LuckyKoneko

I've always had a thing for fantasy. I don't know where it came from - maybe from too many Disney movies, maybe from my overactive imagination, maybe a combination of those and other factors - but I don't think I've ever enjoyed non-fantasy fiction as much as I've enjoyed fantasy. Of course, there are... I wouldn't say they're "bad", because they're not necessarily bad, but "less enjoyable" books, games, movies, etcetera. That's how it is for every genre. There are also some that I can no longer enjoy even though I used to love them, for various reasons that are mostly related to me growing up and changing my mind on things.

One game that I've always loved, however, is The World Ends With You.

(as always when I recommend something that's not entirely kid friendly; check doesthedogdie and TVtropes in advance. TWEWY is rated T and pushes its rating a bit. warning for the base info below: mention of major character death)

TWEWY is sort of an urban fantasy that takes place in a version of the real-world location Shibuya (though the in-game locations are sometimes different from their real-life counterparts). It's about an antisocial loner, Neku, who dies and ends up in a sort of limbo called the Reapers' Game. During the Game, Neku makes friends and learns some important things about himself and the world around him.

The game was released in 2007 (in Japan; internationally it was released in 2008) on the DS and was rereleased on the Switch in 2018 as The World Ends With You: Final Remix. It definitely shows its age sometimes, but it's still a very enjoyable game. The humor is a bit immature (and very fun to take out of context), but the game also addresses some very serious themes, including character death, regrets, loneliness, and conformity, and it handles these themes really well. It's very good at balancing the silly against the serious and never tries to be funny when it would be out of place. The few times it does do something silly during a serious part are at times when the entire game is very tense and serious and a little humor helps break the tension a bit. My personal favorite breaking-the-tension joke is very late in the Game, when... Without giving spoilers, the theme of Conformity is being pushed heavily there. There is a scene where you'll run into a fairly large group of Reapers, all standing still and thinking, and you can talk to all of them. All the Reapers think the same way... Except one who apparently missed the memo and tries his best to fit in. He's not very good at it.

The reason I love this game so much is because it helped me through a very tough time in my life and taught me some things about myself. Back when I first played it, I found myself agreeing with Neku's attitude towards the world around him, until a certain moment where the game explicitly pointed out that Neku was very much in the wrong and another character, Shiki, yelled at him for being an ass. That scene served as a wake-up call for both Neku and me, and got me to reevaluate how I thought about other people.

The game very much pushes the idea of being open-minded, being yourself, and accepting other people's opinions. It taught me to try to understand others, to respect other opinions even if I disagreed, and to be myself. This has helped me a lot in various places, most interestingly in accepting that media may not be as good as I hoped it would be. I always try to look on the bright side and find the positives while acknowledging and accepting the existence of the negatives in every series, every movie, every book and every game.

I did make a little side note, though, which is that I respect other people's opinions and beliefs as long as they respect mine and are capable of civil debate about our differences. If people can't show respect for me, I don't need to show respect for them. But, honestly, that's very much in line with Neku's rebellious streak and the game's theme of noncomformity, so I feel like I'm still very much in line with what the game teaches XD

One question I get when I talk about this game is, "What does the title mean?". And it is a very odd title, I will admit that. The Japanese title, Subarashiki kono Sekai (It's a Wonderful World), is a little more direct than The World Ends With You, but is still a little... vague.

My answer is... Well, the game roughly explains it as "You define your own world, but if you open your borders to others, you can expand them further", and I always interpret it as "This world is what you make it for yourself". Keep an open mind, enjoy the world, enjoy life, and life will be truly wonderful. That, I believe, is the most essential message this game has taught me.

For those of you who are interested in picking it up, I highly recommend getting the Switch version, since it has some extra content that wasn't in the original. I personally own both the DS and the Switch versions, the DS version is very nostalgic for me but when I saw that it was getting a Switch version I just knew I had to pick it up for the extra content. It's such a good game and I recommend everyone to play it or at least watch a Let's Play. And if you do play it or watch people play it, let me know what you think!

(also quick signal boost; TWEWY is getting an anime soon!! https://subarashiki-anime.jp/ check out the official website for a little more info on the story)

This is about certain artists. Specifically... Popular artists. Artists that many people admire for their skill and their dedication. Artists that many others look up to.

Artists that we sometimes forget are human, just as flawed as any other human.

Sometimes, one of these artists makes a horrible mistake. Sometimes it's a buildup of mistakes, little mishaps that the community forgives until there are too many, or until one certain event acts as a tipping point. Sometimes it's a singular event, a comment during a conversation, something they say that they should not have said.

Usually, the mistake we as a community focus on is the artist revealing that they are racist or LGBTQ+phobic. An artist can very quickly go from loved to hated if it turns out they are racist or LGBTQ+phobic. This is especially true if said artist is religious, especially if they are Christian (for some reason it's always Christians, do we never hear about the other ones or are there none? I'm confused. anyway).

Now, I understand the need to warn others about artists like that, and I highly approve of thoroughly researched journals or videos about these topics, as those can be very informative and allow people to form their own judgment. Public callouts are far less useful, however, as those do not give others the opportunity to read all the facts and decide for themselves.

Similarly, I see no problem with refusing to support an artist who is LGBTQ+phobic or for any other reason rejected from the community. I myself actively avoid, for example, buying anything JKR related since she revealed that she is transphobic, and will continue doing so until she posts a public apology. I have unfollowed acephobic artists and racist artists and artists who consider themselves above their fans. I fully understand that mindset.

HOWEVER.

The anonimity that the internet provides has apparently given some people the idea that it is okay to leave hateful comments on these artists' profiles.

THIS IS NOT OKAY.

These artists are still human.

They may be horribly LGBTQ+phobic, or racist, or elitist, or whatever other reason you have to hate them. They may use their religion or their past or something else as an excuse for their shitty attitude.

I do not approve of any of those things.

But they are still human.

These artists do not deserve to be harassed. Save the hateful comments for those assholes who steal art for their own profit.

Harassing artists will never get them to change their attitude. It will never allow them to learn from their mistakes. It will never allow them to improve as people. Why? Because harassment is not productive. It does not teach them anything. It only tells them that they are not wanted, even if they do try to better themselves. So what will be the end result? Most likely, an artist who was chased out of the community with no chance to return, who may give up on art, who may even do something horrifyingly stupid to themselves. Not an artist who will leave, learn to be better, and return as a better person.

In the end, their exclusion from the community will cause them to suffer the most. I believe that to be a more fitting punishment than any other. Either they learn, or they never return, and I hope they will have the opportunity to choose the first option, and we as a community will allow them to return eventually.

So, please, let us as a community stand up against harassment. Let us allow others the opportunity to better themselves. Let us strive to be the better person.

This was written in response to several events involving artists that turned out to be horrible people that have happened over the past year or two. I will not name any of these artists, as I believe they have suffered more than enough already.

Let us strive to be the better person.

I've seen people say they want to leave DA when Eclipse becomes mandatory, which I think is a shame because I'm going to miss all of them. I've also seen people who don't know if they want to leave because they don't have anywhere else to go. I personally won't leave, but I am keeping an eye on alternatives. I've talked about ArtSpacious a few times before, I'm super enthousiastic about them and like where they're going with their ideas, and apart from keeping an eye on their DA page, I've also been keeping an eye on their discord server.

Discord server? Yeap, discord server. For those of you who are considering leaving DA but want to keep an eye on ArtSpacious, you might want to consider joining their discord server. It's a pretty chill server, I mostly just keep an eye on announcements and the question of the day, but it also has chat channels and channels for posting art and basically all the basics you'd expect in an art server.

If you want to give it a try, go check it out! You can always mute the server if you don't want to talk to people, that's what I do too. Here's a link: https://discord.gg/XenccSw

Again, I'm not going to leave DA, but I know some people might, so I'm just leaving this here.

That's it for now, Lucky out, see y'all later!

So. I know a lot of people don't like Eclipse, to the point of wanting to leave DA when Classic DA gets discontinued. I understand that. I don't really love Eclipse either, though it has grown on me since I started using it a few days ago. Green Theme is a blessing tbh.

I've been looking for an alternative website where I can post my art in addition to posting on here, but so far I found nothing that really interested me. Archive Of Our Own seemed like a logical place to go, but unfortunately AO3 is more for written works and can't host visual works. It's possible to post visual works on AO3, but they have to be hosted elsewhere.

Turns out there is an alternative in the works, though! ArtSpacious have been working on a DA alternative and I'm pretty optimistic about them, they seem to have their stuff figured out and I'm interested to see where they'll be going. They opened a discord server, too, so if you're interested, go check them out:

I also want to point out that there is a way to vote on frequently requested features for Eclipse: https://www.deviantartsupport.com/en/feature-requests-1456493/collecting-votes?type=feature-request

As a final note:

I will still be joining the #TheSoundOfSilenceMovement which means that I will still be offline on May 1st, 2nd and 3rd. As much as I've grown to like Eclipse, I still think it has too many flaws that need ironing out (load times is a big one that comes to mind, along with display issues that I luckily haven't had yet but a lot of people complain about), which is why I think it's not yet ready to replace Classic DA. If you agree that Eclipse is not yet ready, consider joining the movement and post and talk about it in the last few days of April, using the tag. That is what Staff will see, after all.

That's all for now, Lucky out, talk to you later!

So. Let's talk about Eclipse.

I don't dislike it. Let me make that clear immediately. I'm currently on Eclipse green theme and I'm getting used to it. It's not bad, and I actually kinda like my new profile page.

HOWEVER.

It has some glaring issues, most notably being difficult to navigate and taking longer than classic DA to load on my laptop. Also, it's incredibly frustrating that it doesn't have the option to 'remove this post from notifs and move to next post' while looking at a post, and it doesn't automatically redirect back to the notifs center after removing all posts by one specific poster.

These issues make the site more frustrating for me to use.

Because of this, I will be participating in the #TheSoundOfSilenceMovement

From May 1st to May 3rd, I won't be logging in. I won't be posting, I won't be commenting, nothing.

I'm not leaving DA, I'm not deactivating, I just won't be here for a few days.

If you want to tell DA Staff that you don't like Eclipse, consider participating in the movement and talk about it. Use the tag in every post you mention it in. The more the tag is used, the more Staff will see it and the more they will have to pay attention to it. Let your voices be heard, but don't do anything stupid. Peaceful protest is the way to go.

That's all for now. Lucky out, talk to y'all later.