WHY IS THIS FONT SO BIG?!

Oooooooooooooh!

[punkitt-is-here]

my deltarune fanart, ultimate strategic brilliance one billion

[jomeimei421]

No can make you hold hands and skip….heh…unless…. ❤️

[jzq]

[octodrawn]

family resemblance?

[butterflyscribbles]

Might be a can of worms I regret opening but I am absolutely stunned at how much of the general DR fanbase lacks sympathy for Kris’s situation. Are their actions insanely suspicious? Yes. Can we tell exactly how much they’ve hurt others in the past and now in the present with their actions yet? No, but we have an idea and their actions to cause harm should not be excused in any way just because of their situation.

But I still simply cannot fathom not taking some time to try and make their life a bit better by default. That is a teenager who has gone through unimaginable horror, grief, and manipulation.

Idc I’m walking them by the water fountain daily in hopes they one day take a drink. I’m taking them to the diner to eat something even if they’re uncomfortable stealing their brother’s money. Someone help them please I’m begging

[tmblr-sexy-garbage-man]

Alright, Chapter 5 is barely 24 hours old, so I apologize if these takes turn out to be lukewarm or obvious in hindsight, but I need to throw this out there or I'm gonna explode.

I wanna talk about Flowery.

Everyone fucking hates Flowery. Why?

Everyone is comparing his reveal to Tenna's, but those circumstances could not be more different in terms of narrative. Tenna is, from the jump, supposed to be light-hearted and fun. He is the personification of the Fun Gang letting loose and having a good time. This is what makes his eventual reveal that he's working with the Knight into an actual betrayal. If we didn't trust Tenna, that moment wouldn't work.

With Flowery, the vibes are rancid from the moment he's revealed. He's charming and charismatic, but something is off. Not to mention that Ralsei absolutely despises him.

So, why make Flowery unlikable? What's the point?

Well, the point is that Flowery is the exact opposite of Tenna.

With Tenna, we like him, but he's wrong.

With Flowery, we hate him, but he's right.

Everything that Flowery does to Asgore is an exact mirror to what Ralsei did with Kris and Susie at the beginning of the game. In fact, the entire chapter is a complete mirror of Chapter 1's dark world!

Flowery gives Asgore a home, gives him friends, tells him that he's special. And yet, we spend the entire chapter trying to get Asgore out of that situation, with the understanding that it's dangerous.

But what about it is dangerous? The denial of reality? Because Susie is now living in a dark world. The exact thing that Asgore gave an entire heartwarming speech about not doing.

When Flowery tells us that we could close Castle Town instead of his dark world and we would be no closer to the Roaring, we hate him because he's right. When he says that all the flowers want is to live and a chance to make Asgore as happy as he's made them, we hate him because he's right.

And, at the end of the chapter, he tries to defeat us with the power of friendship. The other flowers never turn on him. He uses a mercy attack against us, and Kris responds by hitting him with a sword.

Y'all, were supposed to hate Flowery. And we're supposed to feel uncomfortable about why we do.

[pixlokita]

Butterfly bunny thang

[the-irreverend]

I've said this many times before, and I'll say it one more time:

HEALING AND ACCOUNTABILITY ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE!

[smallpwbbles]

Goose on Jax’s pronouns! (I’m gonna side eye you tho if you use it as a reason to say Jax is still cis)

[thelawfulchaotic]

Gemini had the fucking GALL to get in my email and summarize a 3-line email, taking up more space than the email did visually.

Hit the “thumbs down.” It’s like, what’s wrong??? Was our summary wrong? Were there offensive words? Thank you for helping us improve our AI tools :)

I selected “other.”

Text box popped up. Please elaborate!

Wrote in “I can fucking read” submit comment

Then had to spend several minutes torching all my settings with a flamethrower. Let me be clear: I’m (a lawyer) notoriously picky with my words FOR GOOD REASON (lawyering) so I overwhelmingly reject Gmail’s “helpful” little assistance. My privacy settings were set to “full paranoia” a little less than a year ago when I saw the writing on the wall and knew public defenders could become a target in the future. Better to lock it all down now.

Gemini had crept in there and turned ALL that shit back on. And showed itself by saying “Jane Doe says she’s so sorry for your loss and offers to reschedule for Thursday at 3” over an email from Jane Doe saying “I’m so sorry for your loss. We could reschedule for Thursday at 3?”

Why would I possibly need this. In what universe would I need this. I have eyes and a brain and a reading speed that twenty years ago was measured at 1500 wpm with full comprehension on dense scientific text. Furthermore! If I read a summary, I’m not reading what they actually wrote. If I’m not reading what they actually wrote, I’m not using my own judgment on the words and phrases that they used.

I literally don’t understand why this is helpful at all. This is just avoidance. Using LLMs to write is specifically Not Writing. Using LLMs to summarize is Not Reading. Using them to make art is Avoiding Making Art. Just READ! Just WRITE! I was not put on this fucking planet to not read and not write and not make art! Avoidance is an anxiety symptom and indulging it gives it more power.

If I had an AI to do my most dreaded task, answer the phone for clients, I wouldn’t use it. Because an AI cannot help them. An AI cannot hear the facts of their case, make appropriate noises, be thoughtful and insightful, and then give them a realistic estimate of what could happen in court. I am unique. I cannot be replaced by machine learning. I have style. I have expertise. I don’t hallucinate unless I’m having a really great Friday night and I’m off the clock.

When I need to outsource tasks from my own brain, I give them to people I know can do them and that I trust to do them right.

Fuck, it just sneaks up on you, doesn’t it?? Goddamn Gemini jumpscare right in my own fucking email

[bnq]

perfect boy .

[skweebs]

[asha-mage]

I think a big part of the reason Pokopia is hitting so hard for so many people is that we have had an absolute glut of post apocalyptic media that take the "humans are the monsters/disease/problem" angle. Even the most well meaning solar-punk I can think of often have this undercurrent of 'humanity's nature is inherently short sighted and exploitive and they must constantly be kept in check to protect the environment' which slides very quickly into 'the world would be better off without humans in it to complicate and threaten things'.

But Pokopia fully does not do that. The world is lonely without humans and lesser for humanity's absence. So much of the game is about how Pokemon miss humans and are struggling to make sense of a world without us, how the ecosystem is just as hurt by our absence as any other species, and how the things we left behind, even in ruins and burned shells, are often beautiful and strange and helpful to the Pokemon who find them.

Pokemon have always been this allegory for the natural world- back to the original idea of the games inspired by children who caught bugs and kept ant farms- and thus the relationship between Pokemon and humans becomes this allegory for the relationship between nature and humans. And Pokopia looks you dead in the eye and says "the world would be poorer without humans, and if we all vanished tomorrow the echoes of who we are and the things we did would still ring out for eons uncountable. We would be missed and mourned and searched for and the wound of our absence would be deeply felt on this earth for the rest of its turning. The actions of a few greedy short sighted humans will never change that."

And that. That hits.

[junk-thunder]

[citation not needed. no prablem]

[perti-bun4]

yeah the political state of the world is really bad. i just-

dude your supposed to run across. thats the whole joke. so i can say "woah did you guys see that *looking emoji*" but no. you just HAD to stroll across. obviously they saw you and my joke is ruined. are you happy harold. ARE YOU HAPPY?!?!

[cpericardium]

[wajb]

ragebaiting lemonade stand owner with one simple order

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Do you have any thoughts on the TADC finale showing in theaters earlier than it will be posted elsewhere? Really just seems like an attempt to use the fear of spoilers to drive ticket sales.

I can see how you'd arrive at that thought, but like... on a very basic level, that is just the business model of movie theaters. It used to be, once upon a time, that you could only see movies in theaters, so either you bought a ticket or you missed out forever.

Home video and eventually streaming comes along, now it's more of a timed exclusive deal, but "the fear of missing out" is, like... that's the business model. That's how The Movies™ work. It's how entertainment works in general, really. You go to a Broadway show or a play at the theater because if you don't buy a ticket to go see them, you're probably gonna miss out forever, most of those shows don't ever get filmed. Same with concerts—even if you've bought the album and can listen to it on repeat forever, that's not the same as seeing the music live, and if you don't buy tickets when the band is in town you might miss out forever. Hell, even shit that's going to drop on streaming as soon as physically possible like Marvel movies use FOMO to get people in theaters, that's what all those novelty popcorn buckets are.

So, yeah, it's a bit annoying to have to Matrix Dodge spoilers for two weeks, but, like... I've been doing that with movies and TV shows for as long as I've been alive, that's just what existing in culture is like. Many times in your life, other people are going to have seen something you really want to see before you can see it, and you have to ask them not to spoil, or you have to carefully curate your own interactions to avoid it.

TADC and Glitch aren't doing anything unique or egregious here, we've just gotten used to the instant, ubiquitous convenience of streaming and video-on-demand, and now that they are introducing some mild friction in order to create an extra special experience for a smaller segment of the fandom, it grates on us because we're not used to that being the norm as much anymore.

And also, not to be an old man here, but... if you get spoiled on TADC, you're probably gonna be alright. Like, you'll live, it's not actually going to hurt you. Some stories lose a lot of their impact when you lose the element of surprise, because the surprise is the impact, but that's usually a sign of an underlying weak construction.

If knowing that The Butler Did It ruins the experience of reading a mystery novel for you, then it wasn't actually a very good novel, it was just a mystery box keeping you hooked with the promise of a Big Reveal, and if all of the value is in the Big Reveal then the rest of the story is kinda wasting your time. Really good mystery fiction you can re-read again and again, regardless if you know every twist and secret, because the point of a good mystery novel isn't to find out what the mystery is, it is to be with the characters through the process of revelation. That's why people still read Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, it's why people re-watch Knives Out movies.

TADC isn't a mystery show to begin with, it's an ensemble character drama with a few worldbuilding mysteries to frame that drama. The staying power and appeal is seeing the characters Go Through It and be changed by their ordeals, and that will remain no matter how much of it is spoiled to you. If the show is any good, it will remain no matter how many times you re-watch it, too, and it will remain in twenty years when someone posts a clip from "this old show my mom used to be obsessed with" on social media and you feel a warm glow of recognition, even as your bones crumble to dust inside your body.

If it i's good art, it stays special no matter how well you know it. If it's not, honestly, a big spoiler ruining the whole thing for you isn't that big of a loss. It didn't really deserve your time, and better stories will come along.

Yeah, getting hit with a spoiler by some dipshit who went to a screening and can't keep their mouth shut will suck, probably, but it's not gonna ruin anything. It's just gonna suck a bit.