Ignore the fact I’ve been gone for a year and take my batjokes art.

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Ignore the fact I’ve been gone for a year and take my batjokes art.
when people say el doesn't need mike, but will does...
first of all, i agree. but i want to add some clarity to what i, and i think many of us, mean by the statement.
i saw a post the other day about addiction, saying: when an interest decreases the range of things that make you happy, it's not a healthy interest.
i think the way that el needs mike (i.e. the kind of interest in him she shows) is just like that, not just with happiness but with self-worth and normalcy, too:
el relies on mike and only mike to give her validation, to make her feel happy, valued, loved, normal. (that is, except for that brief time in s3 where she hung out with max and dumped his ass and we all cheered, plus the latter part of s4.) and it comes from things like her superpowers, her saving the world, and her appearance as a 'normal girl' – all things that don't really have to do with el's inherent value as a person.
el's arc is about detaching herself from that need. it's like they say: give a man a fish and he'll be fed for a day, but teach a man to fish and he'll be fed for a lifetime. she's teaching herself to fish, finding validation within herself, thus opening herself up to greater joys and a higher, more sustainable self-worth.
the way that mike needs el is the exact same: he sees her as his sole source of normalcy, his only avenue to being seen as a respectable person, and relies on her to fulfil that role. and while she loves him and kisses him and writes him letters, she never really shows him why she values him as a person, why he couldn't easily be replaced by any old teenage boy. he expresses this insecurity in the van: he worries he's not good enough for her, because she never expresses valuing him as anything more deep than 'boyfriend', something she may come to not need at all. he feels like she doesn't need him for him, for who he is. (i obviously don't think they ACTUALLY don’t value each other as people, and i think el and mike really love each other, but not as a boyfriend/girlfriend, that's my point here.)
now, the way that mike and will need each other is different: will is a perfectly healthy, functional person without mike's validation (supernatural trauma notwithstanding). he doesn't need mike like el does; but he is made happier by him, not in a way that cuts off his ability to derive happiness from other things but in a way that makes him feel better about himself. mike makes him feel like he's not a mistake and like he's better for being different; he makes will's internal sense of worth grow rather than binding will's worth to himself as the only source, like he did (unintentionally ofc) with el.
will does the same thing for mike in making him feel like a 'hero', letting him know that he's a good person who can do great things – again, it's a case of increasing his range of happiness rather than decreasing it by showing that his worth is an inherent part of himself.
because true happiness comes from within.
in this sense, will teaches mike to fish, and vice versa... while el and mike are one another's go-to fishmongers. and they've got a membership with them now so it really doesn't make sense not to shop there, right? even though the fish isn't very high-quality. even though they only sell just enough so that the other doesn't starve. even though they're running out of money to offer in return.
Social Media *IS* a Bubble [TW:Parent Advisory Sticker]
I want you to understand something; social media platforms run advertisements to pay their [content creators], and then allow you to pay for the platform to be as free.
Monetization still goes to the creators.
EXCEPT; The best performers on the platform? Run their own ads. Sometimes, as much as 50% of platform. On purpose.
Remember that Buzzword; "Enshitification"? About creators getting demonetized on platform for uh. I dunno; not being able to make videos about [Cheese Pizza] or something?
Consumers complained about creators making decisions that harm the overall ability to make [Quality Content] who then blamed the platforms that they got demonitized for doing so; because they were making subpar content (when they were monetized)
Ngl, but I will say that The Sign has been failing me for the last 3 episodes and I don't vibe with this series like I did at the beginning. As a matter of fact, I have the impression that episodes 1-5 are completely different than episodes 6-8.
First of all, an explanation: I watch BL series for pure escapism, I really expect nothing else, but to have a nice time watching the romance of beautiful boys 😎 I don't add any high values, any ideology, I don't have ANY high expectations from BL series, I'm an old school fujoshi. Life is shitty as it is, what's happening around us is depressing - I just need a break from reality, which was previously given to me by books, manga, anime, and now mainly by BL series.
If a BL series tries to be something more, gives me something beautiful, deep, that gives me food for reflection and analysis, such as The Eighth Sense, then I treat it as something extra, like an additional bonus, a gift from the benevolent BL gods 😀 I don't take it for granted as something that, idk, has to be there. For me, BL series are supposed to give me a good time, they have to spark joy (and what never ceases to amaze me is how, with such minimal expectations, so many series still can't do even this minimum lol). Despite everything, I can forgive a lot, as long as the couple and their romance make me feel good. Like, A LOT.
The Sign in episodes 1-5 was EXACTLY what I expect from BL series: a killer couple, great chemistry between the actors, an interesting story (even if stupid and chaotic at times). I praised this series for Phaya and Tharn (emphasis on Tharn) and their MANY high-quality scenes together. Their romance was tender and hot at the same time, the attraction between them was visible from the beginning, their relationship developed logically and linearly, the series made me feel joy and hope.
But something broke down from episode 6. The romance went into strange fluctuations, depressive lows and sudden bursts of euphoria, the number of their shared, high-quality scenes decreased dramatically, in episode 6 there were even no such scenes, and in 7 and 8 I counted like 2 of them. I CONSTANTLY GO BACK TO THEIR SCENES FROM EPISODES 1- 5, AND FROM EPISODES 6-8 I ONLY GO BACK TO ONE.
What else I loved about PhayaTharn's relationship was how equal they both are in the relationship. Since episode 6, there is no equality, the person who is constantly striving and fighting for their relationship and constantly giving of himself is Phaya. And only Phaya is shown as someone who even has a nervous breakdown due to being rejected by Tharn. Tharn is shown as if everything he does is calculated coldly, the lack of contact with Phaya is not shown as if it was even some kind of nuisance for him. Tharn became a double victim of the script and the narrative: firstly, because he is a character who is afraid that Phaya will die and therefore rejects him, and secondly, the script is unable to present it in a way that is sympathetic to Tharn. I know that Tharn is afraid. But it's not about what I know, but how I perceive it. And I perceive Tharn with irritation. (in The Eight Sense, Jae Won also rejected Ji Hyun after the accident, but in this case I knew why he did it and in addition, the series presented Jae Won in such a way that my heart bled for him. That's what a good story is, it makes me feel satisfied when looking at the scene and the characters both objectively and emotionally)
Another thing that is starting to take away from my enjoyment of watching this series is the constant leaks and spoilers that suggest a breakup, Tharn's "sacrifice" for Phaya, that somehow karma and Chalathon will win and love and Phaya will lose. Just yesterday I listened to a song sung by Babe and read the lyrics of this song… I'm, ok, like, it's totally not my style lol. This is no longer my escape from reality, reality has caught up with me in my yaoi dream 😂
Saturday was The Sign day for me, I never made any plans just to be able to watch the show when it came out. But guess what, I might have potential plans for this Saturday and after my first reaction of "no, I have to watch The Sign", my second thought was whether I really wanted to watch an episode that would probably be depressing again, with maybe one nice scene, and that's assuming that Phaya will wake up? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I guess I'm not in a rush 😄
I also want to say that on instagram I mostly see stuff about Babe and Billy, and the tag the sign on tumblr is kept alive thanks to the heroic efforts of about 3 good people lol whatever content appears, 90% are scenes from old episodes and from new ones, there are mostly from the love scene. Soooo, I suppose people are not too hyped about recent episodes as well... 🙂
Anyway, I am begging this series to bring back the vibe and way of presenting PhayaTharn's story from its beginnings. I have nothing against angst, tears, even temporary breakups (during the series, NOT at the end). This is how it was in The Eighth Sense, MoD, LoA, To Sir, With Love, and in fucking The Untamed where the breakup lasted for years and The Angst was served in BUCKETS lol. But what I want is for their love to be their strength, for watching them together to give me pleasure and joy. I would like to see more scenes with them, even if they were fighting (not this rejection/ cold days bullshit), but for them to be together and for there to be some good emotions. I want to return to the obsession this series made me feel, to endlessly analyze their scenes together, to blush and squeal like a little girl. And not to wait with increasing dread for the ending like in MODC 😶
(besides, the series just became a little boring and even more chaotic, like, I don't even know (and care for that matter) whose body they pulled out of the water in the last episode and how many open cases they are having at the same time lmao and now there will be also Tharn's personal revenge, this is crazy 😂)
My BL Rating Scale
So, I rate my manga based on a letter grade scale, F and DNF being the absolute worst, and S being the best of the best. I also use pluses and minuses occasionally, so it’s not uncommon for something to be a C+ or some other variation. I didn’t start my form until I was like 200 titles deep, so I’ve been playing catchup for a while, rereading them and rating as I go.
I have no strict rubric, although I do think I approach each manga with a C baseline and then consider some key things that will increase or decrease a given title’s rating. These things include:
1. Publishing Quality - This includes the translation, typesetting/lettering, editing, and overall scan quality (since basically all of these are ebooks). I don’t have specific ratings for these on my form yet, but I think I will if I ever revise it. I think this is pretty self explanatory, so I won’t elaborate much.
2. Spice Level - I am a grown ass adult and, to be honest, I love to see these boys get down. I give spice ratings from 1 (Mild/PG) to 5 (Whoa!/XXX), a 1 being for suggestive manga or only including kissing (think Sasaki and Miyano), and a 5 being for explicit uncensored/censored smut (think Black or White). Achieving a proper balance is important though, so given an individual manga’s needs, it can add or detract. Am I reading a slow burn oneshot where our boys don’t get together til the end? Then I better see them AT LEAST kiss, or I’m gonna consider this an affront to ME, a homosexual, who wanted to see boys kiss in my gay manga. Am I reading a smutty oneshot, whose plot is held together by wishes and wet dreams? Then the couple had BOTH better show some enjoyment in their activity, regardless of how dubious the setup is. And speaking of dubious setups…
3. Consent Level - I rate consent from a 1 (Consent is just a suggestion.) to a 5 (Hooray! Consent abounds!), 1 being for manga with explicit depictions of ass*ult or r*pe (think Finder) and 5 being for manga where partners are fully conscious and enthusiastic every time (think Therapy Game: Restart). BL and yaoi are notorious for dubcon and noncon setups. While I know this can be some folks’ kink, it is for sure a problem for me; however, I am happy to report that of the 133 manga I have input in my form so far, 72.2% are a 4 or 5, which is pretty dang good imho. I will say, consent ratings are on a somewhat sliding scale, depending on the ratio of consensual to nonconsensual encounters, as well as the severity of noncon encounters, and how they play with the other elements of stories I consider. It’s definitely a fraught rating area, and the one that I lose the most sleep over when I’m making decisions about a given manga’s grade.
4. Love Level - This area is straightforward: how in love are the main pair? Does their relationship make sense to me? Do I understand how they could develop an attraction and why they want to be together? Do I think their love is lasting? If so, they get a 5 (Eternal devotion ♡). If not, they get a 1 (Why are they together?). This rating carries a surprising amount of weight in relation to a manga’s overall grade, meaning I can forgive a lot of shady shit if I believe in these boys’ love lol.
5. Art Level - Out of all of these, this is probably the most subjective element of my rating system. I rate mangas’ art from 1 (Ugly) to 5 (Beautiful), and it is based solely on my personal taste. Also, I’m a bit of a demi hoe (lol), so if I grow to love a story, I will sometimes grow to love the art too, regardless. Nonetheless, beautiful art will raise the rating of manga that have problematic story elements (I’m looking at you again, Finder) and it’ll keep me hooked on a ridiculous/cringy story (I’m looking at you, Dick Fight Island, I’m looking at you).
6. Gay Acceptance - You would think this would be straightforward in a genre about boys bein’ in love, but sadly, it is not. Is one of the partners always referred to as “straight”? Does the story engage in LGBTQ+ issues in an affirming way, or a torturous or regressive way? Do characters fully acknowledge their queerness? Is queerness celebrated? These are some of the questions I consider when I look at BL through this lens. I know that BL is, largely, a genre written by cis straight women for cis straight women. However, it is ultimately about queer people. Whether or not that is acknowledged at all, or how that is or is not acknowledged, impacts the way I feel about the BL I read.
7. Plot and Story Elements - I don’t give specific ratings for plot or story in my form, but I might include a section for that upon revision. While this includes consideration for things like potential triggers and specific events, savory or not, this can also be boiled down to whether or not I think the story is told well. How is the pacing? Is the mangaka trying to communicate something larger? Do they succeed when they try to do so? Is it just a fluffy li’l story; sweet, like candy? Both the heavy and light stuff has its place, but at the end of the day, it all comes to…
8. Readability and Enjoyment - It’s a simple question: was this manga a fun read? Will I enjoy reading it again? All of the previously listed things impact this last and most important consideration. You can have some crazy shit go down in these manga, things that could make them totally unreadable and unenjoyable. Triggering, awful stuff. BUT. If a mangaka puts in the work to balance the good and the bad, depending on how well the traumatic is weighed against comfort and intimacy, a manga rating can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and be given quite a good grade (like my beloved, Haru wo Daiteita). Likewise, a manga can be totally normal—nothing to complain about at surface level—but if I don’t enjoy it, for whatever reason, it will get a lower rating. Sometimes this will be because I’m annoyed by the protagonist, other times one of my personal triggers may have been hit; and still other times, an affront will have been committed against ME, a HOMOSEXUAL, and these DAMN BOYS DON’T KISS!
Anyhoo, every single one of these elements is totally subjective and personal, as are all of my ratings (^ ^) everyone has different standards, and I just wanted to shed a little light on the thought processes going into mine. I hope you enjoy! <3
I really like the idea of Puritanverse but with older, married Silverusso. Their pups all grown up, but Terry and Daniel are still Very Much In Love and horrify their adult children when they come to visit. Terry: Would you like another sibling? Your Mama and I have been working on it! 🥰 💕
Sam and Anthony: 🤢🤮
Daniel: Alpha, Sir…!! 😭
Maybe Terry even tells them to leave soon so he and Daniel can have “quality alone time”. Daniel is mortified. Lmao. Terry would be the king of embarrassing his kids on purpose. Maybe he really does get Daniel with pup…meanwhile their oldest is having their first pup as well.
I think their kids would know their parents are still quite - ahem - active 😂
Kind of burned myself out on puritan stuff - I have so much stuff in my drafts still - apologies to anyone waiting for their ask to be answered
I too adore older, married Silverusso ABO (AND to the person who sent the ask about an ABO Alpha Terry and Amanda Omega Daniel threesome we are going to have WORDS) but an idea came into my head for this one so I wrote it :)
Okay but when their last pup is close to leaving the nest so to speak, and Daniel is actually still able to conceive because he had been young when he had their first pup after all. Then there had been many in quick succession (four actually and then twins a few years after). The biggest age gap being Anthony, who had been a surprise on Daniel’s 30th. Daniel had been taking some medication that the pharmacist had told Terry would decrease the efficiency of the birth control his omega was on but Terry had neglected to tell Daniel, claiming (after the positive pregnancy test) that he had forgotten.
So NSFW
Castlevania Bloodlines Part 1: This is a vampire hunter on blast processing kids!
Yeah yeah I know, Rondo came out first but look: we only have 2 Classicvanias left before we switch over to Symphony of the Night, and since that game is Rondo’s direct sequel I think it’s more appropriate to do it last
Did you know that Bloodlines is one of the series’ worst selling games? Yeah it barely broke 50k units on release and while I think part of the reason was due to being a Genesis exclusive, with Castlevania never having built a fanbase on that system, I do think it’s also because, back then, people were losing interest
I mean what does Bloodlines really offer that hadn’t already been done in other games? We’re back to a 6 level structure like the original CV, we have only 2 playable characters and we can’t even switch between them mid-level, the controls are a step back when compared to 4 and the item crash moves are visibly nerfed when compared to Rondo
People often give flack to the Igavanias for being “Sotn clones” that shamelessly rehashed the formula, but, barring how that’s not really true, the same argument could be made for the Classics around this time
I mean after 4 all the following games went back to the previous control schemes and essentially tried to add some extra stuff on top of the standard formula. Rondo has alternate paths that lead to extra levels, but C3 had already done this, Rondo mostly just adds some extra steps. It has one extra character while C3 had 3 extras. Bloodlines, as I’ve stated, does very little new and Dracula X was essentially a watered down version of Rondo to many.
Indeed if you go see the sales for every game you’ll notice that they gradually dropped over the years, with Castlevania 1 selling over 2 million copies, Castlevania 3 only around 800k and so on. Of course it’s important to remember that sales do not equal quality, as there are many factors that play into a game’s sales, such as marketing. However I do think this denotes a certain decrease in interest by people in the games over the years, which is part of what motivated the devs to completely switch genres with SOTN, because they though people were no longer that interested in simple, short super tough platformers and preferred something new
Bloodlines may not be revolutionary but I firmly believe that a game does not need to be in order to be good. The game offers some of the most original and inventive level design of the classic games, especially due to its insistance for squeezing as much juice out of the Genesis’ systems to create truly surprising and memorable graphical imagery: just look at the water reflections in Atlantis, or the rotating sprites of the Tower of Pisa!
Of the two characters John is the Belmont stand in and my favorite: he doesn’t have a lot of reach but the whip still packs a punch and you can whip straight down and upwards diagonally. Important tip: hold down the attack button when attacking with either character, it will let the weapon stay on-screen for a few extra frames, allowing it to attack twice some enemies, trust me this can be important
I’m...not the biggest fan of John’s swinging mechanic, due to the stiff jump it can get really unruly but it’s only required like twice
As you may have noticed I’m actually playing the japanese version, titled Vampire Killer (real original guys). Why is that? Well not many people know this but Castlevania 3 was not the only game that was made artificially harder for american audiences!
Every version of Bloodlines allows you to choose between 3 difficulties, but the American version switches them around: US Normal Mode is actually JPN Hard Mode, while Easy is actually the Japanese Normal. The US version also locks the full ending behind its own version of Hard mode made specifically for this version, while the japanese version gives you the complete ending no matter what difficulty you’re playing on
Then there’s the matter of continues: this game, unlike the others, gives you only 2 continues after which it’s game over for good. All versions have a password system but in the US version a password is given to you after you beat each level and it saves the amount of lives and continues you have. This means that if you’re at the final levels and have no continues left and few lives you’re shit out of luck
In the japanese version however passwords are given to you only when you get a gameover and after inputting them your number of continues is reset. This means that in the japanese version you actually do have unlimited continues, just in a more roundabaout way. Also continues in this game respawn you at the last checkpoint, so thanks!
All of these difficulty differences are also true for the european version I think, which follows the japanese one but is heavily bogged down by graphical censorship because Bloodlines likes to get a little gory and I guess people back then must’ve been afraid that one too many moms in Europe would’ve been upset at the idea of little Timmy busting some zombie guts while playing his kiddie game
In the case of SongXiaoXue going perfectly fix it style (XY meets the other two early, has a life-changing field trip and so manages to just pull himself back from massacring all the Chang Clan, decreases his canon atrocities and joins them in a polycule and becomes A-Qing's annoying uncle), how would JGY interact with them?
Like, thanks to them Chingmei isn't causing too much of a hassle, they'd be supportive of the Watchtower programme, he broadly likes their sect ideas etc, so I guess he'd like them, and it would add another base of support for him.
putting aside that I think convincing Xue Yang to not kill the Chang is...not impossible but pretty damn hard to do, which is why I don't think I've ever written him just straight up not doing it--
(working with novel timeline here, for the most part, because it just makes more sense)
man, that changes a lot of things, though. like, how does that interact with Xue Yang being a Jin disciple at the time (which he would be, if this is pre-Chang massacre, or even if it was afterwards), and specifically while Jin Guangshan is the sect leader? Because while I can see Jin Guangyao being willing to let Xue Yang fuck off and have quality independent daoshi time, I do not think Jin Guangshan would be so inclined; if anything, the second Xue Yang had a remotely positive relationship with Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan, Jin Guangshan wants to use that to draw the pair of them into association with the Jin Sect, which Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan are vehemently going to be not in favor of. That's going to be a hard and probably somewhat insulting nope!
(I mean, I'm picturing Song Lan giving a slightly more diplomatic refusal and Xiao Xingchen is just straight up like "no thank you, I don't want to participate in the corrupt and self-serving sect system :)" which. great move on his part for sure! not going to make him any powerful enemies! one of my favorite things about Xiao Xingchen is his complete indifference to social norms and refusal to be politic about anything, ever. It makes Song Lan's life harder even if he agrees with him most of the time; Xue Yang thinks it's great.)
and while Xue Yang would be happy to ignore Jin Guangshan and fuck off without permission, but that's going to, uh, not go over well and end up with everyone involved in a whole lot of trouble, and as we know, Jin Guangshan is very good at making problems for people when he doesn't like them.
so...that's a problem, and it's not really up to Jin Guangyao.
If they did figure out a way to make it work, and it comes up down the line with Jin Guangyao in trouble...unfortunately, even if they were to get involved (and I think Xue Yang's instinct, friendship or not, would be to go "nope! not getting in that, sorry a-Yao," and Song Lan would be equally disinclined to get into the political morass that's...everything there. Xiao Xingchen might be a little more inclined toward intervention, but I don't think enough to overrule the other two. I do think they'd approve of the watchtowers, you're right! but ultimately there's probably a general sort of distrust of everyone in that whole system (while Xiao Xingchen in this universe might actually still have more faith in the existing systems because he hasn't witnessed via Xue Yang's exculpation how corrupt it is, Song Lan is more jaded, and Xue Yang is the most jaded.). And they definitely wouldn't approve of Jin Guangyao's killing Nie Mingjue or Jin Guangshan, just on principle. So that's going to outweigh any casual existing goodwill from the daoshi, and Xue Yang has too much of a sense of self-preservation to not look at that whole situation and go "yeah that's a lost cause."
and even if they did go to bat for Jin Guangyao, in the face of everyone else turning on him...their word is not going to carry a lot of weight, and by that I mean their word is going to carry no weight at all. I think the most likely outcome there would be Xue Yang getting tarred by association (regardless of what he's actually done, as we know that's not really relevant when the accusations start flying in the cultivation world) and the daoshi getting labeled as poor naive fools taken in by the sinister wiles of Jin Guangyao, etc. etc. It would be very condescending "you don't know what you're talking about."
so...yeah, regardless of how they felt about it, I don't think it would ultimately matter. which is the general tragedy of the Yi City characters, actually (or one of them) - their sheer unimportance and insignificance. nobody, in the larger sense, cares what happens to them! Xiao Xingchen's pleas for justice are ignored. A-Qing's attempts to get people to listen to her before Xue Yang kills her are ignored. Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen both disappear without a trace and, once he falls out of the Jin orbit, so does Xue Yang. I know people don't like the Yi City Arc because they feel it's "pointless" or "sidetracks the plot" and to that I say yes absolutely it sidetracks the plot and it is pointless (in the sense of it all already being over by the time anybody else arrives) and that's part of what makes it so good and so painful because nobody! cares!!! and that makes me so miserable.
anyway that's kind of a sidetrack from the content of your ask, but, well. ask me a question and get a rambling five paragraph essay, as always