mimdecisive

[mimdecisive]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

#reference

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without me and my sanity it seems the Castaspella tag has been over taken by C*staweaver, because apparently nothing is hotter than dating your teacher who is 30+ years older than you, met you when you were a toddler, and groomed and traumatized your older brother and seemingly only family member.

#castaspella #more proof to me that these people only ship things to get their rocks off #there’s no genuine appreciation there for the characters or their relationships or their arcs #because if they did they’d be shipping something that would actually make sense to happen #i don’t care about spop anymore but the Castaspella tag is still my turf

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idek if she can do that in canon but imma pretend she can bc it looks cool

#Queue #castaspella

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my most popular spop edit (castaspella, love me or hate me - Kelsey karter) on tiktok has randomly got the sound muted, two years after I posted it. ig now I have to decide if I care about it enough to repost it somewhere.

#spop #she ra #castaspella #I don’t even really care about she-ra anymore so idk

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does anyone else find it kinda weird that SPOP just casually dropped in the fact that there’s a Prince who can see ANYWHERE in the world magically, aka the perfect spy, and Glimmer just… didn’t think of recruiting him?

Why wasn’t Peekablue already part of the Rebellion??? What is he using his powers for that’s soooo important? He could literally see all of the Horde’s plans and warn the Rebellion and give them a HUGE leg up on them, and he wasn’t even mentioned until S5.

I know he was a hermit almost never seen but are you telling me Glimmer wouldn’t even TRY to find him and convince him to join?That’s a mystery in itself; where IS Peekablue, and why does no one care? Is he literally missing? Because if he’s literally missing, maybe someone should help him.

#Spop #she ra #spop critical #peekablue was a plot device and nothing more— but a poorly conceived one #a glaringly obvious last-minute addition/excuse for them to add filler #and I’m //assuming// peekablue probably came up in the writers room sometime before S5 so they had time to work that in #I think they didn’t want to give the Rebellion such a big advantage but they were extremely lazy in their justification #For why they didn’t have Peekablue— ‘he’s a hermit he’s missing’ so fucking find him?? #shouldn’t you be at least a little concerned if a magical prince vanishes? #at best he’s MIA at worst the Horde has him and is using him to spy on you. Which if that was a possibility— why not bring that up in S4? #that’s me giving them the benefit of the doubt. peekablue might not have come up in the writers room at all before the 5th season. 🤷🏻‍♀️ #I mean Magicats didn’t and Catra was the main antagonist/love interest. #I think the SPOP writers— or maybe just ND— are just not very good at their jobs

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don’t know why I randomly decided to revisit the rebellion-finds-Adora-first AU but it’s not terrible drawing practice

#Spop #she ra #adora #catradora #fan art #fanart #Do I have a queue tag?? #I don’t think I do #Momgella #(implied anyway)

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Don’t you think your attitude about insulting people for shipping fictional characters is a little embarrassing?

Huh? what is this about???

but, y’know, regardless. Don’t you think sending people seemingly out-of-the-blue and lightly insulting anonymous asks is a little embarrassing?

I’m not particularly offended, but I do get the feeling that’s what you were going for.

#Asks #i seldom use Tumblr anymore so I’m pretty sure I haven’t insulted anyone in a minute #You might be late to the party hun #Like… maybe a year late? #Depending on what the hell this is about #If you’re talking about my valid critiques on s3amista and glimb0w then no. it’s valid writing criticism #If you’re talking about my anti-proshipper/anti-toxic ships mentality— then also no.

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#<3

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#ANKSJNKNSNJKS KN #yes. #finally some good fucking food #and by food I mean casta content #not to vague anyone but notice how easy it is to not be misogynistic when writing casta? #like she’s a grown adult woman and the ruler of a kingdom. she’s not gonna crumble under every insult #i say ‘not to vague’ and then I vague #but seriously! it’s really refreshing the rare occasion someone doesn’t write Casta in a misogynistic way

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strongly disagreed, it’s done just as badly. it’s a toxic het relationship at its core and neither of the characters have anything other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it same-sex attraction moment.

(Sea Hawk’s “bisexuality” only being confirmed in canon by the presence of an ex-friend who isn’t referred to as anything other than a ex-friend, who is supposedly his ex boyfriend. This ex-boyfriend of Sea Hawk? His name is Falcon, the same name as Sea Hawk’s dad in the original 1985 series.

Yeah. Peculiar way to reboot the character, and not exactly stellar bi rep.)

in my personal opinion, we really aren’t in the position as a society to applaud bi representation that isn’t a same-sex couple— it’s not making a statement if it’s so incredibly, incredibly easy to overlook or censor.

Korrasami couldn’t do more than hold hands because they’re girls. Ruby from Steven Universe was made male in other language dubs.

that’s why Luz Noceda is good bi representation, because they show her attracted to men and she ends up with a girl, which very likely influenced the cancellation of the show.

if you’re not making a statement with the representation, is it really representation? Kids, the target demographic for She-Ra, aren’t going to pick up on Glimmer, Bow, Mermista or Sea Hawk supposedly being bi because it’s confirmed outside of the show and minusculely hinted at within canon.

It’s more or less just a fancy straight couple at that point. There’s nothing really differing them from any other straight couple or making them “progressive”.

No one is going to be able to tell the difference without word of god. The most they’d pick up on is that Sea Hawk is flamboyant.

Can I salt about how shitty Glimbow is as bi rep? (Someone who’s bi)

absolutely!

#Its especially shitty rep because we also don’t have any mlm rep on the show that isn’t the standard ‘gay dads’ rep #And the gay parents trope is VERY OFTEN used so they don’t have to put in any real effort for rep

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remember that one post I made like a year ago?

double trouble’s drawings (and dialogue) is by my sister because she’s hilarious

#castaspellma au #micah #double trouble #Castaspella #lazy doodle bc I was looking at old art and thought of this #ft. Castaspella pretty much from memory

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I honestly don’t really know what to do with this blog anymore. It started out as a T/D/P blog, because that aired before She-Ra, and then balanced the two like most SPOP blogs did at the time. Then T/D/P threw any potential out the window and all that stuff came out, so it became just a She-Ra blog. A dedicated one, at that.

Marahope wasn’t very popular, but was one of the only things in SPOP I genuinely shipped. Then I fixated on DT, got more critical after S5 aired and then fixated on Castaspella. And then my passion for SPOP fizzled right out of existence.

Honestly I’m at a point where I don’t have anything to post bc I don’t care about SPOP, and I don’t really want to change blog topics? I mean everyone who follows this blog probably follows for SPOP, because somehow they still have enough energy left to dedicate to it. I mean I feel bad just abandoning it. Maybe partly because I do have OCD and I always have this urge to “tidy” my social media. (And like, delete blogs I don’t use— but I’m not going to delete this one.)

#I’ve never had like. any mutuals to just entertain the cycle of Tumblr blogs with #I think I was technically mutuals with sheblah in the sens I was following her and I think she followed me? #but back then I was honestly too shy to interact with anyone #at least outside of anonymous #but like I said before: if you don’t have anyone to bounce off of the creativity just kinda runs out

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honestly I think almost everyone has moved on from SPOP at this point in their life and tbh good for them.

#any blogs I followed are long abandoned #I’ve stuck around bc I’m autistic enough and also because I have seniority in this fandom #at the end of the day I think spop served it’s purpose but honestly I don’t think it really has a lot of rewatch value #there isn’t enough competent storytelling for it #there are some people who still cling to it like it’s some work of art #but really the only thing it did that was in anyway meaningful was have 2 girls kiss #like there is so many things they do inadequately plot wise. it’s just not done very well

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s*amista is so bad sometimes I forget it’s actually canon

#???? #semi-competent writers?? several of them?? #thought that’d be a good idea? #I’m sorry but I thought this show aired in 2018 not 2008 #think we should be past the ‘man and woman treat each other badly bc they love each other’ trope #I automatically don’t trust anyone who actually likes it… #that’s ur taste?? man baby who disrespects her boundaries and tsundere who physically harms him? #that is the straightest goddamn thing. #I feel like anyone who ships it automatically becomes 80% straighter #honestly sometimes I just feel bad for people with bad taste #u could be getting so much more out of life!! but instead you’re settling for uncooked oatmeal. #that’s tragic.

[mimdecisive]

Is it hard for people to leave cults IRL? Yes, of course. But you aren’t forgetting that the moment Adora experienced (1) thing contradicting what she was told, she couldn’t keep up with the lie, correct? It took barely anything for Adora to reconsider her entire life and upbringing.

Even before Thaymor was attacked, she was reconsidering her position— when Bow was nice to her, when he asked her if she’d ever actually met a Princess, when she saw Glimmer crying over destruction in the Whispering Woods of what was possibly a town/with broken stained glass murals of an adult and a child holding hands. Her first reaction was ‘The Horde didn’t do this’ because it conflicted so badly with her view on the Horde, and when Glimmer proved they did Adora seemed dumbfounded. Thaymor was the very last straw.

Because she could write it off as some twisted coincidence, everything else, but actively seeing for herself that the Horde was attacking a civilian town wasn’t something she could justify.

Even if Adora wasn’t She-Ra, she’d still be Adora. If Catra told her it was wrong, she wouldn’t react the same way (“duh”), she’d be confused. If Catra told her it was a civilian town, Adora would at the very least be looking for evidence that it wasn’t. If she couldn’t find something to justify the illusion, then the illusion would break, like it did in canon.

And, uh, Etherian monarchies being unfair?? That’s not really a point discussed in the series. The Horde tells them the Princesses are violent because they have powers, not that their politics are unjust and oppressive. I think that take is really reading into things. You can’t really apply politics to a show about sparkly princesses fighting a war with the power of friendship and lesbian love.

It is 100% not that deep, because I don’t believe for even a moment that any of the people involved in making it— Dreamworks, ND, any of the writers— ever intended it to be that deep.

Also, while Catra does have PTSD, it’s not really fair to say that’s why people like the AU. I’m not gonna diagnose characters because I’m not a physicist, but it’s not out of the ballpark for Adora to have PTSD as well. Specifically, I’d say C-PTSD. Here’s some symptoms— I’m going to highlight the ones Adora exhibits.

recurrent and intrusive thoughts or dreams

flashbacks

mental and physical reactions to reminders of the traumatic event

avoidance of people, places, things, or events that remind you of the trauma

memory loss

negative thoughts toward yourself or the world

self-blame

bad moods that stick around

detachment and disinterest

difficulty showing positive emotion

irritability (S2 Ep4 as an example)

recklessness

hypervigilance, or being on “high alert”

trouble concentrating

startling easily

trouble sleeping

a negative view of yourself

dissociation, or disconnecting from yourself and your emotions

emotions that feel “out of control”

relationship difficulties

loss of your belief system

difficulty recognizing reality

And on the topic of Catra and if she’d respond well to Angella/Castaspella— she would, just not at first. Catra wouldn’t respond well to anyone, especially anyone in charge, because she has severe trust issues. But, there’s a reason it was so easy for Shadow Weaver to manipulate Catra in S2, and it’s the same reason Catra kept bringing Shadow Weaver her meals. Catra still craves approval from her superiors, still craves recognition and still cares parental affection. Shadow Weaver gave her an ounce of parental affection and she lowered her guard.

In regards to a corruption arc— at least in my opinion, there has to be groundwork from the very start for that corruption otherwise there’s no point. Catra does has that groundwork, at least to an extent, although she starts out more strongly as a neutral force rather than good. Her narrative foil, however, Glimmer also has a small, unresolved corruption arc in S4.

After SW’s S2 betrayal, her guard most certainly went up 100% more given that SW nearly got her killed there (and decided to torture her upon returning to the Fright Zone) but S1 Catra did not experience that.

Catra didn’t have to crave friendship, and seems to actively avoid it. Scorpia, Entrapta, she spends most of the show pushing them away. She had Adora— she didn’t feel like she needed other friends. Once she got over her initial distrust, Catra would be very likely to gravitate towards the Nice Adults who give her parental affection— particularly, I think Castaspella would be the one she trusts first, because:

Castaspella is not a born Princess, she worked for her position.

Castaspella is a sorceress, like SW, but very, very different.

Castaspella doesn’t act like an authority figure when she’s around her niece. She cooks for them, makes sure they’re eating enough, knits heartfelt gifts for them and drops everything to give them a tour. Glimmer popped in entirely unannounced. Angella is extremely formal and doesn’t seem to know how to turn it off, but Castaspella does.

If the AU follows the same plot and SW taunts Catra into breaking Mystacor’s ‘1000 years worth of sacred writings’, I think Catra would be surprised (and relieved) at how easily Castaspella let her/Adora in canon off. Castaspella got upset, questioned Glimmer’s choice of destructive friends, but left to calm down, didn’t banish her and gave her a room to sleep in. Catra is used to consequences for minor actions.

Castaspella doesn’t care she’s She-Ra, like at all. Castaspella never bats an eye in canon when Glimmer tells her that Adora is She-Ra, doesn’t assume She-Ra is the answer to all their problems and doesn’t mention Adora being She-Ra at all after Adora saves Mystacor— Castaspella focuses on the fact that Adora is friends with Glimmer. When Adora breaks Mystacor, she doesn’t judge her as She-Ra. She judges her as Glimmer’s new destructive friend. When Adora saves Mystacor, Castaspella says Glimmer chose her friends well, as a means of apologizing for her earlier comment. Castaspella honestly seems to see Adora as a teenager first, hero second.

Despara and the groundwork of the 80s show isn’t a good example for a corrupt Adora arc. Despara is literally Adora being possessed to be evil (specifically by Prime), and Shadow Weaver had a spell forcing Adora to serve the Horde in the 80s cartoon, which was later broken by Adora herself.

Adora is and always has been written to be a fundamentally good person. She’s compassionate even when others are not, and she has an intensely strong moral compass. The lies the Horde told her only worked because she had no evidence against them, and the moment she did, she turned against them.

Adora is the protagonist because of her moral code, the one she developed by herself and the one she was raised to develop. Even as a child in the Horde, she thought some things were wrong (Catra hitting Lonnie, SW hurting Catra). Ultimately, Adora is the one who decided not just to leave the Horde, but to fight against it— even when Scorpia, Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio openly leave the Horde in S4, they don’t choose to fight against it.

Adora never actually saw active duty in the Horde, but still carries a sense of responsibility and guilt from ever being apart of it, and I don’t think it’s remotely true to her character and all iterations that have come before the 2018 version to write her as someone capable of becoming the version, because Adora could not destroy a civilian town, see unarmed families and children and a complete lack of soldiers defending said town, and be able to justify it to herself.

She is smart, and she has a big heart and a rigid moral compass, and if she thought for a moment she wasn’t doing the right thing she wouldn’t be able to shake it off.

A one of the things I just do not like in fandoms generally, specifically ATLA and SP0P (but that’s for another time), is role reversal AUs. I don’t get the point of it, because if you swap Zuko and Azula— it changes the entire course of the story in a very, very major way because Azula would never get banished under the same circumstances as Zuko unless you took literally everything that made her Azula and swapped it with Zuko.

And then it’s basically just a gender swap??? Or a slightly sassier Zuko?

If Azula was banished, she’d probably get out without a scar because she’s fast and has an insanely good control over fire temperatures, wouldn’t waste time hunting the Avatar, and wouldn’t have Iroh or anyone to lead her to the path of good.

Her journey would be one big Azula alone episode. Her path to good would depend solely on being treated kindly genuinely, and loved for who she is. She could play the long con and join the Gaang with the intention of bringing Aang in, until they choose her when it matters, when they don’t have to and she decides they’re worth treason. Or she could overthrow the entire Earth Kingdom to prove her worth.

Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh would still be in the Fire Nation, unless Zuko also got himself banished, which is pretty likely given his track record— and in which case, Ozai would give him the same task as Azula to pit them against each other.

#“’what you have to understand is catra is an abuse victim’’ yeah? so? so am I. she’s not special. #the thing I feel like you have to understand is that fiction— cartoons— are not supposed to represent reality. they’re supposed to mimic it. #it’s the basic groundwork for how things work in scenarios where the complexity of reality just can’t be applied. #the main point being: I’ve read a lot of fanfic and I’ve never seen a role swap I like. #catra and Adora are so fundamentally different. catra was not remotely ready in S1 to be a hero and she’s not selfless enough to be one. #I don’t think there’s any natural emotional progression that could lead her to accepting a role as Hero of Etheria. #catra doesn’t care the way Adora does and that’s not wrong but it is why she has the role she does. #there’s really nothing in it for her if she saves Etheria. esp if Adora stayed in the Horde. #she’d get recognition but for what? being she-ra? not her hard work? #proving Shadow Weaver wrong? wrong about what?? SW won’t think she’s useful. #hell if catra is she-ra then why wouldn’t SW have favoured her? #she could sense the power in Adora as a baby. #it just wouldn’t make any sense.

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i just feel like anyone writing castaspella should automatically have to go through me, the resident castaspella expert for 3 reasons.

1. because I am very specific and have spent hours writing analysis’ on castaspella

2. because when you’re writing something it’s actually really fun to have help writing. bouncing ideas off of someone else is great. part of the reason I got so tired of spop was because I ran out of ideas to fixate on and since I’ve always been in my own corner here (with marahope and the like) it ends up kinda fizzling out.

3. yummy yum yum, delicious content for me.

#spop #she ra #castaspella

[mimdecisive]

there’s something so neat to me about Castaspella bc if you don’t look too closely at her she’s just kinda there. but if you sit down and think about it, she’s an ex-alliance member who fought in the war and watched as they lost more and more battles, who lost her brother and then her sister-in-law stopped talking to her so the only family she had left was her niece.

who rules a kingdom home to the entire practice of sorcery, responsible for keeping it safe because if Mystacor falls, so does the sorcery. who meets she-ra, face-to-face and still doesn’t believe even slightly, when everyone else does, that they have a chance. who must’ve worked hard all her life to get where she is. who doesn’t think she’s even good enough to believe they don’t have a chance.

#spop #she ra #castaspella #she like. def has an inferiority complex #I could go into that and I’m sure I most certainly have