetry reading where everyone is heartbroken and no one knows how to strike unnecessary lines lol. It's clearly meant to be indulgent and pretentious and a little cringeworthy. And if you're a huge Taylor Swift fan and/or a big fan of poetry you're probably having the time of your life right now.

But I truly believe you could have hit shuffle on TTPD and put the tracklist in a different order and it'd feel the same - because right now it feels confusing, disjointed, and a little haphazard.

And I have to admit, I vastly prefer an album that sounds best when played in order. Even Manic has a section that works best when listened to in a row, and it tells a cohesive story. A good, strong album should be able to do both - have great songs that stand alone while also being a complete work when you put them all together.

Cowboy Carter by Beyonce did an incredible job with this - none of those songs sound the same, she plays in all sorts of (primarily country influenced) genres, most of the songs are great to shuffle in a playlist - but they all also flow together so thoughtfully and in such a satisfying way. Each song was placed with intention and care, so when you reach "Amen" you feel like you just went on a journey with a complete beginning, middle and end.

I can't think of a single moment on TTPD where that happened, where I had any "aha! very clever" moment in the production or even the lyricism. It just doesn't feel like it goes together, except under the very loose heading of "poetry reading after heartbreak."

Which is fine, I guess? But that also loops back around to "too much" because at some point it was just like... girl, make your point. Were you trying to make a point?

And maybe she wasn't! But that feels lazy for someone of her prestige, and it definitely makes me like the album a whole lot less.

Sounds Too Similar to Past Works

One of the things that I adore about Halsey's work is that none of her albums sound the same. While you can definitely pick up on certain patterns, it's not usually possible to say "this song sounds like it should have been on [previous album.]" Every album has its own distinct sound, aesthetic, and theme.

Granted, Halsey has had four studio albums, Taylor has had eleven. I'm not asking Taylor to re-invent the wheel. (I'm actually not asking her to do anything at all lmao, just expressing my viewpoint.) At the same time, like....Beyonce has eight studio albums, thirteen if you count her work with Destiny's Child, has been in the game even longer than Taylor, and is STILL finding ways to challenge herself and make her music even better.

Anyway, there were SO many songs on this album where I thought "this could've been on Midnights/Lover/Reputation/Etc." It's starting to really feel like Taylor just keeps repeating herself, especially from a sound/production perspective.

I guess she primarily works with two producers, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, and I can mostly blame the former for the songs with production that I hate. It'd be cool to see her branch out and work with someone else for her next projects, though. After a nice long break. Because it doesn't feel like there's anything really fresh or novel coming from these pairings anymore.

And again, there doesn't have to be innovation. Taylor's done a lot of innovating in pop music (by standing on the shoulders of giants, but still.) Maybe she's done with that. That does mean that I'm kind of done with her though, lmao. (Somehow, I think she'll survive.)

I really didn't like Midnights. I think there are more songs I like on TTPD, but that's in part because there's 31 songs to choose from lmao. I just personally want something more interesting. I like it when the artists I follow really push themselves and rise to the challenge of finding new ways to express themselves.

This kind of brings me to my fourth big complaint, which is that this album feels like it's going to be the most rewarding to the people who are the most invested in Taylor's personal life. Taylor's always written really diaristic and true-to-life lyrics, but this album in particular felt like it was especially "designed" to be a sort of "figure out which guy THIS one is about" easter egg hunt and like. Yucky.

It probably wasn't actually designed that way, this is more of a fandom issue than a Taylor issue. But like..... is it? Doesn't she make more money, sell more tickets, and remain in the spotlight longer when people obsess about her love life? Doesn't this album invite that obsession by being about nothing BUT her past lovers? Some of my favorite songs by her are the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with love or her love life. I feel like this one really lacked any of those.

And on a petty, catty note - it's embarrassing how many of these songs appear to be about Matty Healy lmfao. Like he must be somethin' else to inspire not only these tracks but many of Halsey's songs on Badlands as well. Tattooed golden retriever, indeed.

AND AND.... the fact that she's still writing songs about Kim Kardashian in the year 2024 is insane. Making it as obvious as she did by capitalizing Kim's name in the title is embarrassing and juvenile. I'm not saying that Kim's part in that whole fiasco wasn't wrong, and I certainly don't like Kim, but goddamn. That shit went down in 2016. Please move on. (Unfortunately it's one of the songs I like, but we'll see how long that remains true every time I see the title and remember who it's about.)

Anyway. Those are my big complaints. Here's the songs I actually enjoyed:

Florida!!!, Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can), I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, The Black Dog, I Hate It Here, thanK you aIMee, The Prophecy, Cassandra, and The Bolter.

I don't know how many of these songs will actually stick with me, I think my top three are WAOLOM, ICDIWABH, and The Black Dog.

there are a handful of moments I really liked, some lyrics that I found really good and clever. I might write those up in a separate post at some point. but suffice to say, TTPD is not going to be my album of the year and might not even crack my top five.

Thanks for asking anon! Hope you enjoyed my overly long rant.

#rambling about my life #ttpd #taylor swift

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exocynraku · 8 months

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i finished riverstars home! here are my thoughts on it: WARNING THERE ARE SPOILERS THIS IS VERY MUCH NOT SPOILER FREE LOL !!!! WARNING WARNING YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! for those who want my opinion but don't want spoilers: it was VERY good, with the only Odd thing being the pacing at some times! i really really liked it, and riverstar was great! if you are interested in him or dotc i would recommend reading it!!! <3

Very good book . Very good i enjoyed it greatly. the ONLY complaint i have really is that the pacing was a bit awkward at certain times and riverstar and finch's relationship came TOTALLY out of nowhere which really threw me off (they're cute though) but OTHERWISE it. was great. i LOVED riverstar the entire book, and all of the new characters are really fun, even if not all of them were particularly...??? fleshed out?? if that makes sense lol! i LOVED shattered ice, dappled pelt and drizzle, they were all SO CUTE and SO PERFECT!!! night and mist were REALLY interesting with night's repeated mention of her old mate & kits and their dynamic with eachother just in general! i'm also glad that riverstar and night didn't become mates because to me they have much more of a older sister/younger brother vibe which i like much more! i REALLY liked kite wing, cleo and casper were fun, and whistle was really cute & interesting! i like all of the new characters tbh, those guys were just ones i rlly liked hehe flutter appearing when riverstar got his 9 lives made me cry. badly. it was SO CUTE oh my god. 4th time i've ever cried during a warrior cats book! (others were bristlefrosts, yellowfangs and briarlight's deaths lol)!!! riverstar was so just. broken. to find out she was dead, him trying to refuse the life and deny that she's dead. GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! iiiii am a broken woman arc was GREAT and i'm super glad the cats of the park god a little bit of screentime (readingtime? booktime?)!! arc is so like, mysterious & mystical i love him LOL though i wish the book didnt take place right when the park got destroyed! i wish we got a LITTLE bit of time with them, and it mightve even been cool to get more of riverstar when he was younger, but whatevs! and with the other clans & other rouge groups & whatnot they. sure existed! idk i didnt reaaallly care for any of the interactions they had with riverstar Except for the various times when riverstar interacted with grey wing. those were pretty cute :''] i actually like that they kinda brought back slash at the end! i think its nice when villains are reused instead of new ones being made x{ plus it makes sense! duh slash would go find another gang to go terrorize after the clans kicked him out XD and lastly. finch and riverstar. were... good! i do like them! i do like finch as well! she's pretty cool, and strong, and not suuuuper generic? like shes not the MOST interesting character on the planet but she's not bland cardboard or anything!!! which was awesome! i guess it was just the pacing of her and riverstars relationship that messed me up LOL! they were talking like they were lovers for MOONS when riverstar was only there for like, a little more than half a moon X'D also the kits were really surprising too, but whatever, i think they're cute! i was surprised that riverstar got a Mate and Children at all but ! seeing how caring he is and how he acts to like Every Other Character with the exception of the villains it does make sense lol! alright thats it!!! overall a good book, and riverstar was great ! i would recommend reading it !

#wc spoilers #warrior cats spoilers #riverstars home #riverstars home spoilers #spoilers #wc #warrior cats #ray talk

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katzenklavierr · 4 days

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Went ahead and watched Restoration. I finished S13 today and won't have time to continue my rewatch for awhile, so it seemed like a good time to do it.

I think that's the best way it could have gone out given the progress of the show up to that point and the external factors affecting its production. The pacing felt a bit rushed, which is jarring considering the typical pace of the show, but I don't have any major complaints about the story development, really. Some things I think could've been done better but it felt like a decent conclusion to the story, I suppose.

Not 100% satisfying, but to be honest I went in with pretty low expectations. My expectations were subverted in some ways and confirmed in others, and overall it was pretty fun to watch.

Specific thoughts:

I got really excited when Tex showed up and I'm glad she finally got to choose her own ending (Chex real!)

I wish Grif and Simmons had stayed together but I understand why they didn't (Grimmons not real!) At least they got to have a gay moment earlier and it was fun to watch them work together. I also said before that I didn't think they could pull off Grimmons in a way that felt satisfying so I'm not really upset that it's not canon; I'm fine with subtext.

I didn't expect them to kill Sarge but in hindsight that's really the only way his story could've ended (although I thought they executed it a little melodramatically)

Tucker becoming the Meta made a lot of sense and added an extra layer of tension to the combat, so that was fun. They sorta glossed over him afterwards tho like you know he ain't coming out of that normal LMAO

I'll be honest though I'm not really sure what they were trying to do with Wash here and a lot of characters got suuuuuuper sidelined (but I was expecting that too, frankly)

I laughed way too hard when Lopez spoke English and the subtitles were in Spanish

Anyways. I'm sure I'll have more to say when I get back to working on my essays. Just wanted to air out my general thoughts before bed.

#RvB19 spoilers #RvB Restoration #RvB Restoration spoilers #RvB #<- for my own blog sorry #tagging all the other stuff so hopefully it'll get filtered by ppl who don't want spoilies #Salem shouts into the void

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moonsplit · 1 year

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HIIIIIIIIIIIIII

i was wondering if i could request some fluffy or angsty toh hunter×gn!bard!reader headcannons.

that's the overall request, but if i can get a little specific, i would like if you'd include something about the reader being an actual half witch half human, maybe they get angry/sad because everyone uses the term half-a-witch as if it's something to be ashamed of being.

seeing hunter being so appreciative of willow in for the future made me get back into my hunter brainrot and honestly your fluffy hunter hcs were one of the only good hunter×reader work i could find here, i got SO SAD when i realized that was the only work you had published, so here i am, begging for more.

anyway, thx byeeeeee!

↠ "Half-a-witch, huh?" ↞

* pairing ↠ TOH - Hunter x gn!bard!reader * word count ↠ 881 * tags ↠ fluff, soft angst,

* notes ↠ This is the biggest compliment ever omg!! Thank you anon :D

You had a rough time growing up, hearing everyone use what you were as an insult

"Half-a-witch" this and "half-a-witch" that

It wasn't fun having everyone berate and doubt you for it either

People with better intentions would praise you for basic spells

Things you learned in grade school

Even if it did take you a bit longer to learn, they didn't have to treat you as if your existence was weird and wrong

Joining the bard track at Hexside was a choice you'd never regret, but some days people would get insufferable

As if using an instrument was "easier" than spell circles and didn't take even more training and practice just to get right

But noooo, the only thing easier than the bard track was potions, clearly

Meeting Hunter for the first time was certainly.. an experience

Why was this guy camping out at school?

The Boiling Isles was unique, sure, but as far as you knew there weren't many people living in the hidden areas of school

He stumbled over his introduction before running off, you chasing after him

Through a series of convoluted events, you got wrapped up in everything

It started with Hunter, you bringing him snacks and trying to pry any information from this weirdo you could

But, well, the whole school got covered in illusions

You managed to run into him and Gus, the three of you joining forces

Music was useful after all, while Gus could see through the illusion, you could use what was essentially echolocation

The panic attack he had.. wait-

He was the freaking golden guard??

Okay, okay, more important things to think about

But still, pretty important revelation that you're definitely gonna ask about later

And.. the day of unity? It was a sham?

You learned so much in the past day it was hard to digest

You went home, sulking into the familiarity of your bed

And the next day, or, next few days- leading up to the day, you joined the CATS, and their plans-

You were too deep, even if you didn't want to help, which you did, you also probably had a target on your back from being seen with Hunter

When the day came, you were shaken to your core

Everything was happening so fast, so many people to their knees-

Not to mention you were in the freaking human realm

You had been told by your mom that she managed to wander through a door, getting trapped in the demon realm

So you'd only ever heard stories of rain that was cold, the lack of magic..

You had always wanted to see it, your other parent had too- but the two of you only ever got stories from your mom

The victory of it was overshadowed by the fear

Everyone was badly injured, only one of you had been here before, and oh yeah, let's not forget to mention, you had no way of knowing what happened after you left!

It was high tensions for everyone

You spent the months growing close to the group, particularly Hunter

He was the first person you had made your friend, it was only natural you gravitated towards him

You ended up spilling your life's story to him, just a smidge

He listened as you told him about your parents, a brief complaint about "half-a-witch" sending him into a rant

"That insult is stupid, you have some of the most unique bard magic I've seen despite being half human! Luz beat me in a duel with her glyphs, and she's not even half witch, Willow's plant magic is seriously powerful, even-"

He cut himself off, faltering and putting his hands back in his lap. "Sorry."

He shook his head, when you tried to get him to keep going. Well, that was alright- baby steps, I guess.

"You think my technique is unique?"

"It's similar to old wild magic, your spell circles- were they plant or construction? They could both be useful with bard magic now that I think about it..." he trailed off, mumbling as he tried to work it out in his head.

"You saw those? I thought I was subtle! They were so tiny too,"

"It's my job to be observant, I'm the Golden Gua-"

It went silent

Hunter fiddled with his hands and shirt.

You put a hand over his own, causing him to flinch harder than you had seen someone flinch before and push your hand away

"It's okay, it takes time."

"How long is this going to go on? I can't take it."

Neither of you had an answer, of course.

Sure, you guys were safe- relatively, at least

But you couldn't stay in the human realm with no way back

And neither of you had gone through what Hunter was going through

You didn't even know the full extent of it

You spoke up after a few moments of pure silence, save for breathing

"I don't know, but I'll stay by your side. If you'll let me."

"I think I'd like that. Is that weird? That feels weird?"

"Nah, I think Luz made a bet on it though."

"A bet on what?"

You shrugged. "Who knows? It's Luz."

If you could capture the snicker that came from him for eternity, you would.

#I didn't edit this because I was too eager to post it #so I hope it isn't too bad!#the owl house #toh hunter #hunter toh #gender neutral reader #hunter x reader #hunter x gender neutral reader #fluff #x reader #soft angst #i hope this works well!#ALSO GENUINELY THANK YOU #THAT WAS SUCH A COMPLIMENT #today on: Sol wrote more than he thought he was going to and now you have to deal with it #toh

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choices-binglebonkus · 1 year

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Every 2022 Choices Release – Rated on a scale of 1-10

Several people have said that 2022 has been the best year for Choices since 2018. And…as sad as that is, it’s pretty true. Like 2020, 2022’s releases had high highs and low lows. As I’ve said once before, the good books were awesome and the bad ones were really, really, REALLY bad. This post is going to be covering every 2022 book release and rating them on a scale of 1-10 because I haven’t done that on this blog and felt like spicing things up. It’s the new year, bitches!

Quick disclaimer: to qualify for this list, a book must have been initially released to wide audiences (non-VIPs) in 2022, because we don’t do that VIP shit here. So, for example, Wake the Dead was released on December 29, 2021, so it doesn’t qualify for this list even though it ended in 2022. With that out of the way, let’s dive right in.

Ms. Match: January 28, 2022 – April 29, 2022

Ms. Match’s story itself was not terrible, but the general skeleton of the plot is super overdone. I am sick to death of the plots centered around rising to the top of the competition and blowing everyone else away, and that’s pretty much exactly what Ms. Match does. The idea behind it is cute, though: we join a matchmaking company and compete in matchmaking contests and challenges to determine who the next CEO will be. My biggest complaint is that the love interest is…not great. The Rival Matchmaker is far from the worst love interest, but my god, they’re so cocky, full of themselves, and overall annoying as hell, not to mention totally uninteresting. Quite frankly? The cutest couple in the book, as unexpected as it was for me, was Veronica and our character’s dad. 4/10, not a terrible book, but it was a chore to play through at times.

Surrender book 1: February 11, 2022 – June 10, 2022

There are a lot of bad books in Choices, but Surrender is definitely one of the worst. We play as a vulnerable divorce-seeking woman whose spouse has cheated on her, which got her into BDSM. As soon as I saw that that was going to be the plot, it was all over. It was not a great look for the BDSM community, which is already stigmatized enough as is. But it gets worse. Our love interest is Reagan Thorne, our billionaire lawyer who’s also into BDSM and agrees to dom for the MC and teach her about BDSM even though she’s a client, which already introduces an imbalance of power. Barring the shitty plot, terrible love interest, and horrible misrepresentations of BDSM, the dialogue is all sorts of fucked in the book. Reagan utters some of the cringiest lines in the entire app and calls us such embarrassingly bad nicknames like…ugh, little lamb. 1/10, horrible book, horrible story, horrible love interest, horrible everything. Some of the outfits were cute. That’s it.

Crimes of Passion book 1: April 6, 2022 – July 20, 2022

Crimes of Passion is one of the best books we’ve seen in a while. Sort of like Most Wanted, it has us teaming up with a love interest (in this case, Trystan Thorne) to investigate and stop a string of murders tied to a serial killer. Unlike Most Wanted, however, the murders in this book are much, MUCH grislier and more visceral, and are tied to a cult as we come to find out. The plot was very gripping and every clue we uncovered was exhilarating. I cared about pretty much all of our friends/coworkers: Mafalda, Ruby, Luke, and Trystan. I wasn’t totally sold on Trystan as a love interest, though, and I’m still not. 9/10, really good story, crazy fucking shit, love it. One point off for Trystan because I’m not really into the whole cocky/flirty and stubborn partner pairing, and I think we should’ve been able to romance Ruby and Luke.

Untameable book 1: April 15, 2022 – August 5, 2022

We return from college to help out on the family ranch which has been barely kept afloat by our controlling misogynist of a brother. We spend the whole book sneaking around with Kit Jackson, our bland-ass cowboy/cowgirl love interest because we don’t want to upset our brother. The ranch is on the brink of failure and we also have to deal with that too, but we’ve already had this same plot a whole bunch in other books, so it’s not super noteworthy. That’s it, that’s the book. 1.5/10, no interesting characters, plot is uninspired, dialogue is SUPER cringey, and goddamn it, stop reusing cowboy shit, PB! You’re never going to make it happen!

The Princess Swap: May 13, 2022 - September 2, 2022

The premise of this story is that our character studies abroad for a semester in the kingdom of Monterre, where she accidentally stumbles upon another girl, the princess, who looks just like her. Spoiler alert: they’re twin sisters and don’t know it until much later in the book. The two switch places The Prince and the Pauper style: the princess takes on the role of college student and sorority girl while our character takes on the role of princess. Both grapple with challenges unique to each other’s lives and navigate them as best they can. Yes, the story was cheesy as hell, but you know what? It was a really pleasant read. I liked Devin all right, but only as a friend for the princess, and I didn’t care for Clarke at all. Otherwise, The Princess Swap was a lighthearted, feel-good book. 6.5/10, by no means is this book amazing, but I’m a sucker for princess stories, and like I said, the book was pretty light and enjoyable.

The Cursed Heart book 1: June 8, 2022 – September 14, 2022

Let me preface this by saying that I did not like Kieran at all. They were ugly, creepy, and possessive, and yes, I’m aware they eventually change for the better, but they really left a bad taste in my mouth. The plot was centered around us being claimed by Kieran and eventually trying to find their missing heart pieces to cure them of their beastly form and general hollowness. That being said, I love the rest of the book. The outfits, backgrounds, character designs, and music are all gorgeous. No joke, The Cursed Heart, in my opinion, is the most aesthetically beautiful book in the app. Not to mention, we meet Leaf, who is absolutely precious. 5.5/10, the rating would be MUCH higher, but Kieran really takes away from the book since the plot is centered entirely around them.

The Nanny Affair book 3: June 24, 2022 – November 4, 2022

The only good things about this book were Carter, the twins, and the fact that this was the last book in this wretched series. We deal with Sam’s former wife coming back from the dead and contend with forced, trashy interpersonal conflict with her while we plan our wedding. Sam and the MC’s relationship continues to be toxic as hell, unpleasant to watch, and impossible to root for. Even worse, Jenny and Aditya start their own affair because Sam and the MC have enabled them, and unsurprisingly, we’re forced to continue enabling them. I can’t even do the horrid quality of this book justice so I’m not even going to try. 0/10, yes I know it’s a 1-10 rating list but fuck it, this book is just that bad. As I said, the only redeeming qualities of the book are Carter and the twins, but not even they can get this book any points. Speaking from experience, falling into a hole is more fulfilling than engaging with this content. This book and series as a whole are so transcendently bad that if they were an actual real-life book, it would be a Worstseller, and I’m so happy this two-year-long nightmare is finally over.

Immortal Desires book 1: July 6, 2022 – October 12, 2022

Immortal Desires is kind of a weird one for me. On one hand, the beginning to early middle is so slow and such a huge chore to play through, but on the other hand, the rest of the book plus Gabe and Cas are so awesome. The premise of a vampire serial killer and cult is honestly kinda metal as fuck, but Gabe and Cas are where the book REALLY shines. They’re each other’s perfect foils and I love interacting with them and seeing them interact with each other. Plus, my parrot loves M!Gabe. And, full disclosure, Gabe and Cas were the only love interests I actively wanted to pursue since Tom Sato from It Lives Beneath. 8.5/10, the story’s pacing was kind of fucked but Gabe and Cas are priceless.

Slow Burn: August 19, 2022 – November 25, 2022

Not much to say about this one. Generic and repetitive contest/competition plot, bland MC, uncompelling Big Bad. I didn’t care about Julian/Julia, and Everett/Yvette had absolutely ZERO chill and always got on my nerves. 3/10, super boring and uninspired, Chef Flynt Stop Losing Your Fucking Temper Challenge 2022.

Murder at Homecoming: September 14, 2022 – December 21, 2022

This one really got my attention when it was announced: our character investigates a murder at homecoming, but I bet you couldn’t guess that from the title. Our character is sort of a busybody and they’re absolutely not perfect in any way, but I truly do think they’re the best MC we’ve gotten in a very, very, VERY long time. Also, they’re named after Valentine from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and I am a shameless sucker for Shakespeare. I also like all the love interests, and I love the non-binary rep we got. The love story between Gabbie Navarro and Joanna Morgan was incredibly tragic and really made me stop and think for a while. But unfortunately, as is the case with most modern Choices books, the ending was very…lackluster, to say the least. 8/10, I love a good murder mystery and the high school setting actually made it considerably more interesting. The ending was a letdown, though.

Laws of Attraction book 2: September 30, 2022 – present

I was originally very worried about this book, because the cliffhanger at the end of book one made it seem like it was going to be an us vs. Martin book. In a way, it is, but Pixelberry really threw us a curveball when we, Aislinn, and Gabe left McGraw-Byrne and formed our own firm. We spend the book uncovering a conservatorship conspiracy which runs all the way up to the mayoral candidate of New York City. I’ve always loved the MC, and they only get better in this book. My only complaint is Joaquin. As someone who has repeatedly hooked up with him in diamond scenes, he is creepy as hell to people who aren’t interested in him. Otherwise, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the book so far, and though it still has one chapter to go, my rating isn’t going to change unless they REALLY fuck it up somehow. 9/10, likable cast of characters, interesting plot and mystery, badass MC, Sorcha fucking Flannery.

The Phantom Agent: October 19, 2022 – present

Not much to say about this one either. The Phantom Agent is basically an amalgamation of Most Wanted and Crimes of Passion. Agent Gray is an incredibly dull love interest and I can’t stand their dynamic with the MC because it’s that super boring cocky/flirty and stubborn partner pairing again. I also can’t stand the MC either because they’re so goddamn annoying. I find myself very bored and unimpressed as I progress through the book and at this point, nothing can save it for me. 3/10, everything is boring. That is all.

Surrender book 2: December 28, 2022 – present

I hate that we have to have TWO Surrender books on this list, but this one unfortunately barely meets the date cutoff. Solely based on the two chapters I’ve read so far, this book is shaping up to be just as awful as the first. 1.5/10, all the same reasons as the first book, but that extra half a point is because I think this book has the potential to improve on the original material. Because let’s be honest here, I don’t really think they could make the book worse.

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oldmemoria · 7 months

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God finally I finished the 1992 Spider-Man 2099 comics—

SPOILER WARNING BTW IM JUST SPITTING OUT MY THOUGHTS RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW GET OUT IF YOU DONT WANT THE COMICS SPOILED FOR YOU PLEASE AND THANK YOU

Overall, writing wise I liked it. Most of it, at least. I wasn’t a huge fan of the art style at some points but that’s just personal preference, I guess. I know how much work and how little time goes into comics so that is just a tiny thing to me. Biggest complaint about the art style was how the women were drawn. Uh…. Yeah, it was the 90s. I’m not shocked we’ve barely grown and it’s 2023. Side note but this comic really did predict some modern stuff didn’t it /hj

The downsides…. Oh boy. I don’t like how most of the female characters were relegated to the damsel in destress or…. Miguel lover. Ig??

Conchata was sort of out of the ordinary with that and that’s why I liked her (Xina too, both of their personalities stuck out to me and I liked them. Xina sort of reminded me of Red from TLOTFK National Anthem for some reason) but I mean… she was the main characters mom. Kinda makes sense that she’d go against the grain

That and the representation of Mexican culture.. my god did I hate it. As a Latino, specifically as someone who is Mexican, I was not a fan of how Day of the Dead was portrayed specifically. It isn’t just Mexican Halloween. But in the comic… yeah that’s what I got from it and I think if a kid who didn’t really know what that is might end up being ill informed but just— they should have done more research. That’s all I’ll say.

I can give them a little leeway and say “oh it was the 90s”. So I will. It was the 90s. What am I gonna expect from a comic book in the 90s. This was actually pretty progressive for the time so why am I complaining 💀

Oddly enough though, I did enjoy the representation of suicidal tendencies and ideation from Miguel. You don’t see that a lot. At least not in the way this was depicted and from what I’ve seen. It was relatable. Every time he got into a near death situation he still fought through it and didn’t give up. Which like, yeah, I wouldn’t want to be killed by some guy with wings or drown because fish man or something, but as he spirals I feel like it was depicted well. He knew that he couldn’t take his own life because not only did he have a job to do (save the city, work at alchemax) but also he found that other people did end up caring about him. At some points that didn’t matter to him, sometimes it did. It’s a fucking roller coaster, realistically.

With the scene right after the reveal of Tyler stone, Miguel’s really awful boss who groomed him into his position at alchemax, being Miguel’s father. We see a shot of either Miguel attempting or thinking of killing himself. Personally I interpreted it as an attempt. Felt like it was a spur in the moment kind of thing, which is realistic, as far as I know. Reading his dialogue and thoughts just felt real. It felt like someone was maybe directly talking to me about their thoughts or that i was reading someone’s journal. There was no filter. Miguel has no filter. I fucking love him for that.

Everyone in the story was just kind of an asshole in some way. There was no morally good or morally evil. I’d say everyone in some way was morally grey.

Miguel is kind of a dick, but he cares about the people around him even though he may not properly show it (whether or not that’s because of trauma or, in my personal interpretation, him being possibly autistic is up to you. I think it’s a little bit of both). He feels guilt when he hurts people, when he kills others, on accident mind you, but he does. He shuts down. He trails off. He’s not evil or malicious, he’s just very very emotionally damaged. Which by all means isn’t an excuse for how he treats some of the people in his life throughout the comics but they serve as a good explanation.

Dana generally seemed to… kind of care? She did sleep around and was bouncing between literally all 3 of the OHaras (Miguel her fiance, Gabriel her brother-in-law, and Tyler her father-in-law), but she also treated them more like trophies than anything. We didn’t see a lot of her backstory or motivations because she really just… was only there when the plot needed to mention “oh by the way Miguel’s fiance cheats on him”. I wish we got to see more of her, tbh. I wanted to see her line of thinking (maybe I will once I eventually reread but rn my brain feels like it’s about to explode and I need to eat something before it does. T minus 8 minutes /ref)

Gabriel. Just Gabriel. I do not have the right words to unpack him. Holy fuck.

Xina was a bit of a hothead, ig? She bounced off of Miguel’s character pretty well because she directly went against him. Not like she was a villain at any point but she did end up being at odds with him at some point, so.. she does, however, still care about other people and just like Miguel she feels so much regret about the past. I’d argue everyone in this story just kind of sits in a puddle of “oh god this unending agony”. I’m happy she seemed to be blazing her own trail at the end of the comic. Cool of her. Very cool.

Tyler…. Yeah I didn’t like him and technically speaking he is a villain, but he wasn’t entirely evil apparently, he liked Dana. Even though i don’t believe him. He’s a greedy shit who basically only values his role in a billion dollar company so uh.. fuck him. He’s not cool. I wouldn’t say he’s morally grey but if we take his word at face value he can feel love. I guess. But I don’t think he does. Nuh uh, Tyler Stone, Nuh uh.

Lyla was great. I love her. She’s funny, witty, her timing is great, she’s fucking insane sometimes but yknow what that’s fine. I saw a post describing her as “the weird fairy that haunts Miguel” (paraphrasing) and I cannot help but see her that way from now on. Especially movie Lyla. Because she’s just FUNNY in both and she’s so much fun I wish there was more of her in the comic and I WISH WE HAD MORE OF THAYT RANDOM PUNK VARIANT OF HER WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT—

Overall, I found the comics charming regardless of my few critiques. It was written well to reflect that not everyone is picture perfect, everyone is just a bit cynical, and relationships are rocky sometimes. Especially if trauma and literal actual grooming is involved. Also I smiled and cheered a little bit when Tyler stone died and when alchemax fucking exploded.

That was great

(Sorry if this was a little incoherent like I mentioned before my brain hurts and I’d probably have to reread over and over to get my full analysis, this is just my final thoughts after my first full read through)

Will I read the other Spider-Man 2099 comics?

#atsv #across the spiderverse #miguel o'hara #comic miguel #spider man 2099 #spiderverse #miguel spiderman #i want to consume goldfish hhggrgrjrkwiflal

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oodlyenough · 4 months

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with the apollo justice ports around the corner I finally made a concerted effort to finish AAI. there was a period where i thought i'd play both investigations games AND tgaa before now. lol. lmao even

fandom wasn't kidding that last case can long

miscellaneous spoilers and overall thoughts on AAI1. also it's very long

let's get some good stuff up top to start:

it was pretty funny

the pixel sprites were soooo cute, and most of the character art was nice in general

i liked seeing more of edgeworth and franziska together. this was 80% of the reason i played the game to begin with. stupid little details like the fact that she does, actually, still call him "miles" occasionally were nice to have, and i liked a lot of their bratty sibling interactions

callisto yew was the best lmao i loved her

kay's cute. i gotta disagree with the common fanon that she's literally edgeworth's daughter, on account of it's been two days and someone else has raised her to near adulthood, but being a teenager who shows up sometimes to bother him is a very funny thing for her to be, anyway

the yatagarsu actually being a toxic polycule was funny as shit lmao i love it. and kay at the end saying she wants to find 3 fellow teenage beauties to do it with her fhkldhglkhlfg yes girl end up on reddit queer housing discourse i believe in u babe

i didn't like lang all that much to begin with but once we got to the shih-na reveal i was all in, lmfaoooo. i joked "i hope he eats a poison necklace for her" and five minutes later he was taking a bullet. amazing. in all seriousness their relationship felt like much of what i enjoyed about dahlia and phoenix minus the stuff i felt was stupid. let's hear it for toxic workplace romances. edgey comes out of 3-5 like "well that was a lot" and then meets some new spiky weirdo to have homoerotic rivalry with only to discover that guy is also insane about some evil woman

cammy and ms teneiro were also great. lot of funny women in some of these cases. i like that.

this game could have attempted to sell me on some het romance for edgeworth -- it wouldn't have worked, but i wouldn't have exactly been surprised if it had tried, yknow -- but anyway instead it had miscellaneous women flirt with him while he was consistently baffled and/or oblivious and/or revolted. don't worry mr edgeworth i saw your magenta suit

i think broadly that covers the stuff I liked. which leads me to ... stuff I did not:

this game was... rough, imo. after i finished the trilogy this summer i was excited to play this, in particular because one of my few but key complaints with aa3-5 was that franziska and edgeworth just kind of disappeared and i was hoping this would give more exploration and closure to their characters.

that... did not happen. i felt like i was waiting for it to hit a point and get good for pretty much the entire game; it'd be like "well at least franziska is here soon" "well i want to meet kay" "well there's the baby franziska case" "well it's the finale surely it'll be fun!" and mostly none of that really materialized. largely i found it disappointing and anticlimactic.

i don't think i learned anything new about the existing characters -- edgeworth just kind of seemed to be reiterating lessons we already learned in the trilogy, and i felt they negated a lot of franziska's trilogy development and/or flanderized her a lot. the new characters are ok -- i LOVED yew/shih-na lmfao, and I like Kay, and I eventually came to like Lang once I saw him be unhinged about shih-na. but overall i felt the character work was weaker than I was expecting, and without the investment I have from the trilogy I doubt I'd have finished the game. the bratworth + baby franziska case was my fave of the game, because it was fun to see them together in that period of their lives, but even then I don't think how edgeworth was written makes any real sense with aa1 -- i think trilogy bratworth would take the easy conviction against gumshoe and be done with it. that was like. pretty core to the first three games.

I didn't find anything particularly emotional. I WAS interested in Callisto and her dead sister as compared to Kay and her dead father but, never mind, that was a lie. They tried to convince me KG8 was personal to everyone, but it didn't really feel like it for anyone but Kay -- who I like but met two cases ago, and whose connection to even Edgeworth is tenuous. Like they make it pretty clear Franziska is haunted by that case but ... why? Because she regards it as a semi failure I guess...? Like sure, I guess, but ... that's kind of remote. Compare to the trilogy finale stakes of defendant Edgeworth, Maya kidnapped, Phoenix falling off a bridge + Maya missing... the big threat here was that some guy we just recently met might go on to murder other people we've never met in foreign countries. Objectively yes that's bad, but it's not exactly emotionally gripping, imo.

I feel like the nature of the games and its place in the broader AA universe meant the stakes were off. edgeworth and his allies get accused of murder every five minutes in this game, but none of it ever feels real, because by "accused" they mean the police ask a few questions. in AA terms, this is nothing. there's no detention center or arrest or the threat of a 3 day trial and inexplicable death penalty. i've been saying for ages that i would love to see defendant franziska, everyone else got a turn!!, etc -- and technically this last case gave it to me except, well, she was one of about a dozen people accused over the span of the world's longest case, there's no real threat there, and frankly where's the fun in franziska being accused of murder if not for her to grudgingly accept phoenix as her representation. AAI's determination that everything happen pre-trial means that mostly none of it felt very serious; no one even gets arrested. maybe in a vacuum the threat of arrest would feel like enough, but in a series where you have Maya as Murder Charges Georg it just felt like nothing was really on the line -- what's the worst that happens, they get arrested and they hire phoenix? lol. don't threaten me with a good time!

this post is a million words long so I'll stop there. in conclusion, the worst ace attorney game I have played so far. fortunately(?) for AAI and unfortunately for me, i have not yet played dual destinies or spirit of justice, so stay tuned to see if it gets dethroned, lmfao.

i will, probably, eventually give AAI2 a try, if only to better understand everyone's fanfiction, but my hopes are pretty low.

#oodly plays AAI #ace attorney investigations

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pbandjesse · 1 month

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Oh man. Tired. Tired. Tired. But today was a pretty good day. I only have minor complaints. Because overall it was really good.

I slept okay. I felt really overheated in here and finding the right fan setting and blankets combinations was tough. But I slept and I didnt even sleep to bad.

I woke up with my alarm and told James I wanted to sleepy until 730. And I did just that. And when I woke up James was getting ready to leave so I still got a goodbye hug.

I got dressed and I really liked this outfit. I was in a good mood. My hair still feels weirdly dry. But besides that I was doing good.

I had a good drive. And got to camp. But I felt a little out of sorts. And a little weak. So I was like oh let me drive the materials on the gator. Except I couldn't find the gator keys. And walked all around camp trying to retrace my steps from yesterday. And getting really upset.

I saw Sarah's car so I went to ask her and she found them right on the walkie talkies. I was only slightly embarrassed.

I would go drive the gator and Rachel would come down from the house to work the field trip today. Her and Sarah would go off to set some stuff up while I went to drive my materials over.

I would finish with enough time to just chill and eat breakfast. Everyone else came in and soon it was time to go meet the group.

This was 5th graders. And they were just to cool to do stuff. Not all of them. But it makes it tough when they make fun of kids who are still doing things without shame. Stop shaming them!!

I tried to be a good influence and so the warm up too. I also was in a silly mood and had marshmallows on my purse and was eating them throughout the morning.

I asked to be paired up with Adam and we had a really good hike. I walked them all over. And we found so many good things. And I was feeling really good about myself because I knew what some stuff was called but also I just had a great eye for catching interesting things.

My favorite find of the day was blood root. But we also found so many other good plants I have never heard of and it was just so fun.

We did have some trouble with some bullying happening. This one little boy just obviously did not want to be there and was just being so horrible to the others. Calling some really vicious names and getting to close swinging a stick near faces. I was pretty concerned and when I couldn't get him to stop I had to ask Adam to walk with him and he ended up calling Gabe for back up. It was kind of disappointing because everyone else was respectful and having fun exploring. And I was having a lot of fun.

We went down to the Glen and got to see the tadpoles finally!!! And we found some interesting bushes and we did some log rolling. Didn't find to much besides bugs. But it was still a good time.

We would make our way back to the lodge and I found another bloodroot. This time we picked it to squeeze it for some yellow ink and they put their fingerprints on the wonder sheets (a worksheet they had walked around with).

We had a little meeting of the minds to say the things they saw. But the other groups would come and distracted us so we would just dismiss to lunch.

I went back to the office to have my leftover chipotle. Checked in with everyone. Had some quiet time just watching a video. But lunch was short and soon we were off to our programs.

I stopped at the lodge and saw the trash truck was stuck between the buses and it's wheels were spinning. But they were able to work together and get themselves sorted out.

Soon we were back to programs. And it was for sure different then last week. They weren't as interested in the print making. Which is fine. They were interested in the lead rubbings and drawing blended skies with chalk pastels. I'm just glad they wanted to do art.

I was suffering in the sun though. I didn't have my sunglasses and I found it really uncomfortable. But when no one was at my table I would go stand in the shade. Eventually wander to Sarah's table to hold Rosie the snake and scratch Nelly the terrapin. And it was really fun to just walk around wearing Rosie. She's so soft and such a sweet snake. Love her.

We would clean up around 2. And the kids were leaving by 230. I sat outside while they finished up in the lodge. Enjoying the rocking chairs. And saying goodbye to everyone.

Some of them will come back this summer for sleep away camp!! They got a scholarship to bring 20 of them and I'm really excited that they are able to do that.

I had a nice chat with Gabe about free choice learning and Montessori in different communities and it was really fun. He also told me he might work with camp this summer too and that's great. He's great. And so clearly cares about the kids and I love them. A good egg.

After the group left I would go clean the bathrooms. And after putting things away and joking with Nick I went to put things away, including the other programs just to be helpful. And then back to the office.

Heather approached me about a new research project. Which will be able the signs around camp that Bob painted before he passed away. So I spent the last hour of my day starting to look into resources and ways we can start trying to make a catalog of the work and the stories.

So over the next few weeks I'm going to start photographing the shields and trying to make sense of the stories. I will have to be comfortable asking for help and leaning on others. But it'll get done eventually.

The last little bit of the day I was talking to Elizabeth and Sarah about Elizabeth's trip to Colorado and experiencing a weed store for the first time. And I got to tell the story about Tucker giving the concessions worker the container of THC gummies as a tip. Which is still hilarious.

I went home pretty quickly after that. And it was a good drive with almost not traffic. I was home right after 430.

I would beat James. And I would get really upset because I thought they left our typhoid medication on the counter and it needs to be refrigerated and it was very expensive. But thankfully when they got home and let me know they had consolidated the two bags and the pills were safe. I was still a little upset because I was unsettled by the idea. But it all worked out.

I did some cleaning in the studio. Just reorganizing the closet. It wasn't going well. Piece of wood fell on my head. But it was fine. I need more ways to organize but for now it's fine and works well enough. I need one of those shoe organizers. I'll have to measure for that soon.

We would go take a walk to get pizza. And I was in a great mood and was being super silly and telling James stories. And I was having a great time.

The pizza was great. I was sad when it was gone. But I was having the best time with James explaining how I always pick out the pieces I want as soon as it hits the table and I try and see if James picks the ones I wanted. James laughed at me for gamifying dinner.

We would continue our little evening and walked to bmore licks. It's kind of a far walk but I was doing good. Excited to wear my sandals. And happy with my husband.

We would get hard scoop for cream. James got two salty savory cereal flavors. I got a peanut butter Oreo and a mint Oreo. And it was great.

I waited until we got to the pond to eat it. And it was perfect. And I loved watching the ducks. And I told James some stories. And clowned on them. And they told me about minor league baseball works. And we had a great evening.

We headed home and it felt really far. But we got back and I was only sort of tired.

James downloaded a demo of a game for me and I played for a while and we hung out on the couch. Eventually James went to take a shower and I took one after. So the water would be a little warmer. I appreciate them so much. Taking care of me. Love them so much.

Now we are in bed. And I am tired but in a way that will let me sleep easy. Let's hope I'm right.

I hope you have a nice day tomorrow! Take care!! Be well!!!

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jetstarred · 1 month

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what i listened to in march 2024!

total: 8 albums top 3 albums: preacher's daughter (ethel cain), call me if you get lost (tyler, the creator), the michigan left (queef jerky) click read more to see full reviews ^-^

preacher's daughter - ethel cain (2022) - fav song: gibson girl - this is a very beautiful and haunting concept album. i really love the story that's explored here of a girl with religious trauma running away from her family and falling in love with a man she meets, only to be murdered and cannibalized by him. the songs shift through the same group of emotions; longing, fear, regret, hope, and pensiveness. there's some moments that really pull deep at my bones and make me cry. this is more of a country/folk album than i'm typically used to but the rock elements that are included and the grand production are familiar enough for me to enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone. i'm very excited to see the next part in the supposed trilogy of this story. - rating: 9/10

deathmetal - panchiko (2000) - fav song: cut - this is a pretty good shoegaze-y album full of a lot of typical teenage angst. it benefits from the poor mixing and diy garage sound, which makes it feel like a group of friends just got together to make music about their problems. what really elevates this album is the story behind it. this album being so underground and essentially "lost media" that was eventually found and led to the band having a huge resurgence in the past few years is so cool. the rot versions of some of the songs also add a very unique found footage-esque vibe to the whole album that almost makes it feel as if it was part of an arg. overall i think while the content of the album is alright, the fact its so widespread now is a testament to the dedication of music lovers. - rating: 7/10

laisser vivre les squelettes - daïtro (2005) - fav song: laisser vivre les squelettes - i was surprised by this being french (for some reason) but honestly i really liked the sound of it. while i don't love music where the vocals are mainly screaming, this was still pleasant to listen to for me. the music was enjoyable, especially the guitar and the drums. the only complaint i really have was the long spans of just music, which became a little grating at times. the ending of the last song was nice though i liked how it faded out. while i probably won't reach for this album again, it was still very nice to listen to more skrams music and get a feel for what it is. - rating: 5/10

isn't it wonderful - sugar cherry (2023) - fav song: october sky - this a really nice shoegaze-y indie bedroom pop album. its very short and sweet, with the album carrying a lot of feelings of nostalgia and not quite angst. its more so like yearning. as the side project of rozey (someone who hasn't release a lot of music but i like a lot) it was really nice discovering this and the album going in the more lo-fi noisy direction that rozey's been going in with his newer songs. admittedly a lot of the songs sound very similar because of the lo-fi atmosphere but there's enough distinctive elements in each song that can make them stand out after repeated listens. overall i really enjoyed this album! - rating: 7/10

call me if you get lost - tyler, the creator (2021) - fav song: lemonhead - i really like the loose concept with this album. the visuals are very strong so i wish the concept was tighter, but i get that this is tyler's "i made it" album. which i can give him a pass for bragging so much in this album. i think he deserves it. the music in this album is very similar to what's in flower boy and igor, with it very clear this is the style tyler's adapted and evolved as his own. there's much more rapping in this album than in igor, which causes this to be a nice mix of the two previous albums and even cherry bomb. overall i think this album is a very solid follow up to the massive hit that was igor and i am excited to see what tyler does next and if he tries to pivot to doing something new and different. - rating: 8/10

the michigan left - queef jerky (2023) - fav song: farward - as every queef jerky project, this is full of bangers. nick and dev have perfected making good comedy rap that has experimental elements. some of the bars included were really clever while others just made me laugh really hard. the production choices are reminiscent of jpegmafia but in a direction that makes the music have a sort of "contained chaos" atmosphere to it. and some sections really reminded me of breakcore which is a genre i've been listening to more recently. i dig it a lot and i'm soooo excited to hear what they release next. (i'm also legally obligated to disclose i fuck with this album more than any of their other stuff bc of the inclusion of riley from hivemind on every song. sorry america) - rating: 8/10

scaring the hoes - jpegmafia & danny brown (2023) - fav song: shut yo bitchass up / muddy waters - i don't know that much about rap so take what i say with a grain of salt. this album sounds very much like a throwback to older rap but updated with new styles especially that of breakcore and the general experimental hip hop peggy and danny brown are known for. i really enjoyed the production on this and honestly i think the two rappers work really well together. i was already familiar with peggy's music prior to listening to this but i haven't listened to much danny brown. this album def convinced me to go give some of his stuff a listen. the production on this album is really good and i fuck with it a ton! - rating: 8/10

once, but never again - supercollider (2023) - fav song: anyday - this album is very much inspired by shoegaze, taking elements from that and other genres like garage rock, post-hardcore, and post-grunge. its very much a diy album, with not great mixing and vocals that are very poorly recorded. all of this adds to the noisy atmosphere that gives way to the angtsy vibe of the songs. while i didn't love every song on this album, i liked the overall vibe and what they were going for. i see real potential in this band and i'm very interested in listening to their newest album. (after looking at the playlist for the album inspo, i'm not surprised at the presence of mbv, slowdive, deftones, and have a nice life) - rating: 6/10

#its that time of the month bitch!#didnt listen to as much this month cause i was so busy recovering from my busy feb + getting ready for my busy april #but im excited to listen to a ton of new music in april :3 #wilt #jet reviews

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anti-dazai-blog · 1 month

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Hi, recently discovered your blog, love it <3

I started reading the manga around the Kamui Reveal, and back then already worried about the entire arc. Personally, the Dazai-vs-Fyodor-Setup felt undirected and predictable (back then and yet again at its end).

To me, it’s been already pointed out how Asagiri might have a hard time deleting the original cast from the story, which I don’t fault him for. (He likes creating and writing characters and you can tell, I actually love it.) My problem would just be that he needs to change stakes to the plot, it’s getting in the way of immersive storytelling (because he seldomly pulls through with the stakes long-term regarding the original character cast.)

You can actually write a story with good stakes that are consequential to actions without killing characters off; if you do it well, not having death threats hanging over every characters heads won’t take away from the story. (However, with a setting and worldbuilding like bsd it’s a little unrealistic to not have death as side effect/consequence or characters die.)

Back to the arc that’s been going on for years, it feels weird (unplanned), because that’s opposite to how the previous arcs (and especially the light novels) felt and it’s one of the longest arcs; I would have assumed Asagiri had something in mind for a proper (plot)conclusion (it’s a personal opinion that this arc is not properly concluded (currently)).

When we had chuuya drowns and dazai gets shot scenes, I wasn’t for one second thinking they actually died, I was thinking, how is Asagiri gonna write himself out of these scenes (because to me it felt like he didn’t have a solution, reviving the characters, prior to their death scenes), which is a pretty non immersive experience as a reader.

And it’s really weird to me, because I can’t think of a good reason of how all this happened.

Asagiri is not a bad writer, that’s established and the (i think) last „side“ project Stormbringer was exceptional (personal opinion (and I was still baffled(slight negative connotation) at Verlaine being kept alive (who knows wether he will play a role in the future)), it’s really weird thinking about Stormbringer and this arc being written out at a similar time. (I personally have a theory as to why the light novels are so good: He likes writing snd creating characters, but having them interact in this huge cast and series is understandably difficult, whereas the light novels can be seen as a backstory/part of a character, something he is incredibly good at constructing.(He also doesn’t really struggle killing off people here, because the consequences don’t affect the main story.))

He doesn’t „pander“ to people either I think, or at least it wouldn’t make sense. Bsd might possibly have attracted a shounen audience, but it got popular because of seinen themes and characters (which affects the plot) in the first place, so changing things towards to a shounen lane would be dumb, and also not something like Asagiri would do.

I’ve also skimmed across my rant here and I sound like I hate the arc or his writing, but I actually don’t haha, I actually liked a lot of this arc, themes and characters and still have faith in him as an author and this series, it’s just these particular things that kinda hugely scratch my opinion on this arc and how what’s currently happening feels like a non-answer to everything that came before it.

I’m interested in hearing your opinion on this, if you want to take the time for this huge complaint rant (I’m not mad if you don’t haha), in which ways you agree/disagree/could possibly educate me further.

You blog overall is really cool, love your analyses; lots of love <33

Thank you for the ask, I’m so glad you’re enjoying this blog!!!

You’ve summed up the current arc’s issues perfectly— it seems to be out of place when compared to everything else Asagiri wrote in both the previous arcs and the light novels. It came across as aimless— as if Asagiri himself wasn’t sure where he was going with it and was as taking it chapter by chapter.

That being said, I do believe that it might just be a matter of personal taste—maybe Asagiri’s tastes in storytelling has changed over the years, and the current arc is the type of stuff he’d be more interested to write about going forward. I’d be a bit disappointed if that’s the case (and as far as I could tell, I won’t be the only one), but he might form a new fanbase that this current type of story is more catered to.

Either way, I still have hope that future bsd arcs might revert back to how bsd used to be four years ago.

#anti dazai asks #I started watching bsd in 2021 and back then the manga arc didnt feel so different from the overall tone of the beginning anime arcs #It started getting weird in 2022 I think

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redsposterart · 1 month

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I was originally planning to show this when I completed the poster, but I got impatient.

This was a funny little thing me and my friend talked about which was, what if Mega Man X was adapted like how the 90s Mario Movie was (Not the new one, the first one).

Aka a poor video game adaption into a movie and attempt to make things more edgy, changing the story, changing the characters personalities, yet there are still hints of the game with the items and the ability to take the weapon from other Mavericks.

Basically like what if the movie existed, and it was bad.

Yeah. Was just an idea for fun. So here are the concepts:

"Let's start off with the man himself, for some reason in the movie they gave X a more... Edgy personality? Or at least made him way more serious and tragic. They gave him a more: "I must do this alone." Persona. Which was a weird change... I would almost say he was Like the Ruby Spears version of X but more angsty."

(Yeah these little review things too because why not?)

"Zero didn't get alot of changes I would say, but one thing they did change was giving him X's personality, they still kept some bits from Zero's original personality, but... They pretty much gave him X's personality. This was probably ment to play into this version of the dynamic of X and Zero, but honestly... It kinda was really weird."

(Zero was fun to draw tbh)

"I was very surprised they added her in, but again this did came out after X5 so I guess it makes sense. She didn’t get much screentime but still played a key role in it by being a mother figure for X. I am not surprised they pulled that and honestly is actually one of the good things in this movie. Her personality overall stayed they same just with her being more motherly. My only wish is if we got more screen time of her."

(She was the hardest to figure out but I manged it somehow)

"For all the flaws the movie has, Vile was one of the ups. He was actually pretty close to his game counterpart, with some changes being that he is even more of a scary villain now. He is pretty much almost like his Ruby Spears counterpart, with a more sadistic side to him. My only complaint is that his death near the end, with his final battle being interrupted by being killed by Sigma."

(Fun fact, Vile's eyes and face were inspired by transformers Prime Megatron)

"Iris was honestly the closest to her game counterpart when it comes to design, which makes it all the more disappointing that she barely had any screentime. She only appeared twice, both were flashbacks. One of one where Alia explained about the "Repliforce incident" and one in Zero's flashbacks where we briefly hear the iconic: "What am I fighting for?!" Scene. It seemed over all her personality was accurate, with the only thing they changed was that she was attacked by a Maverick and Zero had found her when it was too late. But that's all I can really say since she barely even appears or gets mentioned. I really wish we actually had screentime with her so we could have seen what her dynamic with Zero was like before she was killed, aside from knowing that she was a "Very important person to Zero".

(I actually really liked Drawing Iris, since her design is really good tbh. So I didn't wanna change much)

Welp there ya have it. I will complete the poster eventually, but yeah, here we go for now!

#90s style #art #fan art #fandom stuff #mega man x #concept art #character design #character art #au stuff #i guess #Mega Man X movie #video game movies #movie adaptation #Mega Man X movie adaptation

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scrunkly-cherry · 2 months

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Here it is! Some splatfest-screenshots and my overall thoughts!

(warning, I might sound a little cranky at the start, but ofc I'm grateful for the results and had otherwise lots of fun!)

I didn't fight much, the first day atleast, since I was at a convention. I wore a little "Go Team Keyboard"-Sign around me 24/7 tho :D even ran into another Splatoon-Cosplayer! (Had a closet cos of agent 8)

I'm not sure if the complaints are still getting to me, but the amount of times I've lost to spawncamping made the first and ¼ of the second half... Not that much enjoyable. I got pretty heated, to be fair, but it's honestly just a silly squid game, so it's not that deep. I'm tbh a little embarrassed :'] Especially when you lose 3 out of all the 5 10x battles they gave you. It's just not fun to run out of your spawn and get instantly downed again, but it's not something I'd blame a specific team on. (And you shouldn't aswell!) I got friends on both Drums and Guitar (I was almost alone on keyboard :')), so GG to them ofc! Sorry if I got a little toxic in the first half :( (But just saying - having this kind of battle experience, then miraculously winning, only to come online to get insults thrown at your face because youre so "toxic" and "tryharding"... Less fun. But more on that below.)

Alright, enough with the negatives! Let's focus on the stuff I actually liked!

Walking around the plaza, as always, was very fun! I love almost all of the first half songs so much :'D (with the exception of City of Color, which I don't hate, but I love Tomorrows Nostalgia Today too much lmao). I honestly wish I could put more than one video in here.

In the first half I played as my side order octoling "Reed". Need a bit more lore on him. I had a few ideas but wasn't sure on going through with it. Second half however...

DUDE WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU HAVE YOUR OWN SPLATFESTS TO HOST

I decided to cosplay as sury! It indeed made things a little more fun, although I had to choose Mel's weapon instead because I couldn't deal with the slow, large splatana :'D

Usually I make OCs out of my Splatfest-Teams, but using preexisting characters is even more fun! Let's see if I can use Mel in the future too :D

I don't have the oth amiibos

It was at the second half, but I did manage to win some 10xs in the end :] (Which means I've officially heard all three singular idol win themes in-game)

To come back to the results-thing, I expected everyone to be bitter as usual, but everyone was... strangely nice and happy for the win. At first I was kind of annoyed, but if it continues like this, I feel Splatfests might actually get excited for everyone again. (I was actually pretty optimistic and fine with every decision so far, but it's even better if I can actually agree with the fandom lol)

Again, good job to Team Drums and Guitar! And Overall, good job team! Excited for the next splatfest :D 🩷💚💜

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #drums vs guitar vs keyboard #and also WOAH i can see the appeal of oth now their plaza looks amazing #oh yeah i also really liked the fizzibang mechanic #but it clashes with the well-being of visually impacted people #hope the color lock could atleast fix some things :(#splatfest

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elch-im-ausland · 3 months

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well I feel bad for neglecting this account so I'm going to keep a little log of my trip to berlin just for fun

Saturday Feb. 17 2024

I wake up in Tübingen in Helia's dorm room because Fiona wanted the Deutsch Kompakt Kurs to hang out again at the end of the semester on Friday and Helia still had to return my book (Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata) to me and the party was in the common area of her building. So anyway I spent the night in her room since she has an extra mattress and when I woke up she made breakfast (hot milk and muesli... don't ask) and then I took the bus to the Tübingen Hauptbahnhof and from there I got to the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof at 11:30 am. I should mention that I'm a chronic overpacker and my bag was so fucking heavy but I made it.

Then I went to Yorma's and bought a Butterbrezel (I wanted the thick one with the green onions but apparently I didn't order the right one so I got the tiny Brezel with a measly swipe of butter so that was fun) and also a mozzarella and tomato sandwich (also not the one I wanted and also all the lettuce fell to the bottom of the bag 🥲). But if you were me at a busy train station and there was a long line behind you, you would also just take what you were given without complaint. I also bought an apfelschorle and Haribo gummies cuz I like to get a little silly with it.

So anyway then I check my email and find out that my train to Berlin got switched so my seat got rebooked so instead of sitting in front of the luggage rack (to make sure no one stole my stuff) I sat in a normal seat like a normal person. Luckily though the guy from Mannheim who was supposed to sit next to me decided to sit somewhere else :D yay!

Train ride was about 5.5 hours long with stops in Mannheim and Frankfurt. Free WLAN and I got some solid knitting done. the sky was very pretty.

Arrive at 19 Uhr and the woman who is hosting me sends me very long directions on how to find her place. She is a friend of a friend of a friend of my parents. As it turns out. I get stopped by a guy doing a survey? I think? outside of the Berlin Hauptbahnhof but I slithered out of that interaction by answering all of his questions and being very unassertive.

I arrive at the apartment building my host lives in which is covered in very cool graffiti and is just so German idk, she rings me up and I get to discover just how many flights of stairs my poor body can handle. Remember how I overpacked? I do always regret it in the end, yet I never learn. The apartment is on the top floor and it's covered in very cool art and vintage posters and maps and things and full of very luscious plants it's so rad.

My host is really nice, she is also studying art (I think her Master's program?) and she invites me to this party she's going to tonight that's a 50th birthday party for a woman she knows. So I take a shower and go there and it's also on like the 5th floor (my asthma is loving this). There is music, live experimental jazz and EVERYONE is smoking inside and it is also decorated in a really cool cluttered artsy way. The music was really good, but there were a lot of people there and my german isn't exactly at the conversational level so I only stayed a couple hours until 1 am and then took the train back to the apartment because I was also really tired.

Overall it was a nice day, I wish I could have left for Berlin when my last class ended on the 14th so I could go to clubs but that can wait until next time and I was happy to see my Tübingen buddies again.

My room here is sort of small but there's a really cool lamp and the window looks out onto the courtyard of the apartment building which is very sexy.

#germany #study abroad #travel abroad #berlin

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roguelibrarian · 4 months

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books I read in 2023

Threw together a list of books I read this year plus brief thoughts about them Just Because.

The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne - I was so, so ready to like this book and then like one chapter in suddenly got hit with the reveal that the backstory to it is the racist trope of "big scary Native man kidnaps a pure, virginal white girl to be his wife." So....fuck that shit.

So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow - Heck yes. Excellent book. It's a retelling of Little Women set in the Roanoke Freedmen's Colony. The author leans into how aro-coded Jo is. Also Beth lives.

Renegades by Marissa Meyer - Yeah, I didn't finish this one. I got so bored.

Common Bonds: A Speculative Aromantic Anthology ed. by Claudie Arseneault, C.T. Callahan, B.R. Sanders, and RoAnna Sylver - I mean it's an anthology, so some of the stories just did not work for me, but I am ecstatic over the concept alone and most of it was amazing.

The Companion by Katie Alender - Creepy as shit in the best possible way. My one complaint is that after 200 pages without a hint of romance, suddenly a character showed up who was so obviously meant to be the main character's love interest and that part was exhausting. Otherwise excellent, amazing, chilling as hell, and you know I love me some abuse narratives.

All These Bodies by Kendare Blake - I wanted to like this one so bad and it's not that I didn't like it, but it was just kinda...mostly okay? I felt like I was supposed to be creeped out and scared and tbh I should have been because there's some pretty disturbing shit in this book but all just fell so flat.

Sounds Fake But Okay: An Asexual and Aromantic Perspective on Love, Relationships, Sex, and Pretty Much Everything Else by Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca - Bad. Just bad. Oh my g-d this book was so bad and irritating and just...if you want to learn more about aspec people or think you might be aspec yourself, please read literally anything else. I won't go into detail because I wrote a whole post about it here, but just...bad.

Ace and Aro Journeys: A Guide to Embracing Your Aromantic or Asexual Identity by The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project - So, this was definitely better than Sounds Fake But Okay overall, but there is a thread of deep discomfort with the existence of sex-repulsed and romance-repulsed aspecs that keeps popping up throughout the book. It is pretty clear that at least one of the authors (and probably more than one since there were several and apparently no one raised a strong enough objection to get any of this shit scrapped or rewritten) really Does Not Like sex-repulsed and romance-repulsed people.

The Wicked Remain by Laura Pohl - Second part of a duology, and the first book was definitely better. I low-key suspect that this book might have just been Once Upon A Time fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. That said, I am always here for queerplatonic relationship rep and stories where the Cinderella character ends up single.

Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce - Series of four books, but I'm putting all of them together here because a) my thoughts are kinda the same and b) this post is already too long. I'm not gonna say much because I have a whole post about this series in my drafts already so I'll just leave it with yeah my nostalgia for these books has worn off quite a bit.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - This was another reread and yeah it still holds up just as good as the first time I read it. Literally this is one of my favorite books.

The Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo - Another reread. Excellent. Love a sequel that's just as good as the first one. Also one of my favorite books.

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo - Yeah I was on a rereading spree this year. This one is also so damn good.

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo - Last Grishaverse book on the list, I promise. So good. Nina went completely off the rails in this one and I love every second of it. Really everyone went off the rails a little bit but Nina most of all.

The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan - I have a post about this one here so I won't say too much in this post but g-d I love how unapologetically Jewish this book is. No stopping to explain things to any goyim who might be reading. No coddling goyishe feelings while portraying antisemitism. This book is for Jews and that's beautiful.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - Yet another reread. Actually, genuinely accurate portrayal of how PTSD triggers work. First sign of healing not being a romantic relationship but being the main character telling a shitty friend to fuck off. Literally the only thing stopping me from wholeheartedly shouting "I love this book so much" is that there's a random use of the r-word because this book is from the 90s and back then it was basically illegal to publish fiction about teenagers without having your characters use that word.

We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation by Eric Garcia - So I've got mixed feelings about it but ultimately I'd say this book is a net positive. Definitely recommend it for nonautistic people and for autistic people whose only exposure to the autistic community is through spaces like tumblr. Just don't have this be the only book you read about autistic people, you know?

#book blogging #book club with rogue #''threw together'' is a phrase which hear means ''i've been working on this post for like a week''

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