ok so maybe i’m not up to date with the whole poppy playtime lore but from what i saw i am extremely uncomfortable with people who ship dogday(?) and catnap.
like—doesn’t catnap literally tear that foo into pieces and essentially tortured dogday???? to think y’all saw that and decided to ship them is kind of sick. i get that they used to be buddies or whatever but that doesn’t mean you should make them kiss or fuck or whatever 😭 it is so incredibly gross to see a straight up torture victim (almost murder???) being shipped with their abuser AND FOR WHAT!!!!! i don’t want to sound like those assholes that are like meehhh don’t ship characters because it doesn’t make sense (i literally ship random people in genshin) but it genuinely makes no sense to me how people are creating ships from a game that has given literally no development on relationships between characters….?
again, i could be missing some parts of the lore or context, but last i checked in the game some of the only established relationships in the game is catnap and dogday’s PAST(!!!!) friendship and poppy and kissy’s companionship currently.
i think it could be okay to draw catnap and dogday together from BEFORE the whole thing from the game starts, but even then i don’t think we should just ignore the reality of their relationship. also, it is so gross to be drawing them with an incredibly dubious dynamic
i previously followed a certain well known artist originally for qftim but they also started drawing poppy’s playtime stuff, particularly dogday and catnap and it’s always left a bad taste in my mouth. they depict catnap doing weird things to dogday, being incredibly aggressive/malicious and clearly suggestive. dogday seems to never be happy about it, instead giving scared or upset expressions..? idk maybe i’m being nitpicky but it just feels wrong. lmk what yall think and no i’m not @‘ing the artist or mentioning their name i’m not going to bother them or ruin anything they’ve got going on
good morning y’all, it is currently 3AM right now and i have developed some very strong opinions about inky mystery that i need to projectile vomit onto the internet. this is gonna be like a book review so i have some disclaimers/warnings:
#1: this “review” is not intended for the author, TAP, or anyone directly involved with the writing of IM. this is readers-only!
#3: i will most likely say very few positive things about the fic so if you don’t want to see negative remarks about your fav fic/story, maybe don’t read this. and also if you can’t handle strong language.
#4: i have not read all of IM, and there is a reason why. i will explain later on but i don’t need anyone to try and avoid spoilers. i don’t care for this fic enough to worry about that. talk to your heart’s content, i want to hear what y’all have to say!!!!
#5: i still enjoy inky mystery and its concepts and the overall story ideas. i think it’s fun and a cool spin on the original qftim au (an au that had so much potential and such shitty execution) and love how the fic has created an entire community around it! don’t get this twisted, i got nothing against IM or TAP.
now i’m gonna put the “review” (more like a rant) under a cut so as to not take up space on people’s dashes more than i already have lol—have fun!!
with such an interesting and promising premise, inky mystery has so far been a frustrating disappointment. i started reading it a while ago (had to stop because of school) and picked up again last night, hoping to get further into the fic and reach the parts that seem to be much more compelling than the exposition. i’m only on chapter 20 and already want to just stop reading it altogether. the more i progress through this the more i think to myself, “is this fic even worth reading 2.5 million words and 335 chapters?” as i’ve come to the beginning of chapter 21, i’m starting to think it most definitely is not.
obviously the biggest criticism is the length. there is absolutely no reason for why this fic is like 3 times longer than the fucking BIBLE. twelve “books” for what? to leave us in the same spot of the plot for the fifth time in a row when the conflict could have been resolved in almost half a chapter? the over-explanation of everything and the placement of practically useless dialogue is excruciating. i don’t understand how having chapter long bits of the warner shenanigans was necessary; i get it was meant for comedy but i don’t think they should dragged any longer than like a paragraph. their dialogue gets old incredibly fast, and it’s just a hinder to the fic’s flow. and before anyone says anything—I HAVE WATCHED ANIMANIACS BEFORE. in fact, i used to be obsessed with them and watched every episode until it stopped airing in 2014. i know they’re supposed to be the way they are in the fic but Holy SHIT DUDE. SHUT THEM THE FUCK UP ALREADY.
listen. i know this was originally written in 2017, but if you’re still updating this into 2024, at this point you need to remake the whole fic and shorten it. the way the author is updating the fic with basically filler makes me feel like they care more about creating content for their readers rather than actually writing a coherent narrative. you don’t need to take down the OG fic but there has got to be a way to shorten it so it doesn’t take literally a week straight to finish the fic in one sitting.
anyways. apart from that, i need to say that the writing style is so juvenile in a way that feels aggravating. i read the most recent chapter to see if anything changed and while it certainly improved in small ways, i feel like TAP still hasn’t learned how to not make sentences like four words long and dialogue sequences that don’t make up half the chapter. i also feel like the narrative is just…holding the readers hand and explaining every little thing like they expect the reader not to have any media literacy at all. i don’t need to know explicitly that boris and bendy are tired from walking for hours, i knew that from your narration mentioning their legs aching and them getting mucky from clambering in the forest.
next, i hate the random inclusion of unnecessary characters. the way the two detectives seem to only show up when it’s convenient and how the warners were used basically like a deus ex machina is frustrating. don’t introduce so many characters with so much detail and then have them show up like twice. i don’t know how to explain this because it’s almost 4AM now and my brain is foggy but god. when those two fox characters were randomly introduced at the end of idk what chapter to have a completely useless conversation with the detectives i felt so annoyed. i don’t know if they have any real significance later on in the story (and i don’t mean that they show up to say hi later) and honestly i cannot be bothered to find out if they do, but if they don’t, that entire section of the chapter was fucking stupid. let your MAIN CHARACTERS learn information from other sources for the love of god.
in the end, i don’t know if i’ll ever finish Inky Mystery, at least not anytime soon. i had fun at the start and now i’m just annoyed and frustrated. also, to the wiki people, PLEASE MAKE CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND SHIT—IT WOULD BE A DREAM FOR THOSE OF US WHO DON’T WANT TO SIT THROUGH 2.5 MILLION WORDS FOR PLOT AND STORY!!!!
also, i am not claiming to be a better writer or have superior knowledge to TAP. i think TAP is good at writing, but has some flaws that really limit their full potential. i myself am an amateur writer with no training or anything, but i am a reader, so that’s why i’m yapping.
ALSO ALSO, i am not doing this to shit on TAP or IM or anyone who likes this story and everything. like i said, i actually like IM and really want to get into it so i can make fanart and everything, but it has been a struggle and i want to voice that because this is my blog and i use it like a virtual diary. i will continue to skim and push through IM, and will most definitely use it as a learning tool for my own au, SITP.
again, this review was made with zero malice in mind. however if anyone wants to say anything i’m 100% open to conversation, and if this reaches TAP’s screen somehow, please know i’m not trying to be a hater!!! i love your ideas and the community you’ve created, promise!!!! i’m done now cus i’m tired and need to sleep so bye to anybody who read through this beast of a post lol plus i don’t have the energy to write all i wanted to say. sorry if there’s any mistakes i’m falling asleep as i write LMAO
writing a fic based loosely on sitp, but instead of it taking place after the original series i’m remaking the whole thing because i feel like there’s a lot of potential to make it a serious plot instead of just fan service bs LMAO
as for my progress on the inky mystery, i’m like 3% of the way in, it’s actually excruciating how long this is… i don’t want to be an overly critical asshole because again i understand that it was first written like 7 years ago but i have so much critique for it 😭 i still enjoy it though i think it’s fun
Quest for the Ink Machine: Shadows in the Pages — Chapter 1
HAIII i totally forgot to post the chapter on here, but it’s done!!!! read it if you’d like it’s not all that long ^-^ it’s the intro so not much info has been given yet! let me know what you think!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
okay i read the google doc and i think understand the situation now? um anyway i was reading everything cupsnroses did and honestly it is so embarrassing how someone who’s practically a legal adult is acting like a spoiled brat on the internet.
firstly, you are not entitled to people’s protection against your triggers. that is YOUR responsibility and YOUR issue to work out NOT on the internet. i understand that it’d be easier if people were to just not bring it up with you, but it is something you know is prevalent in the fandom, and you shouldn’t expect people to bend over backwards for you. also, it is SO ironic that you get upset about it, despite the fact that you flailed your arms around yelling at everyone to just block people and keywords. why don’t you take your own advice dawg?
secondly, the whole thing with their ocs. firstly, i don’t agree with the wording from the google doc about cupsnroses art and the “sexualisation” and “pornographic” nature of their art. they are 17, almost 18, and i believe it’s okay for them to post characters with “big boobs” or revealing clothing, especially because 80% of their art was not with intention of being suggestive. HOWEVER, i do agree that they should not have posted their actually suggestive artworks publicly until they were of age, to avoid legal problems. they also should have been more strict with their age restrictions on their suggestive account, because i was able to follow that account when i was 17. but i don’t think the wording was very good in the document to say that they couldn’t draw that kind of art Period. they can, because believe it or not, teenagers are sexual beings. they have sex, think of sex, etc. i would know because i Am a teen. so yeah, maybe reword that part because teens, especially 17 y/o’s, are allowed to draw that art—just not publicly.
next, my personal criticisms with their ocs. i want to preface this by saying cupsnroses has mentioned that they do not like it when people point out that they draw girls with big boobs and curvy hips, etc. they don’t like the sexualisation, i suppose. i think that’s fair to have that boundary, but it’s also kind of hard to take seriously when you clearly take pride in drawing your women like that. in fact, every single fem-oc you’ve ever drawn has the same exact body type. petite and curvy. i think the only oc i’ve ever seen that slightly changed that trend was smithy(?), because she was chubby—even she was still curvy with a large bust. your ocs are nearly copy and pastes, and all lack any sort of personality. even cuphead loses his entire personality whenever you draw him with his wife—YOUR OC.
anyway this might be mean but honestly you deserve a bit of real criticism. grow up, the world is not going to bend to your will, and reflect on what you have done. does this make you feel good? do you feel like a good person now? do you think this will benefit you in the future? i suppose not, now that you have most of your mutuals against you, right? and one more thing: maybe come up with original ideas before you throw a bitch fit that someone stole your concepts.
cupsnroses, if you see this, just know i’m ashamed of having been so trusting of you. i genuinely believed you were a cool person, if just a little childish and unoriginal. but now i really know who you are. a tall child with unrestricted internet access.
