[Fanfiction News and Announcements]

Speaking as someone who had already written a LOtHT-themed season for UWS, I'll just sprinkle in some motivation and say that I can already ensure that yours will turn out better than mine did. 

[Avatar 2]

It's finally happening now.

[Machine Gun Kelly]

Discuss the internet's currently most hated music artist. I only have an opinion on his pop punk output, and I'll just say that I may be one of the few folks who's neutral towards him. He's got some hits and as well as some misses, but even when he's bad, I've honestly heard worse pop punk pastiche than from him.

[Prez Reviews 91X's New Alternative Songs for 2022]

opinionz:

-I'll say first thing that I didn't even know Inhaler's frontman is actually Bono's son until you've mentioned it. "Cheer Up Baby" is a fine song, but I hope that the majority of their music isn't too U2-leaning, only knowing this one particular song.
-I like girl in red, so I've come to like "I'll Call You Mine" right away. also obligatory "serotonin" doesn't deserve this slander but I can see why you dislike it post.
-I also like "Ride or Die" just fine, but surely there are more interesting indie pop out there compared to this.
-Always liked "Chaise Longue" eccentric sense of humor and unique sound and I still do. Wet Leg released their debut album earlier this month, which I need to get into.
-Gang of Youths definitely seems the type of band one would enjoy if one has the patience to be invested in their songwriting and gimmick. Most of their previous singles are similar to "angel of 8th ave." length-wise, and I feel like it's the payoff is what counts most of the time, since that's the main reason why I liked "angel of 8th ave." quite a lot. I haven't listened to the newest single nor their newest album that it's from, but I feel like I may like this one too.

[Ask the gnarliest stuff in the ocean]

On 4/21/2022 at 1:41 PM, Minty Car said:

Been listening to the Foo Fighters ad nauseum due to reading Grohl's book. You have any favorites by them?

I recently listened to a select few of their albums in full before Hawkins' death. "Everlong," "Best of You," "Learn to Fly," "Aurora," "February Stars," "DOA," and "Rope" are the ones that I've liked most from the band.

[Q2 2022 Announcements (4/22/2022)]

Welcome to the first official spin-off announcement topic for 2022, and yeah...four months in and I've already shirked production on my remaining backlog, but I'm going to let this topic give me the motivation that I need to push things forward. Naturally, most updates are the same for Lost in Translation, Rebirth of a Storm, and Tiki Land, so they won't be mentioned here, but I will bring my attention to few quirky side-projects, and so I'm going to start off with them before going over the rest of my backlog...

Spin-Off Festival 2022: First things first, I'm not involved with anything for this imminent event (or at least not yet), but I am going to be doing something special for the occasion, and you'll understand why later when I say that I'm going to try and make this one count this year 'round.

Steel's Music Reviews: For those who haven't seen me hint at this a few times on the Discord server, I'll be making my retirement as a music reviewer pretty soon. I'm giving myself an assortment to send it off with, and here is a look at what the last batch of reviews will look like:
-Top 10 Best Alternative Hit Songs of 2019 (Don't think I've forgotten about this one)
-Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1995
-A dual top 10 list to bring some life to Claps' Entertainment 2021 thread, which I won't disclosure until they are published
-Another special list that I will keep as a special surprise until after I publish the latter, which is something that I've been meaning to do since the past year.

Jjs' Riffing Theater: This is back once again with Family Guy as the current target. While I will very much be participating for it, I've settled on a minimum of three episodes to cover. My first riffing appearance for FG will be for "Screams of Silence."

The Writing Sessions: Once again, they are not canceled and I am once again reviving them for my current attempts to self-discipline me into pushing the production of my spin-offs. I don't have a date set for my next one, but I have plans to start another a new session later next month.

 

With all that out of the way, let's go over some of the updates for some of my other spin-offs....

Chemist Bob's Catastrophic Creations Cinema: I announced this a while back that I intend to bring this back from hiatus. A new episode will be posted late this month while next month will be seeing a bit of overhaul. Once the still-current riffing project for Guru Gakuto is up to the 13th episode, this series will take another break until August to finish up the rest of the series.

Total Drama Treasure Tour: Like I said before, this is currently on hiatus until my focused spin-offs are completed. Best case scenario, I can be able to resume it during the month of June before I can commit to my long overdue new episode overhaul in early July, which is when the 15th anniversary of the original Total Drama series will take place. 

Oh Yeah! Collections: While I could've addressed this earlier, I am also, of course, taking a break from my series of one-offs until further notice. At this point though, I have four more of these to write up.

Tomorrow/Tomorrow for sure/Eventually.../Uhhhh...: In the meantime, be sure to look out for the Lost in Translation finale, the Rebirth of a Storm finale, and the VERY long overdue premiere of Trinity Leaf Pegasus before the next quarter. I am still focused on these and I will try to get each of these done sooner than later.

 

That wraps up the roundup of updates for my spin-offs/lits this year. If my progress speeds up within the next couple months, I should be able to deliver more interesting news in July.

[273a. Potato Puff]

that thread image tho

[Morbius]

Morbius is a vampire who says funny things.

[Q1 2022 Announcements (3/32/2022) (april fools dudes)]

As I know everyone is aware, our honorable overlord Plankton has taken over SBC and it pains me to say that I no longer have the funding that keeps me writing my spin-offs for a free-to-use website. This means that some things are going change for my content moving forward. But for one moment, let's push aside the negatives and move on to the positives. After thinking hard about it, I've come to terms with the best new idea that I could ever endorse in my 12 years of being an SBC member...

Introducing... SteelNFTs!:

SteelNFTs is a new personal feature that I will be implementing in the near future. What is it and how does it work, you all ask? Well, if you know what NFTs are, then you'd already be familiar with the concept of my own brand of these units of data. Starting next months, NFTs of my spin-offs, lits, seahorse radish, and the newly established Crypto Chemist NFT image collection (with over 900000 guaranteed totally unique images to collect) will be readily available for purchase.

These NFTs are the only NFTs that can be purchased with my signature form of cryptocurrency: Steelcoins. With permission from Plankton himself, a new feature has been programmed where one newly earned doubloon in your bank can be converted into SC500 through my work-in-progress Doubloons to Steelcoin Converter!

And that's not all! The original Steel Sponge Wordpress blog will be retired immediately, as my new personal website will be replaced with a crypto information site by yours truly, with new research and sales information on Steelcoins to be posted every month. www.steelcoineconomyclass.gov will be launched the same month.

It's been a honor for me make this announcement to make up for the lack of news that I've had to share. I hope you're all pleased with this announcement, although something feels off all of a sudden. Oh yeah, I just remembered that I hate NFTs and crypto, so it turns out that I won't be committed to this project at all.

Oh well...I hope my announcements for the next quarter on April 22nd will salvage it, but that depends on if the mighty ruler himself would allow it.

[Every episode of Fairly OddParents rated]

Well…it was about time that I got around to writing this, wouldn’t you all think so? After my original plans for these rankings went under because of series creator Butch Hartman escalating his online persona to unpleasant degrees, I’ve come to feel like he and his work weren’t worth any more attention. So, I haven’t been feeling dedicated this side project as I used to at the start, when I formed this so I can not only gauge my proper opinions on the show’s entire painstaking 16-year run, I’ve also done this as a way to ease my mind about the series in its current form and take myself back to when I cherished it for a while.

My absolute apathy towards FOP as of recent has gotten to the point where I forgot that it turned 20 years old last year, and had I remembered then, this would’ve been my way of celebrating FOP’s 20 year milestone, but when what used to be such a formidable animated series for Nickelodeon had sunk so low in quality whereas it has no bright future to look forward to in sight, with a brand spanking new live-action FOP series premiering with practically no fanfare…I’m better off sending off this project with a eulogy of some kind. Of course, there is no better way to start than with my own take on what are truly the ten worst episodes from the entire series. As sad it is for me to say, I felt like I had stronger contenders for the bottom ten than I had for my ten favorite episodes, and that is thanks to its infamous back half.

 

First thing’s first, here’s ten dishonorable mentions, each with at least a brief description detailing why I’ve hated them so:

Season 10, #166a.: Space Ca-Dad – It’s a Season 10 episode starring Timmy’s Dad, and if you knew me well, I’ve had lower tolerance with the character’s flanderization than I did with the season’s inclusion of Chloe, who ends up taking a lot of the blame for this season’s problems. This episode is an absolute nuisance to sit through, and it’s not even the worst of the S10 episodes that focuses on Timmy’s Dad.

Season 10, #168b.: Chloe Rules! – This episode ended up very low in the rankings for primarily having what I feel is the show’s worst joke in general, in form of Berry Rosenbell the Hip Hop Hedgehog, an incredibly random one-off joke character that gets heckled by the episode’s main cast, saying to him “You’re terrible!” when he just barely even does anything and serves very little relevance to the episode’s plot, as if the writing team believed that they had such a good grasp on what an intentionally terrible character is like. As for the main plot itself…it’s an episode where the usually goody-goody Chloe turns into a jerk after becoming a hall monitor and the execution doesn’t make for something compelling. Jimmy Neutron did this kind of plot better. To paraphrase Timmy’s Dad from the same episode, this deserves to go back to Redondo Beach.

Season 6, #92a.: Vicky Gets Fired – To me, this episode is the first true sign of the series throwing its sense of continuity down the drain, while not being too heinous. It’s a predictable Status Quo is God type of episode, and it gets convoluted with its approach. What really annoys me about this episode is that it’s just so pointless when Channel Chasers did explain why Timmy chose to hit the reset button and have Vicky continue to be his babysitter – otherwise, he wouldn’t keep his fairies.

Season 7, #113a.: Take and Fake – This episode doesn’t treat Timmy the cruelest, but it’s still a rather cruel episode regardless. Its jokes fall flat, especially the whole running joke of literally anyone unzipping their costume in a “just kidding, you’ve been trolled lol” kind of fashion that gets tiring fast. Coupled with a predictable outcome for only an episode centered on Timmy trying to get Trixie to fall in love with him, it’s a worthy contender from S7. Also, there’s the whole bit about Crocker apparently not recognizing Cosmo and Wanda as fairies despite the episode going with the whole “everyone is in costume so they’re safe from being exposed” excuse, but that’s not the most excruciating thing about the episode unlike most have said.

Season 9, #142a.: Love at First Bark – People tend to give “Love Triangle” a lot of flak for being a typical love triangle plot stretched to 22 minutes, but when the other love triangle plot revolves around Sparky and Timmy’s Dad fighting for the affection of Dinkleberg’s dog because of Timmy wishing the latter liked Dinkleberg’s dog enough so that he wouldn’t forbid Sparky from being close to her, it’s clear which is worse when you think about the implications more. Also, “Love Triangle” at least didn’t have the line “So you like poop with pee on it, eh?” attached to it. Sorry Mythix, I know you seem to be a fan of this, but I find this close to unbearable.

Season 5, SP2: The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3: The Jerkinators! – A major disappointment from the otherwise competent fifth season. The more that this special drags on, the more it feels like the creative teams for FOP and Jimmy Neutron combined made this because they were obligated to by Nickelodeon and not because they wanted to. This really feels like the folks involved in the episode’s writing process were scrambling for ideas, and while it has jokes to tell, most of them felt immature than clever. If this is the type of episode you can’t handle for 22 minutes, imagine dealing with it when it’s double the length.

Season 9, #149: The Past and the Furious – This is definitely an odd choice for a bottom ten contender. In fact, this was close to being somewhere at the bottom of the barrel before I decided that this was a little too stupid to hate as much. The main problem with the episode is its predictable first half, which feels structured like a typical GoAnimate grounded video: Timmy wants to take part in something with his fairies, but they don’t trust him not to do something stupid while he’s around. Timmy, however, does the stupid things he’s told not to do and becomes responsible for the episode’s main conflict where he alters the timeline, as if he didn’t learn that lesson before from a particular S1 episode. The episode’s second half is spent on Timmy fixing the timeline, but he then encounters an obstacle by way of a villainous, grown-up ex-godchild with a nefarious plot. Because of how bland it is, however, the second half doesn’t really help salvage the episode much. This could’ve been more tolerable as an 11 minute segment, but no, this had to be a two-parter.

Season 10, #168a.: Dadlantis! – Or…as I’d liked to call it: OH GOD, ANOTHER DAD EPISODE!- Ahem, If you thought Space Ca-Dad’s immature humor and off-the-walls pacing was a nuisance to sit through, you’ve been warned, as this episode takes it up a notch with the annoyance factor.

Season 7, #106a.: Crocker Shocker – There’s just one word that best describes my feelings towards this episode: BULLSH-[BUY SOME APPLES]. This is just the Crocker equivalent to Vicky Gets Fired, except the Status Quo is God setup is played up to an even more convoluted degree. This episode tries (with the main buzzword here being ‘tries’) to convince us that if Crocker stops believing in fairies since after the events of The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker!, Fairy World collapses into a post-dystopian nightmare and then it dies after falling into a bucket of acid below it and…yeah, this is what I meant when I said that this episode is a bunch of baloney. Besides the whole status quo, I don’t remember how exactly this episode ends, but I’m certain that it’s just as forced as the rest of the segment’s plot. Also, rather than trying to add up to the series lore, this episode ends up giving me some questions like “What if Crocker died? What will happen to Fairy World then? Or is he an immortal being somehow, which is why he doesn’t age a bit fifty years after Timmy made the secret wish that everything and everyone stays the same forever?”

Season 8, #122-123.: Timmy’s Secret Wish! - Speaking of which…here’s the last close contender for my bottom ten, on top of being a fitting choice for my #11. The B.S. factor in this special manages to outmatch the previous by trying to explain something that didn’t really need an explanation, and once again, it only ends up raising more questions about the series continuity and gives viewers the impression that the creative team doesn’t have any care towards it anymore. This special is built around the revelation of Timmy having caused the passage of time in the whole universe to be stagnant since fifty years ago…and that’s not the most mind-boggling thing about this special. Crocker, apparently didn’t age after Father Time undid the secret wish, Timmy apparently didn’t completely lose all of his memories of Cosmo and Wanda or most of his wishes either as a consequence, and of all characters that is made the villain of this special, it’s Foop, who, considering that he is an evil baby genius, would be smart enough to know that making Timmy lose his fairies would also mean that he, alongside Poof, would be unwished and he STILL tries to paint Timmy as a bad godkid after he gets saved.

This episode could also been seen as notorious for establishing just how very reliant Timmy is towards his fairies, and it becomes a key characteristic for the first live-action film to showcase that Timmy is too reliant on his fairy godparents because they’re like family to him. You’d think Timmy deserves not to keep his fairies too if you realize that he made the secret wish and subsequently made Cosmo forget about the wish just so that he would never lose them. And yeah, the overlong special does end on a satisfying note, but I don’t feel like it amounted to much in redeeming Timmy for the wish he made as he should’ve learned something from that, and instead he gets off the hook for doing the simple goodwill of risking his life inside of Hocus Poconos for his wishes and for his fairies. This is also notorious for being the point where the series starts relying on making certain loopholes to ensure that Timmy doesn’t lose his fairies, like refusing to make Timmy grow up mentally, or having the Fairy Council administer Timmy’s fairy ownership as a couple more examples from the first live-action film. Moments like these give the impression that the pre-established rules and limits set by the FOP universe don’t matter anymore in the process

Other than the episode’s inconsistencies, it’s just very dull in general. One portion is spent on a forgettable trial, and then on a forgettable quest to for Timmy to go back to Fairy World from the fixed timeline, and while the last third is more interesting, it still doesn’t make it feel any less like a copout. Sorry, my commentary for this is supposed to be brief, but this one has given me a lot of material to cover.

 

Now that I’ve weeded out the strong contenders that we’re not able to make the list proper, let’s go ahead and reveal my ten contenders for the absolute worst from the main series:

 

STEEL’S TOP 10 WORST EPISODES OF THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS

 

Spoiler

10. Dimmsdale Daze (Season 10; #164b)

 

While forming this list, I came to the conclusion that I had to make room for one more S10 episode, and I was able to find one that I would consider close to irredeemable – a rank that is shared by a total of eight episodes on the list. So of course, there are only two episodes on this list that were close to the lowest possible rating. Dimmsdale Daze is a bad episode for its execution, while almost being just as bad by design. The main plot of this episode involves Chloe wishing to be a mom so that she and Timmy could both have fun at the Dimmsdale Daze Carnival, which gives off some unsettling implications and well as some questions regarding the logic surrounding fairy godparents and godkids, as a wish like this would be consequential to Chloe’s fairy sharing.

However, the episode does give us a logical compromise by aging down Chloe’s parents into kids and leaving Cosmo and Wanda to Timmy alone as a consequence from the wish. So this episode results into Chloe facing the responsibility of being a parent to the kid versions of her own two parents. Now, while it does recycle elements from The Switch Glitch and The Big Problem!, I do feel like the episode could’ve been able to strike up the opportunity to provide a compelling enough episode with a moral on adult responsibilities. Since this is S10 we’re talking about, it’s no surprise that any chance of it panning out just fine is thrown out of the window.

The first problem to point out is that the child versions of Chloe’s parents don’t act like kids, and rather display exaggerated child characters tropes as if the writing team forgot how to write child characters for a moment. Second of all, after the episode proceeds with the main plot of Chloe seeing her wish pan out, the episode goes nuts with its humor and pacing, and because there’s more focus put into that aspect, the episode barely gives itself time to establish a proper conflict, where Cosmo and Wanda are bestowed to the child versions of Chloe’s parents after Chloe snapped at them. We could’ve gotten a bigger perspective on Chloe’s parents forming somewhat of a relationship with Cosmo and Wanda while they’re still kids, while Chloe herself could realize her mistakes and the lesson she needed to learn, but since it’s clear that the writing team doesn’t care for subtlety, the episode’s conflict comes and goes as quick along with its resolution, which lets Chloe off easy and therefore leaves no proper redemption for a character who ends up acting like a jerk for one moment without the episode directly pointing out that while she is written to be sweet, friendly, and having no bad bone in her body, she can also have her limits.

Some of the little things that bring this episode down for me are the inclusion of Mr. Crocker and Mr. Turner in this episode, given that the season has been treating them like a crutch for comedy when the plot isn’t doing enough favors, and as well as the one moment where Timmy uses his fairies as barf bags when he could’ve wished for some, which is not only gross, it also doesn’t help in making Timmy come off as likeable, just like how this episode failed to keep Chloe likeable. What made The Switch Glitch and The Big Problem! work was that each were able to establish the repercussions of the wish and give us a different perspective on the characters affected by it, and this episode failed to capture that same charm.

Spoiler

 9. Lights Out (Season 7; #118a)

 

This episode was dangerously close to being in the unsalvageable tier, and it would’ve been lower if it weren’t for the episode trying to make up for the mean-spiritedness with Cosmo and Wanda telling Timmy that they’ve meant to teach him a lesson. So what did Timmy do to deserve the punishment that he faced throughout the episode, which involves him wishing that, for twelve hours, Dimmsdale would go completely dark? It’s because of nothing more than Timmy scaring his baby godbrother Poof with a scary story. If you haven’t noticed one of the main problems with this episode yet, then allow me to restate the plot: Timmy wishes that the world around him is pitch black for twelve hours and his fairies put him in danger and scare him throughout….so he could be taught a lesson for scaring Poof and nothing else beyond that. Let that sink in before I get to the other problems with the episode…

If a bottle episode is best defined as being cheaply produced to save a show’s budget, then this episode is a clear-cut example of one. The vast majority of this episode is shown in pitch black with one pair of eyes, and more pairs on occasion. There is some variety added to these scenes of nothingness where we get some brief moments of illumination. Other times though…we get cheap jump scares. The scenes with Cosmo and Wanda becoming scarier are so predictable and don’t help in giving the episode the thrills and scares it tries to achieve in having. It comes off as disturbing instead, especially when you reconsider why they’re scaring the wits out of their own godchild (that and it’s easy to conclude that most of the budget for the episode was spent on the “Scary Fairy” designs for Cosmo and Wanda).

It’s an unsatisfying and disturbing viewing experience all the way through, and when it does end on somewhat of a light note, it doesn’t help redeem the episode so much for its mistakes. No matter how you feel about Timmy Turner as a character, it’s easy to come to the agreement that this episode doesn’t do a good job in justifying this punishment for the character as every bit of deserving. As an episode that tries to come off as thematically dark, it provides cheap scares and falls flat due to its gimmicky setup. As for the jokes…they’re just not funny. Some of them are inappropriate, and then there are some that just fall flat.

Spoiler

 8. Farm Pit (Season 7; #119a)

 

Here is the first of the 1/10 episode being revealed on this list. I’ve considered putting this a little bit higher, but I’ve forgotten a lot about the episode. That could be a good sign, but nonetheless, I still remember loathing this episode the first time I saw this, and I can always rely on wikis to recollect my viewing experience and form my analysis on the episode.

There isn’t so much to say about “Farm Pit.” I can sum it up by saying that it exhibits the definitive formula for a terrible FOP episode: an uninspired plot that is recycled from a much better episode (in Farm Pit’s case, “That’s Life”), giving the spotlight to one of the usual spotlight stealing characters, Mr. Turner, a worthless subplot where Timmy’s fairies need to get back their wands, forced Cosmo stupidity, pacing that’s all over the place, unfunny recurring gags, and unfunny slapstick. One thing that’s missing is a continuity snarl. There’s just little to nothing that I feel salvages this episode. It is just a tedious mess, plain and simple.

Spoiler

 7. Dumbbell Curve (Season 9; #129b)

 

In a nutshell, “Dumbbell Curve” is what happens when you try to be “Salsa Imbecilicus” but instead end up being “The Nitwitting.” (Although, this FOP episode came out before both SB episodes I’ve mentioned, so why am I making this analogy?) This episode revolves around Timmy wishing everyone was dumber than him because of Crocker pulling a bell curve on him in his scheme of continuing to give him F’s. What follows is not where Timmy views a world where everyone around him is at least less smart than Timmy, but rather an episode that’s filled with forced stupidity, so forced that I felt like I lost brain cells from watching it.

In aptness to the episode’s brand of humor, which relies so much on the “LOL so random” type of jokes, it’s best to describe this episode as…pee-pee, gaga, goo-goo, potty, caca poo-poo. Okay, so the humor is not THAT immature, but it’s still inexcusably bad. With this episode being based on the concept of Timmy turning the dummy switch on everyone except himself, the comedy should be the highlight of the episode, and yet it feels like no effort was put into that aspect. A lot of the jokes are executed as if the writers just went along with whatever they came up with while assuming that they’re funny and that we will find it funny. There’s even a recurring joke AND plot element based on…hot dogs. Why? Just…why? Also, when you’re writing an episode where Timmy wishes that everyone was dumber than him, that doesn’t mean that you should literally make the other characters as dumb as bricks.

This episode was just plain stupid, while having little to nothing to feel compelled about it. I didn’t even learn much from it except that this provides a good example as to what you end up with when you don’t try in writing good jokes. But hey, there’s no denying that there are people out there who did like this episode enough to give it an award for sound & music editing, and no, I’m not making this up.

Spoiler

 6. The Big Fairy Share Scare! (Season 10; #153)

 

Even though I did give this episode the “Irredeemable” ranking, I should point out that I don’t think that this is as abysmal as most others made it out to be. I thought Chloe could’ve been an interesting new addition to the cast to play off of Timmy’s character had the main writing team for this season had the capability to provide a good introduction to a new series regular. Of course, there were a ton of obstacles that got in the way of that. This could’ve worked based on the concept alone and it failed based on execution. In other words, this was not a good episode to introduce its new and already-reviled main character that no one was clamoring for except Nickelodeon’s board of executives at the time.

So, what’s the main problem with this episode besides the obvious? This episode doesn’t do a good job in establishing Chloe as a character that we can sympathize with. She is miserable by some standards, so why wouldn’t she have to share Cosmo and Wanda with Timmy? I can understand that the episode did try to provide an excuse to establish why Chloe not only needs fairies, but also Timmy’s fairies. Are they good excuses, though? The obvious answer to that question is no. Chloe’s reasoning for being miserable doesn’t feel so much like a flaw if it’s because she feels does more harm than good whenever she tries to help others. Then we got “Uh-oh, fairy shortage!” as our reasoning behind Timmy suddenly having to share Cosmo and Wanda with Chloe. Yeah, there’s no other way for me to sum it up than with that.

Now, before I get to this next point, I want to make one thing very clear: a Mary Sue is not, I repeat not, a character that you hate. It does not define a poorly written female character in general. It is a stereotype towards certain characters who are too idealistic, has no discernible flaws and too many positive qualities, whilst also lacking personality and character. I should also point out that I HATE the term ‘Mary Sue,’ because of how much it has been abused to the point where it lost its meaning and I think anyone who still uses the term on a regular basis should reconsider how they’re using it. Because it’s such a disputed term, I can’t argue much about what I think the term means and should mean, so let’s get this question out of the way right now: do I think Chloe is a Mary Sue? When the episode even acknowledges that she’s little miss perfect, I can see why her traits are comparable to those of your typical Sue character. I wouldn’t describe her as a bland, boring, thoughtless, and uninteresting character, however, judging by her notoriety and as well as for the writing team’s clear intent to make her come across as interesting, despite not trying enough.

The point I’m trying to make here is that Chloe could’ve been written so much better than she was for her introduction. The narrative tries to convince us that Chloe is miserable, yet it also gives her all these qualities that feel unnatural for someone who’s Timmy’s age, and the majority of the characters besides Timmy take a liking to her, complimenting how she’s the most perfect girl they ever met, especially when they are just introduced to her, like she’s established as if she’s this happy young girl who has everything she needs. This all contradicts the purpose that Chloe’s character is supposed to serve, which can be due to the writing team also wanting to make Chloe as likeable as possible. Even in the later episodes, the series does a better job in establishing flaws for Chloe, like how she tends to be a perfectionist because of her little miss perfect disposition.

Now that I’ve said everything that I needed to say regarding Chloe’s character…does the plot do it any favors? When it’s not busy failing to make selfie-related jokes work, it falls apart in the last third, where it shows that the writing team may have been scrambling to form the episode’s conflict, taking into consideration how it handled how the episode’s newly-established recurring hook where Cosmo and Wanda lose their wands for the sake of the plot, and how they’ve handled Chloe and Timmy’s interactions in the midst of it.

With yet another bad introduction to justify a new character’s existence after Sparky’s negative reception failed to justify his place in the main cast to the point of removal, it’s inevitable that the fans would continue to point the blame towards the character when the real problem lies elsewhere, because, of course, some people feel the need for a scapegoat.

Spoiler

 5. It’s a Wishful Life (Season 5; #63b)

 

This is the only episode from the series’ first half that made my bottom 10, to the shock of nobody. It’s the man, the myth, the legend, and the only thing to ever come out of FOP that series creator Butch Hartman has ever admitted to being ashamed of. That makes sense though, ‘cuz when your most controversial episode is structured around tackling somewhat of a serious topic whilst slapping in a two-faced moral and giving unnecessary cruelty towards the character being focused here, the ever-so miserable Timmy Turner, I would’ve also tried to erase such an episode from existence.

I’ll start off by saying that the episode playing around with the whole It’s a Wonderful Life premise does seem like it could show some promise. FOP has a fair share of moments that show that its cast of characters have either been established or changed because of Timmy and the wishes he’s made over the course of the series. Showing how rather empty their lives would’ve been without Timmy existing would’ve made for at least an interesting character-driven storyline. Therefore, it would’ve led up to something great, right? Ehhh, not exactly. (Oh hey look, I said the line that Jorgen constantly said in the episode!) Anyways, as you can already tell, this wasn’t the route that the creative team chose to take with the concept. The episode centers on Timmy wishing he was never born after not feeling appreciated enough for the good deeds he’s done, specifically for Mr. Bickles, A.J., and his parents. You even have his fairies acting like ungrateful twits towards Timmy to drive the plot, so you can’t blame Timmy at all for making such a wish. However, unlike in It’s a Wonderful Life, where it is shown that the lives of the characters are empty without the main character, It’s a Wishful Life plays the “clever twist” that everyone is better off without Timmy. Oh, and instead of a guardian angel, we have Jorgen embodying Death himself, threatening to send Timmy to hell for the wish he made unless he finds someone who turns out to be miserable without him. I’m not making this up, because those are the implications that the episode itself expects you to take a hint at.

So if the lesson here isn’t that you’ll earn appreciation from your peers for the good deeds that you do for them, then what is? Don’t do good things just for the sake of appreciation, but you should do them anyway for the sake of your folks, which…isn’t a bad concept for a moral, but when you have Timmy legitimately making an effort to do his good deeds for Bickles, A.J., and his parents from the beginning, the message ends up feeling rather contradictory and that rest of the cast could’ve learned something from how they’ve treated Timmy with little respect instead.

As for the turnaround with the whole It’s a Wonderful Life narrative…the episode certainly does something different, but that doesn’t make it good. For one thing, a lot of the character reinventions in this hypothetical universe where Timmy doesn’t exist just don’t make sense. Vicky was evil by her own accord, so how would Timmy’s non-existence lead up to her working for Dr. Bender, let alone without inflicting pain like she tends to do? Francis was always a grey bully before Timmy, so how did he become a gentle jock in a life without him? Chester was the type of character who accepts the little things that he has in his life, so it doesn’t make sense to me that Cosmo and Wanda would be his fairies in a life without Timmy. A.J. having a full head of hair…okay, even Timmy lampshades how this doesn’t make sense, and you something’s up when the writers have the audacity to acknowledge their own character-based illogicalities. At the very least, Timmy’s parents being rich and spoiled with a daughter makes sense, as does Crocker becoming a successful professor, in the circumstance that he does willingly see a psych to get rid of his fairy obsession in that life.

Overall, it’s not hard to see why most people tend to hate this one so much. It’s mean-spirited without feeling just about it whatsoever, the alternate character scenarios make little to no sense, and the episode ends with such a copout where after making Timmy feel so worthless due to the lives of those he knows all being better without him, Jorgen reveals it was all part of a test in order to make him learn a lesson, and a poorly executed one at that. And even the series creator wishes this episode never existed. How’s that for irony?

Spoiler

 4. One Man Banned (Season 7; #108a)

 

So, compared to my previous long rambling for It’s a Wishful Life, I don’t have a big paragraph to share for this particular episode. Before you ask how an episode worth so much commentary could be no worse than this one episode, then let me just say that this is the very point of the list where I start talking about the episodes that I consider to be every bit of disposable – the episodes that I’ve gained and learned nothing from, and my #4 is no exception to that. It’s a Wishful Life and The Big Fairy Share Scare! are both notoriously infamous episodes for their own special reasons and the fact that you could say anything interesting about how bad they were should tell you why I haven’t ranked them lower. One Man Banned is an example of an episode that is not only bad. It leaves me with nothing of interest to say in regards to it

The episode also has the sentiment of being my most hated FOP episode besides the low-hanging fruit I’ve discussed previously, and for a while too. Perhaps it was me being at the point where I felt that I was too old to enjoy FOP now, but even younger me at the certain age when the episode came out thought the episode was so predictable, trite, and contrived. The episode centers on Timmy feeling worthless because he’s the only person in Dimmsdale without any music talent (whilst reinforcing the typical “I’m a nobody” fish out of water character one-liner cliché) and so wishes that everyone liked his triangle playing. Sounds like a very simple enough episode that doesn’t do too much harm…but if you hadn’t already noticed how I said that the episode is so predictable and flat due to its sheer simplicity, you’ll begin to know why it’s such a serious problem to me.

This episode is the type of story you’ve seen on other shows plenty upon plenty of times before. Timmy has no musical talent and feels left out, he is granted it and becomes world-renown, but then he becomes obsessed with fame to the point where he becomes an Elvis mock-up (and this is unrelated to the point I’m making. Still though, WHY? What does this have to do with anything?), Timmy Triangle upsets his fairies after being a jerk to them and he is then taught a lesson after he embarrasses himself in front of the entire world when his successful triangle playing wish is undone. So, what have we learned? Fame makes you crazy, and also if you don’t have a gift in music, you’re worthless. Good freaking lesson. The former, however, would’ve mattered had it not been established so many times before and if the writing team tried to do something subtle with the moral. In the end, you just have an episode that is a chore and a nuisance to sit through.

Spoiler

 3. Desperate Without Housewives (Season 9, #142b)

 

Okay, so imagine Love Struck! from Season 3, but condense it into an 11-minute segment and just make it even stupider. That’s Desperate Without Housewives in a nutshell for you. The episode revolves around Timmy, his dad, and Cosmo being fed up and Timmy’s mom and Wanda’s constant nagging so they wish away women for 24 hours so they can enjoy themselves. Also, Crocker is in this episode, and then the Turners house is invaded by aliens. Yep, seems quite like a setup for a Dhar Mann video. Just title it “Average 10 Year Old Boy Wishes Away Adult Women Population! What Follows is an Alien Invasion!,” and no one would know the difference. As a setup for FOP episode, yeah…what kind of drugs was the creative team on when they materialized this?

What makes this episode even worse is when you realize that this is basically just an excuse for the creative team to continue milking Crocker, Timmy’s dad, and to a smaller extent, Cosmo, as if there wasn’t enough mileage out of these already over-focused characters. Jjs, if you’re reading this and still think Dad Overboard is the worst of example of this, let this episode prove you wrong if you so choose to watch it

Did I also mention that this episode is stupid? Okay, so I did. It’s still worth pointing out though that the episode feels like random ideas strewn together in a rough draft, not for a legit final draft for an episode, so you’d all be surprised that I don’t think the worst aspect of this episode isn’t Timmy, his dad, and Cosmo deciding to be sexist for 24 hours and commit temporary genocide on the world’s adult women population.

Spoiler

 2. Certifiable Super Sitter (Season 10, #171)

 

I vented about this particular episode 6 years back that sums up everything about how I felt about it, and though it’s no longer fresh, that still gives me the opportunity to cut my commentary shorter. Now this episode is a prime example of a bunch of ideas being crammed into one episode. While it centers on the plot of Chloe being a babysitter for Poof, Foop, Sammy Sweetsparkle, and Mr. Turner (because it’s not a S10 episode without him being ham-fisted into an episode’s plot by any means), it also tries to put Cosmo and Wanda’s pointless French dinner subplot, Crocker’s antics, Mr. Turner’s antics, Foop’s antics, and Vicky’s return (and we were already treated to Chloe meeting Poof for the first time. She even hasn’t gotten the chance to know who exactly Vicky is at that point) all in-between. The results are chaotic, and it’s not a good kind of chaos, and so what we’re treated to is an episode that is just all over the place.

When it’s not too busy being an incoherent, directionless mess, the episode’s other lowest point is its humor. People have been quick to point out that this is the sole episode where Poof does an unfunny Donald Trump impression, among other impersonations as the episode continues on, and then you also have the recurring joke with the boxing kangaroo who says “Shrimp on the barbie!” that forces itself to get fully ingrained your brain so much that you’d want to get that memory surgically removed from your brain afterwards. Since this episode plays around with the loophole that Mr. Turner is too stupid to know what fairies are, you’ve not only got Mr. Turner acting like a literal toddler for all of this episode, you have his brand of humor being reduced to “peepee poopoo” type of humor, which just adds to how bad the episode is from a comedic standpoint.

Certifiable Super Sitter is a prime indication of how much the creative team for FOP during its last legs just stopped caring and trying to justify the show’s prevalence. However, I could make the argument that it’s been long since FOP just stopped trying to be as good as it was back then. Besides, you all want to know what episode I put below even this one. Yes? Then let’s get to the big reveal…

Spoiler

 1. Fairly Old Parent (Season 9; #146)

 

When it comes to FOP, anyone’s definition of their breaking point is bound to be different. This episode was my breaking point. This was what fully convinced me that The Fairly OddParents was dead and that it was never going to get better beyond that point. I may have tried to keep myself open-minded towards the series’ future after a couple of disappointing live-action films no one asked for, and for continuity snarls like Timmy’s Secret Wish!, Vicky Gets Fired, and Crocker Shocker, and yet Fairly Old Parent was the episode that convinced me that FOP was done. I can start my rambling with the rather fitting title, like it knows that the series has gotten so stale that it’s begging to be put down like Old Yeller.

For an episode I consider this bad, what could it be about? Well, it’s about Poof becoming an official fairy godparent to someone…and that’s where the problems start. First of all, isn’t Poof too young to be able to have a job in being a godparent? Even worse, of all characters that get chosen to fill in the role as a godchild, this episode lands on Crocker’s mom being that candidate. Second of all, isn’t Crocker’s mom too old to be a godchild? Well, let’s hear this episode’s excuse for this inconsistency, shall we? As Jorgen states, the Fairy Council has decided to appeal to a different demographic despite bestowing godparents only to miserable kids. Yeah, sure, let’s go with that lazy excuse. At that point though, why not just age up Poof and age down Mrs. Crocker for the sake of consistency? But nope, this is the latter half of FOP, where subtlety is not in the show’s dictionary. But hey, Mrs. Crocker is miserable about something, so that’s what matters, doesn’t it? Let’s move right onto the Mrs. Crocker as a godchild aspect of the episode and why that falls apart.

Upon introducing Mrs. Crocker to Poof, Jorgen lays down everything that she needs to know about being a godparent: 1. No cheating, 2. No telling anyone you have a fairy, okay bye. Look, I know Jorgen may have condensed the number of rules for her to follow because she’s old and therefore has to go easy on her, but Jorgen is the biggest enforcer of Da Rules, and this particular moment comes off as “We have a huge list of rules for godkids to know and not to break if they don’t want to lose their fairy godparent, so I’ll just let you off with the only two rules that matter now,” which in turn feels like a huge middle finger to anyone who’s grown to like FOP for the way it handles its own guidelines to its non-existent logic. Mrs. Crocker, for all Jorgen could care, could use magic to cause a famine, erase polar bears from existence, bring back Adolf Hitler from the dead, or commit other such felonies, but she can keep her fairy godparent as long as she either doesn’t use magic to cheat, or expose the fairy. Makes perfect fu[BUY SOME APPLES]ing sense.

As for the central plot with Poof being Mrs. Crocker’s fairy, it runs itself dry midway. You’d think that the episode could establish a dynamic between the two characters, but no, the dynamic is non-existent, and all that the episode could do is have Mrs. Crocker abuse her power as a “godchild” to drive the plot where Timmy and Wanda try to get Mrs. Crocker to lose Poof as a fairy “godparent” (which should be something that would catch the attention of Jorgen to determine if she’s deserving of a fairy godparent, but no, just those two rules.). However, there’s also this important plot point where we learn why Mrs. Crocker was permitted to be a godchild in the first place, given that she felt miserable about something in particular, and not even the episode’s explanation for that is great either. You see, Mr. Crocker never said that he loves his mother and he was just being a jerk to her like he usually does, although as the end of the episode itself indicates, it was just some sort of misunderstanding. A conflict like that could be resolved in less time than the episode’s own runtime had Crocker himself said the words Mrs. Crocker wanted to hear earlier, which brings me to my next point…

This episode has absolutely no business being a full-length episode. Like the vast majority of the episode is just complete, utter filler and you could zoom past all of the middle portions and you wouldn’t feel like you’ve missed anything much.  The episode does try to keep its viewers entertained by way of the recurring gag of Cosmo turning himself into food and being chased by Sparky (bet you forgot he’s in this episode, albeit to only be used for the same joke), or when the episode seems to be so proud of its joke where Poof wishes award-winning actor Denzel Washington into the Crocker house due to his exhaustion, that they just HAD to make a few more nods to him afterwards. It’s just no wonder we get a joke that involves Jorgen writing an apology to Denzel Washington because he sure doesn’t deserve to have his name attached to this.

Do you really want to know what I think sucks about this episode, though? At the time of its airing, Nickelodeon was airing the last of the S9 episodes that they haven’t aired yet, and they seemed to hype this one a bit as somewhat of a grand finale before giving the show one last chance shortly after. AND, of course, I’ve had to have the dissatisfaction of dealing with this particular episode airing on the day of my own birthday, right before the scheduled annual KCA’s that year in 2015, no less. In other words, I “celebrated” my 20^th birthday being disappointed by FOP. A new SpongeBob episode was scheduled to air around that time too, but it was scheduled for the day after, so because of Nick’s scheduling, I’ve missed the chance to have an episode from my own personal flagship series that I could claim to have aired on my birthday, further rubbing salt into my wound. Sure Yeti Krabs wasn’t anything special, but it would’ve been something more to brag out for a birthday episode than the worst thing that FOP has ever wrought (The Fairy Beginning did also air the same day, but that’s not the topic of this rant).

Putting aside my self-indulgent bitterness, if there’s anything that I’ve learned from watching Fairly Old Parent, it’s this: Mrs. Crocker can be just as bad as her own son if an episode compels her to, and the Fairy Council are useless when it comes to godbaby abuse. Other than that, the episode is just a big insult towards the original FOP that I’ve known and loved, it makes a lot of the FOP’s best episodes feel like they never really mattered and that this was what the show was truly leading up to, and so I consider it to be the ultimate indicator of FOP being a dead franchise. On top of all that, the story is terrible and dull, the jokes are drier than Death Valley, it has a sheer absence of good, significant, or funny moments, it sucks balls simply because it does, AND…I don’t like it.

 

[thomas and friends community skin]

can i die peacefully now

[Ask the gnarliest stuff in the ocean]

2 hours ago, Mr. Eugene Krabs said:

You rootin for the Krew, lad?

I'm playing for the Shell Shack. The talking dog could use some financial support.

[Allison's Creative Ask Thread Title]

Tears for Fears came out with a new album last month, which I've been hearing mostly good things about. Have you heard it or nah?

[Fanfiction News and Announcements]

As it should already be evident that I didn't have a big Q1 2022 announcement to share, and the clear reason for that is because I don't have any big updates to share, so it's fitting that I post some news for my remaining projects here before entering the second quarter next month as they are mostly rather small updates:

SBSP: Lost in Translation: The final episode is being written up and will soon be completed later this month. Because this is meant to be a big surprise, I still can't give much away about it, including the title, which is still a work in-progress. Afterwards...

Rebirth of a Storm: ...I will then focus on writing up the final episode for this spin-off. The writing process for the finale might stretch into months, given the length of the other previous episodes, but if I can try, I will churn it out sooner than later.

Tiki Land: I've been meaning to finish this after finishing RoaS, so this will be next on my docket and I'm still going along with my original plan in publishing the last five eps back to back. More info on this will be unveiled once I get most of those remaining episodes written up.

Chemist Bob's Catastrophic Creations Cinema: With the first subject of this riffing series entering the year 2022 (which, as I've already mentioned before, is the year Guru Gakuto is set in), and with the NC riffs already being completed several months ago (and therefore I shouldn't have my hands too full now for this) I feel the need to bring this back from hiatus. However, for the time being, I only intend on getting one new pair of riffs out this month.

Trinity Leaf Pegasus: While I plan on getting a preview for the next CBC3 out of the way later this month, I can only promise that I plan on getting a preview for the first ep of my own personal Duke Nukem Forever written up later this month as well. Once I do, I should be able to have an official release date for the very Literature that's given me so much time to develop.

Total Drama Treasure Tour: This series is currently on the backburner for the time being, but after finishing up SBSP:LiT, RoaS, and TL, I should be able to resume production on this other Lit of mine. Otherwise, until Q2 2022, I have no other info to share.

[Best Fairly OddParents "Ending"]

New poll just in time for the release of Fairly Odder later this month.

[Pokemon, bitch]

Can't wait for the inevitable fire/fighting starter memes and the discourse, whatever that will be, but I'm feeling certain that the graphic snobs are already tearing this apart right now.

Some opinionz:

-This looks more like to me that it will be set in Brazil, or more specifically, Rio de Janeiro, but of course, my geography could be wrong.
-For once, looking at those starters, my initial feelings are "uhhhhhhhhhhhhh." I may have to wait it out for the final stage evos to determine what I want. Quaxly looks interesting simply for the inevitable Donald Duck memes, but, we have a couple water-type duck lines already and idk what they'd do different with it. Fuecoco (also R.I.P. all those Chinese zodiac theories) being this fire dinosaur is also promising for how unique it is, but I don't have high hopes that it will stay quadpedal . Sprigatito might be my biggest favorite, but I'm cautiously optimistic nonetheless.
-I'm just going to say this, I'm fatigued with the whole open-world trend, and it's not bound to be my favorite aspect of S/V. Of course, the fans have been clamoring for the games to be more open-world, but when push comes to shove and the games are revealed to still have linearity to them, I could see the hype dying down already.
-The graphics are no different from Legends Arceus at first glance, but that's not going to be such a big hindrance for me to try this game. Pokemon was never really all about being top notch with its graphics, and for what they are, they still look nice.

[Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022 film)]

I thought I'd create a discussion thread for this upcoming Disney+ film because this looks...interesting to say the least. Is it going to be bad? Is it going to be good? I sure can't tell since this trailer alone gave me quite a lot to process.

[Oh Yeah! Collections]

31. iCarly But Everyone is Reuben

While I'm in the slow process of finishing up my Google Translated SB spin-off, there was one more thing I wanted to dabble in as an off-series thing before I end it. Some ideas that came to mind were putting a Nostalgia Critic or AVGN script through the translator, but I decided it would be best that I'd take a less old-fashioned route and go for the idea of twisting an iCarly episode through GT. But why though? Well, I have one sole reason for that, to be honest. There is one particular character from one particular episode who speaks proper English but is incomprehensible to everyone except his friend Gibby, and that character, of course, is Reuben from iWin a Date. I thought it would be interesting to experiment and see if the rest of the characters would talk in a similar fashion to him and if Reuben's dialogue would either come off as normal or even weirder in comparison. So what were the results? I'm going to leave that answer up to you.

 

ghosts every day (iWin a Date)

 

Carly Deca (Bosnian detected word for 'Children) -: Really good ...

Nsi: Block this site

Carly Deca -: ... We all painted in ten minutes

Nsi: ICarly viewers then vote online to see which picture is best.

Carly Deca -: Think about what we need to do now

Nsi: He is our little friend ...

Carly Sam: Gibby!

Carly Deca -: Gibby, are you ready?

jeep ndu: Of course it happens

DG Freddie: Eleven seconds and ... yes!

Carly Deca -: Don't try to move

Nsi: shut up

DG Freddie: five seconds

jeep ndu: beautiful grass

DG Freddie: Time!

Carly Deca -: Well, my picture

Nsi: Who is Freddy?

Carly Deca -: No, it's fun

Nsi: Read on

Carly Deca -: Now look at Sami's picture

.../ Yes, but BT is not mine either

Nsi: These are muscles

Carly Deca -: Yes, Sam is dreaming

Nsi: Well, see you again at iCarlys

Carly Deca -: Until reunification! Hello

Nsi: See you soon!

DG Freddie: We are ready

Carly Deca -: Hey, you have to clean the paint first. You want to damage your shirt

jeep ndu: Who takes care of my shirt? Who cares? You are not!

DG Freddie: What problems do you have?

jeep ndu: I don't want to talk about it

Nsi: Who has been channeling since then? I know I did

Carly Deca -: Gibby, seriously, what's going on?

jeep ndu: Shannon Mitchell, right?

Carly Deca -: And Shannon?

Nsi: What's wrong?

jeep ndu: I want you to love me, but I feel uncomfortable every time I try to talk to her. Why would that be good? I am going home

Carly Deca -: Gibby -

jeep ndu: I have no problem talking about it

Carly Deca -: Please, poor boy. It can be dangerous to renew your love for someone you don't love.

.../ sorry

.../

Nsi: Ah, here it is

Carly Deca -: Hello Gibby!

jeep ndu: Since then?

Carly Deca -: We had a great time meeting Shannon

jeep ndu: My choice?

Nsi: Then we have an iCarlys game called "I Won Today".

jeep ndu: "Win today"?

Carly Deca -: Yes, but BT is not mine either

Nsi: But we're going to make Shannon one of her enemies, so ... who's your girlfriend, why does she think she's making me happy?

jeep ndu: Oh, Robin

Robin cried: I'm sorry to hear you were born on a plane a month later

Nsi: Yes, but BT is not mine either

Carly Deca -: Wait, I think I appreciate you

Nsi: thanks

Robin cried: Hey, just because I'm not scared doesn't mean I've lost my bingo

jeep ndu: This is very real!

.../

wig: No, Stephanie, I don't think we should go out. Well, I didn't say I was tired last night. Just ... Stephanie ... Stephanie Steve - Because I don't like you!

Carly Deca -: So I think yesterday’s work with the blind was a success

wig: It relates to dinner

Carly Deca -: No unicorns

wig: Try to say that I want to be alone for the rest of my life. My name is Forrest Spencer.

Carly Deca -: Do you know where to find adult sites like Whynotdateme.com?

wig: It's very good

Carly Deca -: You can watch this person's video the day before you leave

wig: Yes, but these sites are also ...

.../ Hot reception? Stephanie Stephanie ... No, I don't want to talk to Gandhi because it's not real!

.../ Is this page back?

.../

Nsi: Hello, Shannon

Shannon: Hello

Celine's death: Hello

Nsi: Hey, will you call iCarly next time?

Shannon. Celine and Julia: Of course! Alas! God forbid!

Celine's death: What are we going to do then?

Nsi: Let's say someone else wants to talk to an adult

Shannon: Freddy?

Nsi: Instead of playing, I call him Wonder Man.

Shannon: I think Freddie is beautiful and talented

Nsi: Oh, how crazy was your breakfast?

Robin cried: This is my football

Nsi: And talk about breastfeeding!

.../

wig: Hi, my name is Spencer T. Hi, I have never used an online dating service, but I was told on Whynotdateme.com. Why can't we meet? I love people

Carly Deca -: What are you doing now?

wig: Make a video for Whynotdateme.com

Carly Deca -: give me a remote control

wig: Whatever happens

Carly Deca -: You don't have to rest

wig: I didn't see ...

Carly Deca -: The shirt should have buttons, these buttons should be pressed, the buttons you want on your hair.

.../ What should you wear with your hair?

wig: chicken fat

Carly Deca -: Alas! Chukwu (Haitian Creole detected word for 'God') Chukwu

.../

.../ Gibby, you're ready to play, will I win today?

jeep ndu: Does Shannon Really Exist?

Nsi: from that door

jeep ndu: man, it's hard

Carly Deca -: Remember that all your votes will be recorded electronically

jeep ndu: My choice?

Carly Deca -: Secrets of who you are

jeep ndu: So how do I know who Shannon is?

Nsi: Increase the number of girls

Carly Deca -: You can't tell them! Let's make the game a fair reality.

jeep ndu: But what if I didn't choose Shannon?

Nsi: He had to listen to three girls, one girl, another girl, and three girls.

jeep ndu: But how do I know who Shannon is?

Carly Deca -: If you really want to communicate with Shannon, you have to choose between the two.

Nsi: All you have to do is

Carly Sam: Stay calm!

Nsi: ... vill (Swedish detected word for 'wants')

jeep ndu: we do it

DG Freddie: Hey, you'd rather come here

Carly Sam: I'll be back

Carly Deca -: What or what? Since then?

Shannon: Mom, Celine and Julia are coming

Nsi: What or what?

Carly Deca -: Why didn't they come?

Shannon: Cowboys buy tickets to explore the ice

Carly Deca -: Why were they sitting on the ice when it was a popular TV show?

DG Freddie: Comrades, we have seven minutes to learn to play a game I won in one day, in addition to three or four.

Shannon: Freddie, you're very good at math

Carly Deca -: Let's just say the game went well

DG Freddie: sorry

wig: Walk one, two, three, four

DG Freddie: Hi, my name is Freddie and tonight we are playing a new iCarly Special game called "Win The Day."

.../ Well, at least we didn't. Remember that our competitors are silent at the moment, so hey, they don't know the secret date.

jeep ndu: Hello Freddie, it's nice for me here

DG Freddie: We now have three daughters. Remember his hidden voice. Hello, we are the first

Carly Deca -: Hello Freddie, I'm glad to meet you

DG Freddie: The second number is a woman

Shannon: Hello Freddy

DG Freddie: Let's take the third issue

Nsi: Hello Fredard (Hindi detected word for 'friend'), how are you?

DG Freddie: In addition, the three girls had our deepest encounters. Whichever woman you choose, Chezek (Arabic detected word for 'Cheese') eats in two shops.

jeep ndu: Wicked!

DG Freddie: Now listen carefully to the parable's answer, the question, the girl's answer, and then the girl's choice depends on you. Really good!

jeep ndu: Only the first girl

Carly Deca -: Yes?

jeep ndu: What is your favorite music?

Carly Deca -: What do you like most?

jeep ndu: I think this is the queue

Carly Deca -: Oh, I love rap music. Yes, and BT is not for me. It looks like BT, not me

jeep ndu: another girl

Shannon: Oh, let's just say I love rock'n'roll or pop

jeep ndu: Hello

Shannon: New

jeep ndu: your third wife

DG Freddie: Of course not for women.

Nsi: I love cold lenses

DG Freddie: That's good - it's a secret. You have time for the last question

jeep ndu: New Woman: If I get married one day, how do you wake me up in the morning?

Shannon: Yes, but BT is not mine either

jeep ndu: beautiful! How did the first girl wake me up?

Carly Deca -: I told Harry to get up and go to work!

DG Freddie: Well, at least I didn't go down without explaining myself first. What is your favorite day at the cheese store? It's time to dump her and move on

jeep ndu: Hey ... ah ... me ... back ... first lady!

Carly Deca -: Yes thanks What or what !? what or what !? what or what !?

.../

.../ Why did you choose me?

Nsi: You'd rather have Shannon

jeep ndu: I didn’t know Carrie Freddie was always the first Shannon woman he loved.

DG Freddie: No, you don't have to worry about loving someone

Carly Deca -: It never happened

DG Freddie: I know what's going on

jeep ndu: I'm sorry, I ask for everything and calm down. don't call me

Carly Deca -: It will be a fun, weird cheesecake for you and me ...

.../

.../ Hey, did you let me go to school?

wig: Sure, but I ... I'll see you

Carly Deca -: What or what?

wig: I made a new video on Whynotdateme.com. You know, salt, etc, right?

Carly Deca -: Let's see

wig: Hi, this is Spencer

Carly Deca -: What does baseball say?

wig: "It simply came to our notice then

.../ If you are looking for fun and creative people, turn right on your way to happiness. Why not plant first? My email Write, download, send

Carly Deca -: You cannot email this girl right now. go find your wife

wig: Well, I made a new video

Carly Deca -: What has been different about your football game since then?

wig: It’s worth something and it should end here

Carly Deca -: Did you kill our fish?

wig: Yes

.../ I think he wanted to die

Carly Deca -: This fish has high hopes and dreams

.../

jeep ndu: Hi, Carly, I'm going to the cheese shop tonight until you want to find me.

Carly Deca -: I want to go, we will close. "I was with you at the table ... for three hours ... or ...

Robin cried: Hello, how is Boomerang Mobile?

jeep ndu: She wants to know what you want in two days, Sam and you

Carly Deca -: Yes! of Sam. Today is the second day. Yes Sam is happy

jeep ndu: We do it. Come on, let's see

Robin cried: Say I'm ready to put on my sneakers at the Sami Monkey Show

jeep ndu: Wow!

DG Freddie: These are love letters

Carly Deca -: Ah, wait what I like

DG Freddie: Try it while you walk

Carly Deca -: Please don't make a face

DG Freddie: Does that mean Shannon doesn't want to talk to her?

Carly Deca -: Ah ... Maybe I talked to Shannon

DG Freddie: My choice? I think you still want to contact Gibbyn

Carly Deca -: I was at a meeting between Sam Reuben and Gibeon tonight

DG Freddie: Sam and Robin?

Carly Deca -: It’s a long story, but we invite Shannon to love metaphysics

DG Freddie: Better if he tries to scatter me

Carly Deca -: Do this three times tonight

Nsi: What three days?

DG Freddie: Carly, Gibby, Shannon, me, you and Rubel (Hungarian detected word for 'Ruble')

Nsi: I mean Robin Biat (Turkish detected word for 'allegiance') ?!

DG Freddie: No, no, no, not me!

Carly Deca -: Number!

DG Freddie: Get out of here! Get out of here! Out! Fence, fence, fence, fence!

Carly Deca -: Yes! I connected you with Robin!

Nsi: why-

Carly Deca -: He wants to go with you, but I don't want to be alone with my metaphysics for three hours!

Nsi: Not exactly

Carly Deca -: But is that something you want to know?

Nsi: My choice?

Carly Deca -: When your mom got together, I helped her make a fish cream and I found a healthy chicken.

Nsi: You are a good friend

.../

Carly Deca -: You are not

Nsi: I promise

wig: Hello

Carly Deca -: Hello, what are you doing?

wig: Oh, I made a new video for Whynotdateme.com

Nsi: My mother blocked this site

Carly Deca -: So let’s watch your new video

wig: We do it. I try simple and sensitive. Let's see

Nsi: .../ Do you only eat whole grains?

wig: from each other

Carly Deca -: How long will it take?

wig: About nine minutes

Carly Deca -: Feet

wig: I know I can't think of anything better! You can take a shower

Nsi: My choice?

wig: I always have a good idea when I get wet

Carly Deca -: Let's do it, we're organizing tonight. We get it

Nsi: Well, Shannon loves Freddy, so let's just say she looks like Gibby Freddy.

Carly Deca -: The speed must not be the same

Nsi: Yes, but BT is not mine either

Carly Deca -: you are right

.../

DG Freddie: Some of them are the best salads in human history

Carly Deca -: I know this is happening, I'm very happy and I'm not brushing my teeth

Nsi: I'm very tired

Robin cried: Unfortunately, dogs walk faster than climbing trees

jeep ndu: He is right!

Nsi: Something !?

Shannon: So, Freddy, how do you know about a computer?

DG Freddie: But really, I ...

.../ And ... Gibby taught me, aren't you at the gym?

jeep ndu: Ah, wait what I like. Yes I have.

Shannon: Really? I didn’t know they were on the computer. What do you have?

jeep ndu: Ah, wait what I like

Carly Deca -: Sure, it’s worse than necessary, it takes time and resources, but it doesn’t make money.

Shannon: I think Freddie is a wonderful name

Nsi: Zebra's other name is Freddie

Shannon: Really?

jeep ndu: It was all about Freddie

Shannon: How wonderful

jeep ndu: Cornelius

DG Freddie: That's what we do. Who Can Eat a Good Cheesecake?

Carly Deca -: Shouldn't the "my box is better than mine" rule apply?

Robin cried: I knew it had to be a combination of kangaroos. Do I know what I want?

Nsi: No, Robin, I don't know what to say. Almost everyone knows what you are talking about. Do I know what I want?

Carly Deca -: Well, let's calm down

Robin cried: Yes, but BT is not mine either

Nsi: Yes! This is very real! Do You Know the Truth? I sit here with all the beers, including Ischema Australian

Robin cried: Ah, I don't think he told me!

Carly Deca -: what did you say?

Nsi: I don’t know, but I’m glad it goes well with whiskey

DG Freddie: What's so great about this cheesecake?

Shannon: Txizek (Basque detecte word for 'chicks') is my favorite

Carly Deca -: Jeep makes cheesecake

jeep ndu: Not me!

Carly Deca -: Well, someone does

Shannon: I'm confused

Nsi: Don’t, I love Gibbs, I love you, don’t let go

Shannon: What or what?

jeep ndu: Look, Shannon, I love you so much, don't you? But I know you love her just like Freddie, so I tried to imitate your love.

Nsi: Hi, maybe it still works

jeep ndu: I don't want to work Listen I don't like Freddy I don't know technology I didn't have a smile when small Say like the sun Do you know what that means?

Carly Deca -: What does it mean to be a spiritual person?

jeep ndu: I mean, I love to dance ... take off your shirt! Turn on the music!

.../ That's a good catch! Am I ... where is Shannon?

Carly Deca -: I left the restaurant

jeep ndu: oo chimoo

Nsi: Don’t worry about GB

DG Freddie: Shannon is not very sexy

Carly Deca -: Yes, you can find a good wife

jeep ndu: Where is he

Girl in the restaurant: Why don't you see it here? I love your work so much, promote your music!

.../

wig: .../ That is not true

Carly Deca -: That's not true?

wig: Do you know my nine minute lunch video? You are a child

Carly Deca -: MOE

wig: Yes, I sent it to Whynotdateme.com and who actually got the nine answers?

Carly Deca -: Well, you have nine days to travel

wig: So that's not it. Four women in prison.

Carly Deca -: de on de on

wig: The three women were released from prison.

Carly Deca -: Interest rates are low

wig: Both are psychologists who think they can help me

Carly Deca -: Thank you for what you say

wig: Or some pretty new ones

Carly Deca -: He is a man

wig: oo chimoo

 

Google Translate setup: Danish-Amharic-Norwegian-Italian-Sinhala-Arabic-Hindi-Odia-Bosnian-Odia-German-Igbo-Bulgarian-Basque-Estonian-Haitian Creole

[Red Hot Chili Peppers]

Just noticed that they came back with new material after their...fifth? Sixth? extended break (I don't keep up with these things lol), and dang, they still got it.

[The mysterious cliffhanger in The Paper]

I've heard from a very reliable source on TV Tropes that there was going to be an episode titled "The Sunscreen" that serves as a sequel to "The Paper" that details a plot where Squidward tries to return to his original status quo, but it was ultimately scrapped due to "The Paper" being attached to a holiday episode, therefore the creative team decided that there was no point in writing an episode that connects to an unpaired segment since Nickelodeon would only allow to air "The Paper" on a seasonal basis, and Stephen Hillenburg was reported to have said that "The Sunscreen" was one of the worst scripts that he had ever foreseen.

[Steel's Top 10 Animations of 2018]

So, it’s 2022, which means that we’ve now entered the year where my old spin-off, Guru Gakuto takes place in. One question that remains is…where is my long awaited top 10 animations list….for the year 2018? In addition, those past few years have been absolute crap for the so-called cartoon community, so I am needed more than ever to spread some goodwill about the medium by writing up at least one best of the year list. Well, I’ve been making slow progress to catch up. I have several reasons as to why it’s taken me this long. 1) Family matters that also bled into 2019, which was back when I didn’t have the easy access or finances that I have now that I needed to watch a lot of the things that I’ve meant to watch to form my list. 2) 2020 taking a toll on my mental health, as I’m sure has happened to everyone else. 3) With the end-of-decade retrospective type of reviews coming around the corner, I decided that I wanted to take myself more seriously with my yearly lists and broaden my scope. 4) I went into this year not expecting what I was going to really like right way. If I was going to form a solid top 10 list, then I needed to give myself as much to work with as I can allow. This also meant waiting a while for certain long-form or short-form animated works to be released to the public. Of course, even when you see just how much I’ve given myself to work with, I still feel like I’ve missed some things, although that’s normal for any reviewer. As an example, there’s the anime film that I’ve heard good things about, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (and yes, that is a real title), which has no Region 1 release as of this writing, so if you want to know my thoughts on it, I’ll have to give you my thoughts on the manga. Just to show you what I mean, here’s a longlist of everything that I watched prior to finalizing my list, and in chronological order because that’s how I’ve decided to set it up:

Spoiler

1. SpongeBob SquarePants (Yeah, as a long-time fan, this has been my gold standard for completing in any given year)           
2. Star Vs. the Forces of Evil
3. Steven Universe
4. Ralph Breaks the Internet
5. Bao
6. The Incredibles 2
7. Aggretsuko
8. The Dragon Prince
9. The Grinch
10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
11. Hilda
12. Watership Down
13. Early Man
14. DuckTales
15. Castlevania
16. Happy!
17. Mirai
18. Digimon Adventure tri. Future
19. Smallfoot
20. We Bare Bears
21. Teen Titans Go!: To the Movies
22. Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero
23. Watermelon: A Cautionary Tale
24. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
25. Next Gen
26. BoJack Horseman
27. The Hollow
28. Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia
29. Modest Heroes
30. White Fang
31. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
32. My Hero Academia
33. Ruben Brandt, Collector
34. Isle of Dogs
35. Final Space
36. OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
37. The Amazing World of Gumball
38. Mike Tyson Mysteries
39. The Wolf House
40. Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure
41. Age of Sail
42. Agua Viva
43. Animal Behaviour
44. Bilby
45. Bird Karma
46. Cat Days
47. Coyote
48. Crow: The Legend
49. Daisy
50. Emily
51. Ian
52. Icebergs
53. La Noria
54. Lost & Found
55. One Small Step
56. Pour 585
57. Raccoon and the Light
58. Sonder
59. Tweet-Tweet
60. Untravel
61. Blind Mice
62. Cazatalentos
63. Egg
64. Five Minutes to Sea
65. Grand Bassin
66. Guaxuma
67. Je sors acheter des cigarettes
68. Las del Diente
69. Le Mans 1955       
70. My Little Goat
71. My Moon
72. My Mother's Eyes
73. Ostrich Politic
74. Plankton
75. Primos
76. Purl
77. Raymonde or the Vertical Escape
78. Reneepoptosis
79. Roughhouse
80. Shalva (=Tranquility)        
81. The Bird & The Whale     
82. Sister
83. Flowing Through Wonder
84. Reruns
85. Hors Piste
86. Solar Walk
87. Funan
88. Pop Team Epic

That is a grand total of 88 different animated works, and of all those that you see on that list, there are only ten in my list proper. I don’t have the time to provide my honorable mentions with commentary, so I’m moving right to the point…

 

Steel’s Top 10 Animations of 2018

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

This doesn’t have to do with animation, but it has to do with the first thing that you’ll see from my list. If you’ve been made aware of my music reviewing side, you should already know that I have my limits when it comes to music that tackles past relationship drama. I’ve still never been in a relationship before, so I should be in no position to critique them, but listening to a lot of music over the years has given me the comfort to muster up what defines a bad or good breakup song, and I’ve grown to have an allergic reaction to the type of post-breakup blues where the singer just wallows in their shortcomings, the kind of songs that just make me feel like saying get over it and move on, right? Now, that does sound very short-sighted of me, so I should point out that I am also aware that moving on from a failed relationship IS not as easy as anyone without the experience would think, and that’s when I came to realize that one of the best ways to sell a breakup story is to augment the difficulty of moving on…

10. Sonder

 

Sonder is an animated short film about a couple named Finn and Natalie. As implicit as it should already be, they have broken up. Finn, meanwhile, seems to be deserted in a strange world that is made up from his feelings of grief from the end of the relationship and he is trying to protect what symbolizes his lingering will: an exotic plant with bright blue petals. Of course, I cannot explain any more about the story of Sonder at this point, as it would spoil the potency of the storytelling, but I do guarantee that this is a breakup story that is well-written. The overlapping narrative between Finn’s illusions and the real world don’t feel out of place, nor does it feel pretentious or moralistic, and some of the small details like the futuristic setting don’t hinder the story either and, therefore, enrich the world that these two characters are a part of. The longer that the short drags out, I make more sense out of the theme and storyline. Go right ahead and find out for yourself if you want to know why I think Sonder works so well on an emotional and narrative level.

Spoiler

9. Roughhouse

 

Here is yet another rather niche animated short film making an appearance on my list. This one has more of an autobiographical tone compared to the previous, and its narrative focuses on the troubled youth of a group of adolescences in Britain as they each share a roof together while they then watch their lives deteriorate from a financial crisis caused by Shirley’s cash flow habits, leading for them to single him out and make him feel unwelcome until realizing that they’ve gone too far in belittling someone that they’ve considered a mate before then. It’s a brutally honest account on being young and dumb, but it’s very effective in what it does and the further it goes on, the more I appreciate the autobiographical tone. The climax is where the story really strikes a chord with me. Besides having an intriguing story to tell, one other prominent factor of Roughhouse is its rotoscope animation and as well as the color schemes for each scene to set the proper mood and the transitional techniques that Jonathan Hodgson uses to help make the story flow so smoothly. All in all, it’s a moving story on loyalty and friendship, as it’s also a marvelous work of animation to boot.

Spoiler

...

DuckTales.

 

8. DuckTales

 

Best episodes: The Shadow War!, The Ballad of Duke Baloney!, The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!, The Most Dangerous Game...Night!, Last Christmas!, The Missing Links of Moorshire!

Even taking into consideration of the show’s flaws, I couldn’t bring myself to cut this series from my top ten. After making a very good first impression with me, the quality of Season 1 has mostly stayed consistent, giving itself some more room to shine in the process (hence why it’s gotten a couple spots higher compared to my 2017 list. As a little spoiler for my inevitable 2019 list, expect it to show up again), by going deeper into the show’s main story focus at its point, which is the mysteries of Della Duck and the Spear of Selene, capping off the first season with a drama bomb, along with a subsequent exciting and satisfying finale, along with a small batch of S2 episodes to give us a good idea of how the quality and pacing is going to turn out in the long run, and for just being an all-around fun ride with its interesting adventure-driven and character-driven storylines.

Of course, as the rest of Season 1 would exhibit, it does give quite a disproportionate amount of focus towards Dewey, the second-oldest duck triplet, over Huey, Louie, and Scrooge McDuck, the latter in which who is THE basis for the original comics by Carl Barks that this incarnation and the original TV series is based on, but regardless, there is a good balance of character development for everyone else ranging from the aforementioned and as well as Webby, Lena, Bleakley, Donald, and Glomgold, the very last one in which I feel just carries most of the show whenever he’s around. If you haven’t gotten into this series yet, go and check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

Spoiler

As you guys may judge from looking at that long list of animated works that I’ve had myself watch, there isn’t a lot of Japanese animation. It’s not there wasn’t a lot of stuff from them that interested me, there was only few I could muster my own time with and even if I broaden that scope, my top Japanese-animated work is only going to be about a 25-year old red panda navigating though the workplace as a long-suffering accountant, under the iron thumb of her disrespectful boss before releasing her suppressed emotions on her one true (and secret) passion: singing death metal karaoke. Oh, and it’s from Sanrio, the same company best known for its Hello Kitty brand. Yeah, it’s that kind of show…

7. Aggretsuko

 

Best episodes: A Day in the Life of Retsuko, The Duel, Exposed, The Dream Ends, A Good Hard-working Girl

For a lot of people, myself included, Aggretsuko is a surprisingly mature social commentary that tackles subject matter like misogyny, workplace abuse and harassment, anxiety, and the subtle repercussions of looking at independent lifestyle through rose-colored glasses by not minding the obstacles to be expected until you are made aware of them, which is something that I appreciate the series for, speaking as someone who aims to make a start in independent living later on. On top of the subject matter it tackles, Aggretsuko is an enjoyable workplace comedy drama with a memorable cast of unique characters, including the main character herself, Retsuko, a character that viewers can easily resonate with and root for as she learns to push through these obstacles that life and her work throw at her over the course of the season, and the not-so-hidden depth of her in which she sustains herself by using death metal karaoke as her one method of alleviating her constant stress is what enriches her character and makes us feel connected to her in a unique way.

Of course, the last portion of the season pivots into a romantic plot, which is the point where the season is at its weakest, but I still liked it for what it was since it still plays into the season’s theme about how we shouldn’t push ourselves to be on the path of fulfilling our heart's desires…or you know, something along the lines of that. At the end of the day though, it’s an engaging and entertaining animated series, and for a variety of reasons, it’s one of very few animated shows that I’ve been keeping up with recently.

Spoiler

For this year, I had seen quite a lot French representation in the animation medium, so I figured that I was going to make room for at least one opus. Amongst the French-animated works that I have seen, this is the one that impressed me most…

6. Reruns

 

Okay, so the spotlight is also on Belgium and Netherlands for this particular animated short film, but the point is that Reruns is impressive for what it is. It’s an interesting near-15 minutes worth of experimentation that blends computer generated imagery with live-action recordings. The themes of this short film here are set up on memories, life, death, and the concept of dreams and its characteristics – lucid dreaming, fever dreaming, and of course, good old fashioned nightmares. The narrative and world are indeed complex, but those complexities are what make this short film so engaging. As the title suggests, we get glimpses of the central character’s past life being replayed within their very own mindscape, and it’s so interesting to see how this character interacts with all the things around them, and how it gives us ideas of what their life is or was like. The animation techniques and special effects make this multidimensional world so exquisite to look at in its own unique way. The music, provided by a project named Thee Wreckers, is also great and gives this short film its distinctive charm. Overall, it is an entertaining piece of experimental art all the way through.

Spoiler

After years of being quiet about it, I can now talk about how why Hilda is so great…

5. Hilda

 

Best episodes: The Midnight Giant, The Hidden People, The Black Hound, The House in the Woods, The Storm, The Nightmare Spirit, The Troll Rock

I could sum things up by saying that Hilda, pretty much like DuckTales 2017, is another mystery and adventure-driven animated show in the similar vein as Gravity Falls, but I already know how crass it feels to have to attach one particular work to another familiar one, and while that sense of familiarity is there, Hilda clearly has its own distinct characters and as well as its own stories to tell. Hilda is a series that’s based on the British graphic novels of the same name that have been published since 2010, and it follows a blue-haired girl, her pet deerfox, and her mother moving into the populous city of Trolberg from their original, isolated cabin home out in the wild. Over the course of the series, she makes friends and they come across a variety of anomalies that inhabit Trolberg

With that little synopsis out of the way, it should be already clear on why I’m impressed by Hilda, and simply put, it’s a competent continuity-driven animated show. The animation and visuals are spectacular, the characters are interesting and likeable, the writing is sharp, the episodes themselves provide a fair amount of thrills, worldbuilding, and character development with very little filler in-between, and it has a flexible tone – mature in terms of subject matter while overlapping well with its wholesome approach without relying too much on the former or on raising the stakes. So, there you have it, Hilda, one of the best kid-aimed animated shows as of recent.

Spoiler

 

So…the company that brought us the much-reviled The Emoji Movie came out with something exceptional a year after, but I, for one, don’t feel so surprised by this glow-up. It’s happened quite often before as not every film that a studio comes out with is guaranteed to be a hit, commercially or critically, and Sony Pictures is not an exception to having their own mixed bag of hits and misses. For sure, you can’t call WBFA bad just because they made Quest for Camelot, and you can’t call them actually good just because they also made Iron Giant. One really bad movie does not define the level of quality for a studio as a whole, nor does one really good movie alone. When Sony Pictures disappoints, they disappoint. On the other hand, when Sony Pictures delivers…they deliver:

4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

 

Into the Spider-Verse is and was the quintessential unanimously praised animated film of 2018...and yeah, I get the hype. I don’t have such a huge attachment towards the Spider-Man franchise, which I feel is where most of the love is coming from, but I can still appreciate all the hurdles that it took to make itself out to be this devoted tribute to the iconic superhero. While I couldn’t recognize all of these small details and affectionate nods as a self-proclaimed outsider, I still found myself enjoying this film regardless because it succeeds in multiple other aspects.

For starters, the animation is, of course, outstanding, and it’s backed by a distinctive art style as that also takes some cues from Spider-Man. The action scenes are effortlessly good and exciting to watch as well, a lot of the film’s emotional moments manage to strike a chord on me, and while I would’ve like to see more the other half of the alternate universe Spider-people and more on Kingpin’s backstory, the characters are story are well-written nonetheless.

To be fair though, the film does have every reason to put the spotlight on Miles Morales rather than the usual Peter Parker, as his character arc is my favorite aspect of it. Him gaining Spider-Man’s powers, him trying to take the torch of the Peter Parker in his own world by taking the responsibility of succeeding him as the new Spider-Man after the latter ends up getting killed, him discovering his abilities and learning to adjust to him alongside his interactions with Peter B. Parker, and his final confrontation with Kingpin…what can else can I say? Miles’s character development was satisfying all the way through. I don’t even have to tell you to watch and it and see for yourself that it is as good as everyone else says it is. They can’t be any wrong.

 

Spoiler

 https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/the-video-game-movie-curse-how-amazing-games-become-awful-movies/

Ah…the so-called Hollywood video game movie curse. It is an attitude that persists to this day, and because of that, headlines about people putting blind faith in one particular upcoming video game adaptation, saying that it’s “going to break the video game movie curse,” only to be disappointed months later, persist as well, and it’s the same song and dance. It’s not hard to see why: we just keep getting them wrong. Now, while the video game movie has been seeing some success stories as of recent, effectively proving that a good video game movie can be accomplished, 2018 would give us, not the first good video game adaptation, but what could be considered the first excellent video game adaptation that shouldn’t be overlooked…

3. Castlevania

 

Best episodes: Old Homes, The River, For Love, Last Spells, Broken Mast

(also inb4 “But what about that one Animal Crossing movie???”) And we can thank Frederator of all studios for making this possible. Now, while I can’t shy away from the notion that my experience with the Castlevania video game franchise is only limited to the unrelated Lament of Innocence and not the particular game that the Netflix series is based on, I guarantee you that you don’t have to know a lot about Castlevania beforehand to enjoy this series. If the short 4-episode first season is a prologue to what the best possible Castlevania adaptation could look like, then the second season is the payoff, and while it’s certainly not perfect, the payoff is still great.

Like I said when I first talked about Netflix’s Castlevania, this series exhibits a lot of the key factors that make for a solid adaptation of the franchise: a mature and compelling story, blood and gore, riveting action scenes, well-written and developed characters, and of course, astounding animation and art, courtesy of Powerhouse Animation. Even with the climax that I’ve felt had one particular flaw that I can’t spoil, the thrills and animation work still manage to salvage it greatly and while the season caps off on a mostly soft note, it still leaves me wanting to see more. Considering how good of a first couple impressions this series left, I have faith that this series continues to deliver.

Spoiler

After years of being quiet about it, I can now express my feelings on the latter seasons of BoJack Horseman.

2. BoJack Horseman

 

Best episodes: Free Churro, Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos, The Showstopper, BoJack the Feminist, The Light Bulb Scene, The Amelia Earhart Story

The first time I gave a formal review of this series was for my very late 2014 animation review, and I expressed how the first season showcased that BoJack Horseman had the ambition of being an enduring classic in adult animation with its concept focusing on the modern life of a star actor from the 80s until becoming a long-suffering washout after his series came to an end. Of course, I didn’t have the chance to talk about it for my 2017 animation review, since I had a deadline set for it and I wasn’t all caught up with the show at that time. As it should already be made clear, by its placement on my list, BoJack manages to stay consistent every time. Just when I thought that the season after the last couldn’t attain the same level of investment that I’ve had for it, the series just keeps me on the edge of my seat.

In 2018, the show would reach its climax point with its fifth season, more specifically with its overarching Philbert storyline, continuing its formula of establishing the ups and downs that BoJack faces while shifting its focus on the other important characters every once in a while. Like with the previous seasons, BoJack still manages to surprise me with its character interactions, its storylines, and its experimentations, with one of my favorites of the season being an episode built around the concept of having four separate years’ worth of Mr. Peanutbutter’s relationships overlap into one story all taking place in a Halloween party that flows so well, and of course, the one episode that is beloved by many and it’s essentially a bottle episode in its purest form where BoJack delivers a eulogy to his deceased mother and not much else, but because it plays with that bottle episode concept in such an interesting way, I can begrudgingly accept it as one of the series’ strongest episodes (granted, I’ve died on a hill defending Truth or Square from what others alleged resulted into being a bottle episode and a disappointing one at that). Then of course, there are still moments where the series goes off the rails, like the penultimate episode of the season that leave me beckoning to see where BoJack’s life leads to now.

I could say more praise, but I’m going to have to save the rest of my thoughts for a later time, and besides, you’re all wondering what could have possibly beat this to the #1 spot on my list, right? Well, let’s get right to it…

Spoiler

Believe me when I say that BoJack was close to having a lock for the top spot. After I’ve had most of my watchlist for the year completed, I would discover this one particular work, and it was a good thing that I’ve heard of it and watched it before finalizing the list proper, because after I watched this for the first time…I knew it right away that it had to be my #1…

1. The Wolf House

 

As you can see, the top spot went to a rather niche stop motion animated indie film hailing from Chile, and if you folks haven’t heard of The Wolf House before up until this point…I don’t blame you. This is an animated film that is worth anyone’s attention, because it is a masterpiece in multiple aspects: the animation, the wide variety of visuals, the storytelling, the third-person perspective narrative style, the tone, the fairytale themes and aesthetics, and the political subtext. All in all it’s a very unforgettable experience. The film had kept me feeling intrigued and entertained from beginning to end, because of how stunning the stop motion animation and visuals were, and just how engaging its enigmatic tone was. If you haven’t seen this film yet, I highly recommend that you do because like the big bad wolf in the story, this film blew me away…yeah, that doesn’t sound right, but you still understand my point.

 

That wraps up my top 10 animations for 2018, so I can now shift my focus towards setting up my forthcoming top ten list for 2019 in animation. Will it take years or months for me finalize my next list? Stick around and you'll find out.

[WINTER.]

Cold weather because I'm from the west coast and I hate being hot every other day each year.

[Oh Yeah! Collections]

30. An Amateur Writer Roasts Lily Orchard's Simple Writing Tips

 

Steel: Lily Orchard. If that name rings a bell, you’re probably reminded about her drama more than her own content, may it be her unending bitter feud with a certain Josh Scorcher, her infamously long and presumably nitpicky video essays on Steven Universe and Legend of Korra, or her personal put-downs on Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar…or you recognize the name because of her Twitter thread with 100 posts worth of so-called simple writing tips that the internet trashed on so hard that she’s deleted it ever since. I’ve been meaning to talk about this ever since I’ve heard about it and the subsequent reactions. I mean, she’s made herself to be quite an easy target: a brony who’s branched out into reviewing other forms of entertainment who acts like she knows everything about how to write a series well who also couldn’t provide good writing advice herself? That sounds like a story for the ages, or so I thought. Diving into this thread of writing tips, I saw quite a lot of rational statements in-between. The main problem with this thread, however, isn’t that most of these tips are bad, it’s just that Lily doesn’t seem to know the difference between advice and thinly veiled diatribes against shows, tropes, and people she dislikes, because that’s what most of these “tips” really are. That’s what I’m going to do for this off-series special for my riffing series (and it’s only fitting that I riff on this thread as myself), I am going to critique these critiques. Because it’s been recommended that I use Diregentleman’s video critiquing these “tips” (with another proclaimed professional writer friend) as reference material for my commentary (although I have my reasons not to take everything he says to heart…), I will credit him for giving me some ideas on evaluating Lily’s reprimands.

 

1) Don't worry about spoilers. If your story is good, spoilers aren't going to make it any less enjoyable. If spoilers make a story less enjoyable, that just means you were relying on cheap shock value as a shortcut.

Starting off with this one, I can’t really call this bad advice, as this comes off as a legitimate tip. One quip I could make about this is what she meant to say is that spoilers don’t hinder the story all that much unless the story in question is bad, which yeah…okay, I can’t really argue against that.

2) The middle point of a story is the best time to get a main couple together. Are you working on a 5 season show? Put your main couple together halfway through Season 3. The finale is the worst time because we don't get any time to enjoy the payoff.

Again, this seems like legitimate advice. As someone who suffered through four seasons of Star Vs. without getting two particular characters into an official relationship, which they’ve been teasing since the very start, I can tend to agree with this opinion. Although, I should point out that some shows aren’t always lucky enough to make it past three seasons, so this is not universal.

3) Friends to Lovers > Enemies to Lovers. Every time.

Every time, huh? Well, that’s just, like, your opinion. If anyone can make a ‘Friends to Lovers’ plot work, an ‘Enemies to Lovers’ plot can work too if it’s done right, and both types of romantic plots can be botched. It’s all about execution. If you have an example you’d like to name to justify your point, then go ahead and name something…and I mean besides She-Ra.

4) Victims of abuse moving away from the negative impacts of their abuse (ie, Zuko) and becoming healthier are not "redemption arcs."

Now that is…something that I disagree with. I’m not big on Avatar like anyone else, but from my perspective, Zuko’s backstory has been one of the most celebrated quote-unquote redemption arcs even today. If that’s not a good example of a redemption arc, then I’d like to know what is to you.

5) Heroes refusing to kill villains who have shown to be actively trying to murder people isn't "noble." It's enabling.

Ah yes, I suppose this is also pertaining to Avatar, with the whole debate on Aang not killing Ozai because it’s against his ideals to have blood on his hands, even if it’s coming from tyrannical ruler who holds responsibility for the genocide of his kind. Besides, the show ends with Ozai being stripped of his bending and being imprisoned, so I can’t imagine how that could be considered ‘enabling.’ If it’s not about Avatar though, then I can still make the argument that not killing a villain makes it enabling is just simply a hyperbolic blanket statement. And don’t get started on the Superman killing Zod double standard where that isn’t viewed as noble because ‘Superman doesn’t kill.’

6) Two women kissing in the last episode of a show after 4-5 seasons of trying to murder each other isn't "Revolutionary." It's fetishized abuse and violence.

This sounds like She-Ra slander because I don’t know what else it could be since this thread has her making rounds for criticizing the Catra/Adora ship. I could make the same type of argument with the last “tip,” as I feel calling it “fetishized abuse and violence” is a bit of an overrstatement.

7) Twitter is not an appropriate place to reveal story details. The appropriate place is IN THE WORK ITSELF!

Take notes J.K. Rowling. Otherwise, if you’re going to give out writing advice, you should keep social media-related matters separate.

When a character's body count is over 10,000 innocent lives then that character is no longer redeemable.

Why should something as cockamamie as a body count number determine whether or not a character is redeemable? Are you implying that a character could still be redeemed if their kill count is 9,999? If you ask me, redemption of a character with a kill count should be determined by how callous, unjust, or remorseless their killings are (take Dio from JBA as an example of the latter, with his “How many slices of bread have you eaten in your entire life?” boast). I’ve been getting into a select few manga series that involve characters with a high enough kill count to question their morality, although they are centered on assassins, and so they are characters who are obligated by certain means to kill (i.e. Lone Wolf and Cub & Blade of the Immortal). There’s also the Adult Swim show, Primal, which is another example I could name that involves characters having high kill counts, but that’s understandable because it’s set in an era where they have to rely on primal instinct to survive, and most of the causalities aren’t particularly human, so I wouldn’t act surprised if you choose to gloss over a detail like that.

9) Tip 8 does not apply to characters for whom making them the villain was a stupid, idiotic idea (ie, Sylvanas Windrunner). At that point it's just character rerailment.

Yes, because if there’s a character whose high kill count hinders them from being redeemable, it’s none other than the villain of the story, the type of character you’re usually not supposed to root for. …But then you realize that Lily is using this “it doesn’t matter if it’s a character that I like” argument to exemplify a justification for the previous tip, which is just a dumb defense, AND of all examples you could name, why mention a character from World of Warcraft, an MMO video game series in which, as far as I’m concerned, the story isn’t the most talked-about aspect of the franchise? (Or maybe it is and I’ll have to excuse myself for my ignorance…)

10) Everything in a story is there because the creator wished it to be there. Trying to explain away bigoted story decisions using worldbuilding is a fallacy because you put it there to begin with.

There should be another “Take notes J.K. Rowling” joke in there, but I’m just going to say that I agree with this point. The authors are accountable for anything that they write into their stories. However, this isn’t really a writing tip.

11) Don't pair adults with minors. That's pedophilia.

For a thread of “writing tips” that are filled with blanket statements, this is one that I can easily let slide, because every once in a while, someone has to be called out for making any certain risqué decisions with their writing like this one.

12) Don't sexualize teenage characters.

My response to this is the same as the one above.

13) Don't make up weird anime excuses for sexualizing teenage characters ("actually 1,000", "fusion", "Age of consent in X country is..."). See Rule 10.

Y’know, if you’re going to gatekeep morally grey people from having a career in creative/industry writing, you could’ve saved these slots for real pieces of advice and make something like… “Don’t be a POS in any sense of the word. Otherwise, you do not deserve to have a career in writing for entertainment.” …as your #0 tip and I won’t have to feel like you’re going off into an unneeded tangent when the focus of this thread is to give writing tips.

14) Making a "metaphor" for gay/trans/ace rep is always inherently inferior to just making a gay/trans/ace character.

The only example of this that I can think of is that one Powerpuff Girls 2016 episode that was hyped up for its LGBTQ+ metaphor…which didn’t turn out to be the intent for the episode anyway. Otherwise, yeah, if you want to make an LGBTQ+-repping character, just make an LGBTQ+-repping character. Metaphors aren’t a bad idea, but subtlety is very important.

15) If there are humans in your story, restricting gay/trans/ace rep to the non-human characters makes you a huge turd.

Agreed, don’t do this.

16) If the only gay man in your work is a faupish diva, you're a huge turd.

Alternatively speaking, if you apply harmful, done-to-death stereotypes to your only minority members of your cast of characters, you’re a huge turd.

17) If the only lesbian in your work is an abusive rageaholic with vague angst issues and a codependent relationship to a protagonist, you're a huge turd.

Well, I can’t fault Lily for expanding on the point she’s making, but as I’ve expressed towards tip #16 above, you’re better off simply telling us that we should be cautious about writing fictional minority figures and ensure that the traits you’re applying them aren’t harmful stereotypes. By making separate tips pertaining to every specific minority under the sun, we would be here all day. As for the tip itself though, I already can tell that this is shade towards She-Ra, or more specifically towards Catra, but I can connect this critique to Ruby from Steven Universe as well.

18) If your only nonbinary character is a non-human shapeshifter, you're a huge turd.

How many non-human nonbinary shapeshifting characters do you know of to justify your point, and I mean besides Double Trouble from She-Ra? If that’s the worst possible stereotype to represent a nonbinary character to you, then I’d argue that there are worse examples than that.

19) If your only autistic character is an ethically-challenged number fetishist, you're a huge turd.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had any conversations about ASD representation in the media within your own content, but as far as I’m concerned, you don’t seem to speak for the neurodiverse community in general to have a grasp on how autistic characters should or shouldn’t be written. As an autistic rep myself, I can guarantee you that there are worse examples of autistic representation in fiction than ‘ethically-challenged number fetishist.’ I could also make a quip about how this is also She-Ra shade since Entrapta is a confirmed autistic character, but when I think of ‘ethically-challenged number fetishist’ (seriously, what kind of specific trait is that?), I don’t think of her. Maybe she’s referring to Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, although I don’t watch the show, so I wouldn’t know.

20) If your only black character is a volatile, hyper-angry brute, you're a huge turd.

I’m not going to try and gatekeep Lily for giving us advice on how black characters should and shouldn’t be written when she isn’t of color herself, so I’ll at least say though that there other harmful stereotypes towards black characters to raise awareness towards.

21) If the only black woman in your cast barely gets any screen time except to be fetishized OR fits rule 20, you're a huge turd.

If this is just about the same as rule 20 except for that one…peculiar example, you don’t have to make a separate tip for writing black characters.

22) If the only trans woman in your cast a Drag Queen in all but name, you're a huge turd.

She must really be putting out all the stops with this string of tips to tell us all the politically incorrect characters traits that’ll make us a huge turd for life if we apply them to our writing. Next thing you’ll be telling us, we’re huge turds for making our only Indian character a thick-accented Hinduist or academic, or our only ADHD character a constantly distracted and hyperactive motor mouth, or our only French character a snooty striped-shirt and beret-wearing, baguette-eating alcoholic, or our only Scottish character an incomprehensible, vulgar, Scots lingo-spewing crank, or our only Scandinavian character a literal Viking, or our only German character a literal Nazi, or…Oh wait, where was I? So yeah, the whole ‘don’t make your only trans woman a Drag Queen’ rule is something that should be followed, for sure. While this piece of advice applies to any type of trans character, subtlety matters when writing them.

23) If you force a woman to kiss her abuser, you're a huge turd.

This is prob just more She-Ra shade, so I’ll just ignore this one.

24) If you sideline every non-white character in your cast to focus on a white boy with anger issues and a tendency toward hostility getting a redemption arc, you're a huge turd.

I’m drawing a blank for what Lily is referring to, so I’ll just take the words of Diregentleman’s video as my own on what this is supposed to mean and why you shouldn’t take to this example, in which this tip regards to how you shouldn’t make a diverse cast of characters only to put almost all of your focus on a white dude’s character arc. Still though, it would’ve been a helpful tip if it weren’t so…you know, vague.

25) Justifying horny armor designs or horny clothing designs with "Sexual Agency" makes you a huge turd. Characters don't have sexual agency, you made them that way as a justification. See Rule 10.

So in other words, don’t take this video seriously:

 

26) Related to the above, if your justification is to just be honest and say you like ogling sexy characters, you're still a huge turd, but slightly less of a turd than the above.

Likewise, related to my riff above.

27) Don't worry about not having everything planned out beforehand. No writer or creator plans everything beforehand, and the ones who say they do are filthy liars. Writers have at best 1-2 story beats they're determined to include, everything else is by the seat of their pants

But if you do worry about not having everything planned out, does that make you a huge turd? Come on, just don’t end the chain like that. Anyway, Henry Zalley from the Diregentleman video said that this is one of the worst pieces of advice Lily has given in this thread, and it can be agreed that this is absolutely not true because the experience is different for everyone. As an amateur writer, I don’t always have everything planned beforehand. Besides writing authentic-sounding dialogue and conversations, working under pressure is my kryptonite. My ideas come to me naturally. If I have an idea that I think is good for what I’ll write, I keep a mental note of it. I’m not a pantser even if it would mean that I could write at a faster pace because well…I’ve learned from writing Dark Side of the Herd that it’s a rather lazy method of writing, and I’m not a lazy writer. Also, if you think that anyone with a profession in writing crafts most of their ideas from the seat of their pants…then you’re a huge turd. Because pantsing managed to work for some people like say…the author of the Dragon Ball manga, that doesn’t mean it works for everyone. People who have a profession in writing have to deal with obstacles such as deadlines, and it’s especially the case for manga artists/writers who have to churn out a new 20-something page chapter of a series PER WEEK while sustaining a high readership so their series does not end up getting dropped prematurely. It’s a similar case for being a deadline writer or animator for an animated series. I see complaints on the SBC Discord server almost all the time about the subject of how certain shows didn’t go the way that the creative team had originally planned it because of the show being cancelled sooner than they would’ve preferred. This is one of several reasons why working on a serialized animated show is such a big gamble. Either you turn out lucky or you don’t. Writing isn’t as easy of job as you might think it is. Writing a good story requires effort and as well as skill in multiple aspects such as grammar, depth, character development, story flow, story beats, pacing, tone, worldbuilding, and so forth.  So yeah, what I meant to say is, I think the ones you shouldn’t trust and are lying through their teeth are the ones who say that you shouldn’t worry about not having your story all planned out because most writers just B.S. their way through the process anyway. If you think this strategy works for you, fine, but keep in mind that the writing and creative process is different for everyone.

28) Don't try and "do what Avatar did." You can't. Even the people who made Avatar can't make another show do what Avatar did.

Oh hey, an actual useful tip for once, and yeah, I strongly agree with this point, but I’d say it’s more like you shouldn’t build your career on creating something that’s meant to be the next whatever, otherwise people are going to try and attach it to anything else they’re familiar with. It’s not a bad idea to take inspiration from other existing works. However, to be viewed as an original, it is practical to turn those inspirations into something of your own that’ll make your work distinguishable. In other words, don’t be another victim to the “It’s just like Dark Souls but…” crowd, be the person who starts something.

29) Low-stakes interpersonal conflict will always be more satisfying in the long run than high-stakes saving the world. "Friends" is more popular than your favorite anime for a reason.

This is such a shallow blanket statement and I don’t know where to begin with this “tip.” Like with tip #2, I can argue that it’s really all about execution and there’s no need to tell us “[This] is better than [that].” A high or low stakes show can be done right and it can be done wrong. Popularity doesn’t measure quality. If you prefer your low-stakes live-action sitcoms, good for you, but that doesn’t mean others are in the wrong for having a preference towards high-stakes anime. Besides, if there’s a clear reason for Friends’ popularity, it’s because it draws a large normie crowd. You don’t see a lot of 40 or 50-something year old men and women freaking out over My Hero Academia or whatever.

30) Choose whether you're a comedy or drama at the start and stick to it. Don't make a comedy and turn it into a drama later on, that just annoys people.

Hunter x Hunter is more popular than your favorite live-action dramedy for a reason. Oh, I’m sorry, was that too shallow and close-minded? Okay, with all seriousness, I can agree with this point, but ‘A factor to good story-writing is a consistent tone’ would be my way of saying it. I’ve learned that lesson from looking back at the inconsistencies of my own writing in Guru Gakuto.

31) Worldbuilding is like salt. A pinch can make it better, 10 cups of it will not.

Once again, I have to agree, as this does feel like an actual tip. In a lot of certain aspects in writing a story, you should go for quality over quantity, and I wouldn’t say that for worldbuilding alone. Having too many characters or too many plot threads can be a bad thing too.

32) Characters should always come before anything else.

Again, I wouldn’t say ‘ALWAYS,’ but I still agree with this point, as I tend to put character development first before building the world and plot that revolves around them.

33) The protagonist should be a protagonist, not just a vessel for the antagonist to hog the story. If you're going to make a villain protagonist, just open with that.

Well…

34) Perspective shifts are a staple of storytelling. Having only one perspective isn't a "stylistic choice" it's just crap.

Okay. Name one bad example of single character perspective storytelling and one very good example of multi-perspective storytelling that cements itself as a ‘staple of storytelling’ and maybe then I’ll understand where the hell you’re getting at with this blanket statement. If multi-POV narratives are your preference over single-POV narratives, then it’s purely preference. Any other style of narrative is not going for the “stylistic choice” defense nor is it an objectively bad way of telling a story just because you have a differing opinion on them.

35) If you're making a cartoon, hire writers. Don't just have your storyboarders write the story. That's not what they're there for. Artists draw, writers write, artists cannot just take over for the writers on a whim.

BULL. SHIT. You shouldn’t have every right to dictate what any particular member of an animation staff is meant and only meant to do when you don’t seem to have experience in this line of work yourself. In the sense that you should hire boarders or writers when you need them exclusively for said job, then yeah, I can understand where you’re getting at, but simply having someone on your staff who can both write and draw isn’t going to hinder the quality of the work as long as they can do a good job at both. It should also be pointed out that getting a career in animation requires education and experience in more than one area. I may be more of a writer than an artist, but I’ve faced the facts that if I wanted to attain work in the animation field and get my ideas pitched, I need experience as an artist, as animation is, of course, an art form. Besides, having experience from more than just one area for a medium can be beneficial, and for some people, including me, they don’t want to feel like they should be put in a box and stay in one exclusive lane.

36) Related to Rule 2: Will They, Won't They isn't a fun story. It's just addiction-peddling. We need to stop pretending Ross/Rachel was good storytelling and learn to appreciate Chandler/Monica and Joey/Rachel.

But…you just said that Friends is more popular than MY favorite anime! Why are you now criticizing the show for its romance plots? Also, if these ‘Will they? Won’t they?’ storylines keep the audience engaged in the thing that they enjoy, and then it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some specific works by Rumiko Takahashi like Ranma and Inuyasha live and breathe the ‘Will they? Won’t they?’ plot, and yet I’m into them regardless because they have something more to them than “addiction-peddling” that keeps me hooked. However, I can see how this type of plot can be done wrong, and that depends on the over-reliance of this trope and ends up eclipsing every other story aspect for me.

37) "Romance Trope, but gay" is not an absolute rule to live by. If She Ra taught us anything it's that "Gay Reylo" was not actually an improvement.

Why use She-Ra as an example only to pivot towards Star Wars? If you hate writers establishing abusive romance tropes, then just speak out against those rather than “your ship is bad and you should feel bad.”

38) Someone on this hellsite once made the remark "We need more lesbian noncon because purity is boring." That is a dangerous, violent person. Do not listen to them, they do not have a point, seriously my fucking god what is wrong with you people?!

…And that’s just another one of many good reasons not to use Twitter.

39) Women who fetishize abuse (Reylos, Catradoras, KiGos, ect) and present it as something feminist and paint detractors as misogynists are gaslighting you. Don't listen to them.

Once again, keep social media-related matters separate, thank you, but yeah, if it’s someone like a SJW who’s dying on a hill defending these types of ships, then I believe you in not listening to them or wasting time on them. Although, if it’s someone who just has different taste in ships than you do and aren’t looking to pick a fight about it, then I’d say let them indulge in their questionable yet exotic interests *shrug*.

40) If abuse fetishists are giving you shit for not caving to their demands, just block them. Don't argue with them, don't debate them, don't treat them with good faith. Just block them and get on with your day.

This is not writing advice, moving on.

41) Rape victims are not villains and should never be written as villains. Don't be like @Blizzard_Ent . It costs $0 to not be a misogynistic pig.

Does it cost $0 to be one as well? Look, I can very much agree that rape as drama is hard to do right. Rape survivors as villains can work if it isn’t framed as anything tasteless or misogynistic. The way I see it being done right, that type of past trauma can serve as an engaging backstory to illustrate said antagonist’s excuse for their actions the same way as it can serve as motivation for a protagonist who is also a rape survivor. If your one example of bad rape survivor villains is from an Activision Blizzard game (…which I assume is WoW again, because they own the rights to it), then you might want to give more examples if this sort of trope has been done wrong multiple times to justify why you’ve made this tip not to just throw shade at Activision Blizzard.

42) If straight men really hate a certain character, but lesbians love them, there's an 90% chance that is your best character.

The best way to deal with liking a character that a certain other group seems to really hate is to not care what other people think, just saying.

43) If one of your writers believes Simon (Infinity Train) was misunderstood and Grace is a villain, that writer should be fired immediately.

I have not seen Infinity Train yet to argue this point, so I’m just going to skip to the next one.

44) The best solution to a love triangle is polyamory.

Alternatively speaking, the best solution to a love triangle is to not write one.

45) If you have a male character who actually shows respect and admiration to a woman, and some of your viewers call that character a "simp" there is a 90% chance you have a good character.

In other words, if your male protagonist doesn’t respect women, then you’re a huge turd.

46) "Mary Sue" is not a real criticism. It's thinly veiled misogyny. Always disregard it.

It’s more of a problem with idiots throwing the word around no matter the context, to the point where the precise meaning of the term is debatable, rather than just an issue with guys using the word as an excuse for their sexism, which you’re not wrong for, but still. If you ask around, you’ll notice how much of an umbrella term Mary Sue has become for quote-unquote bad character writing. Mary Sue could mean a character who is perfect in a lot of things, it could mean a character who is “too likeable,” it could mean a character who is “overpowered,” it could simply mean a character that you hate…or it could mean a character that is too idealistic, a thinly-veiled representation of the author themselves, lacks real traits, flaws, and/or depth to make us connect with this character, which as far as I’m concerned, is what exactly defines a Mary Sue, but even then, it’s not like it matters anyway because it stopped being valid constructive criticism the more prevalent it was, and especially when I witnessed folks blindly throwing the word around come the reveals of Chloe from FOP and Bliss from the PPG reboot. In addition, it’s not just guys who used the term as a crutch to criticize characters that they dislike or think are bad female representation, women have been using the term as well, although it’s most usually out of concern for how these characters of the gender that they represent are written. I could keep going all day with this discussion, but I’ll stop right here, since I already know that I’ve been dragging this.

47) Emotional vulnerability does not make a female character "antifeminist."

Again, this isn’t even a tip, so I’m not touching this.

48) Goblins are inherently anti-Semitic

WHAT DO YOU MEAN??? YOU AREN’T EVEN JEWISH YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU CRITCIZED REBECCA SUGAR FOR BEING ONE-

49) If your first thought when told about a bigoted trope (Bury your gays, Goblins, ect) is to try and figure out how to "do it well" you are a huge turd who is missing the point. It's not that these tropes aren't "done well", it's that they're done too much.

And your point is…that you don’t want writers to take risks? Also, what do you mean that you think these specific tropes are bad because “they’re done too much”? You may have already suggested that you dislike these tropes because they’ve been done wrong multiple times or simply because they’re bigoted.

50) Writing a relationship based on a "dynamic" or trying to get a particular trope (ie, enemies to lovers) into the story is a bad decision.

You already called the enemies to lovers trope bad a while ago, there’s no need to repeat yourself.

51) Vitriol does not immediately render criticism invalid. If you tone police criticism, you will likely miss something important.

Okay, so this is the point where Lily stops giving advice on writing and starts going off on a tangent by giving advice on dealing with people on the internet. Now, outrage culture can feel justified, but that depends on the matter at hand. If it’s not worth being outraged about, then as Kim Possible would say, it’s so not the drama.

52) Your fandom will fight and argue. This is how people solve conflicts. It's typically better to let people fight it out than to be complacent and beg people to "just stop fighting."

Like I’ve said a few times already, I’ll say this again: keep social media-related issues separate if this is about simple writing advice.

53) Related to the above, "every headcanon is valid" should never leave your mouth. Do you want pedophiles and fascists in your fanbase? Because that's how you get pedophiles and fascists in your fanbase.

Once again, if you’re going to police certain people, then you could’ve imposed a Rule #0 by saying “No pedos/fascists/sexists/racists/anti-Semitics/homophobes/transphobes/incels/zoophiles/etc. allowed!” than have to do it on a thread meant for writing advice every chance you get.

54) Speaking out against abuse fetishists, pedophiles, and bigots in your fanbase will always be better in the long run than being quiet or complacent. It might be exhausting to deal with, but it's better for everyone in the long run.

But wait, you just said that we’re better off letting the fanbase clear the smoke when it comes to fan discourse. Either you think we should be quiet and complacent about scumbags in the fandom, or we shouldn’t. Pick a side. I’d go with the former because, look…the internet is full of scumbags, but that doesn’t mean we should try to take on them all head on. We don’t need to be the superhero everyone needs and step in to rid of all that is evil. Even when it comes to policing certain people, there are risks to consider, and if it means drawing unwanted attention to them (For sure, Butch Hartman has a variety of reasons why he doesn’t talk about Randy Stair, and there’s a variety of reasons why SEGA or Nintendo don’t talk about Chris-Chan), then I feel the best thing you could do is to just not engage, because like you said, we can’t just expect to make a change for the better by telling the fans to “just stop fighting.” Fandoms are going to have toxic representation no matter how much we try to eradicate these people.

55) "Fanservice" is a concept you should never think about. Fans who need to be "serviced" are not actually fans. If you have fans, those fans are already having fun and don't need to be pandered to.

To assume that anyone is a fake fan for whatever reason is just bad of a belief to stick to. If anyone has a problem with not having their demands met, it’s on them and it means little about how that behavior dictates whether or not they are fans.

56) The tendency for shipping to dominate discourse is the biggest sign that characters and their relationships are more satisfying than anything else. People didn't petition for a 4th season of Kim Possible to see what happened with Drakken or to see new villains.

Well…

57) Complaints about "too much negativity" is shooting the messenger. If there is an overabundance of negativity, that means there's things to be negative about. People cannot be positive without things to be positive about.

Some people just have problems dealing with honest feedback. Some people can own up while others may continue struggling with negativity, and I think it’s all normal.

58) If you do something bigoted and get yelled at for it, listen to the people yelling at you. Cancel Culture isn't real, the rage and vitriol will be gone in two weeks, and you'll be a better person for it. Getting yelled at stopped being "the end of the world" at age 10.

If you have been paying attention, Lily, Cancel Culture has more to do with “getting yelled at” and more to do with being silenced and publicly shunned as a person, whether it’s because of something stupid or something that is just. It all depends on the context. I mean, I do have a thick skin and if I ever find myself dealing with this, I’m not going to be a coward and let the disparagers eat me alive. At least understand though that not everyone is entitled to come out of being publicly shamed without experiencing some emotional scar tissue. Perhaps the outrage can only last a week or so, but for anyone who falls off real hard, that outrage can last longer. Also, as someone who had to deal with occasional bickering parents until they split, you have no right to say that being yelled at is no big deal.

59) The quickest and easiest way to make yelling stop is to own up to the mistake, don't make excuses (or explain why you did the bad thing), fix it, and never repeat it. Progressives are very forgiving if you give them results. Stubbornness is what gets people cancelled.

BUT YOU JUST SAID CANCEL CULTURE ISN’T REAL- Uuuugggggh. Also, there are more factors that contribute to being publicly shamed than just being stubborn. You shouldn’t dictate what Cancel Culture is and how we should deal with it you don’t think it affects you.

60) "Forced Diversity" is a right-wing dogwhistle, not a criticism.

Most arguments I’ve seen being made about “Forced Diversity” is in bad faith, so…I’ll just go ahead and agree with this, even though, again, it’s not writing advice.

61) "Reclaimed" slurs are not universal, and as such should NEVER be included in a work.

Using reclaimed slurs depend on a particular person’s personal comfort and if you’re not comfortable with using the Q-word, then yeah, I understand what you’re saying. I’m not LGBTQ+ nor am I of color, so I don’t have much of a say if you should never say never on this topic though.

62) Oppressed people fighting against their oppressors are not "Villains." No I don't care if you think they "went too far." Not all those who respond with violence are wrong, and not all those who preach nonviolence are right to do so.

Disregarding that this is yet another vague post towards something, I can’t think of anyone who would be dumb enough to paint these types of characters as villains.

63) Related to the above: A good spin on the "Heroes who never kill" mantra is to highlight how refusing to kill a villain who later goes on to kill more innocent people makes the hero responsible for those deaths. There's a free story theme for ya.

But you’ll still criticize whatever uses this theme anyway because it cements your earlier point about how refusing to kill a villain is ‘enabling.’ Am I right, am I wrong?

64) If you're writing fantasy and you have no issue having dragons in your world but suddenly think people of color are "unrealistic" because "something something Medivel Europe" you're a huge turd. And an idiot.

Yeah, ‘cause when fantasy is another way of calling your story speculative fiction, you should have no excuse for not being inclusive when you give yourself the power to do anything that you want with the world you’re building.

65) Sexual Tension and Chemistry are not the only indicators of a potential relationship, and in a relationship is the quickest thing to fade.

…I’m a virgin who’s never been in a real relationship, so I’m in no position to argue with this one.

66) The best potential romantic partner for a character is her best friend. They're best friends for a reason.

This is basically the same advice as friends to lovers > enemies to lovers, but since this is not another excuse to bash the latter, I’ll easily let this slide.

67) "I don't want X character to be defined by her relationships" is a stupid philosophy to have. EVERYONE is defined by their relationships. That's how human beings work.

And yet you let Catra and Adora’s relationship define their respective characters for you and write them off because it’s “fetishizing abuse.”

68) If you don't want a character to only be remembered for a romantic subplot, don't end the story on that subplot reaching it's conclusion. Give it time to sink in and become the new "normal" for the viewer. The memorable moment will always be the LAST moment.

When it comes to making a memorable character that’s in a romantic relationship, it should be about personality most of the time. If the bulk of your character’s personality is being the love interest for another character, then that’s the issue to fix.

69) "Slow Burn" does not mean "Taking forever to get together." It means "Full series long romantic subplot." Getting together is the START of a romantic subplot, not the end.

But isn’t that what slow burns are? Taking forever to get to a certain point in a story?

70) "Sexual Awakening" is not a real character arc.

Well…

71) The only people who think "Boob Armor" makes sense are people who have never touched a boob.

I feel attacked. Seriously though, what the heck kind of argument is that?

72) The Bow and Arrow are strength weapons, not dexterity weapons. Female characters who do archery should naturally be very physically strong. Longbows have a draw weight of 80-150lbs. Rangers are always stronger than Warriors, deal with it.

Apparently, this tip was provided with an accompanying image from World of Warcraft in the original tweet. WoW lists Warriors and Rangers as classes, so I don’t know what else she could be referring to. Again, for a thread dedicated to simple writing tips, I can’t see how World of Warcraft could be integral for these prompts. Even if you’re writing for a video game, I don’t see how categorizing bow and arrow as dexterity weapons is going to royally screw over your story. Second of all, this philosophy is utter B.S. anyway because skill in archery does indeed involve dexterity. If you have acquired knowledge about weaponry, you can say what you will. If you don’t, then don’t act like you know everything about them.

73) The best way to avoid tokenism is multiple characters.

It’s funny. Instead of that string of tips telling us that we’re a huge turd for applying overdone or harmful stereotypes to our only minority-repping character, you could’ve just said this (well, aside that multiple characters is indeed a good way to avoid your characters being viewed as token minorities).

74) Want an easy way to become more accustomed to diverse casts? Limit your "Straight, white, cis" characters to one of each. Those can be three characters for each trait, or pack it all into one character, but only one of each.

Or…just don’t seclude your character designs to just white people, plain and simple.

75) Don't be afraid of failure and backlash. If someone is screaming at you about how a character you made is racist, that is literally free writing advice that someone is just giving you. Look on the bright side of life for a change.

If your point is that we should hold ourselves accountable for having made bigoted writing mistakes, then I would agree with you. Backlash is nothing to worry about us unless the public tries to make it so that you end up never living something down, regardless if you’re being given “free writing advice.” Again, Cancel Culture is more than just “getting yelled at.”

76) People of color and LGBTA people are allowed to just exist. Don't feel like you HAVE to cover bigotry just because they're in the story. In fact, people will be happier if you don't because having these characters defined by suffering is itself a tired trope.

Yes, I agree. We live in a time period where more diverse representation is needed. However, it’s not such a bad idea to cover bigotry, unless the topic becomes the bulk of the character’s development (like Lily herself has pointed out) and if it’s virtue signaling. Not everyone is open-minded and every once in a while we need to teach certain people something along the lines of ‘Don’t be a bigot. Being accepting of others can get you far in life.’

77) "I just want my readers/viewers to have fun" is an excellent attitude to have when it comes to storytelling.

A key component in good storytelling is if the author themselves are having fun writing their story as well, and while I’d add to this tip with that, I can agree that this is a good mindset to have when writing your stories.

78) As a general rule, Slice of Life has always been a more popular genre than Action/Adventure.

Again, mind the difference between ‘rules’ and ‘tips.’ This is the same argument as before with Friends being “more popular than your favorite anime,” so just stop trying to force-feed your own philosophy onto others that because one genre is more popular than the other, it is therefore the best.

79) "Feature Creep" is a problem in storytelling as well. You don't have to cram every single idea, reference and homage you can think of into a story. You can save ideas for another time.

 ‘Feature creep’ is only a buzzword for video games, but I can see where you’re getting at and I agree. There are only so many ideas you could have for one story and your story can end up being a big mess if you try to cram so much material into it.

80) D&D Alignments are terrible metrics for character design. They're meant as a quick reference for improvisation in a TTRPG environment and shouldn't be taken outside that environment.

So now you’re telling us that we can’t take inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons? Next thing you’ll be telling me, we should never take inspiration from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

81) When writing LGBTA characters, stay as far away from "Rocky Horror Picture Show" as you possibly can. Some gay people hold it up as a meaningful part of our "culture." It is not. It's a transmisogynistic nightmare made by an actual TERF, not a reference guide for ANYTHING.

And speak of the devil. I never watched Rocky Horror Picture Show nor do I plan to, so I guess I’ll just say that I dodged a bullet and move on. That and one of the best reference guides for writing LGBTQ+ characters are from actual members of the community, just to make a point.

82) The Q-slur as a concept tactily reinforces heteronormativity by casting LGBTA people as inherently "strange." In "No Big Deal" representation, the word should be avoided. Normalizing LGBTA people and the Q-Slur are like oil and water and don't go together.

This is the same point that she’s already made with “tip” #61, so I’ll just skip this.

83) Rape is an unforgivable crime, more so than killing. Killing can potentially be justified in a story without becoming a villain. Rape cannot.

In other words, rape is bad and murder is bad, and justifying either won’t you get anywhere. What other such though-provoking facts do you have to share?

84) Sex scenes are never necessary. You want to include one because you're horny, then more power to you. But any attempt to justify it as "important to the story" will only get you laughed at.

Well, if porn’s not your thing, it’s not your thing, and sure, I suppose sex scenes are not really necessary…unless you’re writing for smutty fanfiction or a legit porno where those types of scenes are the meat and bones of your story. As long as those sex scenes aren’t problematic by any means, they shouldn’t be such a major hindrance.

85) "Strong" characters can still cry and need support from others. Vulnerability is not a character flaw.

It’s not that vulnerability doesn’t essentially give a character flaws. Rather it’s pretty much an easy shortcut for writing them. In other words…yeah, I agree. It’s what makes a character feel vulnerable that establishes a particular flaw that they have than vulnerability by itself.

86) "Peak TV" is a fancy way of saying "Addiction-fueled misery porn."

I don’t think literally anyone calls it that except you, so what’s your point?

87) Addiction-based storytelling relies on serialization, cliffhangers, "shocking twists", constantly raised stakes, and an obsession with foreshadowing to get people to watch not because they're enjoying themselves but because they're stuck on a tension high.

Look…I know serialized shows aren’t your thing (and clearly enough, most anime in general), but that doesn’t mean fans of these types of shows are just “addicted” and are only watching these shows because they’re somehow slaves to all those tropes that you consider as cheap tactics to fuel their addiction. If those people are actually having fun watching these particular shows and are engaged with those stories for reasons that aren’t related to addiction-peddling, then it’s not a matter of bad storytelling. If you’re not into these shows, then just shut up, stop making petty assumptions, and let people enjoy what they enjoy and you won’t be judged for your personal tastes either. Sure, things like cliffhangers, twists, and raised stakes can be annoying if they’re heavily relied on, but they have reasons to exist in any story, and I can assure you it’s not to make viewers “addicted,” rather to keep them invested. They are hooks, and without hooks of any kind, you’ve got a really boring story.

87, Pt 2) By the end, the viewer is only watching for closure because they've already invested so much and they need their fix in order to feel like it was worth it. This is the same business model that soap operas use.

Oh yeah, because if there’s one thing that’s going to determine the quality of your serialized show in the long run, it’s the payoff, and for some shows like Star Vs., the payoff isn’t always going to turn out good. Of course, serialization doesn’t automatically make your story or concept good, but taking this sort of risk of writing a continuous storyline doesn’t mean it’s destined for disaster either. The viewer will watch a serialized show until the end for closure, because yes, it’s always going to be the payoff that matters in the end, but you’ve already lost me on the first half of your spiel about “addiction-based storytelling,” so I’m not going to bother trying to point out that the viewers are looking forward to more than just closure.

88) If the Sunk Cost Fallacy didn't exist, shows like Steven Universe and Game of Thrones would have been cancelled by Season 2.

Congrats, you’ve just reminded us for the one-thousandth time that Steven Universe sucks. Do you want a cookie for saying that – a really big cookie?

89) Hardcore fans will tell you that "Continuity" is the most important thing. They're wrong.

Not THE most important, sure, but it’s still important to make sure that your story is consistent.

90) "This is too political" is a complaint only made by conservatives when a story acknowledges that non-white and non-straight people exist. The existence of other kinds of people is not political. Ignore these complaints.

While we’re at it, we should also ignore the conservative snowflakes spewing these complaints too.

91) The Little Mermaid and Cinderella are more feminist than Beauty and the Beast.

THIS
IS
NOT
WRITING
ADVICE

92) If you want to know when to change a trans character's pronouns in the narration, doing so at the moment where they realize who they are and admit it to themselves out loud is *chef's kiss*

As someone who has written a character coming out as trans in Sub-Tropical Academy, I can strongly agree with this point because I have abided to this tip before.

93) As long as it isn't harmful or bigoted, you don't have to justify story decisions made on the basis of self-indulgence.

Says the same YouTube reviewer who said that writing sex scenes are pointless and your only excuse for writing them is because you’re horny.

94) Vampires/Werewolves are not inherently "LGBTA-Coded" and doing so is an example of othering. They work better as metaphors for aristocracy and predators respectively than as the "Underclass."

…I’ll skip this one.

95) Some of the best stories ever made were written as an act of spite.

Well…

96) Any system of government (with the exception of Fascism) can exist in a positive or negative context. Monarchies are not always inherently evil (see Hawaii pre-annexation) and Democracies are not always inherently good (See USA). Write accordingly.

So…Fascism can only exist in a negative context (which I understand), but Marxism can be framed in a positive light? If you’re just going to vague-post your personal opinions on these things, you’re not making so much progress.

97) "Lesbian still on good terms with ex-boyfriend from before coming out" is a really cute friendship trope. And vice versa.

Agreed, and since we got just a few of these tips left, let’s breeze through those too.

98) The only real difference between an extremely close platonic relationship and a romantic relationship is what the people involved choose to call it. Best Friends are not something that should ever be prefixed with the word "Just."

99) Normalize friends saying "I love you" to each other.

100) If you write a 100-tweet long thread of writing advice, you are a huge loser with way too much free time on your hands. Get back to work and do something productive with your time!

If only you thought about that before actually writing this and letting your over-confidence get the better of you. Sorry honey, self-awareness alone is not going to erase the actions that you’ve already committed to.

101) "Tips" and "Rules" are two different words.

Again, if only if you realized this simple mistake before you wasted your time writing all these diatribes. I can definitely see why now she decided to delete all these tweets.

 

So that wraps up Lily’s big, stupid thread worth of 100 “simple writing tips,” and yeah, this was a mess. Were there some good points made here and there? Yes. Should this be viewed as a good reference guide for anyone with a professional writer goal set in mind? Absolutely not, because not only were there a lot of one-sided and vague tips, there were a bunch of inconsistent ramblings in-between as well that defy the term ‘tips.’ Again, my main issue with this big list of “writing advice” is that most of these posts aren’t tips and are rather more like excuses for Lily to peddle her personal views and biases. Even when there are actual tips, most of them are restrictive rather than they do try to boost the confidence of hopeful writers, which is what they are meant to do. There were an excessive amount of ‘don’t’ pieces than ‘do’ pieces of advice. Don’t write this. Don’t write that. Don’t worry about this or that. Don’t try this or that. Do not pass ‘Go.’ Do not collect $200. Skimming through these tips, you just can’t help but ask: “What EXACTLY defines good storytelling to you, Lily?” Sadly, the vague tone for a lot of these so-called tips does her no justice. Especially when you trace back most of these vague posts to a few specific examples like Steven Universe, She-Ra, World of Warcraft, Friends, ATLA, Star Wars, and Disney, it’s telling of how small Lily’s frame of reference is, which must be why she was impartial to listing as many examples as needed to back up her arguments where they would’ve been needed (well besides the whole Twitter character limit per post excuse. I’ll say more about Twitter later).

If you want to make a thread of writing tips, then do that. If you want to give yourself venting room to express your personal social justice views, then do that and don’t try to disguise it as something else like “Lily Orchard’s Declassified Internet Survival Guide.” When you’re meant to focus on one particular subject, you must stay consistent to that subject. Otherwise, people are going to ridicule you for going off-topic like you did.

With this many tips,  and a generous amount of bad ones to boot, you could make a top ten list for the worst pieces from this whole thread, and that’s what I’m going to do… (while, of course, excluding my choices to those that actually read like tips):

Steel’s Top Ten Worst Simple Writing Tips from Lily Orchard:

10. 98) The only real difference between an extremely close platonic relationship and a romantic relationship is what the people involved choose to call it. Best Friends are not something that should ever be prefixed with the word "Just."
-There’s a big reasons why platonic relationships and romantic relationships are called us such and because ‘best friends’ are another way of saying “They should f***” to you, that doesn’t mean every other fictional pair with a very close platonic friendship should go the romantic route, if that’s the argument you’re trying to make.
9. 50) Writing a relationship based on a "dynamic" or trying to get a particular trope (ie, enemies to lovers) into the story is a bad decision.
-If there’s a particular bias that gets repeated multiple times over the course of this thread besides “I hate serialization,” it’s “I hate enemies to lovers relationships,” and the more that Lily tries to hammer in that philosophy, the more I’ve disagreed with it. I know we can’t make you like that trope Lily, but if you want to present a good argument against it, you have to have a broader frame of reference than “enemies to lovers trope is bad because She-Ra did it bad and it’s fetishizing abuse, deal with it.” Also, what kind of criticism is “you shouldn’t write relationships based on dynamics?” You’ve already contradicted that point anyway by saying that characters should be defined by their relationships because, in your own words, that’s how human beings work.
8. 19) If your only autistic character is an ethically-challenged number fetishist, you're a huge turd.
-This feels like something that I could put higher since as I speak as someone with ASD, I can argue that this is such an over-simplified piece of advice regarding writing autistic characters. Autistic representation at its worst is a character that exhibits either one of these: constantly disruptive, constantly infantilized by the other characters, exemplifies the “child prodigy as personality trait” rule, a non-human metaphor, uses their neurodivergence as an excuse for their actions, and lacking empathy or emotion among other things. Just ask someone on the spectrum on how an autistic character should not be written and they’ll provide you with the same amount of material that I just did. If you still stand by this claim that this is the worst stereotype for autistic characters, then we can have this conversation and debate it together.
7. TIE: 20) If your only black character is a volatile, hyper-angry brute, you're a huge turd.
21) If the only black woman in your cast barely gets any screen time except to be fetishized OR fits rule 20, you're a huge turd.
-If you’re going to tell hopeful writers how they should not write characters of color despite not being of color yourself, this is where I have to draw the line. There are worse Hollywood stereotypes that have been applied to these types of characters and the best way to get a grasp on what those are is to ask a person of color for reference. While I can’t guarantee that black representation in entertainment is every bit of improving these days, the industry seems to be liable in ensuring that the way they interpret these characters don’t contribute to heavy backlash.
6. 84) Sex scenes are never necessary. You want to include one because you're horny, then more power to you. But any attempt to justify it as "important to the story" will only get you laughed at.
-Sexual content is hit-or-miss for a variety reasons. You don’t have to like porn, and I am one of those people who don’t, but if that’s not your thing at all, you don’t have to criticize sex scenes for just existing, nor do you do have to talk down anyone for writing them because it somehow means that you’re either a filthy pervert who aims for fantasy fulfillment, or you’re just a moron for trying to justify them as important to writing your story. It’s not like because “Sausage Party” had one pointless sex scene, that it means all other scenes of the like are virtually pointless.
5. 5) Heroes refusing to kill villains who have shown to be actively trying to murder people isn't "noble." It's enabling.
-There’s a reason why I’ve quipped about the whole double standard surrounding the outrage for Aang not killing Ozai versus the outrage towards Superman killing Zod in Man of Steel. We all can’t seem to agree if a character killing a villain should be viewed as noble or hypocritical. Whatever the means, refusing to kill a villain should not be labeled as ‘enabling,’ because there’s the counterargument that heroes who do kill the villain despite being against the thought of it would make their actions no better than the villain’s. Besides, over fifty tips later, Lily suggested a story theme where the hero ends up being responsible for the villain taking out more lives because they refused to kill them because it would prove this very point even if she would still hate it anyway, which now makes this tip null and void.
4. 49) If your first thought when told about a bigoted trope (Bury your gays, Goblins, ect) is to try and figure out how to "do it well" you are a huge turd who is missing the point. It's not that these tropes aren't "done well", it's that they're done too much.
-Once this argument translates to “Don’t even try challenging yourself as a writer,” then I’m sorry Lily, we’re not the huge turds here for the missing the point, you are.
3. 34) Perspective shifts are a staple of storytelling. Having only one perspective isn't a "stylistic choice" it's just crap.
-I could’ve said this for the tip above, but it’s also relevant towards this vague post: to assume that we should never try a certain approach with our writing because YOU think it’s crap is bad writing advice. I don’t think there is such thing as bad tropes, but I do believe in mishandling them. Multiple perspectives, single-person perspectives, it’s all completely subjective and neither method is “the only right method” to use.
2. 27) Don't worry about not having everything planned out beforehand. No writer or creator plans everything beforehand, and the ones who say they do are filthy liars. Writers have at best 1-2 story beats they're determined to include, everything else is by the seat of their pants
-If anyone ever had the bright mind to tell you this, that person never likely had a job in professional writing before, so just don’t listen to this.
1. 35) If you're making a cartoon, hire writers. Don't just have your storyboarders write the story. That's not what they're there for. Artists draw, writers write, artists cannot just take over for the writers on a whim.
-The tip above may be commonly agreed to be the worst piece of writing advice from Lily, but as someone who has an animation career goal set in mind…this one hurt me the most. If you have the experience to back this claim, then I can take it for what I will. If you don’t, then just shut up.

Of course, there are some acceptable pieces of advice that should be acknowledged, so I’m going to be throwing Lily a bone:

Steel’s Top Ten Best Simple Writing Tips from Lily Orchard:

10. 46) "Mary Sue" is not a real criticism. It's thinly veiled misogyny. Always disregard it.
-Besides that it’s been used as a tool for misogynists, always disregard it because it’s not valid criticism by any means, regardless of your opinion on the term and how it’s used. It is an umbrella term for multiple actual character criticisms, and use of the word has more negative connotations than good anyway. I know I’m cheating with this one, but I do think this can read as writing advice in the vein that you shouldn’t have to worry about writing a “Mary Sue” and that if your character has personality, a good balance of strengths and weaknesses, and isn’t based on you, you’re not writing a bad character.
9. 32) Characters should always come before anything else.
-This is a strategy that I tend to stick to, which is why I agree with this one. It’s not universal for everyone and you don’t have to apply this strategy for your writing, but I can see it working for most people.
8. 30) Choose whether you're a comedy or drama at the start and stick to it. Don't make a comedy and turn it into a drama later on, that just annoys people.
-Speaking from my own writing experience, I can confirm that it’s best that the tone of your story stays consistent. If you want to shift the tone of your story, you can, though. The change just needs to feel fluid to work.
7. 79) "Feature Creep" is a problem in storytelling as well. You don't have to cram every single idea, reference and homage you can think of into a story. You can save ideas for another time.
-Disregarding that the topic of ‘Feature creep’ should be exclusive to the video games conversation, it is important to note that you shouldn’t try to cram so much material into your own story. When you’re a creative writer, it can be a habit to form ideas that aren’t pre-attached to a story concept. Just save those ideas until you come up with a concept where that idea could work.
6. 14) Making a "metaphor" for gay/trans/ace rep is always inherently inferior to just making a gay/trans/ace character.
-If there’s one thing that I can trust Lily with, it’s providing writing advice on characters from a group that I know she does represent. When you’re writing for a children’s cartoon though, it is understandable having to over-simplify the LGBTQ+ implications by using metaphors. However, when you have the freedom to write these characters, metaphors are never really necessary.
5. 92) If you want to know when to change a trans character's pronouns in the narration, doing so at the moment where they realize who they are and admit it to themselves out loud is *chef's kiss*
-The best kind of writing advice are the ones that you feel most passionate about sharing, and it was rare to see Lily giving off this attitude with this piece. Once again, I’m using my own prior writing experience to reaffirm that this is good writing advice.
4. 76) People of color and LGBTA people are allowed to just exist. Don't feel like you HAVE to cover bigotry just because they're in the story. In fact, people will be happier if you don't because having these characters defined by suffering is itself a tired trope.
-I should point out that bigotry can be covered as long as the topic isn’t the bulk of your character’s development. Otherwise, yes, it’s a good idea to let people from diverse backgrounds exist in the world you’re creating without having to cover serious subject matter, as it’s already an easy way for yourself be viewed as an ally for any respective group, as long as the representation is positive.
3. 28) Don't try and "do what Avatar did." You can't. Even the people who made Avatar can't make another show do what Avatar did.
-In other words, don’t make the basis of your story trying to be just like another pre-existing work. Nothing is truly original, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t try to be an original, and what it means to be viewed as an original is to be able to start something than try to repeat the success of another existing work, otherwise people are going to attach your creation to the other no matter what.
2. 93) As long as it isn't harmful or bigoted, you don't have to justify story decisions made on the basis of self-indulgence.
I could’ve said it earlier that I strongly agreed with this point, but aside from my quip earlier relating to her hypocrisy for saying that we shouldn’t bother justifying sex scenes or sexualized armor if it’s out of self-indulgence, yes, as long as the reasons aren’t bigoted, harmful, or misinformed, you shouldn’t worry about making story decisions based on self-indulgence, and it’s amusing how out of character it was in a sense for Lily to utter this. Do whatever you want with your stories. As long as your decisions aren’t immoral, then you don’t have to worry about people criticizing you for making them.
1. 77) "I just want my readers/viewers to have fun" is an excellent attitude to have when it comes to storytelling.
-Indeed it is. A good way of telling if your story is good is if you’re having fun writing it and then envisioning the people you’d want to read and enjoy it.

 

Despite my feelings going into this thread, I don’t show a lot of animosity towards Lily Orchard here. She knew the repercussions of taking all of her jotted-down thoughts and passing them all off as writing tips by posting them on Twitter, and I can judge by the fact that after it caught the attention of most people, her deleting all said tweets was her way of taking the L. If I was her and I became the subject of ridicule for this, I would’ve done the same thing. I don’t think all these ramblings reflect all of Lily’s current opinions and I hope that she understands that folks have riffed this thread because it makes for interesting riffing material and that she has the sense of humor to appreciate how we’ve been evaluating these tips, and that it’s not done out of sheer malice. These past few years have been rough for the cartoon community, and while 2022 hasn’t been off to such a great start for me, I’m feeling confident that I can stick to one goal that I have in mind where I can put all of my thoughts to rest on this un-ending dumpster fire of an animation community…starting now. With all that said, I'll cap things off by giving credit to Gus and Henry from the Diregentlemen channel for reference. Just go and watch their video on those same tips if you want a better grasp on why they're good or bad, and I also have to give credit to a DeviantArt user named BriannaFreeman for providing the best in-text template for the Twitter thread that I could find.

Oh, and by the way, if Twitter is not a good place to share story ideas, it’s also not a very good place to share writing advice either.

[Hawk vs. the Hip-Hop World - Can you change my mind?]

I am also open-minded about getting into other music genres, I do admit that I can find it hard sometimes to get myself invested into a hip hop/rap album and when I enjoy a certain song from an album that I listen to, I try to keep a mental note of that for when I'm building my playlists. While I'm certain someone above me has already said this, one method I have in mind is that I'd look into instrumental hip hop acts like Flying Lotus and DJ Shadow to get something more out of the genre.  If you aim to put more effort into getting into rap and hip hop, some artists I recommend getting into if you haven't yet are Run the Jewels, Outkast, M.I.A., BROCKHAMPTON, Milo/R.A.P. Ferreira, Lupe Fiasco, and The Roots if you're looking for music that can be both fun and introspective while I recommend albums like Cosmogramma, To Pimp a Butterfly, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (or The College Dropout if I'm going with something besides an easy choice), The Score, Things Fall Apart, Purple Moonlight Pages, ATLiens (or like Aya suggested, Aquemini), We Got it From Here...(besides beng a tribute to one of the deceased members of A Tribe Called Quest, it's diverse with sounds and guest artists as well), and basically any Run the Jewels album. There's also Gorillaz to consider, even though their music is genreless. Their debut album has quite a lot of hip hop influences, so I'd get into that too if you haven't. There's more that I could name, but of course, when it comes to getting into hip hop, I still consider myself a beginner.

[Off-Topic!]

Peachy.