At Full Bloom 2024, sirmeris brought an absolute stunner of a major performance with an excellent 4th place in singles, fueled in part by a dominating 3-1 set over a mang0 back on the grind again. This set was notable for a couple reasons – not least of which is that mang0 beat sirmeris 3-1 earlier in the bracket to send him to losers – but most prominently for a decision made in game 2 of their set. See, mang0 took game 1 on Battlefield in a last stock, last hit situation, which means that sirmeris went into the next game with the ability to pick the stage, and to pick character after mang0 did. Since the set was best-of-5, mang0 wasn't allowed to ban a stage, and as such sirmeris instinctively picked Final Destination. Mang0 upon hearing this, just as quickly switches away from his trusted Fox that took game one. See, FD favors Peach against spacies because she can chaingrab them extremely easily and for a very long time, meaning that, moreso than the vast majority of situations in Melee, one neutral opening often meant death for the spacie player. In fact, mang0's spacies are, across all sets analyzed by the pgstats.com database, 3-15 against Peach on FD. This results in a lifetime winrate of 17%. This is a game where people bitch about 6-4 matchups, and mang0 was staring down the barrel of a matchup south of 8-2, so he switched to a character that didn't get chaingrabbed, because getting chaingrabbed sucks. In fact, while this does not account for stage, a community matchup spread from 2022 puts the Doc-Peach matchup at 4.5-5.5 in Peach's favor. According to the PGStats page for Phorox, a solid upper-mid echelon Doc player, he's got a 20-17 historic record over Peach on FD. While this obviously isn't super solid information, it does say that, at the very least, this matchup probably sucks significantly less than Fox-Peach in the same situation. But when push comes to shove, mang0 didn't have all these fancy stats in his head, he didn't have PGStats on his phone, he didn't get coached by someone, he just knew that spacies didn't have a good time against Peach on FD, and he didn't want to have a bad time. Did it work? Nah, but it might work next time, and it doesn't change that, at least in my opinion, mang0 was right.

So, the Hall of Myths, right? For those who don't know, the Hall of Myths is an esteemed group of songs, and the highest honor a vocaloid song can achieve on Japanese video streaming site Niconico. It's awarded to the select few songs which achieve ten million views on the site, and only hosts, as of the publishing of this article, seven songs. Each of these songs is made by a different producer, and symbolizes something important within the vocaloid community, whether it be a mark of a shift, or the song that started a creator's career, these songs are cornerstones of the vocaloid we know today, so let's take some time to celebrate them, in the order they entered the pantheon.

Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru♪ (Shite Yan yo) feat. Hatsune Miku – ika

There's a lot that can be said about Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru, but let's start with the basics: this was the first vocaloid song to explode. The first one to make it big. It was the earliest published song to make the HoM (published 9-20-2007), and the one that entered the Hall of Myth both first, and the second fastest (entered the on 8-30-2012, 1806 days after publishing). Nowadays, this song is mostly a nostalgia trip for older fans, but for an '07 song, Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru holds up extremely well. It's not a deep and metaphorical song like some of the later entries, but it's good at what it does, and what it does is introduce people to vocaloid. This is honestly probably the first song with good tuning, and what it means for the community will last until its very end.

Melt feat. Hatsune Miku – ryo

I want to talk about Melt, but talking about Melt requires talking about ryo. I do not have enough time in the span of a single article to talk about ryo. I'll leave you with this until I talk about ryo: Melt came out 3 months after Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru. Your favorite producer would not be in vocaloid if not for this song. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Senbonzakura feat. Hatsune Miku – Kurousa-p

Senbonzakura feels almost like an outlier. It entered the HoM faster than Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru at an astonishing 1608 days, and almost entirely on the back of it just being a hard banger. Like this shit just goes y'all. I can wax poetic about some of the later and earlier songs for eons but there's no really deep lyrical or instrumental analysis I can work with here. It takes traditional Japanese instrumentals, modern production techniques, and lyrical themes evoking the Meiji restoration of Japan. It wears its hearts on its sleeves, and sounds phenomenal while doing so. It almost makes me sad that Kurousa-p could never really bottle the lightning of Senbonzakura into songs like Cantarella and ACUTE, but they're so stylistically different from Senbonzakura that it'd almost be shocking to find out they're from the same producer. In all honesty Senbonzakura is a banger with a message that beats you over the head, and it's not trying to hide behind metaphor. It knows what it is, it relishes in that fact, and it worked out real damn well for Kurousa-p.

Matryoshka feat. Hatsune Miku and GUMI – Hachi

Where do we even start with Matryoshka? Probably the fact that this is the first HoM song to feature a vocaloid other than Miku. In the modern day, GUMI is probably the most popular non-CFM vocaloid (Crypton Future Media is the company that owns Miku, the Kagamines, Luka, MEIKO, and KAITO), but I'd be lying if I said it was always easy for her. However, Hachi managed to use her voice phenomenally in his absurdist masterpiece Matryoshka. One thing strange about this song is that it's not really... about anything. It's lyrics are incredibly inconsistent, using nonsense words and incoherent lines as often as it can. It's also the first real rock song on the list. Most of the songs before this have been very Jpop inspired, as expected of someone more marketed as a pop diva. However, later producers like Hachi found incredible strength in using vocaloids like Miku and especially GUMI in more rock and even metal songs. Hachi was already an established name in the scene at this point, with songs like WORLD'S END UMBRELLA and Hold, Release; Rakshasa and Carcasses under his belt, but this song began a streak of four songs that would massively impact the community each time one dropped.

Meltdown feat. Kagamine Rin – iroha(sasaki)

2018 was a strange year for the Hall of Myths. Not only did it feature two songs entering the Hall of Myths, but both of them entered in a span of two months, and, perhaps most significantly, neither of them had Miku in any capacity. The first one to enter this year was Meltdown, and what a fucking tour de force. It's this futuristic-y song that almost reminds me of some of my favorite 3d Sonic the Hedgehog music. It's an absolute banger, and the first song in the HoM to just be overwhelmingly depressing in its lyrics. It also seems to have begun this trend of Rin being a vocalist for more heavy and intense songs. Predating songs like Tengaku and Tokyo Teddy Bear by almost a year. A song about flinging oneself into a nuclear reactor, but, removing the meaning of the lyrics, feels like a song you'd see someone dancing to in the dark, a feeling the Project Diva Arcade PV captures incredibly well

Mozaik Role feat. GUMI – Deco*27

Mozaik Role is another strange song, barring the lack of Miku and it's appearance on the list Christmas day 2018, just under 2 months after Meltdown's 11-1 arrival. In my opinion, Mozaik Role is strange because it's aged the least well of any of these songs, but in a paradoxically good way. Deco*27 is an interesting producer, as he's always either on the cutting edge, or he's making the cutting edge. As such, Deco songs occasionally fall victim to not aging as well as one would hope, but that just means that people have taken his recipe, and altered it. And with a staggering frequency, the person to do that is Deco himself. Mozaik Role is another one of those aforementioned Sad As Shit Songs, this time about a girl killing herself due to her love hating her. I just personally that rock and metal songs about these topics have improved heavily since then. Songs like Tokyo Teddy Bear by neru, Rolling Girl by wowaka, and Ghost Rule by, you guessed it, Deco himself, have all managed this topic in ways that hold up to the test of time much better. I see every single reason as to why Mozaik Rule is as popular as it is, but I feel it's been done better nowadays. However, we have Mozaik Rule to thank for that, so to call it anything other than a myth among the community would be massively understating its influence.

World's End Dancehall feat. Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka – wowaka

Fuck man. FUck. FUCK. God damn it. Shit. God fucking damn it. Hell. FUcking shit aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Fucking wowaka, man. Holy shit. Wowaka is another producer where their my entire analysis of all their works ties into his Hall of Myth entry, and I'd love to talk about it in further detail, but I just don't have the words to write a short overview about it as I have with the other songs. I can't even give a hyper tl;dr like I did for ryo. Shit man. Fuck.

Conclusion

Since 2015, there's been at least one song to enter the Hall of Myths every year. So far, it looks like the next entry is likely to either be cosmo@busou-p's “The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku” or Kemu's “A Six Trillion Year And One Night Story”. Each of these songs have their own importance to them, and I'd love to talk about them one day, but, for now, I have more pressing topics at hand.

The Lanque Article. Part 1. The Safe For Work Route.

Lanque Bombyx. The most controversial character to come out of Hiveswap Friendsim and this includes the artist who paints in the blood of her victims, Zebruh, Zebede, and a clown whose armpits you can sniff and go into a trance from. Lets get the basics down first

Lanque is a trans male jadeblood, he is a prospit dreamer and is lifebound, the only life aspect character in friendsim. Let's talk about one of the most important things in his character. Let's talk about gender and jadebloods

Gender and Jadebloods

Jadebloods are all AFAB, that we know of. For all we know one of them could be trans and just doesn't say it iunno but anyway. Let's assume for now that they're all AFAB, as this makes the most sense and is the easiest to talk about. This makes Lanque the ONLY male jade troll EVER. Next there's something important about jadebloods: they're forced into a life of abstinence, and are disallowed from romantic relationships. This puts Lanque in a Tough spot personally. He's a character based in rebellion, as all the jades are. However, he actually tried his best to listen to what his guardians forced on him due to being the eldest. He was made to set the standards for trolls like Wanshi and Daraya, meanwhile Bronya and Lynera are going out, having relationships, leaving the caverns to which they are bound. He's fucking livid and he lets this out in both of his major routes. Today, we'll be going deep on his first one. His safe for work one.*

(* IF YOU CALL IT THE VALID AND INVALID ROUTES I WILL BREAK INTO YOUR HOUSE AND BREAK YOUR GOD DAMN FINGERS)

THE ROUTE

The route diverges when you can either go to a big crazy party with drugs and sex and all sorts of fun things like that, or a poetry circle.

This is a great time to talk about one of the first major criticisms of Lanque, and why it's bullshit and wrong

CRITICISM OF LANQUE 1: HE'S A BAD REPRESENTATION OF THE SOFT TRANSMASC ARCHETYPE

WHAT? NO. HE'S A POET AND HE WEARS A FLOWER CROWN BUT HE'S NOT FUCKING SOFT? HE FUCKING LAYS INTO LYNERA FOR BEING A PIECE OF SHIT. HE'S NOT SOFT. HE'S PISSED AND AN EMOTIONAL VAMPIRE. HE FITS INTO THE VIBE OF THE ROOM AND TWISTS IT.

Okay now that my explosion is over with. This is one of his “good” endings. This is something I've always hated in games and will get back to later. For now, let's talk about Lanque in this route.

Lanque is a pretty heavy criticism of common transmasc stereotypes in this route. He wears the flower crown but it seems more spiteful than genuine. This is likely due to anonymous writer V being a big fan of fucking with people like this. They also wrote the route for Marvus and you can see this is something they're quite fond of. Lanque in this route is a fun way to look at what he feels about his fellow jades. He feels angry. He's spiteful. He's pissed off at the fact HE CHOOSE to behave and was called out by hypocrites for breaking the rules that his guardians chose not to follow. He's a big personality, he's an emotional vampire, he's impulsive, and he is Fucking Irate. Anyone with restrictive hypocritical parents can relate to this. Anyone who has had to sit in front of their parents chastise them for the things they themselves just did can relate to this. This route shows WHY He feels this way. The NSFW route, the party route, the route where you can have sex with a character over the equivalent of 19 (he's not a minor. He's facing immediate threat of being sent off planet. He's old enough so that he can fuck.) is the fun one. This is the one where he see HOW he lashes out and gets these frustrations out. And maybe, in the meantime, we'll learn a bit about teenagers, angst, suppression, and the message sex can have in a narrative.

Following YCS Chicago and the HUGE SURPRISES THAT TOOK PLACE (NO ALTERGEISTS IN TOP, LUNALIGHTS WINNING) I think it's the Perfect time to return to a discussion that was massively popular when the January F&L list first hit: Do Sky Strikers and Altergeists need to be hit on the list?

No

But I still feel like there's a massive gaping hole where certain hits should have been. This engine has powered multiple FTKs, drove Fairy Tail – Snow to be banned, and played an integral part in the victory of Lunalights at this YCS. That's right, I'm talking about Danger!s. Now before then let's talk about why it's okay that Sky Strikers and Altergeists got off scot-free.

The answer is simple. They're strong, but healthy and not overwhelmingly strong. While sky strikers had their dominance hitting Hornet Drones took them down enough of a peg to bring them into fairness. Altergeists in and of themselves aren't an overwhelming powerhouse and more thrived as anti-meta decks. While multifaker impermanence is still an incredible strong “stop playing” move it's not game breakingly so.

Now, about the Danger!s. Dangers are played in decks as copies of Upstart. People will play ten-twelve danger monsters just to have access to incredible deck thinning, but is this healthy for the game? While it does give lower tier decks more access to their one key engine card, I honestly have to say no. Dangers, while may be mostly docile for now, have already reared their ugly head in DDW FTK and the theorized DTD builds that'd get massive +s off Fairy Tail – Snow, allowing you to Book of Moon your opponents entire board at little cost to you. While they may be okay for now, what they could do in future is a terrifying thought, and as such I feel as though Dangers need to be hit sooner, rather than later. With the Dangers in the game, Konami has to design decks around them being a splashable engine, much like 3 drones skystriker. This heavily inhibits the way Konami can move the game forward as one small oversight can lead to a destructive powerhouse of mixed engines like Trickstar Sky Striker or HAT. All we can hope for is that future sets don't blow the game open due to this one archetype.

Quirks are easily one of the hardest, yet most fun things about creating a fantroll if that's what you like to do. Some people it comes naturally but for many others it takes a significant amount of time to create something they are truly happy with. Hopefully these simple steps will help you when making your next troll's new quirk.

Step 1: Be readable

For the love of all that is good and holy in this world please make your fantroll's quirk very easily readable. A quirk shouldn't require a guide in order to read and should be accessible to anyone who is reading your quirk for the first time.

Step 2: Reflect your character

This is probably the easiest and most understandable step but never forget it. Quirks in most troll lore are seen as a way for people to distinguish themselves from one another and this should always hold true. Think of characters like Vriska, who's love of spiders and the number 8 drives her character, or Folkyl, who's voidrot has affected her speech patterns, or Kuprum, who is just a 4chan joke.

Step 3: KISS

Keep It Simple, Stupid

May be patronizing, but it's also a vital rule to follow for something like this that MAJORLY helps in the other areas.

Step 4: Be unique

This goes back to quirks being a feature of differentiation in troll culture. If you keep your troll's quirk unique, you'll be able to fulfill that part of the lore.

Step 5: Break any one of these rules

Any of em. Smash it to pieces. The key to all great things is that it looks at what it SHOULD do and doesn't follow them. Now while you shouldn't go out making an illegible quirk that's an amalgam of other character's quirk, none of whom are similar to yours, it does mean that you shouldn't feel obligated to follow all of these rules to a T. I ordered these steps in order from most to least important. Legibility should always be Point Number One as you need to keep in mind any dyslexic people who might be reading your quirk. Character reflection is also incredibly important but in ways you might think you're breaking this rule, you can follow it. KISS is always a good acronym to have on hand because it's very easy to go overboard, but don't be afraid to dip your toes into the water. And not being “unique” can be unique in and of itself. This isn't some be-all-end-all guide, it's got some play in it and use it as you see fit.

Political Youtuber Contrapoints, also known by her real name of “Natalie Wynn,” is a face of left leaning Youtube, especially for transgender people. She's published a multitude of videos about gender, transitioning, Alt-Right organizations and groups, the full spectrum you'd expect from a left leaning political youtuber. However, Natalie also has an active Twitter account (@contrapoints) where she lets her thoughts be known and such. This is where she recently unveiled a few of her own opinions: Natalie holds transphobic and truscum beliefs, often held towards trans men and non-binary people.

Her most recent incident was after she replied to a tweet from user @theorygurl, who claims “OF COURSE trans women experience male privilege before transition are you out of your entire mind.” To many people, this statement almost makes sense, yet it leaves out a few key details. For instance, most of this privilege isn't used by trans women because they have to live in fear of being outed. They also may face marginalization because they're not seen as conventionally attractive, or they might be people of color. Said user went on to claim “this is important bc i would bet good money that not only are there plenty of trans women who experienced male privilege before transition, but also many of them, esp those exposed to feminism, transitioned as a way to atone for that privilege.” This is blatantly transphobic. Trans women don't transition to “atone for that privilege,” they transition because they are women, yet are viewed and born as men. They don't atone because they're exposed to feminism, they transition because feminist ideologies provided them a way to learn about transitioning, and told them about being transgender. This is similar to an argument used by many transphobes where they say media or trans people entering the mainstream “turns people trans,” when in actuality, these people are just introduced to a way to say who they are. She then goes on to agree with a statement where @theorygurl says “a broken clock is right twice a day” in relation to transphobes. While this can be true, it isn't with transphobes. It's hard for a digital clock to be right once a day when it reads “88:88”.

And yet, this isn't the worst of her statements she has made. Natalie made a video titled “Aesthetic”, which came under fire due to making some pretty suspicious statements that came across as very truscum-esque. For the uninitiated, truscum are a group of people who believe that, in order to be trans, one must have dysphoria. This is horribly incorrect, as gender and physical form have no correlation (one is identity, the other is presentation), and there are still feminine trans men and masculine trans women who are mostly fine with their appearance, and don't suffer with much dysphoria. This also usually coincides with enbyphobia, where “you can't just say you don't feel like a man OR a woman, you can't have dysphoria” or similar such statements, which I can personally attest to being wholly incorrect.

To bring things back on topic, Natalie posted a twitter thread in response to the Aesthetic video, a thread which is now deleted. One of the statements in that thread was “I'm sure this is not the experience of many NBs. I leave it to them to articulate what NB existence looks like in a binary world. I do not and cannot speak for them. But surely an account that begins and ends with “I'm not a man because I don't identify as one” is pretty weak.” This is textbook truscummery. This is the exact argument they use to decry non-dysphoric trans people. This is an exact argument they use to shut down non-binary people. She makes it painfully evident that she does not like non-binary people, and that she stands for having to qualify oneself as being “trans enough.”

Do not stand for Contrapoints. She is making a statement, and that statement stands in the face of accepting so many people who looked to her as a source of information and validation. She was in prime position to be what the left political Youtube scene needed, yet she threw it away in favor of being a toxic person in favor of erasing those she once said she was and stood for. It's a complete disappointment to me and so many of my friends who once stood by her as fans because of her content.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XHM9c9r12NcZ96cUPsTI3h1dOn-fgKq0/view?usp=sharing

I would post her more recent tweets but she blocked me after calling her a transphobe and truscum /shrug.