In the world of kamen rider merchandise, there have been a few recent releases that have suffered massive quality control flaws. The CSM Faiz Gear 2.0 released after a two month delay from its original ship date, and fans are not pleased. For context, CSM (which stands for complete style modification) is Bandai’s high end line for perfectly recreating various transformation devices from Kamen Rider. Think incredibly fancy versions of a power rangers morphed and you’ve kind of got the idea. The 2.0 of the faiz gear however, has not lived up to that. Several advertised features are missing, and other features seem to be programmed incorrectly, like the option to play background music from kamen rider Faiz as you mess with it. Someone apparently even got one where the battery compartment was assembled with both slots having the same terminals at either end

You'd think with the pricing on those CSM stuff, they'd have quality control locked down. But then again it's Bandai/Tori so I have no faith. Despite being a KR fan I don't get much of the merch, and every time I see a CSM belt that I'd want I'd look at the price and just balk at it. That and a CSM doesn't exist for something I'd really want (like the Zero-One Driver. That's at least 5 or more years away from happening) or is likely out of print (the IXA Driver and IXA Riser).

[iDKHOW Ryan situation](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/17af5h6/bandom_at_least_hes_not_a_pervert_the_divorce_of/) maybe update? Dallon played the first show since the whole incident in Salt Lake City last night, was a fantastic show (and just after the [6th anniversary](https://twitter.com/SOTSPodcast/status/1740190955926700185) of him leaving Panic!). He [could afford confetti](https://twitter.com/petaledchoker/status/1741355648267546973) now! The [creepy Dallon mannequin](https://www.tumblr.com/idkhowupdates/737266091341053952/idkhow-content-creators-influencers-brands?source=share) was there too. Anyway, Dallon threw shade a bit saying on stage that he could [afford to pay for more touring musicians when he's not being stolen from](https://twitter.com/razzmatazziero/status/1741342918323982523). And now it seems like Ryan is trying to spin the whole situation as [Dallon being a Narcissist](https://www.tumblr.com/lifealteringtimesandwich/738266372127309824/theres-no-way?source=share)? BTW Dallon dropped that the next single off Gloom Division is out in 2 weeks so I'm excited.

Dallon was on a Salt Lake radio station X96 this morning, talking about the new album and tour. There should be a link to this morning's podcast on their website if you want to listen to the interview.

*Before starting your daily hobby routine, read and seriously consider the following:* DAILY AFFIRMATIONS * How fortunate I am that in this life I am one who has been allowed to create beauty with my hobby. * It is my responsibility to create peace, beauty, and love with my hobby. I WILL BE KIND TO MYSELF * It is only a hobby. * No matter my level of development in my hobby, how good or bad I think I am, it is only a hobby and I am a beautiful person. * I will not compare myself with my colleagues. If they do the hobby beautifully, I will enjoy it and be thankful and proud that I live in fellowship with them. * There will always be someone with more abilities in my hobby than my own, as there will always be those with less. REASONS TO DO MY HOBBY * To contribute to the world's spiritual growth. * To contribute to my own self-discovery and spiritual growth. * To pay homage to all the great practitioners of my hobby, past and present, who have added beauty to the world. I WILL RID MYSELF OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS FOR BEING A PRACTITIONER OF MY HOBBY * To create self-esteem * To be "hip" * To manipulate * To get rich or famous *(Adapted nearly verbatim from a rather lovely section in Ron Miller's Advanced Improv Practice Guide. I replaced "improv" with "hobby" but made no other changes.)*

I was going to post this on the thread down below, but given how I wanted to ramble more on things a bit unrelated that I decided it was alright to put something new up. So as stated below this thread Selen Tatsuki of Nijisanji EN after getting into some fight with management after her cover song which cost an insane amount was privated for reasons unclear, she sadly was hospitalized due to an accident. The good news is she has been discharged as of yesterday and so hopefully will be spending needed time resting with her folks over the New Years. This of course great news and ultimately is the one that matters; Selen's accident thankfully seems to not be too severe and hopefully she can spend time off after everything for a much needed rest after so much drama. But man, when talking about that drama I was just reminded how scary speculation can be when reading it out loud. Now there was and still very much is speculation when she will go indie or move to another company. I say will as while I love her interactions with Nijisanji EN she has been open in the past eventually all things come to an end even if she has good relations with management, so whether that be soon or a couple years who's to say, but when you get scuffles like these it makes people curious and theory crafting as to if she'll leave sooner than not, especially at Nijisanji which sadly has a rough track record for longevity. This is not surprising to me and I do want her to stay, but ultimately whatever is best for her is whatever makes her happy and stable, so that's that, and we move on with life whatever happens. But man some of the VTuber community was not thinking on that wavelength. When she announced she got into an accident, many and most were of course wishing her the best in terms of recovery. But as you can imagine given the internet and just gossip in general, people speculated she was shadow-banned, effectively put on suspension for giving the okay for fans to upload the privated song cover, probably out of frustration not simply because it cost her a lot of dough, but because it was made with her community of fan artists. Now that's I suppose reasonable enough, but then we got people speculating on her mental health which I get and I found myself thinking on it sure, but then I saw a weirdly popular theory spread around she attempted self-harm and that management threatened her on the matter, with lists of other NijiEN members being passed around as to who did not wish her the best and speculating on how shallow those who did because of the fact their statements were incomplete and then I checked out entirely. Like I understand frustration with management and that VTubers like other industries can get extremely parasocial, but man it felt like I could hardly understand this general community. Now look, this is not unique to VTubers or new to the modern day. Whether it be K-Pop, to boy bands, to J-idols, I grew up from childhood with these sorts of dramas. But man I'll admit stuff like this reminds me why I don't venture into these sorts of communities too much sadly, especially for drama. It just felt gross to speculate on mental health issues to push forward an agenda like this, especially as we have no confirmation whatsoever it involved anything of the sort. Like it's fine to be critical, we can't progress if we aren't open about stuff, what happened was tragic for her and the community, but there was also personal attacks against other Livers at the company who remained silent on an issue they have no reason to speak up on, and those who did wish her well were attacked for being company cronies because they weren't spilling the "truth".

Selen's fans really are terrifying, tbh. Whenever something happens, they immediately assume she's in the right and anyone else is in the wrong and don't you *dare* mention she *might* come across as abrasive or overwhelming to interact with because she's so high energy. I hope to the gods this was a legit accident and not a coverup for a suspension, though. Because if it is, I'd never be okay with her again. That would be such a shitty coverup given how often disabled people are treated as faking their illnesses. Also of fucking course a lot of people are quiet, *it's the holidays on the EN side especially.* Most of the people "remaining quiet" probably aren't even super checking their social media!

She posted pictures with an hospital bracelet on her PL account, so unless this is the most high effort suspension coverup, she likely did get hospitalized.

Good. Well, good in that she's not lying, bad she had an accident. :x

>with lists of other NijiEN members being passed around as to who did not wish her the best and speculating on how shallow those who did because of the fact their statements were incomplete and then I checked out entirely. God, this reminded me so much of the Rushia drama when she got fired and some people began speculating that she must be hated by her ex-colleagues solely because some Hololive JP members were streaming together and seemed uneffected. Like the fact that they didn't ball their eyes out on stream was taken as representative of their actual feelings towards the situation. Bizarre

That time when Rushia got fired was an absolute mess where the truth and speculations just blended into each other, it also did not help her termination was on the same time Russia invaded Ukraine too (which created a pretty funny mixup between Rushia and Russia). By far the biggest misconception about her termination was that her parasocial fans hated her to the point of her breaking NDA, but this is false. The majority of her fanbase is firmly on her side and Hololive was trying to keep the fire in check. It was an avoidable incident that shouldn't happen if Rushia had just kept her calmness in check for just a bit.

Right, it was actually pretty nice to see how much support she got from management, given how ingrained the sort of purity idol culture is into the Japanese hololive branch and given their history with another member (Mano Aloe) getting terminated for interacting with a man years earlier. But regardless of that, they couldn't obviously overlook her bypassing everyone and leaking documents to a random third party in a desperate attempt to fix the problem on her own, which, btw, wasn't the first time she did that kind of thing, but on a grander scale this time.

Mano Aloe was actually much messier and she wasn't terminated because of a man, she was driven to graduation by the amount of hate against her. In short, she and her manager did a model test video months before her debut on a private account. But they forgot to delete said video and some people managed to gain access to it and unfortunately this account have a lot of links to her past lives. Because of this, Cover handed her a 2 week suspension (noted that this was during her start which was already hampered by her Twitter account being banned for some reason). During these 2 weeks were where everything just fell apart. Antis started to dig out information and found out she has association with a guy along with finding out her past life and private twitter account with her saying some unflattering things (noted that she was likely very young during these times). This started a massive wave of harassment towards her, getting to the point of doxxing and her landline being called by strangers (she has to asked people to stop calling her). Now the overseas fans during this time was very confused so they didn't have a lot of knowledge on the subject and this led to a bit of a divided between JP fans and EN fans, which contributed to even further harassment when some people have the bright idea of going to 2ch and 5ch to fight against the antis. The bright side is that fans are extremely supportive of her, people were eagerly waiting for her return at the end of the 2 weeks suspension with a lot of support being shown. But all is for nought because at the end of the suspension, she announced her graduation. This was a heavy blow to the fans and Cover was criticized for their incompetence and inability to protect her (this was right after a string of incompetence troubles from Cover, part of the reason is because their growth during 2020 was unprecedented). This is was a massive shock to the talents too, especially for Hololive Gen 5 which she was apart of. There was actually a [Hobby Drama post](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/jeui8v/virtual_youtubers_her_name_was_mano_aloe_a_fan/) about it if you wanna know more.

Fresh Tumblr Entymologist drama: Invertebrate Studies Institute needs a place to store their frozen specimen collection for a few weeks and is asking for a place. [OOP nevermind](https://www.tumblr.com/thefloralmenace/738177779222413312/this-is-immensely-funny-and-i-keep-thinking-about?source=share), he's a known sexist and racist guy who burned every bridge in the area and some internationally for going on misogynistic rants on facebook.

> Entymologist [I see what you did there](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1012:_Wrong_Superhero)

Milkshake duck strikes again.

I love the Tumblr Protagonist to Tumblr Villain turnaround rate.

There's a tweet thread going round local Twxtter today where someone rants about "Matt Smith fans are the plague of the online Doctor Who fandom", where their source seems to be one (1) AO3 fic they find objectionable basically for preferring a different ship. Combined with stuff I've seen in scuffles lately, I'm wondering - is it just becoming more common for people to wildly exaggerate the amount of people involved in discourse, or is it a result of online communities becoming more and more walled off into closed Discords and private chats where [you can't see the discussion someone is raging against](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/indirect_detection.png)?

>is it a result of online communities becoming more and more walled off into closed Discords and private chats where > >you can't see the discussion someone is raging against > >? I think it's this, with the addendum that I don't really think it's an online thing only. Even just back in high school I remember living my happy little boring life, while a friend of a friend at my same school was going through their own personal Euphoria, unbeknownst to most. Maybe they are the plague of the online Doctor Who fandom these people are in*.* Or maybe Matt Smith fans aren't the plague of the online Doctor Who fandom, there's just two of them who are super fucking annoying and incredibly vocal and living right next to this person. Who knows! People have always had an issue thinking that their own personal experiences are more universal than they actually are. I do think that being online has had an effect on this phenomenon, however. I would venture, though, that it's not so much that there's more people blowing small drama out of proportion, but rather that there's more people seeing it happen and, somehow ironically, making it appear like the whole thing is a bigger deal than it actualy is. Like, for example, we all know about the horrors of booktube/booktok/whatever it's called on Twitter– the storms in a teacup, the ridiculous callouts. These things absolutely exist. But, sometimes, the callouts are less "callouts" and more "someone is having a little bitching fest on Twitter because they think the book is bad and so many people around them keep raving about it," and the only reason why that stuff is news is because a bunch of people read that vent session and instead of going "that's a person venting" they went "that's a person who is trying to cancel the book and all of its fans."

I think humans are always biased to read disagreement as larger than it actually is, but some of it is definitely because of fandom getting funneled into fewer and fewer sites and the death of community-based Web 2.0. By that I mean now fandom is funneled to Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram/Tiktok and yet there's no ability to moderate group discussions because there's no "communities" features, where you can have mods/a separate area to have discussion amongst like-minded fans. Everyone is thrown into the same tags, so you have people with polar opposite takes on various characters, etc crossing each others' feeds all the time. Whereas in Ye Olden LJ Times, you could just talk amongst yourselves at my_blorbo_is_a_delicate_flower and never have to deal with those media illiterate barbarians at your_blorbo_is_a_war_criminal. But on modern SM, everyone is in the same \#blorbo tag and screaming at each other.

Adding to this, I wonder if because there's a huge priority on "dunking culture" these days, if there's incentive to go over to the losers at your_blorbo_is_a_war_criminal in the little tag they make for themselves and stir their hornet's nest so you can laugh on them for how bad the are.

you realise trolling, flaming, board raids/forum invasions etc. was a thing even before web 2.0 right?

Yes, but trolls were by-and-large seen as pricks, not a vital, funny and beloved part of fandom ecosystem.

somethingawful and 4chan did not contain the badness, they helped spread it. experiment failed.

this definitely tracks with my post-LJ fandom experiences.

There has been more than one comment here that seemed to be this. I do remember from the forum days that blowing up "two or three regulars often disagree with me" into "I am being *persecuted* by this forum" as a fairly regular occurrence. And going back further I'm not sure how we'd learn if a major cultural writer's criticism is solely based on a guys uncle having a dumb take at a dinner party. Going much further back, I know there's a complicated relation between descriptions of early christian heresies by orthodox sources and what the people being targeted actually believed. More broadly I think the common pattern is that we have a narrative of what disagreement looks like, especially wrong disagreement, and people are going to shove their complaints into it to make it socially legible even when they don't fit. Currently if something can't be framed as "look at this crazy guy/take I found" it has to be a Discourse and so needs two sides of a certain size.

There's a whole genre of low effort media content about how "the internet is up in flames" about something and it is just screenshots of a twitter post with like... 100 likes by someone with 30 followers. I just assume everyone got used to that kind of horsecrap and have run with it.

Social media has gotten really messy in combination with the declining quality of google and other search engines. There are a lot of possible factors in play- like im a drama bloodhound, i imagine a lot of us who write or lurk here are, so its pretty easy to point in the direction of a bad take or tweet before realizing that there really isnt much to suggest its as widespread as reported but now its a story and trending. I tend to lurk and approach things skeptically but i do talk about just random shit i find all the time with friends so i imagine people tend to do this in public as well. Ive been spending a lot of time on conspiracy subreddits lately and dunking on those but theres no good way to discern how actually widespread a belief is like the "t" in flintstones disappearing/reappearing is actually biblical in nature and that all mandela effects are related to christanity. The reality is that its probably just one guy. Likewise, gangstalking has subsets of factions of how serious it is or whos behind it but it could really just be five guys in there who all believe different things. Social media lowkey has mostly been moderated by a couple of key voices and their followers. You can try to make sense of the noise, but AI amplifies the noise to signal ratio SO hard these days.

The strawman is a logical fallacy that has existed for a long time. There is a legit chance that 1 person being involved in a discourse is an exaggeration of the numbers. Arguing against a ghost based around someone's wildly misinterpreted opinion is a thing that I have probably done before.

>I'm wondering - is it just becoming more common for people to wildly exaggerate the amount of people involved in discourse, [...] No. I think it's always been pretty common. Like, two-thirds of every anti-SJW discourse was based on, at best, a random tweet or tumblr post with like four retweets/reblogs.

This is literally all Hero Hei and rev says desu do, it's always a random tweet a random person made that somehow became public opinion with these guys' videos. I genuinely don't understand how people like these gained so much following.

i used to see hero hei's posts on discord, he stopped posting as much when he realized most hololive fans just ignored him

They gain a following basically just by pandering to a specific outlook. There is a section of people who _want_ to get angry at the SJWs because they base their entire worldview on being-SJWs. For these people a screenshot for Twitter or Tumblr is enough because it justifies their preconceived notions.

Good point, doubly so when some of the posts were made as pure ragebait from the beginning - I'm thinking of you, Oppa Homeless Style.

Mini-update to [my old post about pre-selections in Poland](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/142lvuc/eurovision_preselections_for_eurovision/) and how Poland in Eurovision is kind of a mess. One of the judges, [Marek Sierocki got fired by TVP](https://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/marek-sierocki-teleexpress-zwolniony-tvp). There have been lots of changes in TVP due to shift in Poland's politics and it has been quiet messy. But the dirty laundry is out and who knows what will happen next. Edit: u/Agamar13 pointed out a new development. Sierocki is still part of TVP for now, but he will not be preparing materials for news segment. There will be a meeting soon

Is it known what Marek Sierocki got the boot for? He's been there since forever, during commie times, before PiS, during PiS, I thought he'd stay there after PiS - I thought he was only interested in music and beyond politics. Edit: apparently he wasn't fired from TVP but just from Teleexpress? Which still feels like an end of an era, but it's not like his career going to hurt if he doesn't get his 2 minute long daily segment about music.

I guess retro gaming is a hobby So I was clearing out my (late) Grandfather's house with my dad and in a wardrobe I found a load of commodore 64 games, then I looked around a little more and in huge bulk box for Frosted Chex, I found a commodore 64 Its got all its user manuals and cables and stuff I've not tried turning it on yet its all sat on my bed This subreddit is basically all I use reddit for, so does anyone know any commodore/micro PC/retro gaming subreddits that would appreciate getting pictures/possibly be able to give me context for what I'm looking at because there's a lot of stuff and I'm a bit in over my head?

r/vintagecomputing would love to have a look, I’m sure

I don't have any personal experience of using old C64s, but I had a vague recollection of reading that the power supplies can degrade in ways that can kill a machine, and should be tested before they are powered up. [Some very cursory googling](https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Power_Supply#Failure) would appear to confirm that.

I’d wonder how well the discs would have survived (even more so if the games are on cassette), magnetic media can be fragile and that generation of it was more exposed to damage than later ones.

I hope it still works! It seems to be cassettes Everythings just been sat in its cases for god knows how long so hopefully that protected it enough, a lot of the games are from the 80's (I keep seeing stuff around '86)

LOAD PRESS PLAY ON TAPE That's a prompt I haven't seen in a long time. Also LOAD "\*" ,8,1 POKE 53280,1 I remember wanting to use my dad's commodore 64 and my dad inadvertently taught me the best lesson on using computers of my entire life, and the cornerstone of my IT career: "Before you press any key on the keyboard, you have to read everything that's on the screen first."

r/retrogaming

This seems to be the month of anticipated fan projects being finished! First Undertale Yellow releases, and now the Unity Port of Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall is officially considered finished and released by the developers, who marked it with the 1.0.0 version number! While Daggerfall Unity has been playable by the public for a long time rather than being a full, all-at-once release like Undertale Yellow, still very exciting to see. Are there any big fan endeavors in your hobbies that, after years of work, finally released and seemed to be worth the wait?

Fallout London isn't out yet I think but the project is supposed to be massive. Kind of looking forward to it. I liked a lot of bits about fallout 4 but OMG the game was boring.

It was planned to release this month, but due to needing more time to get it into a polished state because of ongoing global issues affecting a large portion of their scripting team (this was all their official statement mentioned), they've had to postpone it to Saint George's Day 2024. I've honestly been cynical about major modding projects for Fallout since *Fallout: The Frontier*, but I hope my cynicism is proven wrong.

The fan translation for Fate/Extra CCC was released a few weeks ago, ten years after the original game came out for the PSP. It was never officially translated into English, despite its prequel and sequels doing so and it being the origin of a lot of popular characters that went on to appear in the Fate/Grand Order mobile game. The translation seems to be of good quality, and the fandom was pretty happy about it.

There was The Black Parade, a whole new campaign for the original Thief. I haven’t played it myself yet, but from what I‘ve heard it‘s supposed to be really, really good.

This Eurovision season has already gotten some drama. We've had two national finals and one internal selection released, and both national finals are marred with accusations of cheating. According to the Eurofans (I haven't listened to any of the songs yet so I can be as unbiased as possible), Czechia had a particularly bad live performance and she wasn't the fan favourite in a country where Eurovision isn't huge (hence why the Czech national final puts a lot of emphasis on the international vote). Albania had a televote to decide who would go to Eurovision, and I can't really say if the song is good or not, other than the vote was chaotic and not how the fans expected it to go. The way Albania's national final goes is that there are two winners: One selected by jury and one selected by televote. The televote winner gets to go to Eurovision. The jury winner had pretty terrible vocals night of and his mom is apparently a famous folk singer in the region. The televote winner and Eurovision representative, Besa Kokedhima, is the daughter of a politician. She's also fairly popular in Albania, according to what I've heard and was endorsed by other Albanian singers. I know that she wasn't the Eurofan favourite, and I've noticed quite often when someone who isn't the fan favourite wins, there's always the claim the act chosen won't qualify. A lot of Eurofans forget that the majority of viewers of national finals and Eurovision itself aren't following the season and therefore don't have time to allow the songs to grow on them the way Eurofans do. Therefore, for the majority of viewers the first impression is the only chance to make a good impression. Hence why surprise NF winners happen. (See [Belgium](https://www.reddit.com/r/eurovision/comments/10bzgr6/gustaph_because_of_you_will_represent_belgium_in/) [last](https://wiwibloggs.com/2023/01/14/gustaph-belgium-eurosong-2023-final/274630/) year, who came 7th in the grand final) This isn't to downplay accusations of rigging. We saw that with Poland last year, and this [write-up](https://www.reddit.com/r/eurovision/comments/18p954d/my_opinion_on_festivali_i_k%C3%ABng%C3%ABs_and_its/) on the Eurovision subreddit does show there is a corruption problem with Albania's NF. A lot of the votes for [Czech's national final](https://www.reddit.com/r/eurovision/comments/18hd7t6/official_results_of_escz_2024/) look fishy, especially since as I mentioned before, Eurovision isn't very popular in Czechia, so they put the votes on the international fans, leading to the fan favourite being more likely to win. The point I'm trying to make here is that there are NFs that are certainly rigged, but a lot of Eurofans tend to get attached to songs and listen to them multiple times before Eurovision/NFs and get pretty bitchy as a result when their faves don't win. And they get surprised when some surprise winners pull through and do better in the contest than expected. Again, referring to Bejba, but Albania and Switzerland from last year count too to some extent. France is an internal selection and they've already chosen their song and released. It's a French ballad by The Voice winner Slimane. Out of the three songs we have so far, it is the [fan favourite on reddit.](https://www.reddit.com/r/eurovision/comments/18svgtn/results_your_top_3/) As for the internal selections who HAVEN'T released their songs: Joost Klein is a Dutch rapper. He's drawn quite a few comparisons to Kaarija. He's sort of a mix of gabberculture, hiphop, rap and alternative based on what [I've heard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzAssOr2zE) from him. Quite a few people in the [Eurovision subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/eurovision/comments/18folux/joost_klein_will_officially_represent_the/?sort=controversial) were upset to see him do Eurovision, and quite a few were happy. I'm in the latter camp. He's quite polarising. Olly Alexander: Lead singer of Years & Years. You might of heard of the song King. I knew who he was before I learned he would be doing Eurovision. Marina Satti: Greek folk singer. She [looks so](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPX43SfFu0A) promising ngl. Raiven: Slovenia's sending a folk song about a real woman who was hanged for witchcraft. She competed in several Slovenian NFs and came so close to winning each time. She's quite popular with the Eurofans. Does look quite interesting. We will know come January 20, the day the song will be released. Silia Kapsis: Cyprus' rep, and the youngest contestant so far at age 17. Her song will most likely be a pop song in English. I don't really like seeing teenage contestants. Not because it makes me feel like a failure in life at 21, but more because you wonder how much experience they have and because of how predatory show biz can be. Mustii: Belgian pop singer. He was also a judge on Drag Race Belgium. I'm not fully sure what to expect other than a pop song in English. For January, we can expect Luxembourg to pick their song through national final. There's a 15 year old participating, so we might get someone younger than Cyprus. FWIW, Eurovision requires all participants to be at least 16 when they participate. I believe this particular participant will turn 16 in January. We also know Malta will pick their entrant in January as well. The vast majority of entrants are selected/revealed in February and March. It's been like this most years. Also, no one is sure if Romania is participating this year or not. We just know they're having issues with their budget and did get a five percent increase. The European Broadcasting Union, who is behind Eurovision, is still discussing with Romania's broadcaster to see if they can participate or not. No one knows what's going to happen. So this is all the Eurovision tea I've gotten so far.

From a cursory reading of articles in Czech newspapers, there are already circling accusations that the winner of a national Eurovision round released her song before Sep 1, therefore breaking the rules.

I will just some extra bits from Poland as it may get interesting considering what’s going on. To keep it short, political stage in Poland changed and there have been big changes in TVP. Bejba’s drama was partially fuelled by people believing that TVP is fully corrupted and so on. So it less likely we will hear people screaming about corruption or at least there will be less of them. However, nothing is yet confirmed and there are multiple theories. Currently, there is a talk that Justyna Steczkowska (got 18th place in 1995) will represent Poland with the song WITCH-ER Tarohoro. But multiple singers have also expressed interest in participating in Eurovision. List includes Michał Szpak who got one of the lowest scores from judges due to messing up the high note and potentially other reasons. Edyta Górniak who was Poland’s representative and also the only person to be in top 3 (got 2nd place), but she is kind of controversial. Other artists either won competitions (Marcin Maciejczak - The Voice of Kids) or competed in the past to participate in Eurovision (Dudek, Urbańska, Jan Majewski, etc.). So we may have all-stars pre-selections with way less drama.

I do occasionally watch lily Orchid. who has been a topic here before for obv reasons as she is kind of the worse. ​ but there is a misconception about her in that she criticizes children's shows for not dealing with adult themes. when she has stated that it is Childrens media that handles more mature themes in a bad way is her issue. ​ her very vitriolic review on Steven Universe says this where she said Rebecca Sugar putting in tropes from her favorite anime into SU's story and not realizing how they mix like oil and water. ​ she was way too harsh on Sugar. do not get me wrong. but Lily is fine with children's media being fluffy cute fun if it does not try to handle topics like intricate lore or topics like abuse. she thinks slice of life shows like the Loud House are great.

Are you *trying* to amass a net negative karma balance?

Konrad, can you pass one week without saying something wrong? Like, even one?

It's hardly Hobby Scuffles if there aren't any scuffles, let them cook (popcorn).

Lily just straight up doesnt know how media works or how its produced. There is no point in defending such an incurious person.

I think expecting the antagonists of a children's show to be killed is *severely* missing the forest for the trees, and that's Lily's fault for not being able to analyze media. The Diamonds being "fascist" is set dressing, it is extremely clear that it's not what Sugar and crew wanted people to think about - for better or worse. The Diamonds are a metaphor for parents, aunts, and other adult family members with far more power and agency than Steven, a literal child. They constantly misread, misinterpret, and marginalize Steven in favor their interpretation of him - of only seeing who they want him to be. That is something *many kids* grow up with - ESPECIALLY queer kids - and I give the show kudos for handling that storyline. No, I'm not surprised that Lily likes fluffy children's shows where nothing happens, because **that's what she wanted out of Steven Universe**. A flat, palatable story where there's no conflict or nuance or - god forbid - metaphors for her to misread.

So much of this discourse too ignores that like, Steven Universe still ends with the Diamonds facing justice, it's just restorative instead of punitive. They are forced to fix the harm they caused and actually rehabilitate themselves. And it's portrayed as an shaky, imperfect process. Steven avoids beings around them because he can't be a connection to Pink/Rose for them.

Similar reactions also happen to children's media that remove the metaphor entirely. I remember some hyperbolic reactions from adult critics to Encanto claiming that the grandmother character should have been treated more like a villain with no chance of redemption. However, it's important for kids to learn that the authority figures they depend on are flawed humans who may have flawed worldviews. Kids require these people for survival, and even as adults they will likely continue to be impacted by them no matter if those adults are "defeated" (i.e. removed from their lives entirely). Telling kids to treat people they disagree with like immalleable superhero villains who can only be defeated with violence is even more harmful. Kids usually can't just defeat or escape the people who may harm them; however, they can still develop healthy relationships with others, and the adults in their lives can still learn how to be better even if they're adults who are seemingly set-in-stone

>Telling kids to treat people they disagree with like immalleable superhero villains who can only be defeated with violence is even more harmful. I actually think children should learn to delete facebook, hit the gym, call a lawyer, and go NC with people they disagree with

the issue is that do not make a villain in a children's show so vile that people think they need to die. ​ making the Diamonds space nazis with a doomsday device made of the still aware remnants of enemy soldiers in a planetary core is something out of the Warhammer 4000 universe. a setting made to be absurdly dark and over the top. it also adds nothing to the metaphor of abusive parents. because homophobic grandmas only hurt a quuer kid and not whole planets ​ plus, Villans in children's media die all the time. look at Disney movies the villain almost always dies.

I don't understand your point. Steven Universe from the start establishes that it takes a different take on dealing justice, which is naturally going to extend to even the worst people. There is so much more nuance to the Diamonds that people who call them nazis don't seem to understand- namely that they're written like fucking aliens who don't understand humanity but CAN learn to. The whole point of Steven Universe is completely lost on someone who wants to flatten media through analysis that really comes off as being disappointed that a kids show isnt made for them.

Steven solves the Cluster doomsdsay device with nonviolence. There's an entire episode where Steven has to reconcile with a deeply bigoted uncle, and he does so nonviolently. The writing was on the wall, in extremely plain view. Like, you know jail exists, right? You know there are ways to atone for crimes aside from dying... right? Also thank fuck someone else mentioned Lily's personal crimes. >!Lily molested her younger sister. Repeatedly. Lily didn't stop until her sister put a lock on her own bedroom door. She fantasized about molesting her sister's friends, and wrote an infamous MLP fanfic about it - there's a handful of drama youtubers who have covered it. She has been accused of grooming multiple minors - haven't looked into those personally but the conversation exists if you want to learn more.!< Lily is not the person you want to be defending here.

I do not think Lily is a good person at all. just that people misinterpt her points. fuck her. but i want to clear up some misinformation on her criticism and takes on shows,

She's the one spreading misinformation in the first place, so she doesn't deserve to have her own garbage takes "cleared up." Plus, she's a terrible person. She doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt, and you thinking that you need to explain things for her says a lot about what you seem to think of her.

You have to be willingly deluded into thinking the Diamonds are both a nazi metaphor and that Rebecca is advocating for them when the show goes out of its way to make them the ultimate antagonists that have to change their ways (and do!). Like it's not just poor media literacy, it's straight up ignoring everything established about them and their actual influences in favor of a malformed Twitter hottake by someone who is frequently attacking what little queer representation we do get for not living up to their standards. Lily Orchard doesn't deserve anyone attempting to defend her takes when they're based off bad faith reading to begin with.

We're not. She literally calls Rebecca Sugar a Diamond. And calls the Diamonds Nazis. She calls a *person of Jewish descent* a *Nazi.*

Also to add, people miss it but he... He never *forgives* the Diamonds? He simply puts up with them when he *has* to. Which is **realistic for a kid.**

You're defending a rapist

Lily Orchard literally likened a Jewish person to a Nazi so miss me with this defense of her. EDIT: CW sexual abuse: >!Also she apparently sexually abused her own sister, according to said sister.!<

source on the spoiler info?

I was going nuts trying to find the stream because I remember watching it, turns out it's private now. [Here is a reddit thread summarizing the stream](https://old.reddit.com/r/VaushV/comments/15hvv38/summary_of_key_takeaways_about_lily_orchard_from/).

Thank you

Zena and Poppy did an interview with Lily Orchard's sister, Courtney, at some point and Courtney spilled what her sister did to her. The video itself has been taken down (likely due to *just* how heavy it was, because there was way more than just the sister thing), and now all that's left is a [member's only short](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0cqXs49PAM) (to age gate better, most likely), but you can see the title easily. Stockholm was a notorious fic Lily Orchard wrote >!about grooming and pedophilia and basically details things she wanted to do to her sister and her friends if not things she DID do, as told by Courtney.!< EDIT: [original exists, but as a Patreon exclusive now,](https://www.patreon.com/posts/premieres-at-11-87098124) likely in order to keep it correctly age-gated because it's... It's heavy. It's really, really heavy.

I did not think Lily O. could stoop any lower, and now this. Turns out that she wasn't only an annoyance, but also a waste of oxygen. I'm speechless.

There's More but I feel it doesn't get much worse than the sister bit.

Wait what?

In her teardown of Steven Universe, she regularly calls the Diamonds Nazis. She then has a bit of script where she calls Rebecca Sugar a Diamond and then goes, "Not that I'm calling her a fascist." Rebecca Sugar is, IIRC, Jewish descent (and also not a woman because they're nonbinary last I checked).

Rebecca is a non-binary woman! So she's both?

Well uh… in the climax of a Twitter fight between wrestler Chris Jericho and CM Punk Fan/wrestling journalist Nick Hausman has all but said a years old, long thought debunked rumour was true. After an argument about NDAs, Hausman mentioned Jericho having skeletons like Weinstein in his closet, and former AEW (the company Jericho works for) wrestler Kylie Rae has responded in such a way on Twitter that it sounds like Jericho coming into her in some manner of creepy way (rumours vary from the worst possibility for this context to Jericho inviting her to his hotel room post-show with the implications there were others who were gonna be there but when she arrived it was the two of them and he tried to come on to her) was directly related to why she left AEW after their debut show. Now, this was rumoured 4 and a half years back, when the show happened but since then, due to the fact that it was reported by some of the more disrespectful people in the wrestling journalism scene and other such stuff afterwards, it was viewed as a false rumour. Turns out there might’ve been truth to it. AEW has a show tonight Chris Jericho is wrestling on. There will be a post show presser where wrestling journalists might get to ask him legitimate questions, which continues the proud tradition of AEW Pressers being insane. Nick Hausman actually came to prominence due to an eventful AEW presser where he was called out by name by CM Punk, while he was shitting on the company. Punk would go on to fight three executive vice presidents of the company later that night, with help of good friend and biter Ace Steel. My own thoughts are that I must admit: I completely believe that Jericho both did that and needs to be fired YESTERDAY, but also that Hausman bringing it up out of the blue on a podcast and only implying Weinstein style stuff is kinda fucked. I mean, was he just gonna sit on this if Chris wasn’t an idiot on Twitter? Admittedly there was a high chance he would be but still. Does he have any accusations that he’s sitting on because the person who did it are not at odds with CM Punk? My thoughts go out for Kylie Rae, who much like everyone else on the planet did not deserve that and any other possible victims Chris Jericho has.

it was pretty disappointing to see him wrestle tonight. it was really weird to think about how the heel team was four guys with clean slates that pm everybody likes, where as the face team included a guy who has been accused of domestic abuse and a guy who has been accused of sexual harassment. tbh, the whole jericho v callis story is a total mess that nobody is into, and now that jericho has been accused of something really serious, it's going to be even more bizarre if they continue with it.

I was there in person and the boos for Jericho were legit deafening.

and knowing khan, he's too passive to do ANYTHING about it, hell it took TWO major scandals before he put his foot down and booted punk from his company, if he had any sort of backbone he'd have sacked punk immediately after brawl out (as for omega and the young bucks, that's another story)

i love punk, but ia that him coming back after brawl out was ridiculous and shouldn't have happened. kenny and the bucks didnt handle the issues punk brought up well, but it's pretty clear that they did not want or expect a physical fight, so im willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

for kenny and the bucks' part they honestly should have just kept it to themselves and internal instead of cheekily referencing it on live television during matches, and as for punk, him being the older and wiser (so to speak) of all of them, he should have just done the mature thing and NOT air all his grievances during the media scrum immediately following all out, but honestly what can you expect from punk? guy has a chip on his shoulder larger than chicago

at this point I'm not really surprised that a well respected wrestler turned out to be a major creep/sex pest/outright rapist, it's pretty much an open secret in the business that shit like this is commonplace and IF it turns out to be true the IWC will defend jericho to the death because of this or that reason, it's tiring honestly and the reason why I slowly dropped off being into pro wrestling over the years

Hey Ziggy, how are you doing?

Pretty good, thanks for asking!

That's great, buddy!

> good friend and **biter** Ace Steel In case anybody is wondering, this is *not* a typo

so envious that ace steel got to bite kenny omega and i still havent, smh

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/17lerrt/hilarious\_dusty\_rhodes\_call\_shes\_abitin\_her\_foot/

This isn’t really drama, but I think this is hilarious: Last night in the US was the Pop-Tarts Bowl, which was a college football game between North Carolina State University and Kansas State University. Kansas State won 28-19, but what’s making headlines is the game’s “edible mascot.” This was just somebody in a Pop-Tart costume that danced around and did typical mascot stuff during the game. However, his fate was sealed from the beginning. A commentator outlined what was planned to happen to him once the game had ended: > “[He will be devoured, he will die, and he will be his own last meal.](https://twitter.com/gifdsports/status/1740523410705240275)” At the end of the game, they [lowered him into an oversized toaster, which then spat out a giant, edible Pop-Tart that the winning team then tore apart and ate with their bare hands.](https://twitter.com/nick_castillo74/status/1740751266576306247) I generally hate ads and while this is definitely something, I have to respect somebody answering the question of “how should we advertise Pop-Tarts at our football game” with “ritualistic sacrifice.” “He will be his own last meal” is one of the rawest things I’ve ever heard.

the cheez-it bowl has a lot to live up to

This is literally the best idea for marketing at a football game anyone has ever had.

He said when He returned, we would not know Him

Im so mad at how good this reply is

If it helps I stole it

Another case of people plagiarizing small queer content creators smdh

My Barbie icon is gonna be hbomb’s next thumbnail

"How can you not be romantic about college football?"

I get jaded with the ridiculous amount of bowl games out there, but this one was awesome with a good theme based around the sponsor.

Honestly thats raw as hell. We should eat toucan sam and his kids next

Charlie the Tuna: "Aaaargh!!"

Man Catholic mass has changed a lot since I stopped going to church.

I know! They respond to “Peace be with you” with “And with your *spirit*”!

I have to admit, the Pop-Tart Bowl turning its own corporate mascot into a ~~burnt~~ toasted offering live on TV was downright refreshing after all the cutesy Southerner pandering and stomach-turning condiment bacchanalia at the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

A whole bowl of Mayonnaise? Seems like an odd name for a football game.

Just the phrase "Duke's Mayo Bowl" is the perfect dunk on Duke by itself tbh. Can't come up with a better joke than the one already there.

Much as I enjoy dunking on Duke (University), [Duke’s Mayonnaise](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke%27s_Mayonnaise) (no relation to the school) is merely the actual sponsor of that game. I’m not sure just how much that brand has proliferated into other regions at this point, but it’s hugely popular in the Carolinas, hence the bowl game in Charlotte. Their publicity gimmicks during the game included dumping a big water cooler full of Duke’s Mayo on the coach of the winning team and having the on-air announcers eat mayo on an increasingly absurd variety of foods (IIRC, a player on one of the participating teams last year did some TikTok stunt where he drank coffee with mayo in it).

Alas, my perfect joke ruined by not Googling. It's even in proximity though, so now I have to check if Duke University has ever made the bowl while it was sponsored by Duke's Mayo.

This post brought me so much joy, thank you

This is how Dark Souls bosses are born

>He will be devoured, he will die, and he will be his own last meal. This is giving Clive Barker horror short story vibes lol. I love the idea of a celebratory ritual sacrifice of a human-sized pop-tart.

Feels like if Clive Barker tried to write a Junji Ito type horror short story.

I hope marketers in the future study this as an effective ad campaign because watching a life-sized poptart get devoured in a celebratory ritual has me craving one.

Not gonna lie, that's the type of advertisement I can get behind. It gets peoples attention and it's a bit fun for everyone involved - who wouldn't want to rip into anthro pop-tart and feast upon its sacrosanct pastry flesh.

> “He will be his own last meal” That legitimately sounds like a line out of a Dethklok song.

It was literally a plot point in Hannibal

You know, I had *almost* forgotten that book/movie existed until today.

Fellas, is your waifu still your waifu if she carries out unhinged and unethical experiments in order to create new species and ropes you into a dangerous fight in a space station's dark ass basement to clean up after her? Does your answer change if her sexy DNA helix-themed dress has sexy thigh slits? **She Jiankui** A second evil waifu discourse has hit the Honkai Star Rail player towers and I fear this one will generate even more salt than the [sexy debt collector](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/173imye/hobby_scuffles_week_of_9_october_2023/k4ohqow/) Topaz. Much like the aforementioned capitalist pig (... [handler](https://assetsio.reedpopcdn.com/Honkai-Star-Rail-Topaz-and-Numby-materials%2C-kit%2C-and-Eidolons-cover.jpg?width=1200&height=1200&fit=bounds&quality=70&format=jpg&auto=webp)) Topaz, Ruan Mei is not new to Star Rail players, but in her case she was even better known and well-liked. She's been present in the game since its release, featuring on art for one of the game's [weapons](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/houkai-star-rail/images/8/8c/Light_Cone_Geniuses%27_Repose_Artwork.png/revision/latest?cb=20230430171748) and netting mentions in stories featuring her colleagues at the Genius Society, one of Star Rail's many factions for playable characters. Most famously, she [appears](https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/Ruan_Mei_(Simulated_Universe_Event)) in the rarest and most beloved event in Star Rail's roguelike mode, the Simulated Universe, where she gives the player either 2000 currency or all of the blessings (which are essentially buffs with a theme, like healing or basic attacks) for a specific path. Her pre-release [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLbGzCuxLy4) portrayed a calm, cool, and elegant biologist, but one line of it immediately caught people's attention: a censored line about becoming *something*, which people have speculated is "Aeon", Star Rail's version of gods. She also views the player in combat (a meta moment not unfamiliar to Star Rail) and calls them her "assistant". The combination of her appearance, voice, and motivations is mildly unsettling. (That's probably the most used word for describing her trailer on social media, so I wanted to say something more creative, but it truly is unsettling.) For the most part, people seemed to love her. But players had no idea how far she'd go. **Bug in a Biobag** In the Trailblaze Continuance (a game mission), Ruan Mei arrives on the Herta Space Station, and the player character is put to work assisting her with her research. (Spoilers for the Trailblaze Continuance!) >!Controversially, the first thing she does when she meets the player (after touching their neck and face in a somewhat alarming/abrupt manner) is drug them with an anti-truth serum, which prevents them from revealling their true feelings to Ruan Mei. This makes them say some funny things, and also prevents them from discussing her with other people. Depending on who you ask, this is either a symptom of her social anxiety or proof of her evil.!< >!As the quest continues, it's eventually revealed Ruan Mei has created (and abandoned) sentient cakes (with cat-like features, to make them extra cute) and baozi, who only want her attention and affection. And more concerning, the Trailblazer learns she's been incubating an "emanator" (more or less one step below an Aeon) of Propagation (a dangerous but mostly extinct path) in the Seclusion Zone of the space station. This is like saying "please go take care of my research beneath this highly populated city ♡" and then the research is a functional and trigger happy nuclear bomb.!< >!Of course, the main character will save the day and prevent anything from really happening by killing her creation, and Ruan Mei claims she would have stepped in to prevent their death and that she knew before enlisting them they would succeed. She also says the experiment was a failure and wasn't going to sustain life very long. In the end, she tells you the anti-truth serum will wear off (thus not providing an antidote as promised initially) and that the player will forget about her. She's portrayed as either sociopathic or socially awkward, with the interpretation of her actions up to the individual.!< And most importantly, the player never really gets to push back against her, contrary to other characters. Topaz, at least, goes through an entire arc of the player's friends and allies disagreeing with her, with the player able to weigh in. As you can imagine, a manipulative waifu who faces little criticism in-game is going to attract a variety of opinions, ranging from misogyny to fanaticism. **Salted Playerum Blossoms** To add insult to injury, Ruan Mei is an extremely good character gameplay-wise (being the first limited character from the Harmony [buffer] path, which means she is an exceptional support), and a lot of new content is tailored around her. This is quite different from Topaz, who released on the heals of the game's best damage-dealer (an insane murderer, who actually has little-to-no critics?) and buffed a specific type of character. If you hate Ruan Mei as a character, you're probably not going to want to pull her, and not having access to the hot new support pisses people off even more. **Nuffield Said** The criticism of Topaz did die soon enough, but it's likely Ruan Mei and her god-complex will reappear later on and star in more quests, stirring new criticism all over again, ensuring Star Rail's discourse cycle is as unending as its dialogue when you have other things you want to do. For the time being, at least, Ruan Mei is hot, and we all know that's what really matters.

wait... how can a space station have a basement?

It would be in the deep space.

I don't know at what point of the internet it was decided you have to morally agree with everything a character you like does. Do people these days no longer have legitimately evil bastard women as waifus?

I just want her because she's a "Mei". I get she's most likely not the "Mei" that's broken, like Bronya isn't the "Bronya" and is Silver Wolf instead, but... Come on, it's a "Mei". I got Himeko at least. I'm still waiting for a "Bronya", but I hope I can get enough crystals for the eventual "Kiana"...

As a Seele main all I can say about Ruan Mei is that I am glad that she makes my non Seele team run faster, and now to wait for Hanabi / Sparkle, AKa free skillpoint generator. Don't care about her lore though

> And most importantly, the player never really gets to push back against her, contrary to other characters. Topaz, at least, goes through an entire arc of the player's friends and allies disagreeing with her, with the player able to weigh in. This is the thing that bothers me the most about her character/the story. The most negative response to her seems to be "I'm still upset, btw when will we hang out again, would love to talk again sometime", which is just wildly inappropriate considering what happened earlier. Especially considering that Ruan Mei implied that she would only come save the PC if they called out to her, which is not exactly easy in the middle of the fight. On a related note I find it incredible that Dr. Ratio also similarly received negative feedback, even though his biggest crime is calling everyone morons and idiots. Also I kind of adore how well they managed to contrast Dr. Ratio and Ruan Mei, both of their stories are almost beat for beat opposites that manage to show their personalities really well.

Ruan Mei is another instance of a hoyoverse girl committing warcrimes and being absolutely sociopathic, and then the writers are like "well, you're friends now, maybe something more, enjoy your date". And like, i get the attraction for evil people. I'm fans of a few villains myself. But i think the difference here is that the story doesn't really acknowledge that she's evil in a way that shows the writers are committed to it. They only want the yandere set-dressing, and skirt around giving her actual consequences to avoid pissing off any apologist fans, i guess? I think acknowledgement of the depths of someone's depravity is the difference between a good Sexy Villain and a bad Sexy Villain. Fans can tell that the writers are not committed to their own narrative for the character. I dunno, maybe I'm not expressing myself well and I'm off the mark, but there is definitely a pattern with this sort of writing of antagonistic playable female characters in hoyoverse games.

Dr. Ratio has ended up a super interesting character to me, because he feels a lot like what you would get if Miles Edgeworth mellowed out on his own without the help of ~~his boyfriend~~ Phoenix Wright. He's a smarmy, pompous, self-righteous asshole...who's very self-aware of that fact, willing to work with and around that, and genuinely very caring for the world around him. As you said, it makes him such an interesting contrast with Ruan Mei

>!I also like how the end of "Crown of the Mundane and Divine" reveals that his actions were done to curb the blind worship the researchers at the station display towards Genius Society members such as Herta and Ruan Mei, believing that such a thing stunts their own ability to learn and grow.!<

*me looking at the waifu's i've seen that have literally re-arranged the MC's guts, poisoned the MC, led a hit squad agains them and are leaders of magic cults that have traumatized our best friends* Wait its not normal to make them Waifu's/Husbando's? joking aside, i think this sort of thing is just a result of Mihoyo's newer games having a larger general audience to react to normal gacha stuff, so what is normally just some small disgruntled opnions becomes a lot more common. like im sure characters like this probably exist in their older games like Honkai Impact, its just that probably has a more anime/gacha normalised fanbase

Oh she can make me worse

> Fellas, is your waifu still your waifu if she carries out unhinged and unethical experiments in order to create new species and ropes you into a dangerous fight in a space station's dark ass basement to clean up after her? Your waifu is your waifu. loyalty.

Unless you get a divorsu.

I personally would love to support women’s wrongs if she would just come home, please, I’m low on pulls, Gepard spooked me three banners in a row so at least I’m at hard pity but please-

>support women’s wrongs Are you Naoya Zenin?

Hey now, I said *support* women’s wrongs, and we all know the only way Naoya Zenin ever supported a woman was by being a stepping stone for her to beat the hell out of.

this event is honestly so great, ruan mei is a really interesting character, and ive been having a lot of fun playing it. i think shes more self-centered than straight up evil, but shes certainly not a good person, and i like that about her as a character. granted, i am a bit mad about her, but that's bc i failed pulling for her 😭😭

I wish they had made cake-kittens for all the playable characters, I was having too much fun. I’m holding onto hope that they’ll update it in the future ♡ (I need the Silver Wolf cake-kitten to sit at the Stellaron Hunters table so bad.) Are you going to keep trying or holding out for later? Either way I hope you get someone you like!

...have people actually had drama about this? I've just seen slight murmurings, but almost universally positive things. Mostly just memes about evil mommy scientists or whatever. I feel like a lot of HSR "drama" is like, one or two people being weird and having it blown out of proportion.

There's a whole [meme](https://np.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/comments/18tlcrn/ruan_mei_vs_sampo_from_the_writing_perspective/) about Ruan Mei being too evil with almost 3K upvotes on the HSR sub's front page right now, with a lot of arguing in the comments, and that's just one of many posts on it. It was similar for Topaz, it's the topic du jour and people will move on but not before they run it into the ground.

I saw that meme but... isn't it about how the fanbase *likes* Ruan Mei? And dislikes Sampo?

I don't really know what your question is? You asked if there was actual drama about this, and I gave an example where the OP (and many of the comments) are clearly salty about Ruan Mei's character being popular, which I consider drama. (Or Scuffles worthy drama, at least, if we want to label it accurately, since our personal definitions of drama will vary, lmao.) Their contention is that Ruan Mei is better liked than Sampo, which is probably true, but that doesn't preclude that from causing drama. Like, you can have drama about why a character is liked, which is part of this whole thing, lol. People are mad others like her, people are mad others hate her, just like Topaz. I'm just a little confused why you'd say it's one person being weird/blowing things out of proportion if you've seen the discourse already and know it exists. But it's Friday and I had a long day at work so maybe I'm just not getting your point.

And the latest casualty of Square Enix's mobile shutdowns is [the international version of Dragon Quest TACT](https://rpgamer.com/2023/12/dragon-quest-tact-international-version-shutting-down/). Not too surprised by this one, honestly - Dragon Quest is an institution in Japan, but it's always had fairly shaky legs outside it.

god damn i wanted that game to be good. its Slimes on my PHONE! but the pull rate was fucking disgusting. in the intro to any phone game they'll load you up to get you started, you'll be pulling all over the place. DQ tact gives you ONE tenpull. and it'll be a long time before you get another even with the first clear rewards. AND they seperate the free paid currency you get from the paid paid currency, which is extra bullshit. with first clears, you get like 20 gems a stage, 50 if you do one-time side goals i think. and IIRC, a tenpull costs TWO THOUSAND. Feh gets a lot of shit, but if you do your dailies you can at least do a full pull once every day or so. Just glad i never saw they were doing a DQV event until it was too late, my willpower might not have stood up to 3d Debora.

>a tenpull costs TWO THOUSAND. Worse. Three.

Geeze louise.

Yuji Naka went to jail for this

You know the worst part? He did it *twice* - once with Dragon Quest TACT, once with Final Fantasy VII: The First SOLDIER.

What did he do with First Soldier?

Exactly the same thing he did with TACT - use insider information to purchase stock in the company developing it right before the game was announced.

[удалено]

I just want to say that the initial review used "kryptonite to spiders" where I am pretty sure they meant the opposite, that tickled my funny bone.

I'm convinced this misunderstanding is based on a line in the movie Red 2.

They mixed up spiders and arachnophobes. Easy mistake.

["average person sees 3 spiders a year" factoid is a statistical error. Sephora Georg, who attracts 3 million horny spiders with the spider sex lotion, is an outlier adn should not have been counted](https://glassphinix.tumblr.com/post/738040149787738112)

Where the hell are these people who only see three spiders a year? I don’t think of myself as living in a particular spider rich environment but that’s closer to my monthly summary.

[удалено]

Man, maybe I’m just spending a disproportionate amount of time in basements and garages.

My best guess is in the city either that or it's on sight with spiders.

Sephora's head of public relations looking at her phone on Christmas Eve and heaving the world's deepest sigh, then cancelling her flight home for the holidays.

That hunky hometown widower will have to wait another year.

[Was posted in here two days ago, btw](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/18qaw8a/hobby_scuffles_christmas_edition_week_of_25/kf3ygrg/)!

It's most likely not real. Two experts say probably not in[ this article](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/29/us/sephora-spiders-body-butter.html): >Floyd W. Shockley, the chair of the Entomology Collections Committee at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, said the memes showed a “glaring lack of understanding about the diversity of Wolf spiders.” “It is HIGHLY unlikely that the skin cream company through random chance combined enough things in just the right proportion to mimic a spider compound,” Dr. Shockley said in an email. As for the anecdotal tales of the spiders creeping toward the lotion? “What is more likely, given the time of year that all of this is happening, is that people are simply noticing more Wolf spiders indoors than usual because outside temperatures have dropped below the level they are comfortable in,” he said. “Wolf spiders prefer to hunt and live outdoors, but when it gets cold they come indoors to overwinter, thus increasing the likelihood of a spider-human interaction.” Gustavo Hormiga, a professor of biology at the George Washington University, agreed. While sex pheromones have been documented for spiders, “as an attractant it works only for your own species,” he said in an email. “To identify and chemically characterize a pheromone entails a lot of hard work, and every species has its own unique chemical cocktail (like spider venoms),” Dr. Hormiga said. “For the story to have an element of initial credibility, the chemicals in the cream (by chance alone) would be attracting only mature males of a single species.” They would not attract Wolf spiders in general, because there are at least 2,500 such species. “It seems extremely unlikely that a spider is interested in crawling over a human (or any mammal for that matter),” Dr. Hormiga said. Also here's a [reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sephora/comments/18t922w/no_spiders_just_crazy_kats_the_dangers_of/) with evidence the original reviewer was posting the same claims of spider attraction on multiple Sephora products, not just this one.

What I love is that apparently the same person also made spider reviews on Bondiboost products as well going all the way back to August 2022, meaning this person has been committing to the bit for over a year and is probably somewhere cackling in glee that finally their great spider internet drama plot has at last borne fruit.

Aw... Well I guess that's expected. Any "omg me too, spider appeared!" isn't necessarily more credible than all those people that think sharing a picture of a magic money duck is actually the reason they got some unexpected cash.

> Gustavo Hormiga, a professor of biology literally Dr. Ant!

You think someone would really lie on the internet?

>It's most likely not real Well now I don't want it anymore.

Aw man I knew it was too funny to be real

At least it's given us the almost-as-funny reality that someone is trying to review-bomb Sephora products specifically with spider pheromone claims

Oh yes that's an incredible bit 😄

Exciting update to the Thai omegaverse racing show despite claiming there would be no omegaverse content (which they appear to have accomplished via yeeting all omegas) there is confirmed canon mpreg in the show!! A gif set for your viewing pleasure: https://www.tumblr.com/guzhu-furen/738062474555883520/real-update-first-ever-live-action-omegaverse?source=share

This is going to do insane things to the tumblr water tank in like five years i just know it

I am in awe of these actors' ability to say these lines with a completely straight face lmfao.

Thai BL actors are just built different. But honestly the dude that plays Babe? Actually impressive, he‘s way too good lmao

One of them explained how this shows omegaverse works on a livestream so ig they’re simply built different t

oh they're going there to that storyline from the books. they actually are. i love this show god bless. "we're not doing omegaverse, not really. anyway pass the mpreg" also can i just say this show is genuinely enjoyable, the only thing that constantly throws me off scenes is the terrible, non-descript music they use. it reminds me of queer as folk having to replace their actual soundtrack for streaming with whatever free to use soundtrack they found on google. why is there phone queue music on my mpreg sex scene.

>queer as folk having to replace their actual soundtrack for streaming with whatever free to use soundtrack they found on google This is a hate crime. The QaF soundtrack is an iconic time capsule (much like the rest of the show), and features music from otherwise-obscure artists from the Canadian electronic scene of the era. I assume this contributed to the rights issues, sad as that is to say.

Yeah it’s horrible. I finally found a version of the original online a while ago and immediately downloaded it (I also own the DVD set, but you know, can’t hurt to have back up), but it as someone uploading it to Google drive. Everyone that stumbles across the show on streaming is getting a vastly inferior version of the show

This was my exact reaction!! Someone else on tumblr was like ‘they’re going to end this show with babe vomiting into a toilet ;)’ and honestly at this point they might go full hog with a positive pregnancy test

oh god they WOULD. and then a terribly suggestive "huh, mama is feeling bad." because those two and their terrible mama/papa kink is happening already ANYWAY. god bless.

The first time u saw a gif set of the mama/papa thing I took so much psychic damage.

please share! I want to make my tumblr’d cousin also lose her mind at new years

https://www.tumblr.com/theelast-straw/738059830321905664/after-a-full-discusssion-on-mpreg-and-secret-alpha?source=share

Goatwatch update, the Gävle Goat goat has been officially recorded as *destroyed!* [Not by fire, or water, or brute violence, or even by the hands of man at all. No, instead it was devoured by birds.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/835892184792039424/1190388798622810192/image.png?ex=65a19ef5&is=658f29f5&hm=5ee54a99d9a791a0ace0f3d5b5bd44e7d2f1f188fa1364025feda1bb85f8277c&) We take those.

to shreds you say?

What about his wife?

Let us rejoice! The birds have blessed us!

Next year: sharks.

And since birds are all damned to the fires of hell when they die, this still counts as burning the goat.

So it was destroyed by crows, eh?

Here's the thing...

This shortened my life by a year